At Tustin Legacy, Park Avenue Is Moving Faster Than the Master Plan
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"My only comment is, go fast." Councilmember Ryan Gallagher said that to developer Dan Almquist this spring. The Tustin City Council had just voted unanimously on March 17 to open exclusive negotiations with Almquist Development for 52 vacant acres at Red Hill and Warner.
Six months later, much of Tustin Legacy is moving fast, but the gateway corner isn't the part that's moving. Park Avenue at The District has turned over three storefronts since June. A grant-funded section of Legacy Park is scheduled to finish in November. The big pieces are on longer timelines: the south hangar, the 85 acres of Parcel 18, and the Almquist site. Their next milestones are paperwork. The hangar offering memorandum is due between this October and January, and a final Almquist agreement could come in early 2027. If you live in Columbus Square, Columbus Grove or Greenwood, here is what has already changed and what is still being decided.
The newest restaurants at The District at Tustin Legacy are bunched along Park Avenue, and they opened over one summer.
Mr BBQ Jr. is also listed as open on The District's directory. The center doesn't give an opening date, so for now it's simply on the list.
None of these changes the skyline. They change what's within a short drive or walk on a weeknight, and they arrived a few weeks apart. The weekly anchor didn't change: The District still lists its Sunday farmers market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The District's own listings show five more tenants coming, which outnumbers this summer's openings. None of them has a confirmed opening date.
Tenant | What it is | What's public as of early October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Array 36 | Second location of an existing restaurant | Reported in April; still "Coming Soon" on the directory |
Pho N Mor | Vietnamese pho | Reported in April with no opening date announced |
Jabal Coffee House | Yemeni coffee concept | A January report said fall 2026; still listed as coming soon |
Niku Sushi | Sushi | Coming soon, no date given |
Tang Tang Karaoke Bar | Karaoke bar | Coming soon, no date given |
Jabal is the one to watch. It's the only tenant with a public target season, and that season is now. Fall 2026 is still possible, but nothing newer than the January report confirms it. Treat it as a likely opening, not a scheduled one.
The District's event calendar has two dates before Halloween:
For families who live a short walk from the shopping center, the Boo Bash is the closest organized trick-or-treat on the calendar. The expo falls on the same day as the farmers market, which runs until 1 p.m.
The next physical change after the restaurants is in Legacy Park, and it has an actual completion month.
At an August 17 update, city staff and designers said the city had secured $750,000 in grant funding for the detention basin and Linear Park work. That work is scheduled for completion in November. It follows a separate step in May. On May 19, a city agenda report recommended a $625,150 contract for Legacy Park work to restore vegetation damaged by runoff and sediment and to add infrastructure for public art. That report is a contract recommendation, so it doesn't tell you when the planting will be finished.
The bridges are slower. Three pedestrian bridges are planned to connect Tustin Legacy neighborhoods across major roads. The first is the Armstrong Pedestrian Bridge, which will link Tustin Legacy Park across Armstrong Avenue. Hunter Ruthroff of AVG Design described it as a cast-in-place concrete edge girder spanning 233 feet in three spans. As of mid-August the design was out to bid, and the city expected to pick a contractor within a month.
A 2025 city schedule had aimed to start construction in January 2026 and finish in spring 2027. Bidding didn't happen until August, so the January start has already slipped. No newer city document gives a revised finish date. The basin and Linear Park work should be done this year. The bridge, the piece that would change how people walk between neighborhoods, still needs a contractor.
On the larger sites, every next step this fall is a document, a negotiation or a solicitation, not a construction start.
Site | Where it stands | Next public milestone |
|---|---|---|
South hangar | Council approved a competitive offering in July | Offering memorandum between October 2026 and January 2027 |
Parcel 18 | 85 Navy-owned acres; only four concrete corner pillars and a damaged slab remain of the north hangar | Framework planning; park ideas include sports fields, trails, playgrounds and aquatic features |
Red Hill and Warner, 52 acres | Exclusive negotiations with Almquist Development approved March 17 | Final development agreement could be ready early 2027 |
Terracina | Ground broken Aug. 6, 2026 | Leasing expected in the second half of 2028 |
The hangar timeline makes more sense with its background. The north hangar burned on November 7, 2023. The city didn't end its local state of emergency until June 2026, about 950 days later. Its decision to seek users, investors or development partners for the surviving World War II-era blimp hangar came a month after that. The Navy still owns the south hangar and the 85-acre parcel, which the Register said has made planning harder.
Residents talked about these questions on August 18 at the city's annual Local Reuse Authority meeting, held inside the AMC theater at The District. Some raised concerns about preserving the base's military history, traffic, parking, and whether there's enough fire protection at the south hangar. Mayor Austin Lumbard said the meeting was part of the city's effort to fold resident feedback into planning:
"We are collecting all that data, ultimately shaping the community that you all, that we all, will enjoy now and in the future."
Terracina is the one project on this table with physical construction underway. USA Properties Fund and Irvine Company are building it: a $175 million, 338-apartment affordable community at 2265 Airship Ave. and 16055 Compass Ave. Even so, leasing is about two years away.
The gateway corner is the hardest piece to picture, because nothing there has been designed yet. The proposal so far includes retail, entertainment, open space, for-sale housing with some affordable units, and some improvements to Tustin Legacy Park. Almquist, a Foothill High School graduate, described a curated retail mix with Americana-inspired design and a more walkable, village-type layout.
The council's own reference point is the most concrete preview available. Councilmember Lee Fink described visiting Almquist's River Street Marketplace in San Juan Capistrano, which opened in late 2024. On a Friday afternoon, he saw families playing and restaurants and shops open. He called it "a great model for what I hope to see in Tustin." Almquist's other current project is The Canopy, a shopping center under construction in Irvine's Great Park Neighborhoods.
The selection started with 12 proposals, narrowed to three finalists, and ended with Almquist. Next, a negotiating agreement goes back to the council, followed by a final development agreement that could be ready early next year. Until then, the newest places to eat at Tustin Legacy are the ones already open on Park Avenue.
If you own in Tustin Legacy and want to talk through how the hangar offering, the Red Hill and Warner agreement and the new Park Avenue openings might factor into your plans for the next few years, Zach Mickelson follows these milestones closely and can walk you through it. Book an Appointment.
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