Larkspur Still Has No Downtown Grocery. Where Does Magnolia Avenue Shop Now?

A Marin Independent Journal photographer visited 570 Magnolia Avenue on July 23 and found the closure notice still on the entrance of the former Lucky market. The store closed in 2023 after about 40 years, the IJ reported. The 26,344-square-foot building sits on about 2 acres. Albertsons owns it, and it is listed for sale with no asking price, only "best offer."

The October 31 IJ report still described the building as vacant and owned by Albertsons. The week before, the council had voted against the one tool residents had pushed hardest for. Larkspur has now made two decisions that leave the lot's future to its owner: its housing rezoning dropped a grocery condition in favor of encouragement, and in October it chose not to pursue a vacant-property tax. Until someone chooses to build one there, the weekly grocery run in downtown Larkspur leaves downtown, and Magnolia Avenue has turned into a street that sells specialty food.

The city's own description of the gap

Larkspur's housing rezoning ordinance treats the former Lucky parcel as Site N. Its wording explains what the store meant to downtown:

"A Housing Development Project for 560 Magnolia Avenue... is encouraged to include a grocery store, marketplace, or corner store. Grocery store use was the historic use of the site since 1971, a grocery store is an important anchor for downtown and maintains the Historic downtown as a center of commercial activity, maintains a walkable environment, and provides a needed and convenient option for securing affordable and healthy food to the downtown Larkspur area residents, including older adults and residents without cars, who are over 1.5 miles from other grocery stores."

That passage comes from the city's ordinance packet. The city wrote down the distance itself: downtown residents are more than 1.5 miles from other grocery stores. It also wrote down whom that distance affects most, which is older adults and anyone without a car.

The key word is "encouraged," and it replaced a stronger rule. The council staff report on the rezoning says that after community concern at a December 12, 2023 Planning Commission hearing, the city first offered by-right development with no additional parking if a housing project on the site included a grocery store of 10,000 to 30,000 square feet. The ordinance was then changed to drop that grocery requirement and simply encourage a grocery store instead. The site can now be developed as all commercial, mixed use, or 100 percent residential. The IJ reports that the city zones the property "transitional downtown," which allows residential or commercial development, among other options.

So after the housing rewrite, a grocery on Magnolia is something the city hopes for. It is not a condition of building there.

October 21 settled the second question

The other route was money. In June the city began discussing a ballot measure to tax properties left vacant for long periods, and the former Lucky site was the example residents kept raising. In July, Mayor Stephanie Andre described the limits the city was working within. "The Lucky's parcel is a privately owned parcel, so the government only has so many levers it can do," she told the IJ. "We can't really dictate what goes in that space, although we can try to use the tools we can to encourage a market."

At the council's second public workshop on October 21, City Attorney Sky Woodruff explained that the tax could not target one specific property and could not be set so high that it would devalue the property, according to the IJ's account. To pursue a tax, Woodruff said, the council would first have to define what counts as vacant, which properties it covers, the rate and the exceptions. Several commercial property owners at the meeting said it would hurt smaller landlords unintentionally.

Andre supported letting voters decide. Councilmembers Catherine Way, Scot Candell and Sarah Margulies and Vice Mayor Gabe Paulson opposed it. Way pointed in another direction: "Maybe our energy should be spent on what barriers we've created or systems we've set up that make it hard to rent."

With no grocery requirement and no vacancy tax, the building's future depends on whoever buys it. In July, Andre also said the city had talked with grocery operators about opening stores in other locations, and she declined to elaborate because those talks were ongoing.

Where the weekly shop goes instead

These are the four supermarkets closest to downtown Larkspur, plus the Saturday farmers' market, with the hours each one posts:

Each store's own page has the current details: Mollie Stone's Greenbrae, Trader Joe's, Woodlands Market Kentfield and Safeway Corte Madera. Holiday hours often differ from the regular schedule, so check before a Thanksgiving run.

Trader Joe's calls this store its Larkspur location, though the address is on Redwood Highway in Greenbrae. Two of the four supermarkets are in Greenbrae, one is in Kentfield and one is in Corte Madera. That is the "over 1.5 miles" the ordinance describes.

The farmers' market is the one option on this list inside Larkspur city limits, and it is at Larkspur Landing, not on Magnolia. Marin Country Mart says it runs every Saturday rain or shine, with organic produce, meat, seafood, baked goods and local purveyors. Marin County's farmers' market listing says it is open all year, so it keeps going through the winter months.

What Magnolia Avenue sells now

Downtown still has plenty of good food. It just comes from bakeries, cafés and wine shops. Marin Magazine's August 2026 guide to Larkspur and the businesses' own pages show where it is:

• Emporio Rulli, 424 Magnolia Ave., which describes itself as an Italian pastry, caffè and wine shop.
• Rustic Bakery, 1139 Magnolia Ave., open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily according to its cafés page, with breads, salads, sandwiches and soups.
• Boichik Bagels, 238 Magnolia Ave., open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily per its locations page.
• Internos Wine & Beer Bar, 1110 Magnolia Ave., which sells bottles to take home along with charcuterie.
• Backstage Wine Bar, 295 Magnolia Ave.
• The Cheese Steak Shop, 596 Magnolia Ave., on the same stretch as the former Lucky building.

You can put together a good dinner from this list: bread from Rustic, a bottle from Internos, dessert from Rulli. Every business on it is a bakery, café, wine bar or sandwich shop. Its missing piece, a place for everyday groceries, is what the ordinance said a grocery store, marketplace or corner store at Site N would fill.

What would actually change the map

After October, the open question is who buys the building, not what the city requires. The zoning allows a buyer to build housing, commercial space, or a mix. The adopted ordinance says it would welcome a grocery, a marketplace or a corner store. That last option is worth noticing. The city's wording would be satisfied by a much smaller store than the supermarket that used to be there. A corner store serving downtown would cover the walkable daily shopping the ordinance describes.

The IJ reported in July that the city had already talked with grocery operators about other locations. After the October 21 workshop, the next step comes from the property's buyer or from one of those operators, not from a ballot measure.

This post is general information about local rules and decisions, not legal, tax or financial advice. Property owners weighing what the Site N standards or zoning mean for them should talk to the appropriate professional.

Questions like whether a downtown grocery comes back are the details we follow for clients deciding where in Larkspur they want to live, or what their own Magnolia-area home means to the next buyer. If you'd like to talk through how downtown is changing and what it could mean for your plans, The Morgan Team would be glad to sit down with you. Book an Appointment whenever it suits you.