Walk Throckmorton Avenue from Lytton Square toward East Blithedale this month and you pass windows with paper over the glass, a former bank with no sign out front, and the corner at 88 Throckmorton where Peet's used to be. On Sunday, Dec. 6, the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce plans to switch on a new holiday lighting installation at Depot Plaza "and beyond," which puts those storefronts in better light than they have had all year.
Most of the dark windows are not empty, though. When the Mill Valley Briefing counted every downtown storefront in August, more than half of the closed ones already had a tenant signed. What looks like decline from the sidewalk is mostly businesses waiting to open, and they are arriving in the same year the city made opening a downtown business cheaper.
The August count, by the numbers
In mid-August 2026, the Mill Valley Briefing walked every block of downtown and counted 93 street-level storefronts. Sixteen had no open business. Nine of those sixteen already had a confirmed tenant that hadn't opened yet. Seven had no tenant at all.
| Status in mid-August 2026 | Storefronts | Share of 93 |
|---|---|---|
| Open for business | 77 | about 83% |
| Dark, tenant signed and renovating | 9 | about 9.7% |
| Dark, no tenant lined up | 7 | 7.5% |
The 7.5% is the vacancy rate that matters. The Briefing set it against Cushman and Wakefield figures: national retail vacancy was 6% in the second quarter of 2026, and the historical average is 7.4%. That puts downtown Mill Valley right around normal. Counting the nine spaces under renovation, the figure rises to 17.2%, because none of them could be walked into yet. Some of those signed spaces had sat empty for a long time, and 57 and 60 Throckmorton had been empty for years before tenants were confirmed.
So downtown felt emptier than it was. The gap between 7.5% and 17.2% is construction time, and it narrows each time a sign comes off a window.
The rules those tenants are opening under
The new tenants are opening under rules City Hall rewrote over the past year. According to the Briefing, a November ordinance removed new parking requirements for most changes of use under 5,000 square feet. This spring, the City Council followed with a zoning rewrite that took effect May 20. It replaced the old Conditional Use Permit with a faster Administrative Use Permit for most ground-floor businesses.
The fees changed too. Senior Planner Daisy Allen told the Briefing that the new administrative permit costs $1,954, and the standard use permit dropped from $7,339 to $5,647. Councilmember Urban Carmel described the old rules this way in the Mill Valley Briefing, passing along what he had heard from prospective business owners:
"Putting $8,000 or $10,000 into the city coffers before I even sell one item is just a huge hurdle."
A lower permit fee cuts the up-front cost of trying out a new idea, and the tenants signed for downtown include several small, specific concepts.
Two of the signed spaces are already open
Lima Nikkei has taken over El Paseo, the brick-walled rooms along a winding passage between Throckmorton and Sunnyside Avenues that have housed one restaurant after another since the 1940s. It follows Paseo Bistro, which closed late last year. The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce wrote in late October that owner Edwin Sandoval, a Lima native who has lived in Novato since 1982, is serving Nikkei cuisine, the Japanese-Peruvian cooking that grew out of Japanese immigration to Peru more than a century ago. His grandson Lukas, a business student at College of Marin, manages the restaurant. The kitchen is led by Wilmer Anaya, also from Lima, who has cooked at La Mar Cebichería Peruana in San Francisco. The menu has six ceviches, including yellowfin tuna in ají amarillo leche de tigre with wasabi and shredded nori, and four maki rolls.
At 12 Miller Avenue, in the old Sprout space, Milkweed Kids is open as a children's shop. It says it opened in August 2026 and was posting about in-store activity in early November. A few doors down, Dorado 806 scheduled an art exhibition at 38 Miller Ave. from September 18 to October 17.
Still behind the paper
Several other signed tenants from the August count are at different stages. Here is where each one stood in the most recent report:
- Bootjack, 34 Miller Ave. The coffee and bakery spot is moving into the former Urban Remedy storefront on the plaza. In late October it said on Instagram that it was "rounding the corner," according to WhatNow, but it had not given a reopening date. Bootjack first opened in September 2020 at 17 Madrona St., where it baked naturally leavened bread in a wood-fired Alan Scott oven.
- Delphine, former Gravity Tavern space on Miller Avenue. In August the Briefing listed it as preparing to open. Its website is delphinemv.com.
- Treehouse MV, 60 Throckmorton. A combined retail and coworking space in the old Bank of America building, one of the storefronts that had been empty for years.
- Indoorra, Throckmorton Avenue. A kitchen-systems retailer signed for the space next to 55 Throckmorton.
- Wonderhouse, 55 Sunnyside. A family coworking space in the former post office building, which the Briefing said in August would open this fall.
Joe's Taco Lounge & Salsaria at 382 Miller Ave. posted through the Chamber on Nov. 2 that it had closed for emergency repairs and a back-kitchen refresh. It said "the food, the staff, and the décor will all be back as you know it." Its space falls outside the Briefing's August downtown count.
The seven with nothing announced
The other seven storefronts had no tenant in August. They were 23 Sunnyside, the former Kim Eagles-Smith Gallery, where work was underway inside; 77 Throckmorton, formerly Mili; 32 Miller Ave.; 111 Throckmorton, formerly Two Neat; 153 Throckmorton, formerly Oska; 88 Throckmorton, the former Peet's; and 108 Throckmorton, the former Chandler Gallery.
Some of the holdup sits with building owners. Jim Welte, executive director of the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, told the Briefing that some corners stay dark because of "developers who have money to purchase, but don't yet have a vision for their space." A building owner who isn't in a hurry to lease isn't affected by a $1,954 permit.
Some of the biggest restaurant openings this year happened outside the downtown core. In August, the Marin Independent Journal reported that Tartine had opened at Strawberry Village, 800 Redwood Highway Frontage Road, Suite 125. Cholita Linda opened in the same center at Suite 801, its sixth location and its first in Marin. The downtown signings have been smaller and more neighborhood-oriented: a kids' shop, a bakery returning to town, a family-run Nikkei restaurant, and two coworking spaces. The Briefing keeps a running downtown storefront tracker as spaces change.
December 6, under the new lights
Winterfest is on Sunday, Dec. 6, starting at 1 p.m. It's free. The program includes performances by Happy Feet, RoCo Dance and Marin Conservatory of Dance, electric toddler train rides, a visit from Santa, and the community tree lighting. The Chamber presents it with support from the City of Mill Valley. The new holiday lighting installation at Depot Plaza is this year's addition.
Earlier that day, the Chamber's second annual Gingerbread House Decorating Party takes place at Assembly Wealth Event Space, 319 Miller Ave., with sessions at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tickets are $65 per gingerbread house participant. Adult caregivers get in free, with complimentary coffee and champagne.
From 319 Miller, the walk toward Depot Plaza passes Milkweed at 12 Miller and the Bootjack storefront at 34 Miller, and Throckmorton beyond the plaza holds Lima Nikkei's rooms in El Paseo, the old bank at 60 Throckmorton and the empty corner at 88 Throckmorton.
Storefront turnover is one of the things we follow closely at Morgan Team Real Estate, because Mill Valley neighbors ask us what's opening downtown. If you're thinking about your own next step in town and want to talk it through with Kim and Eric, Book an Appointment.
