The big unit at 130 Alamo Plaza has been a construction site this fall. Remodeling crews were working inside the former Rite Aid in early September. The space is being turned into a fitness club that is scheduled to open in December. Elsewhere in the same shopping center, the European Train Enthusiasts are getting ready for their model train show, which opens the day after Thanksgiving and runs into January.
Last holiday season, the center's largest storefront sat empty. This season, Alamo Plaza gets a new anchor tenant and its biggest holiday draw in the same few weeks. That makes this December the first good look at what the center has become since its pharmacy left.
A Storefront That Sat Empty Through One Holiday Season
According to DanvilleSanRamon.com's report on the closure, Rite Aid's pharmacy stopped filling prescriptions on July 28, 2025. Prescriptions moved to the CVS at 3158 Danville Blvd., and the store closed for good on Aug. 24, 2025. The same report noted that the closure left Safeway as the plaza's only anchor tenant.
A few weeks later, Danville San Ramon's October 2025 Downtown Series on Alamo reported that EJ Phair Pub co-owner Becky Wynn and Supervisor Candace Andersen had both mentioned more vacancies at the center. The former Rite Aid was now one of several empty storefronts. That was the state of the plaza going into the 2025 holidays.
The Plaza's Next Anchor Is a Gym
Vim + Vigor Fitness chose 130 Alamo Plaza for the first location of its new "Reserve Club" concept. The company describes it as "designed for those who expect more from where they train." The company's Alamo location page gives December 2026 as the opening month. Bay Area Telegraph reported the planned amenities: strength and cardio equipment, a Himalayan salt sauna, red-light therapy, compression boots, massage chairs and personal training.
That turns the plaza into a small fitness cluster. The center already has two fitness tenants, and it has housed a large gym before:
Unit | Tenant | Status |
|---|---|---|
130 Alamo Plaza | Vim + Vigor Fitness Reserve Club | Scheduled to open December 2026 |
140F Alamo Plaza | 24 Hour Fitness | Closed in 2020 |
170F Alamo Plaza | BODYROK pilates studio | Current tenant |
190F Alamo Plaza | The Iron House | Current tenant |
A pharmacy brings quick errand stops at any hour. A gym brings people on a schedule, often early in the morning and after work, and they tend to come back several times a week. If the December opening holds, the Reserve Club's first weeks will fall in the same stretch as the plaza's busiest holiday weekends.
The Trains Arrive the Day After Thanksgiving
The holiday draw is older than any of the new tenants. The European Train Enthusiasts host the Alamo Plaza train show with the Alamo Improvement Association. The center's owner, EDENS, calls it "Alamo's beloved holiday tradition." Admission is $5 and goes to the Contra Costa and Solano Food Bank. Children under 6 get in free.
The 2026 schedule, as posted on the EDENS Alamo Plaza page:
- Run: Friday, Nov. 27, 2026 through Sunday, Jan. 3, 2027
- Regular hours: Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Extra days: Dec. 22, 23, 29 and 30
- Closed: Christmas Day and New Year's Day
The extra days fall in the weeks of Christmas and New Year's. Both holidays land on a Friday this year, so the show is closed on two of its regular days and open the weekends that follow.
The layout is more serious than a holiday train under a tree. The San Francisco Bay Area chapter's modular group has shown its HO-scale European layout at Bay Area venues since 1992. It builds the layout from standard 5-foot by 2-foot modules with the track 44 inches off the floor, and the whole layout can grow from 900 to 2,100 square feet. The group's setup supports automated signaling for up to 14 trains and has live overhead wires that power the electric locomotives. For children, the 44-inch track height is worth knowing before you go, since it is close to eye level for many younger visitors and above it for the smallest ones.
Sundays Keep Their Own Schedule
The farmers' market doesn't take a season off. California's certified-market list, current as of Oct. 1, 2026, shows the Alamo Farmers' Market open Sundays year-round in the Bank of America parking lot. EDENS lists the market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. near Bank of America.
The vendor lineup has changed heading into winter. A market announcement on Patch named Zaya Thai Pantry and House of Tek as new vendors starting Nov. 1. Because the train show is open Sundays, every Sunday from Nov. 29 through Jan. 3 puts both events at the plaza on the same morning. The market starts an hour before the trains do, so you can do one and then the other.
EJ Phair Alehouse and Pub has its own ties to the center. Danville San Ramon's downtown series reported that it opened in Alamo Plaza in 2019 as the then-brewery's third location. It is now the company's only one, and co-owner EJ Phair lives in Alamo. In that same story, Wynn described the goal plainly: "We wanted to be that place, for lack of a better word, like 'Cheers,' where you come here and you know all the bartenders." The pub held its first Oktoberfest in 2025, Sept. 20 to Oct. 5, with jagerschnitzel, bratwurst dinners and imported German beers. Its German dishes and burgers make it an easy stop near the train show.
Danville Boulevard Turns Over, Too
The changes go beyond the plaza. Two Danville Boulevard dining rooms have new names this year.
The Courtyard Restaurant, 3195 Danville Blvd. The Peasant's Courtyard served its last meal on April 19, 2026. After a sale, the new owners opened as The Courtyard Restaurant the next morning, as DanvilleSanRamon.com reported at the time. The restaurant's menu page lists weekday breakfast and lunch, dinner daily from 4 p.m., and weekend brunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Post, 3160 Danville Blvd. In the Stone Valley Center near CVS, The Post has taken over the longtime Forli Ristorante space. Bay Area Telegraph describes it as an American comfort food restaurant inspired by an early-1900s post office. The Post's website lists hours of Tuesday through Friday, 3 to 9 p.m., and weekends from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed Mondays.
Put together, downtown Alamo's stretch of Danville Boulevard looks different than it did a year ago. Two familiar restaurant names are gone, and a new tenant is moving into the plaza's largest storefront.
The Tree at Andrew H. Young Park
The last piece of the season is at Andrew H. Young Park, on the corner of Danville Boulevard and Jackson Way. A Contra Costa County Public Works contractor was scheduled to prune one tree there on Oct. 23. The County's notice said the work was "in preparation for the upcoming Holiday Tree Lighting Festivities."
The trains open at the plaza on Nov. 27. If the Reserve Club opens on its December schedule, the season's events and the center's newest tenant will arrive within a few weeks of each other on Danville Boulevard.
If you own in Alamo and want to know what this season's changes along Danville Boulevard could mean for your home's value, The Beaubelle Group can walk you through it. Request a Complimentary Home Valuation.
