The storefront next to CVS at 1599 Tiburon Boulevard has been empty for at least 20 years, by the Town staff's estimate. In October, the Tiburon Planning Commission voted 4-0 to let a personal-training studio move in. Its planned hours run from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., set to fall within the pharmacy's own hours next door, The Ark reported.

That approval came two months after a much larger gym won its permit a block away. Add a bike shop that pours free espresso, a coffee trailer that promises food in under five minutes, and a waterfront restaurant that has added lunch, and a pattern shows up in 2026's downtown turnover. The spaces that are filling are the ones that serve a weekday. The fine-dining plan that shaped downtown for several years is down to one room, and that room now opens at midday too.

The dinner-destination plan, as it stands this fall

A good share of downtown sits in buildings owned by A&C Ventures, which bought the late Barbara Zelinsky Abrams' commercial Tiburon portfolio in 2012. Its holdings include the buildings that house Bungalow Kitchen, Caffe Acri, Malibu Farm and Cinelounge, along with the Maritime Center near the Golden Gate Ferry terminal. According to The Ark, the company set out to make downtown a fine-dining destination by recruiting chefs with national reputations. Two restaurants carried that plan: Petite Left Bank, which bore Roland Passot's name, and Bungalow Kitchen, built by Michael Mina.

Both lost their founding operators within a single month. On June 1, Mina Group handed Bungalow Kitchen at 5 Main St. to Clive Collective, a hospitality group based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Eater SF reported. On June 22, Petite Left Bank closed when its parent company announced it was shutting all seven of its Bay Area restaurants in stages, with the Tiburon brasserie closing that same day. The French brasserie had been open for nearly four years.

Bungalow Kitchen's new operator moved toward everyday dining. In a June interview with The Ark, Clive Collective's Justin Massei said "prices will come down a little bit." He said he wanted it to be a place diners could visit multiple times a week, and that families could come weekly rather than only for special occasions. The lunch he described is now running. The restaurant's own page lists a "newly launched lunch" alongside weekend brunch and dinner. The Marin Dish lists lobster rolls, fish tacos and fish and chips on the midday menu, with a "Full Sail" spritz list and zero-proof drinks grouped as "Dry Dock." In the evening the dinner menu leans further toward seafood, with dishes like hamachi crudo and herb-crusted sea bass. The wraparound bar and the deck are unchanged.

Lower Main Street lost an evening stop in October as well. The Caviar Co. closed its tasting room at 46A Main St. after service on Oct. 18, ending a run of more than five years. Its local delivery and online orders continue.

Two gyms for storefronts that sat dark

The new arrivals are filling a different kind of space. These are not the waterfront rooms with views. They are storefronts along Tiburon Boulevard that went empty and stayed empty.

Five Points Fitness, 1620 Tiburon Blvd. The Planning Commission granted a conditional-use permit on Aug. 12 for an 8,090-square-foot gym on two floors. The space has been vacant since 2022 and was last used as offices. Plans call for free weights, cardio equipment, self-adjusting strength machines and a recovery area with two kinds of saunas. Co-owners Tom MacDonald and Bryan LeFebure already run gyms in Corte Madera, for about 21 years, and Novato, for 11. They are aiming for a February 2027 opening, depending on construction permits and schedules.

Pelican Pro Fitness, 1599 Tiburon Blvd. The studio next to CVS is approved for 1,800 square feet of membership-based, appointment-only training. It will focus on one-on-one sessions with a few group classes each week. The owner told The Ark he plans to open as soon as the Town's permitting process allows.

The Ark called Pelican Pro "the second fitness business the Planning Commission has approved in as many months." No one spoke during public comment at either hearing. Gyms need a use permit in this stretch, because recreation uses in the downtown mixed-use zone are allowed only with one. Both businesses went through that process this year.

Coffee at The Boardwalk and Point Tiburon Plaza

The businesses that have actually opened follow the same weekday logic, and they sit at the two places people pass on their way somewhere else.

Marin Service Course opened at The Boardwalk shopping center on July 25. It took over the space that Diana's of Tiburon used until the gift shop closed in April 2025. Owner Peter Lucas grew up on Centro West Street, and he told The Ark he used to "bomb down the hill" from Old St. Hilary's on his way to Del Mar Middle School. This is the second location of the shop he started in Fairfax in 2019. It sells and services bikes, stocks cycling nutrition, and offers bike fitting, coaching and organized community rides. A bar at the back pours free espresso and shows races.

At 1775 Tiburon Blvd., Paradise Coffee has run a trailer since late April. It sits in front of Point Tiburon Plaza near the bus stop and the flower-shop gazebo. Sam Cook, William Caamal and Juan Carlos Caamal serve coffee from Vallejo's Moschetti Artisan Roaster, Italian sodas, Cubano and chicken cordon bleu sandwiches, breakfast burritos and waffles. Cook told The Ark the plaza had been missing a quick place to eat. He wanted it to be "something that you can just grab and go within 5 minutes."

The 2026 changes, address by address

Two older vacancies are being filled by fitness businesses, and the new openings are a bike shop and a coffee trailer. The restaurant change that has played out so far added a midday meal. Each of these businesses depends on people stopping in on an ordinary weekday.

What the same landlord filed in October

On Oct. 22, A&C Ventures and San Diego-based Naturally Affordable Housing submitted two preliminary applications for 127 rental units on three downtown properties. One is the former Bank of America site and its parking lot at 1601 Tiburon Blvd. and 4 Beach Road. The others are 1600 Tiburon Blvd., across the street, which The Ark describes as the former Shark's Deli site, and the lot next to Town Hall at 1525 Tiburon Blvd. The Ark reported that the plan is residential only and asks for a waiver of the mixed-use zone's retail component. It follows a December 2024 preliminary application for 120 units that did not move to a formal application by the June 2025 deadline. In a statement, A&C's Robert Brown said the company looks forward to "continuing this collaborative process with the town of Tiburon and our neighbors as we move through formal development review."

A preliminary application is an early step, and these sites have been through this stage before. Even so, the company that set out to recruit celebrated chefs is now proposing homes for some of its downtown property, with no ground-floor retail.

The next few weeks downtown

The winter calendar is gentler on a weekday downtown than summer is. The Angel Island–Tiburon Ferry's November and December 2026 schedule runs on weekends only. Departures from Tiburon are at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., with extra service on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, and on the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27. The operator notes the schedule can change.

The Chamber's calendar lists a Business of the Year celebration for Salt & Pepper on Nov. 17. After that comes the Tiburon Peninsula Chamber of Commerce's Holiday Festival on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 2 to 5 p.m. The Chamber lists photos with Santa and roasted chestnuts on Ark Row, a toddler train on Main Street that is canceled if it rains, and gingerbread-house decorating through The Ranch. All activities are marked subject to change.

After the holidays, the next scheduled change is Five Points Fitness and its February 2027 target at 1620 Tiburon Blvd., which would end a vacancy that began in 2022.

When a storefront that has been dark for years fills with a gym, the downtown a buyer walks through changes, and so does the story a Tiburon seller can tell about it. If you own on the peninsula and want to know how this year's downtown changes bear on your home's value, Michelle Harris is glad to walk through it with you. Request a Private Market Review, and we will start with the blocks around Tiburon Boulevard and Main Street.