Why would a shopping center let go of a bookstore that had been there for 33 years, when the same landlord says it is working to fill its empty spaces?
At Sequoia Station, the two goals fit together. The center's owner has spent the past three years re-leasing storefronts at today's rents and on long terms. Barnes & Noble was one lease in that plan. Its departure in September was the most visible change at the center in years. The tenants following it, from a revolving sushi bar to a salad chain to a party-supply store, are signing on for the long run. For anyone who parks by the Caltrain station to run errands, the Sequoia Station taking shape this fall will probably still be there in the mid-2030s.
The Rent Conversation Behind the Bookstore's Exit
The Barnes & Noble at 1091 El Camino Real announced September 16 as its last day. Its Instagram statement said the lease was ending without an option to continue and that the company would look for another Redwood City location, as siliconvalley.com reported in August.
Curtis Leigh, a principal at Hunter Properties, which manages the center, explained the landlord's side to the San Mateo Daily Journal. The two sides had talked for some time about renewing at a rent "closer to market rate," and in the end both decided it was "time to move on from each other." Leigh also said, "We would love to have had the bookstore stay, they've been a great asset to our community." The lease had been set to expire in February, and a new tenant was already lined up to move in before the holidays.
Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt told the San Francisco Business Times, in comments the Daily Journal carried, that the company lamented the closure and that "the suddenness with which we are obliged to close" made it harder.
The chain itself is growing. The Daily Journal reported that it planned 60 new stores nationwide this year, including two in the Bay Area, in Cupertino and Fremont. The Redwood City store closed because its rent was due to be reset, at a center whose owner is pricing every space for the next ten years.
Who Owns the Center, and the Timeline It Set
Hunter Properties bought Sequoia Station from Lowe Enterprises for $53 million in December 2023, Redwood City Pulse reported. The new owner said the 6.65-acre site would stay a shopping center for the foreseeable future, with renovation and vacancy-filling first. The city noted at the time that Lowe's redevelopment had never been fully entitled.
Lowe's proposal had been large. As the Pulse described it, the plan split the property into six new blocks with more than 800 housing units, 1.2 million square feet of office space, 166,000 square feet of retail and nearly 90,000 square feet of public open space. In a February 2024 City Council presentation, Hunter Properties president Deke Hunter Jr. called the old plans aggressive. He said his company would spend five to seven years working out its own redevelopment plan in line with the city's vision of a transit-oriented, mixed-use site, with restaurants, retail, office, residential and less emphasis on parking. For the near term, he described the job as putting "Humpty Dumpty back together," according to the Pulse.
By July 2025 the timeline had grown. Leigh told the Pulse that residents could expect no major redevelopment for the next eight to 12 years. He tied that to what tenants were asking for, saying most new vendors wanted 10-year leases. "After that, we'll see what the market bears, whether it's a major redevelopment like previous owners have planned or more of a moderate redevelopment," he said.
Counted from mid-2025, Leigh's window runs to somewhere between 2033 and 2037. A restaurant that signs a 10-year lease this fall would be in its space until about 2036. Those dates explain the Barnes & Noble decision. A landlord filling the center for a decade has every reason to set each renewal at today's rents.
Building by Building
Last month, the local blog Walking Redwood City went through the center's current leasing map, published by The Econic Company, which handles leasing for Sequoia Station. The status by building, as of late October:
| Building | What's changing | Stage reported in late October |
|---|---|---|
| Jefferson Avenue building, El Camino to the center driveway | Kura Revolving Sushi Bar in the former Old Navy end; Sweetgreen next to Habit Burger and Grill; two spaces beside Kura | Kura opening planned for spring 2027; Sweetgreen being fitted out; two spaces in letter-of-intent talks |
| Stand-alone former Pier 1 Imports building | DaVita, a kidney care and dialysis clinic | Leased, not yet fitted out |
| Former Barnes & Noble, 1091 El Camino Real | Party-supply store | Space taken by the new tenant |
| James Avenue building, El Camino to the driveway by See's Candy | One vacancy, between Teatime and Jamba Juice | In lease negotiations |
| CVS Pharmacy building | Four empty spaces | One in lease negotiations, one in letter-of-intent talks |
Walking Redwood City pointed out that if the two letter-of-intent spaces become leases, the whole Jefferson Avenue building will soon be fully occupied. As of October 23, the blog expected DaVita to open in a couple of months at the earliest.
Leigh told the Daily Journal that the Barnes & Noble replacement would be a party-supply store with seasonal and holiday supplies all year, from Halloween to the Fourth of July. The center's current leasing brochure, as Walking Redwood City reported, lists that tenant as ROC Party. Earlier arrivals belong to the same refill. In July 2025, Leigh named a new Yumi Yogurt location among the vacancies being filled.
Taken together, the new tenants are a dialysis clinic, a salad chain, a party store and a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant. They are mostly services and casual food, the kinds of businesses that sign long leases and bring repeat visits.
The Corner Kura Chose
The Kura opening is the clearest sign of how long the new tenants plan to stay. Redwood City Pulse reported that the Redwood City restaurant, at 1101 El Camino Real, Space F1D, will have more than 4,000 square feet and 123 seats. That is about 50 percent larger than Kura's locations at Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco and in Cupertino, and the room will use the chain's newer interior design. Kura is targeting spring 2027.
Robert Kluger, Kura's chief development officer, told the Pulse that Redwood City was chosen because it sits between those two existing locations. "As of today, the Redwood City guest has to make a pretty long trek to get to our brand," he said. The Peninsula has few revolving sushi restaurants. The Pulse listed Izumi Revolving Sushi at Serramonte Center in Daly City and Kura in Cupertino as the only current options.
Here is how it works. Plates ride past on a conveyor belt under Kura's ventilated "Mr. Fresh" lids, special orders come by a second express belt from a touchpad, and a robot named Kur-B brings drinks and condiments. The bill is based on the number of plates, and diners drop empty plates into a slot toward prizes from the Bikkura Pon system. Kluger said Redwood City's per-plate price hasn't been set, and that a full meal averages six to seven plates per person.
Where the restaurant goes inside the center matters too. Walking Redwood City noted that Kura takes the end of the former Old Navy space nearest El Camino Real and Jefferson Avenue. That gives it El Camino frontage and puts its entrance at the small patio on that corner. A chain building its largest Bay Area room on a street-facing corner expects to be there for years.
Where to Buy a Book in Redwood City Now
The Barnes & Noble lease didn't survive a center being re-leased for the next decade. That leaves book buying to smaller and nearby places:
- Fireside Books & More, 2421 Broadway. An independent bookstore that opened February 1, 2025, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal.
- The used bookstore beneath the San Mateo County History Museum, 2200 Broadway. The Daily Journal reports it is open once a week, for five hours on Saturday.
- Barnes & Noble, 1232 Burlingame Ave., Burlingame. This store opened in October 2023.
- Barnes & Noble at Hillsdale Shopping Center, 11 West Hillsdale Blvd., San Mateo. The Daily Journal reports this store is slated for eventual demolition under a proposed Hillsdale redevelopment.
Both downtown options are on Broadway, a few blocks from where the chain store stood. Barnes & Noble has said it is looking for another Redwood City location.
At Robert Pedro, we follow the changes at places like Sequoia Station closely, because a center locked in for the next ten years affects daily life on the blocks around it. If you own a home near downtown or the Caltrain station and want to know how that kind of local change shows up in what your home is worth, ask for a valuation and we'll go through it with you.
