Walk the west side of Commons Way this month and you hit a chain-link fence where the Regency Cinema marquee used to catch the evening light. Behind it: a parking structure taking shape, steel framing where movie seats once sat, and the quiet churn of a project that has been years in the making but is only now visible from the sidewalk. Everywhere else, nothing has changed. Gelson's is still Gelson's. The fountain still runs. The line at your usual lunch spot is the same length it was last September.
That split, half the property transforming while the other half stands still, is the story of Calabasas' town square right now. But the more interesting fact buried in it isn't about construction schedules. It's this: when the dust settles, people will actually live at The Commons for the first time since it opened in 1998. Everyone who has ever driven there to shop, eat, or catch a movie has been a visitor. Soon, some of them will just be neighbors walking downstairs.
The Theater Closed for a Bigger Reason Than Streaming
The Regency Cinema at The Commons shut its doors at the end of 2025. It's easy to read that as a local story: one theater, one shopping center, one developer's decision to build something else in its place. But it wasn't an isolated call. It was the third theater closure in the same stretch of the Valley in recent years, following shutdowns in Agoura Hills and Westlake Village, and it left Calabasas without an on-site movie theater for the first time in decades.
Rick Caruso didn't leave the space empty. The groundbreaking ceremony for what's being called Commons Lane happened on February 3, 2026, on the same footprint where the theater and its surface parking used to sit. The plan had been public since the Calabasas City Council approved it at a special meeting back in December 2023, after two years of community workshops. About 30 residents weighed in at that final hearing. Most supported it. A few pushed back on scale, with one commenter noting that the developer's promotional video conveniently left out the project's "looming buildings."
What's Actually Under Construction Right Now
Here's the part that matters if you're planning a Saturday at The Commons: construction is real, but it's contained. The new work covers roughly 27,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space plus 80 apartment homes, tucked onto the parcel where the theater and its parking lot used to be. That's a fraction of the original 215,000-square-foot center, which opened in 1998 and has run essentially unchanged since.
| Original Commons (1998) | Commons Lane (2026-27) | |
|---|---|---|
| Footprint | Roughly 215,000 square feet | Adds roughly 27,000 square feet, west side only |
| Primary uses | Gelson's, Barnes & Noble, dining, Regency Cinema | New curated shops and restaurants, a pedestrian paseo |
| Housing | None | 80 apartment homes |
| Key dates | Opened 1998 | Broke ground February 3, 2026; retail targeted late 2026; apartments targeted Fall 2027 |
According to the property's own construction updates, the current build-out window runs from July through September 2026, meaning the most visible phase of work is happening as you read this. Retail and restaurant spaces are being handed over to new tenants right now so they can start their own build-outs. The apartment side is further out. Its parking structure is underway, but the residential building itself isn't expected to open until Fall 2027.
The Parking You'll Actually Notice
The friction most residents will feel isn't at the register. It's in the lot. As part of the 2023 approval, the city negotiated compensation from Caruso for the loss of a loading area, a fire lane, and eight parking spaces behind the Calabasas Library, spaces that regular library patrons and Commons visitors alike have used for years. The project also came with a $120,000 traffic mitigation fee, which the city has earmarked for signal upgrades in the surrounding area rather than anything at The Commons itself.
None of that changes whether the center stays open. The developer has been explicit that every existing store, restaurant, and amenity keeps operating through every phase of construction. If your routine involves Barnes & Noble on a Tuesday afternoon or dinner reservations at one of the long-standing restaurants on the property's north or south ends, that routine holds. The disruption is real, but it's localized to one corner of a large property, not the whole experience.
Everything That Isn't Moving
It's worth saying plainly what stays the same, because the headlines about a "makeover" can make it sound bigger than it is. The Commons' original anchors, Gelson's and Barnes & Noble among them, sit outside the construction zone entirely. So does the established restaurant lineup that has anchored the property for years.
That lineup, in fact, has kept adding names on its own timeline, independent of Commons Lane. Superba Food + Bread, the Venice Beach bakery-cafe concept known for its in-house bread program, opened its Calabasas location within the existing footprint, a 1,800-square-foot space with leather booths and 27-foot ceilings built by the L.A. design firm Klein Agency. That opening had nothing to do with the theater lot or the new apartments. It's a reminder that The Commons has quietly refreshed its tenant mix for years, well before Rick Caruso broke ground on anything new.
The Actual Shift Is Who Gets to Stay
Here's the piece that doesn't show up in most of the construction coverage. The Commons at Calabasas has always been a place people drive to. You come for the fountain, the bookstore, dinner, the fall festival crowds, and then you go home. Commons Lane changes that arithmetic. For the first time, 80 households will live on the property itself, tucked between the shops and the hillside.
Caruso's chief executive, Corinne Verdery, framed the project as continuity rather than departure: "For nearly 30 years, The Commons at Calabasas has been a place where the community comes together." The apartments are aimed less at first-time buyers and more at residents in transition, the kind of household that wants to stay in Calabasas without the upkeep of a full house. That's a genuinely different use for a property that has spent almost 30 years as a destination rather than an address.
Practically, that means the evening rhythm at The Commons is likely to shift once the apartments open in Fall 2027. A property with residents behaves differently after 8 p.m. than one that empties out with the last dinner reservation. Whether that's a welcome change or an adjustment probably depends on how attached you are to the quiet parking lot at closing time.
The Pumpkin Festival Isn't Going Anywhere
One thing worth clearing up if you've heard rumors about fall traditions being affected: the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival has nothing to do with any of this. The 2026 edition runs Sunday, October 18, at Juan Bautista de Anza Park, a separate city park that has hosted the event for years. The Commons' construction schedule doesn't touch it, and there's no overlap in location or timing to worry about if pumpkin patches and reptile shows are part of your October.
What's actually happening at The Commons this fall is quieter than a festival and more permanent. A movie theater that closed as part of a region-wide pattern is becoming apartments and new storefronts. The businesses you already know are staying put. And sometime in 2027, for the first time since the fountain first started running, some of your neighbors will be able to walk to dinner instead of drive.
If you're weighing what a changing corner of Calabasas means for your own plans here, whether that's timing a sale around the new retail opening or understanding how the neighborhood's center of gravity is shifting, Eric Haskell Group tracks these details because they shape real decisions, not just headlines. Reach out to request a bespoke valuation and talk through what it actually means for your street.
