H Mart, a Friday Night Market and a Stalled Town Square: What's Changing on Downtown Dublin's West End

On the morning of March 26, 2026, the line for Dublin's new H Mart wrapped around the shopping center at 7884 Dublin Blvd. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that shoppers came for tteokbokki, K-pop snacks and salmon carcasses for broth, and that 10,000 people visited on opening day, according to H Mart.

That crowd gathered a few minutes' walk from the land where Dublin's planned downtown town square is supposed to go. The square exists only in planning documents. The foot traffic the city has wanted for downtown since 2011 is coming from a supermarket food hall and a street the city closes to cars on a handful of Friday nights. The permanent version of that public space has no hearing on the calendar.

The Busiest New Address Downtown Is a Grocery Store

The H Mart at 7884 Dublin Blvd is the chain's first East Bay store. The Chronicle described the site as a "nearly 39,000-square-foot shopping complex," and it opens daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

It took a long time to arrive. According to Pleasanton Weekly, Dublin Chamber of Commerce officials first announced in October 2021 that H Mart was planning to come to Dublin, so the doors opened about four and a half years later. The Chronicle reported that the project converted a former hardware-store space. City documents cited by the paper describe an 8,552-square-foot addition for the food hall and a 3,187-square-foot seating area with a children's play area.

The food hall is the part that keeps people around after they shop. Before opening, KRON4 listed the vendors as:

• Daeho, the galbijjim specialist
• bb.q Chicken
• Kyodong Noodles
• Chodang
• Oh K-Dog & Egg Toast
• Tous Les Jours

The Chronicle noted one difference from H Mart's other Bay Area stores: Dublin's food court has a large outdoor patio with plenty of seating. That gives people a place to sit outside and stay a while, which is exactly what the city's downtown plans have been trying to create, and here it sits in a private shopping center.

Four Friday Nights on St. Patrick Way

The city's own effort to make that kind of space is the Night Market at St. Pat's Row. For each market, Dublin closes the stretch of St. Patrick Way between Golden Gate Drive and Regional Street to cars and fills it with food vendors, live music and sellers of handmade goods.

The series began in fall 2025 with three dates, according to the City of Dublin's launch announcement. In 2026 it grew to four, all on Fridays from 5 to 9 p.m.: August 21, September 25, October 23 and November 13. In its August 2026 announcement, the city connected the market directly to the new grocery store, saying the event "drew strong community support in its first year, and with H-Mart now open next door, the City expects even more foot traffic this season."

The city is counting on a private anchor to bring people to its public event. With the October 23 market behind us, one 2026 date is left. If you're planning to go:

1. Date: Friday, November 13, 2026, 5 to 9 p.m.
2. Location: St. Pat's Row, on St. Patrick Way between Golden Gate Drive and Regional Street.
3. Getting there: The city says street parking will be limited and suggests rideshare, biking, walking or transit. The market is about a five-minute walk from the West Dublin BART Station.
4. Details: The city's event listing describes food vendors, handmade goods and live music.

The Town Square Still Exists Only on Paper

The permanent plan for this part of town has been around a lot longer than the market. The Downtown Dublin Specific Plan, first adopted in February 2011, covers 284 acres roughly bounded by Village Parkway, Interstate 580, San Ramon Road and Amador Valley Boulevard. The City Council approved the Downtown Dublin Preferred Vision in November 2019. Pleasanton Weekly describes it as a long-range concept with a town square of about one acre, a walkable street grid and mixed-use buildings.

The project meant to start building that vision is Dublin Commons, at the Target-anchored Dublin Place shopping center, 7200 Amador Plaza Road. As of September 2024, owner American Realty Advisors and Hines proposed up to 1,510 apartments, 535,000 square feet of life-science research and development space, up to 275,000 square feet of retail and a new town square. The City Council hearing set for October 1, 2024 was postponed indefinitely at the applicant's request.

The most recent public status comes from that October 2025 Pleasanton Weekly report. Deputy City Manager Hazel Wetherford said city staff and the property owner were still working on a revised plan, that no council actions were expected and that it was not yet known when construction would begin. In the same article, Mayor Sherry Hu described what the city is aiming for:

"The revitalization is intended to enhance quality of life by creating more public spaces and walkable streets where people live, work, socialize, create and gather, becoming a full-blown center of community life."

On its market nights this year, St. Pat's Row worked roughly like that. The rest of the time, the square that would make it permanent has no council date.

Who Is Leaving, and Who Owns the Empty Buildings

While the plan waits, the existing shopping center keeps losing tenants. Burlington was set to close at 6900 Amador Plaza Road on August 29, 2025, after selling its building to American Realty Advisors, the owner of Dublin Place. Pleasanton Weekly reported that the move left a row of vacant large spaces at Dublin Place, including the former Toys "R" Us and Hobby Lobby buildings. Spirit Halloween briefly used the Hobby Lobby building in 2024.

The sale changes who controls the land. The company that would build the town square now owns one more of the buildings around it. At the time, the city said no plan for the downtown vision had been approved. One piece of the site does have approval. In August 2024 the City Council approved Dublin Place North, a 33,125-square-foot commercial building at the center's northeast corner meant to hold existing tenants.

The latest departure is a longtime restaurant. Rigatoni's closed at 7350 Dublin Blvd in September 2026 after 27 years. Pleasanton Weekly reported that the owner said staff moved to the group's other East Bay locations.

The West End, Address by Address

What Comes Next on St. Patrick Way

The next permanent addition to St. Pat's Row is housing, not retail. Regional Street Apartments at 7750 St. Patrick Way broke ground on May 30, 2025. Pleasanton Weekly reported that the five-story Eden Housing building will have 55 studios and 57 one-bedroom affordable apartments for seniors plus one unit for a property manager, with completion scheduled for October 2026.

Once it opens, the street the city closes for its market will have its first new building with people living right on it. Add the H Mart food hall nearby and the West Dublin BART Station five minutes away, and St. Patrick Way has more of what the downtown plans call for than any other block in the 284-acre plan area. What it doesn't have yet is the town square.

The last Night Market of 2026 runs Friday, November 13, from 5 to 9 p.m. on St. Patrick Way between Golden Gate Drive and Regional Street.

If you own a home near downtown Dublin and want to know how a stalled redevelopment, a busy new anchor store and new housing on St. Patrick Way might figure into what your property is worth, Francine Masudi can take you through the numbers for your home. Get Your Home Valuation, and we'll build it on what is open and approved today.