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Residents of Great Park Neighborhoods must wait one more year to get their heavily requested retail center.
Dan Almquist of real estate developer Almquist, who also built San Juan Capistrano’s newest River Street Marketplace, is spearheading the upcoming shopping and dining hub called The Canopy.
“It’s been a couple of years working on this. To have the opportunity to be selected by Five Point Holdings Inc. and the city, it’s meaningful,” Almquist told the Business Journal. “The residents wanted this retail for so long.”
The 12-acre project broke ground on April 24. The Canopy will count approximately 90,000 square feet of leasable space that will house a mix of chef-driven restaurants and curated retail offerings, which Almquist developments are known for, as well as a specialty grocery option.
Its first known tenant is T&T Supermarket, an Asian grocery chain from Canada that first entered the U.S. last year. It counts 37 locations in Canada and one U.S. store in Bellevue, Washington.
The Canopy’s anchor tenant, slated to open in winter 2026, will feature a self-serve hot food bar with dishes like Peking Duck and BBQ meats, made-to-order street food, a large in-house bakery and a sushi counter. Shoppers will also find Asian spirits, private-label pantry staples, and more than 200 T&T private label items such as pork soup dumplings, green onion pancakes and Korean kalbi marinade.
CEO Tina Lee said she’s had her eye on Irvine for a long time.
“The factors to make a decision on where to buy a home is almost similar to where I would put a grocery store,” Lee told the Business Journal.
She noted that the 34,000-square-foot store opening next year is at the smaller end of a typical T&T location, which can swell to as much as 70,000 square feet.
“The Almquist group ‘is very innovative,’” Lee said when it came to the developer considering a brand-new, unknown grocery store from a different country. “I hope to do the project justice.”
Almquist, named by the Business Journal a Businessperson of the Year in January, called the store a great fit for the area.
“We were really particular about who we wanted to bring in here, but after going over to Canada, they’re first class – I think they’re going to fit the diversity of the community,” Almquist said.
T&T, which plans to open a store in San Francisco in late 2026, also established a regional office in Brea in January following its first U.S. opening last December to be closer to suppliers.
Other Canopy tenants will be announced later this year, according to Almquist. Great Park developer FivePoint considered last month’s ceremonial groundbreaking as a “step forward in the continued evolution of Great Park Neighborhoods.”
“Almquist brings a thoughtful approach and distinctive style that not only meets a practical need for residents but also feels unique and personalized to the community it serves,” CEO Dan Hedigan said in a statement to the Business Journal.
The developer mentioned that his father Martin Almquist, who passed away a week prior to the ceremonial groundbreaking, was very involved with The Canopy project in the last two years.
“He was with me at the planning commission meetings and the city council meeting when the project was approved,” Almquist said. “This project will forever remind me of my father.”
Great Park Gondolas
The city of Irvine and the Great Park board also revealed plans in April to install an aerial transportation system at the park for “increased mobility, connectivity and overall visitor experience.”
Board members on April 22 voted for the city to enter negotiations with technology firm Swyft Cities to open an initial operating segment of its Whoosh aerial transport units at Great Park.
It would connect The Canopy shopping center with the park’s visitors center, balloon and sports complex. City officials said it works for the size of Great Park, which spans 1,347 acres, making it larger than San Diego’s Balboa Park and New York’s Central Park.
The vehicles are fully electric, autonomous and elevated on a fixed cableway in the sky. A Whoosh vehicle can reach up to 30 mph and the system can accommodate up to 10,000 passengers per hour.
Swyft Cities will also make a donation toward the park to help accelerate the Whoosh installation and operations. n