Rohnert Park's Downtown Is Back on Paper. What's Different This Time?
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
In 2017, a developer bought the empty State Farm campus at Rohnert Park Expressway and State Farm Drive and promised a downtown. In 2026, another developer has filed plans for that same corner. Nine years apart, the two filings look alike on the surface: shops, homes, a public square and a train station next door. The biggest change since 2017 is who controls the land.
On Sept. 30, 2026, CenterCal Properties submitted its application to the City of Rohnert Park for 6400 State Farm Drive. At the Oct. 13 council meeting, city staff and CenterCal showed the plan to the public, and that started a formal review expected to take most of the next year and a half. Anyone who has watched this site sit vacant for years should know that the stage starting now is where the details get settled.
The site has had more owners than buildings over the past 15 years. These are the milestones that led to this filing:
In both earlier attempts, a private owner held the land, and the plan stalled when that owner's numbers stopped working. In 2022, the city broke that pattern by buying the site itself. It then picked a developer through a competitive process and approved a concept before agreeing to a sale price. The city agreed to sell most of the land for $1.3 million less than it paid, while keeping a piece for public works, and in return it got a say in what gets built there.
According to the Press Democrat, Councilmember Susan Hollingsworth Adams said at the Oct. 13 meeting that CenterCal had met the benchmarks and timelines the city set. That kind of timeline did not exist when the land was in private hands.
The proposal splits the roughly 30-acre site into zones, and where each piece sits says a lot about how the place is meant to work.
| Component | What's proposed | Where on the site |
|---|---|---|
| Retail and dining | 163,931 sq. ft., including a grocery store, restaurants and shops | North half, along Rohnert Park Expressway |
| Public plaza | 1.38 acres with a water feature and green space | Center of the retail area |
| Affordable housing | 100 units for households earning about 80% of area median income | Upper floors above the plaza-facing retail |
| Market-rate apartments | About 250 units | South portion |
| For-sale homes | 51 detached single-family homes | Corner of State Farm and Enterprise drives |
| Hotel | 128 rooms with about 3,500 sq. ft. of meeting space | East side, along the SMART line |
| City land | 1.5 acres kept for the public works yard | Southeast corner |
The layout puts the plaza in the middle. CenterCal's vice president of development, Scott Bohrer, told the Press Democrat that much of the parking is intentionally placed outside the central area so that it stays pedestrian-friendly. Standalone commercial buildings would be spread across the rest of the north half.
The city's own announcement gives the plaza as "approximately one-acre," and the Press Democrat reports 1.38 acres. Bohrer said the developer is required to build a plaza of at least one acre, so the larger figure is the current design and the smaller one is the minimum.
The affordability benchmark is 80% of area median income. Using state figures released in June 2026, the Press Democrat put that at $93,400 for a one-person household and $133,400 for a family of four.
The plan includes a grocery store, and the Press Democrat's account of it does not name one. Trader Joe's is one name that has come up before, as a public request around the 2024 selection reported by the Press Democrat.
CenterCal is based in El Segundo, and its existing centers give a sense of what it builds. Three of the projects in its portfolio make useful comparisons.
Rohnert Park's proposed retail space, at about 164,000 sq. ft., is less than half the size of Bay Street and about a third the size of Bridgeport Village. The proposed 401 homes are about half of Totem Lake's apartment count. In practice, this is a smaller downtown with homes built around a plaza, not a regional shopping destination.
Totem Lake also shows how long these projects take. CenterCal's construction update describes a multi-year build there from 2016 to 2020, with grocery and retail tenants opening in phases along the way. In Rohnert Park, the development team's target for completion is summer 2030, assuming everything stays on schedule.
The Oct. 13 meeting was the first public showing of the full plan, and the comments that night point to the questions likely to come up again at hearings. According to the Press Democrat, a few speakers asked the city to push for a more distinctive design that reflects Rohnert Park's history. One speaker praised the for-sale homes but said the overall look was closer to an outdoor shopping mall than a downtown, and argued that the square was smaller than first intended. Another questioned whether the city needs another grocery store when several are nearby, and suggested a food hall instead.
Bohrer responded that the proposal closely follows the conceptual plan approved in 2025. He said it reflects community surveys, open houses and meetings with local businesses and labor, which he said showed clear support for a central gathering space, a range of restaurants from fast-casual to special-occasion, rental housing and homes for sale. Councilmember Samantha Rodriguez said she saw much of the past public feedback reflected in the plan.
Councilmember Gerard Giudice served on the Planning Commission in 2014, when the city received a regional grant to study the area. At the Oct. 13 meeting, as the Press Democrat reported, he said this:
"To say that this has been a dream that has spanned decades would be an understatement."
The design is still under review. City planning staff are working with their consultant, Good City Company, to check the application against environmental law and against city and state development and design standards. CenterCal has also applied for design review within the city's central core and for a major subdivision map, according to Director of Development Services Natalia Fossi.
After that, parts of the project go to public hearings before three bodies:
The city expects those hearings within nine to 18 months of its October announcement. Counting from now, that is roughly summer 2027 through spring 2028. The city's development activity tracker, last updated Oct. 20, 2026, lists the downtown application as submitted on Sept. 30. The city's Downtown page is where it points residents for updates.
The open questions from the Oct. 13 meeting fit these steps. Plaza size and the look of the buildings fall under design review, and the layout of lots and streets goes through the subdivision map. The city has invited the public to attend all three hearings and give feedback on the future downtown.
If you're curious about Rohnert Park's downtown plan and what it could mean for nearby homes as it moves through hearings, I'm happy to talk it through and keep you posted on each step. Kristen Parrish Tamayo is a Petaluma-based agent serving Sonoma and Marin counties. Let's Connect.
With 10+ years of sales experience and over a decade in real estate, Kristen brings local expertise, honest guidance, and a client-first approach to every transaction. Rooted in Petaluma, she is passionate about helping clients find the right place to call home.
Kristen Parrish Tamayo is committed to delivering a high level of expertise, customer service, and attention to the market and sales of Sonoma & Marin County real estate.
