Construction has started on the northwest corner of Sierra Avenue and Terra Vista Drive. In a September 23, 2026 update, Lewis Retail Centers said the site is cleared and fully entitled, and that offsite construction is underway on Arboretum Marketplace, a neighborhood center anchored by Stater Bros. Markets. Offsite work covers the streets and utilities around a parcel, which come before the buildings, so no stores are open. No opening date has been announced.
Under the original plan this ground was meant for homes. Fontana didn't cut those homes or take any park land. It moved them to the last open part of the Arboretum plan, north of Duncan Canyon Road. Your new grocery store and the area's remaining construction both come out of that one decision.
The 9.3 acres that changed category
The Arboretum Specific Plan runs from Grapeland Avenue on the north to Casa Grande Avenue on the south, and from Citrus Avenue on the west to Sierra Avenue on the east. Duncan Canyon Road splits it across the middle. The retail site sits near the plan area's northeast corner, next to Sierra Avenue.
At the Planning Commission hearing, Associate Planner Cecily Session-Goins described the plan this way, as reported by the Fontana Herald News:
"If you've been up to Arboretum, you can see that almost everything below Duncan Canyon has been developed — mostly with residential, but also some recreation amenities and also a school."
To make room for commerce, the applicants asked for a general plan amendment and a specific plan amendment. Together these changed the site's General Plan designation from Residential Planned Community to General Commercial. According to the same Herald News account, staff said the total number of homes first planned in 2009 would stay the same, and so would the park acreage. The homes that would have gone on the 9.3-acre parcel are being spread across the remaining undeveloped areas.
So the plan area gains a grocery-anchored center and keeps the same parks, the same home count and the same overall footprint. What changes is where some of those homes will be built.
The approval timeline
The Planning Commission acted on June 2. The City Council took up the Arboretum Specific Plan item at its July 14, 2026 meeting, held at the Steelworkers' Auditorium, 8437 Sierra Avenue. The Herald News reported a 3-0 vote. Mayor Pro Tem Peter Garcia recused himself because he lives near the project.
Roughly ten weeks after that vote, Lewis reported the site cleared and offsite work underway. On October 6, The Shelby Report picked up the announcement for the grocery trade.
Who is signed, and who is still pending
Here is the lineup Lewis has published for the center:
- Stater Bros. Markets, the grocery anchor
- McDonald's, on the drive-through pad
- Pacific Dental
- Nothing Bundt Cakes, the brand's first North Fontana location. The existing Fontana bakery is on Slover Avenue.
- Wings and Rings, a family-oriented sports restaurant and the chain's third California location, after Rancho Cucamonga and Modesto
- A coffee concept and another restaurant, both listed as lease pending and not yet named
Lewis also says more shop space is available and more retailers are expected to join over the coming months. The two unnamed tenants will likely decide what the center feels like on a weekday morning. The confirmed list covers groceries, dessert, dental care and a sports dinner, but no café yet.
What the buildings will look like
The approval coverage spends more time on design than most retail stories do. Staff told the Planning Commission the grocery store and in-line shops will use Santa Barbara architecture, which Session-Goins compared to Spanish style. Plans call for a white and neutral color palette, a mix of flat and pitched roofs, arches, stone veneer, metal accents at the grocery entrance and several kinds of Spanish tile.
The centerpiece, in her words, is "a landscaped path through the center portion of the site to the market with pergolas on top." Commissioner Idilio Sanchez said he appreciated that the McDonald's will follow the center's architectural theme rather than use a separate design. Sidewalks and marked crosswalks will provide pedestrian access, and the loading areas will be reached from Terra Vista Drive.
The approvals also included a conditional use permit for alcohol sales at the Stater Bros. Under state standards, the store can't sell alcohol between 2 and 6 a.m.
The size depends on who is counting
The approval records and the developer give different figures for the center's size.
| Source | Square footage | Other details |
|---|---|---|
| City staff report, as covered by the Fontana Herald News | 69,617 sq ft | 9.3-acre parcel, 477 parking spaces |
| Lewis Retail Centers and The Shelby Report, Sept. to Oct. 2026 | 74,000 sq ft | Site cleared, fully entitled, offsite work underway |
The difference is about 4,400 square feet. It could be rounding in the marketing materials or a later change to the plan. Neither source explains it. The parking count is the more useful number for daily trips: 477 spaces, which the Herald News reported meets the city's requirement. Staff also noted that the site plan leaves room for future development.
The Falcon Ridge comparison at the council vote
The most locally specific moment in the approval came from Councilmember Philip Cothran. Before the vote, he asked whether the center had enough buffer space from the main road, comparing the project to Falcon Ridge Shopping Center. The Herald News quoted him:
"When I go to the Falcon Ridge Shopping Center, the biggest complaint I get every single time is that when you turn right in there, cars are going left, right and straight, people are walking back and forth — and it stacks up all the way."
Session-Goins answered that the plan includes enough buffer space. Because the center will have several entrances and exits on both Sierra Avenue and Terra Vista Drive, she said, "I don't foresee there being any traffic holdups as far as vehicular circulation through the site."
The comparison matters for north Fontana because Falcon Ridge Town Center, at 15218 to 15320 Summit Avenue, already has a Stater Bros. It is anchored by Stater Bros. and CVS, with Target as a shadow anchor, and it also has ULTA Beauty, Michaels and Dollar Tree. The Stater Bros. store locator lists that store at 15222 Summit Avenue. Arboretum Marketplace adds another Stater Bros. at a separate center, on a corner the council approved after this exact circulation question.
How it fits with the stores you use now
The new center joins an area that already has several established grocery and big-box options. Lewis also runs the Sierra Lakes Shopping Corridor on Sierra Lakes Parkway between Citrus Avenue and Sierra Avenue, where tenants include Costco, Ralphs, Lowe's and Home Depot. The Ralphs at Sierra Lakes Village is at 16225 Sierra Lakes Parkway. Costco's Fontana warehouse is at 16505 Sierra Lakes Parkway. The corridor's roster also includes Starbucks, Chipotle, Great Clips and Walgreens. West Coast Sourdough opened there in October 2025.
Farther down Sierra Avenue, the Stater Bros. No. Fontana store is at 8228 Sierra Avenue, near the corner of Sierra Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. Once Arboretum Marketplace opens, that store, the one at Falcon Ridge and the new one will make three Stater Bros. locations on Sierra Avenue and Summit Avenue.
Lewis says the growing communities around the project, including The Arboretum and Sierra Lakes, have more than 4,300 homes planned and over 2,400 already sold or leasing. By Lewis's numbers, about 1,900 of those planned homes have yet to sell or lease. Some of them will go on the land north of Duncan Canyon Road that took in the units moved off the retail parcel. Neighbors near the center will see two kinds of construction over the next stretch of building: the shopping center taking shape on Sierra Avenue and new homes going up on the land to its north.
If you want to track progress, the City Council's agendas, minutes and recordings are posted at fontanaca.gov. Council meetings are held at 2 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at the Steelworker's Auditorium while City Hall is under construction. The most useful thing to watch for next is when Lewis names the coffee and restaurant tenants.
Our team at Colleen Horgan Real Estate follows projects like Arboretum Marketplace because a new grocery-anchored center can change how a north Fontana street works day to day. If you'd like to talk through what this corner means for your home, schedule a free market consultation with our team.
