I know we haven’t even gone through winter yet, but Danville’s Rose Garden seems to be on its way to making things look like springtime.

Located along the southeast corner of Camino Ramon and Sycamore Valley Road, the project headed by Blake Hunt Ventures hopes to bring a collection of unique shops to the Tri Valley area. The 48,500 square feet of specialty retail, 10,600 square feet of office space and 350 parking spaces will house restaurants like San Ramon’s Cafe Esin, Amici’s Pizzeria, Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe and Amaranta Cocina Mexicana.

Already open on the building site is the Navlet Garden Center, which has taken up  2 and 1/2 acres of the total 10 plus acres.

The developers are hoping that the Rose Garden will be able to retain the interest of Danville residents from shopping elsewhere, and they also hope to bring along new customers along the Interstate 680 corridor from Pleasanton to Walnut Creek.

- Joseph Natividad

Nowadays, the only time the Green Valley Shopping Center in Danville gets filled up with cars is during lunchtime…when everyone’s headed to Taco Bell.

Business has been floundering ever since Albertson’s, the center’s anchor tenant, closed down during the summer of 2006. Neighboring shops have experienced a 10 percent decline in profit since then and they would all welcome a new addition to bring customers back to the area.

A doughnut shop, thrift store, dry cleaner, Chinese restaurant and hair salon currently fill up rest of the shopping center, but there have been rumors floating around that either a Longs Drugs or British grocery store could fill up the vacant lot.

Longs has inquired about only opening up a pharmacy but hasn’t filed an application with the city. Fresh and Easy, a grocery chain from the UK, is beginning to pop up in the Southern California area and looks to do the same up north.

- Joseph Natividad