The Big Lots and Joann on Foothill Have Been Empty for Over a Year, and That's Only Part of What's Changing

Drive Foothill Boulevard past Sprouts and you'll pass two dark storefronts that used to anchor the block: a Big Lots at 2243 Foothill and a Joann Fabric and Crafts at 2160. Both went dark within a few months of each other in early 2025, and both are still sitting empty as of this writing. If that's the whole story you've heard, you're only getting a third of it. This same stretch of road is also home to a farmers market that just spent its summer squeezed into a parking lot a fraction of its usual size, and a few blocks down, a city council is quietly working through a housing project that skips the public hearing most La Cañada Flintridge residents assume is standard. None of these three things caused each other. They just happen to be landing on the same half mile of Foothill in the same twelve months.

Two Big-Box Anchors, Two Unrelated Bankruptcies

Big Lots filed for bankruptcy on September 9, 2024. The chain's collapse played out unevenly across California: some stores closed within weeks, others limped along into the new year. The La Cañada Flintridge location was one of the holdouts, staying open into early 2025 before it finally shut for good. Joann Fabric and Crafts filed for bankruptcy the same month, and its stores began closing nationally starting in February 2025, taking the Foothill Boulevard location with it. Two long-running local retailers, two separate corporate bankruptcy filings, one month apart, both landing on the same block.

The buildings have sat vacant since the beginning of 2025. The La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce has said it's tracking interest from what it describes only as "major retailers" for both spaces, but as of the most recent reporting there's no signed lease and no name attached to either address. That phrasing matters if you're trying to guess what comes next: it points toward another big-box format rather than a cluster of small independent shops, but nothing is confirmed.

This isn't the first time Foothill has absorbed a shock like this. The old Sport Chalet flagship store and its corporate headquarters, once anchoring the La Cañada Flintridge Town Center at Foothill and Angeles Crest Highway, closed in bankruptcy back in 2016. The store space eventually became a Target. The corporate offices next door became the new City Hall. The boulevard has a track record of filling in eventually, even when the interim stretch feels long.

The Farmers Market Got Squeezed Into a Lot a Third the Size

While those two buildings sat empty, the La Cañada Flintridge Farmers Market was dealing with a completely separate problem. The market normally sets up at 1346 Foothill Blvd, across from Memorial Park, in the lot next to City Hall. This year, a parking lot closure tied to a Caltrans project forced a temporary relocation to a smaller site on Rinetti Lane, one that can't comfortably hold the market's usual roster of vendor trucks alongside customer parking. A resident letter published in the La Cañada Outlook this July laid out the knock-on effect: the same lot closure that displaced the market also cut into Sunday parking for Memorial Park's games and practices, meaning two different weekend traditions ended up competing for the same shrunken supply of spaces.

The relocation is set to run through the first week of October 2026, after which the market is expected to return to its home lot. It's a temporary arrangement with a real end date, but it's also a reminder that a single infrastructure closure can ripple into places that have nothing to do with retail vacancies or bankruptcy filings.

A Different Kind of Change Is Moving Through City Hall

The third thread has nothing to do with a store closing or a market relocating. It's about what gets built on Foothill next. This spring, the city council reviewed an update on a three-story, 19-unit multifamily project planned for the corner of El Camino Corto and Foothill Boulevard, on a vacant lot that's drawn concern from nearby neighbors over traffic and site access. Vehicle access is planned only through Foothill, not El Camino Corto, and the design includes a semi-subterranean garage with 35 parking spaces beneath two floors of housing units.

Here's the detail that surprises people who assume every development like this gets a public hearing: it doesn't. Because the project includes a below-market-rate unit, it qualifies for what the city calls ministerial approval, meaning it bypasses review by the planning commission and design commission entirely. It's also exempt from environmental, traffic, and noise review under a state housing law, Assembly Bill 130, that streamlines projects meeting certain affordability thresholds. As of this spring, the application was moving through the city's building and safety plan check process, not a council vote. City staff have also referenced two other residential projects in the same conversation, one at 600 Foothill Boulevard and another at 4600 Ocean View Boulevard, suggesting this isn't an isolated case but part of a broader pattern of state housing law reshaping what gets built along the corridor without the usual local review layer.

Three Threads on One Road

If you're trying to make sense of why Foothill feels different this year, it helps to see the three stories side by side.

Laid out this way, it's easier to see why the "something's off on Foothill" feeling doesn't trace back to one cause. A national retailer's bankruptcy court calendar, a Caltrans construction schedule, and a state housing law's approval timeline don't coordinate with each other. They just happen to be running concurrently on the same stretch of road, which makes the corridor feel like it's in flux even though each piece is following its own separate clock.

Where to Actually Check What's Next

If you want to track any of these without waiting for the next news cycle to catch up, a few sources update faster than word of mouth. The Chamber of Commerce posts business news releases and directory updates as new tenants sign leases, which is typically the first place a confirmed name for the old Big Lots or Joann space would surface. The farmers market's own listings note its current location and will reflect the return to the home lot once the Rinetti Lane relocation ends. And the city's building and safety plan check status is the most reliable way to track where the El Camino Corto project actually stands, since council discussion doesn't always mean a vote is imminent.

None of this changes what your house is worth or when you should sell it. But if you've lived here long enough to notice the boulevard looking different this year, now you know it's three separate stories, not one.

If you're weighing any of this against your own plans in La Cañada Flintridge, whether that's understanding how a nearby infill project might affect your street or just getting a clear read on what your home is worth in the current market, Dan Regan Properties can walk you through it. Reach out for a free home valuation and a straight answer.