Santa Clarita's New Openings: What's Open and What's Still Coming

How many of the restaurants everyone in Santa Clarita has been talking about this year have you actually eaten at?

Opening timelines vary among the businesses mentioned in local roundups this year. Some are open; Round1 is anticipated to open in 2027. The details below distinguish confirmed openings from announced plans.

The Nick the Greek Timeline Is the Whole Story in Miniature

Nick the Greek at Skyline Ranch Plaza offers a clear example of how an announced opening date can differ from the confirmed opening.

The spot at 19335 Plum Canyon Road had been sitting empty since Fire Island Grill abruptly closed on October 16, 2025. The operator attributed the closure to "economic circumstances," according to Hometown Station; plenty of residents genuinely mourned the closure given how popular the tropical menu had been. Nick the Greek announced it would take over the space, and an Eventbrite listing set the grand opening for Tuesday, August 4, 2026.

Then it didn't happen. SCVNews reported on July 30 that the opening had been delayed, with no new date attached. For over a month, the space sat in limbo. A soft opening happened quietly sometime in early September, ahead of an official grand opening event on September 8, which came with free lunch for the community from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. SCVNews confirmed the location was fully open and serving on September 11, more than five weeks after the date originally advertised.

Its five-week delay offers a useful point of comparison for the longer timelines at Valencia Town Center.

The Mall Wave Has Two Very Different Clocks Running

A larger set of phased openings is planned at Valencia Town Center.

On April 30, 2026, Centennial, the Dallas-based company that bought the mall in September 2023, announced ten new tenants adding more than 175,000 square feet of dining, entertainment, and retail. The list includes Round1 Bowling & Arcade, KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot, Bushfire Kitchen, Bacio di Latte gelato, Slice House pizza, Wafflecomb, the retailer Trelen, longtime Southern California skate shop Pharmacy Boardshop, and expansions for J David and Pandora. The release described the tenants as opening in phases through 2026 and 2027, without committing to specific dates for each one.

That single sentence is doing a lot of work, because the phases are not close together. Round1 will take over the mall's former Sears anchor, a 125,000-square-foot buildout that Signal SCV and the property's own release describe as anticipated to open in early 2027. That's not a rounding error. It's the difference between planning a birthday party there this fall and waiting through an entire additional holiday season.

KPOT's own location page for Valencia Town Center is live.

The mall's two projects are at different stages: Round1 remains under construction, while KPOT is listed as open. For Korean barbecue and hot pot, check KPOT's location page for current hours before you drive out.

What's Actually Open Right Now, Mapped Against What Isn't

CAVA is worth a second look because it's the cleanest example of why timing varies so much between projects. It opened its Valencia location in early March 2026, only a few months after it started showing up in local conversation, because a fast-casual buildout in an existing storefront moves at a completely different pace than converting a dead department store into a bowling alley. Same city, same dining boom, two unrelated clocks.

Smaller Openings Across Santa Clarita

The city's own economic development team tracked a wave of smaller openings through 2025 into 2026 that never generated the same buzz as the mall announcement, mostly because they didn't need to. According to the city's blog, these are already welcoming customers:

• Dog Haus on Golden Valley Road, a casual dining spot
• Booku PoBoys in Canyon Country, bringing New Orleans flavors to the valley
• Sweet Red Peach on Bouquet Canyon Road, scratch-made treats
• Café 86 on Newhall Ranch Road, serving ube drinks, lattes, and pastries
• Catfe on Via Princessa Drive, a coffee shop where customers can spend time with adoptable cats while supporting local animal rescue
• Sky Zone on Carl Boyer Drive, an indoor trampoline park for kids and teens

These smaller businesses are open, while some larger projects remain in development. Their opening timelines differ from those of phased mall projects and anchor conversions.

How to Actually Use This

If you live here and you're planning around any of this, the move is simple. Before you build a weekend around a name you saw in a roundup, check whether that name has an actual open date attached or just a phase attached. Several of the businesses listed are already open. Round1 is anticipated to open in early 2027, while Yard House and Texas Roadhouse are at the lease stage. The Valencia Town Center project is real, Centennial has committed real capital and square footage to it, and the transformation of that property is genuinely underway. The release describes tenants opening in phases through 2026 and 2027.

The Santa Clarita Valley has absorbed a real wave of new business investment this year, and Prime Real Estate has watched that same pattern play out across Valencia, Canyon Country, Newhall, and Saugus for years: new restaurants and business investment often appear in neighborhoods with strong local infrastructure and steady demand behind them. If you're curious what that kind of steady local momentum means for your own property, or you're just trying to keep track of what's changing in your corner of the valley, Prime Real Estate is always happy to talk through it. Get Your Instant Home Valuation whenever you're ready to see where your home stands in a market this active.