According to the Thousand Oaks Acorn, on the morning of March 15, 2019, workers at The Promenade at Westlake were painting the windows of the grocery store white. A sign on the door said Vintage Grocers had closed permanently. Delivery drivers kept pulling up anyway, and the next day shoppers came back expecting to buy groceries.
The store at 140 Promenade Way has had a few versions of that morning. Whole Foods Market is now hiring for every department at that address, and its careers page says the store opens "Fall 2026." When it does, it will be the fourth grocer in this space. Since early 2016, by a rough count, the space has been empty for more months than it has been open.
Twenty Years, Then Ten Restless Ones
For two decades the space didn't change. Bristol Farms opened with the center in 1996. In 2016 its lease ran out and it chose not to renew. The Thousand Oaks Acorn reported that Bristol Farms' CEO said the company wanted a more central spot in the wider trade area.
The pace changed after that. Here are the dates as the Acorn's reports on Vintage's opening and its closure, the Star's coverage of Amazon Fresh's opening and its closure, and the Whole Foods hiring page give them:
| Tenant | Opened | Closed | Open for about | Empty afterward for about |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol Farms | 1996 | Early 2016 | 20 years | 7 months |
| Vintage Grocers | Oct. 1, 2016 | March 15, 2019 | 2.5 years | 3.4 years |
| Amazon Fresh | Early August 2022 | April 27, 2025 | 2.7 years | 18+ months by early November 2026 |
| Whole Foods Market | Fall 2026, per its hiring page |
Add up the time from Bristol Farms' exit to this week. The two tenants that followed were open for a combined five years or so. The space sat empty for roughly five and a half. Even the month Bristol Farms left depends on the source. The Acorn says March 2016 and a Ventura County Star report says February. Either way, the total barely moves.
Each Exit Came From Somewhere Else
None of these stores closed because The Promenade was struggling. Every exit came from a decision made at the company level, somewhere other than Westlake.
Vintage Grocers opened on Oct. 1, 2016, after a seven-week remodel. According to the Acorn's March 2019 report, its closure was part of a partnership with Erewhon Market, which then had a store at The Summit at Calabasas. As part of the same deal, Vintage's Pacific Palisades store was rebranded as an Erewhon, and Vintage kept its flagship Trancas Market in Malibu. Westlake lost its store to a reshuffle among other companies' locations. The closure affected 85 employees, who were offered severance and introduced to Erewhon's hiring staff.
The next gap was the longest. In October 2020 the Acorn reported that Amazon had leased the space and planned to open Amazon Fresh "later this year or early in 2021." The lease became public only because a state liquor license transfer notice on the building named Amazon. Caruso, which owns the center, told the Acorn it wasn't yet authorized to discuss the tenant. The store opened in August 2022, about a year and a half after that early-2021 estimate. The Ventura County Star called it the chain's 40th location. It offered Just Walk Out checkout, where a cart tallies items as you shop, and it was open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Amazon Fresh lasted a little over two and a half years. On March 14, 2025, Amazon notified the state that it would close the 33,000-square-foot store and lay off 76 workers, according to the Ventura County Star. The Acorn's 2020 report had described the space as 31,000 square feet. Amazon spokesperson Griffin Buch explained the decision in the Star's report:
"Certain store locations work better than others, and after an assessment of our offering we've decided to close our Amazon Fresh store in Thousand Oaks."
In the same statement, Buch pointed local customers to same-day delivery, other Amazon Fresh stores and Whole Foods Markets.
Same Owner, Different Bet
That last suggestion turned out to be about this very building. Whole Foods is owned by Amazon. When the Star reported the Whole Foods deal on Oct. 4, 2025, it described the new tenant as a different Amazon-owned grocery store replacing the closed Amazon Fresh, with no opening date set.
So the same company is putting a different brand into the same box, and it fits a wider pattern. In October 2025, Amazon confirmed it was closing four more Southern California Amazon Fresh stores, in La Habra, La Verne, Mission Viejo and Whittier, Grocery Dive reported. It also reported that a store in Plainview, New York, closed Sept. 28. CNBC described the company as moving its grocery focus toward Whole Foods and delivery. Thousand Oaks closed months before that batch, so it was one of the first signs of the shift.
The wait has been long, and much of it falls in the period after the deal was announced. The Promenade's own directory still listed Whole Foods as "Coming Soon" in October 2026, at center location G-1. The hiring page is the most concrete sign so far that the doors will open soon.
What the Hiring Page Says the Store Will Carry
A job posting is the closest thing to a floor plan the public has. The Whole Foods posting for store 10897-WLK lists these departments:
- Bakery, including counter service and a coffee bar
- Prepared Foods, with pizza, charcuterie, hot food, a salad bar and sandwiches
- Meat and Seafood counters for fresh, frozen and smoked items
- Specialty, covering cheese, beer, chocolate and housewares
- Produce & Floral, including cut fruit
- Whole Body, for vitamins, supplements, body care and makeup
- Shoppers, who fill online orders
The coffee bar, salad bar and hot food may matter more than the grocery aisles. When Vintage Grocers closed in 2019, the Acorn noted it had been a popular place for breakfast and lunch, and that those customers would now have to go elsewhere for a quick bite. Those are the same uses this store is staffing for.
The chain already runs a Thousand Oaks store at 740 N. Moorpark Road, and another at 21347 Ventura Blvd. in Woodland Hills. The Promenade store adds one on the Westlake side of the 101.
The Rest of the Center Kept Moving
The Promenade didn't stand still while the grocery space sat empty. RED O set an Aug. 18, 2025, grand opening there, according to Conejo Valley Guide. The Promenade lists Arhaus as "Coming Soon," and the retailer's Westlake Village store page places it at 160 Promenade Way, Suite 1. Caruso's tenant roster also includes RH, Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Barnes & Noble, Lululemon, Sephora and Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas.
The grocery space is still the outlier. It has had three tenants in about ten years, each one gone because of a decision made elsewhere: a lease Bristol Farms let lapse, a deal between two grocers, and a store-by-store review at Amazon. Whole Foods comes in with the backing of the same parent company whose first concept here didn't last, as that company puts its weight behind the Whole Foods brand. Once the doors open this fall, Westlake Village will have a full-service grocery and coffee counter on Promenade Way again, for the first time since April 2025.
Changes at a center like The Promenade affect what a Westlake Village address offers day to day, and they're part of how we tell a home's story when it goes to market. If you're thinking about what this fall's reopening could mean for a property near the 101 at Westlake Boulevard, Michelle Price Realty Group is glad to talk it through privately. Request a Confidential Consultation.
