Foster City has started choosing where a downtown could go. On September 21, the City Council heard a draft "Real Estate Economic Market Analysis" from consultant Kosmont Companies, listed as agenda item 7.1, "Receive and Accept Report, and Provide Policy Direction." The report names two possible downtown cores. One is the Leo J. Ryan Park area, with the new Community Center and the lagoon. The other is Edgewater Place.
The San Mateo Daily Journal's coverage treated it as a site search. The visit data at the back of the report suggests something different. One of the two candidates already draws the most Foster City residents of any place in town. What it lacks is food, evening light and a reason to stay after the errand is done. Most of the report's ideas aim at that gap.
The Numbers Behind "Downtown"
Kosmont's draft includes Placer.ai visit estimates for the city's busiest places, covering March 1, 2025 through February 28, 2026.
| Location | Foster City residents who visited at least once | Total visits, all visitors |
|---|---|---|
| Leo J. Ryan Park, 650 Shell Blvd. | 31,900, estimated | 569,200 |
| The Marketplace at Metro Center, 977 E. Hillsdale Blvd. | 27,900 | 2,900,000 |
| Costco Wholesale, 1001 Metro Center Blvd. | 21,700 | 2,600,000 |
| Foster Square, 707 Thayer Ln. | 21,300 | 930,200 |
| Edgewater Place, 919 Edgewater Blvd. | 21,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Marlin Cove, 1070 Foster City Blvd. | 19,700 | 968,100 |
Read the two columns separately. Total visits count everyone, including commuters and out-of-town shoppers. By that measure The Marketplace at Metro Center leads at 2.9 million visits, and its Safeway ranked 18th by visits among 240 Safeway stores in California. The resident column tells a different story. Leo J. Ryan Park comes first, ahead of every shopping center. The report flags that figure as an estimate, based on visitors living in the 94404 ZIP code, and it puts the park in the 92nd percentile statewide.
The two leaders also sit next to each other. Kosmont describes Metro Center as a Safeway-anchored center with large office buildings and a big surface parking lot "fronting Leo J. Ryan Park and the Lagoon." In effect, Foster City's busiest grocery run and its most-visited public lawn already share a block. Taken together, the data show a downtown's worth of traffic in one spot, without the connective pieces a downtown usually has.
Why the Leo J. Ryan Option Focuses on Small Things
The report explains the Leo J. Ryan pick plainly. The city's most successful community events already happen there, and the Community Center sits on the central lagoon, which makes it "physically and visually the city's centerpiece." Ken Hira, Kosmont's president, put it more directly in a council meeting the Daily Journal reported on:
"This is your downtown corridor. It feels like this is the heart of your city."
The ideas for the area are modest by design. Kosmont says the analysis sticks to "relatively realistic options that can be achieved in next five years," even though many people asked it to think bigger. The large parcel next door helps explain that limit. Metro Center has several leaseholders, including Safeway and CVS, with reciprocal easements that the report says make redevelopment very difficult. If the shopping center can't easily change, the work shifts to the space around it. The list for the park area reads that way:
- Regular food service at the Community Center through its café, plus dedicated food truck infrastructure
- A semi-permanent container village to replace the occasional Off the Grid food truck nights
- A floating restaurant or wharf on the lagoon
- Coordinated programming across the Community Center, the lagoon, Foster Square and City Hall
- Lighting, murals, sculptures and branded "village" wayfinding linking the park to Foster Square and the parking field
- Higher-density zoning for multifamily sites along the lagoon if they include mixed-use commercial space
The city's own staff report follows the same idea. It recommends a downtown design and vision that runs from City Hall, the Library and Foster Square to Leo J. Ryan Park and the new Community Center. Almost every item on the list adds food, light or a walking connection between places people already visit.
Edgewater Has a Grocery Again and Empty Space on the Docks
Edgewater Place makes the case for the other approach. Kosmont calls it the largest retail shopping center in the city, about 8.2 acres on the water with two private boat docks. Its grocery store and many personal-service businesses also make it a low generator of sales tax.
Its visit count comes with an asterisk worth knowing. Edgewater logged about 1.0 million visits in the 12-month window, and Osaka Marketplace, which replaced Lucky Supermarket in December 2025, accounted for 422,800 of them. Osaka opened only about three months before that window closed, so the center's full year with its new anchor isn't in these figures yet. Kosmont's interviews with the property manager and broker found the Osaka store "performing well on weekends."
The September draft also lists what is lined up next at the center:
- Sana Cafe, a Yemeni coffee concept, and Woodside Deli, described as a 50-year-old business, had signed leases and were under construction or in permitting.
- Proposals had come in for two dining spaces along the docks, one 3,700 square feet and one 4,000 square feet, with talks ongoing with possible restaurant tenants.
- Plans were in the works for a children's activity space with gymnastics and active games.
Those were the plans as of the draft dated September 21. Signed leases and open doors are not the same thing, so watch the storefronts rather than the report.
The report's ideas for Edgewater work from the opposite end from Leo J. Ryan. The center already has the buildings, so the suggestions cover outdoor dining decks, string lights, trees and benches, a coordinated facade refresh, public art, cafés and wine bars, and better use of the lagoon frontage. Kosmont also says the center may be too large to stay 100% commercial. Management told the consultant that residential development there was rejected by the city about a decade ago, that ownership is still interested in mixed use, and that neighbors have opposed late-night activity and lighting, including a proposed 24-foot monument sign.
So the Edgewater option would add evening dining at a center where late-night activity, lighting and a large sign have drawn neighborhood opposition. The Leo J. Ryan option adds dining to a park the whole city already uses for events. Both start from the same place, with the crowd or the space already there and food and evening activity still missing.
Other Sites in the Report That Affect a Saturday
The report evaluated 10 opportunity sites in all. Three of them would change how a weekend in Foster City goes.
Sea Cloud II, 100 Sea Cloud Drive. About 21 acres of vacant land at the east edge of Sea Cloud Park. Kosmont suggests more sports fields, tennis and pickleball courts, and possibly a public pool, subject to environmental assessment, remediation and ecological review. Councilmember Stacy Jimenez said at the meeting, per the Daily Journal, that she would like to focus on "community gathering spaces, especially near the water and Sea Cloud," calling it "land that we control."
1010 Metro Center Boulevard, the former Orchard Supply Hardware. Kosmont describes a possible redevelopment with a 20,000-square-foot food hall and close to 200 homes, or an all-retail option. Nearby, the report suggests the vacant parcel at the southwest corner of Shell and Metro Center boulevards, across from Costco, could serve as an interim food truck park or container village. Either one would put a second dining idea within a few blocks of the Leo J. Ryan area.
Century Plaza, 1065 E. Hillsdale Boulevard. A four-story office building the report lists at 90% vacancy and calls well positioned for conversion to residential or mixed use.
The Daily Journal ties all of this to the city's economy. Foster City supports about 20,000 jobs, more people commute in to work than live in the city, and limited dining and entertainment options send residents to established downtowns like San Mateo's.
Where It Stands Before Anything Gets Built
Nothing in the report is approved construction. The staff report asked the council for revisions, and staff said it would bring a final report back for adoption at a future meeting, with no date given. Once adopted, the report is meant to guide the city's economic development work for the next five years. The project's community survey ran from April 22 to May 22, 2026, and the city's engagement page lists it as closed. The next public step will come when the final report returns to a council agenda.
Until then, the near-term changes to watch are small. They include a regular café at the Community Center, food truck infrastructure along the lagoon, and the opening of Sana Cafe and Woodside Deli at Edgewater. Each one gives people a reason to stay longer at a place they already visit.
If you own near Leo J. Ryan Park, Metro Center or Edgewater Place and want to talk through what a new café, a container village or a dockside restaurant could mean for your block, Julie Flouty follows these council agendas closely and can walk you through what's proposed nearby. Let's Connect.
