Tustin / Central Orange County
Tustin's grocery anchors fall into two groups. On the Jamboree Road side, The District at Tustin Legacy (Whole Foods, Costco and Target) and the Tustin half of The Market Place (Sprouts at 3011 El Camino Real) offer large-center co-tenancy, with Vestar managing The District and Irvine Company leasing The Market Place. Away from Jamboree, the neighborhood grocers sit on the older corridors: Albertsons at First Street and Newport Avenue, Trader Joe's on Irvine Boulevard and Sprouts on Holt Avenue. Service, food and medical shops that want grocery traffic but a smaller-center rent should start with those three corridors.
Population
78,981
Median HHI
$112,503
Median age
37.5
Homeownership
48.8%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates.
Primary retail corridors
Jamboree Road · Barranca Parkway · Newport Avenue · Red Hill Avenue · El Camino Real · Irvine Boulevard
Specific shopping centers in Tustin that already carry credible co-tenancy for this use. Listed in approximate order of fit.
2201–2895 Park Avenue
Anchors / key tenants: Whole Foods Market, Costco, Target, Lowe's
Size: 1,000,000 SF
Vestar's million-SF lifestyle center at Barranca/Jamboree — pulls from Tustin, Irvine, and the OC Great Park edge. Recent leasing: Jini Mini, Café 86, Activate Games, and Le Macaron. The mix also includes Nothing Bundt Cakes and Pinot's Palette.
Existing operators are the most honest comp for whether a use can support Tustin rents. These are publicly visible grocery-anchored retail space businesses currently trading in the market.
Whole Foods Market (The District at Tustin Legacy)
2847 Park Avenue, Tustin, CA 92782
Listed on Whole Foods' own store page and in The District's directory, which also lists Costco and Target. Vestar manages the center; its brochure describes 1,000,000 sq ft of gross leasable area. Shop tenants on the directory include Mendocino Farms, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Ulta Beauty, Massage Envy, The UPS Store, Legacy Cleaners and Verizon.
Sprouts Farmers Market (The Market Place, Tustin side)
3011 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA 92782
Sprouts calls this its Tustin, Jamboree Rd. store. It sits in Irvine Company's The Market Place, which Irvine Company lists at 1,406,215 sq ft across Tustin and Irvine. Nearby Tustin-side shops on the Irvine Company directory include Total Wine & More (2952 El Camino Real), Sephora (2999), Madison Reed (3003) and European Wax Center (2931). The Target and Namaste Plaza Indian Supermarket at The Market Place have Irvine addresses on Jamboree Road.
Sprouts Farmers Market (Holt Ave)
14945 Holt Avenue, Tustin, CA 92780
Sprouts' second Tustin store, away from the Jamboree Road centers.
Trader Joe's
1198 Irvine Boulevard, Tustin, CA 92780
Store 197, the only Trader Joe's the chain lists in Tustin, on the Irvine Boulevard corridor.
Albertsons (1st & Newport)
13270 Newport Avenue, Tustin, CA 92780
The only Albertsons the chain lists in Tustin, on the Newport Avenue corridor at First Street.
01
Use: Tustin City Code Section 9232(a)(1)(o) lists food markets as a permitted retail use in the C1 Retail Commercial District, and Sections 9233(a)(1), 9234(a)(1) and 9235(b)(1) carry that into C2, C3 and CG. Before relying on these lists, ask the City whether your parcel is in a specific plan or planned community district, since the large centers along Jamboree may be governed by their own documents.
02
Small formats: the code defines a convenience store as any establishment under 15,000 sq ft selling food, beverage, magazine and auto-related items for off-site use, and Section 9232(b)(10) makes convenience stores a conditional use in C1. Specialty stores (under 3,500 sq ft, in a center with more than three retail tenants, selling unique foods) are also a conditional use (Section 9232(b)(26)). A small-format or specialty grocer should get Planning's written classification as a food market before assuming it is by right.
03
Beer and wine: Section 9232(a)(1)(a) permits off-site alcohol sales in C1 only inside a business of at least 10,000 sq ft where the alcohol area is no more than 10% of the floor area. Anything else needs a conditional use permit under Section 9232(b)(2) and Section 9271(dd).
04
Parking under Section 9263 Table 1: a Large Retail Center (30,000 sq ft or more with a range of tenants) is parked at 4.5 spaces per 1,000 sq ft, general merchandise retail at 1 per 250 sq ft, and a Small Retail Center (under 30,000 sq ft) at the sum of each use's own ratio. Ask the landlord which category the center was approved under before adding restaurants next to the grocer.
05
Large sites in CG: Section 9235(c)(2) requires a conditional use permit for any otherwise permitted use on more than five acres of total parcel space, which can catch a new grocery-anchored development on a big CG parcel.
06
The District at Tustin Legacy: the directory lists Whole Foods, Costco and Target, and Vestar's tenant services page gives the center address as 2437 Park Avenue. Ask Vestar for the current site plan and any grocer exclusives or restricted uses in the declaration before you tour shop space near Whole Foods.
Zoning, licensing, and demographic figures on this page come from the public records below. Codes and licenses change, so confirm with the city and the licensing agency before you sign.