WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA — It was going to have fountains. It was going to have a fancy restaurant. Weirdly, it was going to have Roman statuary.
Now, it’s either paused, or permanently stopped.
The much-anticipated RH Gallery planned for the former Neiman Marcus building at Broadway Plaza appears to have hit a major roadblock.
The City of Walnut Creek now lists the project’s planning application as withdrawn as of June 1, 2026. The Bay Area Telegraph spoke with city planner Gerardo Victoria, who confirmed that RH had withdrawn their application for the massive new retail and food space. Other local outlets have reported the same.
The city gives no reason for the withdrawal, but it means the active proposal for the high-profile redevelopment at 1000 S. Main St. and 1401 Mt. Diablo Blvd. is no longer moving through the approval process.
That is a sharp reversal for a project that had been positioned as one of the most ambitious additions to downtown Walnut Creek in years.
RH, formerly Restoration Hardware, was expected to turn the long-vacant former department store into an immersive retail-and-hospitality destination rather than a conventional furniture showroom.
Early reports described a roughly 50,000-square-foot complex spanning two buildings, with Mediterranean-inspired architecture, landscaped courtyards, a glass-enclosed garden restaurant, fireplaces, fountains and an outdoor wine experience. Construction had been expected to begin in mid-2026, with an opening projected for early 2028.
I visited the RH Gallery in San Francisco to see what was coming to WC. It’s wild–multiple floors of fancy furniture, arranged more like a museum than a store. Here’s that story if you’re interested.
For Walnut Creek, the loss or delay of the project would be significant. The former Neiman Marcus building has been empty since the luxury department store closed in 2021, creating one of the most visible vacancies at Broadway Plaza’s key corner near South Main Street and Mt. Diablo Boulevard.
The RH concept was supposed to be a dramatic answer to that vacancy. Instead of simply replacing one large department store with another, the plan aimed to create a destination where people might shop, dine, drink wine and linger in landscaped public-facing spaces.
The timing is especially notable because RH itself identified Walnut Creek as one of the Design Compounds it was developing for 2026 in its annual report released earlier this year.
Still, a withdrawn planning application does not necessarily mean the lease or the broader RH deal has been canceled. Developers sometimes withdraw applications to revise plans, change the project scope, resolve technical issues or return later with a new filing. Neither the city page (or the officials we spoke to) nor RH’s public materials explain what prompted this withdrawal or whether a revised proposal is coming.
For now, however, the version of the project Walnut Creek residents had been hearing about — a major RH retail complex with a destination restaurant and garden-like courtyards — is no longer active.
Until RH, Broadway Plaza owner Macerich, or the city provides an update, the former Neiman Marcus building remains one of downtown Walnut Creek’s biggest unanswered questions.
We’ll follow this story closely. Make sure to join our free 925 News newsletter so we can keep you updated as it develops.
