WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA — The Starbucks at North California Boulevard and Cole Avenue will close permanently after Saturday, September 26, a staff member told Bay Area Telegraph.
The coffeehouse at 1663 N. California Blvd. opened on February 24, 2014, on the ground floor of the Mercer apartment building. A local report published on opening day described its long communal table and smaller indoor tables. After more than 12 years at the corner, Saturday will be its final day.
The closure comes amid a sweeping review of Starbucks stores. In a September 24 message to employees, Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said the company would close approximately 250 coffeehouses across North America this week — about 1% of its more than 18,000 locations in the region.
Starbucks said it identified stores where it could not consistently deliver the experience it wants for customers and employees, or where it saw no path to acceptable financial performance. The company has not publicly said which of those factors applies to the California and Cole location.
If we had to guess, we’d say that the challenges of parking nearby likely did this location in. We always enjoyed this specific location as a nice place to get some work done–early Bay Area Telegraph stories were tapped out right in this very Starbucks!
The plan follows another round of closures announced in September 2025. During that round, Starbucks at Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Locust Street closed. Walnut Creek is now losing a second downtown location roughly a year later.
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Starbucks is closing stores while renovating others under its “Back to Starbucks” plan. The company said this week that it has redesigned more than 1,000 U.S. and Canadian coffeehouses since late 2025 and aims to reach at least 1,500 by the end of its 2026 fiscal year.
We tried one of the newly designed Starbucks locations in Tracy, and it was indeed quite comfortable and nice inside.
In a securities filing, Starbucks estimated that the latest closures would bring approximately $300 million in restructuring charges, largely tied to ending leases, employee separation costs and store assets.
For employees at closing stores, Starbucks said it would offer transfers where possible and severance support to those it cannot place elsewhere. Customers looking for another downtown Starbucks can find one listed at 1340 N. Main St.
Have you heard about another local Starbucks closure? Send details or a photo to tom@bayareatelegraph.com.
