The corner of Valley Boulevard and Del Mar Avenue has had a shopping center since 1990. For most of that time it went by Focus Plaza: a faux Spanish mission building of about 219,000 square feet that sold groceries, eyeglasses, jewelry, herbal medicine and food from many Chinese provinces under one roof, according to the Los Angeles Times. In May 2023 the owner, Sunny Skies Terrace, formally announced that the property would become TAWA Gateway. The new name comes from Tawa, the company behind its anchor, 99 Ranch Market.
Then came 2026. Between February and August, seven new food and drink counters opened at that one intersection, and several of them are the brand's first location in the United States. None of them arrived the way the San Gabriel Valley's restaurant reputation was built, with a family taking its own chance on a storefront. A single landlord chose each one as part of a lease plan with phases, target months and a press release. If you already buy your produce at this 99 Ranch, that plan is the most useful map of the place you have.
Seven counters in seven months
Sunny Skies Terrace said on June 30 that it had finished the first phase of a multi-year redevelopment, and that 14 new food, entertainment and retail tenants would open through early 2027. In the release, the center draws nearly 3 million visitors a year on roughly 12 acres. Here is the food side of that list, in the order the counters opened according to the Business Wire announcement and a September roundup from 88tumble.
| Opened | Counter | What it serves | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 | Guiji Tea | Fruit tea | Taiwanese brand, first U.S. location |
| March 2026 | Dong Ting Chun | Hunan-style dishes | New flagship for the eatery |
| May 2026 | Cha Redefine | Artisanal tea and boba | California-based |
| June 2026 | Bafang Dumpling | Potstickers, dumplings, noodles | Taiwanese chain, 1,100+ locations in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China |
| July 2026 | Happy Lamb | Mongolian-style hot pot | Chain with 100+ locations |
| July 2026 | Bingz Crispy Burger | Chinese-style "crispy burger" sandwiches | One of the first U.S. locations of a Canadian chain |
| August 2026 | Show Hot Pot | Customizable malatang | Next-generation malatang concept |
The months come from announcements and reporting. Exact opening days were never published. Retail filled in over the same stretch. The Best Shop set its grand opening for June 27 as the first U.S. location of a Canadian chain that sells Chinese, Japanese and Korean household goods and runs 16 stores in Canada. Miniso arrived in July.
"First U.S. location" doesn't describe every tenant, and the difference matters if you're picking where to eat. Bafang already had Southern California locations in Arcadia, Temple City, Brea, Irvine and a long list of other cities before it signed here, What Now Los Angeles reported. If you've had its potstickers in Temple City, you've had these. Guiji Tea and Bingz Crispy Burger are a different case. You couldn't get them anywhere in the country before this year.
Where things sit once you're past the grocery carts
The center's own tenant pages put Happy Lamb and Show Hot Pot on Level 2, and Bingz Burger in Unit 118-C. Bafang is at 140 W. Valley Blvd., Units 102-103. That means a quick dumpling lunch and a two-hour hot pot dinner happen on different floors, and anyone hosting a group should head upstairs.
The newest arrival isn't food at all. Golf Envy, a membership-based indoor golf club, set its grand opening for Oct. 17 in Suite 112. The club is owned by local franchisees Jerry Ybarra and Nancy Cheung. The Golf Envy announcement describes GOLFZON simulator bays on a moving floorplate that tilts to recreate uphill, downhill and sidehill lies, swing data for every shot, and 24-hour access for members. The opening plans included a mariachi performance, a lion dance and drum performance, and a red envelope presentation, in honor of Ybarra's Mexican heritage and Cheung's Chinese heritage. "Here, we hope to inspire the curious who might just be picking up a club for the first time, or introduce technical data to the most experienced player," the owners said in the release. The club was signing up Founding Members ahead of opening. Its site is the place to check membership details and current access.
Why the calendar runs in months, and slips by weeks
Golf Envy shows how this center's schedule actually behaves. The June release listed the club for September 2026. The club's own announcement, dated Oct. 6, moved the grand opening to Oct. 17. A few weeks of drift is normal when a landlord announces a whole season of openings at once and each tenant then finishes its own build-out.
The bigger open item is Phase 2. In June, Sunny Skies Terrace said a second round of tenant announcements was planned for fall 2026. With fall half gone, the TAWA Gateway press page still says "More News Coming Soon," and the events page shows nothing dated for the holidays. These are the Phase 1 dates still ahead:
- January 2027: Kawaii Klaws, a claw machine arcade franchise
- March 2027: Com tâm Sà Bì Chuông, the second location for a Vietnamese broken rice specialist
- March 2027: Soul Escape Room, the second location for an escape room based in Flushing, New York
Going by this year's pattern, treat each of those as a target month rather than a firm date. The construction is still going, too. The owner said capital improvements, landscaping and exterior upgrades would continue in the coming months, and that businesses would stay open throughout. That matches what the 2022 plans described. The mission-style facade was to give way to clean modern lines that fit the San Gabriel Hilton across Valley Boulevard, along with new bathrooms, children's play areas and more escalators, according to the Times.
What a leased lineup means for dinner
With one landlord doing the choosing, the result looks different from a strip of independent storefronts. 88tumble's September piece points out that nearly every food tenant is a chain, and nearly every chain is an import making its American debut or near-debut. It argues that the selection logic has moved from what a family wanted to cook to what a leasing team expects to bring steady traffic. The same piece notes who holds the lease. Tawa, the company behind 99 Ranch, was founded by Roger Chen in Southern California in 1984. 88tumble's view is that the money reshaping this corner came partly from inside the community.
There's a history behind that view. When the renovation was first announced in 2022, the Times reported that many of the mall's 50 or so tenants had operated there for years and were concerned about being displaced, and that some had been asked to relocate during construction. The new counters are what filled the remodeled spaces.
For a neighbor deciding where to eat on a weeknight, all this comes down to a simple fact. At this corner you can try fruit tea from a Taiwanese brand's only U.S. shop and a Canadian chain's crispy burger, then pick up your groceries on the way out. 88tumble offers its own suggestion: "Go eat at Show Hot Pot. Then go eat somewhere on Valley Boulevard that has been there fifteen years." Valley Boulevard has plenty of both. If you want the slower, older side of town for the same evening, our guide to San Gabriel's summer around Mission Drive and our look at the city's two September food calendars cover the places that set their own schedules.
Whatever Phase 2 brings, it will change one of San Gabriel's busiest corners, and the homes within walking distance of Valley and Del Mar. If you want to talk through how a redevelopment like TAWA Gateway looks from a homeowner's side of the boulevard, Alex Lozano is happy to share what's happening on the ground. Let's Connect.
