Drive past the north end of The Village at Meridian this month and you'll see it before you see any signage: six new buildings rising along Eagle Road, construction fencing wrapped around what used to be open parking, cranes where there used to be sky. If you've been waiting for a single announcement that says "we're open," stop waiting for that. It isn't coming. What's coming instead is a rollout in three distinct stages, stretched from late September of this year into the first quarter of 2027, and knowing which stage you're actually in changes how you plan the next several months of errands, dinners, and dates.
The rollout has a shape, and it isn't sudden
CenterCal Properties, the developer behind the expansion, has been fairly direct about the timeline. Initial openings are expected in September 2026, with additional waves following through early 2027, and full completion of the roughly 80,000-square-foot, six-building Phase II targeted for February 2027. A local television report added the texture that a press release usually leaves out: the developer told KIVI-TV the first round of stores is scheduled to open toward the end of September, maybe the end of October, with a second wave landing before the holidays and the final phase arriving in the first quarter of 2027.
Put those two things together and you get a shape, not a date. Here's how it breaks down:
| Stage | Rough timing | What's known |
|---|---|---|
| First round | Late September into October 2026 | Earliest storefronts open their doors |
| Second wave | Before the 2026 holiday season | Idaho Press reported the developer expects roughly 70 percent of Phase II tenants open by this point |
| Final phase | By February 2027 | Remaining tenants complete the build-out |
That middle number matters more than it looks. If seven out of ten new tenants are open by the holidays, three out of ten aren't, and nobody involved has said publicly which three. That's not a knock on the project. It's just how a six-building expansion with more than a dozen national tenants actually gets built. If your plan is "I'll go check out the new spot the week it's supposed to open," you may be checking twice.
What's actually landing behind that fencing
Phase II is already fully leased, and the tenant roster reads like a wish list assembled from what Village shoppers had been asking for. On the dining side: The Capital Grille is opening its first Idaho location and only its second in the Pacific Northwest after Seattle, in a standalone building near 9,000 square feet along Eagle Road. A few doors down, Culinary Dropout is building a 7,000-square-foot restaurant with a large outdoor patio, and its sibling concept Flower Child, both owned by Fox Restaurant Concepts, is bringing a 3,174-square-foot fast-casual spot that will be the chain's 46th location nationwide and its first in Idaho. Paris Baguette, the South Korea-based bakery-cafe chain, rounds out the food additions.
On the retail side, the headline is almost certainly Apple. Permits filed with the City of Meridian describe a 10,411-square-foot store, and while the city later relabeled the permit simply as "Retail Store," a follow-up fire permit for "Apple Store" left little doubt about who's actually moving in. Alongside it: Kendra Scott, Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma at roughly 5,550 square feet, furniture brand 7th Avenue, and a Tempur-Pedic flagship location carrying only that brand's products, unlike the multi-brand mattress retailers already in the Boise area. Athletic and lifestyle names Vuori, Alo, Tecovas, and Gorjana are also part of the mix, and Solidcore, described by its own marketing as the country's leading high-intensity, low-impact strength training brand, is bringing its reformer-based workouts to the fitness lineup.
One more name worth knowing, even though it isn't technically part of Phase II: Salt and Straw, the ice cream chain, is moving into the space near the Village fountain that used to house Bodovino. If you've been wondering why that corner has been dark, that's the answer.
Why this is a restaurant district and not an apartment building
Here's the detail that explains a lot of the confusion residents have had watching this site for the past year. Earlier plans for this same footprint called for hundreds of luxury apartments. Developers shifted course, citing changing conditions in the multifamily market, and pivoted the site toward the retail and dining mix now under construction. CenterCal's CEO described the change as aligning the project with "how the market has evolved and what customers are looking for today."
That pivot is worth remembering the next time you hear a rumor about what's supposedly coming to a piece of land in Meridian. Plans on paper are not commitments, and the gap between an early concept and a poured foundation can run years and change direction entirely. What's actually under construction right now, six buildings, already fully leased, is a much better predictor of what will exist next spring than anything that was floated before groundbreaking.
The same month, a very different corner of town
While Eagle Road works through a phased corporate rollout with no fixed grand-opening date, a few miles away on Main Street, Meridian's other big fall event already has its dates locked. Meridian Art Week runs September 13 through 19 this year, timed to coincide with National Arts in Education Week. The format is intentionally scrappy: residents create and hide small pieces of art around downtown, tag the hiding spot with the hashtag #MeridianArtDrop, and whoever finds a piece keeps it under a finders-keepers rule the city itself put in writing. The Initial Point Gallery on the third floor of City Hall, open during regular business hours, adds a rotating exhibit to the week as an anchor point for anyone who wants a guaranteed find.
Downtown has also picked up a new recurring event this year. The Meridian Arts Commission launched Main Street Mix, a six-concert Wednesday evening series at Generations Plaza on North Main Street, free to attend and running 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., with support from local sponsors including Loose Screw Beer and the Meridian Development Corporation. Bring a folding chair, grab dinner from one of the downtown restaurants nearby, and you've got a weeknight that costs nothing but time.
The contrast is the point. One corner of Meridian is spending nine figures on a corporate retail expansion with a rollout measured in fiscal quarters. Another corner is running a free, homemade art scavenger hunt with a single confirmed week on the calendar. Both are legitimately part of what's changing in this city right now, and neither one waits for the other.
What to actually do with this
If you've been holding off on a Village trip because you're waiting for "the opening," reset your expectations to late September or October for the first storefronts, and don't be surprised if your specific target, whether that's Apple, Capital Grille, or one of the smaller boutiques, doesn't land until closer to the holidays or even into early 2027. If you want a sure thing this month, Art Week has real dates you can put on a calendar right now, and Main Street Mix gives you a free Wednesday evening plan through the rest of its run.
Meridian keeps adding layers like this, a retail wave here, a grassroots art week there, and most of it never makes it into a single roundup where you can see how the pieces fit together. If you're weighing what a neighborhood like this actually feels like to live in day to day, not just what a listing sheet says about it, our Meridian neighborhood guide is a good next stop.
And if any of this has you thinking about what your next move in Meridian or the wider Treasure Valley might look like, whether that's buying, selling, or just talking through timing, Clint Foote Real Estate is glad to have that conversation. Let's Connect.