Two dates control the supermarket closest to Dover Shores. One is the end of the Ralphs lease at Westcliff Plaza, which the landlord has described only as "this fall." The other is the day Whole Foods Market opens in that same space, and nobody has published that date. Between the two, the nearest full-service conventional supermarket for anyone living off Dover Drive and Westcliff Drive moves out of the plaza and over to 17th Street. As of this week, nobody has said how long that will last.
What Is Actually on the Record
Irvine Company Retail Properties announced on May 5, 2026 that Whole Foods Market will "debut a new location" at Westcliff Plaza, the center at Westcliff Drive and Irvine Avenue. The release calls the grocer a "future addition." Ken Gillett, president of Irvine Company Retail Properties, said it reflects the company's "continued focus on bringing best-in-class, daily needs retail to the community." The announcement gives no opening date.
The Orange County Register filled in the part that matters most for a weekly shopping list. Whole Foods is taking the space Ralphs occupies at 1150 Irvine Ave., and the landlord told the paper that Ralphs would leave the center when its lease expires this fall. The Register also reported that Irvine Company gave no timeline for the Whole Foods debut, and that this would be the chain's second store in Newport Beach.
Here is the sequence so far:
- May 5, 2026: Irvine Company announces Whole Foods for Westcliff Plaza, with no opening date.
- May 18, 2026: The Register reports the Ralphs space at 1150 Irvine Ave. is the site and says Ralphs exits when its lease expires this fall.
- Fall 2026: The Ralphs lease ends. No specific day has been announced.
- Not yet scheduled: Whole Foods opens.
Irvine Company's own Westcliff Plaza directory still lists Ralphs as the place to do your weekly shopping. That page carries no date, so it says nothing about when the lease actually ends. Until Ralphs posts a closing date, the safest assumption is that its last day could come with little notice before step four has a date attached.
A Replacement, Not an Addition
Westcliff Plaza is trading one kind of grocer for another. Irvine Company describes Whole Foods as a "natural and organic foods grocer." Once the swap is done, the conventional supermarket closest to Westcliff Plaza's neighbors won't be in the plaza at all.
The nearest one is another Ralphs, at 380 E. 17th St. in Costa Mesa. Its store page lists hours of 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily. Those are longer hours than any other grocer on the list below. So for someone in Dover Shores, the change is mostly about where the trip ends up. A quick run that used to stay at Irvine and Westcliff now heads east on 17th Street, or across the bay to the San Miguel Drive stores.
Here are the full-service options closest to the Westcliff and 17th Street corridor, with hours as their own store pages list them:
| Grocer | Address | Listed hours |
|---|---|---|
| Ralphs | 380 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa | 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily |
| Mother's Market | 1890 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa | 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily |
| Gelson's | 1660 San Miguel Drive, Newport Beach | 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days |
| Pavilions | 2660 San Miguel Dr., Newport Beach | 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
| Bristol Farms | 810 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach | 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
Store hours change, especially around the holidays, so check the Ralphs, Mother's Market, Gelson's, Pavilions and Bristol Farms pages before planning around a late-night stop.
The table shows the shape of the gap. Two of the five stores are in Costa Mesa along 17th Street and Newport Boulevard. The other three are in Newport Beach along San Miguel Drive and Avocado Avenue. Until Whole Foods opens, Westcliff Plaza sits between those two groups with no full-service grocer of its own.
17th Street Is Filling In, on a Slower Clock
The same Register column that confirmed the Whole Foods site led with a different grocer. Erewhon, the Los Angeles specialty chain, signed a lease at the former T-Shirts Warehouse at 140 E. 17th St. in Costa Mesa. It will be the chain's first Orange County store, and the company's website pointed to a September 2027 debut. The Orange County Business Journal also reported September 2027 as the target. An August 2026 Hoodline report gave the building as 20,092 square feet and still listed the same 2027 target.
The two announcements were connected. The Register wrote that the Whole Foods news "might end some of the speculation that an Erewhon was coming to Westcliff Plaza." So the specialty grocer people were guessing about for the plaza is going to 17th Street instead, and the plaza is getting a different chain.
Next door to the Erewhon site, a seafood counter is in the works. Santa Monica Seafood closed its 17th Street market and cafe in February 2025 after nearly three decades in Costa Mesa, according to Hoodline. Bear Flag Fish Co., the Newport Beach-based seafood counter founded in 2007 by fisherman Thomas Carson, submitted plans in October 2025 to take over that site at 154 E. 17th St. It would be the chain's fourth Southern California location. WhatNow Orange County first reported the filing. No opening date has been announced.
Put those timelines next to each other and the east end of 17th Street, around the 100 block, is lining up as a specialty-food block, with plans filed for a seafood counter and an Erewhon targeted for 2027. Nothing on it will stand in for a full weekly supermarket in the meantime. For the next year or so, the dependable all-purpose stop on 17th Street is still the Ralphs at number 380.
What Already Changed Inside the Plaza
Westcliff Plaza had already started changing before the grocery news. Bacio di Latte, the gelato shop, held a grand opening there on November 11, 2025, according to Irvine Company's event listing. WhatNow Orange County had reported plans for a remodel of more than 1,000 square feet at 1128 Irvine Ave. that spring.
That's a small change, but it matches the pattern of the larger one. The landlord is bringing in tenants one lease at a time. Each opening date arrives when the work is done, and none of it runs on a single published schedule. The Whole Foods announcement follows the same pattern, which is why the Ralphs lease end has a season but the replacement doesn't have a date yet.
The Dates to Watch This Season
Three things will tell Dover Shores how long the gap lasts:
- A posted closing date at the Westcliff Ralphs. That is the first hard date in the sequence, and it starts the gap.
- Construction activity at 1150 Irvine Ave. Irvine Company hasn't published a timeline. Visible work on the storefront would be the first sign that one exists.
- A Bear Flag Fish Co. opening announcement on 17th Street. No date has been set, while Erewhon's target remains September 2027.
Until then, the 380 E. 17th St. Ralphs, open 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. by its own listing, is the conventional supermarket closest to Westcliff Plaza.
A change in anchor tenant at the plaza down the street is one of the details I track for clients who own in Dover Shores and Westcliff. If you'd like to talk through how changes at Westcliff Plaza and along 17th Street fit into your own plans for your home, Brian Liberto is glad to compare notes. Let's Connect.
