Drive past Sherman Way and Etiwanda on a Saturday afternoon and you will hit chain-link fencing again. If you have lived in Reseda for more than a few years, that fencing is familiar. It went up for the bike lanes. It went up for the median work. It went up for the traffic signals at Victory and Wilbur. Each time, the fencing eventually came down, the pavement was smoother, the crosswalk was safer, and there was still nowhere new to walk into.
That pattern is finally breaking. For the first time in this decade of construction, the projects landing on Sherman Way this year are not streets. They are places you can park the car and stay.
The Decade That Built Roads, Not Rooms
Look at what Reseda actually got funded and finished before 2026, and a pattern shows up fast: every completed project moved cars, bikes, or pedestrians. None of them gave anyone a reason to linger.
| Project | Investment | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Sherman Way Great Street (Lindley to Wilbur) | $3.5 million | Completed Spring 2021 |
| Reseda Blvd Complete Street | $21 million | Completed March 2024 |
| Signal and crossing upgrades (left-turn signals at Victory & Wilbur, pedestrian island at Wilbur & Arminta, new signal at Victory & Vanalden) | Part of Reseda Rising | Completed |
| Reseda Rising Art Walk | Annual event | Relaunched April 2024 after a pandemic pause |
The Reseda Boulevard project is the biggest of these, and it did more than repave. It gave the corridor what is now the longest stretch of protected bike lanes in Southern California, and the city marked its opening with a CicLAvia event called Ready for Reseda in March 2024. That is a real amenity for anyone commuting by bike. It is also, by definition, infrastructure you pass through rather than infrastructure you stay in.
This is the throughline of Councilmember Bob Blumenfield's Reseda Rising initiative, which has directed more than $100 million into the neighborhood since its launch. Blumenfield has framed the goal plainly, saying Reseda's best days are ahead. But until this year, nearly every dollar of that hundred million went into things you drive or bike across, not places you sit down in.
What's Landing at Sherman Way and Etiwanda
The first real exception is the Reseda Skate Rink, a $26 million public-private project between the city and the LA Kings that will turn a set of long-vacant lots on the south side of Sherman Way, between Etiwanda and Lindley, into an indoor ice rink and outdoor roller facility. The funding stack is specific: $14 million in Proposition K money set aside back in 1996, another $4 million from CRA excess bond proceeds, and additional capital from the Kings organization, bringing the total to $26 million. It has been under construction, with completion expected sometime in 2026.
The part that changes the calculus for Reseda specifically is who is moving in. The LA Kings Valley Ice Center in Panorama City, long a training facility for California Heat Hockey, has been facing closure, and California Heat and ASEC have since confirmed the Reseda facility as the club's new home rink, with games expected to begin there for the 2026-2027 season. That means a youth hockey program that used to send West Valley families to Panorama City will instead send them to Sherman Way. For a neighborhood that has spent years building bike lanes for a destination that didn't exist yet, this is the first project that hands Reseda a genuine regional draw, not just a local convenience.
Three Blocks Over, the Marquee Comes Back On
A few blocks west on the same corridor, the long-dark Reseda Theatre is being converted into the Reseda Theatre + Public Market, a 15,860-square-foot project on Sherman Way between Reseda Boulevard and Canby Avenue. The ground floor will hold a food hall with six specialty tenants plus an anchor tenant and a possible beer or wine garden. The second floor is being built out as a micro cinema with two screens and about 100 seats total.
What is worth noticing here is who the developer is trying to attract. Rather than courting national chains, the project is offering forgivable loans of up to $50,000 to help new tenants cover startup costs and equipment, with suites delivered fully built out to minimize buildout expense. That is a structure designed for independent operators, not a food court anchored by brands you already know from a strip mall. Construction was slated to begin in late 2025, with an opening targeted for 2026, according to both the developer and the city's own project tracker, which lists the theater's food hall concept as expected to complete this year.
The Rest of 2026 Is Already Showing Up
Some of this year's change has already landed. On April 27, 2026, Habit Burger Grill opened a new location at 19339 Victory Blvd, its latest addition to a chain that got its start in Southern California back in 1969. The opening included a Free Charburger Day for the first 200 guests two days before the doors officially opened to the public. It is not a destination on the scale of the skate rink or the theater, but it is one more sign that operators see enough foot traffic in Reseda right now to plant a flag.
And the neighborhood's one long-standing gathering spot keeps doing what it has always done. The Reseda Certified Farmers Market runs year-round on Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m., which means it has been proving there is appetite for an evening gathering spot on a weekly basis long before anyone broke ground on a food hall three blocks away. The market did not need $26 million or a marquee. It just needed a corner and a consistent time slot, and it has quietly been the closest thing Reseda had to a third place while everything else was still fenced off.
What This Means If You Already Live Here
Put the pieces next to each other and the shift is clear. For most of the last decade, investment in Reseda meant infrastructure you moved through. The streets got safer, the bike lanes got longer, the intersections got better signals. All of that mattered, and none of it gave you a reason to stay on Sherman Way after your errand was done.
This year is different because two projects on the same corridor are, for the first time, built around staying rather than passing through. One gives West Valley families a reason to spend a Saturday afternoon on ice a few blocks from where they used to only drive past. The other gives that same stretch a food hall and a cinema screen instead of another repaved intersection. Neither replaces the years of street work. Both finally give that work somewhere to lead.
If you have watched the fencing go up and come down on Sherman Way more times than you can count, this is the year it starts adding up to somewhere to park the car and stay a while.
Curious how these changes are shaping home values and buyer interest around Reseda and the rest of the San Fernando Valley? Nadia Arreola tracks these shifts block by block. Search Listings or get a free home valuation to see what your Reseda property is worth today.
