For most of the last decade, "walking to the Mart" from behind the Colony gate meant one destination and one parking lot. That shorthand no longer covers the ground. Between late 2024 and this spring, the Cross Creek node has quietly resolved into three distinct properties, each with its own tenant mix and its own reason to cross Pacific Coast Highway on foot.
The thesis of this notebook is small but useful: the practical center of gravity for a Colony resident's week is no longer the Country Mart alone. It is a triangle, and knowing which corner you are aiming for is now the difference between a five-minute errand and a wasted loop through a full valet lot.
The three corners, in one glance
| Corner | Address | Anchor tenants Colony residents use most |
|---|---|---|
| Malibu Country Mart | 3835 Cross Creek Rd | Fred Segal, Lululemon, Chrome Hearts, Scott's Malibu Market, playground |
| The Park at Cross Creek | across Cross Creek Rd | Whole Foods, Howdy's Sonrisa Cafe, Broad Street Oyster Co. |
| Cross Creek Ranch | 13-acre parcel adjacent, phased opening since late 2024 | Wally's Wine & Spirits, incoming Pura Vida Miami |
The Country Mart is the familiar six acres with 67 tenants and the red hammer sculpture the kids climb on. The Park is the Whole Foods block. Cross Creek Ranch is the newest of the three, and until this spring most residents still referred to it as "the fenced lot."
What opened, in order
The reason the neighborhood feels different this summer is not one big announcement. It is the density of small ones, all inside eighteen months.
- The Bunker Surf and Skate opened at the Country Mart on December 13, 2025. Independently owned, with a mix of luxury fashion brands kept on a local shelf.
- LA Sculpt soft-opened at the Country Mart in September 2025 and reopened after renovations with a February 2026 grand opening.
- Madhappy opened at the Country Mart on March 21, 2026, with Malibu-exclusive drops in a coastal, minimalist build-out.
- Wally's Wine & Spirits at Cross Creek Ranch held its ribbon cutting with the City of Malibu and the Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce this spring, with the public grand opening set for May 31, 2026. Councilmembers Marianne Riggins, Haylynn Conrad, and Doug Stewart attended. It brings a full retail wine, beer, and spirits selection alongside cheese and charcuterie service, with indoor and open-air seating.
- Pura Vida Miami, the Florida organic café and juice concept, is making its California debut at The Park at Cross Creek. Go Greek, a Mediterranean-leaning frozen yogurt shop, is also announced for The Park, opening date pending.
Read the list twice and the shape of it becomes clear. The Country Mart has been layering fashion and lifestyle onto its existing tenant mix. The Park is filling in daytime food. Cross Creek Ranch has arrived as the evening anchor. None of these are direct replacements for anything Colony residents were driving to Cross Creek to buy last summer.
A Saturday route, from the Colony gate
If you have out-of-town guests staying inside the Colony and you have one morning to show them the neighborhood on foot, this is the loop that uses all three corners without doubling back.
- Cross PCH at the light, pick up coffee at Broad Street Oyster Co. at 3888 Cross Creek Road. The oyster counter is not open until 11, but the coffee side runs from 8 a.m.
- Cut through The Park past Whole Foods to the north side of Cross Creek Road.
- Enter the Country Mart at the playground. Guests who have not been to Malibu in a few years will not have seen Madhappy, The Bunker, or the reopened LA Sculpt.
- Exit the Country Mart on the Cross Creek Road side and walk south to Cross Creek Ranch. Wally's is the anchor to point them toward. The open-air seating is where the neighborhood has quietly relocated its late lunch.
- Loop back across PCH before the Saturday beach traffic picks up around one.
The loop is under a mile. It touches all three properties. It shows a visitor a version of Malibu that most guidebooks have not caught up to yet.
The parking change that reshaped the Country Mart Saturday
One update in the research is worth pulling out on its own, because it directly changes how a Colony resident plans a Saturday morning. The informal weekend car show that had used the Country Mart parking lot for years has been curtailed. If you want to enter the Country Mart lot itself, you now have to valet.
For anyone walking or biking from the Colony, this is a net positive. The surface lot is quieter earlier in the day, the playground is easier to get to, and the sidewalks along Cross Creek Road are not routed around a queue of spectators. For anyone who used to drive, it means budgeting either a valet stub or a walk from one of the surrounding lots. The Country Mart's operator, Koss Real Estate, has not published a schedule for whether the show returns in a different format.
The larger investment behind the third corner
Cross Creek Ranch did not arrive by accident. According to reporting compiled from leasing brochures and construction filings, the 13-acre project from Pacific Equity Properties was financed with more than $130 million in construction loans, reportedly one of the largest such loans in Los Angeles County in 2021. The center was physically finished by early 2024 and sat fenced off for months while the developer resolved a dispute with the city, then opened tenants in phases through late 2024, 2025, and now 2026.
That phased strategy is why the Colony's walking radius has felt like it was expanding in slow motion. There was no ribbon-cutting weekend for the whole complex. Each tenant handles its own opening, and the practical effect for a resident is that the property has become useful one storefront at a time. Wally's is the first tenant with the draw to change what a Friday evening looks like from behind the gate.
The rolling-opening pattern also explains why national coverage of Cross Creek Ranch has been muted. The buzz has come tenant by tenant rather than in one press cycle, which is unusual for a project of this scale.
Two civic dates to hold on the summer calendar
Two events on the public calendar are worth marking now, because both happen within walking distance of the Colony and both fill the civic-center lots quickly.
Legacy Park Art Walk with the Malibu Art Association — Sunday, July 12, 2026, at Legacy Park, 23500 Civic Center Way. Legacy Park sits directly behind the Cross Creek complex, and the Art Walk is one of the few days a year the park programs the full wetland loop for foot traffic.
43rd Annual Malibu Chili Cook-Off — September 4 through 7, 2026, presented by Aviator Nation. Four days of chili judging, a skate contest, carnival rides, and live music on the Aviator Nation Dreamland Music Stage, with 100 percent of net proceeds going to the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu. Labor Day weekend is the single busiest stretch on Cross Creek Road all year. Colony residents who plan to be in town that weekend generally decide by mid-August whether they are attending, walking around it, or leaving town entirely. There is not a middle option once the carnival goes up.
What this all means for the walk home
The specific update Colony residents can carry into the second half of summer is not that a wine shop opened or that a frozen yogurt concept is coming. It is that the three-lot triangle now functions as a single neighborhood district, and the sidewalk connections between the three lots have finally become useful. That was not true two years ago. It is worth relearning the routes on foot before Labor Day weekend makes the driving version impossible.
For Colony residents thinking further ahead than this summer, the tenant mix now stabilizing across Cross Creek is the sort of quiet amenity shift that tends to reprice a neighborhood's daily convenience long before it shows up in any comparable sale. If you want to talk through what that shift means for your specific stretch of the Colony, the team at Sandro Dazzan is available for a private consultation.
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