This Labor Day weekend the parking lot at Whizin Market Square did what it does every year: filled with carnival rides for the Foundation for Las Virgenes Schools' annual fundraiser, running from Friday through today behind Roadside Drive. Families have been lining up for the Ferris wheel the same way they have for years. But if you walked south from the carnival toward Cornell Road, past where the concrete drainage channel used to cut a scar through the property line, you'd have noticed something that wasn't there in July: a landscaped path, native plants still settling into the soil, and a couple of horses being led along it like the trail had always been there.
It hadn't. Agoura Hills cut the ribbon on the Ladyface Greenway on August 19, less than three weeks ago, and it is the city's first park south of the 101 Freeway. That single fact is reshaping how the oldest shopping center in town thinks about its own front door, and it's worth understanding both what the park actually is and what it's already setting in motion next door.
A Decade of Planning, Three Weeks of Actual Grass
The greenway runs along Agoura Road in a strip from the Whizin Market Square driveway to Cornell Road, on land that used to carry an open concrete runoff channel. The project capped that channel and turned it into more than an acre of landscaped public space, planted with native vegetation and threaded with paths for pedestrians, cyclists, and equestrians. At the ribbon-cutting, two riders on horseback tested the new trail while city officials spoke about how long the project had taken to get here.
"The Ladyface Greenway represents a vision that began more than a decade ago, with years of scoping, design, environmental work, and funding behind it," Agoura Hills Mayor Jeremy Wolf said at the dedication.
Public Works Director Charmaine Yambao called it a labor of love for city staff. Mayor Wolf also framed the project as a tribute to the land's original stewards, tied to the re-establishment of local ecosystems through native planting, and Tataviam and Chumash elder Alan Salazar spoke at the ceremony about how the greenway connects to a broader revitalization of Native American culture that has been building for about three decades. The funding behind it came through the California Department of Parks and Recreation along with LA Metro regional funds, the kind of multi-year, multi-agency assembly that explains why a project first scoped a decade ago only opened this August.
What You Can Actually Do Down There
For a resident, the useful part isn't the funding history, it's the fact that a strip of the neighborhood that used to be a fenced-off drainage ditch is now a place you can walk a dog, ride a bike, or bring a horse. The trail is meant to eventually tie into a wider network of riding routes, which matters in a city where Old Agoura's equestrian culture runs deep. Right now it's a straight shot along Agoura Road between the Whizin driveway and Cornell, short enough for an after-dinner walk and connected closely enough to Whizin's parking that you can treat the two as one stop rather than two separate errands.
That proximity is the whole story. The greenway doesn't just add green space to a corner of town that didn't have any. It runs directly alongside a shopping center that has spent 70 years facing the opposite direction, and that's already changing how the center thinks about itself.
Thursday Nights Already Had a New Rhythm
Before the greenway existed, Whizin had already added a second weekly reason to show up after work. Ladyface Marketplace launched in 2025 as an evening farmers market at 5050 Cornell Road, right next to Wood Ranch BBQ and just steps from where the new park now runs. It's a different animal from the shopping center's long-running Saturday morning market, which sticks to the classic format of produce, honey, and crafts. Ladyface Marketplace runs Thursdays from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., pulls in more than 50 vendors across Cornell Road, and leans into prepared food and flowers as much as raw produce, built around the idea of grabbing dinner on the way home rather than stocking the fridge for the week.
This year's season runs May 14 through September 24, which means as of this week there are only three Thursdays left before it goes quiet until next spring: September 10, 17, and 24. If you've been meaning to check it out, this month is the window.
A few practical notes if you haven't been:
- Free parking is available along Agoura Road and at Whizin Market Square itself
- The city's AH-GO subsidized Lyft program is available for residents who'd rather not drive
- The market sits close enough to the new greenway that a walk on the trail and a stop at the market work as one outing rather than two
The Landlord Is Trying to Turn the Building Around
Here's the part that makes this more than a nice new amenity. Bill Tucker, president of the Calabasas-based Tucker Investment Group, has owned Whizin Market Square since 2006. He's been open about the fact that the greenway's arrival has him rethinking the building itself. He's working on plans to add storefronts along the south side of the center, the side that now faces the park, so that some tenants could offer direct access to parkgoers instead of routing everyone through the parking lot on Roadside Drive. As of the ribbon-cutting, nothing has broken ground. The project is still working through entitlements and building permits, and Tucker had hoped to have it ready in time for the park's opening but didn't quite make it.
Whether or not that timeline holds, the intent itself is the news. Whizin has faced the same direction since Art Whizin bought the land alongside Route 101 in 1954 and opened a 12-stool hamburger stand and a four-pump gas station with his son Bruce and partner Vance Moran, later adding a rodeo arena that eventually became a dirt motorcycle track. The steeple-like clocktower that still anchors the center went up in 1973, replacing an old supermarket. For a shopping center with that much institutional inertia, actively planning a second front door because of what showed up next door is a genuine change in direction, not a cosmetic update.
Tucker described his approach to the center as building "pedestrian-friendly environments," the kind where visitors can find "nooks and crannies" among smaller boutique tenants rather than one big-box anchor. A park that brings foot traffic right up to his property line is, by his own logic, exactly the kind of asset he's been trying to create on purpose for years.
The Corner Is Filling In From Both Directions
The tenant mix already reflects some of that thinking. Basta, an Italian restaurant inside Whizin that's been featured in the Los Angeles Times, and Sunrose California Eatery, which opened in the center last fall serving California coastal cuisine with all-day brunch, both sit close enough to the new south-facing plans to benefit directly if Tucker's storefront additions move forward. The Canyon, Whizin's live-music anchor for more than 25 years, and the Agoura Antique Mart, a 40-plus vendor vintage marketplace that's been running since 1994, round out a center that has always relied on a mix of dining, entertainment, and browsing rather than one dominant draw.
Across the street, the corner is changing too, though on a longer clock. The Regency Stadium 8 site, the city's former movie theater, is being redeveloped into a four-story apartment building with occupancy anticipated in August 2027. Early plans call for roughly 1,000 square feet of new commercial space expected to become a coffee shop, while the existing FedEx building being kept on the site is expected to add two restaurants. That's still a year out, but it means the same intersection anchored by Whizin's clocktower is picking up new food and gathering space on both sides of Agoura Road, not just the side with the new park.
None of this happened because a developer decided Agoura Hills needed more retail. It happened because a decade-old infrastructure project finally opened, and the businesses closest to it are now rearranging themselves to face it. That's a different kind of neighborhood change than a new restaurant opening or a familiar spot closing. It's a shopping center that's faced the same way for 70 years deciding, in real time, which direction actually matters now.
If you're already watching how this corner of town keeps evolving, whether you're weighing a move within Agoura Hills or just curious what your own property is worth as the neighborhood around it changes, Karen Sandvig can walk you through it. Request a Complimentary Home Valuation & Marketing Plan whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
