For twenty years, the summer center of gravity in Plymouth has sat at a single address: 3500 Plymouth Boulevard, where the Hilde Performance Center, City Hall, Millennium Garden, and Life Time Fitness share a parking grid. If you wanted a free Friday concert, a wedding photo, or a place to walk the dog after dinner, that block was the answer.
That has quietly stopped being true. As of March 12, 2026, Plymouth has a second civic anchor two miles east, and it is reshaping what a normal week here looks like.
The March 12 Address That Changed the Map
The new anchor is Coborn's Market & Table, which debuted near the intersection of I-494 and Bass Lake Road in Plymouth, where it's anchoring the 75-acre Boulevard development on the former Prudential Financial campus site. On paper it is a grocery store. In practice it is the first purpose-built gathering space Plymouth has added to its civic vocabulary in a generation.
The Boulevard itself is the reason. Plans call for approximately 800 housing units, more than 100,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, an 80,000-square-foot medical facility, and over 13 acres of public parkland. Summit Orthopedics opened first. Coborn's opened second. The next residential building, Belterra, is moving forward in Plymouth as the first residential phase of The Boulevard, a 75-acre master-planned redevelopment at Bass Lake Road and Interstate 494. Belterra will include 207 apartments, with 20 percent of the units reserved for households earning up to 60% of the area median income. Construction on Belterra at The Boulevard in Plymouth is anticipated to be complete by late 2026 or early 2027.
If you have driven Bass Lake Road any Saturday since mid-March, you already know: the site is not a promise anymore. It is the busiest new corner in the city.
What Fhima and Hinze Actually Brought Across the Highway
The reason Coborn's Market & Table matters as a gathering point, and not just a grocery run, is the roster of operators inside it. Besides the traditional aisles of groceries, there are also dining options from Basta Pasta, Abuela's Mexican Kitchen, Brother's Burgers, the Buttered Tin and Penny Horse Parlor.
Three of those are the work of one chef. Minneapolis restaurateur David Fhima whipped up three new concepts: Basta Pasta, Abuela's Mexican Kitchen and Brother's Burgers, all packaged together as The Global Table. That is a Minneapolis-caliber chef running three counter concepts under one roof in Plymouth, which is a first for this side of I-494.
The Buttered Tin brings its own draw. The restaurant is founded and operated by Alicia Hinze, a former champion on Food Network's "Cupcake Wars." The Buttered Tin will be featured inside Coborn's new flagship grocery store, which is part of a 75-acre redevelopment at I-494 and Bass Lake Road, the site of the former Prudential campus. This will be the third location for The Buttered Tin, which also has a presence in northeast Minneapolis and St. Paul. Rounding it out, the Market & Table store will debut Penny Horse Parlor, a retro ice cream shop concept featuring ice cream from popular Minnesota brand Kemp's.
Here is how the format is designed to work, in the company's own words:
Chef David Fhima and The Buttered Tin pastry chef Alicia Hinze bring exceptional culinary talent to Coborn's Market & Table. From handcrafted burgers and traditional global dishes to signature baked goods, guests will have fresh, chef-driven options for breakfast, lunch or dinner – all conveniently available in one vibrant, community-focused shopping experience. The location will provide food-court-style seating, as well as outdoor seating during warmer months.
The practical version of that pitch: a family of four can pick up produce, sit down for pasta from a named chef, hand the kids a Kemp's cone, and drop off dry cleaning on the way out. Coborn's Market & Table has teamed with Mulberry's Garment Care, which provides premium and affordable dry-cleaning services. The store will serve as a drop-off and pickup location. That is a different errand geometry than Plymouth has ever had.
The Hilde Is Doing More This Summer, Not Less
The temptation with a story like The Boulevard is to assume it pulls energy away from the old center. Summer 2026 says the opposite. The Hilde is running a bigger calendar than usual, not a smaller one.
The free series returned on schedule. The City of Plymouth will feature a performance by the Mallrats with the Cole Allen Band and Sena Ehrhardt 6-10 p.m. Friday, June 12 at the Hilde Performance Center, 3500 Plymouth Blvd. The inaugural show of this year's free Hilde Nights summer entertainment series, the Mallrats concert will cover '90s rock sing-a-long songs. Opening act, the Cole Allen Band, is set to perform contemporary blues and rock tunes. July and August fill out the same slot. Friday, July 17, 6-10 p.m. – Kat Perkins Country Roads Band will take the stage to perform fan-favorite country songs. Opening act, the Nathan Dean Band, kicks off the night with country, rock and pop favorites. Friday, Aug. 28, 6-10 p.m. – Opening act, The Holy Rocka Rollaz, will take listeners back to the days of classic early Rock 'n' Roll.
New this year, a ticketed weekend sits on top of that free calendar. Plymouth will bring nationally recognized artists to the Hilde Performance Center, 3500 Plymouth Blvd., for a new ticketed concert series July 31-Aug. 1. Set at the one-of-a-kind Hilde stage, Hilde Amplified blends the energy of a major concert with the laid-back feel of a summer night on the lawn. Hilde Amplified kicks off Friday, July 31, with chart-topping country artists Brett Young, Ashley McBryde, Rodney Atkins and Matt Stell. Saturday, Aug. 1, features Third Eye Blind, lovelytheband and additional performers, offering a mix of sounds across genres.
The two series read very differently once you put them side by side:
| Series | Dates | Cost | Headliners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Music in Plymouth | July 8, 5:30–10 p.m. | Free | MN Orchestra plus local acts |
| Hilde Nights | June 12, July 17, Aug 28 | Free | Mallrats, Kat Perkins, Fabulous Armadillos |
| Hilde Amplified | July 31–Aug 1 | Ticketed | Brett Young, Ashley McBryde, Third Eye Blind, lovelytheband |
Music in Plymouth runs 5:30PM - 10:00PM with live music performances, food, entertainment, local businesses and organizations. Plymouth Metrolink will shuttle attendees to the event at no cost from three park-and-ride locations. If you live within a two-mile radius of the Hilde, three of your six summer Fridays are already spoken for before you count the ticketed weekend.
The Smaller Openings You'll Hit on a Tuesday
Grand openings are what make headlines. Weeknights are what make a neighborhood. The quieter story is on County Road 101.
Hippo Pockets at 1400 County Rd. 101 in Plymouth, a new location of the Centro Restaurant Group's pressed pocket sandwich shop, opened at the end of May in Plymouth, with expanded breakfast pocket offerings and longer operating hours. The Centro group is not a stranger to the west metro; a pressed-pocket concept with a proper breakfast menu is. If you have kids at a morning practice and forty minutes to kill, the map here got better without anyone announcing it.
Meanwhile the older anchors held their ground. Longstanding operators like Latuff's and Sunshine Factory did not lose foot traffic to The Boulevard so much as get bracketed by it. The east end of Plymouth now has a chef-driven counter, the middle still has the sit-down classics, and the north end got a new fast-casual option that opens for breakfast. That is a wider weeknight menu than the town had in 2025.
The Version of Plymouth's Summer to Actually Plan Around
Put the pieces together and the calendar reads like this. In March a chef with a Minneapolis reputation planted three counters inside a grocery store at Bass Lake Road. In May a Centro concept opened on County Road 101. In June the free Hilde series came back. In July, Music in Plymouth, Hilde Nights, and the launch weekend of Hilde Amplified stack inside a three-week window. In August the free series closes on the 28th, and Belterra keeps climbing toward its late-2026 or early-2027 finish.
None of that reads like a town where the summer routine is settled. It reads like a town that just added a second front porch and is still figuring out how the two of them talk to each other.
The practical read for anyone already living here: your Friday-night default no longer has to be a coin flip between the Hilde lawn and a drive into the city. There is a third option now, and it is a fifteen-minute walk from a coffee bar, an ice cream counter, a dry cleaner, and a chef's kitchen. That did not exist on Labor Day of last year.
If you are thinking about what any of this means for the block you live on, whether you are on the west side near County Road 101 or closer to the Bass Lake corridor where The Boulevard is still filling in, that is the kind of neighborhood-level question worth a conversation. Let's Connect with Stephanie Houghton, who tracks how new anchors like these change how buyers and sellers read the map.
