A tower crane now stands at 825 Berryessa Station Way, on a 0.8-acre lot wedged between the elevated BART tracks and the VTA parking garage. It's going up for a 10-story building with 195 homes and a little over 4,000 square feet of ground-floor shops. Just across the way is the big surface lot the San Jose Flea Market has filled since 1960. According to SF YIMBY's September 22 construction report, the Bumb family's own redevelopment of that land "has yet to start construction."
The neighborhood around the flea is visibly turning into a construction zone. The flea itself is in its 66th year, and its homepage confirms it's open. What changed in 2026 is how the market runs. Once you know the new schedule and how slowly the City's closure process moves, a fall weekend there looks a lot more like a regular season than a goodbye.
Three days a week now, and Fridays got the perks
If your mental calendar still has a Wednesday flea run on it, update it. Starting March 1, the market switched to a shorter week, and it posted the change in both English and Spanish on sjfm.com: "NUEVO horario a partir de Marzo 1."
- Open days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday only
- Friday parking: free, except $5 on nights with Friday events
- Free Seller Fridays: a new deal for vendors; details are at the Seller's Office
Older guides haven't caught up. BART's guide to the Berryessa/North San José station, last updated in June 2025, still lists Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So the current week is shorter, and the market is pulling both shoppers and sellers toward Friday with free parking and free stalls. Friday is also the night the Berryessa Night Market runs in the Garden, which is where the rest of this fall's calendar lives.
A Saturday loop, by cross street
The flea's own Discover page maps its grid to street names, which makes a loop easy to plan before you park. All three music stages play from 12 PM to 4:30 PM.
| Stop | Where | What's there |
|---|---|---|
| Produce Row | Its own aisle | 30+ vendors with produce, spices, homemade pasta, and fresh-roasted peanuts and pistachios; stands take EBT and credit cards |
| Farmers Market Stage | By Produce Row | Live bands, with fresh fruit and frescas nearby |
| Fish | Main Street at 6th | Food stand |
| Chuck Wagon | Main Street between 8th and 9th | Food stand |
| Soft-Serve Ice Cream Stand | Main Street between 9th and 10th | Food stand |
| Playgrounds | Main Street between 4th and 5th | Shaded slides |
| Pony Rides | F and 14th Street, south end of the Pavilion | Pony rides |
| Main Street Stage | Heart of the market | The largest shaded stage, booked for the biggest acts |
| Arcade | Fun Zone | 90+ video games, including Pac-Man, Frogger and Donkey Kong, plus Skee-Ball and air hockey |
The Fun Zone also has the market's oldest ride, a vintage Allan Herschell carousel built in 1950. The flea opened in 1960, which means the carousel is older than the market it spins in. Families who have been coming for decades already know about the carousel. Produce Row is the part that's easy to forget, because it works like a weekly farmers market tucked inside a much bigger one.
October's calendar runs through the Garden
The Garden at the Flea Stage is the newest of the three stages. Its lineup runs from salsa, cumbia and oldies to reggae, R&B and Top 40. The Garden also runs its own events calendar, and that's where October is busiest.
MexiPino Festival, October 3. The fifth annual festival celebrating the mix of Mexican and Filipino culture took over the Garden from 10 AM to 4 PM on the first Saturday of the month. Organizers were Mi Gente and FAHM Jam, working with the flea market.
FAHM Jam 2026, Saturday, October 17, 10 AM to 5 PM. FAHM Jam marks Filipino American History Month. It's hosted by the FACTsv Coalition, a group of Filipino American nonprofits based in Santa Clara County, and showcases local artists, performers, chefs and entrepreneurs. The food truck lineup so far:
- Tacos El Cowboy
- 3 Brothers Kitchen
- Barya
- Gerry's Grill
- Los Kuyas
- Junior's Roaster
- Taqueria la Suprema
- Fresh Catch Poke
- Respectable Bird
Berryessa Night Market, the last Fridays of the season. The Berryessa Night Market brings food trucks, vintage sellers, theme nights, live music and craft beer to the flea on Friday evenings, April through October. The Garden hadn't posted a final 2026 date when we checked. Going by its April-to-October season, the remaining October Fridays are the last chances this year. With Friday parking free, the $5 event-night rate is the only parking cost on those nights.
The Garden's event archive also lists a Saturday Pop-Up SJ Vintage Markets series for 2026. Check the Garden's calendar for upcoming dates.
The cranes are next door, not on the lot
Look around the BART station and you'll see why so many people think the flea is about to close. Two big projects are moving right next to it.
At 825 Berryessa Station Way, Affirmed Housing's 10-story building has its crane up and site prep underway. HA Builder Group is the general contractor. State funding of $38.5 million came from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, and completion is expected as early as spring 2028.
At 1655 Berryessa Road, just west of the BART and Union Pacific tracks, the City's project record shows a revised plan totaling 912 homes, made up of market-rate and affordable apartments, townhomes and single-family homes. The biggest change in that plan affects the neighborhood's future errands. The City's filing swaps a previously approved 480,000-square-foot commercial block for 62 townhomes, and turns a planned 0.9-acre park into a 1.2-acre passive open space. So that site now plans for more homes and fewer shops than first approved. For now, Produce Row and the Garden's food trucks are still the closest weekend market for anyone living near the station.
How the closure clock actually works
The flea's land is a separate, much bigger project, and its timeline has several steps built in. In June 2021, the City Council rezoned the roughly 60-acre site to allow up to 3,450 homes and up to 3.4 million square feet of commercial space. The rezoning also requires parks and five acres set aside for a new urban market. Here are the steps between that rezoning and the last flea weekend, as the City's vendor information page lays them out:
- A one-year notice to vendors has to come before any stalls are removed for construction.
- The owners said that notice wouldn't come before March 31, 2026. That's from their October 2025 quarterly report to the City. The City page hasn't posted anything newer, and our research turned up no public report on whether a notice has gone out since.
- A development application and City review come next. The City says review for a project this size usually takes more than a year, followed by more months or years to issue building permits. It also says it expects the flea to stay open as is for several more years.
- The five-acre urban market doesn't have a design yet. The City says there are no details because the development process hasn't started.
In April 2026, The Registry reported that City staff saw the VTA parking garage at Berryessa BART as the most realistic short-term home for about 450 small businesses, which could be displaced as early as March 2028. That garage sits right next to the 825 Berryessa Station Way site, so the most-discussed fallback is only steps from the current market.
Some longtime vendors are already selling in more than one place. In June, The Mercury News reported on El Mercadito, a new weekly outdoor market near SAP Center that draws vendors used to selling at Berryessa. One of them is Cayetano Botanas, which first sold its chamoy-coated gummies, pistachios and peanuts at the Berryessa flea 32 years ago. Organizer Kiara Kassandra told the paper that the Berryessa veterans "are so used to being there." For now, "there" still means Friday through Sunday on Berryessa Road, with Produce Row open, the 1950 carousel running, and FAHM Jam set for October 17.
At Homes by Brianna, I follow the projects reshaping this corner of San Jose, from 825 Berryessa Station Way to the flea market site. If you live near the station, get your free home valuation and we'll go over what's actually being built near you.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
