Photo: Vacant shopping center demolished

An excavator chewed into the former Chestnut Square shopping center recently to make way for a new development at the corner of Chestnut and East Tenth streets. Evergreen Development Company is clearing the 1970s-era center, which formerly housed O’Henry’s Donuts, Gilroy Market, Coast Auto Insurance and others, along with Trans Valley Transport behind the center to make way for a new seven-acre development that will include Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, a Hyatt hotel, car wash, gas station and more. The project was unanimously supported by the Gilroy City Council in 2021.