Suisun City Eyes Revamp in Downtown

Suisun City Eyes Revamp in Downtown
By Amanda Janis/Business Writer

Suisun City's "Main Street West" downtown redevelopment project will be discussed tonight by its city council.

Up for consideration is the redevelopment agency's plan to sell 13 parcels, or 8.4 acres, to the project's developer Main Street West Partners, LLC.

Those parcels - which are near the waterfront, Main Street and Civic Center Boulevard - were purchased by the agency in the 1980s, as part of its efforts to rehabilitate the downtown area, explained Scott Corey, Suisun City spokesman.

"Main Street West is an effort to essentially complete redevelopment of the waterfront area," he noted.

The centerpiece of the project, Corey said, will be two, two-story mixed-use buildings on the

corner of Solano and Main streets. To be built in what he characterized as a plaza-style fashion, the buildings will feature ground floor restaurants or retail, and office space above.

In addition to mixed-use, proposed development for the parcels to be sold includes construction of single family and cluster homes for sale, though the former will occur first.

"We're really focused on making sure things happen on Main Street," Corey explained, "so the developer will only be able to build those housing units as he makes progress on Main Street. Once he gets 75 percent occupancy on those projects, then he can work on the housing."

Such an arrangement, Corey remarked, allows for the project to be profitable for the developer, while at the same time providing the city and redevelopment agency with needed commercial space.

"We're really trying to make (downtown) a destination," he said.

Amanda Janis can be reached atbusiness@thereporter.com.