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Owen purchased the downtown Vacaville
restaurant three years ago and pushed
it to new levels of popularity. When the
wait time for weekend brunch reached 90
minutes, Magee and Owen needed more
seating. Outdoor seating is scarce in
Vacaville, but the city approved a special
permit that allowed Heritage House to
add tables on the sidewalk, increasing
capacity by 16 people.
“The city was super supportive of
any changes that we wanted to make,”
Magee says. “They want businesses to
thrive downtown.”
Of course, the economic downturn
and uncertainty associated with the
coronavirus quarantine threaten to
undermine years of revitalization efforts.
“We’re at kind of a critical point right
now, where there’s been a lot of focus,
and so now things need to start happening,”
Fox says. “Prior to coronavirus,
we were making some great strides.
We were making some inroads with our
property owners and our merchants, so
they could understand that they were
part of a bigger picture,” she says. “Right
now, the focus is to try and preserve and
support our merchants that we do have.”
The shelter-in-place order forced
most downtown Vacaville businesses
to make a sharp pivot. School of Rock
switched to online lessons, and Heritage
House briefly closed, then became a
temporary shop providing supplies like
toilet paper and eggs. Heritage House
reopened with a new focus on its most
popular menu item, classic British fish
and chips. “If it hadn’t been for the fish
and chips, we would have been in serious
trouble,” Owen says. “We probably
would have had to close the doors and
walk away.”
For her part, Silver still believes in
the promise of downtown Vacaville. “I
just invested a tremendous amount of
our money into this space,” she says.
“We believe strongly that the community
and the downtown area is a place worth
investing in.”
Daniel Barnes is a freelance writer, film critic
and beer enthusiast. His work has appeared
in The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento News
& Review, East Bay Express, Philadelphia
Weekly, San Antonio Current, and elsewhere.
Proudly Supporting Vacaville’s Economic Growth
The NorthBay Logistics Center (700 Crocker Rd. in Vacaville, CA)
warehouse building went through an extensive repositioning and
renovation after LDK Ventures acquired the project in 2017.
Since then, LDK Ventures has successfully leased the entire
840,000 square feet to two e-commerce tenants. In Phase II of
this project. LDK will commence construction in Summer 2020
on a Class A 616,000 sq. ft. cross-docked facility on 40 acres.
www.northbaylogistics.com | www.ldkventures.com
June 2020 | comstocksmag.com 87