Suisun City to name developers for downtown project

From Fairfield Daily Republic, Monday June 6, 2005

By Ian Thompson
Staff Writer
FAIRFIELD - The Suisun City Council is expected to confirm the Suisun City-based Miller-Sorg Group and Basin Street Properties of Petaluma as the master developers to bring more business and housing to Old Town.

Miller-Sorg and Basin Street are proposing a four-part plan to jump start the city's stalled efforts to economically revive the Old Town area, particularly the west side of Main Street. This includes:

• Building what is described in a memo to the City Council as a "centerpiece anchor project" on Redevelopment Agency land at the corner of Main and Solano streets.
  
• Putting in commercial development on the parcel next to Lotz Way and Main Street.
  
• Developing a single-family residential subdivision on land next to Civic Center and Lotz Way.
  
• Building a mix of retail, commercial and residential development on the parcels scattered along Main Street's west side and along the waterfront.

The City Council gave city staff the green light three weeks ago to negotiate exclusively with the Miller-Sorg/Basin Street partnership after winnowing through proposals from several other developers.

A city committee that picked out Miller-Sorg/Basin Street told the council that theirs was the most fiscally feasible and economically sustainable of all the proposals.

Miller-Sorg, which has its headquarters in the Old Town, has worked with the Redevelopment Agency in the past, building the waterfront promenade and the building at 710 Kellogg Street.

Basin Street Properties is a commercial property developer and owner whose most recent project was redeveloping the south side of Petaluma's downtown with a theater complex and a host of retail shops and restaurants.

Economic Development Director Randy Starbuck lauded Basin Street as "having the experience in mixed-use downtown development necessary to address the challenges of downtown Suisun City and the Main Street West project."

Suisun City started the Main Street West project last year to deal with the part of Old Town that city leaders felt was holding back economic development of the rest of the area.

The city is offering Miller-Sorg and Basin Street access to large, more lucrative parcels around One Harbor Center as long as the master developer team also develops the smaller parcels along Main Street's west side.

The Suisun City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Suisun City Council chamber at 701 Civic Center Blvd.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.