Developers eye once-sleepy downtown Napa

Napa, California

IN the 1980s, when John Truchard was a teenager, the most happening watering hole in downtown Napa was the McDonald's on Jefferson Street. "It was a ghost town," said Mr Truchard, the owner of a wine room, JaM Cellars. "There were no good restaurants, nothing good to do."

Napa, with a population of about 80,000, is Napa Valley's largest city and the county seat. Until recently, even as Napa …