|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com embarked on a cover story series in 2025 exploring the downtowns throughout the Tri-Valley. Our project concludes this week with reporter Jeanita Lyman’s feature on downtown Danville during the critical holiday shopping season.
Life imitated art at this year’s Lighting of the Old Oak Tree in Danville, as “American Idol” alumna and Hallmark Channel star Grace Leer took to the stage amid gleeful squeals from her young fans at one of her hometown’s most important events of the year.
Leer has moved on from small-town life as she’s risen to fame following the 18th season of “American Idol”, now calling Nashville home as her music, acting and modeling career has continued to blossom. That includes a major role in the 2022 Hallmark film “Time for Her to Come Home for Christmas”.
In addition to marking a major annual event for downtown and a triumphant return for Leer, Nov. 28 was her 34th birthday.
“I can’t think of a better birthday present than to be in my hometown,” Leer told the crowd. “I honestly got tears, I could cry right now. This just means so much to me.”
Leer wasn’t the only product of Danville living out the classic Hallmark Channel holiday storyline, in which the often jaded, city-dwelling main characters generally find themselves in small towns for the holiday season, where they learn the value of a slower pace of life, community, hospitality and generosity – as family members, college students and young professionals flocked to the town to relatives’ houses to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, Danville’s downtown businesses found themselves filled with visitors both after the tree lighting on Black Friday, and on Nov. 29 for Small Business Saturday – a nationwide initiative aimed at uplifting small businesses amid the busy holiday shopping season that is especially fitting for a neighborhood such as downtown Danville that are primarily made up of small, local businesses.
Leer closed out that evening’s musical performances with her original song from that Hallmark movie, “Star on Top of the Tree”.
“There’s all these beautiful lights and beautiful things and wonderful treats,” Leer said. “But at the end of the day, it’s just about being surrounded by the people that we love and family and friends and community.”
The Lighting of the Old Oak Tree kicked off what Danville officials and business owners are hoping will be a reprieve for brick-and-mortar businesses that continue to rebound downtown in the wake of economic dark times in 2020.
The lay of the land
The vast majority of the 60-plus retail stores and 100-plus food and drink establishments in Danville are locally owned small businesses, many of which are also located in the downtown neighborhood.
The official boundaries downtown extend from just south of Sycamore Valley Road, along the retail corridor that borders the major thoroughfare of San Ramon Valley Boulevard (which turns into Hartz Avenue) to north of Linda Mesa Avenue to the west and north of Diablo Road to the east – where the Old Oak Tree stands, as the town’s oldest landmark.
“Does anyone know how old that tree is? Did I hear 400 years?” 2025 Mayor Renee Morgan asked the crowd at the tree lighting ceremony. “Don’t let it know you know that, because to me it doesn’t look a day over 300.”
What many might consider to be the true heart of downtown Danville is defined as the Old Town District, according to the town’s official boundaries, which is nestled along Hartz Avenue, Front Street and Railroad Avenue.
The Old Town neighborhood was the center of action, starting with the massive crowd from the tree lighting descending on the wide array of festively decorated shops and restaurants that Friday evening.
While that day marked record sales for Primos, owner Jimmy Jhanda said that the action at the longstanding and beloved pizza parlor and sports bar had kicked off the day before Thanksgiving as part of an unofficial holiday tradition in Danville.
“Wednesday, Primos was extremely busy,” Jhanda said. “It’s kind of like a just before Thanksgiving tradition, where people in Danville go to Primos. I think for one, people don’t want to cook the day before Thanksgiving, so they go out together.”
Jhanda also noted that the week of Thanksgiving often sees young people returning home from college or careers to spend the holiday with family – with Primos offering a sense of familiarity and nostalgia as the town’s mainstay for celebrations from young athletes after games or practice, or for other outings.
That’s one of Jhanda’s first memories of the restaurant years ago, before he and his wife Jennifer Jhanda took over as its new owners this summer.
“When we first moved here our kids were little,” Jhanda said. “We had one kid that was 1 and one that was 6, so Primos was kind of a family-friendly place that had a pretty big menu, that we also felt comfortable bringing our kids to. My second memory early on — at least for my daughter — she was really involved in youth sports at a young age right when we moved here.”
As the parents of a young athlete in Danville, Jhanda said that the family found themselves at Primos for “every single” team party and postgame celebration.
“Just a lot of community and sports and family, so those were kind of the earliest memories,” Jhanda said.
The ‘Times Square’ of Danville
In the years since, Jhanda said that he watched Primos also become a prominent destination to spend a whole day watching college and professional sports alongside fellow fans, bolstered by the popularity of its patio expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a permanent outdoor structure in place since 2022.
“That outdoor patio was a game changer, because people loved that, and that really expanded it to be a full-blown sports bar and grill,” Jhanda said.
That popularity and momentum is still going strong so far, Jhanda said, in the months since he and his wife took over as owners.
As their professional careers peaked, with Jhanda creating and selling a successful startup before retiring from the tech industry, the couple looked toward a next step that would deepen their roots in the town they were raising their children in, and deepen their connection with the community.
In addition to familiarity and fond memories of the establishment, Jhanda said that a major selling point he had considered in purchasing Primos was the opportunity to be part of the widely varied but close-knit downtown Danville business community.
“It’s made us a bigger part of the community, and we’re doing a lot more sponsorships, with Green Valley Elementary, we’re doing a sponsorship with the National Charity League at the Veterans Hall, so we really like that, and it’s kind of a way to give back. But in addition it’s nice because we’re giving back but we’re running a professional, good business,” Jhanda said.
With the need for a large staff given Primos’ enduring popularity, Jhanda said he also took pride in providing local jobs to the community.
“We have 74 employees, and they’re all kind of like young college kids – and high school – and it feels good giving jobs back to these kids in the community,” Jhanda said.
“A lot of people are passionate about it because it’s a staple in the community,” he continued. “It’s kind of like the Peach Pit from ‘90210’.”
Other factors in the Jhandas decision to purchase Primos’ were its prime location – with Jhanda calling it the “Times Square” of Danville – and continued success amid its pandemic-era expansion.
“I think Primos – they excelled post-COVID,” Jhanda said.
But unfortunately for many of Primos’ downtown neighbors, the COVID-19 pandemic had the opposite effect, accelerating the rise of online shopping, shutting down public, indoor gathering spaces for months on end, and leading to the loss of vast amounts of employees and income.
A quality product
The lingering impact of the pandemic is something that has weighed heavily on the mind of Jenn Starnes since she came to Danville in 2022, particularly now in her dual role as communications and economic development manager for the town government.
“Our job at the town is to get people to come here, and to understand that’s a partnership we have with the businesses,” Starnes said. “We know we have a quality product – I’ve been in marketing for many years. From a strictly marketing standpoint, we know we have a quality product. We just have to sell it to people.”
That product is downtown Danville and its local businesses. It’s one that Starnes has been busier than ever marketing amid the holiday shopping season and the town’s campaign to support local businesses. She said those efforts have expanded this year to include Google and social media advertising, seeking to reach audiences as far as Sacramento to take advantage of the classic, small-town holiday shopping experience the neighborhood offers.
“It’s more of a tourism position than it is truly an economic development position, because we don’t have big warehouses to fill, we don’t have floors and floors of office space – we have small businesses who have limited resources for getting their message out,” Starnes said. “So a lot of what this position is is really just telling people about Danville.”
While it’s up to businesses themselves to make sales and profits – and motivate customers to come back – Starnes said that her primary focus has been simply to get people to visit those businesses.
“We really believe in our local businesses, that once people get here and they see it – and they see what you can get here and the experience – you can have shopping that is like an old-timey experience shopping where you go in, and you know the person who owns the business, and they have things that they just got in that they have been waiting for and now they have, that you can’t get anywhere else,” Starnes said.
She added that “every business in Danville is a story” and that shoppers can find gifts that tell a unique story themselves to their loved ones that wouldn’t be possible through online shopping.
The booms and busts throughout history
The Old Town district within the downtown neighborhood isn’t just home to businesses – and businesses aren’t the only buildings with stories. The historic neighborhood that developed around the Southern Pacific Railroad depot – now home to the Museum of the San Ramon Valley – emerged in 1891 in the small farming community that formed following the Mexican American War, having previously been used as grazing land for Mission San Jose when the region was Mexican territory.
The region’s agricultural roots trace back even further, to the Tactan Bay Miwok tribe that was displaced by Spanish colonization.
“Living in village communities of 50 to 200 people, the rhythm of their lives was determined by one harvest or another,” local historian and former Danville mayor and councilmember Beverly Lane wrote in an article for the Contra Costa Historical Society.
Historical evidence suggests that the Danville area was likely the site for larger gatherings between indigenous villages, particularly harvest festivals, according to Lane’s article.
The Southern Pacific railroad line and Danville depot emerged near the turn of the 20th century, ushering in a boom in the agricultural region as Danville and the greater San Ramon Valley gained access to markets for the array of fruits that were produced by the orchards that were established during the early part of the century.
That boom period of growth driven by the railroad didn’t last forever, with passenger service at the Danville depot suspended in the 1930s. Although agriculture continued to dominate the region through the 1940s, Danville would also become an attractive, peaceful community for veterans of the two world wars to settle down in and raise families as the 20th century wore on. That legacy is marked, in part, by the 100-year-old Veterans Memorial Building that serves as a prominent landmark within the downtown neighborhood.
The town’s population would go on to increase 10-fold between 1960 and 2000, according to census data, landing at 41,715 at the start of the 20th century. It has grown only modestly in the years since then, with the count standing at 43,582 as of the 2020 census.
The rise and fall of the railroad and the agricultural industry wasn’t the first boom-and-bust cycle that helped shape downtown Danville in the present era, however. The community was first put on the modern-day map with a local post office and the initial construction of the Danville Hotel during the Gold Rush era in the mid 19th century.
While the hotel initially emerged as a product of the money that flooded into California in the boom phase of the Gold Rush, what remains of the historic building no longer serves as a hotel. Instead, it is now home to businesses that are continuing to weather the storm through the latest bust phase in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of online shopping.
Among those businesses is Blossom and Root Kitchen, the 100% plant-based cafe that opened to widespread fanfare from local food critics in 2022, brought to life by Danville local Susan Virgilio – who is among many of the downtown business owners who have felt the pain of the post-pandemic market.
“We have people like Susan – if people don’t come to this beautiful, beautiful restaurant with her thoughtfully curated menu that she pours her heart and soul into, she’s not going to be here,” Starnes said. “And we have so many businesses right now that have just been pushed and pushed, and people are just not coming back out.”
“And these are people’s neighbors,” she continued. “It’s the community, and I think that it’s just a small choice that someone can make to shop locally. And it’s hard, because we hear it so much – ‘shop local’ – but when it comes right down to it, it’s easier to sit at home in your jammies and pull up Amazon.”
While brick-and-mortar businesses everywhere have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the turn toward online shopping and meal delivery, Danville also faces an obstacle of its own when it comes to attracting visitors: a reputation that formed over the years, compared to other Bay Area communities, as an insulated, wealthy and even intolerant suburban enclave hostile to outsiders.
“There are people who knew Danville as old-school, and I’m sure there are parts in the community, but I think a lot of that comes from history and not from actuality,” Starnes said. “Now, people’s lived experiences are that there are some people that still maybe don’t feel comfortable in Danville. But we want them to feel comfortable here. We are working all the time to make Danville more approachable and more reasonable.”
Part of that work, Starnes said, is intertwined with the economic development efforts in the downtown neighborhood.
“You have these small businesses that you can come in and get to know a person,” Starnes said. “And even with the community events, we’re trying to have more multicultural events, a larger investment in even Pride events, or just having our councilmembers walking up and down the street.”
“I have heard that history has not always reflected that, but we have leadership that really believes in that,” she continued. “Our role is not to advocate; it’s to facilitate and to take what the community wants and drive it forward. But a lot of that is to make sure that the entire community is seen and has a part in that.”
Another potential misconception about Danville, according to Starnes, is that the town government – whose members have often held decades-long tenures – strives to be in office out of political ambitions, clinging to power, or any reasons other than serving the community.
“A lot of times people look in, and they say oh, there’s no term limits – but you don’t get the good old-boy networks,” Starnes said. “These are people who have businesses in the community. They are people who have lived here, and who have worked here.”
Amid the ongoing economic challenges facing local businesses, Starnes said that this year’s Lighting of the Old Oak Tree and ensuing holiday shopping season have been heartening.
“We haven’t gotten together on the count yet, but it seems like it was bigger this year,” Starnes said. “We also were really working on improving the spread of the event and not only programming things all up and down Hartz. So at Church Street we had a band, we had different things spring up throughout.”
While the fruits of those efforts have started to bear out on the economic side as customers flocked to downtown shops and restaurants in the wake of Thanksgiving, Starnes said only time would tell if her additional goal of getting people to come back throughout the season — and year — is successful.
The road ahead
Councilmember Robert Storer, who was elected as vice mayor for the current year at the annual Mayor’s Installation on Dec. 2, said he was optimistic about the future of downtown Danville in the year ahead.
“We are very proud of the direction our downtown is going in next year,” Storer said. “Next year we will offer many downtown events that will cater especially to our young families, to our more mature residents and all the ones in between. We have something for almost everyone. Come and visit and experience so many new adventures downtown.”
While major annual events – and ongoing economic development or “tourism” efforts by Starnes – such as the Lighting of the Old Oak Tree, the Kiwanis Club Fourth of July Parade and the Hot Summer Sundays Car Show are aimed at drawing visitors to town, it is Danville’s residents who play the most important role in supporting local businesses in their communities.
“Our primary customers should be our residents,” Starnes said. “Because they’re here, and our residents sustain all of the business.”
Storer echoed that sentiment.
“We need people to live local and shop where they live, spend time downtown, enjoy our new designation as one of the coolest Main Streets in California, come see us all lit up at night, take a stroll and walk your dog downtown while enjoying all the ambience Danville has to offer and please, always, shop downtown first,” Storer said.
Starnes said her biggest wish for the new year was that this message would resonate with Danville residents.
“My hope is that you don’t have anybody at the end of the year, or any of the year, saying, ‘oh, that store closed, I meant to go there, and I never did,’ – that’s my hope,” Starnes said. “You always read about how ‘oh, that store closed, I meant to go there.’ Well just go! It’s so simple and so actionable, and it has such an impact.”
“It’s not about sales tax,” she continued. “It’s about community, and if you want our community to continue to look like this, go to that store you’ve been passing by. Go to that restaurant. Don’t order from DoorDash – just go in your sweatpants. Nobody cares.”
“Just go – and that’s the other thing about Danville – it’s a very casual environment, very friendly environment,” Starnes said. “People would rather you show up than stay at home because you don’t want to get all dolled up. Just go.”
As the holiday shopping season unfolds and plans take shape for new events and initiatives to highlight downtown businesses in the coming year, existing businesses continue to hold out hope – and festive, holiday cheer, with seasonal decorations, specials and attractions throughout the season. At Primos, that includes visits with Santa every Tuesday evening until Christmas.
Seasonal festivities for the downtown district also include an upcoming pop-up gift market at Prospect Park Plaza, home to a recently shuttered Starbucks site that was hit by a “bust” cycle in the company as it closed numerous locations earlier this year.
“The Town made a significant investment in our community with the Downtown Master Plan Catalyst Project, and we don’t want this vacant storefront to subdue the festive mood Downtown,” said Town Manager Tai Williams.
“As we wait for a new tenant in the adjacent building, the live music and pop-up markets offer a wonderful opportunity to support our local entrepreneurs while bringing energy and celebration to Prospect Park Plaza,” she continued.
The event is set for noon to 3 p.m. on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20.
Starnes said that the new pop-up market is one more effort aimed at driving foot traffic to downtown businesses.
“Your favorite Danville stores and restaurants are like Hallmark holiday characters, because it is like a Hallmark movie,” Starnes said. “People watch these movies and they yearn for that downtown experience where you walk in and ‘oh, there’s Joe, he owns the corner store, or there’s Barbara, she owns the coffee shop.’ And we have that here.”
