Downtown Napa Association Executive Director Bill LaLiberte was worried earlier this year when Kohl’s closed at First and Main streets and four other businesses in the 3-acre site in the heart of the Wine Country city were informed they would have to relocate to make way for redevelopment.
Sure, he knew that there was a plan for a big project to replace the shuttered businesses: a structure with 78 condos and a 161-room hotel including a restaurant and a rooftop bar. He had seen the renderings of the soaring public spaces — the four-story conservatory and ballroom with glass cathedral ceilings, the handsome lobby that visitors could meander through while walking from picnicks at the Oxbow Public Market to the boutiques and tasting rooms at First Street Napa.
The project looked great on paper: The biggest investment in downtown Napa in decades…