Crowning the San Francisco Bay, Vallejo has been busy racking up the superlatives: the hottest real estate market and most diverse city in the country. A thriving arts community with highly educated local talent. Enhanced ferry service that will draw a record 1 million passengers this year. Fantastic waterfront views and recreation, great weather, a rich history, and plenty of room to grow.
To put it another way: Vallejo offers unparalleled opportunity for businesses and families looking for a place to put down roots and thrive.
“What we have here is tremendous. The “p” word is overused, but potential covers Vallejo like a blanket,” says James Cooper, president of the Vallejo Chamber of Commerce. “There’s land and space available, and the costs are low relative to any other location on the bay.”
With his southern district office on Mare Island, Congressman Mike Thompson is a vocal Vallejo booster: “The city is incredible. The architecture, the remarkable homes – there’s a Julia Morgan, probably the furthest one north in the Bay Area. The Farmer’s Market, if not the best, is one of the top three,” he says. “The people are great, and it’s an ideal location to build a home, right in the middle of everything, with a wonderful climate, and all kinds of recreational opportunities.”
Adversity to Assets
Ten years ago, Vallejo faced challenges beyond the devastating 1996 closure of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, including financial problems that led to the city’s bankruptcy protection filing in 2008. That’s changed, says Cooper: “We got out of bankruptcy early, and started working on the transformation – of downtown, the Empress Theater, the waterfront. Mare Island has water, available land, roads, again, all the potential.”
Vallejo is centrally located – “less than an hour from San Francisco, Sacramento, the ocean, Napa, and Sonoma,” adds Cooper. “There are so many attractive qualities about the city, and so much history. A lot of the families have been here for generations, in part because of the long presence of our former naval shipyard. The Chamber of Commerce started in 1874, making it one of the oldest on the West Coast and older than the state’s Chamber. And most people don’t know that Vallejo was the capitol of California, not once but twice.”
Vallejo residents have supported the city’s transformation in many ways, including adopting Measure B in 2011 to initiate a 1 percent sales and use tax, and voting to extend it indefinitely in 2016. The tax provides $15 million in annual revenue for infrastructure and service improvements, says Joanna Altman, assistant to Vallejo’s City Manager, Daniel Keen. “That was a huge feat for the city. It brings back revenues lost through the recession, and has improved police and fire services, economic development activities, and streets upkeep.”
The measure also supplies funds for Vallejo’s new participatory budgeting process – a way to build a more engaged constituency by giving residents ages 14 and up “the opportunity to tell the city how they want to spend a portion of those tax dollars,” Altman says. In April, 4,200 residents voted to spend $1,000,000 on street repair, parks improvement, and 911 emergency call center support.
Diversity and Affordability
Vallejo is the most diverse city in the country, according to a 2013 study by Nerdwallet, with the population almost equally divided between African Americans, Asian Americans, Caucasians, and Latinos.
“Diversity is one of the things that makes us unique. There’s opportunity here for whoever you are,” Altman says. “Anyone can come to Vallejo and find a place. The annual Fourth of July Parade is a real melting pot of people enjoying Vallejo.”
If diversity is one magnet, affordability is another, with Vallejo making headlines recently as the hottest real estate market in the country.
“We’re the last affordable place to purchase a home in the Bay Area, says Linda Daraskavich, president, Solano Association of Realtors, and a realtor with Coldwell Banker.
“You can buy a three bedroom, two bath home for between $400,000 and $450,000,” says Daraskavich, who purchased her home in the city in 1999, when she was priced out of Contra Costa County.
Vallejo’s stellar live-work balance doesn’t hurt, she adds: “When people come here they think they’re setting for Vallejo, then they’re surprised at what’s here.”
Growth through Technology
Vallejo and its private partners are investing in the technology and communications infrastructure essential for the new economy. A public-private partnership with Inyo Networks, launched in Summer 2017, is utilizing an existing city fiber optic network to provide gigabit Internet services to businesses at significantly discounted rates. The P3 network adds another layer of connectivity to an already extensive fiber network operated by incumbent providers such as AT&T and Comcast/Xfinity. With an eye on the future, AT&T has already begun installing new technology across the city to enhance cellular and data capacity, as well as position Vallejo to be among the first to utilize 5G technology.
A Winning Waterfront
One of Vallejo’s capital “P” potentials is The Waterfront Project, which outlines a vision for a vibrant mixed use community on 90 acres of waterfront property divided into three parcels. The public-private partnership between the city and its master developer, Callahan Property Co., is expected to break ground on the northern and central parcels in the next 18 months. The Southern parcel, 40 acres owned by the city, is an upcoming development opportunity.
“The is a unique opportunity for transit-oriented development on a waterfront site adjacent to downtown. It’s a market waiting to be realized,” says Joseph Callahan, master developer of the Waterfront Project. “The ferry is situated right in the middle, and is at full capacity every day linking Vallejo to downtown San Francisco. With residential, commercial and office development, as well as open space and pedestrian friendly amenities, the waterfront will be a destination for local residents and regional visitors.”
Alea Gage, Vallejo’s Economic Development project manager leading the Waterfront Project, is delighted to be helping reshape Vallejo’s image and future. “I’ve fallen in love with this community and the real possibility that exists here to take a midsize city with great bones and transit, and a great downtown waterfront district, and breathe new life into it post military base,” she says.
“Vallejo has a vision for its future that fuses the old and the new – a historic downtown alongside an activated waterfront, a historic core on Mare Island reinvigorated by adaptive reuse. There is an energy in Vallejo that it can be many things at once; its assets are both its rich history and its capacity for a new identity,” Gage adds. “It’s an exciting place, and in a very dynamic moment as a city.”