TOWER INVESTMENTS BUYS BROWNS CORNER LAND NEAR WEST EDGE OF WOODLAND

April 17, 2025

By Ben van der Meer - Sacramento Business Journal

There's a new owner for land on the edge of downtown Woodland rezoned in recent years for urban-style development — but no such plans for it yet.

Alive Commercial Real Estate announced the close of escrow Thursday for a 5.35-acre property known as Browns Corner at 392 W. Main St. in Woodland.

"Their plans relative to this specific site is to be good stewards and keep operating it as is," said Spencer Moyer, a managing director at Alive who brokered the sale. "They really like that corner."

Tower Investment Inc., based in Woodland, bought the property for $3.4 million, according to Moyer. A message left at Tower on Thursday wasn't returned.

Moyer emphasized that the new owners have no immediate plans for any site redevelopment. Woodland's most recent general plan update allows a variety of uses, including housing, retail, hospitality or a combination of those uses, on the property.

"At some point in the future, they'll look at a new plan," he said. Moyer said the property currently has several small businesses on it paying rent, and the new owners want to keep that going for the time being.

According to an announcement of the sale from Alive, the property saw interest from multifamily developers and local commercial-retail owners while it was listed, but construction costs and overall market uncertainty presented challenges for immediately redeveloping it.

The initial listing for the property from last summer priced it at $4.5 million.

Even with no immediate plans for changes, though, 392 W. Main St. will be seeing activity nearby. Woodland City Council on Tuesday approved a $1.7 million appropriation from the city's housing trust fund to help the development of a second phase of Vista Del Robles on a nearby 2.6-acre property of city-owned land at 310 W. Main St.

Chelsea Investment Corp. will develop Vista Del Robles' second phase, 96 units of affordable housing, on the site. Chelsea Investment has pegged the overall project cost at about $41.96 million.

The same firm developed Vista Del Robles' first phase, 72 affordable units, on another piece of the same property, opening them a year ago.