On the first of September, a crew in downtown Suisun City pulled the letters off the Harbor Theatre's facade. A construction fence went up around the Lawler House next door, the 1857 ranch house that was barged up the channel to Main Street in 1979 and has sat empty for over a decade. If you drove past that block this month, it would be easy to read those two details as the start of something. They are not. They are the visible edge of a land sale that just closed, and a land sale is a different event from a building permit.
Suisun City finalized the first phase of a $1.5 million deal transferring a cluster of properties on the 700 block of Main Street, including the Lawler House, the shuttered Harbor Theatre, and two adjacent parking lots, to entities formed by California Forever CEO Jan Sramek. The city will lease the parking lots back for $1 a year so downtown parking stays available while plans come together. City officials called it the moment a plan on paper starts turning into something buildable. That is true, but it undersells how much distance still sits between this closing and an actual building.
What the City Manager Actually Said
Suisun City had tried to find a developer for the Lawler House on its own. A 2023 request for proposals came back empty, which is part of why an independent appraisal that year valued the property at just $100,000 in its deteriorated condition, or $150,000 as a cleared lot. California Forever's offer was the first one that stuck.
But the sale of the land is only step one. City Manager Bret Prebula has been clear that a separate development agreement, the document that actually pins down what gets built and by when, still has to be negotiated. He has estimated that process could take six to twelve months and land sometime around mid to late 2027, with real consequences if the developer misses its marks.
"Those will have penalties if they don't meet what they are supposed to do."
Read that timeline plainly. The parcels changed hands in September 2026. The document that defines what actually gets constructed there is not expected until roughly a year from now, at the earliest. Construction itself comes after that. If you are pricing a home in Historic Suisun City on the assumption that this block is about to look different, you are pricing ahead of the paperwork, not the project.
The Projects Actually Under Construction Right Now
The distinction matters because Suisun City has real construction happening elsewhere in town, and it is easy to lose track of it under the bigger Main Street headline. Four residential projects have crews on site as of this month, and together they add up to more new units than the downtown deal has committed to on paper.
| Project | Units | Status as of September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Awanta Waterfront Project | 20 (two-story multifamily) | Under construction |
| Lotz Residences | 16 single-family homes with ADUs above garages | Under construction |
| Almond Gardens Apartments | 97 affordable units, built by Ashira LLC | Under construction |
| McCoy Creek Mixed-Use | 31 units plus 1,645 sq ft of commercial space | Under construction |
| Main Street parcels (Lawler House, Harbor Theatre) | Not yet defined | Land sale closed; development agreement pending |
| 34-acre site at Highway 12 and Marina Boulevard | Not yet defined | Still being marketed, no developer selected |
That is roughly 164 units of near-term housing coming from four projects most buyers outside Solano County have never heard of, moving forward quietly while the California Forever land sale gets the coverage. Separately, a Dutch Bros location north of Highway 12 near Sunset Center is also under construction, approved by the city council last December. None of this is speculative. These are active job sites.
Two Different California Forever Stories
There is one more distinction worth making, because it trips up a lot of people following this from outside the county. The Main Street infill deal is not the same project as California Forever's much larger, much more contested plan to build a new city of up to 400,000 residents on land it owns east of Suisun City toward Rio Vista. City Manager Prebula has said explicitly that the city wanted the downtown investment to stand on its own, separate from the annexation proposal, so that the commitment to Main Street would not depend on how that larger and far more politically divisive plan plays out. That bigger proposal involves expanding Suisun City's boundaries by more than 22,800 acres and has drawn recall petitions against city council members and a survey showing majority opposition among residents polled. None of that controversy touches the Main Street parcels or the four projects already under construction. If someone tells you the whole downtown is riding on the fate of a 400,000-person city plan, that is not accurate. The two tracks are deliberately kept apart.
What This Means If You're Pricing Historic Suisun City Against Somewhere Else
As of spring 2026, sale prices in Suisun City generally clustered in the low-to-mid $500,000s, with Waterfront District listings running closer to $550,000. That pricing already reflects a downtown with an interesting story and a marina worth walking to, not a downtown mid-transformation. Given that the development agreement for the Main Street parcels isn't expected until mid-to-late 2027 and construction would follow that, it is reasonable that the market hasn't moved further on anticipation. The four projects that will actually change the town's inventory in the next year or two are smaller in scale and less centrally located than the Main Street block, which means their effect on resale competition and neighborhood feel will be gradual rather than sudden.
For a buyer comparing Historic Suisun City against another Solano neighborhood, the useful question is not "is downtown about to change." It is "what is actually adding rooftops between now and when I'd plan to sell." Right now that answer is Awanta, Lotz Residences, Almond Gardens, and McCoy Creek, all modest in scale and all already under construction. The marquee downtown redevelopment is real, but it is a 2027-and-later story, not a 2026 one.
A Short FAQ
Is the Main Street sale part of the larger California Forever city plan? No. City officials have kept the two deliberately separate. The Main Street parcels are a standalone downtown infill purchase. The larger plan to build a new city east of town involves a different process, different acreage, and a much longer and more contested timeline.
When will construction start on the Lawler House and Harbor Theatre block? No firm date yet. The land sale closed in September 2026, but the development agreement that defines what gets built and on what schedule is still being negotiated and isn't expected until roughly mid to late 2027.
What new housing is actually being built in Suisun City right now? Four projects have active construction as of September 2026: the 20-unit Awanta Waterfront Project, the 16-unit Lotz Residences, the 97-unit Almond Gardens Apartments, and the 31-unit McCoy Creek mixed-use project. That is roughly 164 units combined.
Does any of this affect the 34-acre site near the marina? Not yet. That parcel at Highway 12 and Marina Boulevard is still being marketed by the city and its housing authority, and no developer has been selected as of this writing.
Sorting out which parts of a neighborhood's story are already under construction and which are still sitting in a negotiation room is exactly the kind of detail that gets lost between portal listings and press releases. If you're weighing Historic Suisun City against another part of Solano County and want the pricing context to go with it, reach out to Michael Hulsey and get your free home valuation before you make your next move.
