Downtown’s historic renaissance

Our annual Business & Entrepreneur package begins with a lovely profile of Jacki Headley, the owner of Woof & Poof and Made in Chico, who died from cancer Jan. 28 at the age of 60. She was one of the leaders in the entrepreneurial movement of the late 1970s and early ‘80s that led to the revival of Chico’s downtown in the wake of the devastation wrought by the opening of Chico’s first mall in 1967.

We commissioned Pam Figge, a longtime friend of Headley’s, to write the piece when we learned Headley was ill and didn’t have long to live. We planned it for this issue, thinking we would combine it with shorter profiles of other business owners who were part of downtown’s rebirth. We’re sad that she didn’t live long enough to see it.

We know, though, that she would have enjoyed this story of how she helped save the historic Nottelmann Building, created a business with worldwide reach, and founded the Shop Local movement here (with her store Made in Chico) before it even had a name.

The six other business owners profiled all played a role in downtown’s rebirth, and one of them, Dave Kilbourne, developed his experience co-founding and running the Downtown Chico Business Association into a thriving consultancy that has helped more than 100 other communities to revitalize their downtowns.