Downtown Manteca is starting to rev up.

And its thanks to the City of Manteca stepping up its game as well as community growth powered by those that have the wherewithal to plunk down $1 million for homes.

In the coming months expect to see endeavors move forward such as a new restaurant, a tile showroom, and possibly even a comedy club in the city’s core as well as a drive-thru yogurt shop as well as a Mexican market-bakery-taqueria on the edge of downtown.

It is all coming on the heels of the opening of arguably the grandest events and banquet center in the region — The Veranda — in the former Kelley Brothers Brewing Co. & Brickyard Oven Restaurant that started as the iconic El Rey Theatre in 1934.

Speaking of breweries, work is moving along on the Brethren Brewing Company in the 200 block of North Main Street next door to the MRPS Hall.

The flurry of activity involves a long-time empty building with a particularly problematic history in the 200 block of West Yosemite that once housed a nightclub and a billiards hall.

The longtime owner that for all practical purposes neglected the property felt the pressure of the city’s new nonsense approach to problematic buildings with a heavy emphasis on those that are vacant and pose health and safety hazards.

Manteca – under the leadership of its first in-house attorney Dave Nefouse — not only put real teeth into the city’s ordinance dealing with neglected and vacant structures but embarked on a pro-active enforcement approach instead of waiting for complaints to be lodged.

The borderline draconian fines adopted that the city can legally impose under state law plus active enforcement prompted the sale of the building to concerns that will upgrade it and make it into a tile showroom.

Before you pooh-pooh a tile showroom as “not what you want to see based on your personal preferences for downtown”, it makes sense for the changing needs of the growing community in general. And it also starts a cleanup, if you will, that will make downtown more appealing to investors and patrons alike.

As such it is a solid use and in the long-run could be a strong “holding pattern” for the property  until such time synergy, the market, and economics a decade or two down the road could lead to another conversion.

The city has also used code enforcement and failure to follow regulations to close another business on the street that had become the bane of downtown concerns working to improve the heart of Manteca.

The city’s efforts are not just limited to downtown.

What you are seeing is the assignment of resources — read that manpower — to put ordinances and laws to work to improve Manteca’s liability by taking on health and safety concerns head.

It has accelerated the use of legal means.

It is why the City Council on Tuesday is being asked to create a third in-house attorney position.

The legal work and processes needed to force compliance to reasonable property maintenance and upkeep laws that a few have egregiously ignored over the years is significant.

What is underway is tying up a significant amount of the deputy city attorney’s time. In order to keep a multitude of other issues moving forward and to continue tackling property upkeep issues, staff is recommending the third attorney.

It is a less expensive and more effective than trying to farm out code enforcement issues on a piecemeal basis.

And not being committed to the manpower needed to meet initiatives advanced by the City Council is why they often goes to the way side or move slower than what is acceptable for elected leaders.

But perhaps more importantly for the central district having the legal and code enforcement manpower  lays the groundwork to address issues that clearly have been holding back some aspects of downtown moving forward as well as addressing blight threats to other commercial areas, neighborhoods, and business park areas.

It’s a tall order but having one attorney on board primarily tasked with overseeing such efforts to gets the ball moving and in turn helps the city move forward.

At the same time as the city is stepping up its code enforcement game, municipal staff when they get wind of a property changing hands have made it a point to contact buyers, discuss what plans they might have in mind, and work to streamline permits and such they will need to move forward.

One such example is the Old City Hall — the two-story brick building on the triangle where Sycamore and Manteca avenues meet across from the library — that was substantially damaged by fire.

The new buyers are toying with the idea of a restaurant on the ground floor and modern-day apartments on the second floor. It would be a micro version of the Santana Row effect in San Jose.

All of this is in addition to discussions the City Council and staff are expected to have Tuesday regarding the best use of two properties Manteca bought near the old city hall — the corner county health clinic and parking lot directly across the street as well as the paved lot where the Wuakeen Hotel once stood on the northeast corner of Sycamore and Yosemite avenues just down the street.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com