Davis Commons is the small shopping center on the corner of 1st St. and Richards Blvd. at E St.
Early concept model of Davis Commons 
Davis Commons was completed in 1997, amid protest that the arrival of Davis' first corporate chain bookstore, Borders, would drive out smaller independent booksellers. (Several did actually close shortly thereafter, including The Next Chapter, Coffee & Classics, and Gayle's Books). And then in 2011 Borders (the whole chain) itself closed, with Whole Foods as the new tenant, amid worry that its arrival would threaten the Davis Food Co-op, Nugget, and other pre-existing grocery stores, especially while the town was still absorbing the recent arrival of Trader Joe's (often see as a competitor to Whole Foods).
Davis Commons was featured on the ABC Nightly News as "an example of appropriate development for the 21st Century." (In all fairness, though, Davis Commons is preferable to the standard shoebox-style strip mall, like Fifth Street Plaza.)
The tract of land that is now Davis Commons was once a Native American village, which was another reason for controversy around the building of the center. Interestingly, the burial ground for the village was also built over; it's called the Mondavi Center.
Mark Friedman, president of Fulcrum Properties, built and owns Davis Commons; it was developed by two local firms, Pyramid Construction and Cunningham Engineering Corporation.
It consists of the following stores and restaurants:
- The Halal Guys
- Mikuni, a sushi/Japanese restaurant chain
- Solomon's Delicatessen
- Pluto's
- Verizon Wireless EVO2 Store
Former Stores:
- AT&T Wireless — Became Cingular and then became AT&T again.
- Cingular Wireless — Formerly AT&T Wireless.
- Ben & Jerry's
- Borders
- DeVon's Jewelers
- Fuzio
- Habit Burger
- Hot Italian
- Jamba Juice
- The Melt
- Papyrus
- Pinkberry
- Spirit Halloween Occupied the space left by Borders after Borders closed until just after Halloween.
- Whole Foods
- Bath and Body Works
- The Gap
The Arboretum Terrace on the east side of the complex has some great outside seating. At the back of the parking lot you can access the arboretum bikeways.
The walkway between the former Fuzio and the former Ben & Jerry's
Sculpture on the east end of the lawn
Does anyone have a picture of the sculpture of a man in a box that used to be in at the end of the pictured walkway?
I remember it being a woman? Of course, that was a long time ago.
I'm pretty sure it was a nude man —StevenDaubert
