North Bay Business Journal

NAPA COUNTY – Napa County residents will be asked to vote on a new half-cent sales tax this November, a measure that will go towards much-need road improvements throughout the county.

Hospitality & Tourism column: The Thistle Dew Inn in downtown Sonoma has been purchased by new owners, who will rename the property as An Inn 2 Remember, according to Bay Area Development Company, a Walnut Creek-based SBA lender that provided the financing. …

Across California, restaurateurs, chefs and fine diners who fancy foie gras this week face a grim acknowledgement: their goose is cooked. …

Flavor Napa Valley, the star-studded food and wine festival that started last year as means of highlighting the culinary prowess of the region, will be back for a second year, organizers said. …

The Marin Convention and Visitors Bureau will be hosting a Tourism Summit on Thursday, Sept. 20, at Inn Marin in Novato from 10 a..m. to 2 p.m., with an introduction from Mark Essman on local, regional and state tourism trends presented by Visit California. …

Following are profiles of the top day-to-day leaders from the Business Journal’s lists of the largest independently owned wineries under 100,000 cases, published in March, and the largest wine companies, published in May.

AMERICAN CANYON — Plans are under way to build the largest solar interconnect project in the North Bay at a closed regional sanitary landfill adjacent to the City of American Canyon. This landfill once served the Cities of Napa, Vallejo and American Canyon, as well the County of Napa.

NAPA — The John Muir Inn has been purchased for $6.8 million by local hotelier Rick Swig, who plans to renovate and re-brand the 60-room property as the Napa Winery Inn.

NAPA COUNTY — Efforts to establish an incubator for startups that produce high-tech, high-paying jobs in Napa County have taken a financial step forward, with a combined $25,000 contribution from the county and city of Napa pushing the project closer to reaching an early funding threshold of $38,000.

NAPA — After 18 months of construction — and after weathering one of the toughest economic recessions in memory — The Meritage Resort and Spa officially opened a newly built, $40 million expansion that essentially doubles this size of the existing hotel, which it hopes will help boost tourism spending not just at the hotel but throughout the surrounding area.

SONOMA — Increasing sales of wine plus greater demand for direct shipments has fulfillment services provider Wineshipping packing for a major expansion to Napa Valley.

Commercial real estate leases and sales in the north San Francisco Bay Area

The North Bay Business Journal has announced 15 recipients of its 2012 Women In Business Awards.

Unemployment rates across the North Bay had the seasonal drop in April from March but were markedly improved from figures for the previous April, as private-sector hiring increased in some counties while it remained flat in others, according to state figures released today.

St. Joseph Health System, which owns and operates Santa Rosa Memorial, Queen of the Valley and Petaluma Valley hospitals in the North Bay, is officially dropping “system” from its formal name, which is now just St. Joseph Health.

AMERICAN CANYON — Sonoma County Vintners Co-Op, Inc., which provides wine storage, distribution and fulfillment for a few hundred vintners along the West Coast, has expanded further into Napa Valley with a new warehouse, and the first customer is M.A. Silva USA’s rapidly growing wine bottle business.

NAPA — A year after it significantly expanded a high-end residential interiors dealership in Marin County, Healdsburg-based HLC Inc. is planting roots in Napa Valley.

The Santa Rosa Community Health Centers has selected a new location for its Roseland Children’s Health Center, which is currently housed at an elementary school, that will accommodate the growing services by nearly quadrupling the size of the current site. …

Kaiser Permanente is joining a nationwide effort to combat what health officials say is a growing epidemic — obesity. …

Marin General Hospital’s Cancer Institute received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons. Only 106 out of roughly 3,000 cancer centers in the U.S. have recieved the award, according to Marin General, and it has not been given to any other hospital in Marin, Sonoma, San Francisco or San Mateo counties. …

Marin General Hospital’s Cancer Institute received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons. …

Kaiser Permanente’s Napa-Solano region recently awarded $800,000 in grants to local nonprofits in both counties, focusing on five key areas: access to prevention and primary care services; reducing obesity and overweight rates in adults and children; decreasing risky teen behaviors; prevention of community violence; and reducing health disparities. …

NORTH BAY — A recent state Supreme Court decision has greatly clarified the long contentious issue of when and how employers must provide meal and rest breaks — or at least the opportunity for meal and rest breaks — but employers still need to think carefully about the matter, employment law experts said.

Commercial real estate leases in the north San Francisco Bay Area

NAPA — New Tech Network today announced it will expand by three dozen new middle and high schools schools this year, adding to 115 schools in 18 states already using the Napa-based nonprofit’s project-based learning methods.

Cost Plus Inc. (Nasdaq: CPWM) stores in Santa Rosa, Napa and Greenbrae are part of a $495 million cash deal announced today by the Oakland-based home accessories retailer to sell the operation to New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBY), which has stores in Santa Rosa, Larkspur and Vallejo.

ST. HELENA — St. Helena Hospital today announced that Joseph Phelps, founder of the Napa Valley winery that bears his name, donated $1 million to a hospital capital campaign called Project Transform.