Downtown Napa continues to interest entrepreneurs, from small start-ups to four-star names such as celebrity chef Thomas Keller. But the economy isn’t making things easy.

Steve Hasty, the owner of Fagiani’s Bar, said he had been in negotiations to lease the Main Street building to Keller only to see the deal fall through last week. Most intriguingly, Keller said he was considering another downtown property — one within view of Fagiani’s, Hasty said Friday.

Kristine Keefer, a spokes- woman for Thomas Keller, would confirm nothing. The chef does not comment on any potential development until a lease has been signed, she said.

Losing Keller could affect financing for the Fagiani remodel and seismic strengthening, Hasty said. “My financing was subject to a tenant,” he said.

Lenders are more cautious these days, he said. “Without an occupant, how far do they want to extend themselves, credit-wise?” he asked. “Luckily, I am working with (Charter Oak Bank CEO) Brian Kelly and hopefully they will stay in for the duration of the project. It’s tough for (the bank) to commit without knowing about a tenant.”

Even while his search for a tenant continues, Hasty is feeling positive about downtown. “It’s nice to see Main Street become Main Street once again,” he said.

One business that won’t be part of the new downtown scene is Caffe Cicero. Opened by Rich LoCicero on First Street in 2003, the cafe closed last month.

It took until 2006 to get into the black, LoCicero said. “I thought, ‘This is it. We found our niche.’”

Good times lasted only a year. His business began declining last fall, he said.

“I made some cutbacks, some menu changes, and raised our prices a little bit, but as the year went on nothing really improved,” he said.

A tightened credit market also affected his business. “Three weeks ago, I had gone to my bank to ask for a little more money and better terms. They turned me down flat,” he said.

LoCicero said he is negotiating with a potential buyer for the cafe.

“I just didn’t see continuing for another year and struggling to get through it. There is only so much you can do,” he said.

LoCicero predicts fewer mom-and-pop businesses will populate downtown. Smaller business can’t survive downturns like larger chains can, he said.

Even though he’s leaving the area, “I’m high on the future of downtown,” LoCicero said. “It will be successful,” he said. “Downtown is too big to fail.”

Stave, a posh wine tasting room at First and Coombs streets, also recently closed. But downtown’s popularity for wine outlets hardly seems diminished. When Back Room Wines moved to larger quarters on First Street this summer, its old Franklin Street location was snapped up by two young wine guys.

“We decided downtown Napa with all the revitalization going on around here — the Ritz, the Westin — would be a good spot for us,” said Chuck Custodio, owner of Trahan Winery.

Custodio and his partner, Ted Osborne, owner of Olabisi Winery, opened Chuck and Ted’s Tasting Room after first checking out the Upvalley cities.

Downtown Napa has affordable space, Custodio said. With the Avia hotel and the Napa Square development going up across Franklin, theirs will be a prime location, he said.

After years running Napa Wine Merchants at Coombs and Main streets, Thrace Bromberger has decamped to the Oxbow District, downtown’s eastern frontier, opening a GustavoThrace winery tasting room on McKinstry Street.

“I had no choice but to move,” Bromberger said. When her five-year lease expired on Coombs, landlord George Altamura would only renew her lease on month-to-month terms. “There is no business owner who will do a month-to-month lease,” she said.

While walk-in business isn’t as great in the Oxbow, the opening of the Westin Verasa on McKinstry should help bring new business her way, she said.

Bernie Zipp, a downtown presence off and on since 1997, opened Accents Napa Valley, a furnishings store, on west First earlier this year.

“People aren’t spending right and left like the good old days,” Zipp said, but his business is still good. September was his second-best month.

“I think hotels are the key to downtown’s future,” Zipp said. “We’ll have a viable base of shoppers in downtown ready to come out, eat and drink and hopefully shop in little shops such as mine.”

Zipp said he got a good First Street location at decent rent. “Deals like this won’t happen, I believe, in a year.”

All the new commercial development and the closing of Mervyns will benefit one of downtown’s oldest businesses, McCaulou’s department store in Napa Town Center, store owner David McCaulou said.

“We’re seeing some real action. We think it’s going to be solid for us,” McCaulou said. “I think McCaulou’s is in a good position after many years of waiting it out.”