A high-stakes retail drama is playing out at First and Franklin streets. Two independently owned stores -- Napa Valley Emporium and The Neighborhood antiques -- are departing as their landlords try to snare big name replacements.

It's the same relentless economic progress that has winnowed out many a ma-and-pa store downtown over the past three decades, but taken to a new level.

To many merchants and landlords, Talbots, the new upscale women's apparel store at First and Franklin, is downtown's future.

Once Talbots arrived, surrounding landlords began dreaming of signing up the likes of Pottery Barn, the Gap and Barnes and Noble.

Such dreams are putting the squeeze on Napa Valley Emporium, a downtown institution for 25 years that will be quitting its space on First Street this June.

"It's a fist in the gut," said owner Sandi Perlman, who had considered herself one of downtown's success stories.

Perlman, who sells team clothing, Napa Valley souvenirs and home decorations, said her landlord was seeking to triple her rent from $2,000 a month to $6,500.

She can't pay the high rent that national chains such as Talbots do, Perlman said. "I sell $25 items. I can't get away from that. That's who I am."

Kitty corner to Talbots, The Neighborhood, an antiques showroom with a half-acre of retail space, plans to close this summer. Business has been dropping while expenses have been rising, owner Marsha McKindle said.

The real killer, McKindle said, was rising utility bills. She can't handle a $6,000 monthly PG&E bill.

The owners of McKindle's and Perlman's buildings have both retained the commercial broker that brought Talbots to town. Their instructions: Find a similar high-class tenant.

Dave Buurma of BT Commercial represents Jeff Doran, owner of The Neighborhood building, and Bob Zeller, whose family owns Perlman's site.

Talbots coming to town should "open up other doors," Buurma said. "Very few (national) retailers want to be the first one."

In cooperation with Terranomics, a BT Commercial subsidiary, Buurma is pursuing chain stores. "I wouldn't be so bold now if there were no Talbots," he said. Until now, chains have avoided downtown.

Starbucks is Buurma's first possible success. He is negotiating to land the national coffee purveyor for Zeller's Working Man space next to Napa Valley Emporium. The owner of the Working Man is retiring.

To the mom-and-pop businesses leaving First Street, Buurma's quest seems out of sync with economic reality. Most downtown retailers are struggling, Perlman and McKindle say. The foot traffic needed to support a national chain store just isn't there.

"There's just a lack of customers coming downtown," said McKindle, who is doing a third less business today than three years ago.

Because of the lackluster economy, Perlman said her business is down 15 percent from four years ago.

Perlman admits she is paying low rent -- less than $1 per square foot -- a rate that reflects downtown's economic funk when she moved to Zeller's building nine years ago.

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