1st and Main. The JC Penney building is a remnant of the time when the Downtown was the commercial center of Chico. After Penney’s moved to the Mall, the building was subdivided into a series of retail and business storefronts on the ground floor with storage and office uses on the second floor. Large windows on the second floor were boarded up in an attempt to modernize the exterior, while the original second staircase visible in old photos was removed to maximize street level frontage. The second floor is under-utilized, with much space taken over for utilities for the ground floor tenants.