They’re busy sprucing up the long-vacant Kelley Brothers Brewing Co. in the heart of downtown Manteca including new paint.

But what they are doing it for is a mystery of sorts.

Inquires asked of the workers produced no clue. Downtown business people have been trying to find out what’s going on. No one knows at city hall either as there is no record of a business license being sought.

When the fire gutted El Rey Theatre  (it burned after a screening of “The Towering Inferno” on Aug. 6, 1975 while  it’s ironic demise is immortalized as a question in Trivia Pursuit) was remodeled and opened in late 1999 as a restaurant and brewery it instantly become the biggest draw downtown. Just over a decade later on Jan. 31, 2012 it become a victim of the Great Recession.