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$25.4M FRESNO LEASE TOPS 2018 REAL ESTATE DEALS

Published On January 28, 2019 – 1:51 PM
Written By David Castellon

At a cost of more than $24.4 million, you might expect that in the Valley’s most expensive real estate transaction of 2018, you’d get to keep the building.

Not that there’s any building up yet on the 20-acre parcel slated to become Phase 2 of the Marketplace at El Paseo shopping center south of West Herndon Avenue and North Riverside Drive.

Currently there’s Phase 1 of the shopping center, which includes Target, Old Navy, Tillys and Burlington stores. Just to the south, off Riverside Drive, is a former fig grove, now barren, with workers driving heavy equipment along the dirt over the past three weeks to level out the land ahead of planned construction of an expansion to the Marketplace.

Owners of the property have lease agreements to locate businesses on the new site that include Hobby Lobby; Carter’s, Inc.; Wayback Burgers; Que Pasa Mexican Café and the expansion of an undisclosed, locally-based Japanese restaurant.

And talks are underway to also lease space there as an added site for a local brew pub and restaurant, the name of which also hasn’t been disclosed.

But the biggest lease agreement in Phase 2 is with Regal Entertainment Group for a planned 49,950-square-foot, 12-screen movie theater on the site.

But Regal will not build the new Regal Cinema theater. Instead, the developers of the shopping center — Manhattan Beach-based Gryphon Capital and Rich Development Enterprises, LLC, out of Santa Ana — have agreed to build the theater and lease it to Regal for the $24.4 million-plus lease price.

Chris Shane, managing partner for Gryphon, declined to disclose the length of the lease, confirming only that it would last multiple years. Efforts to contact officials representing Regal weren’t successful.

While not an actual property purchase, the lease agreement, which was finalized in July 2018, still was the highest-valued commercial real estate transaction last year in Fresno, Kings, Tulare or Madera counties, according to The Business Journal’s annual list of the Largest Commercial Real Estate Transactions.

Besides being in a prime retail space off busy Highway 99, “It’s a build-to-suit with a very large national tenant. The building is very expensive, therefore the rent adjusts accordingly, Then you have a multi-year lease, so you have a high transaction number,” Lewis Smith, a leasing agent for Fresno’s Retail California, said of the deal he helped broker between the developers and Regal Entertainment, which operate the Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres and Edwards chains, which already have four theaters in Fresno and Clovis.

“This has been about three years in the works,” he said of the negotiations.

Work to develop the Marketplace on 75 acres began in 2006 and continued through and after the Great Recession.

Northwest Fresno near the Highway 99 and Herndon intersection was chosen as the site in part because of the growing number of homes being developed in the area, its increasingly upscale demographics and its proximity to the freeway, Shane said.

He added that much of Fresno’s growth is occurring in the northwest part of the city, also making it a good spot to locate the Marketplace.

And along 99 there is no shopping center like it for at least 30 miles north or south, he said, adding that over the five years Phase 1 businesses have been open, operators have reported customers coming from farther distances to shop there.

Plans are to expand Phase 1 beyond its current 400,000 square feet of retail and restaurant spaces, with efforts underway to find tenants for three small retail or restaurant spaces to be built in current parking lot spaces off Herndon Avenue and Riverside Drive.

As for Phase 2, the plan is to build 200,000 square feet of leasable space there, and early on it was decided a movie theater would be included in the mix, said Shane, whose company developed the Trading Post shopping center in Clovis, which includes a Sprouts Farmers Market, Skechers USA and a Ross store.

“Even though we are from Southern California, we know the [Fresno] market very well,” he said. “Northwest Fresno is underserved in terms of quality movie theaters.

“We felt that the competition from the [retail] markets that access 99 didn’t have theaters, either.”

The theater, expected to open in the first quarter of 2020, would allow families to do things at the Marketplace beyond shopping and eating, Shane said.

“We’re going to have a nice mix of retail, restaurants and entertainment that people will drive to from pretty far away,” Smith added.

As for the theater, “It’s just going to be the most state-of-the-art, nicest, most upscale theater in the Valley,” said Smith, citing that it will include gourmet food options, wine and beer sales, reclining seats and high-quality sound and visual systems, and it will be one of at least five prototypes for a new style of movie theaters Regal is developing.

Coming in at No. 2 in the real estate transactions list was the $11.6 million sale of a 191,341 square-foot commercial building at 200 W. Pontiac Way in Clovis.

Rounding out the top 3 was the sale of an 82,000 square-foot commercial building at 1177 Fulton St. in Fresno for $10.68 million.

This is the former Guarantee Savings building purchased by State Center Community College District.

https://thebusinessjournal.com/25-4m-fresno-lease-tops-2018-real-estate-deals/?utm_source=Daily+Update&utm_campaign=26d02d6fa7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_28_09_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fb834d017b-26d02d6fa7-78934409&mc_cid=26d02d6fa7&mc_eid=a126ded657

AMAZON QUIETLY EXPANDS WITH 2ND FRESNO FACILITY

Published On January 28, 2019 – 10:20 AM
Written By David Castellon

You may not have noticed, but Amazon quietly expanded its footprint in Fresno late last year.

The new facility has likely created upwards of 400 new jobs, as evidenced by a permit filed with the city.

Over the summer, Amazon laid a big, obvious footprint in the city by opening its newly built 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center in the south end of the city, off Central and Orange avenues.

By its sheer size and the large Amazon logo on its front, the building is hard not to notice. But what you many not have noticed is a not nearly as big, nondescript building amid other industrial buildings less than three miles to the north, in the 2300 block of Cedar Avenue.

In front hangs a small banner sign, and you might have to stop your car and get out to read “DELIVERY STATION” across the top with the Amazon logo beneath it.

This delivery station is one of more than 75 the online giant operates around the country, most fairly close to their fulfillment centers as one of the many methods used to get goods ordered from those centers to homes and businesses.

Many of those goods are shipped via the U.S. Postal service and large private shippers, FedEx and UPS among them.

But for shipments that are close to the fulfillment centers where the packages originated or are routed through them, Amazon often trucks those goods to the company’s delivery stations. From that point, they’re sorted and distributed for delivery, either by local package-delivery businesses contracted to do the work or by private drivers contracted to work through Amazon Flex, an Uber-like service in which people schedule their spare time to make $18-$25 an hour delivering Amazon packages using their own cars.

A company official said hundreds of full-time, part-time and contracted people work at the leased Fresno facility but declined to offer a specific number.

The building is owned by Anheuser-Busch wholesaler Donaghy Sales. A development permit filed by Donaghy indicates a 373-stall parking lot is being built at the site.

https://thebusinessjournal.com/amazon-quietly-expands-with-2nd-fresno-facility/https://thebusinessjournal.com/amazon-quietly-expands-with-2nd-fresno-facility/

Drug and genetics giant to ship products from Visalia

Drug and genetics giant to ship products from Visalia

MilliporeSigma plans to open distribution center in Visalia Industrial Park by the end of this year

By Reggie Ellis @Reggie_SGN

VISALIA – One of the world’s leaders in the research and development of pharmaceutical products and genetic editing will soon be part of the Visalia Industrial Park. 

MilliporeSigma has confirmed it will be opening a 120,000-square foot distribution center in Visalia in the fourth quarter of this year. Karen Tiano, spokesperson for MilliporeSigma, said the company chose Visalia due to its central location and easy access to transportation routes. She said the Visalia facility will employ about 30 people to distribute the company’s products primarily throughout California. 

“This will be a local distribution center for our California market capable of storing a range of products, including temperature sensitive products,” Tiano said in an email last week. “We serve a variety of West Coast customers that will benefit from this new distribution center.”

A leader in life science, MilliporeSigma develops and manufactures scientific lab materials, technologies, and services in the areas of pharmaceuticals, equipment and food and drug testing. MilliporeSigma is the parent company for six life science brands including Sigma-Aldrich, Milli-Q, Supelco, Millipore, BioReliance, and SAFC. 

The company is a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, an international pharmaceutical conglomerate specializing in science and technology across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 51,000 employees work for the company in cutting edge labs to advance gene-editing technologies and discover unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices. In 2017, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany—which operates in the U.S. as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Performance Materials—generated billions in sales in 66 countries. For more information about Merck, KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, visit www.emdgroup.com.

MilliporeSigma has received awards for innovative products for the pharmaceutical industry and for research and development of technologies for analytical testing and genome editing. The company is a leader in the controversial field of genome editing. CRISPR genome-editing technology, which allows the precise modification of chromosomes in living cells, is advancing treatment options for a variety of medical conditions. CRISPR applications are far-ranging — from identifying genes associated with cancer and rare diseases to reversing mutations that cause blindness. At the same time, the growing potential of genome-editing technologies has opened scientific, legal and societal concerns. MilliporeSigma supports research with genome editing under careful consideration of ethical and legal standards. MilliporeSigma’s parent company, Merck, KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, has established an independent, external Bioethics Advisory Panel to provide guidance for research in which its businesses are involved, including research on or using genome editing, and has developed, defined and transparently published a clear operational position taking into account scientific and societal issues to inform promising therapeutic approaches for use in research and applications.

“We are committed to making our patented CRISPR technology broadly available to the global research and discovery community,” said Udit Batra, CEO, MilliporeSigma stated in an announcement in December. “We will continue to play an active role, responsibly and ethically, in ensuring that scientists have access to the latest CRISPR technologies.”

With a 14-year history in the genome-editing field, MilliporeSigma was the first company to offer custom biomolecules for genome editing globally, driving adoption of these techniques by researchers all over the world. MilliporeSigma was also the first company to manufacture arrayed CRISPR libraries covering the entire human genome, accelerating cures for diseases by allowing scientists to explore more questions about root causes.

New distribution center coming to Visalia’s industrial park

Visalia’s industrial park continues to grow.

MilliporeSigma, a Massachusetts-based life science company, provides research, process, and applied solutions to scientists and engineers.

A spokesperson confirmed the company plans to lease a soon-to-be built facility along Riggin Avenue, near Plaza Drive.

“This site was chosen due to its central location and easy access to transportation routes,” said MilliporeSigma Spokesperson Karen Tiano.

It will serve as a west coast distribution center for Millipore Sigma’s life science products.

Tiano said the center will create around 30 new jobs.

It’s expected to be open later this year.

Report: California tops $50 Billion in ag revenue

Central Valley Business TImes

January 8, 2019

  • Nearly 6 percent higher than in 2017
  • “These are still exciting times for agriculture”

California’s farmers and ranchers had more than $50 billion in cash receipts for their output last year, an increase of almost 6 percent compared to 2016, according to the new California Agricultural Statistics Review for crop year 2017. That is nearly double the next highest state, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

The Number 2 state is Iowa, followed by Texas, Nebraska and Minnesota. Seven out of the top ten counties for agricultural output value are in the Central Valley: California’s agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities.

Over a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California. California is the leading state for cash farm receipts, accounting for over 13 percent of the nation’s total agricultural value. The top producing commodities for 2017 include: Dairy products, milk — $6.56 billion Grapes— $5.79 billion Almonds— $5.60 billion Strawberries— $3.10 billion Cattle and calves — $2.53 billion Lettuce— $2.41 billion Walnuts— $1.59 billion Tomatoes— $1.05 billion Pistachios— $1.01 billion Broilers— $939 million.

“As you know, farming and ranching can be a tough business. But these are still exciting times for agriculture,” says Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture in the report.

“As we move further into the 21st Century we see a worldwide demand for food that is growing rapidly, and a corresponding demand for Californiagrown products that will bring tremendous opportunity for producers able to maintain sustainability in the face of climate change.”

California agricultural exports totaled $20.56 billion for 2017. Top commodities for export in 2017 included almonds, dairy and dairy products, pistachios, wine and walnuts.

https://files.constantcontact.com/2cb20f61601/a854fb07-0e00-4ef3-8c8b-cfc37345e907.pdf

Dentistry company expands in Stockton

 

Central Valley Business Times

January 7,2019

  • Western Dental opens its first pediatric dental office
  • “The new office builds upon our solid base in Stockton”

Western Dental & Orthodontics, one of the nation’s largest oral healthcare and orthodontics companies, is opening its first children’s dentistry offices in Stockton.

The new office, at 616 West Hammer Lane, will serve pediatric patients exclusively. Western Dental also owns and operates five other Western Dental offices in Stockton, which serve patients of all ages.

“Our pediatric dental team is excited to be part of the Stockton community in this beautiful new office with state-of-the-art digital equipment,” says Syed Hyder, managing doctor for the new Stockton office.

The 3,500 square-foot office has been designed with colorful graphics. The pediatric dental services include sealants to help  prevent cavities, fluoride treatments, and a full-service orthodontics department.

“The new Western Dental Kid’s office in Stockton builds upon our solid base in Stockton and expands access to children in the area,” says John Luther, chief dental officer for Western Dental.

On the rise? The Central Valley is beating the Bay Area and L.A. in key measures