Site Selectors Guild Activity Outlook

Central CaliforniaPress Room2021
By Amanda Chandler Economy 0 Comments

Site Selectors Guild Activity Outlook

The latest survey of the Site Selectors Guild views on site selection activity and trends is attached and I have a few comments. While I generally agree with the greater optimism, I’m more cautious and think that there are uncertainty and nuances to consider.

Guild members are much more optimistic today than in April last year, at the depth of the Covid-19 recessions and uncertainty, that companies will move forward with site selection projects. The pace and coverage of Covid-19 vaccinations is an obvious concern. Second, some projects, such as facilities with long planning and construction timelines and notably those tied to e-commerce such as data centers, e-commerce fulfillment centers, delivery equipment and others seem to have hardly paused. I spoke yesterday to representatives from California’s Central Valley who said that e-commerce fulfillment has been strong throughout in their area driven by access to LA and the Bay Area combined with available land and lower costs.

There is a difference between site selection activity and starting construction. Companies may resume their site searches, but at some time they have to weigh their views of future economic activity and demand for their products and decide whether to start construction or not. Increased activity is not the same as increased investment. We’ll see, but my feeling is that the second half of the year or early 2021is more promising for increase divestment.

I think that stabilization of FDI into the U.S. is more likely than growth. Greater predictability of trade and tariff policy and reliance on rules-based procedures will help confidence. But FDI into the U.S. also depends on pandemic control progress and economic stability in historical investment sources from the EU and other developed countries.

There will the continued pressure for reshoring and crating redundancy particularly in health care related industries where bottlenecks and delays were heightened during the pandemic response. However, supply chains are complicated, and many recent articles have pointed out that supply chains for products as diverse as bicycles and computers are concentrated in east and southeast Asia and this will constrain reshoring in the near term and likely longer. As the Economist noted recently: “Is a wave of supply-chain reshoring around the corner? Experience and evidence suggests they are stickier than you think.”

https://siteselectorsguild.com/news/site-selection-predictions-2021/

By Faughn Back Office • E-Commerce • Hi-Tech • Workforce 0 Comments

How California’s Central Valley is working to become tech hot spot

MODESTO, Calif. — Alejandro Alcazar had worked as a digital marketing coordinator for about a year when he discovered an interest in coding.

“I grew really interested in computer programming through messing with our (company) website and learning a lot about data science,” he said.

Alcazar has a degree in business administration, but he wasn’t using those skills in his job. Still, he didn’t know enough about web development to secure a position in the industry. That’s when he learned about classes at Bay Valley Tech, a Modesto-based coding school.

The 24-year-old enrolled in early 2020, and, after completing the seven-month program, got a job as a business intelligence analyst for a winery.

In his new job, Alcazar said he uses skills he developed at Bay Valley Tech to work with the company’s internal dashboards that show product and demographic data, as well as its search engine. His pay also increased by more than 30% in his new role.

Workers like Alcazar aren’t the only ones wanting to capitalize on the benefits of the tech industry. If a city can retain its tech workers, it can usually count on a boost to the local economy and an influx of other businesses and professionals such as lawyers and accountants.

But keeping tech workers local requires innovation and incentive, as leaders across Stanislaus County in California’s Central Valley are finding out.

Compared with other industries, the tech sector has remained competitive in the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote work has become the new normal, and the tech industry was quick to adapt, expanding flexible work policies into post-pandemic times.

Now, office parks sit empty and cities and corporations must grapple with the changing nature of office work and all the possibilities it brings.

Less than two hours east of the Bay Area, the Central Valley isn’t exactly known as a tech hub. Agriculture, logistics and manufacturing dominate the area; the region is home to the world’s largest commercial winery and farms that feed the nation.

The workforce reflects that too — only 17% of Stanislaus County residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, Census data shows. Given that, it may not be surprising that Modesto, the county’s largest city, has no four-year university of its own.

The “skills gap” in the workforce is only widening. Local high schools and colleges have struggled to keep up as the economy evolves to favor more tech-forward industries.

Tech firms bypass Central Valley
As local talent pools dry up, Silicon Valley companies looking to expand have often picked other states. such as Texas and Idaho, instead of the county next door.

“There’s such a shortage of tech workers in the Bay Area right now that virtually every large tech firm has already expanded out of state looking for more talent,” said Phillip Lan, co-founder of Bay Valley Tech, a local coding academy. “Unfortunately, the vast majority of them have stepped over the Central Valley, just because they don’t feel like there’s enough of a technical workforce here yet.”

Lan and his team are trying to change that. Bay Valley Tech offers free and low-cost coding classes to students in a variety of web-based development languages, providing hands-on training through lessons, events like hackathons, and networking opportunities.

So far, Lan said, Bay Valley Tech has trained more than 150 students and is on pace to reach 300 in 2021. But his goals are set higher.

“Our strategy is that if we train enough people here in the Central Valley, that’ll start to get the attention of these larger tech companies like Uber, Airbnb and Google,” he said. “We’re looking to build out Bay Valley (Tech’s) expertise sector by sector.”

In the past, tech hub development depended in part on the physical infrastructure a city could provide — like Silicon Valley’s history of making computer chips and Austin’s decades-long infrastructure support for its tech industry. But with the pandemic’s new normal and the majority of Silicon Valley’s big tech firms building virtual products, physical space is no longer at a premium.

Focus is on training workers
Instead, Bay Valley Tech and other organizations in the Central Valley are focusing on training employees who can accept remote jobs from Bay Area-based companies or work in satellite offices closer to home.

Daisy Mayorga leads the local chapter of Google’s Women Techmakers, aimed at providing community and resources for women in the industry. She said it’s critical that women and other underrepresented groups in tech are seen and heard by potential employers.

“When people start to see that, you’ll see more businesses start to open and more people start to want to start their own software companies,” she said.

In addition to jobs related to software, Modesto is trying to attract employers who build hardware. The VOLT Institute, a trade school focused on maintenance mechanics and mechatronics, recently acquired new equipment to train workers.

Kevin Fox, director of marketing and student engagement at VOLT, said the pandemic has taught the staff that improving workers’ skills is crucial, especially when employers are “desperate to bring anybody who is qualified with the proper skill set on to fill those positions that are vacant.”

Alcazar agrees.

He said the Central Valley has plenty of residents who are hungry for these kinds of opportunities.

“There are young people here that are just dying to get a good job and try something creative and useful,” he said. “Something that benefits a community.”

Source: Kristina Karisch covers economic development for The Modesto Bee. This dispatch is part of a series called “On the Ground” with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Follow her on Twitter: @kristinakarisch

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/03/11/how-californias-central-valley-working-become-tech-hot-spot-column/6936506002/

By Amanda Chandler Manufacturing 0 Comments

Riverbank made bold plans for old Army ammo plant

Twelve years after the Army stopped making ammunition in Riverbank, the vast plant is only partway toward its potential for new jobs. But that could improve soon, local officials said during a tour Thursday for Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock. They envision about 2,000 people working for various tenants, up from about 650 now, with an emphasis on green industries.

Harder heard about how long it is taking for state and federal agencies to ensure that contaminated portions of the site are cleaned up. It stretches across 173 acres at Claus and Claribel roads, with about 150 buildings and plenty of open land. Harder earlier helped a company navigate federal rules regarding foreign investment in a venture that would make vehicle fuel from nut shells and orchard wood waste. Aemetis plans to employ about 50 people on the Riverbank site and said contract truckers would add perhaps 1,000 more jobs. “There’s a lot of unique things about this site,” Harder said. “It’s already prebuilt for manufacturing opportunities.”

https://www.modbee.com/news/business/article249252650.html

By Amanda Chandler Distribution 0 Comments

Camping World to open distribution center in Tejon Ranch Commerce Center

Tejon Ranch Co. (NYSE: TRC) is pleased to announce Camping World Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CWH) as the newest addition at Tejon Ranch Commerce Center (TRCC). Camping World is in the process of relocating operations from their 160,000 sq ft distribution center in Bakersfield to a brand new 389,160 sq ft location within TRCC, and has agreed to a multi-year lease within a 579,160 sq ft building within TRCC owned by TRC and its partner in the building Majestic Realty. “We are happy to welcome Camping World to our ever-expanding Tejon Ranch Commerce Center neighborhood. Their relocation to TRCC is a testament to the value of our central location and adjacency to both Interstate 5 and Hwy 99 – making it the ideal and opportune place for companies wanting to expand in
California to locate their business.” said Joseph N. Rentfro, executive vice president of real estate at Tejon Ranch Co.

TRCC is growing to maximum capacity and remains 100% leased as well as 100% occupied. TRCC’s 1,450- acre state of the art development is located at the junction of Interstate 5 and Highway 99 in Kern County and features 20 million square feet of fully-entitled commercial and industrial space. In addition to Camping World’s recent relocation to TRCC, the commerce center has also enabled recent expansions by existing businesses like Dollar General and IKEA, welcomed L’OREAL, and is also home to the major distribution centers of like Famous Footwear and Caterpillar.

http://tejoncommerce.com/images/news/Press_Release_Camping_World_TRCC_FINAL.pdf

By Amanda Chandler Distribution 0 Comments

Wonderful Company Adds Amazon to its Tenant Roster at Wonderful Industrial Park

Wonderful Real Estate Development has landed Amazon as an anchor tenant at Wonderful Industrial Park (WIP) on the heels of Walmart Inc. taking occupancy at the industrial commerce park – one of the largest in the Western U.S. Amazon leased a 1 million-square-foot building on 72-acres located at 4500 Express within Wonderful Industrial Park, and joins other large occupiers in the park such as Ross Stores with +3 million square feet on 130 acres, Target’s 2 million square feet on 80 acres and, Walmart at 630,000 square feet and 80 feet of clear height on 60 acres. Walmart’s new state of the art grocery-focused distribution center incorporates the most sophisticated automated sorting equipment and systems in the industry.

With Amazon, WIP is now approaching 10 million square feet of occupied space. Other WIP occupants include Essendant (Staples, Inc), American Tire Distributors, Formica, and Hillman as well as other 3PLs who have found WIP’s location and amenities extremely profitable. “Despite Covid-19, the commercial real estate story of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 continues to be how hot the industrial market is, with tenants like Ross, Walmart and now, Amazon, choosing to locate these major mission-critical facilities at WIP in consecutive years. It not only validates our location and development model, but adds an exclamation mark to industrial activity across the U.S.,” said Joe Vargas, President of Wonderful Real Estate Development.

In the first quarter of 2021, Wonderful will also break ground on its latest speculative development, 3800 Fanucchi Way. 3800 Fanucchi Way will feature 1,063,000 square feet, 40 feet of clear height, 215-dock high doors, and parking expandable to 1,000 stalls to accommodate trailers and employee spaces. The building will be delivered in the fourth quarter 2021. This facility will be located on a 70-acre site with a building-to-site coverage of 35%.

https://apnews.com/press-release/globenewswire-mobile/business-north-america-vincent-pontare-professional-services-personnel-d9b6dcaf1de131cc221ede35061903ce

By Amanda Chandler Commercial 0 Comments

T-MOBILE INKS LEASE IN KINGSBURG FOR 1,000-EMPLOYEE CENTER

After some three years of negotiations, phone giant T- Mobile has inked a lease of the former K-Mart building in Kingsburg, according to real estate sources. The property is owned by State Foods grocery chain owner Mike Alamsi, who was unavailable for comment. San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders has received a permit to begin demolition in the interior of the sprawling K-mart building that will house the new T-Mobile call center. The demolition permit alone is $1 million. The same big builder will be doing the tenant improvements that will follow. The vacant 105,000 square-foot building is at 333 Sierra St.

A demolition permit was issued Jan. 26 for the major project that is expected to bring hundreds of new jobs to the area in early 2022, says Kingsburg Economic Development Coordinator Jolene Polyack. The center is expected to employ around 1,000 when in full operation.

https://thebusinessjournal.com/t-mobile-inks-lease-in-kingsburg-for-1000-employee-center/?mc_cid=a97a003870&mc_eid=6fb731bbc6

 

By Amanda Chandler Distribution • E-Commerce 0 Comments

Valley counties see demand for warehouse space

As more of us shop online, the demand for warehouse and distribution centers is going up. “E-commerce is drawing a lot of the growth around here. For us, we’re a support business towards that e-commerce, so that’s actually a big piece of our business,” said Christian Ueland, TranPak owner They’re just one of the businesses in the Freedom Industrial Park.Madera County Economic Development officials expect more growth. “We’re seeing a lot of pressure for warehouse space, e-commerce types of facilities, logistics, distribution centers. Just all kinds of warehouse and logistics facilities,” said Bobby Kahn, Madera County Economic Development Executive Director.Bobby Kahn with the Madera County Economic Development says the pandemic accelerated e-commerce and companies are looking for space to keep up and ahead across the country and here in the Valley. Fulfillment centers take 64 million square feet nationwide. “The recent report by CBRE, which is a national real estate company, ranked the Central Valley as the number three growth area in the nation so that just shows the impact the Central San Joaquin Valley is having nationwide, not just here locally, statewide, nationally,” Kahn said.

Why is the Valley so attractive? “If you’re going to be doing commerce or e-commerce, you’re going to be distributing to both ends of the state, it centers you right here in the middle. Secondly, the cost of property and availability of property,” Kahn said. These Projects could bring Jobs and added tax revenues. Madera County says it’s working on projects and partnerships, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens next. Overall, the Central Valley seems to be in the right place to help companies and e-commerce growth in the future.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/valley-counties-see-demand-for-warehouse-space/ar-BB1enNDt?ocid=BingNewsSearch

By Amanda Chandler Economy • New Developments • Quality of Life • Workforce 0 Comments

Migration has turned the Central Valley into a suddenly hot housing market

A dozen years ago, the sprawling subdivisions of San Joaquin County became a national symbol of the financial crisis: cul-de-sacs lined with foreclosed homes and half-built neighborhoods abandoned by bankrupt speculators. Now builders in places like Tracy, Lathrop and Mountain House have a new problem. They can’t build homes fast enough to meet the demand of families looking to relocate from the Bay Area.The pandemic-driven desire for more living space, coupled with the freedoms afforded by corporate work-from-home rules, is luring thousands of Bay Area families over the Altamont Pass to planned communities where homes are often bigger — and 50% cheaper — than they are in Dublin or Fremont or San Leandro. Nowhere is the trend more pronounced than River Islands, a 5,000-acre development on the San Joaquin River in Lathrop that includes 13 man-made lakes and miles of riverfront trails. Schools, ball fields, parks and fire stations make up a community that will eventually include 11,000 single-family homes and another 4,000 apartments and condos clustered around a new town center.

After selling 371 homes in 2019, River Islands saw a 57% increase in 2020, with 641 sales. And the share of its buyers relocating from the Bay Area jumped, from 55% to 76%. About 2,300 families have moved in so far, and there are 1,500 kids — a number expected to eventually reach 9,000, according to the developer. “Our builders have so much demand they have waiting lists,” said River Islands Development President Susan Dell’Osso. “They are basically doing custom builds for every home buyer.”

Data from the United States Postal Service backs up the claim that the out-migration from the Bay Area to San Joaquin County is picking up. Between March and November, at least 6,320 households moved to ZIP codes in San Joaquin County from one of these Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Marin. That’s a 22% increase over 2019. Sales are also exceeding expectations at Tracy Hills, a 5,000-home development west of Lathrop, according to John Stanek, a partner with Integral Communities, the master developer. Tracy Hills sold 400 homes in 2020. The project opened in the late spring of 2019, so there is nothing to compare the sales to, but the pace easily exceeded expectations.

The out-migration to the Central Valley is being driven by the Bay Area’s astronomical home prices and the fact that builders have failed to create enough housing to satisfy demand. Neighborhood opposition to development is widespread, and Bay Area developers often spend years bogged down in lawsuits before winning approvals. Homes at River Island average about $225 a square foot, compared to $375 in Hercules, $506 in Livermore, $533 in San Leandro and $711 in Fremont.

While many of the new residents are currently able to work from home, the danger is that remote employment may not last and that the Central Valley influx will worsen the environmental issues the Bay Area has been grappling with for years — clogged freeways, marathon commutes and cars pumping even more carbon dioxide into the air, according to David Garcia, policy director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation. A 2019 study by the Bay Area Economic Institute found 80,000 commuters drive between the northern end of San Joaquin County and the Bay Area, an average of 120 miles, 75% of them alone in a car. “Traffic was very bad before COVID, and may be worse after COVID,” said Garcia, who was raised in Stockton and used to make the 2 ½-hour commute to Berkeley. “Having the Central Valley be the Bay Area’s affordable housing option is not an optimal outcome.”

Virgra Banaag, who goes by the name Bing, said that she was not really in the market for a new home when she checked out River Island while visiting her sister nearby. Her family of four — her husband is an electrician and her kids are 7 and 13 — were living in Hercules and had expected to stay. When she toured an open house in River Islands, “the house called to me.” They decided to move. “I had never even heard of River Islands before, and now everybody wants to live here,” she said. “It’s the talk of my friends right now.”

Leslie and Chad Bourdon moved to River Islands with their two kids just a few months before the pandemic hit. They had previously lived for 13 years in San Francisco and four years in Marin. Chad Bourdon is a co-owner of 25 Lusk, the fine-dining establishment in downtown San Francisco. Leslie Bourdon said they had been looking for a year for a house that had good schools and enough living space. Having grown up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, she was drawn to the waterfront. The family put in a pool and have a private dock where they keep paddleboards, kayaks and a pedal boat. She said her Bay Area friends were surprised by the move. “You say ‘Lathrop,’ and people say, ‘Where is that?’ You say ‘Central Valley’ and people from the Bay Area cringe, thinking, ‘yikes.’”

Paul Jorge Dizon, a nurse who works at Kaiser Permanente, was paying $3,100 a month for his apartment in Hayward. He set out looking to buy something and quickly determined that on his budget, between $500,000 and $600,000, he could not afford anything in the Bay Area. In Tracy Hills he found a 2,500-square-foot house for $570,000. “You are away from the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area, but not too far,” he said.

Dean Wehrli, Northern California principal for John Burns Real Estate Consulting, said that River Islands is the best-selling planned community in the state. Wehrli said the influx has been driven by Silicon Valley workers who are more likely to be able to continue to work from home at least some of the time. “In the back of their mind, they are thinking that if they are called back into the office two or three days a week, it’s a terrible but doable commute,” he said. “Whereas Fresno or Reno or Boise are not.”

Newark-based mover Jose Martinez said about 20% of his business is Central Valley relocations, up from 10% a year ago. “Every time it’s always the same story,” he said. “Prices in the Bay Area are skyrocketing, and people find it easier these days to live in a home with bigger dimensions.” He is considering making a move himself. “I definitely have my eye on Manteca.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/the-bay-area-migration-has-turned-the-central-valley-into-a-suddenly-hot-housing-market/ar-BB1emQvK
By Amanda Chandler Energy • Manufacturing 0 Comments

Energy Recovery Commissions New Production Facility

Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERII) today announced that manufacturing of PX® Pressure Exchangers® (“PX“) has begun in its newest production facility in Tracy, California. The opening of the 54,000 square foot facility marks the completion of a comprehensive manufacturing capacity increase plan that, combined with process optimization and additional equipment procurement, has more than doubled the Company’s output of PX ceramic components in just under two years. “We expect revenue growth of up to 25% this year in our Water segment, and the opening of our Tracy facility gives us confidence in fulfilling our strong backlog of orders while creating critical redundancy of our manufactured components,” said Robert Mao, Energy Recovery Chairman of the Board and President and Chief Executive Officer. “We were able to progress quickly, ensuring this facility was capable of operations while taking the necessary safety precautions against the spread of COVID-19.”

The city of Tracy is located 47 miles east of Energy Recovery’s headquarters in San Leandro, California. The close proximity of the two facilities allows for better integration and collaboration within the manufacturing process, helping to ensure consistent product quality across all production locations. Tracy was selected as a location due to its diverse pool of skilled labor, location in a low-risk seismic zone, independent power grid and access to key transportation access points. “Thanks to our strong relationships and market insight, we were able to accurately forecast the rapid growth of desalination we are seeing today and implement strategic capacity expansions. The Tracy facility has flexibility for further capacity additions in the future as required and positions us continuing reliably serving our customers’ growing businesses,” said Emily Smith, Energy Recovery’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Operations.

http://www.energyrecovery.com/media/energy-recovery-commissions-new-production-facility/

By Amanda Chandler Tourism 0 Comments

Trail Hopes to Restart Tulare County’s Budding Tourism Industry

If you’re looking for a reason to get out of the house and soak up some scenery, Tulare County’s more than 431,000 acres of orchards offer splash of color this month as we head toward spring.

Last week, Visit Visalia, which promotes the area as a tourism destination, released its 2021 Blossom Trail Map, just in time for the annual springtime event. The seasonal display of brilliant color traditionally begins in mid-February and continues through March, making it prime blossom viewing time in Tulare County. The map is free and can be downloaded on the Visit Visalia website.

In California’s Central Valley, agricultural fields dominate the landscape and Tulare County is the most diversified ag producing area in the world. For Visalia, in Tulare County, those fields that surround the city become awash with color in springtime as the trees begin to sprout their buds. More than 120 crops grow in and around Visalia.

The self-guided driving tour takes visitors through the county just north of the city where almond, peach, plums and apricot orchards burst forth with their blossoms each spring. Along with the colorful orchards, visitors will see other crops like kiwi, citrus, almonds, walnuts, cherries and more. With a variety of orchards and groves, visitors can see many types of agriculture. For those headed to the national parks, we encourage a quick side trip to experience the spring season of bloom. With the Sierra Nevada mountains as a backdrop, capped with snow from recent storms, the Visalia Blossom Trail is an easy route to take towards the park entrances.

Visit Visalia continues to urge Americans to adhere to healthy travel practices—and a socially distant drive is a great way to stay healthy. The Visalia Cares Stay Safe program has a wealth of resources and guidance to encourage safe and healthy travel, which includes wearing a mask, frequent hand washing, maintaining physical distance when possible and staying home if feeling sick. Visit Visalia is a collaboration of the Visalia Tourism Marketing District and the Visalia Convention and Visitors Bureau (VCVB) dedicated to marketing, advertising, public relations and other promotional efforts that inspire travel to the City of Visalia. Visit Visalia works closely with local lodging properties, restaurants and attractions to foster interest in Visalia as a year-round destination for leisure, family, and meeting and convention travelers.

https://thesungazette.com/article/visalia/2021/03/03/trail-hopes-to-restart-tulare-countys-budding-tourism-industry/