By Faughn New Location • Workforce 0 Comments

New AutoZone warehouse now open in Chowchilla

It may be hard to miss the brand-new AutoZone warehouse in the North Valley. The distribution center is now open in Chowchilla. It’s located between Highway 99 and the Chowchilla Airport and created some 280 new jobs for the area. The last project of this scale to hit the city of about 19,000 residents was more than 40 years ago. The American retailer, which sells aftermarket auto parts and accessories, is the largest in the United States.

https://abc30.com/post/new-autozone-warehouse-now-open-chowchilla/15185291/

By Faughn New Developments • New Location • Tourism 0 Comments

New $36 million hotel coming to Merced

The next addition to one of Merced’s newest shopping centers is about halfway complete and set to open next year. Those who have driven by Campus Parkway Plaza have seen the large project under construction.

The Hilton Garden Inn is scheduled to open in August or September of 2025, according to Daniel Moradzadeh, director of the Merced-based Shemoil’s Investment Development which owns the hotel and Campus Parkway Plaza property. The five-story hotel, which will consist of 133 rooms, is a $36 million project. “It’s taken three generations of investing in our local community by my family to get to this point,” Moradzadeh said. “It’s been a massive undertaking.”

The Hilton Garden Inn will become a new addition to the Campus Parkway Plaza, which already houses a Starbucks, Tractor Supply Co., Chipotle, McDonald’s, and two gas stations. The 44,224-square-foot hotel will sit on an 8.3 acre lot that sits on the southwest corner of Campus Parkway and Coffee Street. The hotel include a parking lot with landscaping components. The hotel will also have two kitchens, one dedicated to the hotel and the other to a banquet facility that will sit approximately 350 people. There will also be a full-service bar in the hotel. There will also be an outside sitting area with a fire pit. There are plans to have a projection TV near the outside bar area as well.

“The main reason why we decided to construct this hotel is because the City of Merced needs marquee development,” Moradzadeh said. “This will be something that’s not only elegant, but has the class to go with it.”

As a local investment and development company, Moradzadeh says they’ve hired local contractors, including Merced-based Marvulli Construction. “You want to keep as much money as possible with our local community,” Moradzadeh said. Moradzadeh felt the location for the new hotel is ideal with the freeway access at Campus Parkway, the proximity to UC Merced and the building of a nearby regional sports complex on the 40-acre Community Park 42, which will eventually host large sports tournaments.

Moradzadeh says the company was approached by many hotel and motel companies, but chose to go with Hilton Garden Inn because they allowed them to tailor the hotel to fit what they wanted to build in Merced. “We decided to secure our franchise with Hilton because they gave us the highest-rated brand we could bring to Merced,” Moradzadeh said. Moradzadeh says construction of the hotel has remained on schedule. “As far as our scope of construction goes, we’re approximately 50% done,” Moradzadeh said. “The structure is completed, it’s fully framed. We’re one year out from our our test runs.”

https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/article290481614.html

By Faughn New Developments • New Location • Tourism 0 Comments

Another truck stop pulling into Tipton

A new truck stop will be pulling into Tipton soon.

Mike Washam, head of economic development for Tulare County, said plans for a TA Truck Stop have been filed to locate at Avenue 120 and Road 124 on the eastside of Highway 99 near Tipton. Avenue 120 is at the north end of Tipton, just a few miles south of Tulare. It is also the location of the California Dairies plant where the company manufactures milk powder, bulk butter, nutritional powders and processed fluids.

“They are doing civil works now” to locate the multi pump station with a convenience store, showers and a restaurant, Washam said. The site was formerly an old cotton gin.

The TA chain is owned by TravelCenters of America LLC, the largest publicly traded full-service truck stop and travel center company in the United States. The company operates full-service centers, convenience stores, and restaurants under the TravelCenters of America, TA, Petro Stopping Centers, TA Express, and GOASIS brands. TA has Highway 99 locations near Bakersfield and in Madera.

TravelCenters of America is headquartered in Westlake, Ohio, operates in 44 U.S. states, and employs nearly 20,000 people, as of 2021. Stations are typically large at 10,000 square feet. In terms of the number of pumps, there will be 20 pumps for gasoline and 20 pumps for diesel if it is anything like TA’s truck stop in Buttonwillow, Calif.

In May 2023, British owned oil company BP Products North America Inc., a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of BP plc acquired the TravelCenters of America. TA plans to open 20 new locations this year, as well as add 1,600 new truck parking spaces, add Pulse EV charging stations at select sites, enhance store layouts, and upgrade mobile maintenance and emergency roadside assistance vehicles to better serve its fleet customers and professional drivers. TA opened is 300th location in Walton, Kentucky in February.

The new Highway 99 truck stop will compete directly with two major players including Loves and Flying J, both in Tulare as well as the new Mavericks station under construction on Cartmill Avenue, a Valero gas station on Caldwell Avenue as well as several others in Goshen. There’s also a new truck stop south of this site as well near Earlimart called Akal Travel Center.
By Faughn Health/Medical • New Location 0 Comments

Camarena Health opens in Chowchilla

CHOWCHILLA — Camarena Health celebrated the opening of its newest Urgent Care with a ribbon cutting ceremony and facility tours open to invited guests and media on Wednesday.

The 9,000 square-foot facility is located in the heart of Chowchilla off Hospital Drive. It will provide urgent care and walk-in access to the residents of Chowchilla and surrounding communities with room to grow and bring additional services in the near future.

“Camarena Health has been proudly serving the community of Chowchilla for almost 20 years,” said Paolo Soares, CEO of Camarena Health. “We are very excited about this new location in the City of Chowchilla as it will allow us to bring much needed urgent care services to residents while continuing to meet the healthcare needs of the community for many years to come.”

https://www.maderatribune.com/single-post/camarena-health-opens-in-chowchilla

By Faughn New Developments • New Location 0 Comments

FRESNO EATERY TO MATCH CALIFORNIA CUISINE, FRENCH TECHNIQUE

PressBox Sports Grill owners Thomas and Davita Miller are in the process of opening a new Fresno restaurant they describe as modern California cuisine meets French technique. The Millers have been working with a local designer on the feel of “Bulle”, coming this summer to a former Chase bank building at Marks and Herndon avenues.

“Our design concept is a luxury modern garden feel,” Miller said. “The ambience will be lively.”

He describes the restaurant as “extreme farm to table,” using the finest local ingredients possible. Taking an heirloom approach to its cuisine, Bulle will avoid genetically modified foods and embrace sustainability. The protein will be free range and hormone free.

“So the goal is going to be using the most free of all the radical particles that we deal with in our society today,” said Miller.

French technique will be prevalent — think braising, boiling and other unique touches. The name “Bulle,” which means “bubble” in French, was chosen because bubbles are a joyful but possibly overlooked part of people’s lives, he said. They represent boiling temperatures for food and liquids. People love them in champagne.

The plan for Bulle is to open around July or August this year. Plumbing is being installed before any major cosmetics are completed. Miller said on Monday he’s paying for permits to get the ball rolling this week for bigger plans. Miller anticipates more features to be added as the process of creating the restaurant continues.

It’s going to be a busy year for the Sunset Square Shopping Center. Across from Bulle, in a former Rite Aid building, the 27,000 square-foot Syctron Freeplay Arena is set to open for families possibly by the end of March. The lease for the play arena and three new restaurants for the Sunset Square Shopping Center earned the 2023 CoStar Impact Award for lease of the year in 2023, selected for the real estate information firm by a panel of local industry professionals.

“This large retail vacancy was a blight on the area for many years,” said Jeff Pace, president of Colliers, a local judge. “Once occupied, the tenancy will add an innovative use to this neighborhood center and increase foot traffic for the benefit of other small retail tenants in the center. The use really compliments the neighborhood by providing a new facility for healthy indoor family recreation.”

https://thebusinessjournal.com/fresno-eatery-to-match-california-cuisine-french-technique/

By Faughn Economy • New Location 0 Comments

Big Lots opening in Madera? What does Ross sign mean?

Madera residents have made it known that they’d like more shopping options in their own city. The appearance of a Ross Stores sign at the Madera Marketplace shopping center sparked an excited social media conversation among them about when a location might open on Cleveland Avenue, just west of Highway 99. It’s the latest indication that bigger retail might be looking at the city of Madera more than it has in the past. In fact, Big Lots, the discount retailer, said several years ago that it would be coming back to Madera. Locals have been wondering if it will ever happen. The 36,760 square-foot space the discount retailer was set to occupy in the Country Club Village shopping center, just east of Highway 99, has been empty for two years. Big Lots said it has not abandoned plans to open a store at 1143 Country Club Dr.

“The original opening dates were pushed back due to some construction delays, but we’re on track for a summer 2024 grand opening,” company spokesperson Joshua Chaney said in an email to The Bee. Big Lots stores typically employ around 25 to 30 full and part-time associates, Chaney said. Jobs available for the Madera store will be posted on the company’s careers web page a few months ahead of the summer opening. As Madera grows, residents increasingly crave more retail options and often complain on social media that they’re tired of driving to Fresno and other far off points to find the big retail options they want. The city of 68,000 people has been growing, seeing a population increase of nearly 11% since 2010. In the past few months, they’ve seen the opening of a Smart & Final store and an In-N-Out restaurant in the same corridor where Ross is set to open. Ross Stores would not provide details about when it will open the store planned for the tenant space next to the city’s Smart & Final store. Pearson Companies CEO Peter J. Orlando, a real estate broker who works with Ross Stores in the Central Valley, wrote in an email to The Bee that it could be a few months before a date is known.

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article284692081.html

By Faughn New Location • Workforce 0 Comments

SEMICONDUCTOR MAKER RELOCATING TO FRESNO, BRINGING 500 JOBS, CHILDCARE FOR WORKERS

A Wyoming-based corporation has received a $15 million state grant to relocate its headquarters to Fresno, where it plans to manufacture semiconductors and energy storage systems. In the process, the company plans to create at least 500 new, full-time jobs and make nearly $21 million of capital investments in the region.

Tynergy was one of a dozen companies awarded nearly $150 million in grants and tax credits as part of the latest round of the CalCompetes program by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development announced Nov. 17. The announcement comes weeks after members of the Fresno City Council and Fresno County Economic Development Corp. President and CEO Will Oliver hosted a City Hall news conference announcing the Fresno CHIPS Act.

The proposal would create incentives for manufacturers of semiconductors. The Fresno County Economic Development Corp. said in a social media post that Tynergy plans to offer starting salaries of $70,000 per year, complementary training programs and a “robust” benefits package, including childcare services for all employees.

Tynergy is a subsidiary of Indonesia-based green energy company Mirah Green. It bills itself as a sustainable energy development company with a goal to “eradicate poverty through affordable and clean energy while taking climate action.”

https://thebusinessjournal.com/semiconductor-maker-relocating-to-fresno-bringing-500-jobs-childcare-for-workers/

By Faughn New Location 0 Comments

CapRock breaks ground on Visalia location

VISALIA – On Aug. 24, CapRock Partners announced their groundbreaking of Building I, a 1.27-million-square-foot industrial warehouse development that will provide 100s of jobs once it finishes construction in the third quarter of 2024. The construction of this facility is part of CapRock’s Central Point masterplan, which upon completion will total up to 5-million-square-feet of logistical distribution space to lease to various companies likely to fall under the “fortune 100 banner;” such as companies like, or akin to, Amazon or UPS.

While CapRock doesn’t currently have a tennent set to occupy the space – which began construction this summer – the facility will allow its occupant to reach over 50 million customers with one-day ground shipping.

“CapRock is excited to be underway in constructing the first building at CapRock Central Point III in Visalia, a vibrant industrial market and logistics hub providing unmatched connectivity in the heart of California’s Central Valley,” CapRock’s senior vice president Bob O’Neill said in a press release.

As Visalia is located approximately 230 miles north of Los Angeles and 230 miles south of San Francisco, it has become a hub of logistical distribution spaces. The city’s industrial park is already occupied by prominent companies such as UPS, Amazon and FedEx.

However, location isn’t the only thing Visalia has to offer. According to O’Neill, the layout of the city itself makes the implementation of facilities such as Building I more practical.

“The city of Visalia is actually one of the best planned cities in the state of California, as far as their master plan,” O’Neill said in an interview with The Sun-Gazette. “They’ve invested heavily in the infrastructure to service these industrial areas, in order of widening streets and providing great access to the 99 freeway and Highway 198.”

Not only does Visalia’s infrastructure benefit the developing facilities and their future effectiveness, it also benefits the city itself.

“Once Building I is completed, the new property tax bases will benefit the city, as opposed to what it was before with just farmland,” O’Neill said.
Should CapRock deem the area as highly desired, they will move forward with the implementation of construction of three other buildings, which will bring more jobs and more tax funds.
“It’s all going to be driven by market demand in the overall economy,” O’Neill said. “So if (Building I) leases during construction, and we’re seeing robust demand that’ll warrant us proceeding with these other three buildings, we will go ahead and do that.”

Building I — along with the rest of Central Point III — will be located at 4001 N. Plaza Drive, adjacent to the 88 acres of land CapRock previously sold to UPS for the development of one of the logistics company’s largest facilities in the Western U.S. CapRock has various other facilities around California as well as in other states such as Nevada, Arizona and Texas. They are an investment and development organization that hopes to continue spreading west and up the coast to create more distribution centers to allow people faster access to various products and services.

https://thesungazette.com/article/news/2023/08/27/caprock-breaks-ground-on-visalia-location/

By Faughn New Developments • New Location 0 Comments

MEGA ASHLEY FURNITURE CENTER WILL BE NEXT TO LATHROP HIGH

When Ashley Furniture moved into a 525,000 square foot facility on South Harlan Road in 2018, it’s doubtful that they had planned on outgrowing the facility in just five years.

But that’s exactly what has happened.

Last month, the Lathrop City Council approved a conditional use permit for the company’s proposed expansion – which was temporarily shelved after community concern during a public hearing prompted further review – that will allow for the construction of a nearly 1.5 million square foot concrete tilt-up building on Dos Reis Road. The company’s existing 525,000 square foot building – 50,000 square feet of which is utilized as a furniture showroom and retail store – on South Harlan Road will eventually be vacated and put up for either lease or sale.

There will be 110,000 square feet of showroom space in the new 1.5 million square-foot building. It will include the largest Ashley Homestore in the region coming in at 110,000 square feet — just 6,641 square feet less than the Living Spaces showroom in Manteca at Union Road and the 120 Bypass. It will also be the largest distribution center ever built in Lathrop. By comparison, the Wayfair distribution center in Lathrop has 1.1 million square feet.

Because Dos Reis Road runs along the back side of Lathrop High School, and because the land in the area was designated for a new use in the general plan update adopted by the council earlier this year, members of the community raised concerns about the impact of truck traffic in the area and the proximity to students attending school at Lathrop High.

According to the staff report and presentation prepared for the council, the property will be roughly 1,500 feet from the property of the high school – with a green belt of undeveloped land between the two – at its closest point, and an extensive landscape buffer that will ultimately provide more than 388,000 square feet of landscaped to create a cushion between the two competing uses.

All truck traffic, according to the Central Lathrop Specific Plan and outlined in the documents prepared for the Ashley project, must access the site from north of Dos Reis Road – including Manthey Road, Roth Road, and I-5. As a condition of approval, the applicant must install signage on Lathrop Road, Spartan Way, Golden Valley Parkway, Dos Reis Road, and Manthey Road to the south of the north driveway to the property that clearly prohibits trucks from using that route.

Onsite signage must also be posted on the site that prohibits trucks from turning right on Manthey Road when leaving the site – sending all trucks north to Roth Road where they can access I-5. One of the additional conditions of approval will be the applicant constructing a roundabout at the intersection of Dos Reis Road and Golden Valley Parkway – serving as an “enhanced gateway” to the area and featuring monumentation, enhanced landscaping, lighting, and other associated elements.

Pedestrian actuated flashing warning lights are also stipulated as a condition.

https://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/local-news/city-offices-back-downtown/

By Faughn Health/Medical • New Location 0 Comments

New behavioral health and human services building opens

A new Kings County Behavioral Health and Human Services building that will house over 100 county employees in 45,000 square feet was unveiled Wednesday morning.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday was emceed by Kings County Supervisor Joe Neves and featured speeches from representatives from Kings County administration, Kings County Behavioral Health and Kings County Human Services.

“On behalf of my colleagues on the board of supervisors, both past and present, we are so proud to stand here today and officially open the Kings County Behavioral Health and Human Services Building,” Neves said. “We are grateful to our community for their patience and support as we have navigated the long process to get here today.”

The Old Hospital was constructed in 1911 but eventually closed until 1973. Rather than demolishing the building in 2014, Kings County decided to repurpose the building through a remodel sales lease agreement.

The new building will house the Behavioral Department’s Administrative Offices, Children’s Psychiatric Services, the KIND Center children’s outpatient clinic and Human Services adult programs like their Adult Protective Services and In Home Supportive Services.

https://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/new-behavioral-health-and-human-services-building-opens/article_a377d57e-a67e-53ac-9505-b6ab89f351be.html