Former Del Monte property on market for $70M
Looking to the future of the 1.3 million square-foot Del Monte processing plant that closed last year in Hanford, the owner says as a result of a December auction, all major processing ag equipment has been sold off and the property is on the market for around $70 million.
“It’s an attractive package,” says Morningstar Farms CEO Chris Rufer who added they have no plans to reuse the facility to process tomatoes. Instead he will sell off the multiple-building package with 650 acres of open land and 25-car rail spur at Jackson and South 11th Ave. near Hanford. Del Monte has been exiting the food processing business in California and just recently decided to close its cling peach cannery, laying off 600.The move left growers with no home for their crop. Rufer says the logical use for the vacant Hanford buildings is for a logistics use as a distribution center. Rufer says the tomato business has consolidated as contracts have led to reduced acreage.
Faraday Future stock falls below $1 NASDAQ-required level
Investors may not be impressed despite Faraday Futures’ splashy launch of robot sales announced at the recent NADA auto show in Las Vegas earlier this month. The company may be first out of the gate to begin selling humanoid type robots at the end of this month. But the company’s stock has slid below a key threshold of under a dollar per share for the first time since April 2025. It was 77 cents Tuesday and fell below $1 as of Feb. 3 when the Las Vegas event was underway. The company could lose its listing on the NASDAQ exchange if the low value persists. If the closing share price remains below $1 for more than 30 consecutive trading days, a deficiency notice is automatically triggered, and the company is granted no less than 180 days to regain listing compliance. The decline makes it harder for the company to convince investors to take a chance.
Snow drought relief at China Peak
Like all California ski resorts, China Peak above Fresno has suffered through more than a month of no snow just when they needed it. The resort has been using machine snow to make up the difference and keep the place open despite the melting of the snowpack all around them and 75 degree weather in nearby Fresno. This week there is finally some good news that the persistent ridge of high-pressure off of our coast is breaking up. Instead of warm weather, the snowpack is expected to fall as low as 3,500 feet. Storms will be cold. On their website, China Peak announced, “We will reopen Thursday at 9 a.m. with fresh snow. Will keep you posted as the weather moves in starting Tuesday. It may be a foot or snow then a bigger system rolls in at some point over the president holiday weekend.”