By Faughn New Developments 0 Comments

Plans for housing, hotel near UC Merced campus receive show of City Council support

A proposed plan to add over 900 new housing units geared toward UC students received a unanimous show of support from the Merced City Council Monday night. Titled UC Villages, the preliminary annexation application imagines 922 new — and sorely needed — apartment units situated near the main entrance to the UC Merced campus. A percentage of the development will include affordable housing units. “Obviously, we’re in a crisis with housing our UC students,” Councilmember Fernando Echevarria said before casting his vote of support during Monday’s City Council meeting.

The tenuous availability of student housing was made clear last year when UC Merced was forced to delay the first day of in-person classes due to roughly 1,000 students still struggling to secure homes less than a month before the start of the school year. Given the support shown by the City Council, project applicant and several residents who spoke during the meeting, all signs indicate so far that the project will move along toward fruition. “I’ve been the face of this project for 16 years and I’m here to see it through. I’ve been ready for a long time and excited to get going,” project applicant Sid Lakireddy told the City Council Monday.

Echevarria also lauded Lakireddy for being mindful of issues that stalled other similar developments. Three City Council members recently rejected another proposed pre-annexation project located near UC Merced, citing a lack of attention to affordable housing and hiring locally. The opposition resulted in the project failing to garner a show of support from the council when it came time to vote.

Lakireddy noted in a letter to the city that he intends to have the project’s affordable units built during the first phase. He also stated that he plans to hire local contractors and workers to build and operate the project. “That is going to assist a lot of people who are unemployed. It’s very important,” Echevarria said.

According to preliminary planning documents, at least 12.5% of homes would be designated affordable housing spread across all income levels. Affordable units have costs fixed so that lower-income occupants spend no more than 30% of their income on housing. bee-2020-2Aerial view of the UC Merced campus in an undated photo. Lake Road runs along the bottom of the photo and its intersection with Bellevue Road is in the bottom right.

Located at the west side of Lake Road, south of Bellevue Road, the 35.6-acre mixed-use development is one of several recently proposed annexation projects poised to build much-needed housing units near the college campus. Project includes retail space, hotel

The project also has plans to construct over 1 million square feet of retail and hospitality space, including a 161-room, five-story hotel. The council’s vote Monday represented an early step in the city’s annexation pre-application process. After reviewing a project’s overview, the City Council indicates general support or non-support for an official annexation application to proceed. The project applicants then decide whether to move forward.

Per the city’s annexation process, UC Villages can’t officially join within Merced’s boundaries until plans to annex UC Merced are completed first. Lakireddy asked the council to make annexation of the campus a priority so his project and other similar proposed annexations can move forward. “I think Merced’s time is now. I think it’s time to capitalize on it and this would be a good start by annexing UC Merced,” he said.

No residents or Merced officials spoke in direct opposition of the project Monday, but some concerns were cited over spreading city services like the water and wastewater systems too thin. Sheng Xiong, a Merced resident and policy advocate with Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, voiced concerns over how expanding north might come at the expense of drawing water away from south Merced.

Prior meetings with Merced County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) staff also raised concerns over the city’s ability to provide the needed infrastructure and services for UC Villages, along with the other proposed pre-applications and official annexations moving forward in north Merced. Wastewater concerns were noted in particular.

According to city documents, the UC Villages project and other similar annexations would exhaust the city’s wastewater capacity. That means the phasing of each project will be critical to ensuring there’s ample capacity for each project and that the wastewater system must eventually be expanded to accommodate the developments.

https://app.meltwater.com/newsletters/analytics/view/5e8624bb4a32930012f3b64d/newsletter/61c4b6b1c1abab0013267cc9/distribution/62fd17f5f9ea9f0013af34fb/document/MERCED0020220816ei8g0002t

By Faughn Education 0 Comments

California is giving millions of kids up to $1,500 for college or career training. Here’s how to get it.

Millions of kids in California can now claim at least $50 to put toward post-high school education, thanks to a new state program that launched earlier this month. The so-called Cal KIDS program’s launch comes amid rising concern about college costs in California. It’s the result of a policy effort led by Assembly member Adrin Nazarian (D–North Hollywood), who has been working on related legislation since 2014, and invests seed funding into a college savings plan for newborns and eligible public-school students.

He compares Cal KIDS to Social Security. “We’ve put into place the safety net when you’re aging, but we haven’t really necessarily made the appropriate investments for the youth who are just now starting in life,” he said. The program officially got approved in 2019, when Assembly Bill 15 passed, but was expanded last year via Assembly Bill 132. AB15 established the universal college savings plan for newborns, while AB132 allotted additional one-time and ongoing funding to provide more for low-income public-school students, foster youth and homeless children.

Max Vargas, the vice president of economic justice at the Latino Community Foundation, says the program is a great example of policy driven by equity: It has both a universal approach, and a targeted one. Latinos are the majority racial group in the California population, and they are also the group that reports the most financial need at state public universities, according to a 2021 report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

Vargas said he hopes the state continues to think about how to reach communities with the highest need for the program. “Where the need is highest, that often, sometimes, is where the trust might be lowest,” he said. “One number that jumps to mind for me is that 43% of Latino households are unbanked or underbanked — that’s not just because they didn’t hear about a bank, it’s also because they didn’t trust in some of those programs.” He said to build that trust, the state needs to reach out to partners on the ground who are able to connect with communities in both linguistically and culturally relevant ways.

Julio Martinez is the executive director of the ScholarShare board, which manages the Cal KIDS program. He said some of the state’s current partners are the California’s Department of Education and organizations that work with parents of newborns, like United Ways of California and First 5 California.

CalKIDS has a sign-up form for interested partners on its website open to public agencies and community-based organizations. “Just like with newborns, every single [eligible] public school student and their families will get a letter in the mail as well to notify them of this program,” he said. Here are answers to how you can access the money, eligibility requirements and more.

Who is eligible for the program?

All kids born in California from July 1, 2022, onwards and low-income public-school students in grades 1 through 12. You do not need to be a U.S. citizen to be eligible, which Nazarian said has always been his intention for the program. “It does not matter who you are, what your family standing is — if you were born in California, or if at some point you’re a student in California who moved in by the time you’re in first grade, you will be able to take advantage of this program,” he said. “The goal is to tell everyone, every California resident, you have an opportunity to be invested in.”

There is an eligibility tool public school students and guardians can use to figure out if they have a CalKIDS account. The CalKIDS website translates into 16 different languages, including Spanish, Hmong, Tagalog, Farsi, Vietnamese and simplified Chinese. You’ll need your Statewide Student Identifier, which you can see on your report cards or get via asking your school or school district directly.

How much money is available through the program?

Kids born on or after July 1, 2022, have a baseline deposit of $25 into their CalKIDS account, upped automatically to $50 once parents create an account online. The state has 90 days to receive birth data and create an account, so there may be a lag before a newborn’s account is created. If parents or guardians link a new or existing ScholarShare 529 account to their newborn’s CalKIDS account, they get an additional $50 deposit. Eligible low-income public-school students in grades 1 through 12 have a baseline deposit of $500 into their CalKIDS account. An additional $500 is deposited into the account for foster youth and homeless students.

What do I need to claim my CalKIDS account?

To claim the account, you’ll need to register online. There are three pieces of information the system asks for; no social security or taxpayer identification number is needed to access the money.

For an account linked to a newborn, you’ll need:

  • The name of the county where the child’s birth was registered
  • The child’s date of birth
  • Registration code, which can be either the local registration number located on the birth certificate or the unique CalKIDS code included in the letter sent out to eligible families

For an account linked to an eligible 1st through 12th grade student, you’ll need:

  • The name of the county where the student was enrolled in public school as of Oct. 6, 2021 (the Fall Academic Census Day 2021)
  • The student’s date of birth
  • Registration code, which can be either the Statewide Student Identifier (SSID, check student report cards or contact the school or school district to get this information) or the unique CalKIDS code included in the letter sent out to eligible families

What else do I need to know about the money?

The money from the account can’t be retrieved and used until a student turns at least 17 and is ready to enroll at an institution of higher education, Martinez said. For parents or guardians to directly contribute to a college savings account, they’ll have to open a separate ScholarShare 529 plan. A ScholarShare 529 plan offers parents 17 different investment options, with the most common one being an “age-based portfolio.”

That age-based mode of investing is what happens to the money allotted through the CalKIDS program. The money isn’t taxed as long as it’s used for tuition, room and board, books, supplies or computer equipment at a qualified higher education institution, which can include community college, trade school or a four-year university.  To opt out of the CalKIDS account for any reason, you’ll need to print out and mail a completed opt-out form, available in English and in Spanish, to the ScholarShare Investment board.

https://www.capradio.org/articles/2022/08/17/california-is-giving-millions-of-kids-up-to-1500-for-college-or-career-training-heres-how-to-get-it/

By Faughn Economy • Energy 0 Comments

San Joaquin agency to receive $3.9M for hybrid electric buses

STOCKTON — San Joaquin Regional Transit District was awarded $3.9 million in grant funding from the Federal Transit Administration to expand its hybrid electric bus fleet. The expansion will allow RTD to enhance its service in underserved and marginalized neighborhoods in Stockton, the agency said. RTD is one of 12 local agencies to receive a share of more than $1.175 billion from the FTA’s Low or No Emission Vehicle Program, also known as a Low-No grant, designed to help transit agencies modernize their fleets with advanced technologies to improve air quality by reducing greenhouse gases.

The Low-No grant will assist in purchasing five new Gillig hybrid electric buses allowing RTD to expand and increase the service frequency of routes 525 and 576. These routes currently serve areas identified by the United States Department of Transportation San Joaquin County Census Tract as Historically Disadvantaged Communities.

Investments in these communities align with President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution District’s mission of improving Central Valley residents’ health and quality of life. “It is important we continue to invest not only in cleaner vehicles but also in the infrastructure needed to support them,” Senator Alex Padilla said in Tuesday’s media statement. “That is why I will continue to advocate for more funding to transition to buses that are better for our environment and public health.”

Projects were selected based on several factors including air quality benefits, economic competitiveness, financial leverage, transformational impact, and readiness to implement. “We are grateful to the FTA, Senator (Alex) Padilla, and the California congressional delegation for securing this funding,” RTD CEO Alex Clifford said in a Tuesday media statement. “RTD is committed to providing equitable transportation to the residents of our community while also being good stewards of the environment, and this grant allows us to do both,” he added. “Our goal is to increase service levels and frequency, providing better access to employment, education, healthcare, and shopping offering more opportunities and impacting the lives of many residents.”
By Faughn Workforce 0 Comments

This new Texas-sized restaurant will bring 225 jobs to Turlock when it opens in fall

A new national restaurant chain is poised to give Turlock a Texas-sized welcome this fall. Work on the new Texas Roadhouse on Countryside Drive continues, with plans for a mid-October opening for the popular steakhouse chain. To get ready for its debut, the company is accepting applications to staff the massive new restaurant. Hiring is underway to fill some 225 jobs, including front- and back-of-house positions. Applicants can go to the Texas Roadhouse careers page at careers.texasroadhouse.com. Walk-in interviews are also being conducted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday in the former Army/Navy recruiting center in the same Countryside Plaza Shopping Center, across the parking lot from the restaurant construction site.

AA Texas Roadhouse4.jpgA new Texas Roadhouse restaurant on Countryside Drive will open in by mid-October 2022. Photographed in Turlock, Calif., on August 23, 2022. Applicants should take their resumes and two forms of identification to the walk-up interviews. The company’s careers page lists more than a dozen open positions, from service manager to line cook, baker to bartender and more.

The restaurant chain is known for its big steaks and Texas-themed ambiance, which includes free peanuts and fresh baked bread at tables. Founded in 1993, the company is actually headquartered in Kentucky. The steakhouse chain has 610 locations in 49 states as well as international sites.
The Turlock location will be the chain’s first in the Central Valley city. It will replace the city’s old Hometown Buffet, which closed permanently during the pandemic. The new company chose to tear down the existing building to build the distinctive 8,300-square-foot Texas Roadhouse, with construction starting earlier this year.

A company representative said the Turlock site is among the chain’s larger restaurant models and will be able to seat 420 people at a time. That will make it one of the city’s largest-capacity restaurants, if not the outright largest. This will be the second Texas Roadhouse location in Stanislaus County. The first opened in Modesto in 2013 on Sisk Road and has been a popular draw ever since. This year, the national steakhouse chain was ranked the 27th top largest national restaurant chain by Nation’s Restaurant News, an industry trade journal, with $3.4 billion in sales last year.

Another industry trade journal, FSR, ranked the company No. 4 in casual chain earnings per restaurant this year — with $6.4 million earned per year per restaurant. Once open, the new Turlock Texas Roadhouse will serve dine-in and takeout daily for dinner, and weekends for lunch and dinner. For more information, visit www.texasroadhouse.com.
https://app.meltwater.com/newsletters/analytics/view/5e8624bb4a32930012f3b64d/newsletter/61c4b6b1c1abab0013267cc9/distribution/630658b580a4c00013510c63/document/MBEE000020220824ei8o0002t

By Faughn Education • Workforce 0 Comments

Fresno Program Steers Eager Workers to Good Paying Trucker Jobs

Corina Hernandez is going trucking to build a better life for herself and her 15-year-old son. “I hope that I will be able to buy a home for me and my son,” she said. Hernandez is one of 24 students at the John Lawson Trucking School, newly reopened in a JD Food facility near Fresno. Funded by federal dollars through the Fresno Economic Development Corporation, the school held a ribbon cutting Thursday.

Lee Ann Eager with Fresno EDC says the school wants to double the number of students with funds from the Good Jobs Challenge grant, part of its Welfare to Work program. Fresno EDC pays the training costs, estimated at $3,000 per student. “We’re hoping, with our new grant, to be able to double that and hire new teachers, new trainers, and really be able to do maybe 50 students in a cohort get some more trucks,” Eager said.

For Hernandez, she left the medical field as a certified nursing assistant for better pay. “I realized that that wasn’t for me. And I have family and friends that work in the trucking industry, and they kind of told me some of the benefits. And it is a growing industry for female truckers,” Hernandez, 32 of Fresno, said. She is halfway through the 12-week truck driving course. The Fresno County Department of Social Services helped steer her in the direction of the school. “Women can do it just as much as men. And it’s a great job opportunity,” she said.

JD Food: We Need a Lot of Truck Drivers

More truckers could not come at a better time. Mark Ford, president of JD Food, wants to hire more truckers to deliver food and industrial supplies throughout California. “It’s a lot of miles covered,” Ford said. “We need a lot of truck drivers. We send trucks into L.A. every day. We send trucks into the Bay Area every day, too.” JD Food employs 32 drivers, but Ford wants to expand. He says there are 80,000 openings nationwide. “We’re always looking for truck drivers. Our fleet is growing. Our drivers are always growing. And it’s just a great career, too,” Ford said.

Ford says a shortage due to the pandemic is easing. Their best recruitment tool is word of mouth — employees can earn bonuses for referrals. A driver could earn $60,000 a year. JD Food bought its facility on Central Avenue at Minnewawa in 2021 to accommodate expansion. But it was too much space. “I saw the need (for more truckers). I reached out to (Fresno EDC) and said, we have a pretty nice office that we’re not using at all. Would that be something that you’d be able to use? And so, they looked at it. They thought it was great,” Ford said.

Electric Trucks Coming, But When?

Students practice driving skills on two diesel trucks. Eager says the next truck the school purchases will be either electric or hydrogen powered. “We expect to have everything, the electric or hydrogen by 2035. So obviously we need to be planning for that. And there are incentives for trucking companies to look at electric trucks,” Eager said. Eager is also chairwoman of the California Transportation Commission. “We know what (switching to electric) means for all of us. So as the transportation commission, we are looking at what are those ways that we can ensure that the people of the Central Valley can breathe good air. And I’m certainly supportive of how we get to that place. And getting people into zero-emission vehicles is a priority,” Eager said.

She says if ZEV are manufactured in California, that could reduce costs. Ford is hesitant to add non-diesel trucks to his fleet. “We’re pausing and waiting right now. The technology is not there to meet our needs because we go such a distance and the distance that we travel would not accommodate the needs of the electric power vehicles,” Ford said. “As the technology develops, we’re definitely going to be a part of that.”

https://gvwire.com/2022/08/25/fresno-program-steers-eager-workers-to-good-paying-trucker-jobs/

By Faughn Hi-Tech • New Developments 0 Comments

High-Speed Rail Authority Completes Overpass, Opens Roadway to Traffic in Madera County

MADERA COUNTY, Calif. – The California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority), in collaboration with contractor Tutor-Perini / Zachry / Parsons, announced today the Avenue 15 ½ Grade Separation in Madera County is now open to traffic. The new overpass is located at Road 29 / Santa Fe Drive, east of the City of Madera. It took 16 pre-cast concrete girders and nearly 117 pre-cast concrete deck panels to complete the structure, which spans 468 feet, is 40 feet wide and takes traffic over the existing BNSF rail and future high-speed rail lines.

Completing another structure in the Central Valley is the latest sign of progress for the high-speed rail project. At its Board of Directors meeting earlier this month, the Authority awarded two contracts to advance design along the Merced to Madera and Fresno to Bakersfield Locally Generated Alternative project sections, expanding the 119-mile segment to 171 miles of electrified high-speed rail under development and construction.

In addition, the Board also approved the environmental documents for the San Francisco to San Jose project section, meaning 422 of the 500-mile high-speed rail system between San Francisco and Los Angeles has been environmentally cleared. Earlier this summer, the Authority announced the creation of more than 8,000 jobs since the start of the project, with a majority going to residents in the Central Valley.

NEWS RELEASE: High-Speed Rail Authority Completes Overpass, Opens Roadway to Traffic in Madera County – California High Speed Rail

By Faughn Education 0 Comments

Fresno State ranks atop CSU; amongst highest in West in national university rankings

Fresno State – with a mission to educate and empower students for success – ranked No. 36 in Washington Monthly’s 2022 National University Rankings of colleges and universities that best serve the country in the areas of social mobility, research and public service.

The University also ranked No. 22 in the Best Bang for the Buck: West category, published Monday, for how well it helps non-wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices. Washington Monthly, known for its annual rankings of American colleges and universities, has published its list of top schools for the past 18 years with what it calls “a different kind of college ranking,” calling attention to colleges based on their contribution to the public good, not prestige or wealth.

This is the seventh straight year Fresno State has ranked among the top 50 national universities among 442 total – and the seventh straight year Fresno State has been the highest-ranked campus in the California State University system.

At No. 36, Fresno State ranks alongside notable Pac 12 Conference institutions, including No. 1 Stanford, No. 9 University of California, Berkeley; No. 19 Washington; and No. 21 UCLA. Fresno State set a record-high in research grants for the 2020-21 academic year, receiving 356 grants for $48.2 million. The University recently earned R2 designation as a “Doctoral University – High Research Activity” by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, highlighting a significant commitment to growing research activities. Fresno State awarded 76 doctoral degrees in the past academic year. The University offers doctoral degrees in nursing, physical therapy and educational leadership.

Students, faculty and staff continued their long-standing culture of service by providing more than 1 million hours of service to community organizations for the 13th year in a row. The Central Valley, which is represented by the green V featured on Fresno State’s Bulldog logo, spans from Bakersfield in the south to Sacramento in the north – an area roughly the size of the state of Tennessee. As the only major city in the U.S. within an hour’s drive of three national parks, Fresno is the hub of the most productive agricultural region in the world.

Fresno State continues to show its commitment to education and the community in various ways, including:

  • Three faculty and one student earned Fulbright research awards this year. Sydney Fox, a biochemistry major who graduated this past spring, earned the Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to conduct research at Reykjavik University in Iceland. Dr. Benjamin Boone (music) will study musical pedagogy and create and record new music at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Dr. Melanie Ram (political science) will research sub-regional intergovernmental organizations that emerged in Europe since the end of the Cold War in Trieste, Italy, at the University of Zagreb and the University of Bucharest. Dr. Devendra Sharma (communication) will research swang-nautanki, a folk opera tradition in Northern India, and its traditional akhārās, the swang-nautanki community performance groups.
  • The Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology received $18.75 million in one-time funding from the state to provide infrastructure needed to build programs that prepare future generations for regenerative agriculture practices. This will build long-term stability for food and agricultural systems in the face of changing climate patterns.
  • Sociology Professor Dr. Amber Crowell received a $350,000 National Science Foundation grant to analyze long-term patterns and trends of residential segregation in urban areas, connecting present-day segregation patterns to their historical roots in a project called “Mapping the Origins of Segregation using GIS Resources.”

Fresno State is also among the nation’s best colleges when it comes to quality, affordability and outcomes ranking No. 29 in Money’s 2022 Best Colleges list announced May 16.

https://www.fresnostatenews.com/2022/08/29/fresno-state-ranks-atop-csu-amongst-highest-in-west-in-national-university-rankings/

By Faughn New Developments • Workforce 0 Comments

Industrial park grows by leaps and bounds

VISALIA – Another 2,000 jobs might be capping off the recent industrial boom as a familiar developer continues to expand the boundaries of the Visalia Industrial Park. After luring Amazon into two, million square plus warehouses in the industrial park, Newport Beach-based CapRock is now planning an even larger complex west of Plaza Drive and a mile north of Riggin Avenue. The industrial park’s largest developer plans to build four concrete tilt-up buildings totalling 2.7 million square feet on the 155-acre parcel. Principal owner Pat Daniels said CapRock would break ground on the first phase of the project next year. While the tenants for the  buildings are speculative, the plan suggests they could employ around 2,000 workers with some 2,100 parking places for cars. The plan says they want to feed inbound trucks into the new cluster of buildings off of Plaza.

The huge parcel, considered phase 3 of the Caprock’s industrial park developments, will be sandwiched in between Kibler Avenue (Avenue 320) on the north, Plaza Drive on the east, American Street (Road 76) to the west and Riverway Drive on the south – one mile north of Riggin along Modoc Ditch. Full buildout and signalization of the Kibler Ave. and Plaza Dr. intersection is required with the development of the new Amazon center now nearing completion just north of the first Amazon, part of Phase 2A of the Caprock projects. Caprock’s overall plan also includes another 1 million square feet planned for a vacant lot at the southeast corner of Kibler and Plaza as part of its Phase 2b. Now Daniels has leapt over Plaza to begin and build Phase 3 before Phase 2b starts in a few years. The reason could be Daniels has a different LLC who looks to invest in Phase 3 and perhaps a proposed tenant who has selected this location a mile closer to Highway 99. This new project is breaking new ground in this area as it will require all off-site infrastructure to be in place before development is done, a time consuming process. Phase 3 was submitted for Site Plan Review in January and has incorporated changes received from the city through subsequent meetings on Jan. 21 and March 29, 2022. The city has required the project be built out in phases and is not allowing cars or commercial vehicles to access Building 1 from American (Road 76). Other changes include reducing the size of Building 1 by 34,000 sf and shifting it 110 feet to the south, relocating a retention basin, splitting a 1.3 million square foot Building 2 into three smaller buildings of 322,000, 598,000 and 510,000 square feet.

CapRock kicked off the Visalia logistics boom when it sold acreage to UPS that became a 450,000 square-foot package distribution hub opening in 2020. That was followed by construction of the 1.1 million square-foot Amazon fulfillment center, operational as of last September. About 1,700 people are employed between the two locations. A handful of large players are building or planning to build. Phoenix based Seefried Industries is nearing completion on the new Ace Hardware distribution center and planning another 535,00 sf spec building. Just last week, YS Industries filed plans for a 1.55 million sf development. Fowler Packing is planing to break ground early next year on a 312,000 square foot warehouse. American Air’s Butch Oldfield, busy with a slew of new industrial projects, and Irvine-based Greenfield Partners are working on a 2 million sf complex at Kelsey and 198. Also in the works is the Ritchie/Vidovich partnership’s plan to develop a massive new section of industrial land north of Riggin and west of Shirk totaling 280 acres and adding about 3,000 new jobs. Besides these big projects, the industrial park is also laying out new mom and pop industrial parcels from 5 to 10 acres mostly south of Goshen Avenue along American. Investor Santokh Toor has filed preliminary plans for an 80-acre development with 10 small parcels at the corner of American and Hurley, west of Plaza.

https://thesungazette.com/article/business/2022/08/02/industrial-park-grows-by-leaps-and-bounds/

By Faughn New Developments • Quality of Life 0 Comments

Downtown Lindsay expects major upgrades

LINDSAY – After major retailers abandoned Lindsay in the ’90s, followed by a small recession, then a Great Recession and then COVID-19, the city can use all the help they can get to rejuvenate their downtown. In the first step of many the city of Lindsay partnered with the consulting firm Retail Strategies to update the downtown area. Retail Strategies approaches projects from a commercial development side and a downtown strategies side. The commercial development portfolio director Brookley Valencia presented Retail Strategie’s’ findings from their discovery phase. After conducting some research, the firm presented its more general findings and plans for Lindsay’s downtown at the July 26 city council meeting.

The discovery phase found gaps in four main categories: clothing stores, restaurants, general merchandise and furniture stores. These are areas where people are shopping outside of Lindsay and the goal is to bring that money back into Lindsay by filling those gaps in the market. “Our goal is to open the doors for Lindsay to recover and support the community after COVID-19 and create new businesses, new jobs and improve quality of life,” Valencia said. The information collected during the discovery phase will be used to help connect Lindsay with retailers in order to bring in stores and restaurants that are a good fit for the town. The discovery phase is ongoing, but Retail Strategies will now begin its implementation phase of actually reaching out to retailers to bring them to Lindsay.

On the downtown side, Jeremy Murdock gave a presentation of Retail Strategies’s five-year plan for Lindsay’s downtown, including both aesthetic and retail updates. The plan focuses on creating a positive image that showcases the community’s unique characteristics as well as improving the economy. “A livable, walkable, viable, economically-sustainable downtown is the ultimate goal,” city manager Joe Tanner said. The city reached out to Retail Strategies with the goal of updating their downtown for two reasons: increasing overall quality of life for residents and generating tax revenue for the city. The tax revenue generated from new businesses will help the city fund public services such as parks and recreation, police and fire.

Retail Strategies has developed what they call a property catalog, which is a list of all the available properties including plots of land to be developed as well as empty storefronts and quick-service restaurants. The next step will be connecting those properties with interested retailers. “Our task is to really push Lindsay in front of retail prospects and if they’re expanding into the area, help them find a site and facilitate the conversation to hopefully get a deal going,” said Valencia. Deals between cities and retailers can take between 18 and 36 months, so it will take a few years before residents see major changes to the stores and restaurants in Lindsay. Retail Strategies will stay on as a consultant throughout the project as a liaison between the city and retailers.

https://thesungazette.com/article/business/2022/08/02/downtown-lindsay-expects-major-upgrades/

By Faughn New Developments • Workforce 0 Comments

‘The Mix’ sets the table for five restaurants in downtown Visalia

VISALIA – Cities with vibrant downtowns know they rely on local restaurants and bars to set the table for success with a mix of great taste and a dash of local flavor. That’s why one local business  owner is trying to bring as many of them into one place as possible to reinvigorate a block of Main Street Visalia which has yet to recover from a devastating fire two and a half years ago. Grant Smith, whose family owns Rent To Own in Visalia, is assembling a group of marquee local eateries to fill the two-story building located at 213-217 W. Main St. He has partnered with his brother-in-law Jeff Bischofberger, of JRC Investments in Long Beach, Calif., to house five locally-owned restaurants in the renovated building dubbed “The Mix.” “We like this project because it is bringing in local businesses, not big corporate businesses,” Smith said. “We feel like downtown should be local otherwise we will lose what our downtown really is.”

Smith and Bischofberger began working on the project just before COVID and it has taken two and a half years to pull it all together. The cornerstone of the project will be second-story dining overlooking Main Street served up by Fugazzis. Smith said he knew he needed a draw like Fugazzis to anchor the project and it was a natural fit because the California bistro had been looking at the site as a possible location for several years. Fugazzis owner Mike Fligor was not available for comment but sources say he will keep the existing location at Main and Locust streets. Expected to open in early 2023, The Mix will also include Main Street mainstay Quesadilla Gorilla, and two mobile businesses making their first go at brick and mortar locations, Bombshell Beans and Scoops ice cream, sharing the downstairs space.

Miguel and Mikayla Reyes are modeling their new Quesadilla Gorilla location after their San Luis Obispo and Hanford spots with a full bar featuring tequila-inspired cocktails, such as margaritas, and craft beer. The site will also become the new headquarters for the restaurant franchise as the lease on its original location across the street is set to expire this fall. The new site is larger and will have indoor seating, something Miguel said they were never able to offer at its current downtown location. “It’s sad to see the [original location] go but this location will allow us to offer more to our guests,” Miguel said. After three years of growing his business on the road, Bombshell Beans owner Steve Mohr said he is excited about the prospect of taking his coffee truck concept and turning it into a traditional coffee shop. “We’ve had to move around so much it has been difficult for people to find us,” Mohr said. “It will be nice to be in a location that is visible in downtown and should be busy since we’re moving in with local rockstar restaurants.”

The coffee shop will allow Bombshell to do blended drinks, something he can’t do from truck because there isn’t access to enough water for cleaning the blenders and begin offering its own brand of canned energy drinks. Mohr said the new shop will also give him a homebase to begin building a fleet and a franchise of coffee trucks. He said customers can look for one of its newest trucks to begin serving coffee outside of Galaxy Theatre in Tulare later this month. “The future of Bombshell Beans is bright,” Mohr said. “We are really excited about this opportunity.” Justin Kauffman started Scoops ice cream cart in 2018 and has steadily risen in popularity at local events with its premium and delicious ice cream, sundaes, and other tasty treats. He said he was excited about the potential to expand into his first permanent location alongside other popular local restaurants.

There is one space left to fill in the building in the downstairs open “food hall” format. Renderings show a cheese shop, but Smith said that was just an idea to round out the illustration and there are not currently any leases signed and no serious talks with any businesses for that spot. “We feel like this really brings something new to downtown we haven’t really seen in this area,” Smith said. The building was formerly occupied by Quality Jewelers, which closed after 39 years in business, and Ziayas, a family-owned studio & gift shop that provides wellness tools, accessories, and home essentials with a focus on community, healing, and sustainability, which relocated to the 800 block of Main Street. The block was also vacated by Pacific Treasures, which relocated to the xxx block of Main, following a devastating fire the night after Christmas in 2018. The fire completely destroyed the building which housed a collection of popular eateries including Mamma K’s and Cafe 225 and caused major smoke and water damage to Little Italy Restaurant and Exotica Hair Studio. The three-alarm fire caused extensive damage causing the building’s entire roof to cave in. The scars of the fire remain today. The front of the shops remain boarded up and spray painted with an artistic lettering of Visalia to distract from the vacant buildings. Nearly all of the businesses folded up shop for good. To date, The Mix is the only project in the works to rebuild and reinvigorate what was once a bustling block of Visalia’s downtown.

https://thesungazette.com/article/news/2022/07/13/the-mix-sets-the-table-for-five-restaurants-in-downtown-visalia/