-January 5,2022-
Plans for three more logistics buildings in the Visalia Industrial Park are being reviewed this week (January 5) by the city Site Plan Review Committee. The three buildings add up to an amazing 3 million square feet.
The new plans barely waited for the holiday break for a hearing, continuing the frenetic pace of industrial activity since 2019, going in 2022.
The largest projects are being submitted by CapRock Partners of Newport Beach calling for construction of 2 side-by-side concrete tilt-up buildings adding up to 2.68 million sf. The building would be located west of Plaza Drive and south of Ave 320, a parcel north of Riggin. Developer Pat Daniels says they hope to break ground later in 2022 .
CapRock was the company that started this Visalia logistics boom selling acreage to UPS who built their new 450,000sf package distribution hub, now in operation. That was followed by construction of the 1.1 million sf Amazon fulfillment center, operational as of last September. Between the two- they employ about 1700.
This past fall CapRock was well under way on construction of another 1.2 million sf building – again with no tenant announced – but most observers speculating it will be another Amazon facility, just north of the existing complex on Kelsey. CapRock plans another twin buildings just north of there, reaching Ave 320(called Kibler) between Plaza and Kelsey. These projects- east of Plaza, are called Center Point Phase 2.
Now leaping across Plaza, CapRock’s Center Point Phase 3 is being proposed
“Our generation is witnessing a massive shift in how the world economy operates with the integration of ecommerce and highly sophisticated technology in the industrial sector – CapRock is at the forefront of this evolution with a wave of support from some of the world’s leading institutional investment groups,” said Patrick Daniels, co-founder and chief executive officer of CapRock Partners.
Besides Visalia, the company is busy in Las Vegas, Texas and Phoenix along with southern California.
Founded in 2009 CapRock Partners is one of the leading private industrial real estate investment and development firms in the Western U.S. The company specializes in acquiring middle-market value-add industrial assets, developing large-scale institutional-quality Class A industrial warehouse facilities in key locations, and providing third-party asset management services for institutional investors. The firm is actively acquiring land for development across the Western U.S. and Texas Since inception, CapRock’s total investment, entitlement, and development pipeline is nearly 30 million square feet of industrial real estate.
Built or in the pipeline in Visalia, CapRock has an estimated 6.5 million square feet. It took 60 years, 1958 to 2018, for the Visalia Industrial Park to get to 16.6 million square feet.
CapRock is not the only game in our town. As we speak, another 1.1 million sf complex is being built on Plaza north of Goshen Ave for Ace Hardware to be ready late this year developed by Seefrid Industries. The distribution facility will employ 400.
This week two new projects moved forward as well.
G4 Enterprises
Also filed this week at Site Plan Review is a project to build a 320,000sf building on Kelsey south of Goshen Ave on 15 acres being proposed by Fowler Packing’s Parnagian family (G4 Enterprises Ltd.) who already own MidState 99, a 720,000 warehouse complex in Visalia. G4 has been busy in Fresno where they brought in Amazon west of 99 a few years ago.Now the developer is being thwarted for now, on expanding in West Fresno due to opposition from community groups.
At a hearing last spring ,developer Leland Parnagian noted that “The US is really undergoing a shift in how people buy things from in-store to online and that’s really driving changes in employment around the country.”
Looking to add more industrial space in Fresno County, BOS chair Steve Brandau was reported to say at the same hearing “I’ve just been appalled over and over again at the number of jobs and businesses that our community has lost to other regions, other cities in California.”
The Fresno EDC added several companies unable to find warehouse space in Fresno County over the years have found land to expand in both Visalia and Madera.
YS Industries
Add another project to the Visalia list. Another 365,000 sf “spec” building has broken ground on Clancy south of Rigging being built by Visalia’s B J Perch for YS Industries, based in Los Angeles. YS Industries built its first “spec” logistics warehouses last year.These were two 300,000-square foot behemoths across from Amazon on the south side of Riggin in the Visalia Industrial Park.They are now filled. The buildings were also built by Perch.The new building is just to the east of the twin structures. Spokesperson Freddie Molina says this too would be a spec building expected to be complete in 11 months. Molina says they are negotiating on another parcel for more projects.
Besides these players, the Ritchie-Vidovich partners are working on both smaller and massive industrial projects on land they own to be built in the Visalia Industrial Park continues to march north.They own hundreds of acres just east of the CapRock-clear to Shirk and north of Riggin.
Also busy is John Brelsford of Fresno (DDG) who will soon begin developing a 160-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Plaza and Riggin, likely following the pattern he has built in the industrial park of clustering medium size buildings on a parcel.His latest is on display at the SE corner of Riggin and Plaza.