Sequoia Gateway project still stalled in neutral
April 18,2024
CalTrans has again let the latest construction date slip for the long-awaited Caldwell interchange at Hwy 99. A year ago they said construction was expected to start by August 2023.
But as everyone knows, lots has happened in California that has resulted in delays. Stuff like Covid 19, some 20 atmospheric rivers decimating roads and bridges and now a state budget crisis.
But this past week CalTrans District 6 administrator Mike Navarro said “we expect to begin construction by the end of this year.” Look for about a three-year construction period he estimates.
caption: Developers of the proposed Sequoia Gateway commercial center, along Highway 99 continue to face delays as construction of the Caldwell Interchange is now scheduled for 2028. Meanwhile, big retailers continue to favor new locations along Visalia’s traditional commercial strips, surrounded by rooftops.
So the schedule now suggests we could see the completed interchange in about four years.
Arguably, the drawn-out time frame matters most to the developers of the Sequoia Gateway business park – the huge 1.46 million square-foot commercial center that was first proposed back in 2015 at a public hearing.
In 2018, the controversial project on the outskirts of the Visalia city limits, was approved by the county Board of Supervisors.
News articles at the time reported that the developers estimated “Sequoia Gateway will create more than 2,000 jobs and $17 million in annual tax revenue.”
“It’s going to be a tremendous increase in property tax evaluation which will benefit the county now, ultimately benefit the city of Visalia and the county,” Supervisor Pete Vander Poel said. “And it’s going to increase sales tax tremendously.”
“To be located at the southeast corner of Caldwell Avenue and Highway 99, Sequoia Gateway will be built in phases over the next eight to ten years.”
“The first phase will include a Valley Children’s specialty care center, as well as gas stations and fast food restaurants. Phase two will include hotels, retail stores, and a visitor’s center.”
When approved in 2018 the only commercial activity at that corner was a Shell gas station and convenience store surrounded by ag land and the Visalia airport runway to the north.Today, about 7 years later the Shell station is still there and a Valero station has opened along with a drive-thru coffee store.
The latest delay in Caltrans construction launch estimate is not the first time dates have come and gone. In 2018 the project’s EIR cites “The Caltrans ‘Status of Projects’ Report indicates that completion of the interchange reconstruction project is scheduled for July 2024. For purposes of the programmatic analysis for the Near Term (2024) scenario, it is therefore assumed that the reconstructed interchange will be completed and open to traffic” concludes the EIR.
Indeed the developer, in their 2018 environmental document for the project, anticipated as much as 1,000,000 square feet of development by 2024 – now.
An aerial view of the project today doesn’t look a whole bunch different that it did in 2015 when this land was mostly row crop farmland, now with some internal road work installed.Price tag rises
The price tag for the interchange project itself that requires demolition of the existing freeway overcrossing bridge and replacement with a new wider bridge and 4 through-lanes has risen to $68.2 million by the latest estimate – up from $53.5 mil in 2018 and $36.8 in 2009.
After years of trying to make it happen, the existing landowners,Bill Travis and Fred Ruiz have been shopping the project around according to county economic development staffer Mike Washam and an unknown developer has been doing “due diligence” on a possible purchase of about 85 acres of the 127-acre land for almost a year. Calls to the owners requesting comment were not returned.
That due diligence would be expected to include how long it would take for consumers to access any tenants that the developer would try to attract. Obviously, the tenants want to know this too.
Now we know when that might be – 2028, not 2024.
Already significant business interests have looked at the site and walked away. That includes the Great Wolf Resort project that made splashy news a year ago.Here is a news report on what happened as of March 2023.
“This week Mike Washam, assistant director of the County of Tulare economic development agency, confirmed the Chicago-based developer of Great Wolf Resorts has decided not move forward on what had been touted as a $2-billion-impact project to build a 500-700 room resort and water park at the Sequoia Gateway Commerce Center near Caldwell Avenue and Highway 99.
As recently as December, news reports said the hotel resort project — first proposed in January 2022 — was expected to break ground in 2023 and open in 2025. As of a few months ago, Washam was still optimistic.
But Washam says he was advised last weekend that the company, which operates 19 Great Wolf Lodge resorts across the U.S., decided that “the timing was not right” on the Visalia location, suggesting they were busy breaking ground on resorts in other parts of the country.
“I don’t think they have any other potential locations in California they prefer,” instead focusing outside the state, said Washam.It makes sense that the company might give up on the idea to open in 2025 when travelers could not access a new interchange until years later and the existing outdated interchange built in the 1950s wouldn’t be able to handle the traffic.
A major challenge this shopping center has is that it is located away from any population center and totally dependent for success on its connection to Highway 99. Unlike Mooney Boulevard, a store coming into the Gateway center cannot count on existing shoppers that will be visiting hundreds of neighboring stores and restaurants, large and small along the retail trip Mooney Blvd. For example, Sam’s Club and Chick-fil-A don’t have to wait till 2028 and hope customers will come. Instead they recently selected S. Mooney Blvd. for their proposed location – near Costco,Target and three-plus miles of local and regional commercial outlets. The mass complex of stores, surrounded by thousands of homes, help float all the boats.
Two other proposed anchors for the commercial center include Valley Children’s Hospital and Kaweah Delta- each of which have said they may want to offer clinical space at the Hwy 99 center.
Valley Children’s Hospital, based in Madera, has a few Valley clinics already. The nonprofit already and a Visalia clinical location near the Visalia Medical Clinic where they serve children.
Of course Kaweah Delta too already has extensive clinical space all over Visalia, countywide and in Tulare. Valley Children’s Hospital said they supported the project and wanted to be part of it back in 2018. But as of spring 2024 there’s no sign they are moving forward with a facility here after talking about it for 9 years.
Each of the big healthcare entities have their own issues to worry about that include difficult finances and community support. Due largely to the widespread Covid epidemic, Kaweah Health has been suffering under red ink for a few years and is only now coming out of it but requiring state financial help to do so.
Valley Children’s Hospital has recently had their own problem related to the disclosure of the $5 million salary of their CEO even as most of their patients are low-income MediCal children. The publicity has hurt the hospital’s community support and likely their fundraising.
Kaweah Health continues to study opening a surgical clinic at the Gateway site based on the idea that funding for the project would come from private physicians in partnership with the health district. Some decision on this could come as soon as July, say sources.
Today the Sequoia Gateway project looks pretty much like it did back in 2015 although there is now a second gas station and in a Dutch Brothers coffee drive-thru.But there will have to be a lot of lattes served before a significant number of fellow tenants move in. As it always has been, the fate of the commercial center is dependent on what happens with the freeway interchange.