Green Power Bus Exec Buys Landmark Springville Inn
An executive working on the GreenPower bus factory planned in Porterville has purchased the historic Springvile Inn this week says a county official. Chairman Fraser Atkinson of GreenPower Buses confirms a deal but says he could not comment too much. “It will be nice to have more places to hang our hat” during the interim period they are under construction on their new electric bus factory near the airport. “We will have a core group working on the project and there are not a lot of choices for places to house them” says Atkinson. Construction of the 150,000sf Porterville factory could start in a matter of weeks on the 9.3 acre parcel the Canadian-based company bought from the city.
The county source says the new owner of the Springville Inn wants to use the famous foothill hotel temporally for GreenPower company use but later restoring it as a hotel in the future with locals hoping they bring back fine dining to Springville again as well.The place dates from 1912.
“We want to be part of the community” adds Atkinson noting he hopes to work with Fresno State on curricula where students might learn skills that could help them get future jobs with the electric bus maker here.
Atkinson say if trend continues electric buses will replace diesel buses noting that increased demand for clean energy vehicles, particularly in the Valley and LA Basin, as well as a big drop in battery costs is making the difference. For example, he says the cost of a battery used in an electric bus today is $700 a kilowatt hour (kWh) compared to about $2,500 kWh only five years ago.
Shuttered Visalia Beauty School Could Become Gym
Preliminary plans to reuse the 11,000sf vacant space formerly occupied by Marinello Beauty School on Mooney have been filed with the city for a proposed gym and workout place.”They told us the applicant wants to do something similar to In-Shape” down the block says a city planner. The gym would be located at 2335 S Mooney.
Chick-fil-A Eyes Visalia
City planners say the fast food company Chick-fil-A is looking at a potential location in Visalia but that no site has been proposed so far. The eatery started in 1946, when Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant, Dwarf Grill, in Hapeville, Georgia. Credited with inventing Chick-fil-A’s boneless breast of chicken sandwich, Mr. Cathy founded Chick-fil-A, Inc. in the early 1960s and pioneered the establishment of restaurants in shopping malls with the opening of the first Chick-fil-A Restaurant at a mall in suburban Atlanta in 1967. Since then, Chick-fil-A has steadily grown to become the largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States, based on domestic annual sales with over 2,000 locations in 43 states and Washington, D.C. In 2015, annual sales exceeded $6 billion. Chick-fil-A is still privately held and family owned.