-April 2,2022-
New Fairfield Inn & Suites coming to Hanford
Hotel owner and developer Anil Chagan says he is working with the City of Hanford to permit a new 82 room Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel facing Highway 198. The lodge would be near the 12th Ave interchange located next to the Hanford Hyundai dealership. Chagan, based in Visalia, would have four hotels with this new property with a unit in Tulare and two in Visalia.Construction should start in May, he says.
Save Mart chain sold to SoCal firm
Modesto-based Save Mart Companies announced this week that Kingswood Capital Management LP has acquired the company. Kingswood is an operationally-focused private equity firm based in Los Angeles, with significant experience in the retail sector. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Save Mart has some 2000 stores in California and Nevada and 5 in this reading area including Lemoore, Hanford, Coalinga, Kingsburg and Selma.
The company operates stores under the banners of Save Mart, Lucky California, and FoodMaxx. There are several FoodMaxx locations in the South Valley including Visalia.
In addition to its retail operation, the company also operates SMART Refrigerated Transport and is a partner in Super Store Industriesp, which owns and operates a distribution center in Lathrop, and the Sunnyside Farms dairy processing plant in Turlock.
“I’m excited for this opportunity with Kingswood to invest in and grow The Save Mart Companies family of stores,” said Chris McGarry, CEO of The Save Mart Companies. “The Piccinini family did a tremendous job in fostering a commitment to innovation and service as they built and grew this company in the Central Valley and throughout California. As a result, we have great stores and a committed team of 14,000 employees we serve.”
With the addition of The Save Mart Companies, Kingswood is expanding its existing Northern California presence. It already owns Alameda-based Cost Plus World Market, which it acquired in January 2021 from Bed Bath and Beyond, and Mare Island based Lind Marine, a diversified marine services business headquartered north of the San Francisco Bay, which it recapitalized in January 2022.
Kings County adds jobs in February
The unemployment rate in Kings County was 8.5 percent in February 2022, down from a revised 9.0 percent in January 2022, and below the year-ago estimate of 11.7 percent. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.8 percent for California and 4.1 percent for the nation during the same period. Leading the gain here as well as in Fresno County were educational, leisure services and health services jobs. In Fresno these jobs were up 1,700 over the month; 6,700 over the year.
The unemployment rate in Fresno County was 7.6 percent in February 2022, down from a revised 8.1 percent in January 2022, and below the year-ago estimate of 11.2 percent.
Friant could lose existing water supply
The federal Bureau of Reclamation has allocated contractors in the Friant district only 15% of their annual supply. But now the drought across the state may force Friant to cough up this small amount stored in the upper SJR watershed to the San Joaquin Exchange Contractors Friant officials fear, leaving them with a zero supply to send down the Friant Kern Canal.Only more rain and runoff in Shasta would fix this.
Cherry crop with good size fruit coming
A published report says the Flavor Tree Fruit Company in Hanford is expecting large cherries for the upcoming harvest.
“We received ideal growing conditions in California during the dormant period in all of our cherry-growing regions,” Kaleb Smith, assistant sales manager, told The Packer. “Initial bloom was very healthy in the southern and central growing districts, and so far, our earliest orchards have shown a very promising crop.
“Although it does not look like we will be receiving last year’s substantially high yields, we are very encouraged by the current crop load, as the conditions are ideal for us to produce large-size cherries with great quality,” he continued. “We expect promotable volume for shipments throughout the Month of May and are very excited for the season as we await our first harvest.”Hanford offers the market some of the earliest cherries in the produce aisle.
Supreme Court to hear Prop12 appeal
The Supreme Court agreed last Monday to hear a farm-group challenge that says California’s animal welfare rules pose an unconstitutional burden on farmers and consumers throughout the nation. Approved by the state’s voters in a landslide in 2018, Proposition 12 requires California farmers to give more room to sows and egg-laying hens, and bars the sale of pork not raised following the space requirement rules. The appeal was filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation) and the National Pork Producers Council.
California’s Proposition 12 seeks to ban the sale of pork from hogs that don’t meet the state’s new production standards, even if the pork was raised on farms outside of California. Any whole pork meat from hogs born of sows not housed in conformity with the law cannot be sold in the state of California, regardless of whether the animal was raised in-state or out-of-state.
“AFBF is pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision to consider the constitutionality of California’s law imposing arbitrary requirements on farmers well outside its borders.”
Dairies lobby to keep digester incentive
Environmental Justice advocates have been pushing the State of California Air Board to not allow dairies and livestock to earn revenue for the greenhouse gas emissions reductions achieved to help the state meet its targets. These incentives, like the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), make digesters possible and therefore the achievements that have been made with them. Without those incentives producers, including a number in Kings County, would be nowhere near meeting the legislated target of reducing manure methane emissions by 40%. However, with the incentives reaching that target is achievable. The EJ advocates had petitioned CARB to deny dairy digesters LCFS credits. CARB recently denied their petition but agreed to continue discussions on the topic. A workshop being held is a direct result of that.Stay tuned.
Stanford University getting King’s solar power
Stanford University has revealed that the 63MW of offtake it secured from the Slate solar-plus-storage project in Kings County, California, has completed its transition to 100% renewable electricity. The project, which just came online, enables Stanford” to achieve the important milestone of producing enough renewable electricity to exceed what the university consumes,” said President Marc Tessier-Lavigne.