Marquez Bros buying 50 acres once coveted by HS Rail
Marquez Bros International makes a variety of dairy products including Hispanic cheese at their crowded square- block plant on 11th St in Hanford that clearly has no room to grow. Popular brands made here include El Mexicano variety of cheeses. Given the popularity of Mexican cuisine, Hispanic-style cheese appears to have a bright future particularly in California and the Central Valley.
California Milk Advisory Board Foodservice representative Katie Cameron says “All major Hispanic-style cheese/dairy products are projected to grow through 2025.”
It may not be surprising that Hispanic varieties of cheese enjoy a big market in California after seeing waves of immigrants come here in the past 30 years. Today California’s Hispanic population is about 40%, 55% in Fresno County, 56% in Kings and 67% in Tulare County. Families are not just eating these foods at home, Mexican food is the most popular cuisine when Californians eat out. IBIS World says there are a staggering 17,606 Mexican restaurants calling California home. In some counties in California one third of the restaurants serve Mexican food.
Another trend is also driving consumption of cheese. If Americans are drinking less fluid milk, they are more than making up for it at the cheese aisle. People are drinking half the amount of fluid milk than we did in 1975 but at the same time per capita consumption of cheese has grown threefold and yogurt is being gobbled up by a factor of seven from just 2 pounds per person in 1975 to 17 pounds per person in 2022.
Both cheese and yogurt drink products are the big sellers at Marquez international. The San Jose-based company makes 12 varieties of cheeses, flavorful creams, 10 yogurt varieties, meats like chorizo, canned and packaged goods, beverages and of course – desserts. Tasty crumbled cheese for your tacos and enchiladas are a big seller.
Marquez Bros was founded in 1981. They opened in Kings County not just because the consumer market is here but also the milk supply is here. Milk is delivered to the Hanford plant regularly by California Dairies Inc., the cooperative based in Visalia.
Now Marquez Bros are planning what will be one of the largest manufacturing plants in Kings County behind Leprino in Lemoore. The company has filed environmental documents with the City of Hanford to build a 50-acre dairy product manufacturing campus along Lacey Boulevard next to the high-speed rail elevated track just beyond the traffic circle and the Pemex gas station east of town. Before construction can start, the city will need to annex the land.
The plan calls for a nine-phase expansion at the former cherry orchard that would result in 730,000 square feet of buildings built over a decade. Once all phases are done, the plant could employ 200 and be visited by 120 trucks a day. The value of all the improvements at this site is likely many hundreds of millions of dollars although no one from the company would talk to us to confirm or ask any questions.
By way of comparison a new 500,000 square foot cheese plant in Ohio – Great Lakes Cheese- has a construction value of $621 million.
Public meeting July 8
A first look at the plans will happen July 8 at 5 PM at City Hall where a scoping session will be held on the project. The meeting is open to the public. This is the first in a multiple step environmental study that will have more public meetings and an invitation to comment. Odor problems at the 11th St. plant in the past will focus efforts to ensure that does not happen with this new facility.
From the documents filed, this is a massive undertaking. It will start with clearing the land, putting in utilities, founding a wastewater treatment plant and building a cold storage. All this before they start making cheese here. The dairy facility will also have a milk receiving station, a whey plant and a plastic bottle manufacturing unit.
The building for cheese manufacturing will be 185,000sf. Once buildings are operational and production begins, the facility anticipates running on a 24-hour/5-7 day.
The land where Marquez Brothers plans to build has been owned by farmer Ernie Costamagna since 2012 who apparently has a contract to sell the property once contingencies are removed. Costamagna did not return phone calls.
The land’s location offers the dairy manufacturer the use of rail as well as highways to ship and receive because of its location along the Cross Valley rail line.Unlike their 11th St. cheese plant, there’s plenty of room to expand that will likely allow the company to exponentially expand production.For the city the project means plenty of new property tax monies coming to help bolster the city budget.
For the adjacent property owner, California High-Speed Rail, the plan amounts to a hiccup for the future location of the California High-Speed rail station serving Kings and Tulare County.
In April 2023, High Speed Rail consultants offered location maps and design concepts for several Valley high-speed rail stations that will be built in coming years. The map for the Kings County station shows almost 3000 visitor parking spaces and the entrance to the station at the base of the elevated tracks right where the cheese plant will now be built (see map).
Station design
The Kings-Tulare station will feature elevated platforms and a protective canopy, with services and amenities located directly below.
Here is how consultants describe the station:
“A short distance away from the city of Hanford, the Kings Tulare station is designed to create a streamlined experience for those arriving by bus, car, or bicycle. The elevated platforms and protective canopy will be added to the Hanford viaduct currently under construction. All of the station’s services and amenities will be located directly below, creating an easy and intuitive passenger journey. The adjacent public plaza will serve as a local community asset.”
Each station will have an 80 to 90-foot-tall metal canopy covering the superstructures. Three stations will have raised platforms where riders board the trains, with Fresno as the outlier. Kings/Tulare and Bakersfield will have their entire station and concourse beneath the platform.The station’s platform will be raised 56 feet, allowing trains to pass over the adjacent Route 198 highway. The site plan includes parking for 2,870 cars and 290 bicycles. Transit bus bays and pick-up spaces will be incorporated immediately next to a landscaped public park. The parking will be spread across several surface lots surrounding.
Now apparently high-speed rail will move this parking and staging area for the station to the north of the Cross Valley Rail and away from Highway 198 and Lacey Boulevard that was to be the main road access.
The latest plan would use the parcel where the rail contractor stores large concrete and steel components used to build the elevated tracks. Those tracks- the one mile long Hanford Viaduct – now crosses Highway 198 heading to Corcoran. Road access to this dirt site would have to be constructed off Highway 43.
Nevertheless, HSR is not publicly acknowledging the issue saying only that “On April 30, the California High-Speed Rail Authority presented updates regarding the design and the future plans of the Kings/Tulare Regional High-Speed Rail Station to be built in Kings County. Community members were in attendance along with representatives from the Marquez Brothers. The future station is to be built on property adjacent to an active high-speed rail construction site known as the Hanford Viaduct. The Authority is in the beginning stages to acquire the property.
The Authority has worked with representatives of Kings County and the City of Hanford for several years to keep them informed of the environmental footprint that is cleared for the build out of the station facilities.”
For high-speed rail the change of plans is simply the way the cheese crumbles.