-June 28,2023-

Visalia may add 6 acres to Corp Yard

The City of Visalia is negotiating to buy nearly 6 acres on the east side of Ben Maddox – the current home of Visalia Lumber Co.The City would add to their multi-parcel corporation yard that extends south of Goshen Ave. The matter is listed on the city council closed door discussions this week

Tulare/ Visalia may get new hotels

New hotels are in the offing for both Tulare and Visalia according to public reports. In Tulare, a five-story138 room Hilton Garden Inn is being proposed on M St next to the Tulare Bethel Church on the east side of Highway 99.

In Visalia, a plan to build a four-story Marriott hotel on Cypress near Akers is being submitted that would increase the number of hotels on this block to three. The hotel would have 101 rooms.
Santa Fe Roundabout draws fast food project

The Visalia City Planning Commission will meet June 26, 2023 to hear requests to build two new projects.One is a request by Andrew Goodwin Designs to construct a 1,597 square foot commercial building with a drive-thru lane for the Lady’s Chicken and Rice quick serve restaurant located on the southeast corner of the East Houston Avenue and North Santa Fe Street roundabout. The eatery currently operates out of a food truck near Goshen offering their spicy Laotian dishes.

Downtown Visalia movie theater to be renovated for Golf Simulator Club

The second project to be heard by the Planning Commission on June 26 is a request by Supreme Construction, Inc. to convert the former Main Street Theater into an indoor virtual golf club with seven virtual golf simulator rooms, lobby, seating area, and full-service bar and dining area. The property is at 307 East Main Street and has been vacant since the Enchanted Playhouse group moved out in 2019.
Jobless rate climbs in Tulare County

The unemployment rate in Tulare County was 10.0 percent in May 2023, up from a revised 9.8 percent in April 2023, and above the year-ago estimate of 7.0 percent. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.5 percent for California and 3.4 percent for the nation during the same period.

Tulare County’s jobless rates climbed in part due to increased unemployment in agriculture with 600 fewer jobs year over year. Non-farm jobs were up almost 4000 year over year but that was less than the increase in the county’s labor force – up about 6000 in the year.
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-May 10,2023-

Visalia’s Darling Hotel will expand

Owner Matt Ainley has filed plans to expand the boutique hotel The Darling adjacent the historic Court St building to remodel the old county public works office along Center St. The 12,000sf building has yet to be remodeled since Ainley bought two buildings from Tulare County some years back. Now he has shown a plan that would emphasize the Center St building’s art deco look.
This phase of the hotel property expansion would add additional hotel rooms and a conference facility, kitchen and even a liquor store. The address for the remodel is 100 E Center.

El Pollo Loco coming to Tulare

Tulare will snag another big name drive-thru with El Pollo Loco filing preliminary plans for a location on Prosperity just down the street from In-N-Out and next to Tractor Supply.

 

Industrial Park could get 80MW battery storage

Visalia developer Butch Oldfield has filed plans to lease about 8 acres to Viridity Energy to build an 80MW battery storage facility at Sunnyside – west of Shirk. The battery storage plant would connect to the Shirk and Goshen Ave SCE substation and would help boost power for the area. The company says they will begin. construction as soon as all approvals are met. Oldfield says prospects to get the energy facility built are good.

 

County home sales still sinking

Statistics from the Tulare County Realtors Assn show existing home sales in the county continuing to sag as of April. Countywide a year ago, there were over 350 sales a month, now down to about 200. In Visalia, home sales numbered just 100 in April, about half what they were a year ago.However, Visalia’s median home price has continued to climb in 2023 to $389,000 – compared to about $300,000 a year ago.

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-May 10,2023-

Texas-based DR Horton plans to build the largest new home subdivision ever in Hanford. At 457 homes, built in 6 phases, the city is processing a draft environmental impact report this month with a public comment period ending May 27.

The new homes would be located in the south part of town -south of Hanford Armona Rd and north of Houston Ave along 10/1/2 Ave and not far from Home Garden. Most of the existing 95 acres where the big project will be built is in agriculture use now.

DR Horton may be the biggest but not in Kings County where there are a contingent of other major builders. DR Horton does have a pending project in Corcoran called Fox Glenn. The company has plenty of other projects in the Valley including 3 in Tulare where homes start at $397K.

In their operational statement the company lays out an ambitious construction schedule launching the project as soon as possible. “Construction will take approximately 24 months, with total buildout of the homes by Q4 2025>”

Besides the homes, the project called Lunaria will feature a 5.82 acre park.

In addition to this new single family project DR Horton has filed another map to build 95 homes on 21 acres between 12th and 13th.

Right now, Kings County’s busiest builders are San Joaquin Valley Homes and Lennar- both with projects in Hanford. Lennar has a 161 unit subdivision in NW Hanford at 13th and Grangeville nearing a final map. Lennar also has a 133 unit project nearby under construction.

Other major projects include Woodside Homes with a 158 unit subdivision under construction and CalClark Farms with a 191 unit project.

San Joaquin Valley Homes tow Hanford subdivision add up to 267 homes – altogether an active Hanford pipeline by builders.

While high interest rates and concern about the economy there has been a dampener put over the industry nationwide. Nevertheless, DR Horton stock is double what it was a year ago

In an earnings release recently, the leading home builder said “the spring selling season is off to an encouraging start.” It added demand improved during the quarter due to “normal seasonal factors,” despite higher mortgage rates and inflationary pressures.

Although higher interest rates and economic uncertainty may persist for some time, the supply of both new and existing homes at affordable price points remains limited,” Board Chairman Donald Horton said in Thursday’s earnings release. “Demographics supporting housing demand remain favorable,” he added.

So far this year builders have permitted 132 homes in the county through May 9 compared to just 78 over the same period in 2022 and slightly down from pre-pandemic times in 2019 when they permitted 158 new homes. Figures are thanks to Construction Monitor.

-May 8,2023-

The value of California’s merchandise export trade in March contracted from one year earlier, according to a Beacon Economics’ analysis of the latest U.S. trade statistics released by the Foreign Trade Division of the U.S. Census Bureau.
The year’s third month of the year saw California businesses export goods with a nominal value of $16.302 billion. That was down 4.3% from the $17.033 billion the state exported one year earlier. Shipments abroad of manufactured goods slipped by 2.5% to $10.375 billion from the $10.636 billion shipped in March 2022. Exports of agricultural products and raw materials dropped by 7.4% to $2.050 billion from $2.215 billion. Re-exports declined by 7.3% to $3.877 billion from $4.183 billion.
“Storm-battered March presented unique challenges to California’s exporters, many of them logistical in nature,” said Jock O’Connell, Beacon Economics’ International Trade Adviser. “Apart from flooded farmlands and road closures, a fall-off in U.S. demand for imports caused shipping lines to reduce service to West Coast ports, resulting in fewer ships available to carry exported goods.”
California accounted for 8.8% of the $184.459 billion in U.S. merchandise exports in March, down from its 9.5% share in March of last year. In the pre-pandemic March of 2019, California accounted for 10.5% of the nation’s merchandise exports.

-May 5,2023-

VISALIA, CA – This week, state lawmakers announced the passage of SB/AB 112, approved in both the Senate and Assembly. The bill creates the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, which will provide $150 million in emergency hospital funding in the form of interest-free loans to not-for-profit or public hospitals in financial distress. The funds could be available as soon as May 5, 2023.
Funds would be available to governmental entities representing a closed hospital to prevent the closure or facilitate the reopening of a closed hospital

“We are grateful for the passing of SB/AB 112 by our legislators and the emergency funding it provides,” said Kaweah Health CEO Gary Herbst. “Hospitals like Kaweah Health with high Medi-Cal rates suffered some of the biggest losses in the state. This funding is an important step in keeping hospitals open and helping them get back on their feet. We look forward to the future work of our legislators to bring long-term support in the form of higher Medi-Cal reimbursement rates.”

After unprecedented losses during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, Kaweah Health enacted wide-ranging, cost cutting activities in September 2022, resulting in a steady return toward profitability. While Kaweah Health is expecting to finish the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023 in the red, it is anticipating that the last quarter of the year will be close to break-even.

A week ago we reported that Kaweah Health‘s financial goal to get “Back in the Black” has now shown positive results in March says the latest report to the board. The health care district has suffered red ink for months but in March the district increased revenue and cut costs. The healthcare district reported a $4.7 million positive margin in March.Red ink this fiscal year has been more than $35 million.Now there is hope for a turnaround.

State funding is is likely to be made to other district hospitals in the county who are also facing a similar crisis. That includes Tulare and Porterville.

TULARE COUNTY,VISALIA AND DINUBA GREW IN ’22

-May 4,2023-
Stable births, fewer deaths, and a rebound in foreign immigration slowed California’s recent population decline in 2022, with the state’s population estimated at 38,940,231 people as of January 1, 2023, according to new data released this week by the California Department of Finance.
The 0.35-percent population decline for 2022, roughly 138,400 persons, marks a slowdown compared to the recent decline during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Between 2021 and 2022, California’s population decreased 0.53 percent or 207,800 persons, due mainly to sharp declines in natural increase and foreign immigration. For 2022, natural increase – the net amount of births minus deaths — increased from 87,400 in 2021 to 106,900 in 2022. Births decreased slightly from 420,800 in 2021 to 418,800 in 2022, while deaths declined gradually from 333,300 persons in 2021 to 311,900 persons in 2022, respectively.
Foreign immigration nearly tripled in 2022 compared to the prior year, with a net gain of 90,300 persons in 2022 compared to 31,300 in 2021. While foreign immigration to California has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, natural increase has not rebounded. Total births remain low due to fertility declines; while deaths have eased gradually from their pandemic peak, they remain elevated. With slower domestic in-migration and increased domestic out-migration likely the result of work- from-home changes, declines in net domestic migration offset the population gains from natural increase and international migration.

Around Tulare County

In Tulare County, the county’s overall population increased slightly by 557 persons to 474,507. Dinuba was the fastest growing city at 1%. Some towns in the county shrunk slightly but Visalia added nearly 1000 new residents( 25th fastest growing in the state) and Woodlake, Dinuba and Tulare each grew by a small percentage (see chart).

In the state, Larthrop was the fastest growing city adding 3,505 new residents and bringing their population to 35,080.Delano also added nearly 1000 new persons.

Biggest losers

Statewide, forty-six of the state’s fifty-eight counties lost population. The ten largest percentage decreases were: Lassen (-4.3 percent), Del Norte (-1.3 percent), Plumas (-1.2 percent), Santa Cruz (-1.0 percent), Marin (-1.0 percent), Tehama (-1.0 percent), Napa (-1.0 percent), Lake (-0.9 percent), Monterey (-0.8 percent), and Los Angeles (-0.8 percent). The state’s three most populous counties all experienced population loss: Los Angeles declined by 73,293 persons (-0.75 percent), San Diego by 5,680 persons (-0.2 percent), and Orange by 14,782 persons (-0.5 percent).

Visalia new housing slump continues

Visalia has permitted 73% fewer new homes in the first 4 months of the year compared to the same period in 2022. Builders permitted only 2 new homes in April according to the latest City of Visalia figures. Last year by May 1, home builders had permitted 245 new homes.But so far this year, the city has issued only 66 new single family residential permits – a trend if continued- would put the full year as one of slowest for new home construction in decades.

Overall the total value of all permits is also down by 62%
although residential remodels for the year to date are up.High interest rates have slowed building plans as well as the sale of existing homes in town.

Visalia Civic Center could add 1.5 acres

On the Visalia City Council closed door agenda this week is negotiations to buy about 1.5 acres from Tulare County Farm Bureau. The land – to the east of the city Visalia Emergency Communications Center (VECC) building, fronts only on Goshen Ave north of Ben Maddox. The purchase would square out city-owned land from Oak to Goshen Ave. The Farm Bureau land was uses infers back to ship cattle from the stockyard to reach to UP rail tracks.

Commodity price snapshot shows disinflation

-May 1,2023-

Take a quick look at these charts below and notice the red in year-over- year commodity prices in general.Charts are as of May 1, 2023 from Trading Economics website.
Most of the the key commodities, from soup to nuts, lumber to nickel – are ingredients used to make things – reflecting a decline in price from a year ago – some dropping 50% or more.

OK, orange juice and potatoes are costing you more. Don’t care much for urea? You probably do care about the price of food – grown with fertilizer made from urea. How about lumber – a commodity that a year ago cost $1500 for a thousand board feet – now down to $340.

If there is one commodity we all worry about-it’s oil.Here is the latest chart for that vital resource:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-April 25, 2023-

San Francisco-based Nabis, a leading licensed cannabis wholesale platform,announced last week the opening of what they call “the largest cannabis-dedicated distribution warehouse in the world”, an investment that enables the company to increase capacity by as much as 400%. The opening of the 87,000-square-foot custom warehouse will ultimately bring between 100 and 150 new jobs to Woodlake in Tulare County,  where the warehouse is located. This will increase Nabis’ team size by ~40% at max capacity. according to a company statement.

“As Nabis continues to expand across California, we are excited to open the doors on the single largest facility dedicated for cannabis distribution to serve our many partners across the Golden State,” said Vince Ning, Co-Founder and CEO of Nabis. “From this strategic location, we are ideally positioned to scale across California and even potentially neighboring states as interstate commerce permits, from a cost-effective location, and in a dynamic, thriving jurisdiction that welcomes us as a business and community partner.”

Since January, Nabis has brought on over 60 employees—roughly half of the estimated workforce required to handle the influx of fast-moving inventory.

With more than two-and-a-half years of planning behind the complex, Nabis began construction at the end of 2021, overcoming a number of challenges including a distressed California cannabis market and extreme weather conditions, to begin preliminary operations in January of this year. As the warehouse becomes fully serviceable in coming months, Nabis anticipates opening an additional 50-60 job opportunities to the local community.

This facility is the first, and largest, of four buildings on Nabis’ Woodlake Warehouse property, which will total 350,000-square-feet once completely operational. With logistical services including timely deliveries to its robust network of retailers, innovative credit management services for its brand partners, and wholesale data-backed analytics, this opening will streamline Nabis’ intake and order fulfillment processes to be increasingly scalable.

“This capital construction investment not only allows us to more effectively support our brand partners and the cannabis supply chain with robust capacity, but in many ways, it also represents the next phase of strategic growth for Nabis,” said Will Brophy, the company’s Head of Operations. “As the cannabis market in California continues to mature, this facility bolsters our reach across the state and creates a powerful foundation toward supporting an interstate commerce future.”

For more information on Nabis careers, please visit: https://www.nabis.com/careers

-April 29,2023-

JOB FAIR: While layoffs make the headlines across the nation,Visalia held a holding a job fair April 26 at the TCOE complex on Doe in the industrial park with around 20 companies looking to hire.Positions are in dispatch, welding, lab tech, drivers, warehouse work and more .

BACK IN THE BLACK: Kaweah Health‘s financial goal to get “Back in the Black” has now shown positive results in March says  the latest report to the board. The health care district has suffered red ink for months but in  March the  district increased revenue and cut costs. The healthcare district reported a $4.7 million positive margin in March.Red ink this fiscal year has been more than $35 million.Now there is hope for a turnaround.

OLD  JAIL COMING DOWN: Tulare  County plans to demolish the old 5-story jail built in 1960 later this summer.  Due to the construction of new jail facilities, the existing Main Jail no longer houses inmates and with the completion of a new Dispatch Facility, is mostly vacant. The remaining Tulare County Sheriff’s Office staff will be relocated to the new Porterville Substation.
On March 14, 2023, an agreement with Vanir Construction Management, Inc. was approved by the Board for services including structural review, demolition design, and construction management services. Potential use of the site post-demolition includes the construction of a smaller sherrif’s facility and additional new parking.

TULE RIVER RUNOFF AT 446%OF AVERAGE: Warm up will see mid 90 degrees on the Valley floor and 70s in the Sierra between now and early May. Concern over runoff is building in Tulare, Kings and Fresno counties with the Kaweah expected to be 300% of average,  a record 446% of average on the Tule and 426% of average runoff coming down the Kern. Estimates are 50% exceedance as of April 18.  Snowpack is largest ever. The LA Times may get some attention from Sacramento reporting this week that “The only thing keeping the rising lake from inundating homes, businesses and the prison in Corcoran is the 14.5-mile-long dirt levee. Local officials want to see the levee reinforced and raised by 3.5 feet.” Locals hope the state will help.

Frutura to Use Minute Maid™ and Simply™ Brands on Fresh Fruit

-April 29,2023-
Reedley-based Frutura, the global sales and marketing network designed to supply international customers with high-quality fruit 365 days a year, has signed a licensing agreement with The Coca-Cola Company. This is the first time The Coca-Cola Company has licensed one of their brands for use within the fresh produce category.

The deal allows Frutura to use Minute Maid and Simply brands.The label will be exclusively deployed by Frutura’s Dayka & Hackett LLC. The Simply brand is entering the produce category as Simply Select™. Founded in 2005, Dayka & Hackett (D&H) is a California-based grower, packer and distributor of premium fruit.

Initially:
•Simply Select will be used on D&H fresh citrus in the United States;
•Minute Maid will be used on D&H grapes in the United States, and:
•Minute Maid will be used on D&H fresh citrus and grapes in Japan.

D&H affiliates in the Central Valley include Kozi Farming, Alta Vista Packing ,Kool Kountry,Fresh Select and FreshPac LLC,

“Our company is committed to serving the consumer with superior products at every part of their day,” said Kayla Carlucci, Associate Licensing Manager with The Coca-Cola Company. “When we consider licensing one of our brands, the quality of the product that will bear our name is paramount as is the quality control the licensee exercises at every step along the supply chain. We’re delighted to be in business with Frutura and consider this to be the start of a great relationship.”

D&H has substantially enhanced their citrus program with areas of excellence in clementines, lemons, limes, oranges and mandarins. Similarly, D&H’s expansive table grape offerings feature the most desired varietals across green, red and black seedless grape categories. Products bearing Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid and Simply Select imagery will be integrated with D&H’s existing brand portfolio and will begin appearing at retail in the 2nd quarter of 2023.

“Partnering with the iconic Coca-Cola Company, and their globally recognized and respected brands, is a transformative moment for our company and for Frutura,” said Tim Dayka, CEO of Dayka & Hackett, who crafted the licensing agreement on Frutura’s behalf. “This will allow us to increase our market penetration in a meaningful way, as these brands resonate so strongly with the discriminating consumer.”
Parent firm Frutura Produce is led by David Krause, CEO – formerly hired by Stewart Resnick as COO of his $150 million citrus business at The Wonderful Company where he worked for 20 years as part of the team that grew Wonderful’s citrus operation to just north of a billion dollars, he remarks.