Category: Business

–January 9,2023-

here are the latest  projections  for snow and rain in the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast.

-January 7,2023-

Visalia building permits had a mixed year but overall the value of all permits climbed 25%. New home permits fell in the second half of the year as mortgage rates
shot up but multi family permits surged.

New single-family home numbers totaled 560 vs 636 for all of 2021. Multi-family units in 2022 numbered 691 vs 204 for 2021, the busiest year ever. New commercial projects dropped in number from 66 in 2021 to to 38 in 220 but their value climbed 32% to $139,595 million. The jump was largely due to two large industrial projects that added up to over $100 million.The largest was a January 2022 permit for the new Ace Hardware service center about ready to open in 2023.

The total value all permits was $565 million in 2022 compared to $453 million in 2021.

Edeniq adding new testing lab, adding employees

Ethanol company Edeniq who helps corn ethanol makers get more out of their production does  analytical chemistry work in Visalia Industrial Park at 6910 W Pershing where they employ 21 scientists, tech staff and administration. Now the company wants to add a second facility at 1141 N Nevada Ave where they will build a new lab employing 10 to start and 20 long term says their operational statement. The new lab will be just under 12,000sf.

-January 2,2023-

Kaweah Health will expand mental health hospital on Akers

The California Department Health announced that Kaweah Health will receive $8.78 million to add a new 8600sf, 22-bed wing at their Mental Health hospital on Akers in Visalia.The new wing will serve teen and children with psychiatric care. The new complex should be open by 2025. “We’re grateful for the state grant to expand much needed mental health services in the County” said Marc Mertz, Chief Strategy Officer.

Kaweah Health closes Transitional Care Center on Court St

Kaweah Health’s Transitional Care Center on Court St has been close. Transitional Care provides patients that have had an illness or injury with a place to receive continued skilled nursing care after leaving the hospital. All of the remaining patients either transferred home to family members or to other facilities say staff. The district still offers a Skilled Nursing Facility at Kaweah Health

Kaweah Health plans Crisis Stabilization Unit

A Child and Adolescent Crisis Stabilization Unit is being planed by Kaweah Health in North Visalia. The hospital is under contract to buy the Boy Scouts building in north Visalia. A staff report says the building is ideal, as is the location for this CSU. We hope to close after the first of the year and get started with permitting for the renovations.Located in North Visalia submarket, 230 NW 3rd Avenue was built in 2007 and consists of 5,012± square feet of professional o ce space constructed on 18,295± square feet of land.

New Mental Health Wellness Center

Kaweah Health’s new Mental Wellness Center is targeting opening in February 2023 at 301 Noble Ave In Visalia.

Kings/Tulare COGs get update

-December 31,2022-

The southern San Joaquin Valley from Fresno to Bakersfield is likely to see several 50 to 300-acre or larger clean transportation hubs proposed in coming months funded with a mix of millions of dollars of public and private funding – part of a Valley-wide $30 billion investment that could add 100,000 new jobs here. The federal Department of Transportation (DOT) is leading the charge to launch this new freight movement model in support of California’s seaports that could be replicated across the country.

“What has brought everyone to the table is the fact that the DOT has designated our project as a “Regional Infrastructure Accelerator” with the financial backing of the government that brings in private investment” says consultant Lois Yates of Arizona-based Global Logistics Development Partners.

One  practical upshot- in a few years you will see fewer diesel-fired big rigs clogging our highways as more cargo moves up and down the Valley by rail and new zero-carbon trucks.

In discussions launched in 2019, the so-called Inland Port project has a new name, says Yates.  Now called the TradePort project, the plan is to build the largest and most sophisticated logistics and investment corridor in the world here – including fully integrated ocean, rail, truck and air goods movement and economic development centers to be surrounded by manufacturing, e-commerce and distribution operations. Yates and partner Adam Wasserman are working with the Fresno Council of Governments who represent  all the COGs in the Central Valley to benefit the economies in all counties from Sacramento to Kern.

This month an update of the ambitious project was given at meetings of both the Kings and Tulare COGs.The presentation heard the plan to build two main 300-acre rail-served hubs in the Central Valley and 7 satellite centers perhaps 50 acres each clustered where industrial development is happening.

Yates lays out the concept as a system approach to move cargo containers from the LA and Bay Area ports inland as it ships ag products grown in the Valley back to the ports. The project would offer shippers here more options to get their products to market, avoiding the kind of supply chain crisis we have seen in the past few years while it cleans the air and fights global warming.

Along with significant volumes of domestic cargo, approximately 1.1 million ocean containers move through the San Joaquin Valley, about half that representing imports (mostly consumer products from Asia),the other half exports (mostly agricultural products destined for Asia). Currently, virtually all these goods are moved via highways by internal combustion engine-powered trucks.There are some 20,000 truck trips every week, research shows.

Yates says in January the group will start to reach out to Valley EDCs, counties, cities and private developers and shippers with criteria they are looking for to build planned TradePort hubs.That will include a new website.

The group has applied for $45 million available from the State of California budget surplus to launch the start-up effort.They expect to hear in March if the funding will happen. In the meantime the COGS and consultants have hired an LA-based law firm Nossaman, to help form an entity who will be the legal authority who builds and manages the TradePort project.

The big news is that the TradePort is about ready to make a”call for sites” that could be the first step in what could transform both local economy, the air quality and climate here with improvement in shipping helping to make locations more competitive with more high paying jobs found in manufacturing notes Yates.

Tulare County economic development manager Mike Washam says he and Visalia development manager Devon Jones are working together to find prospective sites that could land one of the hubs perhaps in the greater Goshen area along the Union Pacific line where it meets  the Cross Valley rail line that connects Kings and Western Fresno Counties. One site that might work is the Visalia WWT plant land along the UP line and 99 where a potential solar powered hydrogen facility could offer clean fuel to zero emission trucks.

Fresno may be pushing a site near Fowler where both the UP and BNSF lines are near each other along Highway 99.

Yates says the process to vet and ultimately select the TradePort sites is starting in the first quarter of 2023, with intentions to have sites selected by Q3, 2023 and have sites under control later in the year. It could be operational in 2025.

Other areas in California are ahead of us. In Kern County the Board of Supervisors have given the go-ahead for development of a Mojave Inland Port on 400 acres.It is estimated that the Mojave Inland Port will have the capacity to handle approximately 3 million containers per year. Containers will be offloaded from ships onto shuttle trains for direct transport through the underutilised Alameda Corridor directly to Mojave, where they will be distributed.The site will be rail served by Union Pacific.

Also going forward is a 4500 acre inland port hub in Barstow being built by UP rival BNSF railroad. Said  to be a $1.5 billion investment, it  will connect to both LA port shipping goods east. The facility will use automated cargo equipment to move goods  on and off rail to warehouses.

-December 1,2022-

Picture shows a United Parcel Service driver in Los Osos California on his delivery route forced to rent a truck due to high demand and not enough trucks. He says not just UPS but FedEx and others are having the same issue.

-December 1,2022-

Los Angeles-based Superior Grocers is opening a store in Tulare at the former Palace Foods on the city’s westside. In Dinuba they plan to open new store on El Monte in the former Save Mart, long vacant next to the empty K-Mart. Construction is underway with the remodel permit valued  at $200,000.

-November 30,2022-

West Goshen to be hooked to Cal Water

In Tulare County, the unincorporated community of West Goshen
is facing a public health emergency due to water quality and
water supply issues in the system of private wells serving the
community. The community will receive $3.4 million for the
California Department of Water Resources to consolidate the West
Goshen water system into the nearby public water system, Cal
Water Visalia.Recently plans for new industry west of Highway 99
were revealed.Also a boom in highway commercial and residential

construction has been seen.

New CapRock building west of Plaza gets OK

For the third year in a row, Newport Beach-based CapRock will be
constructing another million square ft speculative building in
2023. The company recently got a “proceed” nod from the city on
plans filed for a 1.27 million sf concrete tilt-up building west of
PlazaDrive a mile north of Riggin. According to the traffic study
on the big project the intent is to open in 2023, an ambitious
schedule.
CapRock’s other two spec buildings were both leased to Amazon –
one in 2021 and other just opening in the past few months in
2022.

New Amazon just half filled

Work continues inside the new 1.1 million sf Amazon building
on Ave 320 the Visalia Industrial park. The parking lot is crowded
with several hundred cars but only about half the building is being
used with construction continuing inside on the rest say workers
at the sprawling facility. To keep traffic from impacting Riggin,
workers coming and leaving the new plant can’t go south on
Kelsey but must use Plaza Dr.

CEO sacked this week

-November 30,2022-

The start-up electric carmaker Faraday Future reported that construction work on their Hanford automotive plant is complete but that the long promised production kickoff for the luxury car will need to be postponed yet again. In an acknowledgment of a cash crunch, the LA-based company said they hope to be able to “announce the date for delivery of the FF 91 to customers shortly after funding has been secured”.Earlier this year they proposed to begin production in July and then postponed the date to the 4th quarter of 2022.Now more delays.

Unhappy with the company’s prospects the Faraday Future board this week sacked CEO Carl Brtifleid, replacing him immediately with FF China CEO Xuefeng (XF) Chen.

The company said “XF possesses extensive hands-on experience with global luxury automotive brands as well as vast experience in manufacturing, product planning and execution and product delivery.”

“I believe the decision to appoint XF at this critical juncture of the Company is a timely and correct one,” said FFIE Chairman of the Board of Directors Adam He. “XF is a top talent in the global automotive industry and possesses both a global perspective and extensive hands-on experience across the global automotive industrial chain. His years of experience at Ford and Jaguar Land Rover will pave a solid foundation for his leadership of Faraday Future’s global team. The Company’s top priority right now is to
deliver the FF 91 Futurist to our users with high quality and
minimal cost, and to successfully realize the US-China dual home market strategy with the ultimate goal to maximize Faraday Future stockholder interest,” added Mr. He.”

The move comes after FF in their latest financial filing with
the Securities and Exchange Commission lays out the situation questioning the very future of Faraday Future.

“The Company has evaluated whether there are certain conditions and events, considered in the aggregate, that raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year…. Based on its recurring losses from operations since inception and continued cash outflows from operating activities…The timing of first deliveries of FF 91 vehicles is uncertain and is not expected to occur in 2022 and remains subject to various conditions, many of which are outside of FF’s control, including the timing, size, and availability of additional financing as well as the implementation and effectiveness of FF’s headcount reductions…”

The company’s stock traded on the NASDAQ, reflects a gloomy outlook with shares valued at just 30 cents a share – a 94% drop this year. Since the CEO announcement on November 29, there was a move higher however, to35 cents.

Faraday Future first announced back in November 2015 that it would invest up to $1 billion in its first manufacturing facility.In 2017 they picked Las Vegas as the place to build a new plant but in July 2017 they gave up the idea. In August of that year the company announced that it had signed a lease for the million sf vacant former Pirelli tire plant in Hanford, California. At that time, FF said that it could employ up to 1,300 people over time and build up to 10,000 cars a year at that location. FF had raised money in a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) stock offering bringing in $1 billion in investor’s money

But since then the company has bled red ink with their latest financial filing reporting some $3.3 billion in accumulated debt.

“Total assets on September 30, 2022, were $541 million, which include $32 million of cash, compared to $907 million total assets on December 31, 2021. Total liabilities were approximately $253 million, versus approximately $340 million on December 31, 2021. Since inception, the Company has incurred cumulative losses from operations and negative cash flows from operating activities, and the Company reported an accumulated deficit of approximately $3.3 billion as of September 30, 2022. The Company expects to continue to generate significant operating losses for the foreseeable future ……”

On the plus side their net loss has decreased from a year ago as they had slowed expenses. and promise to reduce staff.

“Our registration statement becoming effective allows us to tap into some of the financing agreements we entered into in recent months. We strengthened our finance leadership, appointed a new auditor, and we filed our third quarter financials on time despite these transitions. We have completed important funding agreements and are optimistic that we can put in place the additional funding we need to launch the FF 91. “

Sequoia Mall likely location

-November 28,2022-

A spokesperson for the NY-based bookseller Barnes and Noble says they are “close to securing a site” in Visalia for a new bookstore. “It could happen very soon” says Janine Flanigan, Director of Store Planning and Design for the company.

”We are opening many new stores across the nation” adds Flanigan, a dramatic turnaround for an industry that appeared to be on its deathbed just a few years ago, closing stores- not opening them.

Sources say the likely location will be a 16,000sf store being constructed at the Sequoia Mall next to the new Nordstrom Rack and Sprouts grocery store – just announced a few days ago.

Developer Dave Paynter could not confirm the bookstore deal, likely because the lease has not been finalized. Paynter did file a plan for the new store with the city recently.

If bookstores are coming back from the dead – so is the Sequoia Mall that now appears to be just about full of tenants in the old vacant Sears building, all of who are expected to open by next fall, says Paynter. It is likely the bookstore would be on the same timeline.

Flanigan says the new store will follow a prototype design that the company has used on its past 16 new stores. The site plan at the Sequoia Mall filed with the city shows tables in a plaza in front of the store.

Flanigan says if the new Visalia store has the space they will include a coffee bar as seen in other B&N bookstores.

Flanigan notes the book chain was sold in 2019 and since then there has been a turnaround. She credits management who allows local booksellers to decide what locals like to read as one reason for success. The pandemic also helped rekindle interest in reading and books she says.

Like the announcement of an organic grocer and new discount department store, this new bookstore will be good news for Visalia in that the city does not have a national bookstore since Borders closed at the Sequoia Mall over a decade ago. Downtown is getting a new bookstore run by Family Healthcare Network in the former Picnic building.

The Sequoia Mall news would give Visalia three new anchors in retail categories we don’t have today. It would also offer consumers choice and add to Visalia’s sales tax base.

A few years ago it was tough going for national book stores and it seemed like this venerable business was just fading away- killed as they say- by the internet. But during the Covid years people started reading again brightening prospects for the Barnes & Noble chain -the only player left in this business.

The private retailer stands alone after a series of mergers and bankruptcies in the American bookstore industry since the 1990s. It is the largest national bookstore chain.The company is also one of the nation’s largest manager of college textbook stores including the COS bookstore although management is completely separate. Most stores sell books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, graphic novels, gifts, games, toys, music, and Nook e-readers and tablets. The company offers publishing and self publishing services.

With 3 new national retailers the old mall appears to be coming back to life after years of just hanging on. A Times Delta writer a few years ago offered this not very complimentary description.

The Sequoia Mall in Visalia has long been perceived as a stagnate shopping center of shuttered shop doors and shiny floors, which pristine appearance only serves as further evidence that the floors have remained free from any footsteps.

The only cloud hanging over the development of this well located retail property is the uncertain future of the movie theater. Regal Cinema, who runs the two movie houses in Visalia, has declared bankruptcy.