Category: Business

-September 9,2021-

Jordan Link – Tulare County’s largest real estate brokerage, has purchased a new headquarters buying the former Tucoemas Credit Union office building on Whittendale,west of Mooney in Visalia. The building is now undergoing an extensive remodel.

The 20,000sf building dates from 1983. ”We hope to be operational by the first of the year” says co-owner and President Mike Allen. Allen’s partner is Michael Gutierrez.The company has five locations in the south Valley including a new office in Delano. The Visalia corporate office will house 170 employees. Company-wide they employ 350. The partners bought the company from founder Bill Jordan in 2017. Allen says the current office on Feemster,off Mooney,is for sale.

WSS shoe store,next to Target on North Dinuba Blvd in Visalia, is expanding. The company will add the former Maurice’s space next door to the existing shoe store space.

Veteran city planner Paul Bernal is now the City of Visalia’s Community Development Director, appointed by the city council in the past few days.

-August 25,2021-

City of Visalia news

Civic Center design takes step

The City of Visalia has taken a major step in the future design and layout of the Civic Center on the eastern side of Downtown. Now the plan includes two new offices on opposite corners of School and Burke. On the east side there will be the new police administration building in front of the department’s VEC building. On the west side there will be a new council chambers and city administration office, says Mayor Steve Nelsen. Just how large each will be will depend on the next step – a space needs study.

New City Manager takes helm

Leslie Caviglia has taken the gavel as the next city manager , the first woman in the position in the city’s history.

City weighs plan to retire land to save water

The Visalia City Council is expected to take up a plan to retire some city-owned land currently leased to ag users in a move to save water. The potential is to retire some 500 acres of land that would be fallowed or put to some other use that does not use a lot of water like erecting solar panels. Plots being considered are at the end of the airport runway and the NW corner of Caldwell and 99.

Retail roundup:

Visalia Mall has snagged a new tenant – Windsor – leasing the former Charlotte Russe,a 3,400 sq. ft. space. The new store features trendy apparel & accessories for young women, including special-occasion dresses, jeans & basics. Opening is scheduled for 11/1/21. Tommy’s Car Wash got the green light from the Planning Commission to build a new automated car wash at the Donahue Schreiber-owned Orchard West shopping center at Riggin and Dinuba Hwy where In N Out and Pollo Loco are building. Starbucks Drive-Thru will be built at 224 N. Plaza Drive according to a plan submitted to the city. Panda Express wants to build a new drive thru at the southeast corner of Mooney and Visalia Parkway in the new center there with Texas Roadhouse and Dutch Bros coffee. Jack In The Box wants to build a new drive-thru at the northwest corner of East Tulare Avenue and South Lovers Lane. The project will get a hearing at the Planning Commission Monday, August 23, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. The restaurant will have no indoor dining.

Downtown news

Hospital plans renewed tower discussion

Kaweah Delta (Kaweah Health) plans to reopen discussion in the community on building a new tower building on its campus Downtown, looking for buy-in from the public who’ll be asked to support a bond to help finance it.The new tower would replace the old hospital wing that does meet seismic standards.The board may make some design decisions on alternate plans in December.

Sequoia Brewing will remodel the next door space to include a new banquet room, the former location of Tachibana at 120 W. Main.

Family HealthCare Network is planning to construct a new 23,500sf administrative building and 4000ft garage at Bridge and School streets with a half block parking lot The 2 story office will house about 100 employees. The new office will be between two other FHCN clinics already built nearby. FHCN is already remodeling the former Picnic building on Main St for its top administrators among other uses, a community kitchen and bookstore.
Sale of Fort Visalia land finalized for “The Lofts” This week the Visalia City Council finalized the sale of the old Fort Visalia property at Garden and Oak to Self Help Enterprises for a project called The Lofts, a new mixed use housing project in the Downtown area.The property at 300 E Oak, a former lumber yard will be sold for $1.2 million.

SHE proposed development of a three-story mixed-use complex consisting of fifty-one 1-bedroom units and twenty-two 2-bedroom units on the second and third floors, seven 1-bedroom Artist Lofts on the ground floor, and one on- site manager unit. The project will reserve two 1-bedroom and two 2-bedroom units to be fully accessible. The complex will also include an elevator, in addition to a staircase. The Lofts has 3,500 square feet on the ground floor for an Art Gallery and Community Room where a wide variety of resident services will be provided. Additional space will house an office, computer lab, laundry room, maintenance, and storage area.

-August 25,2021-

Home sales market may be cooling

California’s housing market moderated for the third straight month in July with both home sales and prices tempering from the heated market conditions seen over the past year, while still staying above pre-pandemic levels, says the California Association of Realtors this week.

Despite the downward trend, California home sales maintained a solid year-to-date increase of 27.3 percent in July.

“The California housing market continues to normalize from the white-hot conditions we experienced at the height of the pandemic with both sales and prices moderating as we slowly transition from the peak home-buying season into the fall,” said C.A.R. President Dave Walsh.

At the same time he average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 3.06% from 2.99% last week.Applications to refinance a home loan, which are highly rate-sensitive, fell 5% last week from the previous week.Mortgage applications to purchase a home fell 2% for the week and 19% lower than a year ago.

In Kings County, the average price of homes sold in July was $320,000 compared to $295,000 in June and $275,000 a year earlier. Sales in July were down 6.3% from June but up 6.3% from a year earlier.

Hanford Grocery Outlet will relocate

The Hanford Grocery Outlet is building a new,16,000sf store at 10th and Fargo and plans to relocate form their existing Downtown location in January .The existing site at 410 West 7th is for lease

Kettleman City will get roundabout

CalTrans is planning to build a $7.7 million roundabout in Kettleman City along Hwy 41 in the middle of the busy retail strip at the intersection of 41 and Bernard Drive . Preliminary traffic studies have shown that all Ward Drive traffic uses the Bernard Drive intersection at State Route 41, causing long queues for U-turns and right and left turns at this signalized intersection. Traffic congestion and resulting delays are more noticeable during weekends and holidays, impeding the signal’s effectiveness and requiring the California Highway Patrol to take control of the intersection to avoid possible accidents and ease traffic congestion. Project construction will start in April 2024 and finish in February 2025.

Hanford reflects global heat record
Warm nights help fuel record day time temps here

Numerous reports say the globe experienced the hottest July on record, a whopping 5.3 degrees above normal in California.It was the latest in a rash of record-setting months over the past year, as the state saw its hottest July, June, October, September and August in history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA data indicates that the average monthly temperature in July was 80 degrees, 5.3 degrees above normal, or the average temperature from 1901 to 2000.

Hanford’s NWS office reports Hanford July’s average temp was 85.5 degrees, some 4.4 degrees hotter than average.So far in August, the average is 84.3 degrees, 3.8 degrees warmer than average.

Warm nights are contributing to problems. In July, there were 12 days in the month when night-time lows did not go below 70f.
The warm nights and extreme dry conditions this summer are a one-two punch, fueling another rash of huge wildfires in the state.

Winter cold is welcome in part because it cuts down on the pest population in the valley and in the sierra but warm nights have helped allow an expansion of the beetle population that has ravaged the forest – killing up to 129 million trees – kindling for wildfires.

Fire officials say hotter nights with lower humidity keep fires raging when they used to damp down in the nighttime hours with more extreme wind events that fan the flames. The upshot is fires burning so intensely they create their own self-intensifying fire weather.

The night heat is no friend to agriculture, cutting necessary chill hours for the nut crops, reducing crop yield across the board and drying up-the reservoirs we depend on. Then there is the constant smoke on the valley floor.

Feed technology saves water

Hanford’s River Ranch Dairy is working to further their goal of becoming more sustainable and drought resistant through the adoption of Grōv’s automated indoor feed technology. Under the terms of an agreement River Ranch will purchase an on-premises indoor vertical animal feed production center which will produce fresh Grōv HDN Superfeed™, using less than 5% of the water of traditional farm fields.

Residential solar installations strong here

Residential solar permits in Kings County number 735 so far in 2021, the best year ever. In 2020 there 621 solar permits for rooftop installation pulled by this date. By comparison, in 2014 there were 390 homes permitted that year by this date, who had installed solar panels.

Cattle Grazing Quickly Contains Wildfires

U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service researchers are conducting a large study evaluating a technique called targeted cattle grazing, for creating fuel breaks to help contain wildfire while not causing grazing-related damage to rangeland health.

Targeted grazing uses cattle in the early spring to eat extensive strips of highly flammable cheatgrass down to 2- to 3-inch stubble in strategic places. This reduces the fuel load that can otherwise turn small rangeland fires into megafires in a matter of hours.

Porterville, CA – August 18, 2021: With funding from Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency, Sierra View Medical Center has formed a strong partnership with Imperial Ambulance to administer the COVID-19 vaccine in Porterville and surrounding communities. To date, the SVMC-Imperial Ambulance teams have administered nearly 2,500 COVID-19 vaccines. And they are increasing those numbers by taking the COVID-19 vaccine to people at popular community events, all while continuing to operate from their new Community Vaccination Clinic located at 385 Person Dr.

$100 Gift Card

Recent vaccination partnerships include collaborations with City of Porterville and Burton Unified School District and the efforts continue. This week, the SVMC-Imperial Ambulance team will once again take to the road to offer first and second doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccines at KJUG’s Free Summer Concert, taking place at Porterville’s Centennial Park on Tuesday, August 19, 2021, at 6:30 p.m. From its allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, the City is offering $100 gift cards from local businesses to individuals that receive the vaccine at the event.  Earlier that day, the vaccination team will also be at Porterville College to make it easier for students and community members in that area of the city to receive the vaccine. The college event will take place from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

“Part of our mission at Sierra View Medical Center is to find opportunities where we can build partnerships and foster existing ones with community organizations that have the same goal – to ensure the health and well-being of our community,” says Sierra View CEO and President Donna Hefner. “I’m grateful to the City of Porterville and several other community partners for continuing to open their doors to our organization to work collaboratively.” Thanks to support from Porterville’s City Council and Police Department, the SVMC-Imperial Ambulance vaccination teams also were recently welcomed at Porterville’s National Night Out with dozens receiving the COVID-19 vaccine that evening. That same openness to collaborate from Porterville College President Dr. Claudia Habib is helping to make the vaccine more accessible.

The message to the community from Sierra View’s Chief Nursing Officer Dr. Jeffery Hudson-Covolo, DNP, RN, NEA-BC is to become vaccinated. “We are seeing a dramatic increase in COVID-19 unvaccinated hospitalizations and we are in a position to help prevent those hospitalizations through strong vaccination efforts,” he says.

Community members ready to receive the COVID-19 vaccine may visit the SVMC-Imperial Ambulance Community Vaccination Clinic at 385 Pearson Dr. in Porterville. The clinic operates Thursday – Saturday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, please visit www.sierra-view.com/COVIDvaccines.

Container maker grows at Visalia Industrial Park
Adding 50 to 100 new jobs

The corrugated packaging market is growing quickly, helped by the explosion of e-commerce and developments in digital printing technologies say analysts.The market is set to grow 3.7% annually and reach $300 billion, says the company Smithers.

Not only does e-commerce need more boxes. Farmers and shippers need boxes. Visalia is the place to satisfy both Amazon’s and agriculture’s box requirements.

Now Modesto-based Pacific Southwest Container will expand its Visalia operation according to plans filed with the City.

The packaging company manufactures Corrugated boxes, Singleface Laminated boxes and Folding cartons with hundreds of customers located in California and several other states throughout the United States.

The Visalia facility located at 9525 West Nicholas Ave is proposing to build an offsite warehouse building on an adjoining 15.79 acre parcel of land located at the NW corner of Neeley Street and Hurley Ave. The new warehouses would be 265,000sf. The new space would allow additional manufacturing capacity at their existing manufacturing facility, says a statement from the company

This proposed warehouse site will receive and ship raw materials and finished product 24 hours a day – Monday thru Friday and some Saturdays.

Pacific Southwest Container, LLC currently employees 252 full time employees and approximately 50 temporary employees at their Visalia location. The new operation would add approximately 50‐100 employees and approximately 10‐20 temporary employees divided into three shifts.

Pacific Southwest Container is adding to the development boom in the Visalia Industrial Park that includes the new UPS hub(huge box users) and Amazon – set to open late this summer.

Traffic flow in and out of the proposed box facility would consist of approximately 100 tractor trailers per day/24‐hour period. Traffic flow in and out would be spread out over a 24‐hour period of time.

With the “box boom” comes an increasing flow of truck commerce in the industrial park.

UPS says “corrugated material – which is made up of three layers of cardboard – was not used as a shipping material until 1871.It was patented in England in 1856 as a liner for tall hats.
You can thank breakfast cereal for the ubiquity of the cardboard box. When the Kellogg brothers invented their Toasted Corn Flakes in the early 1900s, the popularity of cardboard boxes skyrocketed.”

The produce industry, centered in the SJ Valley, is increasing its use of paper boxes with demand seen in the retail sector, especially online grocery applications.

-June 23,2021-

 from WSJ

The U.S. economic recovery is unlike any in recent history, powered by consumers with trillions in extra savings, businesses eager to hire and enormous policy support. Businesses and workers are poised to emerge from the downturn with far less permanent damage than occurred after recent recessions, particularly the 2007-09 downturn.

New businesses are popping up at the fastest pace on record. The rate at which workers quit their jobs—a proxy for confidence in the labor market—matches the highest going back at least to 2000. American household debt-service burdens, as a share of after-tax income, are near their lowest levels since 1980, when records began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 18% from its pre-pandemic peak in February 2020. Home prices nationwide are nearly 14% higher since that time.

The speed of the rebound is also triggering turmoil. The shortages of goods, raw materials and labor that typically emerge toward the end of an expansion are cropping up much sooner. Many economists, along with the Federal Reserve, expect the jump in inflation to be temporary, but others worry it could persist even once reopening is complete.

“We’ve never had anything like it—a collapse and then a boom-like pickup,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist and strategist at Decision Economics, Inc. “It is without historical parallel.”

-June 23,2021-
The first of 4 former Zacky Farms ranches that grew turkeys are being converted by Foster Farms to raise chickens or turkeys. Livingston-based Foster Farms acquired the ranches out of bankruptcy in 2019.

First out of the chute this month is Holm Ranch-located at 16395 19th Avenue, 2 miles south of Lemoore, on 40-acres at 19th Avenue and Java Road.

Foster Farms’ application proposes to operate a poultry ranch on the non-operational Holm Ranch to grow turkeys and chickens to meet market demand in the poultry industry.

Foster Farms would like the ability to place a maximum of 166,154 chickens or 54,000 turkey onsite per flock for grow out operations, with the type of bird raised subject to market demands. For turkey brooding, up to 120,000 poults (baby turkeys) at any one time. The number of flocks per year will range from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 8 flocks per year depending on the type of bird and desired harvest weight.

Total chicken production on an annual basis at this 4-barn ranch would be a maximum of 1.32 million birds. Total enclosed barn space will remain at 100,000 sf.But they propose to construct 25 feet by 500 feet outdoor poultry pens totaling 100,000 sf to be located in between the existing barns, allowing the birds to be called free-range.

Written or emailed comments may be submitted until 5 PM on July 12, 2021 to the County.

Foster Farms and Pitman Family Farms are expected to ramp up broiler chicken production in Kings County over the next few years.Demand for chicken continues to grow across the world. Pitman recently permitted a new 50 barn ranch Hanford expected to have an annual production of around 10 million birds. With numbers like this from one operation, it is clear the county’s chicken numbers will skyrocket from past levels. In the 2019 Crop Report, Kings County reported 20 million head annual production.
Foster Farms commercial touts chickens able to step outside

-June 23,2021-

Jobless rate improves here

The unemployment rate in Tulare County was 10.2 percent in May 2021, down from a revised 11.0 percent in April 2021, and below the year-ago estimate of 16.5 percent.  This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 7.5 percent for California and 5.5 percent for the nation during the same period.

Tulare County has some 5400 more jobs than a year ago including 1700 more in the hospitality industry says EDD.

Visalia & Tulare County median home price hits record

California median home price inches up

Tulare County’s median home sales price in May hit record at $324,350 says Brett Taylor CEO of  Tulare County Association of Realtors Visalia, as well hit a new high median number at $346,00, adds Taylor, calling the trend “remarkable”.

On the state level, California Association of Realtors reports existing single-family home sales totaled 445,660 in May, down 2.7 percent from April and up 86.7 percent from May 2020.

May’s statewide median home price was $818,260, up 0.5 percent from April and up 39.1 percent from May 2020.Year-to-date statewide home sales were up 34.6 percent in May.

Tulare County sales are up 17% year to date.