-February 10,2020-

Launched as a small farmworker clinic in Porterville in 1976, non-profit Family HealthCare Network (FHCN) now has grown to serve nearly 300,000 residents in the Central Valley in three counties at 39 sites, just recently opening 5 new clinics in Fresno County.

Their corporate office is on Center Street in Visalia, the former Razzari Ford brick building. Now they have purchased the 16,000sf 2-story landmark building, formerly Picnic Sandwiches in Downtown Visalia. The clinical organization already has hundreds of employees in the Downtown area at four locations.

Family HealthCare purchased the Main Street complex at 114 E Main from Omni Development who last year bought the property from the Ransberger family, operators of the Picnic restaurant. This week Omni principal Luis Mota confirmed the sale to FHCN ”is a done deal.”

The building includes 2 floors of suites with office uses on the upstairs floor and former retail and food service space being vacated on the ground floor

Now FHCN -who has yet to respond to questions about their plans – is said to be looking at different options for the first  floor where you walk in from Main Street. Considered possibilities are a bookstore and a healthy eating kitchen according to sources.

The building also houses Jon’s Optique who has served customers here for 37 years and will stay on now that the sale is complete.

Asked about the development, Visalia City Council member Steve Nelsen  said “this is good news since it will bring more office users to Downtown at a time when the mix is changing “including less retail and more food service. It also will result in more use of Downtown’s second-story space.

Healthcare workers make up a good portion of office workers in the Downtown from FHCN, Kaweah Delta and other medical offices.They shop and eat in the Downtown everyday. Kaweah Delta alone has 8 campuses in the region with some 4400 employees.Their largest is the growing Downton multi-block campus. Other public entities like the City of Visalia are also big employers in the city’s core area.

Once renters, FHCN has now purchased their corporate headquarters on Center at Garden and is negotiating with city over possible purchase of the former Razzari parking lot on Main confirms Steve Nelsen.

The City and FHCN co-developed the old Oak Street rail yard at Santa Fe a few decades ago, each constructing new facilities at about the same time. This launched the city move east that resulted in the purchasing of  land from the Union Pacific  that has become the Civic Center area between Burke and Ben Maddox, still under development.

-February 3,2020-

Tulare Basin rainfall index falls to 55% of average

A dry January has hurt rain totals in the Tulare Basin area turning an average year at the start of the month to just 55% as of Feb 1 2020, 71% snowpack statewide. However forecasts for mid-February look promising with several storms moving in after the 10th.

Tourism climbs in Tulare County

A report by the county says tourism for the current fiscal year, the dollar amount of the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) collected was $2.6 million, an increase of 12.0% in comparison with the prior fiscal year. This increase in TOT is attributable to the growing number of people who visit the County each year to experience its National Parks, historic downtowns, agricultural-based events, and much more. Sequoia National Park attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world every day. In fiscal year 2019, nearly 1.2 million people visited the Sequoia National Park.

Report: Drought/beetles killing off Sequoias

A report in the Guardian newspaper says “Giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on the planet – some more than three millennia old – have started dying from beetle attacks linked to the climate emergency, the preliminary findings of a new study have revealed.

The deaths of the trees, some of which lived through the rise and fall of hundreds of empires, caliphates and kingdoms – not to mention the inauguration of every US president – have shocked researchers in their speed and novelty.

In Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks in the Sierra Nevada, California, 28 giant sequoias have died from a seemingly deadly interaction between bark beetles, drought and fire damage since 2014, according to a joint National Park Service and US Geological Survey study that will be published later this year.

Beetle attacks appear to have killed the trees in previously unseen ways, claiming mature standing giant sequoia trees known as monarchs. In addition to the beetle attacks, high-severity fires strengthened by drought and decades of natural wildfire suppression have killed 12 giant sequoias since 2015 in the national parks.”

UPS earnings disappoint – Company to buy more electric vans 

UPS, who is building a new 425,000sf  sorting hub in Visalia announced  disappointing earnings for the  latest quarter last week in part based on th e need to invest in faster services. They also said “UPS experienced growth from a number of large and [small and medium business] customers, with the growth led by UPS’s largest customer, Amazon,” the company stated in its fourth-quarter earnings report.

UPS also announced that they are investing in UK-based EV startup Arrival and ordering 10,000 electric delivery vans from UK based  Arrival . Arrival says  the delivery trucks are made with“revolutionary ultra-lightweight composite materials that significantly reduce the weight of the vehicle, and by combining this technology with Arrival’s custom-built hardware, including power electronics and motors, the cost of operating has been reduced by more than 50%.”

 The trucks are said  to have “a battery range of more than 150 miles (240 kilometers).”

Visalia plans to widen Shirk north of 198

The City proposes to widen Shirk Road from two to four lanes between a point approximately 750 feet north of the intersection of Shirk Road and State Route 198 and the North Mill Creek culvert, north of School Avenue. The Project is intended to improve traffic flow and safety and to accommodate existing development and future growth in the area

Tulare adopting Farmland Mitigation ordinance

Tulare is expected to adopt a Farmland Mitigation Ordinance this week while Visalia is considering one.

The City of Tulare General Plan 2035 requires the City of Tulare to create and adopt a mitigation program to address the conversion of Prime Farmland and Farmland of Statewide Importance within the City’s urban development boundary (UDB), and outside the city limits, to non-agricultural uses.

The preservation of farmland against the increasing pressures of urban development was a key issue of concern during preparation of the Tulare General Plan 2035, and a factor in establishing the City’s UDB for growth of development beyond the City limits. 

Biogas pipeline extension planned east of 99

Calgren Renewable Fuels in Pixley wants to extend their biogas pipeline to connect to more dairies from their base at 11704 Road 120, on the east side of Road 120, approximately 1,300 feet south of Avenue 120. They plan to expand an existing biogas pipeline approximately 1.85 miles further to the northeast in order to connect an additional dairy digester to the existing infrastructure, in the M-1 (Light Manufacturing) Zone.

Significantly, the extension will reach lands on the east side of Highway 99 allowing more dairies to hook up in the future says county planner Mike Washam.

Dairies south of Tulare on west side of 99

Capturing methane from dairy lagoons is helping to spearhead its use as transportation fuel and helping to clear valley skies. The pipeline is expected to take waste gas from over 75,000 cows.

-January 31,2020-

Expanding Hanford manufacturer is sold

TC Transcontinental Packaging, with a manufacturing plant in Hanford has recently expanded in the Hanford industrial Park.So says Kings EDC president Lance Lippincott. The flexible packaging company employs  about 82 in Hanford  making a variety of paper and woven poly-propane packages for a variety of industries.

Now the company has been sold.On January 20  the Canadian company  announced that Hood Packaging Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hood Companies, Inc., acquired the paper packaging operations and buildings of TC Transcontinental including Transcontinental in Iowa, Hanford,California,Hazleton Pennsylvania, Tifton Georgia and the Spartanburg South Carolina plant.

TC Transcontinental is a leader in flexible packaging in North America, and Canada’s largest printer. The Corporation is also positioned as the leading Canadian French-language educational publishing group.

Hemp projects coming to the Valley

Hemp is a big topic at this year’s farm show with workshops to be held. In fact, hemp will get its own pavilion at the 53rd annual World Ag Expo in Tulare from Feb. 11-13.

Meanwhile several hemp companies are not waiting to make plans  for both growing and processing the legal crop the has many uses.

A few hemp companies are looking site processing facilities in the Central Valley as planting season for the hemp crop approaches. Here are a few of them.

Titan Farms has leased a long vacant 80,000sf industrial building  in Corcoran last used by Seward Luggage and plans to process hemp there says Steve Israel. Israel says the start-up company will employ around 40 at the plant and many more in the field.They are working with the City of Corcoran confirms the city manager.

Requesting to process hemp in Hanford is Valley-owned Greenbrier Holdings who is also opening 20,000sf cannabis manufacturing facility in Parlier it was announced last summer. Greenbrier Holdings operates 18 acres of greenhouse cultivation in partnership with Valley Crest and Ceres Farms in Santa Barbara.

In Huron a hemp company – General Agriculture, has leased a 24,000sf city owned building for a processing facility at 16485 9th Street.The business is said to employ 40 says mayor Rey Leon.  Company representative Callaghan Becker did not return phone calls.

Western Milling building 4 mil-gallon fertilizer unit

Wester Milling based in Goshen is constructing two  2 million gallon tanks that will hold liquid fertilizer at their Hanford  Industrial Park location. The tanks will be used to store UN-35 product shipped in by rail. To date the company had to buy the widely used farm fertilizer from ports.

Kings EDC ready to pitch High Speed Rail on maintenance facility site

Kings County EDC is ready to update their 2009 proposal to the California High Speed Rail Authority to site  the long planed heavy maintenance facility (HMS) within the county.The proposed location is at Hwy 43 near Houston Avenue ,not far from the Tulare County line.”We will be releasing our updated offer in February “says EDC president Lance Lippencott.”We will able to offer more incentives”than the proposal 10 years ago, he says.

This past week Tulare County’s EDC board voted to support the Kings County location with EDC director Paul Saldana suggesting it could mean 300 jobs for the region.At its Jan. 22 meeting, the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation (EDC) board voted to support Kings County EDC’s proposal to locate a Heavy Maintenance Facility (HMF) for the bullet train near its station in Hanford.

In a related issue the City of Visalia recently backed a request from San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission to send a letter to the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) supporting the pursuit of a Merced-Fresno-Bakersfield operating segment including a Tulare-Kings station stop.

But now the Kings Council of Governments has tabled a motion to send a support letter as well.

-January 24,2020-

New 40MWH energy storage project near NAS Lemoore

More renewable energy projects are coming to Kings County near NAS Lemoore.. The latest project to be heard by the Kings Planning Commission in April will be able to deliver 10 megawatts of power for up to four continuous hours, resulting in a capacity of 40 megawatt-hours of stored energy available for grid services and system reliability. The project will consist of forty shipping containers containing six energy storage sub models with AC/DC inverters each. Underground low voltage cables will be run to a low profile, pad- mounted switchgear and then to a pad-mounted step-up transformer. The transformer will be located at the northwest corner of the parcel, where underground 12 kV cables would be routed to banks 3 and 5 of PGE’s Henrietta 12 kV substation, less than a mile to the north of the proposed site. Construction is expected to take just three months. The proposed battery energy storage facility is to be located at 16885 25th Avenue, Lemoore proposed by Lemoore Cooler, LLC.

Kings jobless rate up month over month

NY Times offers Faraday Future’s future

“Faraday Future: Once left for dead after a splashy premiere three years ago, a planned Las Vegas factory that never got built, and a Chinese founder and funder who went bankrupt, the company is back with a new leader, the former head of Byton; new funding; and a rethought vehicle.

Where once Faraday Future advocated the “bring your own device” approach to infotainment now promoted by Canoo, the current version of the large S.U.V. will sport 11 screens in its ultra-high-end FF91.

The company claims that the FF91 will accelerate from zero to 60 in an astonishing 2.2 seconds (although it’s not clear why anyone would need to), and cost $150,000 to $200,000 when it comes out by September. If there’s demand, the company can build up to 15,000 units annually in a Hanford, Calif., plant that’s smaller than the ambitious one it abandoned in Las Vegas.

The company says it will make money at that volume by selling its hardware and software to competitors. Plans for a smaller, more affordable FF81 exist, and the company hopes to enter “preproduction” by the end of 2020.”

New home subdivision in works in Avenal

The Alvarado Group has proposed to construct a 122-lot single family residential development  within the City of Avenal in the western portion of Kings County, California. The residential development would occupy approximately  18.65 acres The Project will require a General Plan Amendment, zone change, variance, and Tentative Tract Map approval.. The site would be accessed from  Corcoran Avenue to the west of the Project site. The Project would connect to the City of Avenal’s water and sewer systems. The subdivision will be constructed in phases, with the first phase consisting of grading and site improvements beginning in the first quarter of 2020. The first phase is anticipated to take approximately 8 to 12 months. The second phase consists of home construction and is anticipated to begin during the second quarter of 2020 and take approximately 18 to 24 months. 

City of Corcoran getting radio controlled water meters

The City of Corcoran is installing new radio-read water meters for 3,384 service connections. This will include the installation of new meters of 1,607 existing unmetered service connections and 1,777 new meters to replace existing, outdated, manually read meters. Replacement of the entire service connection may be required.

Pitman Family Farms gets approval for expanded poultry farms

The Kings County Planning Commission approved the first and second of four poultry ranch expansions in the county at their January meeting Pitman Family Farms  is enlarging an existing poultry farm from170,000

chickens to include an additional 850,000 chickens, for a new total of approximately 1,020,000 chickens.

The proposed poultry farm expansion is located at the Pitman “Smith” Ranch located within the unincorporated area of Kings County at 12565 Kansas Avenue, Hanford, CA 93230, Assessor’s Parcel Number 028-220-038 and 062, which totals approximately 86 acres in size.

The project site is located on the south side of Kansas Avenue. Th approximately 3.6 miles south of the City of Hanford.

The second site approved is located at the Pitman “Enns” Ranch at 7477 Clinton Avenue, Kingsburg, CA totaling 20 acres and is 6 miles north of the City of Hanford.

Pitman Family Farms proposes to expand an existing poultry farm of approximately 170,000 chickens to include an additional 120,000 chickens, for a new total of approximately 290,000 chickens .

The other two ranches will be made public when the  environmental documents are released in the next few weeks.

-January 18,2020-

Porterville’s former Payless Shoe Source is closed but Bath & Body Works will take over the space says developer Dave Paynter who owns the center. The popular retailer would be new to Porterville.

Tulare’s building permits for 2019 are in and valuation climbed from $117 million in 2018 to $146 million in 2019 says the city. The increase did not mean construction of more single family homes however.In 2019 the city saw permits for 331 new homes vs 341 in 2018. New commercial activity was improved, climbing from $6 million 2018 to $17 million in 2019. Commercial alterations were higher and multi-family construction value doubled as well.

Tulare’s long awaited assisted living project near Hwy 99 and Cartmill is finally under construction under the direction of Bethel Church. Harmony Gardens Village has filed $19 million permit for their 91 unit,100,000sf project as the new year began The property is south of Cartmill Avenue and north of the Tulare Outlet Center, between Highway 99 and Retherford Street. The big development has been in the works for nearly 2 decades.

Visalia development remains in good shape and it is reflected in the city’s sales tax tax and property tax receipts. A report to council this week said Sales Tax had a growth rate of 4%, Property Tax 6%, and Business License 13%. Property Tax continued on its upward trend growing 6% as property values and growth continued in Visalia. Transient Occupancy Tax had a slight decrease of .6% for the year. Franchise Fee revenue increased mainly due to increases in both gas and electricity franchise fee revenue received. Business Licenses revenue increased 13% this fiscal year as businesses are experiencing increases in gross sales and collection efforts remained strong.”

Visalia’s empty Togo sandwich spot in Downtown Visalia will be backfilled by Maximo’s Taqueria at 423 W Main.

North Visalia will get a UPS retail shipping and copy store at the center next to Subway on Dinuba Blvd. The new store will open in February. It is the third UPS retail store in town

Homes Sales in Tulare County up 33% Low interest rates boosted the housing market in second half of year as home prices posted strong gains in December says California Association of Realtors.
In Tulare County existing home sales were up 33% in 2019 vs 2018 and the median home price climbed to $252,000 from $236,450 a year earlier. That sales volume increase was the highest in the Valley although sales on the Central Coast were even higher increasing to 42% year over year.Statewide the median home price was $615,090, up 4.3 percent from November and up 10.3 percent from December 2018.For 2019 as a whole, sales of existing statewide homes were up 7.4% year over year.

Sales have been juiced by low interest rates. California Association of Realtors say the 30-year, fixed-mortgage interest rate averaged 3.72 percent in December, down from 4.64 percent in December 2018, according to Freddie Mac. The five-year, adjustable mortgage interest rate was an average of 3.39 percent, compared to 4.02 percent in December 2018.

Big bucks for improving trail systems – Plan were released to fun 2 large trail systems improvement in Porterville and Visalia under TCAG funding. In Porterville the Butterfield Stage Corridor would be a Class I multi-use path that includes amenities such as solar lighting, drought tolerant landscaping, drinking water stations, refuse receptacles, benches, wayfinding, and controlled lighted crossings, and the installation of curb, gutter and sidewalk improvements to the east and west of the proposed corridor at various locations to improve accessibility.The budget is $21 million.
In Visalia,the existing Goshen Avenue Trail would get a $9.6 million rehab along 6 miles from Camp Drive to Giddings Street along Goshen Avenue Alignment. Project will replace existing 8 ft. wide deteriorated asphalt trail and elevate trail to prevent future flooding and will extend existing trail from Miller Park Court west to Camp Drive . Project to include installation of trail amenities such as solar lighting, park benches, trash receptacles an additional trees and irrigation.

-January 14,2020-

Sequoia Mall’s long awaited redevelopment is getting closer with Sears closing in coming weeks.Now the next chapter is unfolding  as property owner and developer Dave Paynter flies a preliminary Phase One plan that includes a new Regal Cinema movie theater as well as three new buildings on the 24-acre property.

The plan calls for a new 50,686sf movie complex to be followed by the demolition of the existing Regal theater. That will allow movie goers to never miss a show at the Sequoia Mall.

The new theater will”have the latest technology that Regal has to offer” says Paynter although further details are not yet available. The theatre currently has 12 screens but the screen count for new larger theater is not known.

Once Paynter delivers the new building. Regal will outfit the interior improvements and electronics, he says.

The new cineplex will be welcome in a town where the last movie theater built in Visalia( in Downtown) dates from over 20 years ago.

The new Mooney/Caldwell theater will behind the existing movie theater with other new buildings south of the current mall. The new shopping center will be more open air than it is now.New buildings are 16,600sf,14,500 and 19,000sf with no tenants announced.

Paynter has owned the  1974 era mall property since 2013 knowing that its future would depend on a remake of the layout and tenant mix of a retail  center  saddled with lots of vacancy but not controlling a key anchor property in Sears. Some months back Paynter fixed that problem by buying the Sears real estate just as Sears was moving towards closure of its retail business here.

The Sears spot is likely to get new anchor that Paynter is working on – another key piece of the puzzle for a property that still has  plenty of potential  – located on the busiest traffic corner in Tulare County.

Regal is the second largest movie chain in the US. They are a subsidiary of the Cineworld Group, based in the UK. Regal has 7,211 screens in 549 theaters in 42 states as of October 28, 2019 according to their website.

Caption: new theatre would be built behind existing theatre -labeled 1 in this drawing of the existing property.

50,000sf cannabis factory in Woodlake 

Woodlake continues to draw cannabis growing and manufacturing proposals. The city is circulating a new development plan for a former fertilizer factory west of town at Road 196 and Avenue 344. The development called Consolidated Gardens Industrial Project would accommodate approximately 19,520 square feet of cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of cannabis and construction and operation of a new 31,020 square foot building for the cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of cannabis, for a total of 50,540 square feet of industrial space.

It is estimated that approximately 90% of the water utilized per day for cultivation will be recaptured says a city report.The proposed site is currently being utilized for industrial purposes, specifically occupation by a cabinet shop and a soil amendment distribution company.

Lands surrounding the proposed project, in the Redbanks area, are described as follows: • North: Dirt road (West Bravo Avenue) and a citrus packing facility.• South: Agricultural land. • East: Agricultural land. West: Road 196 and a fruit packing facility.

Project sponsor is Edward Good ,27515 Road 176 Exeter.The new manufacturing plant will be next door neighbors with the new 7 Point cannabis facility – the abandoned Sun Pacific packing house that will  also grow and manufacture pot products. That site was annexed by Woodlake into the city and is under construction now – expected to open soon.

County selling Akers land

Tulare County will sell 2.26 acres of land to Visalia-based Paloma Development headed by Harvey May, according to an agenda  item on this week’s Board of Supervisors agenda. The land located in the northeast area of the Tulare-Akers Professional Building parking lot has an address of 5300 W. Tulare Ave. The land zoned commercial,  ]will be sold for $1.45 million.It is across Akers from the Lifestyle Center. Paloma and Gaddis Development bid for the land expected to be leased to retail and restaurant tenants. Previously, the county worked with Paloma on a lease of the same property, the parking used by Cigna when it employed more in Visalia.Now the county will selloff this portion of  the development.

Plastic found in Ruiz Breakfast Burrito   

Tulare County founded Ruiz Food Products Inc.is recalling approximately 55,013 pounds of frozen, not ready-to-eat breakfast burrito products containing eggs, sausage, and cheese that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically pieces of plastic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced December 10.

The frozen, NRTE breakfast burrito products were produced on October 15, 2019. The following products are subject to recall: [View Labels (PDF only)]

•3.38-lb. Value Pack, containing 12 individually wrapped, 4.5-oz. “EL MONTEREY Signature BURRITO EGG, SAUSAGE & CHEESE” with a “Best if Used By” date of 01/15/2021 and a lot code of 19288.

The products subject to recall bear establishment number “EST 45694” printed on the value pack bag and the individual wrappings, next to the lot code. These items were shipped to retail locations nationwide.

The problem was discovered when the firm notified USDA of three consumer complaints involving pieces of white, semi-rigid plastic found in the product.

There have been no confirmed reports of injuries due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider.  Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

RED CROWN CARWASH located at 1920 S. Mooney Blvd in Visalia is being sold by Omni Development to Merced-based GB&J Investments LLC according to a bulk notice.

Self-Help plans 60 unit Goshen project

On January 7, 2020, a public hearing will be held with respect to the proposed issuance of revenue bonds by the state of $25 million to finance the acquisition, development, construction and equipping of a 60-unit affordable rental housing facility for low-income households, including six units for regularly homeless.