Category: Central Valley

High Speed Rail crosses 198

Hanford company sells just 4 cars in 23′

Start-up luxury car maker Faraday Future sold just four cars in the past year, the company reported recently. They leased six more.

The LA-based company has its only manufacturing plant in Hanford. But production at the million square feet facility has been slow.
Faraday Future is facing delisting from NASDAQ as it looks to maintain its stock value above one dollar.
Adding to woes, Faraday has withdrawn its production guidance for 2024, citing current market conditions and lack of funding. Last November, the company planned to assemble 1,000 vehicles this year, “subject to availability of requisite capital.”
The company filed their annual report late with revenue of $0.8 million for 2023 and cost of goods sold of $43 million, compared with no revenue and cost of goods sold in 2022. This reflects that the company only began delivering vehicles in the third quarter 2023. Loss from operations was $286 million for 2023, as compared to a loss from operations of $437 million for 2022.

Last December Nasdaq notified the company that the bid price of its listed securities had closed at less than $1.00 per share over the previous 30 consecutive business days and, as a result, did not comply with Listing Rule 5550(a)(2). The company was provided 180 calendar days, or until June 25, 2024, to regain compliance with this rule. On April 18, 2024, Nasdaq notified the company that since it had not yet filed its Form 10-K it no longer complied with Listing Rule 5250(c)(1).This deficiency is now an additional basis for delisting.Now that report has been filed.

On April 24, 2024, the Company received a letter from Nasdaq indicating that the company was not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c), as the company’s securities had a closing bid price of $0.10 or less for ten consecutive trading days. The letter indicated that, as a result, the Nasdaq staff had determined to delist the company’s securities from The Nasdaq Capital Market. On May 1, 2024, the company timely requested a hearing to appeal the Delisting Determination and requested an extended stay of the suspension pending such hearing with the Panel.

Faraday Future stock briefly climbed over a dollar in May for two weeks but since May 28 has been below that threshold at about 50 cents as of this writing.

Faraday’s future is uncertain

Williamson Act bill fails

A bill in the California Assembly to make it easier for farmers in the Central Valley to cancel their Williamson Act contract due to water shortage had divided the farm community. The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, otherwise known as the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to enter into contracts with owners of agricultural land to preserve the land for agricultural use, as specified, in return for reduced property tax assessments.To preserve farmland it imposes a 25 percent cancelation fee  This bill proposed by Fresno Assembly member Joaquin Arambula would authorize a landowner landowner, if their land is located in the Counties of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, or Tulare, with a water basin in condition of critical overdraft, to petition the board or council to cancel a Williamson Act contract or a farmland security zone contract without penalty if the land meets specified criteria, including, among other things, not having permanent access to sufficient water. That could speed its conversion to energy projects like solar farms and provide income to the land owner.

But now as of mid May the bill was placed in the “suspense file” as it did not garner enough support in committee to move forward.

BOS dumps green energy saving project

Kings County Board of Supervisors had been studying making substantial investments in energy savings at the  county campus similar to a project that the same supplier had done in past years.The supplier,Engie Energy, promised net savingsover $4 million for the county.The County has completed four successful projects with ENGIE –a $3 million microturbine co-generationproject in 2005, an $8.4 million central heating and cooling plant upgrade in 2009, a $4.1 million solar project in 2011, and an $11.9 million solar project in 2020.This year an earlier staff report noted that the County has been seeing huge increases in its electricity cost recently, as high as 15% per year. They would like its energy consumption to be reduced as much as possible to reduce the effect of utility price hikes.

Also, the HVAC units at many of the facilities are well past their useful lives and the County would like to use this project to replace its old HVAC infrastructure without dipping into the General Fund.But in late May the staff and Board decided not to move forward with the green energy project.

A staff report says “Essentially, this project is viewed as being cash neutral, providing more of a benefit in the way of allowing the County a vehicle to replace aging infrastructure, not necessarily providing the County with additional cash on hand, due to project savings, that could be used for other County initiatives and priorities. Additionally, the County recently initiated a comprehensive debt analysis which looked at all current and potential future debt, which included this project, to identify the financial health of the County if it were to take on debt for this project.

At the conclusion of the debt analysis, staff recommended not to incur long-term debt for this project at this time.The Board agreed.

Egg farmers worried about new bird flu

The current avian influenza outbreak is the “greatest threat” to American egg producers, according to United Egg Producers President and CEO Chad Gregory.

“On-farm biosecurity is at its most stringent levels, and despite these robust precautionary measures, the egg industry has lost flocks to [bird flu] in recent weeks,” Gregory said in a statement.This is a sad and difficult time for affected farmers, who must act swiftly to prevent the spread of the disease and go through an extensive recovery process.”

A massive flock of over 4.2 million egg-laying chickens in Iowa was detected to have bird flu last week.

Walnut Acreage down 4%

California’s 2023 walnut acreage is estimated at 420,000 acres, with 385,000 acres bearing and 35,000 acres non-bearing. 

Bearing acreage was down 4% from 2022.

Strong summer outlook as clean energy grows

Elliot Mainzer – California Independent System operator president- says CAISO is in a stronger position heading into the summer compared to previous years.The agency manages the grid and guides energy investment in the Golden State.

CAISO expects its resources will be able to meet forecasted demand plus an 18.5% reserve margin for all summer months, according to its summer assessment. The grid operator anticipates it will have more than 3,500 MW of surplus supplies over forecasted demand plus the reserve margin during key early evening peak net load hours in September, Mainzer said in the memo.

Ten-day temperature forecast in Visalia shows 95 degrees or above every day and 105 for a number of them. That will bring down the snowpack in a hurry in the Sierra over the next two weeks with our dams already at capacity.What to watch for?

Tioga Road in Yosemite will finally open this summer  on Monday, June 10 by 7 am after a huge  snowpack was cleared along the key cross Sierra highway.
-High flows on the Kaweah and Kings Rivers this month will offer the best chance for river rafting in a while, with at least three suppliers  in Three Rivers offering regular rides down the waterway and several along  the Kings River watershed as well.-But the flows will be dangerous, coming down colder and stronger.
Tulare County gas prices are the lowest in the state, says GasBuddy this week.Fastrip in Lindsay is selling regular for $3.79 a gallon according to the fueling website and Valero in Linday is $3.80. Gasoline prices nationwide and in California have been dropping rapidly after the start of the Memorial Day driving season, usually when summer prices head higher. The average price for gasoline in California has come down $0.45 since May 8 says AAA.Nationwide the trend is our friend. “This drop in pump prices appears to have some sticking power for now,” said Andrew Gross, AAA spokesperson. “More states should see their averages dip below $3 a gallon in the coming weeks.”

On June 11, oil analyst Tom Kloza said “U.S. gas today is 14.85cts/gal beneath same day 2023 for a disinflationary move of 4.14%. Gap will widen to 20-25cts/gal by the summer solstice (6/20/24). YOY savings of 61cts/gal in AZ & 69cts/gal in UT. Only 7 states are above last year, but they’ll slip below 2023 this week.”
Tulare County dairy operators are enjoying  better margins this summer as the Class III milk price nationwide has climbed to about $20 per hundred weight compared to $15 at the beginning of this year. Meanwhile their feed is cheaper with the price of corn at $4.49 a bushel compared to over six dollars in June 2023. Helping to boost prices, milk production nationwide is down.

The Visalia City Council is expected to approve a plan to put a proposed measure to tax cannabis business in Visalia on the November ballot this week. The results of a March survey indicated that 2/3 of Visalians would approve of retail sales of cannabis in the city limits with a 10% tax to fund city services.

The consultant firm FM3 Research concluded that a proposed measure to tax cannabis businesses in Visalia”appears viable” for November 2024. The measure receives broad and consistent support among the electorate, regardless of whether or not a state mandate is mentioned in the ballot language, says the researcher group.

FM3 Research was hired to conduct a public opinion survey of Visalia registered voters to assess voter attitude towards a potential measure to tax cannabis businesses, if such businesses were allowed to operate within Visalia’s jurisdiction.  

Selling marijuana in a retail store is not allowed in Visalia, although a state law allows delivery as of 2024.  A city staff report says Senate Bill (SB) 1186, the “Medicinal Cannabis Patients’ Right of Access Act” was signed into law in late 2022. This state law, which became effective on January 1, 2024, prohibits local agencies from enforcing any local regulations that prohibit the retail sale by delivery of medicinal cannabis. After this date, “delivery only” (i.e., delivery of medicinal cannabis) businesses can be permitted, subject to reasonable zoning regulations for public health and safety, within the City of Visalia. This means that warehouse-based businesses could legally operate in the City of Visalia as long as they sold medicinal cannabis via delivery only.

Simple majority referendum

The Visalia survey showed many people are uncertain about whether it is legal or not to sell cannabis in Visalia, but majorities support allowing cannabis business activity. Additionally, nearly three-quarters perceive a need for funding for city services. In that context, nearly two-thirds support what could be the proposed simple majority measure initially.

Even if the city referendum  in November indicates a large majority would support selling marijuana in Visalia, the council has the final word over whether to allow retail sales, likely in 2 to 3 outlets in town. City staff has received numerous inquiries from business operators seeking to operate storefront retail cannabis businesses, which are not permitted to operate in Visalia under the current municipal code regulations.  

The wording of the ballot measure only mentions allowing marijuana businesses, leaving it up to the council on what types of businesses will be allowed.

The measure is expected to read  Shall the measure to fund, for general governmental uses, services such as:maintaining emergency response times; supporting youth programs; helping attract businesses; cleaning public areas; addressing homelessness; by taxing cannabis businesses’ gross receipts not exceeding 10% on retail, delivery, manufacturing/testing raising approximately $1,000,000 annually, requiring spending disclosures, and whichwould only be levied if state law imposes mandates or the city approves an ordinance allowing such businesses, lasting until ended by voters, be adopted? Other conclusions from the survey:
• Voters place the greatest priority on addressing homelessness, maintaining emergency response times, keeping public areas safe and clean, and preventing property crime.
• Support fluctuates with messaging, but remains well-above the 50% threshold for passage throughout the survey.

The question of pot sales has surfaced a number of times at city council meetings over the years and has gained traction in the past several years although that last discussion, council majority was cool to the retail sales idea.

Other nearby communities, including Woodlake Farmersville, Hanford and Lemoore, allow retail sales with some allowing manufacturing and growing of marijuana with several reporting they have enjoyed tax revenues of over $1 million a year from the special sales tax.

All cities depend on sales tax revenue to back their general fund.

Some here are worried that the lower price of pot by weight across the state will mean less  tax revenue than anticipated and that expanding the store count in Tulare County could mean less for each community. Other critics argue that smoking marijuana is problematic, and should not be encouraged even though it is legal in California.

Nationwide, support is building to legalize marijuana. Recently, President Biden announced he backed the idea.

Gallup, in a survey released in November, said public support for legalization hit a record 70% “after holding steady at 68%” for the three previous years. The younger you are, the more likely you support it. The survey found 79% support from people ages 18-34, 71% for respondents ages 35-54, and 64% for those 55 or older.

If retail sales are approved, the council will likely restrict their location away from homes and  schools similar to restricted zoning for bars. One district that has been discussed, would be to allow a restricted number of retail stores in the microbrew area east of Santa Fe in Downtown.

Local dairy industry expresses concern

Central Valley Meat (CVM) Holding Company, who already owns four different facilities; Central Valley Meat in Hanford, Harris Ranch Beef Company, Harris Ranch Feeding and CLW Foods, will be California’s largest beef producer in a deal with Kansas-based Cargill. The Hanford beef processor has entered an agreement to purchase the Cargill Meat Solutions beef processing facility in Fresno, California. This move marks a significant expansion in Central Valley Meat’s operational capacity. Already CVM employs more than 2000 people.

In a news release May 7, CVM says this will strengthen their processing capabilities, enhancing their ability to meet market demands while reinforcing their commitment to supporting the cattle and dairy industry in California and the western region. “Our decision to acquire the Cargill Meat Solutions beef processing facility in Fresno, California aligns with our long-term vision of strengthening our offerings to better serve the needs of our customers,” said Brian Coelho, CEO and Owner of Central Valley Meat. We’re excited to work alongside cattle producers in the state.”

Both companies say they are committed to retaining as many employees as possible and retaining beef processing capacity for producers. Cargill has almost 1,000 employees at their Fresno beef plant.

”Cargill will continue to operate its neighboring ground beef and hamburger patty facility in Fresno. The additional capacity gained through acquiring the beef processing facility will enable Central Valley Meat to be more adaptable, ensuring that they remain agile in meeting evolving industry trends.”

Nationwide, consolidation in the beef, pork and chicken industry has raised concerns about lack of competition and high prices and locally this transaction has done the same in the San Joaquin Valley, a big beef and dairy production region.

Monopoly concerns

Weeks ago, local dairy industry representatives contacted the offices of Congressman Valadao and Congressman Costa about the rumors that this deal was about to happen – concerned that livestock owners here would have fewer buyers for their product similar to what is happening across the US.

Four giant companies Tyson, Cargill, and Brazil-based National Beef and JBS, now control 85% of the U.S. beef market. WH Group (Chinese), JBS, Hormel, and Tyson control about 67% of the pork market. Tyson and Pilgrims Pride control about 45% of the chicken market.

Ironically, Cargill might argue they are reducing their current competitive advantage by selling this division to a local beef company.Cargill Meat Solutions is a subsidiary of Cargill Inc—a family-owned agribusiness company said to be the largest privately held firm in the US.

With the merger with Harris Ranch in 2019, Central Valley Meat was said to be the 7th largest beef producer in the US.

Dairy industry view

Tulare County dairyman Tom Barcellos says” everyone in the dairy business has some degree of concern.”

“Brian is a good friend and I believe his heart is in the right place but as a producer when there’s less competition at the sales yard or at auction, there is cause for concern with fewer buyers.”

“We can only hope that Central Valley Meat works for the good of all concerned.”

The Barcellos dairy ships 6,500 gallons of milk each day to the Land O’Lakes plant in Tulare that produces 80 percent of the Land O’Lakes butter sold nationwide. These days Barcellos says the beef side of the business is more important than before, due to the rising price of beef and the opportunity to breed drop calves for beef.

Local dairy industry representative Cornell Kasbergen of Tulare says “we could be left with only one buyer. Our income from beef is pretty significant, and we may be paid less than producers in other areas.”

From the” consumer side, there’s the same concern.”

“I would hope the Justice Department would do a review of the transaction before it is finalized.”

Kasbergen is chairman of the Milk Producers Council Board of Directors.

Mr Coelho argues that “By building on Cargill’s expertise and resources, they are positioned to enhance efficiencies and drive innovation across their entire supply chain. Central Valley Meat remains committed to upholding the highest standards of quality, integrity, and customer service. As they embark on this new chapter of growth and expansion, they are confident that their strengthened capabilities will further solidify their position as a trusted partner in the beef industry.”

Biden weighs in

President Biden has weighed in on the issue connecting it to inflation as well in a statement a few years ago.

Four large meat-packing companies control 85 percent of the beef market. In poultry, the top four processing firms control 54 percent of the market. And in pork, the top four processing firms control about 70 percent of the market. The meatpackers and processors buy from farmers and sell to retailers like grocery stores, making them a key bottleneck in the food supply chain.

When dominant middlemen control so much of the supply chain, they can increase their own profits at the expense of both farmers—who make less—and consumers—who pay more. Most farmers now have little or no choice of buyer for their product and little leverage to negotiate, causing their share of every dollar spent on food to decline. Fifty years ago, ranchers got over 60 cents of every dollar a consumer spent on beef, compared to about 39 cents today. Similarly, hog farmers got 40 to 60 cents on each dollar spent 50 years ago, down to about 19 cents today.

Even as farmers’ share of profits have dwindled, American consumers are paying more—with meat and poultry prices now the single largest contributor to the rising cost of food people consume at home.

And, when too few companies control such a large portion of the market, our food supply chains are susceptible to shocks. When COVID-19 or other disasters such as fires or cyberattacks shutter a plant, many ranchers have no other place to take their animals. Our overreliance on just a handful of giant processors leaves us all vulnerable, with any disruptions at these bottlenecks rippling throughout our food system.

Hormel settlement

Last month Hormel Foods reached a settlement in a pork-price fixing case. The case involves allegations of price-fixing within the pork industry. The settlement, totaling millions of dollars, addresses claims made by three different classes of pork purchasers.

The settlement agreement involves a payment of $2.4 million to the commercial indirect purchaser class, $4.8 million to the class of direct pork purchasers, and $4.5 million to the consumer indirect purchaser class. These settlements come after a series of legal proceedings that began with the consolidation of 27 cases in December 2022, involving 146 parties.

The lawsuit revolves around accusations of collusion among pork processors, who collectively control over 80% of the wholesale pork market.

UC Berkeley’s Sierra Snow Lab near Tahoe reports May 5 a record day for snowfall.

“Did anyone have the snowiest day of the 2023/2024 season being in May on their winter bingo card?

This storm dropped 26.4″ (67 cm) in the last day, making May 5th the snowiest day of the season at the lab. It beat 2nd place (March 3rd) by 2.6″ (6.5 cm)!”

The lab reports another bump for this water year’s snow water equivalent: 157% of median SWE to-date!

The late season storm added precipitation to Shasta Dam’s water year with another 1.64 inches for May 4 and 5. For the water here, Shasta has received about 67 inches compared to 78 in the year before, the big AR year.

 On May 5 Yosemite saw .87 and Huntington Lake got 1.06 in. Pine Flat received .56 and Giant Forest 0.67.For the water year Giant Forest on the Kaweah received 35 inches,near the 43 inch average but well, below last years 92.5 in. Springville got .63 for there early May event.

On the Valley floor, things were less interesting with Fresno getting about one third of an inch.

-April 18,2024-

From Sequoia Park to the old Tulare Lake bed, local authorities recount the same story. A deluge of biblical proportions including heavy rain and storm runoff in the past year in our basin has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to the region’s road and bridge infrastructure.

A series of atmospheric rivers, particularly in March 2023 sent floodwaters from the foothills streaming down to the valley floor, gushing through the streets of small communities in Tulare and Kings County and into the western part of the basin, re-creating historic Tulare lake. At its peak last summer the lake sprawled over 111,000 acres, still a fraction of its historical size of nearly 512,000 acres (800 square miles), and five to seven feet deep.

One source remarked “We all prayed for rain. We just all prayed a little too hard.”

Today prayers, shovels and hot weather have brought the lake level down to about 1000 acres after it submerged farmland, roads and bridges for months.

Tulare County damage

Damage in Tulare County included repairs to 3000 miles of rural roads and washed out bridges even as the floodwaters receded. The county reported they had identified 225 locations in need of critical emergency repairs as a result of the storms. Damage was estimated at $46 million by Resource Management Agency Director Reed Schenke. The county hopes that FEMA will reimburse for many of these repairs, mostly complete or scheduled.

Still a year later, government agencies continue to struggle to repair the extensive damage requiring federal funding to make it happen. Much has been done but there are ongoing efforts. Visitors still can’t travel up Highway 190 to the top with Caltrans spending $27 million to repair the damage mile by mile hopefully before Memorial Day – the start of the busy tourist season.

As of April 4 CalTrans says Hwy 190 Is closed from Camp Nelson Rd in Camp Nelson to Quaking Aspen Camp (Tulare Co) – due to emergency repairs.

Road work inn Sequoia/Kings Canyon

In Sequoia National Park repairs to the major roads are complete or underway with some roads still closed due to the damage.The North Fork Bridge is closed. The road to Crystal Cave will still be closed until further notice. The General Highway between the two parks is already open with 21 sites repaired. After months of closure at the Wuksachi Lodge, the park’s main hotel is now open for the season. At the entrance to Kings Canyon, Grant Grove accommodations are open.

For those who love the alpine beauty of the Mineral King Valley, there is more good news. The national park with federal funding plans to make repairs to the 25 mile road that has been closed for the past year and allow the remote valley to open for visitors after Memorial Day this year. Already 18 sites along the road have been repaired.Campgrounds along the road are expected to open as well as the Silver City Resort, says park spokesperson Sintia Kawasaki-Yee. Early in the summer season there may be construction delays on the road.

The second more extensive repair of the road is scheduled for the next few years.

After being closed last year, Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon will open for visitors and the park hopes to open sections of Redwood Canyon as well. With a beautiful stand of sequoia trees in this area, damage from flooding was minor compared to the damage from horrific wildfires that destroyed thousands of mature sequoias in the past year. Hazardous tree removal will be happening at various sites around the Parks

This month there is one major construction project on the General’s Highway to be aware of. The construction project is estimated to take eight weeks and will include closure for the first four weeks between April 15 and May-10 and and delays for the second four weeks.

Mineral King Valley in Sequoia National Park: Wikipedia

-April 18,2024-

The world’s largest ice cream maker – Unilever has just announced they would spin off their ice cream business, creating a separate entity who will retain famous brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Popsicle and Breyers.

So here’s the scoop! Now that new entity has made a deal in Tulare to store and distribute their frozen products to outlets all over the West Coast moving this part of their business from Nevada, says Rod Noll,VP US Cold Storage.

Noll says a previously announced construction of a new 204,000sf cold storage facility in Tulare is now underway and a portion will be ready this fall for the new ice cream user.

The 8.56 million-cubic-foot refrigerated addition is at the Tulare North warehouse in Tulare, on Walnut. This $75.7 million expansion includes some of the industry’s latest storage and retrieval automation and brings the operation’s total space to more than 24.7 million cubic feet, the largest single footprint in the company network. Even before the current expansion, US Cold Storage has 588,500sq ft. in Tulare.It also has a on-site solar farm and plans for a second one.

“I am thrilled for our fifth strategic expansion in Tulare,” says Noll, USCS Senior Vice President, Western Region.

The” expansion reflects the continued growth of some of our major customers who are broadening their manufacturing capabilities.”

Some months ago Noll also announced ” Specifically, we have a consumer packaged goods customer relocating its business to northern California and to this facility.”

With the local news this week, we now know who this packaged goods company is, although we don’t know details of their planned operations. The new spinoff company, as yet unnamed, will retain their famous ice cream brands like Ben and Jerrys,the nation’s largest ice cream company in sales. The iconic brand offers such flavors as Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia.The company was launched in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who were friends since their childhood from Merrick, New York. In 2000, Ben & Jerry’s was sold to the multinational conglomerate Unilever but continues to operate as an independent subsidiary.

Other well-known company brands of frozen desserts include Breyers, Magnum, Popsicle ,Yasso, Good Humor, Fudgesickle, Klondike ,Grom, Talente, Nogger and GB Glace. Unilever ice cream business has had sales of nearly $9 billion.

In the Unilever announcement of the spin off late last month,a company spokesperson said the ice cream business is “in the process of moving to a separate head office in Amsterdam.” Complaints were heard that consumers were switching to lower cost brands, and ice cream was a “troubled category”

The giant British company has many divisions, selling everything from Dove soap and Vaseline to Coleman’s Mustard.

Chill Out

The new Tulare cold storage will be chilly indeed.

There will be two new refrigerated rooms capable of storage down to -20F degrees. Officials expect by this November to complete a conventional storage space spanning 3.08 million cubic feet. A second, 5.48 million-cubic- foot room is scheduled to open in February 2025. That space will feature very narrow aisle (VNA) storage serviced by a warehouse guidance system and semi-automated, turret-style storage and retrieval forklifts.

Besides the Unilever deal, US Cold Storage will be adding more product from a number of local customers who already use the big facility. Noll says “Saputo Cheese manufacturing is expanding as well as Dreyer’s Ice Cream. Both have been long standing customers” says Noll.

Production of dairy products is big business in Tulare where seven of the 10 top companies in town by employment
are dairy-related led by Saputo Cheese.

Ice Cream Consumption

USDA says in 2021,U.S. residents consumed 20.3 pounds of frozen dairy products per capita, nearly 6 pounds less than in 2000. Per capita consumption of frozen dairy products has been declining since the 1990s, dipping to its lowest point in 2021.

But in 2022, per capita consumption increased by 1.3% compared to the previous year. The growing consumer preference for premium ice creams and international flavors has notably boosted per capita ice cream consumption in the United States over recent decades.

-April 18,2024-

Atlanta-based Seefried Industries has submitted a environmental impact report to the City of Visalia to build a 284-acre industrial park at the NW corner of Shirk and Riggin. The big project would require annexation into the city limits to move forward. It would expand the Visalia industrial park to the north.

Called the Shirk and Riggin Industrial Project, the development would be the largest in City of Visalia history with plans to build 3,820,000 ft. of industrial buildings that could hire over 4000 workers once all phases are constructed. The site plan shows 3750 parking places for all types of vehicles.

The applicant plans eight industrial buildings used for warehouse, distribution, and light manufacturing; six flex industrial buildings; two drive-through restaurants; a convenience store; a recreational vehicle (RV) and self storage facility; gas station; and a car wash.

The footprint shows multiple phases of large industrial buildings with the corner of Shirk and Riggin having several retail uses located right across the street from the proposed new Costco shopping center.

The EIR says the prolect would offer via four access points along Shirk Street, five access points along Riggin Avenue, and five access points along Kelsey Street. On-site orchards would need to be removed, and appropriate landscaping and lighting would be incorporated into the overall site design consistent with applicable City requirements and guidelines.

The project’s draft EIR was filed 4/11/2024 with a comment period ending 5/28/2024. As is typical a final EIR would follow and consideration by the city council after that before the project is submitted to LAFCO for annexation.

Founded in 1984 by Ferdinand Seefried, Seefried Industrial Properties is a privately held real estate firm that focuses on the development, leasing and management of industrial properties across the U.S. The firm primarily focuses on development in core industrial markets and build-to-suits with tenants in core and second-tier markets. Seefried leases and manages approximately 25 million square feet for its institutional and European clients and has developed over 200 million square feet of space valued in excess of $18 billion across 30+ markets. Based in Atlanta, the firm has regional offices in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.

New $30 mil investment

In Visalia, Seefried built and leased the 1.2 million square-foot Ace Hardware distribution center on Plaza Drive – now in full operation. In related news, Ace Hardware is installing a $30 million conveyor system right now expected to automate deliveries from Visalia to all parts of California in a speedy manner. The end result is expected to be higher e-commerce sales from Visalia that could boost the city’s tax revenue.

Seefried also has plans for a second 500,000 square-foot spec warehouse nearby at Goshen Avenue and American. The company purchased the Shirk and Riggin property from the Ritchie interest.

The company’s site plan for the new industrial park indicates two huge buildings on Kelsey would be first to be constructed, adding up to about 1,800,000 sq ft. across from Amazon.

Seefried is pressing on with these massive plans despite the fact that the warehouse market has cooled in California and in Visalia.

Sequoia Gateway project still stalled in neutral

April 18,2024

CalTrans has again let the latest construction date slip for the long-awaited Caldwell interchange at Hwy 99. A year ago they said construction was expected to start by August 2023.

But as everyone knows, lots has happened in California that has resulted in delays. Stuff like Covid 19, some 20 atmospheric rivers decimating roads and bridges and now a state budget crisis.

But this past week CalTrans District 6 administrator Mike Navarro said “we expect to begin construction by the end of this year.” Look for about a three-year construction period he estimates.

caption: Developers of the proposed Sequoia Gateway commercial center, along Highway 99 continue to face delays as construction of the Caldwell Interchange is now scheduled for 2028. Meanwhile, big retailers continue to favor new locations along Visalia’s traditional commercial strips, surrounded by rooftops.

So the schedule now suggests we could see the completed interchange in about four years.

Arguably, the drawn-out time frame matters most to the developers of the Sequoia Gateway business park – the huge 1.46 million square-foot commercial center that was first proposed back in 2015 at a public hearing.

In 2018, the controversial project on the outskirts of the Visalia city limits, was approved by the county Board of Supervisors.
News articles at the time reported that the developers estimated “Sequoia Gateway will create more than 2,000 jobs and $17 million in annual tax revenue.”
“It’s going to be a tremendous increase in property tax evaluation which will benefit the county now, ultimately benefit the city of Visalia and the county,”  Supervisor Pete Vander Poel said. “And it’s going to increase sales tax tremendously.”
“To be located at the southeast corner of Caldwell Avenue and Highway 99, Sequoia Gateway will be built in phases over the next eight to ten years.”
“The first phase will include a Valley Children’s specialty care center, as well as gas stations and fast food restaurants. Phase two will include hotels, retail stores, and a visitor’s center.”
When approved in 2018 the only commercial activity at that corner was a Shell gas station and convenience store surrounded by ag land and the Visalia airport runway to the north.Today, about 7 years later the Shell station is still there and a Valero station has opened along with a drive-thru coffee store.
The latest delay in Caltrans construction launch estimate is not the first time dates have come and gone. In 2018 the project’s EIR cites “The Caltrans ‘Status of Projects’ Report indicates that completion of the interchange reconstruction project is scheduled for July 2024. For purposes of the programmatic analysis for the Near Term (2024) scenario, it is therefore assumed that the reconstructed interchange will be completed and open to traffic” concludes the EIR.
Indeed the developer, in their 2018 environmental document for the project, anticipated as much as 1,000,000 square feet of development by 2024 – now.
An aerial view of the project today doesn’t look a whole bunch different that it did in 2015 when this land was mostly row crop farmland, now with some internal road work installed.Price tag rises
The price tag for the interchange project itself that requires demolition of the existing freeway overcrossing bridge and replacement with a new wider bridge and 4 through-lanes has risen to $68.2 million by the latest estimate – up from $53.5 mil in 2018 and $36.8 in 2009.
After years of trying to make it happen, the existing landowners,Bill Travis and Fred Ruiz have been shopping the project around according to county economic development staffer Mike Washam and an unknown developer has been doing “due diligence” on a possible purchase of about 85 acres of the 127-acre land for almost a year. Calls to the owners requesting comment were not returned.
That due diligence would be expected to include how long it would take for consumers to access any tenants that the developer would try to attract. Obviously, the tenants want to know this too.
Now we know when that might be – 2028, not 2024.
Already significant business interests have looked at the site and walked away. That includes the Great Wolf Resort project that made splashy news a year ago.Here is a news report on what happened as of March 2023.
“This week Mike Washam, assistant director of the County of Tulare economic development agency, confirmed the Chicago-based developer of Great Wolf Resorts has decided not move forward on what had been touted as a $2-billion-impact project to build a 500-700 room resort and water park at the Sequoia Gateway Commerce Center near Caldwell Avenue and Highway 99.

As recently as December, news reports said the hotel resort project — first proposed in January 2022 — was expected to break ground in 2023 and open in 2025. As of a few months ago, Washam was still optimistic.

But Washam says he was advised last weekend that the company, which operates 19 Great Wolf Lodge resorts across the U.S., decided that “the timing was not right” on the Visalia location, suggesting they were busy breaking ground on resorts in other parts of the country.

“I don’t think they have any other potential locations in California they prefer,” instead focusing outside the state, said Washam.It makes sense that the company might  give up on the idea to open in 2025 when travelers could not access a new interchange until years later and the existing outdated interchange built in the 1950s wouldn’t be able to handle  the traffic.

A major  challenge this shopping center has is that it is located away from any population center and totally dependent for success on its connection to Highway 99. Unlike Mooney Boulevard, a store coming into the Gateway center cannot count on existing shoppers that will be visiting hundreds of neighboring stores and restaurants, large and small along the retail trip Mooney Blvd. For example, Sam’s Club and Chick-fil-A don’t have to wait till 2028 and hope customers will come. Instead they recently selected S. Mooney Blvd. for their proposed location – near Costco,Target  and three-plus miles of local and regional commercial outlets. The mass complex of stores, surrounded by thousands of homes, help float all the boats.
Two other proposed anchors for the commercial center include Valley Children’s Hospital and Kaweah Delta- each of which have said they may want to offer clinical space at the Hwy 99 center.

Valley Children’s Hospital, based in Madera, has a few Valley clinics already. The nonprofit already and a Visalia clinical location near the Visalia Medical Clinic where they serve children.

Of course Kaweah Delta too already has extensive clinical space all over Visalia, countywide and in Tulare. Valley Children’s Hospital said they supported the project and wanted to be part of it back in 2018. But as of spring 2024 there’s no sign they are moving forward with a facility here after talking about it for 9 years.

Each of the big healthcare entities have their own issues to worry about that include difficult finances and community support. Due largely to the widespread Covid epidemic, Kaweah Health has been suffering under red ink for a few years and is only now coming out of it but requiring state financial help to do so.

Valley Children’s Hospital has recently had their own problem related to the disclosure of the $5 million salary of their CEO even as most of their patients are low-income MediCal children. The publicity has hurt the hospital’s community support and likely their fundraising.

Kaweah Health continues to study opening a surgical clinic at the Gateway site based on the idea that funding for the project would come from private physicians in partnership with the health district. Some decision on this could come as soon as July, say sources.
Today the Sequoia Gateway project looks pretty much like it did back in 2015 although there is now a second gas station and in a Dutch Brothers coffee drive-thru.But there will have to be a lot of lattes served before a significant number of fellow tenants move in. As it always has been, the fate of the commercial center is dependent on what happens with the freeway interchange.

Rainfall at Shasta Dam in Northern California is roughly on the same path or trend as it was last year when the big reservoir got a total of over 76 inches of rain in the water year.

As of mid-February, Shasta has received about 40 inches of rain today – almost the same as last year at this time.

Of course, last year was a big rainfall year with a number of atmospheric rivers plowing into the state.

Unlike last year, the reservoir is 83 percent full at this time prompting Bureau of Reclamation officials to release more water downstream this month.Storage today is 121% of average.The dam is holding more than 1,000,000 acre feet more than this time last year.

Good storage in California’s largest reservoir at this time bodes well for the water year for the rest of the state dependent on transfer of water south each year. Nearby Oroville is 80% full right now.

The Redding newspaper reports:

“Pushed by above normal rainfall for this time of year, the water level at Lake Shasta has risen nearly 27 feet since Jan. 1, brightening the outlook for agencies, irrigators and wildlife that depend on water from the lake.

In January alone, the level of California’s largest reservoir rose 20 feet, according to figures from the state Department of Water Resources. And by Feb. 9, the water level reached its highest level so far this year, 1,040 feet above feet sea level and 27 feet above the Jan. 1 watermark.

A fuller Lake Shasta was good news to Don Bader, the area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages Shasta Dam.

“It looks like we will be plum full at Shasta, so we’re managing it so we don’t fill up too quick. So we’re looking very, very positive on our outlook right now,” Bader said.

To keep the lake from filling too quickly, the bureau more than doubled the amount of water released from the dam starting Jan. 31. As of Tuesday, nearly 14,000 cubic feet per second was being released from the dam.” 

The precipitation index for Northern California is 85% of average so far this year while further south in the San Joaquin River watershed as well as  the Tulare Basin index –  precipitation is 71% of average.Last year the Tulare Basin precipitation index recorded more double the inches of rain for the same date.