-July 5 2023-
Activity has calmed down in the Visalia Industrial Park this year but things are still percolating. Newport Beach-based CapRock Partners, who built the two existing Amazon warehouse centers north of Riggin, has launched its third big million sf plus distribution center – this time west of Plaza at Kibler (Ave 320).The address is 4001 N. Plaza Drive.
CapRock’s plan is to develop 156 acres and divide it into 4 parcels. First to be developed will be a 75 acre piece with permits now in hand to build a 1.27 miilion sf warehouse valued at $77.6 million.The remaining three parcels will be 19.32 acres, 29.66 acres, and 30.20 acres. All together this project named Center Point 111 could add up to about 2.5 millions square feet.
“Grading of the land is underway today” reports principal with CapRock Pat Daniels in a text June 28. Crawford Construction of Clovis is doing the work. The company also did construction work in years past for VF Corp and UPS in the industrial park.
Like in the past, Daniels will not reveal a tenant.Completion of the big project is probably a year away. In earlier filings the developer noted that while the tenants for the buildings are speculative, the plan suggests they could employ around 2000 workers with some 2100 parking places for cars.The plan says they want to feed inbound trucks into the new cluster of buildings off of Plaza. They would exit off American.
Besides the on-site improvements, the developer will do road work and add a traffic signal at the formerly rural intersection of Ave 320 (Kibler) and Plaza. This will now be the back entrance not only to Center Point 111 but Center Point 1 and 11- the two Amazon warehouses to the east.This new 1.27sf warehouse will be first west of Plaza and the closest to Highway 99.
Annexation issue
This will be the first super-size development permitted since Ace Hardware was built last year. The pace of new projects has slowed from 2022’s frenetic activity in part likely due to uncertainty about the economy as well as a Visalia specific issue – a lawsuit blocking annexations.
Now that lawsuit with the Sierra Club has been resolved and the city council has changed course and adopted an ag mitigation policy in force now. Annexations can now move forward.
Visalia planner Brandon Smith says he estimates there are about 10 annexation that could move forward in the second half of the year. Some 7 are residential projects that are pending on the edges of Visalia but the list also includes several industrial annexations and a mixed use Costco project. Smith says “Costco could be the subject of a public hearing as soon as September.”That could put construction of a second Visalia Costco on Shirk and Riggin underway in 2024.
As of now the ag mitigation issue is behind us and the proposed giant 280 acre Seefried Industries project that needs annexation can move forward. The big logistics warehouse development will have its own EIR first. Proposed industrial projects piled up last year with the Visalia Economic Development Corp estimating there were 14 mil square feet in the pipeline.
Besides the annexation problem, 2023 saw rising interest rates that have slowed developers’ appetites for new buildings as investors say they fear recession.Still new warehouse transactions are not going away.Neither is e-commerce. The Wall Street Journal just reported “Prologis Buying $3.1 Billion Industrial Property Portfolio From Blackstone” adding that “demand for warehouse space remains strong from online retailers”.
Now there are other players.In Tulare their first first big distribution warehouse valued at $43 million has broken ground and will offer nearby competition to the Visalia Industrial Park. In Goshen, Fresno developer G4 wants to build a large warehouse west of 99 but is being slowed by a union backed lawsuit and now by a City of Visalia sewer capacity issue the may delay all development in Goshen.