The Highway 99 community of Goshen will get a new Firestone Tire store with construction starting early next year as the Tulare-based owners add their 11th location in the Valley. Lionel and Kevin Pires have built a network of tire stores from Delano to Merced and have now filed for a permit to build a 15,000 sf tire sales and service store on 1.77 acres on the westside of Hwy 99 on the Frontage Rd at Ave 304.
County planner Scott Cochran says the company has to go through a county hearing because of its proximity to the Visalia airport but” there are no issues with it.”
Currently, Tulare Firestone, Inc. operates 10 facilities and is one of the largest distributors of tires for agricultural equipment in the Western United States. A fleet of 18 service trucks provide services to farming and trucking operations throughout Central California with nearly 100 people.
“We’ve already bought the land” confirms Kevin Pires.
Cochran says although the project is located near the current Ave 304 offramp” these offramps are going away” with plans by CalTrans to widen Hwy 99 (starting this year) and relocating the Betty Drive interchange advertising for construction set for 2016 says CalTrans.
The construction of a rail overpass on Betty Drive/Riggin,complete later this year,is likely to increase truck traffic coming off of Hwy 99 in coming years, perhaps a good reason to set up a tire store nearby.
“People are going to get to Goshen from the Betty Drive interchange” expects Cochran, for now the only bridge that connects both sides of town.
Just how the closure of the Ave 304(Goshen Ave) offramps that connect to a major business street into the the Visalia Industrial Park will be compensated for – is up in the air. “it could be the Goshen Community Plan could call for an overpass on Goshen Ave to connect to both sides of the town and Visalia” suggests Cochran although “residents will have to push for it if they want it.”
“It sure would bring some new economic development to this hard hit community.”