Map shows location of new 1.25 mil sf warehouse project west of 99 in Goshen and the Visalia Industrial Park on the right side. The map does not show the big new Ace Hardware development.
Visalia may get some new competition for warehouse space locally.
For the first time, developers are targeting land west of Highway 99 on the outskirts of Goshen for future industrial growth. This field crop ag land is being promoted for its proximity to Highway 99 and 198 – key arteries for the logistics industry that is already filling up the Visalia Industrial Park. Developers have millions of square feet on the drawing board on hundreds of acres in the City of Visalia.
Now it is the County looking to cash-in by rezoning land south and west of Goshen for warehouses with the initial step being taken this week by the county Planning Commission.
Leading the charge on this project is Fresno developer Leland Parnagian and his G4 Enterprises Ltd company. Parnagian already has two large warehouse projects in the Visalia Industrial Park including 790,000sf Midstate 99 and a new 316,000sf “spec” building nearing completion at Kelsey, south of Goshen Ave
Now he wants to rezone two parcels tolling 80 acres that he purchased at the southwest corner of Avenue 304 and Road 68, south of Goshen. There he needs approval to designate all of the 80 acres that was not zoned industrial when the Goshen Community Plan was adopted.
The agenda item requiring a General Plan Amendment would then go to the Board of Supervisors for final approval, says Mike Washam, county economic development manager.
If the General Plan Amendment is approved, the Goshen Urban Development Boundary would be realigned to fully include both parcels as studied in the 2018 Goshen Community Plan Update, says a staff report.
Big plans
The applicant has provided a conceptual site plan that shows four buildings for a warehouse/office, two of which are approximately 500,000 square feet in size and two of which are approximately 110,000 square feet in size. They total around 1.25 million sf.
The site plan includes parking spaces for 2200 vehicles as well as two ponding basins.
If there are to be anything like 1500 to 2,000 jobs available from this development – that would be enough to employ a member of each of the 1400 households in this largely low income community. If this warehouse development extends the logistics boom to Goshen, the Hwy 99 town is already experiencing a retail /highway commercial boom of sorts along Betty Drive.
The County staff report on the rezone says the Rd 68/Ave 304 property was intended for rezoning but was inadvertently “split zoned” due to uncertainty about development capacity and property owner interest that was not rectified before the Plan was adopted in 2018. This left 30 acres of the 80 acres still zoned as AE-40. These conditions have been alleviated by certain critical improvements to allow a rezone to go forward.
Less water demand
These improvements include the County currently planning for expanding nearby Road 64 that already connect to 198, with project design and CEQA already completed; the Goshen Community Service District has a “new” pump station in place that limited previous development west of SR 99; and all water capacity and ground water management concerns are addressed by the Goshen EIR and Cal Water’s will-Serve letter requirements at the time of development.
The County says rezoning this farmland to industrial will result in less water demand than currently, an argument to be made in favor of designating more land west of 99 for warehouses if this project takes off.
Smee Homes has already pioneered new home development west of 99 helping to fund Rd 64 improvement -something the Parnagian property development will do as well.
Future growth?
Will this new industrial project spread into a new industrial park or be an isolated development? The real-estate agent who sold the land in May to Parnagian, Marc Griffiths of Zeeb Commercial, says it ”makes a lot of sense ” for more industrial development to happen in this area “so close to 99” adding that ” industrial demand remains high. “
The County is inviting more industrial investment at the bookends of the county as you enter Tulare County from Delano heading north and from the Fresno County border and Kingsburg to the south. Looking to attract
And there is more new competition for Visalia.
In Tulare, a Chicago developer has purchased 76 acres at Paige and South I street with plans for up to a million sf of” spec” buildings according to theFresno Business Journal .The company is called CA Industrial.They want to break ground in December.