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The Valley Voice reported back in May that surprised employees at the Holiday Inn were told about the bid to buy the hotel by the owners of its cross-town rival. This week they were told that the deal was off. The Holiday Inn is owned by LaSalle Hotels.

Munro says there are no other suitors for the property at this time. “It’s not being actively marketed,” he says. “We are pleased with operations at the hotel. It is one of the best years in the past five years,” he said.

The area is getting a spate of new hotel properties coming online in the next few years including a 64-unit Fairfield Inn at Akers & 198 and a 72-unit Comfort Suites across from the Radisson in downtown Visalia.  Both properties will likely break ground later this year.

In nearby Tulare there are three larger motels under construction or in the planning stage including a Holiday Inn Express at Prosperity and 99 only a few miles from the Visalia Holiday Inn.  Tulare is working on convention facilities that might be located near this new unit. That would also compete with the Visalia Holiday Inn’s convention banquet facilities which total more than 15,000 sq. ft. Those facilities are a major source of revenue for the Visalia facility.

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Observers believe that the settlement of the lawsuit might set a precedent for Tulare County diary approvals receiving full Environmental Impact Reports if new projects meet size and location criteria.  Currently dairy permits are issued by the County without more formal environmental reviews.  The lawsuit for the state had claimed the Airosa project didn't adequately study water and manure issues associated with the project nor take into consideration a study of the impact on the project on endangered species.

“I think the endangered species issue is the bottom line,” says owner Joe Airosa who grew up on his ranch 10 miles south west of Tulare.  “But this project is not on virgin land - it’s on land that has been farmed for 60 years,” he notes.  Joe says many dairies are not a threat to endangered species.  They are more like “a Holiday Inn for endangered species with a 24-hour smorgasbord.”  They set up households close to feed and water.  Airosa says he expects the project to add 3000 animal units - 1500 milking cows and go forward probably after he does an Environmental Impact Report.  These reports can run as high as $100,000.  “That’s nothing to Boswell, but for me it’s different.”

After an environmental group filed suits against the Boswell diaries in Kings County, Boswell agreed to do a full EIR on their dairies near Corcoran.  Those diaries could bring in an additional 50,000 cows.

Airosa says he believes the State attention to his project was a matter of timing since a 3000 animal dairy is not at all large by local standards these days.  Last year a 14,000 animal dairy was approved by the County near Tipton.

 “I think three things happened to cause the State to come into this,” he says.  “First the Boswell project got their attention, secondly they heard reports that the south valley might get double the dairy cows in the next decade and third they saw the great number of new dairy permits being requested here - many by people who never plan to milk a cow.”

Airosa believes land owners are seeking dairy permits “because it makes their land more valuable and they get lower interest financing.”  He says that maybe some will object to any restrictions on this practice but “I couldn't get a liquor license unless I owned a restaurant or store.”  Dairy permits once received are often sold to incoming dairymen still looking to exit the Southland as subdivisions creep in.

While the lawsuit was pending, dairy brokers say the number of new applicants has slowed as the uncertainty of the pending lawsuits dampened enthusiasm.
The dairy industry is by far the number one money maker in the County with a huge processing side to it as well.

A Superior Court hearing on the settlement should be scheduled in the next 10 days.

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Now those efforts got a major boost in recent weeks as plans are drawn for a campus of cheese maker buildings totaling at least 50,000 sq ft in being laid out on a 10 acre parcel along Highway 99 in Tulare.  The site is the new Zappas Industrial Park - 85 acres south of Paige and west of 99.  The Zappas family appear to share the vision of the Chamber.  “They plan to be an equity partner in the project,” says Bob Reynolds of the Tulare Chamber who is heading up efforts to develop a complex there.

Mike Zappas is enthusiastic when he talks about the cheese making complex suggesting that “there is strong interest by tenants and that a builder has been lined up to construct the project.  “We think it is coming together,” Zappas said this week.  The industrial park has 8 parcels, one of which has been set aside for the cheese complex, that would front right on the future alignment of Blackstone south of Paige visible from 99.  “We hope the entire 85 acres could blossom into cheese or milk related businesses.”  He notes that European cheeses are catching on in the US where consumption has skyrocketed in the past decade.  Still European consumption is double the average US consumption.  The locals have been working with the California Milk Advisory Board that has helped get the word out about the Tulare project.

Zappas says the complex would be laid lineally with one milking station, pasteurizer and one storage and shipping common building.  The remainder of the buildings would be each cheese maker.

Zappas believes that momentum on the project is enough that it is possible the complex could be built in a year and tenants would be moving in. The family has experience as real estate managers and developers.  They said they heard about Tulare from Phil Mehan - the owner of the Lucky shopping center in town.

A feasibility study done by Omega - a Wisconsin consultant - suggested if investors and tenants - small specialty cheese makers - could be found the project might pencil out.  Jim Gruebele, local dairy consultant, is helping the effort to find equipment for the project that might have one milk receiving facility for use by all the cheese makers.  Last year EDC president Bill Evans and Chamber director John Hobbs made a trip to Europe where a number of foreign cheese makers expressed interest in a California location.  “These people are still out there,” says Reynolds and could locate at the facility.  “We need to gear up  our marketing effort now,” says Reynolds who notes that the addition of a site for the project “will make this project tangible.”

While Tulare County is the number one diary county in the US it has only a few specialty cheese makers with the bulk of the cheese made here being only a few varieties.  The idea of some sort of a condominium approach has attractions since each company could concentrate on cheese making and not on processing or storing milk.  The idea was to site 5 to 6 smaller cheese makers.  However the project would need a certain volume of milk to pencil out, the study says.

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Most successful in this category is the Allen Group who now is out of space this month with addition of 3 new tenants in the past month - mostly distribution companies who use Visalia as a hub to distribute all manner of widgets statewide.  “We’re out of space,” says broker Doug Burr who leases space for the Allen Group.  “This will really help build Visalia’s inventory of finished land parcels and attract developers who now will be able to build space quicker.”  Burr says companies looking to locate here often have very quick time frames from when they decide to look for locations and become operational - sometimes in 90 to 120 days.  “Right now we have requests for over 400,000 sq ft and virtually no large spaces to show them.”  Burr just completed two leases in the Tucker Rocky building off Doe, which like other former spec spaces, is full.

The other benefit for the entire park is “better access for trucks,” says Burr who notes that prospects now may not want to locate on Sunnyview since it is a dead end.  Likewise, Doe and other streets don’t have access now to Plaza Drive - the fastest way to Highway 99.

Another builder, Buzz Oates, recently filled all their spec space in the Industrial Park as well.  Visalia’s reputation as a distribution center is becoming well known and the idea of being out of space just as the community's reputation is on the rise caused lots of concern locally.

During the Duckworth years, the city came up with a fund of almost $1 million to expand one industrial street in the park - a new street that some thought should be done by the property owner - Clarence Ritchie.  Sunnyview today is nearly full but dead ends and the are no opportunities unless the street is put in and services are extended.

Enter city manager Steve Salomon who knows the city depends on the industrial park to help bring jobs and money to town.  Salomon met this week with a group of industrial park interests and hammered out a plan for a proposed assessment district in the industrial park where the city would front the money, lend it to the assessment district to get the streets built - with access clear to Plaza Drive - and properties along the path of the street would have an assessment added to their property tax paid over time.  That would repay the city for the project and be available for other projects in the future.  “We think we can get it done with this plan,” say builder Basil Perch who helped develop lots in the initial property in the park.  “There are 4 or 5 property owners involved and we think we can convince them this is a good plan,” he says.

The idea is to push Sunnyview through to the Rd. 184 (Kelsey) alignment where you could travel south on Kelsey to Ferguson and head west again connecting to Plaza Drive just north of Sequoia Beverage, the Budweiser distributor.  To the north of Ferguson is the huge Hayes property that would be a beneficiary of this plan as well.  The linking of streets to Plaza  will make probably over 300 acres of now inaccessible land more valuable industrial space helping to stimulate competition as well.  “We think we can do this pretty soon,” says Perch who has all along advocated the city push infrastructure development in the Park to attract more business.

While the idea is still conceptual and the whole plan must be approved by the city council, this idea could help the city remain competitive in its effort to diversify the economy.  The difference is this plan compared to others before is that this would not be a district subsidy but an investment district that would benefit multiple property owners - provide through access - not just industrial sites and have a pay-back mechanism that will be available to other users down the line.

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Besides the ABLE Industries lease the investment group retains two other parcels it can develop on the acreage - one fronting Plaza and one fronting Goshen Ave.  On the corner the Dwelle Brothers have purchased 1.3 acres to erect a new Exxon combination convenience market and fast food operations, says Walt Dwelle who says their plans will go to the city Planning Commission very soon.  Dwelle expects the combination gas/food operation to be open as soon as 10 months from now.  “We know the people out in the Industrial Park need all three services,” gas, groceries and fast food.  The traveling lunch wagons that ply the industrial park is all there is nearby.

Regarding the Exide building, Oldfield who is also the manager of American Air is “taking up the concrete tilt-up building down to bare walls” to prepare it for ABLE Industries.  “It will be essentially a new building when we’re done with it.”  That would be a long way from the way most Visalians remember the Exide building over the past decade since the company shut down here.  Its been graffiti-filled and weed strewn and an eyesore.  That’s one big plus for the industrial park with new users in place here and more development at this corner.  “I think the industrial park has a bright future in front of it,” says Oldfield.

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Also in Visalia the food pantry FoodLink will move to larger quarters by mid September also in the Visalia Industrial Park increasing space to about 70% on Sunnyview - a block north of their current location.

ABLE executive director Wende Ayers says 45 employees will be working at the former Exide building in Visalia serving the 200 clients who need more space for their work and warehousing activities.  ABLE services industrial clients offering hand labor, packaging, assembly and storage for the customer.  In return their work helps pay 60% of the cost of operating the organization that offers work training to handicapped people.  The agency has a $3.7 million budget.

Besides the efficiency and savings from having just one office instead of three, “we also will be able to take on work we never had the room for before,” says Ayers whose largest workshop space now is the 10,000 sq ft building in Tulare they use.  The agency will be able to sell this building now because of their lease in Visalia.  Ayers says they plan to continue to utilize the small Dinuba facility and in Visalia their current Valley Oaks office will be retained for services to the severely handicapped.

One new customer they were not able to take on because of lack of space is Visalia’s Gang Nail Truss who make doors.  ABLE was going to bag the fixtures sold with the doors, but lack of space to do the job before this possibility came along.

To bring the handicapped clients to work everyday, the agency plans to utilize bus shuttle service from the existing towns to the front door of the new ABLE workshop.  86 people from Tulare will be coming every workday to Visalia for example.

In the case of FoodLink director Sandy Beales credits the generosity of Richard Allen for a “very good deal” they offered to the nonprofit group that helped feed the County’s large low income population.  “Since the freeze we’ve had to turn away shipments sometimes because we have no room to store product,” says Beales who will grow from about 10,600 sq ft to 18,000 sq ft.  The new location will be at 7427 W. Sunnyview.  “The big thing will be we will have 2 professional loading docks,” says Beale, helping to speed the flow of merchandise more safely than in the former building.  The agency's biggest cost in the move will be $20,000 expense to move the heavy freezers to the new location next month.  The agency has 4 trucks.  It employs 9 people.  The agency takes donations of food from the industry to distribute to hungry people here.  Since the freeze of course, business has been booming, unfortunately.

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In June the Voice had a story that suggested the city had narrowed its choice for a 100 to 150 acre sports park to three sites in three quadrants of town.  Now they have added the fourth quadrant (see map).  “We’re to the point that we are talking to property owners,” says Recreation Deputy Staffer Don Stone who heads up the search for the city.  Stone confirms the fourth site is now under consideration as well.  “We’ve got about $1.2 million in the bank for the project,” says city council member Don Landers who sees the city selecting a site soon.  Landers has championed the need for more soccer and baseball fields in town and the city’s Recreation Committee has come up with a number of other venues that might be located at a large park including BMX tracks, frisbee golf and even paint ball, Stone says.

Some supporters of the northern Visalia site suggests a major sports venue there would be easier for lots of kids to visit and also give a push to north Dinuba Hwy., that the city would like to see develop faster.

The city has been looking on the outskirts of town in all directions in part because of the need for large acreage and hopes they can acquire the property for $10,000 per acre or less.  “We may be about to get some property donated,” says a source.

With almost 800 acres that could be developed on the Shannon site on north Dinuba Blvd. along Riggin the inclusion of a large regional park could help the remainder of the property to develop in part by encouraging the city to bring the entire acreage into the city limits.  The south side of Riggin is wall to wall homes.  The 2020 Plan shows the property may be developed to commercial uses at the corner of Riggin and Hwy. 63 and single family residential further to the west along Riggin.

Among the sites being considered are property owned by Bill Travis on Caldwell near the approach zone of the airport.  The location was tagged in a recent city study session that decided to pay for a lengthened runway at the airport in the future setting the stage for a possible plan to buy adjacent property to protect the airport.  Money from FAA might be available, says Don Landers, to buy off land nearby that could in turn be used for open air recreation activities envisioned by the city.

Those plans include soccer fields, baseball and softball fields and a number of special uses parks - but no Oaks stadium as was envisioned a few years ago.  Using airport protection land is how the city’s big Plaza Park was sited.  They pay rent to the airport.

A park east of the airport fly zone on Caldwell would not be in the direct landing zone of the airport.  Travis is the owner of Sherman Land and Cattle Co. who owns hundreds of acres along Caldwell clear to Highway 99.  He has proposed land near 99 be allowed to be developed and is working on housing for the extreme east side of his holdings near Shirk.

Also on the list is 111 acres owned by the Olsen family south of Caldwell.  That property might be closer in to much of Visalia’s population and tied to the community by a bike path that could run along the old railroad right of way.
Also under consideration is land east of McAuliff owned by the Blain family that would enjoy access of Highway 198.

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The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher. 

August 4, 1999