Visalia - CIGNA has filed plans through its developer for a new 137,000 sq. ft. two-story office building at the northwest corner of Akers and Tulare Ave. in Visalia. The filing is preliminary to full building plans that could be submitted to the city in the next few weeks.
CIGNA spokesman Jim Harris told the Voice although "the building plans are moving forward," the company had not signed a lease on the big project. He offered no timetable for a signature. Don Platz, a spokesman with the developer of the project, said they expect to break ground in August. The new office could be ready for occupancy as soon as late February 2000, says architect on the project, Roland Salazar, of the Irvine-based company Ware and Malcomb. "We are able to cut construction time to 6 to 7 months" with tilt-up construction, says Salazar who notes that traditional office construction might take as long as a year. "We've promised they can move in by April 1, 2000," he says. Tilt-up construction saves big on overall construction costs as well. The process is used at Visalia's Industrial Park on many of the new warehouse buildings.
The layout of the new complex on 14.69 acres shows space to park more than 1,040 cars. Sources say CIGNA, who already employs nearly 800 here plans to grow to about 1,200 jobs or more in coming years running in shifts at their medical claims call center.
The property at the northwest corner of Akers and Tulare is owned by the city of Visalia. The city and CIGNA have been in negotiations for almost a year on the big project. The national health care company is already the city's largest employer.
The original preliminary site plan was filed for an April 14 hearing and a second plan resubmitted in May. The company was told it neeed to add better access to the site on the northside of the project. The street, Cypress, is expected to be punched through to the west providing access to the CIGNA office project and proposed shopping center next door.
Salazar says once the city gives the green light "we expect to move into construction drawings."
Sources say that the project is still a few weeks away from some sort of formal announcement by CIGNA and the city, but that there are no issues left to negotiate.
CIGNA would reportedly consolidate other operations to Visalia, helping to boost the already fast-growing call center's employment. The company is consolidating its many offices as part of a cost-cutting strategy, sources say. Last year, the company leased a second building to house its mailroom to make space at their current 70,000 sq. ft. office on west 198 at Chinowth. Over the past year the health care insurance company has increased its workforce past 700 and now near 800. Sources say 200 to 300 relocated employees could be joining the local workforce when the new complex opens.
Negotiations between the city of Visalia and CIGNA have been stormy over the past year as the city sought to walk a tightrope between offering the company the option of a new building on city land and remaining in their current building that could be expanded to well over 100,000 sq. ft., says Mehmet Noyan who manages the property on Chinowth. City officials sought to keep the big employer in town and worked with them on a possible purchase of land they now appear to be committing to. But negotiations have been tough with the reps of CIGNA.
While CIGNA will reportedly pay market value for the land, they will get credit incentives to grow their workforce here. Visalia has many natural attractions for a company like CIGNA, including a large labor pool - a big and now experienced workforce that is here to draw from and a relatively low turnover rate - big problem at many call center locations in larger urban areas.
The news should be no surprise to the Visalia CIGNA employees -- many of whom say they know about the project brewing now for months.
City officials stress that the financial incentive offered to CIGNA will not hurt the city's general fund. Rather, the sale of the property will mean millions back to the city for use in the general fund or perhaps for some other city purpose like public safety. The city has available CDBG funds that can be used as an incentive to attract more jobs here. Mayor Wally Gregory has said sale of the 14.69 acres plus another 33 here sold for a shopping center next door will bring $8 million. The land was once the site of the city sewer farm.
CIGNA HealthCare of California based in Glendale, is a subsidiary of Bloomfield, Connecticut-based CIGNA HealthCAre, one of the largest investor-owned operators of HMOs and PPOs in the United States. Some 6 million people are enrolled in CIGNA HealthCare's HMOs. An additional 2.5 million people receive their medical care through CIGNA HealthCare PPOs. Another 13.2 million people are covered by CIGNA HealthCare medical and dental indemnity coverage.
Meanwhile, the County of Tulare
is negotiating to lease the old CIGNA building for is One Stop Job Center.
The Private Industry Council who is working on the project has puta number
of developers in town on hold who wanted to build the One Stop until they
negotiate with the owner of the old CIGNA property. At deadline, sources say
the two are a ways apart.
Visalia Schools In Line For $30 Million Grant
Visalia - Visalia School officials were notified in the past week that their year long grant application for $6 million per year for five years or longer has been approved and is in the state budget. "Now all we need is for the Governor to sign it," says Dr. Anthony Escobar, who has the title of Director of Achievement and Success. "That's a lot of money for the district," says Escobar. By way of comparison the district has a total budget of $118 million annually and spends only $4.1 million on books and supplies each year. "The purpose of the fund is to improve student achievement across the board," says Escobar. No money can be used for capital expenditures like buildings, but only for programs. "The first year will be used to buy needed technology - computers and infrastructure at all of our schools - so the tools are available to help students." The district is struggling to raised test scores of children. Fully two-thirds of the kindergarten through grade 6 children are reading below their grade level.
KDDH Faces $50 Million For Seismic Upgrade
Visalia - The Kaweah Delta Health Care District board heard a report in recent days from a consultant that it might cost approximately $25 million to upgrade the downtown hospital campus to the new seismic standard adopted by the state. Then it might cost an additional $25 million to reconfigure the rooms and bring them up to handicapped code after the upgrading, says administrator Tom Johnson, making it unlikely a rebuild of the hospital where it is, is feasible. "The hospital originally built in 1968 is unlike most hospitals," says Johnson, "where there were piecemeal additions over the years."
"That makes it hard to keep the efficiencies," Hospital VP for engineering Ed Sullivan says the study shows the seismic upgrade would mean there would be fewer rooms than before if the district decided to retrofit this hospital. "We're okay until the year 2030 when the new standard is in effect," says Sullivan. "And we figure after 60 years we will want a new building anyway."
Visalia - Meeting Wed., June 16, the staff of the statewide High Speed Rail Authority presented their recommendations to run the 200 mph train from Bakersfield to Fresno just west of Highway 99 - from 1 to 3 miles west on a route that would offer a stop to Visalia/Tulare County probably west of the Vialia airport.
The staff suggested the route over the Grapevine from Bakersfield to Burbank to enter the southland. To exit the valley northward the board selected the staff recommendation to enter the Bay Area after the train veers from Merced west over the Pacheco Pass into Gilroy where the train would travel up the Peninsula to either Oakland or San Francisco. Riders would go on a very high speed rail line from Sacramento to Fresno/Visalia/Bakersfield/Santa Clarita and Burbank, says Visalia Representative Jim Harbottle who called the news in from the meeting at deadline.
Locals were glad that Visalia's rail stop stayed in the staff recommended plan. There was concern the high speed line would bypass Tulare County. Of course, the board recommendations can be changed, noted Harbottle. The Authority Board will finalize their decision July 20-21. The Board is expected to go along with the routing and train stop decisions suggested by the staff.
New
Civic Center?
City
Weighs Police/Fire Relocation
Visalia - The discussion about a possible move for Visalia's Civic Center has begun this month when the city council declined to invest more than $1 million in upgrading the present police and fire facilities as part of the budget process. Instead the city will move forward on a study of location and configuration of new facilities for police and fire - both impacted by a severe lack of space. The goal would be to design facilities for a city population of 165,000 people. "We decided against doing any kind of a patchwork job on the present facilities," says Evan Long, "as part of the budget discussions for this upcoming fiscal year which is only weeks away."
This week the council took up the issue only briefly because council member Gamboa was out of town and because of the importance of any decision they wanted to wait until all five members were present.
City Narrows Top Spots For Sports Park
Visalia - The city of Visalia has narrowed the search for a huge new sports park that may cover 120 acres or more. "There's no way we are going for the original 50 acre size," says city councilman Don Landers who is actively working on sites.
Sources say the city has a short list now of three sites they are looking at on the outskirts of town where they hope to get property owner cooperation in buying land or even getting some donated.
This week the city's Parks and Recreation Commission toured sites that include one site on Caldwell near the airport on Santa Fe south of Caldwell and the other east of town. All sites were more than 100 acres.
Among those sites 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 play 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.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
June 16, 1999
