The City Council will gather for a special meeting Wednesday, Jan. 11, to discuss a business that is considering operating a 1 million-square-foot local distribution center that would employ 1,500 full-time workers and 2,500 or more people seasonally.
The unnamed employer, designated as “Project X,” is considering opening the “warehousing/order fulfillment/distribution facility” in the 120-acre West Ridge Business Park west of Baldwin Road and north of Sperry Avenue, according to a city staff report.
City officials indicate the company, which would employ more people than west Patterson's CVS, Kohl's and Grainger distribution centers combined, hopes to have a center up and running by Sept. 30.
“It’s going to be incredibly fast,” City Manager Rod Butler said Tuesday. “They’re talking about a 24-hour-a-day construction schedule.”
While buzz about the potential employer has ranged from speculation by the Modesto Bee that it could be online retailer Amazon, to local rumors about Target and JC Penney, city officials and project representatives have been mum about the company’s identity.
Typically, major companies that have located in Patterson have kept quiet about their intentions until a formal announcement is reached, as they often look at multiple sites and negotiate with developers in various cities. A city staff report released this week indicated the name would not be revealed in the council’s open session Wednesday. However, Butler pondered Tuesday whether to reveal the company’s identity to council members if they signed a confidentiality agreement Wednesday.
Councilman Larry Buehner would not need to sign such an agreement and will not attend the council meeting, as he and his brother Ken Buehner are partners in Westside Property Management, a landholder in the deal. Buehner could not be reached for comment on the matter Tuesday.
Project officials expect that escrow will close Friday, Jan. 13, and Butler said he hopes the city will be able to name the company by sometime next week.
Atlanta-based industrial development and real estate firm Seefried Properties plans to build the warehouse, and a well-known insurance and financial services company would own it, Butler said. The city manager would not announce who that company was Tuesday, saying he wanted to talk with Seefried representatives first.
Seefried officials could not be reached for comment late Tuesday. The company’s website notes that its past projects include facilities for PepsiCo, Home Depot, Siemens, PetSmart and Verizon Wireless.
This past summer, the industrial developer contacted the city about using two parcels in the business park. Household products manufacturer SC Johnson initially wanted to run a 400,000-square-foot warehouse in the business park, but it has since looked elsewhere, Butler said. However, he said it was his understanding that Seefried still plans to build another project on the unused parcel.
While the unnamed future project owner initially sought up to $1 million in incentives from the City of Patterson, it has since dropped that request and is not seeking any incentives, Butler said.
Seefried anticipates paying for $1.68 million in improvements to Park Center Drive as part of the project, according to the city staff report. In addition, the future owner of the project will pay about $1.2 million in associated permit and impact fees.
The Irrigator will provide an update after Wednesday's meeting, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1 Plaza.
• Contact Jonathan Partridge at 892-6187 or jonathan@pattersonirrigator.com.
Well, what took so long? What gives? And whatever happened to freedom of speech? Let it all out.... don't try to hide it... The people deserve to know what is going on in our communities! Right?
Project X is Ikae a Swedish company. They wanted to go to Livermore, CA several years ago, but got turned down by the Livermore anti-growthers who did not want traffic through their community.
Now they are trying Paterson because it is near the freeways and the locals will not complain (especially given that a fruit company is shutting down at the same time).
The business plan: People will drive a rental truck to Paterson and will load it up with furniture and then leave to their respective homes in northern and southern California.
The business will thrive there because people are spending money to fix up their old homes rather than buy new homes.
They are one of the only growing companies in this down economy. People generally don't want to purchase furniture at a rental place, dollar $tore, or a super mart that sells cheap cardboard made in Taiwan.
Swedish meatballs are also good quality at a low low price. It is a win win situation for everyone.
Do you have any clue what you are talking about? Of course some of it will be partial retail, the discussion they are having is regarding over 120 acres. Why else do you think they cancelled the council meeting?
The ongoing discussion is regarding the agreement with the land owner and the company that manages the land aquisition. The original plan for all of the 120 acres was given a scope for over 30 different businesses and some retail.
By the way, the company that is handling the negotiations also handles negotiations for PetSmart. Oooh PetSmart, you might ask? Yes, and PetSmart IS A RETAILER too. So that means the company that handles this land acquisition also works with other (get this) retailers.
Even the biggest distribution centers don't need that much space (120 acres). Unheard of. This will undoubtedly be a marriage of both retail and distribution of the utmost gigantic proportions. And most certainly will include retail.
After all, it would be stupid to purchase that much land and exculde retail in that location. This is a land grab for a major retailer that will include thousands of trucks and cars and turn Patterson into "Smog Valley".
Besides, Amazon is not stupid. Another data center in California does not make sense when they would end up paying a California server tax on each server they install in California. Amazon can create jobs in other ways without servers in California.
They only want this land because of the freeways. There is no FedEx/PostOffice nearby. The Amazon theorists aren't putting much thought into that foolish idea. Patterson has no infrastructure for airport transportation, public safety, colleges, technology, and business center.
Patterson had none of these things. On the other hand, Patterson did have a suicidal father who drove his son into an Irrigation canal. I can't remember did the Patterson Irrigator have any news on that news story?
Unfortunately, convenient access to the freeway usually means there will be unusually high concentrations of crime. Unfortunately but reality is the area is not ripe for a business climate. Retail distribution center? Yes, of course. There is always room for that in those old alfa alfa fields.
You seem to have some inside information. I have no idea what has been going on behind the scenes or what is being planned. I also don't have a real estate background so I don't know what is the proper acreage for a distribution center. All I was stating was the zoning was incompatible for retail uses. The property is zoned light industrial and under the City's general plan, retail is not an allowable use. I am only basing this on the zoning descriptions contained in the updated general plan. I don't have the time for extensive research. Really it doesn't matter anyway as the City Council can amend the general plan to allow retail regardless. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened.
Anyway, I agree with alot of your comments.
Wake up! Just because you graduated from high school doesn't mean you can't stop preparing yourself for a career. Go back to school and take some classes and show these prospective employers that you want to grow that you want to improve yourself and that you have ambition! THEN you might be able to get the job you really want instead of sweating in a warehouse 8 hours a day.
Oh yeah and BTW, you don’t have to have a degree to be intelligent. No amount of schooling is going to do anything for you if you can’t comprehend it in the first place. What do all these people have in common? Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Henry Ford, Steven Spielberg, Mark Zuckerburg and Steve Jobs, just to name a FEW. Oh, that’s right, they don’t have degrees!!! LOL
The only good I see in this, is the fact that our property values will rise. And because I do own land, when it does we are gone.
Can someone remind me why Annette and her crew have fought so hard to block West Park because of the rail and truck traffic? If all this goes through, that rail and truck traffic is going to be going through our city rather than south of town.
The region needs jobs so this project will help and is worthwhile in this bad economic climate. Hopefully though, future leaders will aim higher than distribution centers. Distribution centers eat up alot of land and the amount of jobs created per acre is not good. Nothing is being manufactured or created. Just creating a large storage yard for other areas. There was one City up north (think it was Woodland) that put a stop to distribution centers realizing they needed to work on getting something more substantial. The irony was there was one County official who was involved in the creation of the Keystone Business Park that mocked Tracy for relying too much on distribution centers along Hwy 580. Seems like Patterson could end up doing the same thing.