The Urbanization of the Central Valley: Major Projects Signal Major Changes

By Halley Cornell

Throw a dart at a map of California's Central Valley and chances are you'll peg a major construction project. On these vast stretches of rural land that the regional construction industry has dubbed the state's last frontier, schools, health-care facilities and commercial developments are appearing at an increasing pace. What's more, one city will see more construction in the next 60 months than it has seen in the last half century.

End-to-end action in Stockton

Stockton and Regent Development recently named San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders to serve as general contractor for the Stockton Event Center, a $100 million sports and entertainment complex. Rendering of baseball stadium by HKS.

In the Northern Valley, the city of Stockton is continuing a development program designed to bring visitors to a once-flagging downtown. Stockton and Regent Development recently named San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders to serve on the design-build team for their Stockton Event Center.

The $100 million sports and entertainment complex will include a $40 million, 220,000-sq.-ft. arena with a capacity for 10,000 spectators. It will host semi-professional ice hockey, arena football and indoor soccer teams. Heinlein, Schrock and Stearns of Ohio designed the project. A 5,000-seat ballpark for Single A baseball will be built in the same complex for $20 million. Dallas-based HKS will serve as the architect for the baseball stadium.

The sports complex will incorporate a 150-room hotel, regional transit building, surface parking and two parking garages.

"This is going to make the area an entertainment center," said Matt Robinson, Stockton public information officer. "The city of Stockton over the next five years will see more downtown construction than it has in the last 50."

Construction of the ballpark should being in June and be ready for use by April 2005. The arena is slated to begin in April and will be substantially completed by September 2005.

The event center construction comes on the heels of the completion of a $14.2 million, 16-screen movie theater downtown. The 70,505-sq.-ft. cineplex opened on Dec. 18.

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Also scheduled for completion next year is the city-owned Stockton Hotel renovation project. That $20 million undertaking will transform the once vibrant Mission Revival-style inn into a mixed-use senior housing and retail project with a publicly accessible rooftop terrace. The 252-room hotel was originally built in 1910, served as office space for various public agencies mid-century and was finally vacated by the county of San Joaquin's public administration department in 1991.

After tackling a number of logistical and financial complexities in 2002, the city and Safe Way Development of Sacramento teamed up to breathe new life into the historic landmark. The adaptive reuse and rehabilitation project has received funding from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, the Federal Historic Tax Credit, the city of Stockton and private investors.

More projects in Modesto

Thirty miles to the south, major projects in the Modesto area come in the form of schools.

Fresno-based Harris Construction Co. Inc. began erection in April on the 58-acre Ceres Unified School District's Central Valley High School. The $30 million project includes four buildings, an amphitheater and sports facilities. Turlock-based FF & J Architects Inc. is the architect.

Modesto City Schools plans to bid a $60.4 million project, Enochs High School, this month.

Out to bid last month in Modesto was the $32 million Gallo Art Center owned by Stanislaus County's capital projects department. Architect Nestor & Gaffney of Santa Ana designed the three-story, steel-framed masonry building that will house 1,200-seat and 400-seat theaters and a decorative lobby for both to share.

The 81,600-sq.-ft. project has received more than half its funding from private donations: $17 million from area donors for construction and another $15 million toward eventual operating expenses.

"It's not that surprising because this is something the Modesto community has been dreaming about for a long time," said Don Phemister, whose Stockton-based firm, Phemister Construction will serve as construction manager for the project.

To the west in Tracy, work has begun on a relative rarity in the Valley in the past 12 months: a major distribution facility. Construction of a 750,000-sq.-ft. regional distribution center for tenant Kellogg USA Inc. started at the end of December.

The build-to-suit project at Atlanta-based Robert Patillo Properties' 150-acre Tracy Logistics Center includes a separate 90,000-sq.-ft. building for Prima Products. Work on both concrete tilt-ups will total $20 million and is scheduled for completion this month. Whittier-based Oltmans Construction Co. is the general contractor for both projects; Blakely, Johnson & Ghusn of Reno is the architect.

Building a new UC campus

Halfway between Stockton and Fresno, work continues on the first phase of construction at the UC Merced campus. Swinerton Builders has its hands full on three major projects there, including nearly $80 million in site and infrastructure work; a $57.5 million, 173,000-sq.-ft. library; and $28.2 million classroom building.

The library project will include three- and four-story wings conjoined by a geometric, four-story "lantern"-a spectacular atrium clad with clear glass and zinc panels that will feature a top-story reading room clad in wood. The San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Berkeley-based Fernau & Hartman are the architects.

"We thought of the lantern as an important symbol to the campus-a marker," said Michael Duncan, associate partner of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. "It's located on the central part of campus on a small rise, and we placed the lantern at an entrance point to the heart of campus so it could be seen from a distance."

The Sacramento office of Flintco is serving as construction manager on the $77.5 million Science and Engineering building under way at the Merced campus. The 174,000-sq.-ft. facility will incorporate teaching and research labs and faculty offices. The three-story structure was designed by the California joint venture of EHDD/Leo A Daly.

A $31 million student housing project called the Garden Suites and Lakeview Dining Commons is also under way. It was designed by Fresno-based Taylor Group, with a design-build contract designated to Mauldin-Dorfmeier Construction Inc. of Fresno

The San Francisco office of Sasaki Associates Inc. has been selected to provide space planning and programming services for the university's Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center, currently in preliminary plan phase. All projects are expected to be complete by opening day in fall 2005.

Aerial view of Coalinga State Hospital, a $286 million, 1.1 million-sq.-ft. facility that will provide maximum security psychiatric housing for 1,500 patients. The project also includes a central plant, wastewater treatment plant and water storage tanks. Photo courtesy of Hensel Phelps Construction Co.

Southwest of Fresno, one of the 10 most expensive projects under construction last year, according to California Construction, is taking shape. Construction began in fall 2001 on the Coalinga State Hospital, a $286 million, 1.1 million-sq.-ft. facility that will provide maximum security psychiatric housing for 1,500 patients.

Greeley, Colo.-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. is the project's general contractor. San Francisco-based KMD Architects designed the facility, which includes a central plant, wastewater treatment plant and water storage tanks. As the hospital nears its expected completion date in the first quarter of 2005, some of the 2,000 staff members expected to work there are already filing into town.

With the influx of hospital workers, various supporting cast and natural growth, Dennis Watt, Coalinga's economic development director, anticipates the city of 11,000 will grow to 15,000 by 2008, a 32-percent increase. In 2001, just four new homes were permitted within the city limits. In mid-2003, 450 units were underway and another 400 or so were in planning.

"We will be able to capture a large percentage of the hospital's employees here, and that's why there's a need for 1,000 new housing units," Watts said. "We have new developers entering the scene with additional projects and we only anticipate that this will accelerate."

A vibrant Visalia

DBO Development has its $110 million Packwood Creek shopping center in Visalia, about 60-percent built out. Photo courtesy of DBO.

Coalinga's easterly neighbor, Visalia, is also seeing unprecedented growth. The city set a record for building permits, totaling $251.6 million last year, an increase of $51 million over 2002 and $110 million more than 2001. Almost 1,000 houses were permitted last year.

Ennis Homes, McMillan Homes and Centex each have multiple subdivisions under way or in planning.

About $46 million in commercial projects were in place last year in Visalia, focusing primarily around Mooney Boulevard, where the most substantial project is Monterey-based DBO Development's Packwood Creek shopping center. The $110 million project, designed by Long Beach-based Perkowitz + Ruth, is about 60 percent built out, according to Dave Miller, director of administration for DBO.

"We have a total of 230,000 sq. ft. on the east side of Mooney and about 50,000-sq. ft. left to build out," Miller said. The project should be complete in the next six months."

Workers will break ground on a larger segment on the west side of the street within three months. Miller anticipated completion of that segment within a year and a half.

"It's been very successful, and we'll definitely do another commercial project in Visalia-probably three or four more in the Valley," he added.

Other projects in Visalia include $105 million in expansion projects scheduled for Kaweah Delta Hospital. Demolition and parking construction began in November.

After the passage of a $51 million bond last year, the hospital has the go-ahead to add 200,000 sq. ft. of primarily emergency, cardiac and maternity space. Cardiac services will be housed in a six-story portion of a new administration building.

"Our studies and the population numbers from the state indicate we'll need an additional 100 beds within 10 years," said Ron Ballecer, director of marketing for Kaweah Delta. "We're trying to take care of that need and to work toward meeting the newly revised seismic standards."

When the first phase of construction is finished in 2007, the hospital will have added space for 135 beds in a wing that will connect to its existing hospital. Construction costs for the phase, designed by Visalia's Quad Knopf, are set at $58 million.

Construction bonds funding Kern County projects

Construction began in August of 2002 on the $16 million Kern County Juvenile Treatment Facility near the California State Prison in Delano. It is scheduled for completion next month. KMD is the architect and Bakersfield's S.C. Anderson is the general contractor for the two-story facility.

Harris Construction is scheduled to complete work on a 28-building, fourth phase addition at the Delano prison this spring.

The county is also spending $19.4 million on a two-story airport terminal at Meadows Field to service additional traffic there. Construction on the 64,500-sq.-ft. structure began in July and is expected to reach completion in summer 2005. S.C. Anderson is the general contractor; Virginia-based O'Dell Architects designed the terminal.

Bakersfield's Castle & Cooke Inc. is currently developing and building two major commercial projects in their hometown. The Crossings at Riverwalk will be constructed in four phases totaling 500,000 sq. ft. of retail space. The $3 million first phase will include 15,000 sq. ft. of space for two restaurants.

The Crossings is expected to be completed late this year. Architects for the projects are Los Angeles-based Arnold Savrann, AIA, and Nadel Architects of Los Angeles.

The team also designed Gosford Village, a 60-acre development with 700,000 sq. ft. of retail space. An 88,000-sq.-ft retail center anchored by a Kohl's Corp. department store will open this month. The first phase cost nearly $12 million to build. Anticipated build-out is 2006.

"Bakersfield is considered a prime location for new development and is becoming very successful in attracting new businesses to this thriving area," said Bill Sampson, vice president of commercial properties for Castle & Cooke.

The attraction, partly based on cheaper land, cheaper labor and available space, spreads Valley-wide. For the construction industry, that trifecta paints a giant bull's eye on an area whose foreseeable future is one of transformation.