Back to Press Room

•           Green industry may beckon but location means logistics
•           ‘The logistics industry targets us’

The future may hold significant job growth in “green” industries but geographic location is making San Joaquin County a premier growth area for the logistics industry says Michael Locke, president and chief executive officer of the San Joaquin Partnership, a Stockton-based non-profit, private-public economic development corporation. “We don’t target the logistics industry. The logistics industry targets us,” says Mr. Locke. “The confluence of the highway system here, our direct relationship to the Bay Area, the two major railroads and their intermodal facilities … and the Port of Stockton all coalesce to provide what one would consider to be probably one of the best intermodal movement hubs on the West Coast.”

The Partnership has closed ten projects so far this year, with more in the pipeline. “The largest is for an automotive parts distributor,” says Mr. Locke. O’Reilly Automotive Inc. of Springfield, Mo., will occupy a 500,000 square foot building in the Central Valley Industrial Park in Stockton and employ as many as 600 people, he says. The demand has shrunk the available inventory of large distribution facilities, Mr. Locke says. But there could be some smaller buildings vacated in the coming months because of the closing of the New United Motors Manufacturing plant in Fremont. Ten auto parts makers have facilities in San Joaquin County. “Those companies came to San Joaquin County because of our ‘just-in-time’ delivery relationship to NUMMI,” Mr. Locke says. “It is highly probable that all of those projects will close … if they are unable to diversify their productivity.”

The ten plants employ about 1,200 workers between them. But NUMMI’s closing will also impact about 1,200 or more who live in San Joaquin County and work at the auto plant, he says. “We’ve got about a 16 percent vacancy rate for industrial space,” he says. “It’ll take another year to work off inventory.” Mr. Locke says while “green” industries such as alternative fuels and solar power could be job creators in the future for the county, more immediate opportunities may well be found in the food processing industry. He says a major reason is that food distribution networks are already in place with warehouses in the county. “We see a lot of the vendor supplier group looking into this market,” he says, “because it reduces their transportation of produced product … to retailers.”

Click here to listen or download (mike locke.mp3, 26.58 MB)

» For more information :  http://www.sjpnet.org/

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=13002