Airport park taking off
A boom in sales of business park sites last year will soon result in new companies and 300 new jobs at the Yuba County Airport Industrial Park.
In early 2003, businesses went on a land-buying spree resulting in 10 land deals in the park off Arboga Road during a 14-month period.
More than a year later, three projects are set to open on the land. One of them, D&D Custom Cabinets Inc., will employ more than 100 people when it opens next month. The company is relocating from Lincoln.
With the company's 70,000 square foot building completed, crews are moving equipment in to start production.
"Things are going well," said Tim Daniels, general manager. "We have equipment going in right now."
Employment in the custom cabinet plant could reach 150 by summer. The company is also applying for building permits with Yuba County to add another 30,000 square feet.
In February, Concrete Inc., of Stockton, plans to start up its concrete batch plant - the company's seventh.
The plant will employ a dozen people and produce as much as 200 cubic yards of concrete per hour.
A third project, Yuba County Industrial Park LP, is finished. The project, an investment by Sacramento-area developer Buzz Oates, has eight industrial buildings ready to lease with almost 8,000 square feet apiece.
The three projects take care account for all but three of the parcels of land sold. On those parcels, which have a combined 10 acres, nothing has been started yet.
The construction companies that bought two of those parcels haven't started construction on their manufacturing facilities because they are busy with the home-building boom, said Mary Hansen, the enterprise zone director.
Hansen said it is typical for businesses to not start work right after buying property.
"No one builds right away unless they've got their plans ready," Hansen said.
The demand for tracts in the industrial park surged last year because the property was relatively low in cost compared with Roseville and Placer County land, said Hansen. Land was available for 67 cents per square foot which compared with $2 and higher elsewhere in the Sacramento area.
As in other zones, companies get tax breaks for equipment and hiring from being in the Yuba-Sutter Enterprise zone. It's one of 39 enterprise zones in California, designed to increase business in economically distressed areas. The 265-acre park still has 45 acres available.
Appeal-Democrat reporter John Dickey can be reached at 749-4711. You may e-mail him at jdickey@appeal-democrat.com.
