Economic Update Highlights Vacaville’s Top Projects

Economic Update Highlights Vacaville’s Top Projects
By City of Vacaville Staff

The City of Vacaville’s Economic Vitality Roundtable meets the first Wednesday of each month at the Travis Credit Union Headquarters, located off of Allison Drive, in the Community Room. The meeting features a speaker or speakers discussing topics related to the economic vitality of Vacaville. The meetings begin at 8 a.m. and are open to the public. For agenda info, visit the City’s Web site – cityofvacaville.com – and look under the Public Meetings link or call 449-5112.

At the most recent EVRT meeting, Mike Palombo, the City of Vacaville’s Economic Development Manager, presented an update on a variety of projects in the Vacaville area, including the State Compensation Insurance Fund project, the expansion of Genentech, Kaiser’s office and hospital expansion, and other projects.

State Compensation Insurance Fund
State Compensation Insurance Fund received City approval in 2006 to build a 430,000 square foot office campus off of Horse Creek Drive. They have completed construction of three of the five planned buildings, which, at 258,000 square feet, makes it the largest office development in Vacaville. Employees started moving into the buildings this past August and by October, 750 employees will have moved into their new facilities. When the campus reaches full buildout, approximately 1,230 employees are expected to be employed there.

Genentech
With the addition of about a 400,000 square foot expansion, the Genentech facility is now just under 900,000 square feet and doubles Genentech's production capacity to 344,000 liters, making it the world’s largest bio-manufacturing facility. It is anticipated that when the plant is in full production, over 1,000 employees will work at the facility. The company is currently in the process of proving that the new facilities meet federal requirements and expects to secure FDA approval to make and sell a variety of cancer treating biopharmaceutical drugs.

Genentech’s presence in Vacaville resulted is generating nearly $4 million annually in property tax revenue, net of incentives, for the Vacaville Redevelopment Agency. The revenue is expected to increase in the coming years.

Kaiser
The doubling of the existing medical office space, and the addition of a 150-plus bed hospital, will result in a 700,000 square foot facility and approximately 1,200 jobs at the expanded Vacaville Medical Center. This will make Kaiser the largest private employer in Vacaville, bringing many high-paying jobs to the community. Built to serve Kaiser’s membership (there are over 240,000 Kaiser members in Solano and adjacent counties), the new facility will greatly shorten the travel distance for many north county clients seeking care and treatment. The hospital portion of the Medical Center is expected to be completed in 2009.

Novartis
Novartis’ presence in Vacaville continues to grow, as the parent company has invested over $40 million into the plant since it purchased Chiron in 2005, expanding its capacity, upgrading its systems, and increasing plant efficiency. Novartis currently employs 120 workers, with a potential for more in the future. The plant is located on a 52-acre parcel, but less than 10 acres are developed. There is more than adequate area to expand. The City is working with plant management to encourage further investment and growth of facilities. The biopharmaceutical plant utilizes a very efficient microbial production system which allows it a nearly unique position in the world of biotech manufacturing. It is the sixth largest property tax revenue producer in Vacaville.

Barrier Systems, Inc.
This is a company that manufactures highway barrier systems from a variety of materials including plastic. They also make to order a vehicle that moves the barriers from one traffic lane to another, quickly and easily. Their manufacturing plant is located in Rio Vista, but their administrative and engineering offices are located here in Vacaville in a building that was home to the former Bio Source/Large Scale Biologies company on Vaca Valley Parkway.

Koll Office Building project
The Vacaville City Council approved this 167,000 square foot speculative office building project located near the State Compensation Insurance Fund buildings several months ago, but the lender, which had previously approved the funding for the project, altered its financing package, requiring more than half the building to be pre-leased. Given the current state of the economy, the developer has not been able to meet that requirement. As a result, this project is on indefinite hiatus.

Competitive Power Ventures Power Plant
The City of Vacaville has signed an agreement with CPV to lease excess land at the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Easterly site is an ideal location for the proposed natural gas powered, 500-megawatt power plant as it has reclaimed water for cooling, access to transmission and gas supply lines. The lease will allow CPV to enter a competitive bidding process to sell electricity to PG&E.

Despite some of the unknowns, the risk of the project is borne entirely by CPV. The City has not invested any money in the project. In fact, CPV paid the City for the costs incurred in negotiating the various leases and agreements between the parties.

The upside for the City is that should the project proceed as originally contemplated, it could generate up to $4 million annually for the City. If all goes smoothly, CPV could be producing electrical power on the Easterly site in 2012.

Nut Tree Airport
Solano County has started working on a Master Plan for the Nut Tree Airport, and in the process has been acquiring different pieces of property around the airport, including 30 acres at the north end of the runway and another 15 acres near the entrance to the airport. Extending the runway could have an impact on projects in the area, but the City will be working with the County on this project to assure all of our interests, including those of the surrounding land owners, are served. The Master Plan process is expected to take more than a year to complete.