The following articles ran in the NorthBay Business Journal:
http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/tag/impact-solano-2013/
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Monday, November 11, 2013
Solano's economy looking up
Solano's economy looking up
Solano County's economy is improving and one sure sign is that housing prices are rebounding, according economic experts who spoke to county business leaders Friday.
During the State of the Solano County Business Climate, hosted by the Business Journal, Robert Eyler, an economics professor at Sonoma State University, told an audience of business and community leaders that housing prices are up.
"Generally speaking, Solano will recover a little bit faster than California," he said, adding that the rebound is driven by construction and services in the county. "We caught a little fire in our housing market."
He said housing prices are expected to rise 6 to 8 percent in 2014.
Patsy Van Ouwerkerk, president and CEO of Travis Credit Union, said she's not surprised to see that the housing market has improved.
"There is a sense of optimism, but caution," she said. "Most believe that the worst is behind us and it's time to take managed risks."
Eyler said it remains to be seen if Silicon Valley will produce another technology bump to remain No. 1 in the World. He said the United States economy is still feeding off the technology boom from the last decade.
Meanwhile, Eyler said that nationally unemployment will drop to 6.5 percent by the end of 2014, perhaps under 6 percent by the middle of 2015. Housing prices are expected to rise 6 to 8 percent in the country, while inflation will increase 2 percent in California.
A survey conducted by the Business Journal, that garnered 100 responses from local businesses, shows a snap shot in time, said Brad Bollinger, publisher of the North Bay Business Journal.
The survey results showed that local businesses believe that manufacturing and health care are the top industries in the county. Nearly 65 percent ranked the overall business climate as "very favorable" or "favorable."
Bollinger noted that the survey was finished before the announcement that Genentech is expanding in Vacaville and that Caymus is moving its business to Solano County.
Additionally, about half of the businesses in Solano plan to expand within the county during the next five years, the survey found.
Sandy Person, president of the Solano Economic Development Corporation, said she's seen improvement as well.
"The past 18 months have been extremely dynamic," she said. "Frankly the past 5 years sucked."
She said other businesses have been in the trenches with them, doing more with less and losing staff.
"You have to want to be in California in order to do business in California," Person said.
Van Ouwerkerk said Travis Credit Union has seen more requests for business loans and increase in lines of credit.
"There have been investments in not just equipment, but people," she said.
Concerns from the audience were voiced about the roll out of the Affordable Care Act and its impact on local businesses.
Eyler said that even though it's still stumbling, he doesn't think it's changing the short or middle terms, but it will have more of an impact on the long term.
"We're going into an experiment together to see how it will impact us," he said.
Follow Staff Writer Melissa Murphy at Twitter.com/ReporterMMurphy.
Solano business forum sees improving economy
Solano business forum sees improving economy
From left to right, Rob Eyler, Sonoma State economics professor, Sandy Person, Solano Economic Development Corporation president, Patsy Van Ouwerkerk, Travis Credit Union president and CEO, and Brad Bollinger, North Bay Business Journal publisher, hold a discussion at the Impact Solano conference on the business climate in Solano County Friday at the Hilton Garden Inn. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic)
FAIRFIELD — A Solano County business forum on Friday depicted a local economic outlook that continues to brighten, even if reasons for caution remain.
Look for the United States gross domestic product to grow 2 percent to 2.5 percent in 2014, said Robert Eyler, chairman of the economics department at Sonoma State University. California’s economy is forecast to grow 3.2 percent, he said.
“Generally speaking, Solano County is probably going to grow a little faster than California next year,” Eyler said.
Eyler was among the speakers at the Impact Solano forum produced by the North Bay Business Journal and Solano Economic Development Corp. The morning event took place at the Hilton Garden Inn inside a packed conference room.
Eyler added some caveats for California’s economy. The state is getting less and less business friendly. Technology in Silicon Valley is driving much of the economy, but it’s unknown how much longer this can be the case. The state has tax code issues, he said.
The forum also announced the results of a survey of 100 local businesses.
Forty-three percent of respondents said the business climate will be better in a half-year, 50 percent said it will remain the same and the remainder said it will be worse. Almost 65 percent said the local business climate is friendly.
Travis Credit Union President Patsy Van Ouwerkerk said the credit union is starting to see more requests for business loans. The business market is picking up, though there remains a sense of caution, she said.
Solano Economic Development Corp. Chief Executive Officer Sandy Person said that, even though it’s hard for her not to be enthusiastic, given her personality, the past five years have been lousy.
But she has reasons for enthusiasm these days. She pointed out that the Fairfield industrial vacancy rate has fallen to 5.1 percent, about half of the number a year ago.
Among the projects underway is Buzz Oates of Sacramento building two warehouses on Cordelia Road in Fairfield. Encore Glass is moving its winery supply business into one of the buildings.
“We haven’t seen build to suit or spec in a long time,” Person said. “We’re going to see more than that.”
Roger King, president of the Suisun Valley Vintners and Growers Association, talked about the wine industry. The local wine scene got a boost with the recent announcement that the owners of Caymus Vineyard of Napa Valley will build a winery on Cordelia Road that could produce 5 million gallons of wine annually.
Caymus will be doing such things in Suisun Valley as packaging juice from its Monterey County vineyards and shipping, King said. He pointed out that the local wine economy extends beyond local vineyards to such enterprises as wine bottle capsule manufacturing.
Genentech recently announced it will add 200 jobs to the 400 jobs already at its Vacaville plant. Jon Reed, vice president and general manager of the local plant, gave a presentation.
Genentech owns 97 acres in Vacaville and 65 acres are developed. There are 10 buildings with 956,000 square feet of space, he said. The plant operates 24 hours a day manufacturing such pharmaceuticals as Herceptin for breast cancer and Rituxan for rheumatoid arthritis.
The company has two cell culture plants at the Vacaville site. The latest was built in 2007 and decommissioned in 2010 because of too much supply. The announcement in October that this second cell culture manufacturing plant is reopening led to the 200 hires.
Rituxan will be the first product to be produced there, Reed said.
Person asked Reed if Genentech is having trouble finding 200 people to hire. Reed said no, that Genentech as received “tons” of resumes and is conducting about 150 interviews a week.
Reach Barry Eberling at 427-6929 or beberling@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beberlingdr.
Look for the United States gross domestic product to grow 2 percent to 2.5 percent in 2014, said Robert Eyler, chairman of the economics department at Sonoma State University. California’s economy is forecast to grow 3.2 percent, he said.
“Generally speaking, Solano County is probably going to grow a little faster than California next year,” Eyler said.
Eyler was among the speakers at the Impact Solano forum produced by the North Bay Business Journal and Solano Economic Development Corp. The morning event took place at the Hilton Garden Inn inside a packed conference room.
Eyler added some caveats for California’s economy. The state is getting less and less business friendly. Technology in Silicon Valley is driving much of the economy, but it’s unknown how much longer this can be the case. The state has tax code issues, he said.
The forum also announced the results of a survey of 100 local businesses.
Forty-three percent of respondents said the business climate will be better in a half-year, 50 percent said it will remain the same and the remainder said it will be worse. Almost 65 percent said the local business climate is friendly.
Travis Credit Union President Patsy Van Ouwerkerk said the credit union is starting to see more requests for business loans. The business market is picking up, though there remains a sense of caution, she said.
Solano Economic Development Corp. Chief Executive Officer Sandy Person said that, even though it’s hard for her not to be enthusiastic, given her personality, the past five years have been lousy.
But she has reasons for enthusiasm these days. She pointed out that the Fairfield industrial vacancy rate has fallen to 5.1 percent, about half of the number a year ago.
Among the projects underway is Buzz Oates of Sacramento building two warehouses on Cordelia Road in Fairfield. Encore Glass is moving its winery supply business into one of the buildings.
“We haven’t seen build to suit or spec in a long time,” Person said. “We’re going to see more than that.”
Roger King, president of the Suisun Valley Vintners and Growers Association, talked about the wine industry. The local wine scene got a boost with the recent announcement that the owners of Caymus Vineyard of Napa Valley will build a winery on Cordelia Road that could produce 5 million gallons of wine annually.
Caymus will be doing such things in Suisun Valley as packaging juice from its Monterey County vineyards and shipping, King said. He pointed out that the local wine economy extends beyond local vineyards to such enterprises as wine bottle capsule manufacturing.
Genentech recently announced it will add 200 jobs to the 400 jobs already at its Vacaville plant. Jon Reed, vice president and general manager of the local plant, gave a presentation.
Genentech owns 97 acres in Vacaville and 65 acres are developed. There are 10 buildings with 956,000 square feet of space, he said. The plant operates 24 hours a day manufacturing such pharmaceuticals as Herceptin for breast cancer and Rituxan for rheumatoid arthritis.
The company has two cell culture plants at the Vacaville site. The latest was built in 2007 and decommissioned in 2010 because of too much supply. The announcement in October that this second cell culture manufacturing plant is reopening led to the 200 hires.
Rituxan will be the first product to be produced there, Reed said.
Person asked Reed if Genentech is having trouble finding 200 people to hire. Reed said no, that Genentech as received “tons” of resumes and is conducting about 150 interviews a week.
Reach Barry Eberling at 427-6929 or beberling@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beberlingdr.