Friday, March 24, 2017

Vacaville lands Nordstrom Rack retail store


Vacaville lands Nordstrom Rack retail store

By Ryan McCarthy From page A3 | March 24, 2017


VACAVILLE — A Nordstrom Rack is scheduled to open this fall at the Nut Tree center, Nordstrom announced Thursday.

“We’re excited to bring our customers in Vacaville a Nordstrom Rack store closer to home with our new location at the Nut Tree,” Karen McKibbin, president of Nordstrom Rack, said in a news release.

This will be the first Nordstrom Rack location in Vacaville, according to the release.

Nordstrom Rack is the off-price retail division of Nordstrom Inc., offering customers apparel, accessories and shoes, according to the release.

The Nut Tree center covers 371,000 square feet of retail and office development.

Nut Tree opened in 1921 as a small roadside fruit stand that grew into a notable restaurant, gift shop and toy store along with the Nut Tree Railroad. The restaurant closed in 1996 and in 2015 the towering sign along Interstate 80 that for decades marked the original Nut Tree came down.

Reach Ryan McCarthy at 427-6935 or rmccarthy@dailyrepublic.net.

Nordstrom Rack to open at Nut Tree


Nordstrom Rack to open at Nut Tree


By Jessica Rogness, The Reporter
Posted: |
Nearly a year after Sport Chalet closed its doors at the Nut Tree, Nordstrom is making plans to move in.

The Seattle-based luxury department store chain announced Thursday it will open a 27,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack store at 1621 East Monte Vista Ave. this fall.

The off-price retail store of Nordstrom Inc. will occupy part of the space vacated by the 42,000-square-foot Sport Chalet last year.

Sport Chalet was one of the original anchors in the Nut Tree Village when it opened in 2006, along with Best Buy, Old Navy and Borders.

The sporting goods store’s parent company Vestis Retail Group of Connecticut filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April and proceeded to close all its stores.

The suite has now been split in two and a second retailer for the remaining space is still being sought.

“We’re always excited to get our retail spaces occupied,” said Don Burrus, the city’s economic development manager.

The city will often reach out to retailers and other businesses, and refer them to property managers when they inquire about opening a store in Vacaville, Burrus said.

“In this case, Julie’s been working on this project a lot on her own,” he said.
Julie Davis, general manager of Dunhill Partners, the firm that manages the Nut Tree, likewise expressed enthusiasm.

“Nordstrom Rack fits perfectly with the retail vision that Dunhill Partners is committed to offering the community, and their presence will tremendously enhance the quality tenant mix that makes the Nut Tree the ‘Legendary Road Stop’ of Northern California,” Davis said.

The store sells apparel, accessories and shoes at a savings of 30 to 70 percent off regular prices, according to the company. Merchandise comes from Nordstrom stores, its website and specially purchased items from the brands available at Nordstrom.

“We’re excited to bring our customers in Vacaville a Nordstrom Rack store closer to home with our new location at the Nut Tree,” Karen McKibbin, president of Nordstrom Rack, said in a press release. “Customers in the area who previously had to commute to other locations can expect the same great brands at great prices — with less time in the car.”

There are 12 Nordstrom Rack stores in Northern California, including Sacramento, Pleasant Hill, Novato and Emeryville.

Sanchez wants to see how Solano moves forward on marketing

Sanchez wants to see how Solano moves forward on marketing
By Ryan McCarthy From page A1 | March 24, 2017

FAIRFIELD — Suisun City Mayor Pete Sanchez, who worried last year that federal funds for Moving Solano Forward might just produce an $800,000 website, says he’s hopeful the effort will assist cities and the region in attracting business.
The project has provided cities in Solano County with good information about potential business locations, Sanchez said, and marketing follow-up will be crucial for whether Moving Solano Forward succeeds.
“It remains to be seen,” Sanchez said Wednesday.
He said the fate should be apparent in six to 18 months.
A $453,460 grant from the federal Office of Economic Adjustment funded a second phase of the Solano project and follows the first part that received $370,000 in federal money and paid consultant Economic Planning Systems Inc. for an economic diversity report.
Fairfield City Council members meeting Tuesday indicated they support increasing the municipality’s yearly payment to Moving Solano Forward from $10,000 to $45,000.
Councilwoman Catherine Moy said Wednesday that Sanchez has been skeptical about the marketing program “and I believe rightfully so.”
Moy said she won’t vote for the additional funds for Moving Solano Forward when the council takes up the payment.
“I need to see how the money,” she said, “in a real way is bringing business to Fairfield and not just Solano County.
“I don’t see any cause and effect,” Moy said. “I want to see hard facts.”
Sandy Person, chief executive officer of the Solano Economic Development Corporation, had told the council that more than 4,300 new jobs were added last year in Solano County.
Person said Thursday that economic development involves a lot of moving parts and that the “Solano Means Business” marketing by Moving Solano Forward includes such specifics as sites for businesses to locate.
“It’s not buckshot,” Person said.
“It’s about all of us leveraging our assets together,” she said. “We have to build that regional brand.”
Companies from outside of Northern California think of regions where they may locate, rather than seeing cities or counties, Person said.
While different demographics make up Solano County and each community is unique, she said, success in one city is success for the region.
“What’s good for Vallejo is good for Fairfield,” she said.
Person said Suisun City and Vacaville will be also be asked for contributions to Moving Solano Forward. Funding from cities is based on population.
“Solano Means Business” was introduced March 10 at a meeting of the Solano Economic Development Corporation in Fairfield.
Mario Giuliani, the economic development director for Benicia, said a vehicle is in place to grow the local economy.
“Let’s start our engines,” Giuliani said.
Reach Ryan McCarthy at 427-6935 or rmccarthy@dailyrepublic.net.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

$45,000 annual payment for Moving Solano Forward wins Fairfield council support


$45,000 annual payment for Moving Solano Forward wins Fairfield council support

By Ryan McCarthy From page A8 | March 22, 2017


FAIRFIELD — Increasing the city’s yearly $10,000 payment to $45,000 for the Moving Solano Forward campaign to boost economic development won Fairfield City Council support Tuesday.

“We want to move forward,” Mayor Harry Price said.

The direction to staff followed a report from Robert Burris, economic development and workforce housing division manager for the city, about Moving Solano Forward.

“Think of economic development as a team sport,” Burris said.

Cities and Solano County can’t do it all on their own, he said, noting work by the Solano Economic Development Corporation. He cited plans by Blue Apron, a company that sends customers foods to prepare at home, to open a fulfillment center on Cordelia Road and bring what the city staff said will involve about 1,000 jobs in Fairfield.

“We all group together to make things happen,” Burris said.

Sandy Person, chief executive officer of the Solano Economic Development Corporation, told the City Council about the “Solano Means Business” strategy introduced at the March 10 meeting of the organization at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fairfield.

“It’s bringing our ‘A game’ to a world platform,” Person said.

More than 4,300 new jobs came to Solano County last year, she said.

Person said that, “economic development is exceptionally complicated” and that the Solano EDC works with what she called “Fairfield’s premier staff.”

“We all have a hand in that,” she said of new jobs in the region.

A Fairfield city staff report said money is not in the budget for the increased city payment but the extra $35,000 could be added to the upcoming budget.

“For this strategy to be successful, new investment is required,” the report said.

“It is expected that the future new investment and job creation resulting from greater economic development and marketing activities will create an economic impact ‘ripple effect’ of returns to the city that will by far exceed this level of investment,” the report said.

Funding from cities is based on population.

A $453,460 grant from the federal Office of Economic Adjustment paid for a second phase of the Solano project and follows the first part that received $370,000 in federal money and paid consultant Economic Planning Systems Inc. for an economic diversity report.

Person said the effort began about five years ago and involves the region relying less economically on Travis Air Force Base.

Reach Ryan McCarthy at 427-6935 or rmccarthy@dailyrepublic.net.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Fairfield payment to Moving Solano Forward may climb to $45,000

Fairfield payment to Moving Solano Forward may climb to $45,000
By Ryan McCarthy From page A3 | March 21, 2017

FAIRFIELD — A proposal for the city to pay $45,000 a year to the Moving Solano Forward campaign to boost economic development – up from $10,000 – goes before Fairfield City Council members Tuesday.
“For this strategy to be successful, new investment is required,” a city staff report said.
“It is expected that the future new investment and job creation resulting from greater economic development and marketing activities will create an economic impact ‘ripple effect’ of returns to the city that will by far exceed this level of investment,” the report added.
Funding from cities is based on population.
Money is not in the budget for the increase, but the city staff would like to add the extra $35,000 in the upcoming budget, the staff report said.
The “Solano Means Business” strategy for the region was introduced at the March 10 meeting of the Solano Economic Development Corp. at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fairfield.
Mario Giuliani, economic development director for Benicia, called the strategy a vehicle to grow the local economy.
“Let’s start our engines,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani said the “Solano Means Business” effort outlines an economic development strategy for the county. A marketing campaign and a list of industrial sites is part of the strategy.
“Solano Means Business” aims to create new jobs and attract investment to boost the $19.6 billion economy in the county.
Suisun City Mayor Pete Sanchez said a year ago that $823,460 in federal money for the Moving Solano Forward project to diversify the county’s economic base provides contracts for consultants, but may not benefit taxpayers.
A $453,460 grant from the federal Office of Economic Adjustment paid for a second phase of the Solano project and follows the first part that received $370,000 in federal money and paid consultant Economic Planning Systems Inc. for an economic diversity report.
“I sure hope that after this second phase,” Sanchez had said, “it just doesn’t end up to be an $800,000 website.”
Sanchez said state and federal grants offered cities typically won’t pay to buy land or buildings and as a result reports proliferate.
He could not be reached for comment Monday about the “Solano Means Business” campaign.
Sandy Person, chief executive officer of the Solano Economic Development Corp., said in 2016 that the new phase of Moving Solano Forward puts into place recommendations from the first part of the project to further diversify the county’s economy.
Person said the federally funded project is a phenomenal opportunity to boost economic development and help ease the burden of having 25 percent of county residents on some form of public assistance. That number has been reported as high as 30 percent.
The project includes a corridor strategy that recognizes the importance of Interstate 80, she had said.
“Our region becomes the draw,” she said. “There’s strength in numbers.”
“It benefits everybody,” Person said.
Fairfield City Council members meet at 6 p.m. in the chamber at 1000 Webster St.
Reach Ryan McCarthy at 427-6935 or rmccarthy@dailyrepublic.net.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Solano cities work together to market area

Solano cities work together to market area

While each city in Solano County is independently competitive when it comes to marketing its assets for business development, each city must also work collaboratively and with Solano Economic Development Corporation (Solano EDC) and private companies to leverage a broad campaign to market Solano County to a target audience.
Moving Solano Forward, Phase II the visionary marketing campaign led by Solano EDC’s project team was unveiled last week and outlines how the economic strength of the collective seven cites is powerful when harnessed and targeted to maximize economic outcomes.
Why all of a sudden is there so much focus on Solano County cities banding together to get aggressive on economic development activities? It has always been important for a coordinated approach to market Solano County on a regional, statewide and national basis for new business opportunities.
However, the recent economic downtown brought to light a lot of economic related red flags for all the cities and the county that needed attention. There is intense competition between communities and states for new economic development projects in today’s economy, and the struggle to attract and retain business is further intensified by the use of many variations of economic incentives to the potential businesses. Surrounding counties and regions are getting very aggressive in looking to recruit businesses within our county, and unless we have a strong and coordinated business attraction campaign focused on marketing Solano County and its cities, new business opportunities will bypass or depart from Solano County.
The US Department of Defense, Office of Economic Adjustment provided funding for the county to do an economic opportunity analysis to study the challenges facing Solano County. Utilizing the services of Solano EDC and its project team, the analysis from the initial study (Phase I) morphed into Moving Solano Forward Phase II to address the initial issues identified, and develop tools and strategies to enhance a collaborative approach.
At the basic economic development level, Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Suisun, Vacaville and Vallejo all focus on elements to improve the quality of life and economic well-being for the respective communities with programs to retain jobs and support and grow the tax base. Moving Solano Forward, Phase II provides a strategic plan to showcase the attributes of each city and identifies facility types (i.e., office services, light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing, distribution), and cluster targets (i.e., advanced materials, logistics, biotech/biomedical, food processing, etc.) and sites for suitable investment.
In Fairfield for example, Green Valley Corporate Park, Busch Corporate Center, Solano Business Park, and the future Canon Station industrial area all contain land that align with the objectives of Moving Solano Forward, Phase II –namely strengthening investment opportunities and the local economy. All the sites are well positioned to support regionally significant job-creating investment. We have noted before in this column that Fairfield has water capacity to support continued growth, including investments by large water users such as food and beverage operations. Land resources well suited for manufacturing, distribution and laboratory operations are ready for development.
Moving Solano Forward, II is an action oriented mission-focused forward-thinking effort with four recommended initiatives to grow the Solano County economy and jobs and guide stakeholder activities and collaboration:
·   Marketing & business attraction: Each city has their own unique business attraction messaging while leveraging a broader campaign through consistent and frequent marketing to the target audience. Increasing lead generation is the major goal of the business attraction initiative. Prospecting efforts for business leads will target specific identified clusters in predetermined geographic markets. The more leads that can be generated, the greater the chance of landing new jobs and investment, and working in a cooperative fashion with an organization like the Solano EDC creates a greater marketing “reach” for the county and cities within to do just that.
·   Business retention & expansion: The Solano EDC will coordinate existing business retention and expansion efforts performed by respective cities through the Economic Development Task Force, host program software and the Solano Business First! Key message and program. Showing some love to existing businesses can help keep them happy and identify key issues at an early stage that may need a regional approach to resolve.
·   Competitiveness: Solano EDC will work with each city and the County to evaluate financing options for infrastructure, and market programs that help make Solano unique. There are various assets that help differentiate Solano County from other areas. For example, our natural resources and lower costs for businesses to build, maintain and operate compared to other Bay Area and out-of-state locations gives Solano a competitive advantage.
·   Resource hub: A computer-generated one-stop clearinghouse accessible to businesses for accessing data, research, industry reports, economic indicators and links to local resources and assistance will be maintained by Solano EDC. When site selectors are looking for information, it’s helpful to have one catch-all source for Solano County.
To help foster collaboration with cities, Solano EDC will present each city with their plan for enhanced services and performance measures, and with that, a proposed budget that is comparable to other economic development organizations in the United States. Team members from each city have been meeting regularly with Solano EDC for marketing coordination activities. Solano Moving Forward, Phase II is the chance for all cities and the County to take necessary action to show that Solano Means Business.
Economic Notes is an update from Fairfield City Hall written by Brian Miller and Karl Dumas of the Fairfield Planning and Development Department. They can be contacted at 428-7461 or email at kdumas@fairfield.ca.gov or bkmiller@fairfield.ca.gov.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Solano leaders talk collaboration, growing the economy

By Kimberly K. Fu, kfu@thereporter.com, @ReporterKimFu on Twitter

Posted: 03/10/17, 5:55 PM PST | Updated: 2 hrs ago 0 Comments

Wanted — A deafening roar of engines to signal the community’s commitment to Move Solano Forward.

Such was the sentiment early Friday at a Solano Economic Development Corporation (EDC) gathering focused on growing the county’s economy.

Chairwoman Louise Walker spoke of the need for everyone to be on the same page, to get involved, to proactively and aggressively tell the county’s story.

“I truly believe that this is our time,” she said.

For a while now, the Solano EDC has been bringing experts together to come up with a game plan to help the economy progress.

Teams have since drafted a roadmap outlining next steps.

That includes a mission-focused effort involving public and private engagement to attract new business while retaining existing ones.

A one-year tactical and five-year strategic plan is in the works and stakeholder meetings and outreach will be conducted through May. Next up will be a launch of the “Solano Business First” existing program, then a possible soft launch of the “Solano Means Business” campaign.

Economist Robert Eyler, with Economic Forensics & Analytics, said 207 sites totaling 3,600 acres have been identified for potential expansion. The majority are small but many are shovel-ready.

Audrey Taylor, president of Chabin Concepts Inc., emphasized that Solano needs to be bold moving forward to compete with surrounding counties. They’re competitive and extremely aggressive in promoting themselves, she added, so Solano must be the same.

Mario Giuliani, meanwhile, pushed for unilateral support.

“When we promote Solano as a county we promote us all,” said the economic development manager and acting deputy city manager for the city of Benicia.

He remembered an instance when a Mare Island business had some issues and spoke with him about possibly moving cities. He researched the matter and, despite wanting the business in his city, advised a stay at Mare Island. He explained that was better for the business and Solano as a whole.

The Moving Solano Forward initiative is about promotion and the subsequent acknowledgment can only benefit the county, said Solano County Supervisor Erin Hannigan.

“It’s about putting Solano County on the map for people who aren’t in this room and who don’t know what we’re all about,” she explained.

She called for collaboration, for commitment.

“This is the now, this is the time,” she said. “Let’s get Solano moving.”

For more information, visit www.solanoedc.org.

New marketing strategy to boost Solano’s economic engine

By Ryan McCarthy From page A3 | March 11, 2017                           

FAIRFIELD — A vehicle is in place to grow the local economy, people at the Solano Economic Development Corp. meeting heard Friday.

“Let’s start our engines,” urged Mario Giuliani.

Giuliani, the economic development director for Benicia, said the “Solano Means Business” effort outlines an economic development strategy for the county.

He held a shelf to show where the report on economic strategy for the county won’t go.

“Governments are great at making studies,” added Giuliani. “We make studies of studies.”

FAIRFIELD — A vehicle is in place to grow the local economy, people at the Solano Economic Development Corp. meeting heard Friday.

“Let’s start our engines,” urged Mario Giuliani.

Giuliani, the economic development director for Benicia, said the “Solano Means Business” effort outlines an economic development strategy for the county.

He held a shelf to show where the report on economic strategy for the county won’t go.

“Governments are great at making studies,” added Giuliani. “We make studies of studies.”

But the report by the second phase of Moving Solano Forward, including a marketing campaign and a list of industrial sites, he said, and communities should move forward with the strategy.

“When we promote Solano as a county, we promote us all,” Guiliani said to applause.

Solano County Supervisor Erin Hannigan supported a unified effort, noting that Benicia and Vallejo are sometimes seen as more Bay Area, while Fairfield and Vacaville are aligned with Sacramento.

Solano Means Business aims to create new jobs and attract investment to boost the $19.6 billion economy in the county.

Louise Walker, chairwoman of the board for the Solano EDC and chief executive officer of First Northern Bank, said the county is positioned to advance.

“This is our time,” Walker said.

Fairfield Mayor Harry Price said after the meeting, held at the Hilton Garden Inn, that the county now has a wonderful road map that will allow communities to work together on economic development. Vacaville Mayor Len Augustine also welcomed the strategy and said such an effort has long been needed.

Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown added, “We’re actually going to be doing something.”

Steve Huddleston, vice president of Public Affairs for NorthBay HealthCare, had said in a statement promoting the meeting, “The private sector and local government come together — at long last — with a shared vision to attract new employers, retain who we have, create a workforce of the future. For health care, it’s essential to let everyone know advanced medicine is delivered here.”

Sandy Person, president of the economic development corporation thanked people – including former Fairfield City Manager Sean Quinn – for their work on the strategy.

“Sean is the one who knows where everything is,” Person said.

MovingSolanoForwardII.com has more information about the project.

Reach Ryan McCarthy at 427-6935 or rmccarthy@dailyrepublic.net.