By Brad Mitzelfelt
San Bernardino County Supervisor 1st District
After struggling along with the rest of the region with job losses and home foreclosures, the High Desert is beginning to see signs of economic life. In fact, the High Desert is one of the few areas around Southern California where recession-weary residents can actually look forward to a short-term increase in local employment.
Southern California Logistics Airport is leading the way on the job creation front, boosted by the development of a new Dr Pepper Snapple Group facility and a Plastipak Packaging Inc. plant. As winter turns to spring, High Desert residents can expect to see both facilities begin to reach their full economic potential.
Growth at the airport, which local residents have watched evolve since the closure of the old George Air Force Base, will create more than 1,000 jobs in the area. The additional jobs are especially welcome since the airport already was doing its part to fuel the High Desert economy by attracting companies like Newell Rubbermaid, General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, and FedEx.
The region’s overall economy is, of course, not out of the woods yet. Despite efforts at the local, state, and federal levels to rejuvenate our collective economic engine, the economy remains far from what we have enjoyed in the High Desert in past years. Many local residents who have been laid off in the past year are struggling to find new employment, while others are commuting further for their jobs. Some residents, including some who are unemployed and others who were victims of predatory lending practices, are struggling to maintain ownership of their homes.
Given that backdrop of sobering economic realities, it is no wonder that experts agree that getting back to the boom years will take more time than we would like. While the prospect of new jobs in the near term is encouraging, the area still has a ways to go to fight its way out of the current economic downturn. To further that fight, San Bernardino County remains committed to assisting local businesses in any way we can.
But it is equally important, if not more so, to take note when encouraging economic signs begin to show themselves. For example, many local analysts tell us that job losses are beginning to slow.
The fact that we are losing jobs slower than before would hardly have been a welcome sight a couple of years ago, when the High Desert was the envy of Southern California for its rapid job growth, explosion in taxable sales, and booming neighborhoods. But we know from past recessions – and subsequent economic recoveries – that a slowing of job losses often is a sign that an area is getting poised for a rebound.
The most important thing about the job growth that is occurring at Southern California Logistics Airport is that it re-affirms some of the things about the High Desert that made this area attractive in the first place to investors and business developers. In short, companies are coming here for the same reasons that drew them during stronger economic times. As a result, the High Desert is expected to add more than 300,000 residents by 2025, which will boost wages, taxable sales, and local employment.
The county, through a program approved by the Board of Supervisors, is trying to assist with the High Desert’s economic revival by helping businesses gain access to low-interest bond funds. Businesses and public agencies that want to expand or renovate their facilities can participate in a $115 million financing program that is part of the new Recovery Zone program that spans across San Bernardino County. The effort includes $46 million in economic development bonds and $69 million in private facility bonds.
The High Desert’s burst of job creation is especially important given that, in these economic times, companies can choose to make deals virtually anywhere in the Inland Empire. Local experts estimate that there are more than 58 million square feet of available space in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, making it truly a buyer’s – or renter’s – market.
So, given the glut of available space and decreasing costs in areas that are usually cost-prohibitive, why is the High Desert attracting companies like the ones that are taking root at Southern California Logistics Airport? The simple answer, which should give pause to anyone who is tempted to write off the High Desert, is that everything that was attractive about this area during the boom years is still attractive now, perhaps even more so, given the size of the economic wave that crashed onto Southern California and the rest of the nation last year.
The High Desert, more so than any area of the Southern California and even among its neighbors in the Inland Empire, offers business people an unbeatable combination of affordable land costs, an available supply of eager workers, and a network of county agencies, cities and towns that are eager to work with businesses that might be struggling through prohibitive amounts of red tape at other, less business-friendly, areas. Those things, taken collectively, give the High Desert an advantage when job developers are looking for ways to manage costs.
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That combination already is showing results. The 850,000-square-foot Dr. Pepper Snapple facility, spread across 53 acres, is expected to produce 40 million cases of beverages each year. About 200 people will work at the facility, which is the company’s headquarters for production and distribution in the Western United States. Plastipak, a Michigan-based firm, chose the airport grounds for its 231,185-square-foot facility, which will manufacture plastic packaging containers for some of the largest companies in the world.
The arrival of these two businesses, and the accompanying jobs, is a harbinger of good things to come and a validation of the High Desert’s business strategy, which calls for growing the local economy through the development of core industries like logistics, renewable energy, and aviation. Such a strategy holds great promise for future economic growth and job creation, and already is showing results on the aviation front.
For example, at the Southern California Logistics Airport School of Aviation Technology, which also is housed at the airport, more than 50 High Desert residents are completing 82 weeks of training to become aircraft mechanics. These students, who are scheduled to graduate at the end of the 2010, represent the potential for the airport as a job developer. The school already has scheduled another class to begin this spring after more than 150 people expressed interest in 30 openings.
Graduating students, many of whom want to stay local, will be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to maintain, repair, and overhaul airplanes. They are learning skills that can be put to use at any airport in the world, meaning these 50+ students will have a skill set that is marketable worldwide. Yet, most report to their instructors that they want to make their post-school homes in the High Desert because of the opportunity they see for growth here. More than a dozen of the students already are working part-time at the airport, beginning their careers at the former Air Force.
Business development is an important part of the High Desert’s future, but infrastructure remains a key issue. Without the roads, streets, and freeways needed to move goods to market and commuters to jobs, the area will not reach its potential. The development of this transportation network also is a key to providing local construction jobs in the High Desert.
Recent decisions by San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) are bringing $15 million in funding to the La Mesa/Nisqualli interchange on Interstate 15 in Victorville and the Yucca Loma bridge in Apple Valley. Each project received $7.5 million in funding, which helps with providing another east-west route for the Victor Valley that is needed to ease traffic congestion and spur economic development.
The county also is moving forward with plans to pave stretches of Wilson Ranch Road and Duncan Road in the Phelan area, which will help with local mobility and provide better access for emergency services. The improvements include grading and paving two dirt roads and installing traffic signs and striping.
The Duncan Road portion of the project is between Johnson Road and Wilson Ranch Road, a distance of approximately two miles. The Wilson Ranch Road portion is from Duncan Road south to Goss Road, a distance of one mile. Contracts for the $2.8 million worth of work are scheduled to be awarded in late April, with construction to start shortly thereafter. Completion is expected in late July.
Economic vitality also goes hand in hand with healthy communities and a high quality of life. That means complementing our affordable housing stock with parks and recreation opportunities for young families.
The county recently approved a $300,000 contract with the Phelan Piñon Hills Community Services District to expand the Piñon Hills Park with more playgrounds, basketball courts, and drainage improvements – and to also begin designing a new 80-acre community park in Phelan. The first phase of the new park includes a 20-acre planned equestrian center, including a covered arena, horse stalls and corrals, children’s playgrounds, and parking.
In conclusion the High Desert has much to be proud of. Its core strengths — affordable commercial and industrial land, reasonably-priced housing and an available and eager workforce — will help the region return to prominence as a job developer and as a premier economic engine in Southern California. County government is dedicated to working with private businesses to ensure economic prosperity returns to the High Desert and all of San Bernardino County. It will take time, but we can all be comforted by the fact that many of the assets that got us this far remain in demand and still hold the promise of an even brighter economic future.
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