Category Archives: Not Enough
Yuba: Officials Hope Enterprise Zone Will Soften Job Loss
The Appeal-Democrat in Yuba reports on the closure of a claims center and the hope that the Yuba-Sutter Enterprise Zone will be able to save the day: Marysville and Yuba County officials hope incentives from the Yuba-Sutter Enterprise Zone will soften the blow when workers at a Medicare claims center lose their jobs in June. [...]
L.A. Times: “Businesses have many reasons to leave, but a skilled labor pool helps retain many of them”
There is a very interesting article in today’s Los Angeles Times about the state of manufacturing jobs in Southern California. There seems to be a delicate balance between the general difficulties of doing business in California and the numerous benefits. On the one hand, the business owner profiled explains: “Some of the smartest people in [...]
Hershey Update
The Sacramento Bee provides an update on the status of the Hershey plant in Oakdale, within the Stanislaus Enterprise Zone: Hershey is shutting the plant, along with several others in the United States and Canada, as part of a restructuring that will move some candy production to a new plant in Monterrey, Mexico. The Oakdale [...]
No More Wonder Bread
In our “when the Enterprise Zone is not enough” category, the Los Angeles Times reports today: Interstate Bakeries Corp. said today its Wonder bread brand would disappear from Southern California grocery stores after it shuts down bread baking operations in the region Oct. 29. Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate said it planned to close all four [...]
Hershey Closing: Oakdale Plant To Lose 575 Jobs
I posted a story in March about the possible closure of the the Hershey plant in Oakdale, CA. Well, apparently the follow up is not good news. The Modesto Bee reported yesterday that the Hershey Company announced this past Monday that the plant will indeed close next January. The closure will result in the loss [...]
Inc. Magazine Lists Top Cities To Do Business
Inc. Magazine has released its annual lists of the top cities in which to do business. There is a top twenty list for large, midsize and small sized cities. In the large city category (employment base of 450,000 and more), two California cities make the list: the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area at number 5, and Sacramento [...]
Can The Enterprise Zone Save Hershey’s?
The Modesto Bee reports on The Hershey Corporation’s new plans for a manufacturing plant in Mexico and the potential repercussions on their U.S. operations including California. Once again, the Enterprise Zone is mentioned as a major attraction: “Food processing companies want to be within close proximity to the source so your products are as fresh [...]
Beware of Drooling
From The Arizona Republic, “Gore to Expand to Phoenix:” Walt Plosila, a Battelle Technology Partnership Practice vice president who monitors Arizona’s bioscience effort, said Gore’s expansion could help Arizona attract other medical-device employers. The Valley’s largest such employer is Medtronic in Tempe.”It is good news they are expanding in Phoenix and not somewhere else in [...]
California Enterprise Zone Not Enough – Again
Back in November I posted an article from the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal about electric-car maker Tesla Motors’ search for a site to build their new 300 employee factory. Many different states were trying to entice the company and California was offering its Enterprise Zones as a major incentive. There was a particularly bitter [...]
Not All Is Well In The Enterprise Zone
A Birds-Eye frozen food factory is closing in the Watsonville Enterprise Zone, the area will lose 550 jobs according to this article in the San Jose Mercury News: The company threw a goodbye party for the workers Dec. 8. Salsa music from a hired band pulsated through the drab industrial park, as a local Mexican [...]
“Some in Sacramento think the company should just reach deeper in its own pockets…”
In the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal there is a potentially tragic story about Tesla Motors, Inc. They are interested in building a new $100 million, 300 employee factory in the Central Valley, but the offers from Arizona and North Carolina are “far more enticing — roughly $15 million at the front end — than [...]
The Buck Stopped Here
If you think my previous post was alarmist, go read this amazing story of how Buck Knives was forced out of California. This is from the May 2006 edition of Inc. Magazine and it’s a heartbreaking story (if you’re involved in California economic development). At first, it seemed inconceivable. Buck Knives had deep roots in [...]
