After a pause in business parks creating new jobs and new retail growth, things are looking up for Manteca.
The long-awaited Sizzler restaurant opened Thursday at Airport Way and the 120 Bypass. Carter’s Pet Mart at Alameda and North Main opened this week. Coldstone Creamery behind McDonald’s at Yosemite and Commerce opened earlier this month and Tactical 5.11 is breaking ground Monday on Airport Way just north of Crothall Laundry.
Vacant storefronts throughout Manteca are seeing new ventures and a long closed dentist office on Sycamore Avenue in downtown has undergone renovations and will soon house a practice.
Fitness Evolution will open this spring in the 30,000-square-foot space vacated by Best Buy at The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley. That has prompted In Shape to do a major remodel and expansion at the 30 plus year-old health club on East Yosemite Avenue.
Atherton Homes is preparing to break ground on Manteca’s first at-market apartment complex in 12 years with 157 units on the northeast corner of Atherton Drive and Van Ryn Avenue.
The Manteca Planning Commission on Tuesday is reviewing plans for a 21,450-square-foot business park-style warehouse building om Commerce Court south of the Social Security office behind Home Depot.
Three smaller retail complexes have been approved including two along Main Street and a car wash/gas station/convenience store near the new Sizzler next to the Taco Bell.
Then there is Sunnyvalley Meats’ major expansion on West Yosemite Avenue across the tracks from the Altamont Corridor Express train station.
Tactical 5.11 is just the tip of the iceberg for the CenterPoint Business Park.
Monday’s 11 a.m. groundbreaking for a 404,657-square-foot building to combine the firm’s current operations in Modesto and Lathrop could just be the start. It has a possible future expansion of 134,500 square feet.
The firm makes uniforms, tactical clothing tactical gear, knives and other equipment favored by the military as well as police SWAT teams plus other public safety personnel and a growing number of civilian shooters and private military contractors The 217 existing employees will be consolidated into one location. The firm had $300 million in sales in 2015. It currently sells products in 15 different countries.
 CenterPoint is also gearing up to move forward with Manteca’s biggest distribution-style concrete tilt-up building on the southwest corner of Airport Way and Roth Road as part of the business park.
Dubbed “The Laurie Project” by CenterPoint that is building it either as a spec building or for a client that they have yet to disclosed, the 1,199,997-square-foot building is being proposed in two phases on a 63.29-acre parcel. The first phase will consist of 551,475 square feet.
The first phase by itself will eclipse by less than 2,000 square feet Manteca’s current largest distribution center — the Ford Small Parts Distribution Center on Spreckels Avenue. At build-out it will rival the size of the Amazon Fulfillment Center on Chrisman Road in Tracy.
And Manteca might even land the whooper deal this year — a major indoor/outdoor waterpark and family entertainment center with conference center and a 500-room plus hotel.
Sources indicate one of the potential players for developing the city owned land has gotten to the point that extensive due diligence is being down with the financing.
If a deal is inked, it may be “huge” as Donald Trump might say. They want more than 30 acres — roughly double the amount — and would want to build numerous other attractions and possibly more hotel rooms than have already been approved.
Add up everything on the table excluding detached residential housing and Manteca could start retail, business park, and multipole dwelling complexes could have a combined value in excess of $250 million. Toss in single family home building based on last year’s levels and Manteca could surpass $300 million in construction if everything falls into place. That would eclipse the previous record of $200 million in 2000.

To contact Dennis Wyatt email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com