Exeter Property Group — one of the world’s largest real estate investment managers with 25 regional offices — wants to move forward as quickly as possible with a development agreement and general plan amendment to build a 4 million square-foot plus business park in Manteca.
The project they are dubbing the NorCal Inland Commerce Center would be developed on 233 acres on the southwest corner of Airport Way and Louise Avenue where the Rossi family got approval more than a decade ago to build 1,014 housing units.
Exeter replaces Scannell Properties as the party seeking to develop the site.
The City Council will be asked on Tuesday to approve staff negotiating with Exeter to get a development agreement in place. The council meets at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.
Exeter attends to seek Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) status for the property. The FTZ status allowed Pacific Business Center directly north of the Exeter project site to snag Medline — the largest privately held manufacturer of medical supplies in the nation— to lease a 585,580-square-foot distribution center built next door to the Manteca Unified School District office complex.
The free trade zone designation allows goods to be landed, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured, and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to customs duty. An application must be made to the federal International Trade Organization that is part of the Department of Commerce to obtain FTZ status.
The project as now presented proposing extending Milo Candini Drive north of Yosemite Avenue to Louise Avenue and tying into traffic signals in front of the Amazon Prime location. Milo Candini Drive currently terminates at the northern edge of the Big League Dreams sports complex. There is a proposal currently on the books to extend Milo Candini Drive north to Yosemite Avenue.
The extension further north to Louise could allow truck traffic from the business park to avoid Airport Way and instead travel west on Yosemite Avenue and then turn onto McKinley to access the 120 Bypass via the new interchange targeted to go to bid in 2020.
Scannell Properties had proposed 11 buildings with 4.9 million square feet. While the exact square footage Exeter is pursuing wasn’t noted, they are proposing four less buildings.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
