By DENNIS WYATT
The Bulletin
The first commercial development in 40 years within the city limits along Lathrop Road near the Highway 99 interchange is nearing ground breaking.
Five permits for $3.1 million worth of construction have been issued by the city for what will be Manteca’s fourth ARCO AM/PM gas station/mini-mart combo on the southwest corner of Crestwood Avenue and Lathrop Road.
The endeavor includes an ARCO complete with a fast food restaurant as well as a car wash just west of the Highway 99/Lathrop Road interchange.
 The plan calls for 10 gas pumps, a 3,180-square-foot AM/PM convenience store, a 2,500-square-foot fast food restaurant with drive-thru service, a 2,520-square-foot automated car wash, and a shade canopy covering 12 vacuum parking stalls.
The development would also have an 82.5-foot sign allowed under city ordinances for freeway orientated services.
The permits are among 355 permits for new construction valued at $23.6 million issued by the city in September. It brings the first nine months of 2019 for new building to $358 million.
The year will end with construction coming close to tying the 2018 record of $446.8 million. There are already $28 million worth of permits for October being processed by the city.  If that level of construction activity continues in November and December, Manteca will come within $2 million of last year’s record. This year has already become the second biggest on record for new construction starts when the activity surpassed $300 million.
The construction activity in 2017 was the third highest year on record at $228 million.
There were three commercial remodel permits issued last month valued at a combined $1.081 million. That includes $528,000 for a portion of the Burlington store on South Main Street and $550,000 for a 3,291-square-foot area of the 91,134-square-foot Amazon Prime distribution center on West Louise Avenue west of Airport Way that serves customers in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.
The biggest permit in terms of both building size and cost now being reviewed is for the two-story medical office valued at $5.9 million that Tenet Healthcare — the parent company of Doctors Hospital — is pursuing on Cottage Court off of Cottage Avenue.
There are six commercial remodeling permits being processed. One is for $1.8 million to remodel 55,987 square feet or roughly a half of the Target Store on Spreckels Avenue. A $250,000 permit has been submitted to remodel 372 square feet of the Kaiser medical office complex on West Yosemite Avenue. Two other fairly substantial permits are being processed — one for $350,000 for 4,171 square feet at the car sales lot on West Yosemite just over the railroad tracks from downtown and $130,000 for a 1,800-square-foot structure on Oak Street just south of downtown.
Another distribution
center being built
A building permit valued at $42.7 million for a 746,790-square-foot shell for a new distribution center between 5.11 Tactical and Lowe’s Home Improvement distribution center operated by Penske Logistics along North Airport Way between Lathrop Road and Roth Road is the biggest and most expensive new construction start so far this year in Manteca.
The new distribution center will add 5,192 average daily trips when it is fully utilized along Airport Way near Daisywood Drive — the western entrance to the Del Webb at Manteca neighborhood. Back in October 2017 when the last traffic count was done, there were 7,200 average daily vehicle trips on that stretch of Airport Way. When combined with the ultimate traffic impact of the 5.11 Tactical distribution center (2,817 ADT) to the south and Penske/Lowe’s distribution center (3,838 ADT) to the north, traffic on Airport Way north of Daisywood will increase 11,847 ADT or 165 percent to 19,047 ADT based on a traffic consultant’s analysis.
Work has already started on a 278,700-square-foot extension to the distribution center Penske Logistics opened last year. The $21.9 million project will increase the existing Penske Logistics’ 551,745-square-foot building by 50 percent. Penske’s operation at Airport Way and Roth Road serves as the Lowe’s Home Improvement distribution center for Northern California and Nevada.
The generation of 11,897 average daily trips from the three buildings represents complete buildout of just those three buildings at 100 percent utilization. That means 5.11 Tactical that is now 404,657 square feet would be expanded to 539,057 square feet and the Penske/Lowe’s building from 551,475 square feet to 1,199,997 square feet. Altogether the three buildings would represent 2.34 million square feet.
New construction does not include new roads and such — the Atherton Drive extension and the Union Road/120 Bypass interchange upgrade are an example. Nor does it encompass new school construction.