Manteca — for years associated with RV sales thanks to the late Bobby Davis’ late night trailer sales TV pitch imploring people to check out his selection in “Maaan-tee-ka!” as he tipped his cigar — is joining the latest RV industry trends.
The trend: RV and boat storage with canopies that generate electricity.
Work is well underway on the project on the northeast corner of Atherton Drive and Woodward Avenue that will accommodate 532 recreational vehicles.
At 13.68 acres, it will be the largest RV storage built in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
It will be a full service storage facility with a 2,400-square-foot office building with supply sales, vehicle cleaning station, vehicle dumping station as well as propane and air filling stations.
But is more than just that.
The Executive RV and Boat Storage’s canopies include solar canopies projected to produce 14,500 kilowatt hours per day.
That will power roughly 500 homes given an average home uses between 25 and 30 kilowatt hours per day.
It will be the largest free standing solar installation within the city limits.
The project advanced in the design stages through the efforts of Tesoro Commons LLC whose principals included Bill and Demetri Filios, Michael Atherton, Paul Gumm, and Oakley Executive RV and Boat Storage owner Bob Haworth.
Filios, Atherton, and Gum sold their shares before construction to Haworth and Luis Fabian.
Bill Filios — along with Mike Atherton — were the catalysts behind converting the shuttered Spreckels Sugar plant into the 362-acre multi-use Spreckels Park, cobbled together the Orchard Valley land deal, secured the 1,425-home Del Webb at Woodbridge neighborhood, planted the idea of an indoor water park resort, built more than 700 apartments since 2000, and have built numerous homes.
Demetri Filios is now working on developing the Union Crossing shopping complex on the northwest corner of Union Road and Atherton Drive where his father Bill led efforts to secure Living Spaces.
The 532-stall RV storage project took a problematic weed-infested parcel with a small, aging freight terminal that likely would never have developed how the city had zoned it, and turned it into a use that dovetailed — instead of conflicted — with surrounding uses. At the same time, they added a major green energy component.
The city had zoned the land just south of a city water tank, east of a single family home neighborhood, and abutting the heavily traveled Union Pacific Railroad corridor as high density residential.
Given the land was part of what the city identified to the state as affordable housing, the developers came up with a plan to switch the commercial zoning for a larger parcel near the southwest corner of Union Road and Atherton Dive with the high density zoning for the Atherton-Woodward parcel.
The city actually netted almost 30 more future high density units out of the process as the approved Union Crossing complex has 300 units.
The Manteca facility will be similar to ones in Oakley and Rio Vista.
And it is likely to have a similar business plan.
Both draw on Bay Area customers who find is less expensive to store their RVs and boats either near, or on the way, to vacation destinations.
Commercial storage in the Bay Area is more expensive and harder to find.
It is what drove Bobby Davis — the former owner of Manteca Trailer & RV — to build Northern California’s first RV condo storage facility on East Highway 120 just outside the city limits roughly two decades ago.
Most of the buyers were Bay Area people who store their RVs in Manteca. They drive their cars to Manteca, load up the RV, park their cars in the unit, and then head toward their destination in the Sierra or elsewhere.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwytt@mantecabulletin.com
