What’s the tallest building in Manteca?

It’s the AMC Showplace cinemas at 75 feet.

Right behind the cinemas at 60 feet is the Bass Pro Shops.

Fifteen years ago in the heyday of Spreckels Sugar that would have been miniscule. The four concrete silos soared 150 feet skyward.

Most buildings in Manteca aren’t much taller than a two-story home that typically comes in at 35 feet or less.

Now that developers are starting to gear up for an improving economy Manteca could add four structures between 50 and 60 feet each at the proposed Yosemite Square on the northeast corner of the 120 Bypass and Highway 99 interchange.

ANF Development envisions Yosemite Square as an employment center with office condos, apartments, and campus-style settings for operations such as call centers, medical concerns and government offices.

“We believe the location at the Bypass and 99 is ideal for such use,” said Bill Filios of ANF Development.

Four taller structures are proposed along Highway 99 south of El Rancho Mobile Home Park. They could range from 50 to 60 feet and accommodate three to four story operations.

A 96-foot tall building has already been approved by the city on the southwest corner of the same interchange. Oak Valley Community Bank has designed a slender 57,000-square-foot, six-story structure that ultimately is expected to serve as an operations center for the bank that is growing toward a footprint in the Central Valley running from Fresno north to Elk Grove.

The site was picked in 2007 by bank leaders due to it being a high profile location almost at the heart of their targeted market.

The plans - approved before the recession - have been put on hold until the economy is back on a strong footing.

Once you get beyond three or four stories, developers point out the costs of a building go up per square foot. But as Filios pointed out, taller buildings can be justified due to their locations.

As an example, architects and planners alike called the Oak Valley Community Bank a “giant billboard” since then square footage per floor was relatively small compared to the cost. Yet, being at a high profile interchange where 140,000 plus vehicles pass a day that can view the building and the company’s logo makes the location valuable. If and when Oak Valley moves forward the structure at 96 feet would be the largest building in Manteca.

In a sense, Bass Pro Shops’ sweeping design creates a giant and visible footprint along the 120 Bypass making it a virtual billboard as well.

Developers in 2006 rolled out a proposal for a second phase to The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley that would have included some restaurants,  two twin towers of 70 feet to accommodate five floors of office uses plus an eight-story hotel at 100 feet on land to the east of Bass Pro Shops.

The plan never got beyond the conceptual stages. There has been some talk recently of developing additional retail space on the site sometime in the future.

Manteca Fire already has a $1 million aerial platform truck with a 100-foot reach that can effective be deployed to mount fire or rescue operations at buildings as tall as the proposed Oak Valley Community Bank.

The aerial platform truck is also a critical piece of equipment to combat fires at big box retailers such as Walmart, Target and Costco as well as major distribution centers such as the 550,000-square-foot Ford Motor parts complex in Spreckels Park and the one million square foot distribution buildings that are part of the Center Point business park being developed east of the Union Pacific intermodal operations in northwest Manteca.