Several hundred people, including workers in blue shirts and safety goggles, lined up in the parking lot of the Airpark Drive Zodiac plant around noon on Oct. 31 to get a free lunch of hot dogs and tacos.
Pacifica Commercial Realty broker Jerry Schmidt and Santa Maria Planning Commissioner Etta Waterfield were handing out the food.
“They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but I think there is,” said Schmidt, principal broker of the land on which a new Zodiac Seat Shells plant will sit.
The free lunch was a gesture of gratitude to Waterfield, who worked with Schmidt to fill the 75,000-square-foot space at 2727 Skyway Drive, where the DenMat facility once existed. With the new plant, C&D Zodiac Aerospace—already the largest employer in Santa Maria—will provide up to 200 more jobs, 75 of which are higher-paying, more permanent positions such as engineers, management, and executives.
Schmidt said it’s a welcome sign that the local economy is gaining ground after the Great Recession, which unofficially began seven years ago. The new Zodiac plant is one example of several businesses expanding or moving into Santa Maria.
According to Dave Cross, director of the Santa Maria Economic Council, many companies based in Santa Maria were poised to expand just before the beginning of the recession but halted their plans or left altogether. And companies that had planned to claim a stake in Santa Maria changed their minds.
“Things went dead during the recession,” Cross said. “It was hard to get anything funded and financed for obvious reasons. Now we are starting to climb out of it.”
However, some companies fared better than others in the recession. One example is Quintron Systems, which has been in Santa Maria for nearly 45 years. Their production of high-tech communications systems and missile applications kept the company afloat in the bear economy. Other examples include Okonite, Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench, and Helical—all examples of companies that Cross said held their own since the beginning of the economic crisis.
Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench, which manufactures equipment for the natural gas and geothermal industries, has tentative development plans that include the buildout of a new, larger facility on a 20-acre parcel in the southwestern part of the city so the company can continue to grow in Santa Maria.
Cross added that residential projects are starting to break loose again, too. The Enos Ranchos property, a 120-acre plot of land stretching from north of Betteravia all the way to Battles, is currently zoned commercial and some residential use, with significant retail in the area. Although the property is prime real estate for development, it’s not currently being developed. However, Cross said the spot has attracted interest from builders and it’s only a matter of time before it’s developed. A portion of the property is currently reserved for future auto dealers, according to Cross.
Area 9, an 890-acre plot of land west of A Street annexed by the city in 2004, has the potential for development, although recent projects on the parcel have stagnated. There was interest in oil, but plans have come under fire from nearby residents who say drilling would impact the environment and their health.
If developed into commercial and residential space, Area 9 could bring more than 18,000 jobs, according to the Environmental Impact Report released by the city in 2010 on developing the area—those plans included office complexes and buildings for research and development use on the property.
The city could definitely use the jobs: Santa Maria’s unemployment rate sits at 8.5 percent, higher than the national average of 5.9 percent, according numbers released to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in August 2014.
“We’ve got to remember that we have a large available work force,” Cross said. “Our unemployment is still too high.”
Signs of the economic downturn are still prevalent: One example is the business park surrounding the airport looking for companies to occupy space, according to Cross. Tom Ross of Ross Realty is heading up the brokerage of the real estate surrounding the city’s airport.
According to the Pacific Coast Business Times, the Santa Maria Airport District is awaiting to receive final approval for a plan to build a bigger business park. Citing the article, public radio station KCLU reported on Nov. 3 that the plan would provide up to 6,000 jobs. Ross told the Sun he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the project.
Portions of the older business parks near the airport look like they could use a facelift, particularly at the corner of Orcutt Expressway and Skyway, where there once existed the Roca/E Sports Lounge. All that stands now are empty buildings.
So there are definitely some caveats to the small commercial boom the city’s experiencing: The economy isn’t in an upswing yet but still recovering.
Cross said that there’s still a disparity between what properties are worth and how much money is needed to develop it. To secure financing for a property, there must be a “reasonable assurance for the owner, buyer, and developer that a project will be successful and profitable,” Cross said. And though this area isn’t there yet, as the economy continues upward, he said there should be a tipping point where that could occur.
Despite the weak economy, Schmidt, the broker from Pacifica, said this is the biggest year in a while for his company, which specializes in industrial real estate. Vacancy is at its lowest level in years.
“There just aren’t any large-scale industrial buildings available,” Schmidt said.
In addition to Zodiac, Schmidt said he’s working to develop 57 acres surrounding the police department. Waterfield said she’s also trying to attract business from the medical industry, specifically in the research and development field. Schmidt is currently working on developing an urgent care facility in Orcutt.
Contact Staff Writer David Minsky at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 6-13, 2014.