Hanford Insider: Encore Episode - Hanford's Retail Ambitions and with Brian Johnson and Mario Cifuentez

Transcript

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On this episode of the Insider.

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We're still on break, so we'll run back our interviews from earlier this year with Brian Johnson and Mario Cifuentes about the strategy that the city of Hanford is using to bring more businesses to our community.

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About you, the listeners, we will let you know.

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Rob will be back next week with a quick update and then year two of the Hanford Insider will kick off on July 29th with all new episodes and interviews.

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Well, as some of you know, the city of Hanford is currently conducting surveys to see what kind of businesses and restaurants residents want to see in town.

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I thought it would be fun to bring in Hanford's Community Relations Manager, Brian Johnson, to talk about the things the city is doing to expand opportunities here in town.

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Welcome to the show, Brian.

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Hey, thanks for having me, rob, excited to be here with you.

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Hey, we've got so many things that we could talk about, but let's start with the surveys that the city's putting out.

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There Seems like everybody wants an Olive Garden, huh.

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Olive Garden was one of the top picks in our first round of I called them retail possibility surveys that we just released the results on, as you just mentioned.

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Now here's the funny thing Olive Garden was number one when you aren't counting the rank in which people voted, and so if you factor in the rank, chick-fil-a actually takes the number one spot, you know.

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So Olive Garden was a little surprising to us, but not all that surprising because we've heard talk about it for a while and we actually know that there's been some interest from Olive Garden, kind of hearing that secondhand.

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It's a fun way for us to, you know, gather the community's input, make them feel like you know they have a seat at the table, and we mean that genuinely.

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We want their input.

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You know Hanford has a good amount of amenities when it comes to restaurants, and you know clothing stores and clothing accessory stores, but we also know there's room for more and we know that when they look at a market to open up shop, in that there's a variety of factors they consider.

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But one thing that does go a long ways is the community's desire for them to be here, and so we thought it was a pretty good turnout on the online surveys and doesn't represent the entire city of Hanford, but certainly is a good snapshot.

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So what happens from here?

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Does the city go out and communicate with these groups?

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I know it's probably an ongoing process, but how do you express interest to some of these businesses?

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Well, I think one of the best things I can talk about is our plans to go to ICSC.

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That is a big trade organization.

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Essentially, it's almost like speed dating between cities, counties, other local governments and companies like the ones we just talked about.

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Now I don't know if either of those restaurants are going to be represented at the event we plan to go to in October, but there is a ICSC regional event in San Diego in October.

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Our city manager, deputy city manager and I all plan to go.

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We kind of make up the economic development team here, and then our mayor and vice mayor will also be joining, and so I think that's maybe going to be our first real good opportunity to give our pitch and, as part of that, maybe let them know about the results of these surveys.

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We definitely plan on that.

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I will say another thing that we want to introduce to as we tell our story and give our pitch to some of these companies is our rebranding campaign.

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I guess you know really the city of Hanford has never had a branding campaign officially, but you know that doesn't mean the city seal is going away, but we are going to have something to complement that, I would say probably within the next month here, and I think that's going to be something that will again help tell our story and, you know, something we can put on all of our printed materials and so on and so forth.

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So, going back to this conference in October, is this something that the cities participated in the past, or have they participated in it but not necessarily had the data to back up what they were shooting for?

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Yeah, neither to my knowledge.

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And I remember when I was in my previous life as a reporter.

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I remember hearing about ICSC, I think through Visalia, hearing about ICSC, I think through Visalia, their economic development team, I think, had mentioned it to me.

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It's about the importance of going to some of those conferences and, you know, getting in front of those companies and handshakes and networking really does go a long way.

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So, yeah, it's kind of the best of both worlds for us in that we are doing it A and B.

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We do have the data to present to them, mainly from our consultant retail strategies out of Birmingham Alabama.

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Yeah, that's going to be a great opportunity for the city.

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I'm excited to see that they're trying new things to attract businesses, because that's what we all want is because that's what we all want.

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We want a business district that has restaurants and different businesses to attract shoppers.

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Keep our local tax dollars here at home.

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So along those lines, when I was growing up in downtown Hanford man, it was a really happening place as far as Hanford goes I remember the leaders of Visalia came over to see all the great things that Hanford was doing, so they could take back some ideas to Visalia.

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And well, we know what happened after that.

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Brian Hanford gets accused of not being very business friendly sometimes.

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So what are some things that the city's doing to be more business friendly and to grow our downtown area?

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Well, the first thing I want to mention is our downtown strategic plan that is in draft status right now suggestions and kind of guidelines for us as we look to.

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You know, keep our downtown vibrant and maintain the historic qualities that everyone loves about downtown Hanford, but, you know, also do what we can to make it even more vibrant, whether that's looking at some of those vacant spaces and seeing what we can do with them.

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You know, whether that's someone, a new business coming in or you know, at least you know like, for instance, one thing they suggested was, you know, maybe a wrap on the outside of the windows and so when people look at it, they don't see an empty shell inside, but they actually see maybe a nice art design and inside, but they actually see maybe a nice art design and maybe a QR code if there is anybody interested in the property takes them to a site where they can get more information about the property.

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So there's little things that they're recommending in this plan that all add up to what we think are very reasonable measures that we can accomplish.

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You know, they've made it clear that this strategic plan for downtown it's not a bunch of pipe dreams.

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These are actual things that we can get done and have an impact on the downtown, and so, yeah, I wanted to mention that first.

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When it comes to the idea of business friendly or not business friendly, I think we've heard those complaints over the years.

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Obviously, some of us here me, our deputy city manager, our city manager you know we only know what we've heard about some of that history.

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We weren't here for all of it, but what I can say is that you know we are trying to do everything we can to be as business friendly as possible.

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I did want to mention as well on the community development side, where our deputy city manager, jason Waters, leads the team over there.

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He's going to be working on some things here in the coming weeks and months that will hopefully dispel some of those rumors of Hanford not being business friendly.

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The plan is for that to include some office hours for people who may have a development that is in the works already or is in its infancy, and it's just kind of an idea.

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They can come in and actually get any questions they have answered and spend some time with our staff one-on-one, as opposed to emails or over the phone.

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It is nice to be able to work one-on-one, and so I just encourage the business community to stay tuned for those changes.

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And it kind of goes in line with the city's new work schedule as a whole, starting on September 5th, most of our frontline staff changing their hours from 7.30 to 5.30, monday through Thursday and a half day on Fridays, 8 to noon, and so that also does give business owners and developers and other stakeholders the opportunity to come in earlier in the day and later in the evening, at least Monday through Thursday.

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So I just wanted to mention those as some things we're working on again to be as business friendly as possible.

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So Brian Hanford seems to have its own field of dreams.

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If you will, out by 198 and 43.

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In 2016, when Costco broke ground, we were promised kind of like a river park type shopping center and you know, it seems like it's been a very long wait.

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Do you have any information for our listeners on how the Hanford marketplace is coming along?

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Well, you know we've had some conversations with the developer and you know he wants to see more movement out there just as much as we do.

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You know he wants to see more movement out there just as much as we do.

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We know that that is one of our kind of opportunity areas that we'd like to focus on when it comes to recruiting more retail commercial development in the city of Hanford.

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You know there's there's a lot to look forward to on the east side of the city, whether it's this major kind of infrastructure improvement project we have planned for East Lacey Boulevard heading out towards Costco, or, you know, high speed rail.

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It's coming.

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We don't know exactly when it will be done but it will be transformative and we know that there will be growth that comes with that.

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But you know one thing that I actually did see come through site plan review or it's going to be coming through site plan review is a proposed project out at Hanford Marketplace and that is a 11,000 square feet approximately single story medical facility out there.

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I mentioned that project, that proposed project, because I really do think that something like that could spur more development in the Hanford marketplace.

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You know, anytime you have a medical facility, that comes with a lot of workers, a decent size workforce, and they all need places to eat and shop.

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And you know I certainly try and hit Costco on my way home sometimes.

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So yeah, that's an exciting prospect.

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I would encourage the community to just kind of stay tuned on that.

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But it's a little early to, you know, get too excited.

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But that is promising and you know again we will be.

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You know we've made an inventory.

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We'll continue to add to our inventory of available spaces for to purchase or to rent here in Hanford, whether it's in the marketplace or other areas of the city.

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And you know we'll have to, when approaching some of these retailers, determine, hey, what might be best for them, and have some of those sites kind of lined up what might be best for them and have some of those sites kind of lined up, Because we can't just, you know, tell Olive Garden we want you here and our people want you here.

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You know there is a lot more to it as far as the size requirements and things like that and, you know, infrastructure, things that are above my pay grade, but those are the kind of nitty gritty details.

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We got to get the mayor on it.

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You know he brought in and out to Hanford.

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We got to get the mayor on bringing some of these businesses into town.

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So I hear Well, he'll get his chance at ICSC in San Diego, and so I can't wait to see his recruiting skills.

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I'm certainly grateful for In-N-Out.

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I'm a fan.

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All right, hey, brian.

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Well, this has been fun talking with you about this stuff and we'll definitely have to check in in a few months and see if any of these, especially after this conference in October.

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It sounds like you have a great opportunity to connect with some of these businesses that we would like to have here in town, so I'd like to thank you for coming on the show.

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I'd also like to give a shout out to all the city staff who's been working hard and kind of turning things around, and the perception of the city is changing, and I just want to thank you and your staff for helping out.

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Thanks so much, rob.

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I appreciate you saying that.

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I think there's so many of our employees that are kind of unsung heroes and I, you know, in the short time I've been with the city about a year now I've met so many great people that you know, really, really care about what they do and take a lot of pride in what they do, whether that's Parks and Rec or community development or our police and fire, you know.

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So appreciate you having me on.

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Well, we're here with Hanford City Manager Mario Cifuentes.

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He's been city manager for four years here in Hanford and we have had some outstanding things happening.

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It's a great privilege for me to welcome him to the show.

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Welcome, mario, hello.

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Thank you very much.

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I appreciate it.

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I've heard great things about your podcast and I was excited to get the invite.

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We would visit this again before the conference to see how the city of Hanford is preparing to take Hanford on the road and market it to potential businesses that will be coming to town.

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Can you tell us a little bit about that?

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Sure I'd love to.

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This began with kind of a chance meeting with Matt Tate from Retail Strategies at the League of California Cities Tate from retail strategies at the League of California Cities and we were interested in getting some insight or at least some coaching on how you begin to do some economic development from a retail standpoint.

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We had some anecdotal evidence that we had a good median income, that we know we're the retail center of the county, but separate, and apart from that we didn't really know anything else or have anything to quantify it.

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So we ended up entering into a contract with them.

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Council approved a contract for us to do some retail training, but not only that, but they can provide us with data, data on what's a five-minute drive to our retail hub, what businesses do we have that appeal to a 20-minute drive, that sort of thing.

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The end result was with them providing us with some measurable data.

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For instance, one of the key points that has served us well is we know that our Walmart is seventh in the state of all Walmarts in terms of total traffic, and so when we've shared that with developers, it piques their interest.

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We've had numerous meetings.

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Our retail team consists of myself, my deputy city manager, jason Waters, and Brian Johnson, our community relations manager, and we've had in-person meetings, we've had some Zoom meetings that we have introduced to them.

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At that same time, we provide them with housing data, because when you talk with some of these developers, the first things they'll say is we've had contact with this retail grocery store, but they need more rooftops in the area.

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That's the number one thing that developers look for, and so we've then created a list and said listen, we have over 2,500 housing units currently approved in tentative maps in the city of Hanford and that piques their interest.

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I jokingly said before that developers are like sheep.

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When they start to see a development that occurs in a city, they're looking like hey, why are they grazing over there?

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Is the grass greener over there?

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That sort of thing.

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And I think Brian would attest to the fact that he's getting outreach from folks that we didn't even know had an interest in the community.

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But you're in for the long haul.

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I think that's the one thing that I want to say to folks is, yes, we're going to go to ICSC and we're going to come back, but we're not going to be able to come back and announce hey, we have a deal with these folks.

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Once we have a deal with it, they will tell you in retail that loose lips sink ships and so once you have a deal or a letter of interest, you sit on that and generally, from a time you have a retail development that says yes, we want to come in, to the day you open the doors is two to three years.

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And so this is that long haul and starting to develop that and working on several areas concurrently.

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Brian went out yesterday with some of our guys and we got some excellent drone footage of the different areas here in the city that we are working with developers that they said, yeah, absolutely shop this.

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Icsc I've coined the term is kind of like speed dating for retail.

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So you'll go down there and you'll have 10 minutes in your booth with this grocery store chain or 10 minutes with Chick-fil-A is one of those that we would love to get.

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But the other thing to understand is and this is the information that Retail Strategies has been able to provide to us, and this is the information that Retail Strategies has been able to provide to us is that each of these retail operations has very specific criteria.

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You have to meet these four or five criteria before they'll even look at your jurisdiction, and so we don't want to waste our time on folks that would be like, hey, we're not coming to your community, your median income is not enough, you don't have a large enough draw.

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There are some retail folks that say you know, we're only going into the downtown LAs and San Francisco's, where we can draw a million people within a 10-mile area, and so we know who we can fit their model.

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And those are the folks that I was going to ask you actually, because on the community surveys that were conducted, some people were a little baffled that there were stores on there that they had never even heard of.

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But I would imagine that's what you're talking about.

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Those are businesses that potentially could fit into our market.

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Absolutely, absolutely.

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And for us the retail is expanding our retail.

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And folks I know on the social media when I had social media I would see folks say no chain restaurants.

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But I also want to tell folks yes, we have a lot of McDonald's, but your chain restaurant can be a franchisee and that's a small businessman.

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And those folks I'll tell you we're not able to give out exact sales tax dollars, but when I look at our top 25 sales tax generators for the city of Hanford, there's more than a handful of them that are fast food chains.

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Those folks are bringing in significant sales tax revenue to our community and so any additional retail that we can get really helps us.

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And I think it's important that the retail focus is important for a community because that's prosperity.

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But sales tax is the number one funding mechanism that we have as a city to fund our general fund, fire streets and parks for the most part Everything else.

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You have rates.

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I could go on and on about that.

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That's the importance of us to have retail and prosperity here in the city of Hanford.

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Yeah, we had quite a conversation about that.

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Regarding the Costco sales tax, I know that was part of the deal for bringing them in.

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We talked about the east side development closer to the high-speed rail station that's going in.

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But let's look at the west side.

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We talked about the 12th and 198 corridor.

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We see a lot of developments on all sides of 198, actually if you consider the developments that are going in off of Hanford-Armona, and then we're also talking about the new hotel on the north side.

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So what are some things in that particular area that we might be looking at?

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So we have several projects that are already, I would say, either permitted or through our site plan review process.

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At this point we have another hotel that is proposed on the south side of 198 in the area adjacent to tractor supply.

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We have some interest in the intersection there at Lacey and Centennial.

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One of the key things that's driving more of that growth over there is the discussions we've had about rooftop.

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Developers need rooftops, they want folks in the area and so if folks have driven recently on Centennial where it goes back behind Target, off to the left if you're heading north, there's a tremendous amount of housing that's going in there.

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We have a project that's previously been entitled in the small triangle area behind the Target Shopping Center, and there are indicators that that project is going to move forward again.

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So in terms of residential, which we sorely need, especially multifamily and some high-end apartment complexes as well as single-family homes, those are all things that would add more vehicle miles and more traffic to that area and make that area even more palatable to developers that we're trying to get in that area.

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Well, that's all the time we have for this week's show.

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Hanford Insider: Encore Episode - Hanford's Retail Ambitions and with Brian Johnson and Mario Cifuentez

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