Home Costs Push Firms To Interior Cities

In a state where home sales and home prices are skyrocketing, companies are taking a harder look at areas with a good supply of affordable homes for their employees. Stockton, Fresno, and cities within the Inland Empire region are among areas benefiting.
        Sinclair International, a British product labeling company, plans to move its North American headquarters and manufacturing operations from Campbell, Calif., to Fresno County. Bill Hallier, Sinclair International's president and CEO, says Fresno County was chosen to service the company's customer base in central San Joaquin Valley. Thirty employees will be moving to Fresno County, with home affordability a major selling point.
        Battery giant Rayovac Corp. will relocate its Hayward, Calif., distribution operations to Fresno County. Like Sinclair, Rayovac officials say the move will put it closer to customers and suppliers. They also cite labor availability, land and building costs and transportation access as reasons for the move.
        Crown Bolt, a manufacturer of home improvement hardware, is moving into a new 200,000-sq.-ft. (18,580-sq.-m.) building in Massie Industrial Park in south Stockton, employing about 100. Creating a western hub in central California for production and distribution was important to the company's expansion, said Bob Weaver, Crown Bolt president.
        After looking at several sites in San Joaquin County, the Massie park was chosen because of its location within the Stockton-San Joaquin Enterprise Zone, which offers tax incentives for firms hiring new employees and proximity to transportation systems. Crown Bolt also recently opened a new corporate headquarters in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
        Another recent coastal company to move to San Joaquin County is CCT Laser Services, which moved from the East Bay area. CCT provides contract laser trimming and laser micro-machining for circuit board manufacturers across the U.S., but primarily in the Silicon Valley. Roger Underwood, CTT president, said it cost his company less to buy a new facility and move than it would have to renew its lease in the Bay area.
        In Lathrop, just south of Stockton, Fuel Total Systems California Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan-based FTS Co., is building a plant to produce fuel tanks and fuel delivery systems. The facility will employ 70 when complete in May 2004. In Manteca, also in San Joaquin County, Ford Motor Co. recently opened a new auto parts distribution center to serve customers from Southern California to the Canadian border and east to New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.
        Farther south, another beneficiary of eastward movement is the Inland Empire region. Comprised of San Bernadino and Riverside counties, the Inland Empire continues to grow. It now has a population greater than Massachusetts, and has become a hub of distribution centers, logistics facilities and manufacturing.
        "What the Inland Empire has that others do not is available land," says Louis Desmond, communications manager for the Empire Companies, a commercial real estate firm.