Developer: Proposed Warehousing Project Would Create Thousands of Beaumont Jobs

A proposed 5 million square foot warehousing project in Beaumont would create more than 6,500 full and part time jobs and could attract Fortune 500 companies to the area, a project developer tells Banning-Beaumont Patch.

But, are those possible benefits enough to mitigate “potentially significant air quality impacts” the South Coast Air Quality Management District claims would happen along with the project?  And how valid are those claims?  That’s for you and our elected officials to decide.

There has been a lot of recent talk around town and here on Banning-Beaumont Patch about this project, so we took a deep look into what exactly is being proposed.  In the following subsections, you will find a breakdown of the “what” behind the so-called Heartland Commerce Center:

The Deal

The group behind the project– which is owned by the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.– already has an approved plan with the city, which was passed back nearly a decade ago. 

The original plan for this area, detailed in the Heartland Specific Plan approved in 1994, was slated for: 207.6 acres of residential use with approximately 1,200 homes, 50.3 acres of industrial use, 11.5 acres of commercial use (estimated at 150,000 square feet), 9.2 acres of school use (580 students), 25.3 acres of parks and 89 acres of open space.

In 2005, an amended tentative tract map was approved.  With that plan, the organization and distribution of the types of buildings at the site were slightly modified as follows:

• 988 single family homes
• 126,000 square feet of commercial retail uses
• Removed industrial park uses previously envisioned along San Timoteo Creek and Oak Valley Parkway
• Removed proposed school site, as the school district “has accepted fees in lieu of school site dedication”
• Expanded parks and open space

Now, the city and developer stand at a crossroads, as they look to add another option for development with the Heartland Commerce Center.

The project’s Specific Plan lays out four main objectives:

• Transition the Project site from its currently undeveloped state to a productive use;
• Capitalize on available and planned access to major and secondary roads within the City, with direct connection to the regional freeway system via the Interstate 10 (I-10) freeway and future SR-60/Potrero Boulevard interchange;
• Provide job‐producing, industrial uses to the City and local community; and
• Increase economic benefits to the City through increased job creation.

If the project is approved by the Beaumont City Council, the developer will have the option to proceed with either the initial, already approved primarily-residential plan or the warehousing plan.  Once permits are pulled for one of the plans, the other will become void.

“The market and user needs will ultimately determine the use, number of buildings, and building configuration within the Project,” the plan states.

“While there is flexibility, it is not the developer with sole discretion,” Dan Floriani with project developer Pacific Industrial told Banning-Beaumont Patch.  “Each project has very strict rules and guidelines to follow and the city maintains a lot of control over the eventual development of the project with use restrictions, building permits, and heavy guidelines that need to be followed.  They retain a lot of power.”

The Size

According to the Specific Plan that initially went before the Beaumont City Council for review on June 4– along with an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) addendum and a zoning change request for a 417.2 acre area on Beaumont’s west side– the developers of the property are proposing a total of 5,021,000 square feet of distribution warehouses.

The main configuration presented in the Commerce Center Specific Plan shows a total of five buildings, which range in size from 300,000 square feet to 2.01 million square feet.  An alternative configuration shows only four buildings, with the smallest at 800,000 square feet, and largest at 1.64 million square feet.   The developer can choose to go with any combination of building size, so long as it does not exceed the 5.02 million total square feet.

“The number, location, connection or separation of buildings on the Project site may be determined by the Project site’s owner as long as the gross square footage of the buildings does not exceed 5,021,000 and as long as the choice of number, location, connection or separation of the buildings does not alter the underlying technical assumptions in the supporting CEQA documents,” the plan states.

Current outlines indicate there will be approximately 1,002 truck loading docks spread across the five buildings.

Building descriptions included in the Project Site Development Concept lay out the five main building being proposed as follows:

• Building 1, located in the northwest corner of the Project site, will provide 300,000 square feet of distribution/warehouse space and will include approximately 52 dock doors on the southerly building face and 21 dock doors on the westerly building face. A warehouse office/administrative area of approximately 10,000 square feet will be located in the southeasterly portion of the building.
• Building 2, located just south of Building 1, will provide 2,010,000 square feet of distribution/warehouse space and will include approximately 178 loading docks along the northerly building face, 40 dock doors along the westerly building face and 200 loading docks along the southerly building face. Warehouse office/administrative areas of approximately 50,000 square feet will be accommodated at the building’s northeasterly corner, with the predominance of building area devoted to warehouse acceptance, storage, and transfer functions.
• Building 3, located in the central portion of the Project site, will provide 1,100,000 square feet of distribution/warehouse space and will include 90 loading docks along the northerly building face and 90 loading docks along the southerly building face. Warehouse office/administrative areas of approximately 7,500 square feet each (approximately 30,000 square feet total) will be accommodated at the building’s four corners.
• Building 4, located in the northeast corner of the Project site and adjacent to Potrero Boulevard, will provide 606,000 square feet of distribution/warehouse space and will include approximately 63 loading docks along the easterly building face and 63 loading docks along the westerly building face. Warehouse office/administrative areas of approximately 5,000 square feet each (approximately 20,000 square feet total) will be accommodated at the building’s four corners.
• Building 5, located in the southeasterly portion corner of the Project site, will provide 1,005,000 square feet of distribution/warehouse space and will include approximately 105 loading docks along the northerly building face and 100 loading docks along the southerly building face. Warehouse office/administrative areas of approximately 15,000 square feet each (approximately 30,000 square feet total) will be located in the northeasterly and northwesterly portions of the building.

Location and Proposed Development Area

The Heartland project is located just northwest of the future State Route 60 and Potrero Blvd. interchange.   Oak Valley Parkway runs along the north boundary, about 175 feet away.

Project plans outline two driveways forming a new roadway loop off of Potrero Blvd. which would allow people to reach the complex.   The company touts the location for its close access to both I-10 (which would be accessed via Oak Valley Parkway) and SR 60 (which would be accessed by the new Potrero interchange).

“Substantial open space/conservation areas exist northerly of the developable portion of the Project site, along San Timoteo Creek, and southerly/southwesterly of areas proposed for development, along Cooper’s Creek. These areas will be preserved consistent with the provisions of existing conservation easement requirements,” the plan states.

Though the project site is near the railroad tracks, there are not currently plans to connect the warehousing with them, plans state.

The Look

The looks of the proposed warehouses are billed as “contemporary industrial designs for distribution warehouses,” standing no greater than 60 feet.

“People have an image of old grey industrial buildings with smoke stacks,” Floriani told Patch.  “Those just don’t exist in California anymore.  All the new warehouses have significant glass, mirror architectural elevations of two story office buildings and offer employee amenities.”

Project plans call for a wide use of vegetation surrounding the area, with grass, shrubs and trees throughout the center.

“Notable architectural features and design elements include: accented building entrances and openings, elevations incorporating surface relief, varied wall textures, wall insets and offsets, and façade accents,” the specific plan states.   “Faux and real windows will be used to break up large wall surfaces, as well as to provide a transition between the building office and industrial functions.”

They’ll be built from materials like pre-fabricated concrete, block veneer, metal, glass, and tile, in a way to break up long stretches of walling.  Colors of the buildings will come from a “base neutral color palette with glass, metal and tile accents repeated on the primary warehouse facilities.”

Company logos will be allowed on the buildings’ trims and accents.

On the outside perimeter, developers plan to put up several screening items—especially in areas where the buildings would be highly visible from the road.  Documents say the screening serves two purposes: to address aesthetic and security issues.

“More specifically, walls, fences, or enhanced landscaping areas will be provided at locations/areas where truck parking abuts, or would otherwise be prominently visible from adjacent roadways.”

Inside the project’s perimeter, streets will all have sidewalks on both sides, and “enhanced streetscaping” with things like decorative paving and accent plants.

The Functionality

Though no clients have been named, the plan mentions that the warehouses will likely have a distribution purpose.  Goods or products would be stored at the facilities, to then be redistributed to retailers, wholesalers or consumers directly.

“We have had some interest from a few significant users, but it is all preliminary at this point,” Floriani told Patch.  “Those users want to know it is fully entitled and ready to go before getting too vested into the project.”

“The reality is, Beaumont does not have the logistical advantages that exist in other cities closer to the ports,” the developer elaborated.  “It is also further away from the greater Southern California population base, but you counter that with great design and site flexibility.”

According to Floriani, the fact that developers would have a blank canvas to build on is one of the major perks of the project for companies, who could theoretically “build to order” rather than try to find an existing warehouse someplace in the area.

“Having a nice, clean campus like this one can attract Fortune 500 companies looking for new flexible campuses to accommodate their unique needs– not just for the next five years, but for the next 25,” he said.

The developer said often times new e-commerce users are looking for buildings with different heights and need “significantly more car parking than found in most warehouse uses” to accommodate more employees.

“Having a well-designed, flexible, business friendly campus that can accommodate the immediate and future needs of a company like that is great for the user and for the city where it locates,” according to Floriani.  “Some of them even have a point of sale portion of the warehouse; a significant tax generator for cities and counties.”

Jobs

According to the developer, if the Heartland Commerce Center is built, there is a potential for thousands of local jobs.

“We did a jobs study for this project,” Floriani said.  “If the entire project was built out (which would happen in several phases over perhaps 5+ years) the total direct and indirect jobs created during construction… is estimated to be north of 3,200.”

While those jobs would not be permanent– it’s estimated that another 3,500 would be.

“Permanent jobs are estimated to be north of 3,500,” he said, adding that he releases those figures with caution.  “It obviously depends on the end users, but the job creation possibilities are significant… It could be much higher, but it could also be lower.”

Air Quality Concerns

As Banning-Beaumont Patch has previously reported, there are some major concerns about the Heartland Commerce Center’s potential impact on the environment; enough to prompt a representative from the AQMD to send a public letter to the city and to speak at the June 4 meeting urging council to hold off on a vote.

According to the project’s Specific Plan, it was evaluated with an addendum to the EIR certified for the original 1994 plan, completed in December 2012. 

The AQMD says that was not enough, and that the city should not be approving the EIR addendum nor the amendment to the general plan for the zoning change, until a "more robust" environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been conducted.

“We feel strongly that the analyses was done the right way,” Floriani told Patch.  “We have nothing by respect for AQMD and their role in this process is very important, but we have reviewed and responded to each one of their concerns in a very detailed manner and each of our answers proves out the decision more.”

The developer said their commissioned studies actually found the Commerce Center plan would have less of an impact on the environment than the original, 1994 plan.

“On an apples to apples basis, there is just no way to argue that our project does not generate significantly less impacts to the environment than the already entitled residential and commercial project, period,” he said.  “Even at full project build out, it is anticipated this project would generate 44 percent less traffic than the current pan.”

“That said,” he continued, “At the end of the day, everyone wants to do the right thing and navigate the CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] process appropriately; and in this case, the goal is to design a campus that attracts new businesses to the area and does so in an environmentally friendly way.  And yes, the two concepts can indeed co-exist.”

What’s Next?

After several people spoke at the June 4 council meeting, when a vote was originally slated to take place, the council decided to delay the process a bit to provide time for more research.

A workshop has since been scheduled as a part of the July 2 Beaumont city council meeting, and will immediately follow a shortened regular agenda, according to City Spokeswoman Darci Mulvihill.

Residents are encouraged to attend that workshop to learn more about the Heartland Commerce Center and the original 1994 plan.