The City of Barstow: the Crossroads of Opportunity
Location is everything when it comes to goods movement, and Barstow is one of the premier transportation centers in the U.S. With Interstates and other highways all converging in the city, the area has become a natural location for the trucking industry. Barstow is also home to the largest rail yard west of Kansas City. The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are about 150 miles from the city, and freight arriving at the ports is quickly off-loaded and sent via rail along the Alameda Corridor to Barstow for efficient distribution to the western United States.
Since the 2005 announcement that Wal-Mart was planning to build a distribution center in Barstow Industrial Park, the 2006 decision to include the park in the Barstow Enterprise Zone, and the announcement of a rail spur coming in early 2008, the city has seen increasing interest from developers and corporations.
Formerly an agricultural site, the 1,200-acre Barstow Industrial Park is flat, has no known environmental issues, and all utilities are currently extended to the site. With its strategic access to major highways, airports, railways, and deep-water ports, the Barstow Industrial Park is an ideal site for manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution activities.
Because the park is located within the Barstow Enterprise Zone, park tenants have access to special incentives designed to encourage business investment and promote the creation of new jobs through tax incentives. Other state incentives for businesses locating in the Barstow Industrial Park include the Barstow Recycling Market Development Zone, Foreign-Trade Sub-Zone #243, and employment training assistance.
The Barstow area also offers an abundant labor force of approximately 120,000 workers [NOTE: the population of Barstow is only 23,000]. Nearby community colleges and universities provide specialized training opportunities for workers. Currently, 60,000 Barstow area residents commute daily to jobs outside the area. This qualified workforce is available at wages 10% to 20% below the prevailing wages in most of Southern California.
Valmont Newmark International cited Barstow’s numerous strategic advantages and its business-friendly attitude as the reason it selected the Barstow Industrial Park as the location to build its 84,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for spun pre-stressed concrete poles.
Barstow currently has an abundance of low-cost, available land.
To find out how you can join the building excitement at the “Crossroads of Opportunity,” contact Ron Rector, economic development director for the city of Barstow at: 760-255-5106 or rrector@barstowca.org.
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