Valley counties see demand for warehouse space

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- As more of us shop online, the demand for warehouse and distribution centers is going up.

In Madera County, Tran Pak is settling into its new warehouse space as it manufactures plastic pallets.

"E-commerce is drawing a lot of the growth around here. For us, we're a support business towards that e-commerce, so that's actually a big piece of our business," said Christian Ueland, TranPak owner

They're just one of the businesses in the Freedom Industrial Park.

Madera County Economic Development officials expect more growth.

"We're seeing a lot of pressure for warehouse space, e-commerce types of facilities, logistics, distribution centers. Just all kinds of warehouse and logistics facilities," said Bobby Kahn, Madera County Economic Development Executive Director.

Bobby Kahn with the Madera County Economic Development says the pandemic accelerated e-commerce and companies are looking for space to keep up and ahead across the country and here in the Valley. Fulfillment centers take 64 million square feet nationwide.

"The recent report by CBRE, which is a national real estate company, ranked the Central Valley as the number three growth area in the nation so that just shows the impact the Central San Joaquin Valley is having nationwide, not just here locally, statewide, nationally," Kahn said.

Why is the Valley so attractive?

"If you're going to be doing commerce or e-commerce, you're going to be distributing to both ends of the state, it centers you right here in the middle. Secondly, the cost of property and availability of property," Kahn said.

These Projects could bring Jobs and added tax revenues.

Madera County says it's working on projects and partnerships, but we'll have to wait and see what happens next.

Overall, the Central Valley seems to be in the right place to help companies and e-commerce growth in the future.