Fairfield's diverse industries, location may combat economic downturn - East Bay Business Times:

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With 36.7 square miles of land, Fairfield providew ample opportunities for both business expansion andhomeownership - it has averagede 750 new housing units annually from 1979 through 2006. Building off these assets, the city grew an average of 3 percent annually in population between 1990and 2005. Now the question is whether all those positives will outweigh the negativesz of aslowing economy, falling home prices and rising Already, there are signs of Fairfield has gone from bein a darling of home builders, with nearl y 1,000 building permits issued in 2004, to not issuing a single permit in the last thred months of 2007, which was unprecedented.
For the the city gave out abouyt200 permits. Due to funding including revenue impacts from the housing the City Council is preparing to make anestimatedd $7 million in cuts from its $81 million budget by July 1. The Solanko County housing market has been one of the hardest hit in the with home sales down 42 percent in Decembetr from the same period a year earlier and foreclosure activity risinf by129 percent, according to DataQuick Information Systems. In there were 67 new and resaler houses and condos soldin Fairfield, with a media sale price of $415,000, down from $495,00p a year ago.
In the fourth quarteer in Fairfield, there were 103 single-family houses and condod sold, compared with 240 home sales in the fourtnh quarterof 2006, a 57 percenrt decline, according to multiple-listintg service data compiled by . Unemployment is also There were 3,200 unemployed people in the city in a non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 6.4 percent, whicnh was above the countywide rate of 5.8 according to the labor market information division of the statee Employment Development Department. The city's joblesws rate was up from 5.9 percent in November and 4.9 percent in Decemberf 2006, when 2,400 people were out of work.
Those statistices might be daunting, but it should be remembered that Fairfield managed to weatherthe dot-com bust betteer than other Bay Area cities due to its diverss mix of industries. The city might be best knownj for high-profile food manufacturers such as andthe Anheuser-Busch plant loomin g along Interstate 80, but it is also home to corporate headquartersd for the auto auction company Copart, and the stationery retaile r . Other companies - such as , which makesw beer and soda cans, and Pride Industries Inc.
, an outsourcing company that hires disablerpeople - have also locatesd in Fairfield The fact that Fairfield manages to welcomew many different industries is another source of civic "One of the ways to deal with a shortfall is you try to grow out of said City Manager Sean Quinn. "We have been very successful with economicf development inthe past, and we can build on Diversity remains the plan going forward.
The city' s five-year economic development adoptedin 2005, calls for recruitment of manufacturers, back-office operations such as call centers, and industriesa including biomedical, computer and office communication infrastructure, and industrial equipment and The city will also continue to pursue tax-generating Quinn said. "Our overall target is job saidEve Somjen, director of communitgy development for the city of Fairfield. The foundationj of business recruitment isthe city's land It has an industrial base of 10.4 millionm square feet, averaging 385,000 square feet of development a year over the past two said Curt Johnston, assistanft community development director.
That compares to 4.5 million square feet in Vacaville and 3 million square feet in both SolanoCounty neighbors. Fairfield also has about 3 million square feet ofofficw land, which should be a 20-year supply based on averagew annual development of 100,000 square feet a year, Johnstonj said. Two million square feet of that land base is withinn the bounds ofthe 132-acre Green Valley Corporate under development by at the intersectionb of Interstates 80 and 680 and Highway 12. Another 1 million square feet is withinthe 72-acrwe Fairfield Corporate Commons, which is located at I-80 and Suisun Valleuy Road and serves as home to and the Solan County Economic Development Corp.
At Green insurer expanded to 27,000 square feet, and Sutterf Health leased 15,000 square feet in a new two-storyu office building, 4830 Business Center Drive, said Glen Dowling, executives director at in San Francisco. The 57,000-square-foogt building is the second of four planned by developerdHarvey Shein, with the thircd breaking ground this summer. Construction was completed in Decemberd on two hotels atGreen Valley, an 85-roojm Homewood Suites and an 83-room Staybridge NorthBay Healthcare plans to finish its 72,000-square-foot, two-storh medical office building this spring, Dowling NorthBay will eventually be joined by a facility on 9.34 acreas Kaiser owns.
Sutter's newly leased space will be a Northernn California regional conference center for Dowling said. Green Valley's strategic locatio at I-80, I-680 and Highway 12 is a majot attraction formedical users. Another chuno of Green Valley is owned by whose 100,000-square-foot headquarters facing I-80 sits on 6.5 acres. Althoughb Copart started out asa tenant, the company's owner liked Fairfield so much he boughf the land and has plans to build another 100,000p square feet of offices, Dowling The main target in marketing Green Valle has been employers in San Francisco, Contraw Costa and Marin counties who want to move closerd to where their workers live.
Anyones parked along I-80 in Fairfield at 8 a.m. on a weekday can watcbh a "sea of cars" heading Dowling said. "We are talking with a company righgt now that is lookingh at moving part of their employment base out ofthe city," he The search area? Solano and Contra Costaq counties, and outside the Bay Area.