Moorpark Offers Incentives to Lure Growing Company--and 1,000 Jobs : Business: Special Devices Inc. will build new factory to manufacture air bag components. City, county and state officials worked to seal the deal.
A new freeway on-ramp, $10 million in bonds and a parcel of tax breaks helped Moorpark bring to the city a firm promising to employ more than 1,000 workers.
On Monday, city, county and state officials pledged to cut red tape so that Special Devices Inc. of Newhall can start building its Moorpark factory within a year.
At a joint news conference, Special Devices officials thanked the Moorpark City Council as well as Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) and state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) for the months of work that went into luring them to Moorpark.
Special Devices, which makes small detonators used to trigger automobile air bags, had considered moving to Mesa, Ariz., where it has a plant. But after a package of tax breaks and other incentives worth an estimated $3 million was put together, the company decided to come to Moorpark.
In addition, city officials have offered to sponsor a $10-million state-issued bond that could be used to finance construction of the new factory, which will cost between $15 million and $20 million.
“The team of city, county and state representatives put a lot of effort into this to bring us here,” said company spokesman Joe Saline. “It’s nice to feel wanted, because we certainly weren’t wanted where we were.”
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The company’s 500-employee Newhall factory is located in the Angeles National Forest, where it was stopped from expanding. Neighboring homeowners also wanted to block the expansion, Saline said.
“These are people with multimillion-dollar homes that don’t want a factory near them,” he said. “So that left us with having to find a place where we could expand and grow.”
Officials from the city of Santa Clarita, which governs the Newhall area, agreed, saying that sprawling residential growth had closed in on the company and prevented it from expanding, said Carl Boyer, the city’s mayor pro tem.
“We just don’t have a place for them here,” Boyer said.
The company plans to build a 150,000-square-foot plant on about 28 acres east of the Simi Valley Freeway-Moorpark Freeway interchange in Moorpark. The site is part of a 280-acre parcel.
About 230 acres of the property would remain as open space and a 20-acre site near the highway may be used to build a hotel, city officials said.
Included in the incentive package was Caltrans’ agreement to redesign an on-ramp to accommodate an entrance for the property.
And most important for company officials, the Moorpark City Council is considering sponsoring the company for state-issued Industrial Revenue Bonds. The tax-exempt bonds are underwritten by the California Industrial Development Authority, and Moorpark would assume no direct liability for insuring the bonds, city officials said.
“It’s obviously a good thing for the city as far as employment and spinoff economic benefits,” said Mayor Paul Lawrason. “We’re going to continue to do what we can to make this a smooth move for them.”
The bond’s interest charges could be about 1.5% below the market rate, and the difference could amount to $20,000 per month for the company.
Lawrason added that the experience showed what state and local officials could do when they work together. He had high praise for the efforts of the so-called Red Team, a group of representatives from the California Trade and Commerce Agency that specialize in retaining business in California.
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But even with the backing of so many local and state agencies, the company must complete an abridged environmental review process and may not be able to break ground until the fall, Saline said.
The first step will be to amend the city’s General Plan to rezone the area. Then the company’s plans will undergo an environmental review and finally a permit can be issued. After grading is completed on the property, Saline estimated that construction could take up to five months, leading to an approximate opening date of fall, 1996.
