Victorville: An Expansion Alternative.

As the build-out of the greater Los Angeles area nears completion, businesses are increasingly challenged to find locations near the region that can provide affordable and convenient access to the lucrative market, but that avoid the congestion and expense of the teeming metropolis. These locations must provide available and affordable land, quality infrastructure and qualified labor. These factors have contributed in recent years to the emergence of a new Southern California region -- the Inland Empire North.

Beginning in the early 1980's, business migration from the Los Angeles core led to the development of the Inland Empire. This migration is now moving northward into the Inland Empire North communities of Adelanto, Apple Valley, Barstow, Hesperia, and, most notably, the city of Victorville. The Inland Empire North has emerged as a popular choice for business as much for its convenient proximity to Los Angeles as its impressive infrastructure, labor pool, available land and pro-business attitude.

Long known as a bedroom community, the population of the Inland Empire North has grown substantially during the past two decades, from 109,101 in 1980 to just over 320,000 in 2001. This population explosion mirrors the commercial growth of the Inland Empire, and presaged the emergence of the industrial economy that is now blossoming in the Inland Empire North. The transformation from a sleepy bedroom community to a vigorous commercial hub (while maintaining the high quality of life enjoyed by the local population) has been taking place for more than a decade, but has accelerated dramatically in recent years, thanks in large part to the redevelopment of Southern California Logistics Airport (the former George Air Force Base) and the arrival of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and M&M/Mars Corporation.

As with the development of the Inland Empire two decades before, the growth of the Inland Empire North is due largely to its modern, uncongested multimodal transportation infrastructure, highlighted by the all-cargo Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville. An historic staging-ground for shipping companies, the region has long enjoyed ready access to the transcontinental service of the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroads, as well as California's "commercial lifeline" -- Interstate 15. With the metamorphosis of George Air Force Base into Southern California Logistics Airport (SCLA) in the late nineties, however, Victorville (and the entire Inland Empire North) has become an important link in the international supply chain. This fundamental shift was highlighted in 1999 when SwissGlobalCargo, one of the world's largest air-cargo forwarders, selected SCLA as it's Western U.S. hub.

"Southern California Logistics Airport is the last key connection, allowing SwissGlobalCargo to create a worldwide logistics supply chain," explained Michael Schaecher, vice president -- Transpacific of SwissGlobalCargo. "The strategic Western United States location combined with the efficiencies of U.S. Customs clearance creates a synergistic combination for better servicing our clients throughout the Western United States."

The location of the Inland Empire North on the outskirts of the Los Angeles megalopolis provides it with one of the features that most attract businesses -- lack of congestion. The extensive highway system surrounding the Inland Empire North, (including Interstates 10,15, 40, and 215, as well as Highways 58, 60, 91 and 395), provide access to the entire western United States in less than 24 hours. Similarly, Southern California Logistics Airport has its own uncongested air corridor. Most airports in Southern California share a common air corridor with LAX, which often results in significant departure and landing delays. SCLA enjoys a unique air corridor that provides unfettered access to the skies. Teamed with its dedicated U.S. Customs office, SCLA provides express clearance for international cargo. Indeed, the average Customs clearance time at SCLA is just two hours -- clearance at LAX can take up to two days.

The tact that the Inland Empire North is one of the last places in Southern California with large lots of available land ready for development has also helped to attract new corporate citizens. Modern distribution facilities can require upwards of 50 acres of land. Clearly, parcels of this size are not readily available in the Los Angeles metro region, and if they were, the land value would make them prohibitively expensive. In the Inland Empire North, they are abundant and affordable.

Just this year The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company opened a new 830,000 square foot logistics center in Victorville, which replaced Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona as the tire manufacturers distribution hub for the Western United States. M&M/Mars is currently building a 450,000 square foot distribution facility in Victorville to replace its Ontario and Salt Lake City facilities and to service its distribution needs in the West.

"Victorville was the most cost effective location from the standpoint of labor, arid and infrastructure to locate our logistics center," said Goodyear vice president Gerry Holthaus in explaining his companies move to the Inland Empire North.

Distribution centers do not comprise the only new commercial development into the region; manufacturers are also congregating in the Inland Empire North. Sumiden Wire Products, Cemex (formerly Southdown), AFG Industries, Duffy Electric Boats and others are all thriving in the region, due in large measure to the relaxed air quality standards of the local Air Quality Management District. Just outside the jurisdiction of the South Coast AQMD, manufacturers in the Inland Empire North can breathe free of the often costly regulations that hamper their competitors in the Los Angeles region.

Of course, these relaxed restrictions go hand-in-hand with the generally more business-friendly atmosphere of the municipalities in the Inland Empire North, most of which typically rank very high in the annual Kosmont Cost of Doing Business Survey for Southern California. Owning California's largest economic development program, including a 60,000-acre Redevelopment Project Area (covering most of the communities in the Inland Empire North), a Foreign Trade Zone, Enterprise Zone, and LAM BRA Zone also provides the type of business incentives that are luring corporations northward.

This pro-business atmosphere, along with the available land, sizable population and dynamic transportation infrastructure is contributing to the growth of the Inland Empire North, which is clearly emerging as one of Southern California's newest commercial centers. It will be interesting to witness the maturation of this region, and to experience the continuing metamorphosis of the whole of Southern California.

Keith Metzler is deputy director of the City of Victorville's Redevelopment Agency.