County continues chipping away at Castle development

Merced County officials are continuing their work to bring businesses to the Castle Commerce Center and develop the former Air Force base.

It was a subject of interest at a recent town hall meeting in Atwater, where District 3 Supervisor Daron McDaniel brought residents up to speed on developments at Castle. And, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to create a “Castle Commerce Center Development” ad hoc committee at its meeting Tuesday. At its Aug. 18 meeting, the board suggested that McDaniel and one other member be on the committee.

At the county’s final budget hearing last month, the board approved a 22-month, $280,000 contract with Global Logistics Development Partners. That company will work to identify a private investor for Castle, said Mark Hendrickson, director of the county’s Department of Commerce, Aviation and Economic Development.

The county already has worked with Global Logistics for about three years doing market assessments and targeting the best industries for Castle, Hendrickson said.

“The next big step is to try to identify someone in the private marketplace to develop the site and prepare it for the appropriate industry.”

“We’ve asked the company to push us to get things right and get it done fast so we can get a private partnership going in there,” McDaniel added.

During the board’s regular meeting, also on Aug. 18, it approved amending its contract to expand Google’s lease space at Castle by 31.5 acres. That puts Google at 91.5 acres, Hendrickson said. Google will use the additional space to continue working on its autonomous car project.

“We believe this has been a tremendous opportunity for us,” Hendrickson said. “We are very pleased to see Google has seen fit to expand their program here in Merced County.”

The county also recently sold Castle property to three new businesses, two of which will build new developments there.

At the Atwater town hall meeting last week, McDaniel talked about a company that may be interested in converting old Castle dormitories. In the past, the buildings were considered uninhabitable because they contained asbestos.

The supervisor indicated the space could be used primarily to house equipment.

McDaniel didn’t name the company because talks are in early stages.

“It’s very infant,” he said, “But they are very excited about it.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 6:18 PM with the headline "County continues chipping away at Castle development."