Presently, small manufacturing, food processing, warehousing, storage, and repair facilities dominate the Wilmington Industrial Park, while few residential uses remain in the area. Most of the developed uses in the WIP are industrial and manufacturing uses, including metal fabrication, paper products, food processing, warehousing, truck terminals, and other truck related uses. Among the improved properties are 58 firms occupying a total of 812,000 square feet of building space. Manufacturing uses account for less than a quarter, or 13, of these businesses and nearly half of all improved building space, or 388,000 square feet. The 45 non-manufacturing businesses comprise an assortment of uses, occupying a total of 424,000 square feet of building space.

According to the Blight Analysis study(1), it is estimated that half of the firms located in developed areas of the WIP are dependent upon Port activity. These firms comprise 45 percent of the total building square feet in the WIP, and include 4 manufacturing businesses, such as Stone Depot USA, and 25 non-manufacturing businesses, including Metropolitan Stevedore, State Fish, and Union Ice(2). Of the businesses not significantly related to Port activity, 9 are manufacturing businesses such as American Soccer and Juanita Foods, while 20 are non-manufacturing businesses. Approximately half of the WIP continues to have underutilized properties including automobile and marine salvage yards, oil extraction sites, and small manufacturing operations located in sheds, tin-sided buildings, and similar portable structures. Many of these uses appear to violate design standards and some illegally occupy City right-of-way.

Wilmington Industrial Park Economic Adjustment Strategy, Market Study,
Final Report - October 2, 2002 (PDF, 5,694 K, 77 pages).

Development Opportunities

The WIP should be in an optimal position to market to a mix of users and industries, benefiting from the strength of the Los Angeles Industrial Complex and the booming international trade industry. The tendency for new development involving significant investment and employment generation capacity to geographically skip over the WIP in favor of other areas is primarily related to a lack of existing development opportunities.

Although new development within the WIP faces a number of impediments as described above, it also offers key opportunities to businesses looking to locate in the area.

Shortage of Viable Inventory

The lack of functional, master-planned inventory has resulted in strong competition between manufacturing and logistics firms for available space that is proximate to the Ports.

In the short-term, industrial users will be attracted to those master planned industrial parks that do exist and have capacity, such as Dominguez Technology Center and Carson Town Center. Once the availability of these parks is diminished, new location and expansion opportunities will seek locations outside of the South Bay and Los Angeles County unless other opportunities can be created. As indicated previously, the Inland Empire will be a desirable location for larger, less employment-intensive companies that are not port dependent.

Quality Anchor Tenants

One critical source of ongoing real estate demand in the WIP will be the existing tenants. It is very important that the CRA do everything in its power to cultivate these companies and encourage their expansion on-site. Interviews with existing WIP tenants yielded a number of interesting observations, including the following:

• Prevailing wage hinders efforts to expand. If RDA resources are in use, this is out of the control of the CRA as State law requires prevailing wage in redevelopment Agency construction contracts.
  
  
• Many tenants are willing to help pay for improvements. Examples could include landscaping, graffiti removal, street maintenance, and security.
  
  
• The area needs late night/morning police patrols. Presently there is spotty coverage during these hours, despite the presence of a substation approximately one mile to the north-west of the WIP.
  
  
• Streets are poorly maintained. Many streets are simply not paved and/or are being occupied by illegal businesses.
  
  
• The area needs more amenities. The area needs consistent landscaping and fencing, and possibly the introduction of public space in key areas.
  
  
• Receiving Agency assistance can be an expensive endeavor for some tenants. The lower interest rates do not compensate for the increased costs associated with paying living/prevailing wages, and making proprietary information public.

Proximity to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach

No other industrial park located outside of Port-owned land offers the proximity to Port operations that can be found at the Wilmington Industrial Park. The volume of containerized cargo moving through these Ports doubled from less than 4 million containers in 1990 to just over 7 million containers by the year 2000. This volume is expected to triple to more than 24 million containers per year by 2020. As Port traffic has increased so have the number and size of many port-related businesses located on Port properties and in a number of South Bay communities.

Strong Local Labor Force

The Wilmington labor force has been described as hard working and reliable, and has been cited as a primary reason for the initial location, expansion, or continued presence of existing tenants in the area. Many employees walk to work from their nearby Wilmington homes. Other businesses that rely either on the Wilmington labor force in particular, or a labor force with similar characteristics, may be good candidates for location at the WIP, provided the constraints identified above can be addressed.

Growth of the local labor force requires the provision of a broad spectrum of housing types, including housing that is affordable to unskilled and semi-skilled labor. Because many employees live near and walk to the WIP, close-in housing development should be pursued by the CRA to the extent possible.

Ongoing Infrastructure Upgrades

The Alameda Corridor, one of the nation’s largest public works projects, will significantly affect the logistics sector in Los Angeles when it opens for use in spring 2002 (see Figure 11). This 20-mile railway project runs parallel to Alameda Street from the ports to the downtown rail yards, consolidating 90 miles of rail operations into a single high-capacity route. Once completed, it will create a faster and more efficient way to distribute cargo throughout the United States and to move U.S. exports to overseas markets. This $2.4 billion project relies on funding from a variety of sources, such as revenue bonds, a federal loan, the ports, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the railroads, and other institutions.

This facility addresses increasing congestion connected to growing freight movement. As a result, the operational efficiency of the Ports has been enhanced, and more opportunities for firms providing supplies and equipment to growing logistics operations in the area will result, potentially benefiting sites like the WIP.

Other Opportunities

• Enterprise Zone. Rising energy costs have hurt small manufacturing firms the hardest hit by so it is very important to resolve the state's crisis. As a California Enterprise Zone, WIP tenants are eligible for 25 percent discount on electricity for five years.
  
  
• Rail Access. Two railroad lines serve the project area and connect with other lines serving the two ports. Rail access is an advantage insofar as it provides a viable alternative to, and reduces dependency on, trucking operations.

1 Preliminary Draft Economic Blight Analysis, dated February 1, 2002 and prepared by Udewitz Associates & GRC Redevelopment Consultants, Inc.

2 This categorization differs from that of the Economic Blight Analysis. In that document, American Soccer is identified as a Port-related manufacturing use. Because this firm does not export any of its product and relies on few imported materials, EPS has categorized this firm as non Port-related.

Source: Wilmington Industrial Park Economic Adjustment Strategy, Market Study, Final Report - October 2, 2002, pgs. 56-60, Prepared by Economic & Planning Systems