TheCVBizJournal spotlights Cal weber 40 project

The Central Valley Business Journal highlightsedour Cal Weber 40 project. Here is an excerpt:

STOCKTON — Construction is underway on Cal Weber 40, the first housing project in downtown Stockton since the Great Recession. The partners involved in the project held a groundbreaking ceremony in the building at California Street and Weber Avenue for city officials and reporters Thursday morning. No actual ground was broken, however. Construction on the project began March 23.

The partners, Cal Weber Associates LP;  DFA Development LLC; Riverside Charitable Corporation, Inc.; and PNC Real Estate, hope the affordable urban housing development will be a catalyst for development in downtown Stockton. “We’ve seen in other cities a workforce housing or an affordable housing project is usually the catalyst to bringing not only families downtown, but it also allows people to see that it will work,” said Chris Flaherty of DFA Development. The development, at the southeast corner of California Street and Weber Avenue will provide 40 units — 28 apartments with two bedrooms and one bathroom and 12 larger apartments with three bedrooms and two baths.

Cal Weber 40 to blend historic and modern

Cal Weber 40 is a mix of old and new. It involves the renovation of the 123-year-old Cal Weber Building and the 88-year-old McKeegan Building. There will be exposed brick and the trusses on the top floor will be visible. Apartments on the third floor will have ceilings 12 feet or higher. The exterior, however, has been redesigned to give the buildings “residential scale,” said architect Lars Fredrik Gullberg of Artifex West Studio. Each unit will have its own balcony. The apartments will be solar powered. The building will have a computer lab, a private playground and dedicated parking. “It’s going to be something that I think any of us would want to live in,” said Flaherty.

Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva said the development sends the signal that the city is moving forward out of its bankruptcy. “Nothing says a city is healthy again than when we start building again,” he told those gathered for the groundbreaking. The city of Stockton, PNC Bank, Farmers & Merchants Bank and the Bank of Stockton were involved in financing Cal Weber 40.

Small olive harvests fund charity that helps kids

Lori Gilbert of The Record wrote about our S.O.O.P.C.O., Stockton Olive Oil Project. Here is an excerpt from the July 6, 2015 article:

Posted Jul. 6, 2010 at 12:01 AM.

They laughed when he planted his olive tree. A barrage of “Do you have any idea what kind of mess those trees will cause in your yard?” questions greeted Chris Flaherty before the first piece of fruit fell. Flaherty’s stubborn determination, though, has resulted in nearly $200,000 being donated to organizations devoted to children’s causes. Seriously. Flaherty was out in his yard picking the first olives from his tree back in 2002 when Tom Cortopassi arrived, bringing his son, Joey, to play with Flaherty’s son, Keegan. He couldn’t resist making a comment about the Irishman not knowing what to do with the olives.

“He tried to eat it straight off the olive tree,” the Italian Cortopassi said. “He said, ‘What are you supposed to do with these?’ ”Cortopassi laughed, but by the time he’d returned later to pick up his son, he’d done a little quick Internet research on olives. Although he’d grown up in the agriculture industry and runs Stanislaus Food Products, a tomato processing plant in Modesto, he wasn’t experienced with olives.Over a glass of wine, he explained the options he’d learned about, either curing the olives in brine or pressing them for their oil. “I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could pick the olives off all the olive trees in Stockton, make olive oil, sell it and give all the money to some kind of charity? ‘ ” Cortopassi said. “With Chris, you don’t just say it. If he likes an idea, he’s gonna run with it.” Run he did. Flaherty lined up five friends. Cortopassi picked five more, and S.O.O.P.C.O., Stockton Olive Oil Project Charitable Organization, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was formed.

The group, made up of area businessmen of different stripes – Flaherty is a contractor, and there are bankers, lawyers, accountants and other professions represented – toured the Sciabica and Sons olive oil plant in Modesto, and the firm agreed to produce oil under the S.O.O.P.C.O. label. Each member of the club bought three cases of the oil, at a cost of $750, and the proceeds went to charities. Members, in turn, gave the bottles of oil to family, friends and colleagues. Cortopassi thought the venture it would be a one-time deal. Instead, the group has grown to 28 members and last year produced 225 cases. Unlike other men’s organizations, or traditional service groups, there are few requirements of S.O.O.P.C.O. members. “Once you come in, you’re never allowed to get out,” Flaherty said. “And you have to make a donation. You’re committed to $750 per year, each year.” They meet as a group four or five times a year for lunch or dinner, and it’s not the end of the world if one of them can’t make it. Sometimes they have a dinner with their wives. “It’s a fun group,” Flaherty said. “We give each other a hard time. Everyone checks their ego at the door.”

Read the full article here.

Contact columnist Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or lgilbert@recordnet.com.

Visit her blog at recordnet.com/lensblog.

Cal Weber 40 in the news....

The artist’s rendering of the Cal Weber affordable-housing project at the southeast corner of California Street and Weber Avenue.

Record staff writer, Roger Phillips wrote an article called, “Downtown Stockton project nearly up in the air” about our Cal Weber 40 project on March 2, 2015. here is an excerpt:

Roger Phillips Record Staff Writer

By Posted Mar. 2, 2015 at 8:09 PM STOCKTON — Haggling over the price tag attached to a small patch of second-story airspace in downtown Stockton might seem like a punchline in search of a joke. But during a 77-minute discussion at last week’s City Council meeting, a complex dispute over airspace in the financing package for a new and ballyhooed affordable-housing project in downtown Stockton seemed for a time to jeopardize the deal. On one side were the developers of the 40-unit project that is planned for the woebegone southeast corner of California Street and Weber Avenue. On the other side were trade-union officials concerned about the wages to be paid to the construction workers who will be hired to build the project, dubbed Cal Weber 40. A week ago, the gap between the sides seemed to be a gulf. Seven days later, it appears the gulf has been bridged. The City Council will hold a special meeting tonight at City Hall to discuss the matter again and to cast their votes on the air-rights issue. If the resolution passes, developers expect to break ground in 27 days. “I’m comfortable with it,” Mayor Anthony Silva said late Monday afternoon. “Obviously, this project is good for Stockton, especially downtown Stockton, and it’s something that needs to happen. If we’re going to show that Stockton is a healthy city coming out of bankruptcy, we definitely need to start building again.” Councilman Michael Tubbs convened a 60-minute meeting Friday afternoon between developers and union officials to hammer away at the matter. “They talked it out,” Tubbs said. “Questions were asked and posed. I was excited because at the end, I felt relationships were formed between the unions and the developers.” The projected cost of the Cal Weber project is $12 million, paid for through various government loan programs and tax credits. Included in the project, representing 3 percent of the total cost, were the air rights above Stockton’s downtown Lot K on American Street between Main Street and Weber. The developers, including locals Anthony Barkett and Chris Flaherty, plan to build a second-story parking deck for residents above Lot K as part of the Cal Weber project. When the council unanimously approved the project last June, plans called for the city to lease the air rights to the developers for 55 years at no cost. Last Tuesday, however, the council was asked to approve an air-rights lease containing different terms — 65 years with a $370,000 payment from developers to the city about two decades before the start of the 22nd century. Why the revision? Developer Danny Fred told the council that if the lease was not revised, financing for the project would be scuttled. Fred said receiving an outright gift of the air rights from the city would, by law, have triggered a requirement for developers to pay all Cal Weber construction workers at union rates. That requirement, Fred said, would significantly increase construction costs. “A 25- to 30-percent increase on a project like this, there would be no project,” Fred said. Union representatives quickly stepped forward, voicing concern that developers might be maneuvering to build Cal Weber on the cheap with low- or minimum-wage workers. “I think it’s kind of ironic that we’re talking about affordable housing for the working poor,” Sal Rotolo, the business representative for Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union No. 104, said at last week’s council meeting. “How about we build some projects with workers who are being paid an affordable wage?” The council ultimately tabled the matter. Friday, Tubbs and City Manager Kurt Wilson hosted the meeting with the unions and the developers. Tonight, the council once again will consider the 65-year lease with the $370,000 payment. On Monday, Barkett called the Friday meeting “very productive” and added that developers never intended for Cal Weber to be a “prevailing wage” project.

Read full article here.