Visalia council to take up Nordstrom deal

The Visalia City Council will decide Monday whether to say yes to a sales tax rebate for Nordstrom if the retailer chooses the city as the site of a large warehouse.

Fresno and Visalia are both publicly vying for the project.

The Visalia council agenda asks council members to authorize an economic development incentive agreement with Nordstrom to build an e-commerce and distribution center.

Nordstrom has identified property in the Visalia Industrial Park, close to the interchange of Highways 99 and 198. Both UPS and FedEx operations are in the vicinity. In Fresno, the targeted property is in the North Pointe Business Park in southwest Fresno.

On Thursday, the Fresno City Council unanimously said yes to a $10 million sales tax sharing incentive the company is seeking, and said it was willing to give an additional $2 million to the company to get the project built in Fresno.

Visalia council members said the city is competitive with Fresno for the warehouse, and that Nordstrom has proposed identical terms to both.

The proposed sales tax sharing incentive requires a City Council vote.

The proposed $110 million, 1 million-square-foot warehouse would employ 1,000 people, and likely more in the long run, according to city officials in both Fresno and Visalia.

Workers at what Nordstrom calls its West Coast E-Commerce Fulfillment Center would take online orders, fill them and ship them.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Visalia council to take up Nordstrom deal."