n DISCOURSE
company that made the decision to stay is
Gulfstream, a global manufacturer of busi-
ness aircraft. They make jets. In Lincoln,
they have one of their global repair centers.
They were looking to expand and looking
at real estate throughout the Sacramento
region. They ultimately made their decision
to stay in Lincoln because of the will of their
workforce wanting to remain here.
What types of businesses is the city try-
ing to attract now?
We have at Lincoln AirCenter Business
Park businesses that have food-grade
manufacturing facilities. One of them is a
giant coffee roaster; they have a food-grade
processing operation. Another company
makes plastic products from plant-based
resins, and those products are biodegrad-
able. The coffee company uses that prod-
uct for their single-cup coffee offering. Be-
cause the plastic touches food products,
all those products are made in a food-
grade manufacturing environment, even
though they don’t make food products.
Shari’s Berries is in Lincoln. They have a
food-grade manufacturing environment.
We’d like to attract more companies in the
food-manufacturing space. Another prior-
ity area is supply-chain management for
technology companies. What that means
is there are a number of companies here
that do repair and refurbishment of elec-
tronic products [on] a contract basis for
other companies. We have three or four
companies in that space, and we’d like to
see more. So services to the technology
industry, food-grade manufacturing, and
I think there’s also further potential in the
recycling area, as well.
Can you tell me more about Lincoln’s
foreign trade zone, which is in the pro-
cess of being reactivated?
The foreign trade zone that we’re a part
of is the Port of West Sacramento. We
are a subzone, as is an area in south
Sacramento and an area in Dixon. Our
subzone was established in 1997 when
Hewlett-Packard had a large operation
here [until 2003]. What a foreign trade
zone affords a qualified business, they’re
essentially considered out of the country
for customs purposes. When they bring
in materials from offshore, and it comes
into their facility, it’s considered still out
of the country, so there’s a deferral, or re-
duction or sometimes even elimination of
customs duties and import fees. The com-
pany that’s planning to reactivate it now
is called Precision Medical Products, and
they’re a company that looked throughout
the region for an expansion opportunity
and ultimately chose Lincoln, largely for
the foreign trade zone, because they will
be bringing in material that they use in
their products from Asia. Essentially what
happens is when you bring in a compo-
nent or material from offshore, oftentimes
you use that component as part of anoth-
Transformative Collaboration
FMB is part of the team creating the new State of California
building at 10th & O Streets. Congratulations to DGS, Hensel
Phelps and HOK for transforming a humble parking lot into a
Net Zero and Carbon-Free stunning new downtown building.
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comstocksmag.com | April 2019