The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce held two special business visits last week as part of its outreach to the business community.
Chamber staff, volunteers and community leaders visited the site for the new Target center in San Luis Obispo and then Shopatron on Thursday, January 27 to learn more about both businesses.
Target to create 200 jobs
The new Target store, which is scheduled to hold its grand opening on July 7, will create about 200 jobs, according to Madonna Enterprises Real Estate Manager Clint Pearce. Target will be among several new stores opening in the Prefumo Creek Commons, a retail project located on Los Osos Valley Road across the street from The Home Depot and Costco. http://slocity.org/finance/web-specs/bids/prefumoeir.pdf
The rain last month slowed development but it’s back on track now with walls going up and progress being made, Pearce said. The Prefumo Creek Commons are being developed on land near both residential and commercial properties.
“We worked with the surrounding neighbors to answer questions and concerns,” Pearce said as he led the tour. “The project superintendent knocked on every door, and we introduced ourselves and distributed information about the project.”
Developers also worked with various local and state government agencies, conducted Environmental Impact Reports and plans to widen the intersection at Los Osos Valley Road and Madonna Road before the store opens in July, to help ease traffic flow to the area.
Photo slideshow of January's Business Visit
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The 140,000-square-foot store will sit on a 10-acre parcel in San Luis Obispo’s Prefumo Creek Commons retail project, which will cost an estimated $32 million to develop. The project is expected to bring $500,000 to $600,000 to the City of San Luis Obispo in annual sales tax revenue, city staff estimated in 2009.
Shopatron creates head-of-household jobs Chamber staff, volunteers and guests then made their way over to Shopatron, a trailblazer in the world of e-Commerce.
Founded in 2001 in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Shopatron has grown to become the No. 1 retail-integrated e-Commerce solution for branded manufacturers, distributors and multi-channel retailers. The company works with more than 800 manufacturers and 12,000 retail partners across 35 industries, and employs 95 local workers, according to founder and CEO Ed Stevens.
The average compensation for a Shopatron employee: $60,000 per year, Stevens added.
“We picked San Luis Obispo in an interesting fashion,” Stevens said. “The weather was a big factor, but San Luis Obispo was aslo very affordable and there’s enough engineering talent here to get a company going. We kept the location in San Luis Obispo because we can maximize the labor market responsiveness here. A good portion of our engineering team is from Cal Poly, and we do almost no recruiting from outside the area.”
The biggest challenge, he said, is finding Type A, performance-oriented people.
“People here are really happy with their lives, and generally Type As aren’t happy with life,” he joked.
Financing a start-up company in San Luis Obispo is not as difficult as some may think, he added.
“There were no special challenges raising money just because we were in San Luis Obispo,” he said, explaining that initial investors included family and friends, then large investment firms in 2004 and 2007.
Shopatron clients include top brands such as Suzuki, Polaroid, Mizuno, Ducati, JL Audio and Sport Chalet. Local retails that use Shopatron’s eCommerce solutions include Mountain Air Sports and Tom’s Toys.
“We hope to expand to the East Coast, and have San Luis Obispo remain the headquarters for our West Coast operations,” Stevens said.
The San Luis Obispo Chamber conducts these business visit programs through its Economic Development Department. For more information, visit www.slochamber.org.
