20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JUNE 18-24, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com The arrival of Amazon ushers in the Silicon Valley era of Salinas, and all the impacts that come with it. By Erik Chalhoub OUT FOR DELIVERY Standing on a peak of Little Moab Road in Fort Ord National Monument offers a near-360-degree view of the Salinas Valley and the Monterey Peninsula. With the Gabilan Mountains as the backdrop, the green and brown of agricultural fields stretch across the flat valley floor, with tiny dots—representing vehicles—traveling to-and-fro along Highway 101. Small structures are scattered throughout, becoming more clustered further north and toward Salinas’ city center. This is the so-called Salad Bowl of the World, the centerpiece of an $11.7 billion agriculture industry that helps feed the globe. To characterize it as the southern edge of Silicon Valley, which Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue proclaimed during his State of the City Address on April 30, may be confusing to most. When one thinks of Silicon Valley, images of high-rises in downtown San Jose, spaceship-like architecture of the Apple campus in Cupertino and sprawling warehouses come to mind. The agricultural remnants of what was once known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight are few and far between. But thinking of the invisible lines that divide the state, referring to Salinas as part of Silicon Valley is appropriate. U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who for years represented San Jose and surrounding Santa Clara County communities, saw her district shift to include Salinas and the Salinas Valley after redistricting in 2022. It connected the two hubs together, at least on a map: agriculture and tech. Recently, the Salinas Valley and its surroundings have taken a major step toward becoming part of Silicon Valley by more than just a map. Earlier this year, Reservoir Farms opened near the intersection of Highway 68 and Hitchcock Road, where ag tech companies and startups are developing prototypes that they hope will one day be used in the fields. San Jose-based electric air taxi manufacturer Archer Aviation is testing its aircraft at the Salinas Municipal Airport. Its competitor Joby Aviation, which has set up at the Marina Municipal Airport to develop electric air taxis, broke ground on an expanded manufacturing facility in 2024, just outside Lofgren’s Congressional District 18. When it was completed in 2025, it essentially doubled the company’s footprint at the airport, now at 435,500 square feet. From the perch on Little Moab Road, that massive new structure in Marina can be seen off to the west. To the east, an even larger structure, which also broke ground in 2024, dominates the landscape, making it hard to miss as it stands surrounded by agricultural fields. At five stories tall, and a little more than 3 million square feet, its physical mass is representative of its owner’s global impact. It’s near the top of the list of the e-commerce behemoth’s largest facilities in the world, and as construction nears its end, the Silicon Valley era of Salinas is officially underway, as Donohue noted: “Amazon is coming.” I n 2008, Uni-Kool Partners pitched the idea of the Salinas Ag-Industrial Center to city officials. The concept was simple: Its 257 acres of land at the intersection of Abbott Street and Harris Road, where leafy greens were being farmed, could be transformed into an industrial center, where existing ag companies could expand their operations—such as cooling, processing, warehousing and distribution facilities—while new businesses could set up and take advantage of the proximity to the adjacent major The former agriculture field at the corner of Abbott Street and Harris Road has undergone a transformation in under two years. Shown from top, the first bulldozers arrived on site in September 2024. By April 2025, the structure of Amazon’s facility began to take shape. Currently, the exterior of the structure is nearly complete as work continues inside. Photos by Daniel Dreifuss
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