www.montereycountynow.com JUNE 18-24, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 transportation corridor in Highway 101. The Salinas City Council approved the plan in 2010. Over the next decade, the only dirt being moved was from the tractors setting up rows of plantings. The vision of the industrial center was just that. It proved to be simple in concept, expensive in execution. Under the plan, all backbone infrastructure—including roads and utilities—needed to be constructed by whoever built first on the land. A 2022 estimate by the city pegged that cost at nearly $70 million, a dollar amount that proved too steep for most ag companies operating on razor-thin margins, leading to the industrial center concept gathering dust. That was until late 2021 when Scannell Properties, which has worked with Amazon on various projects, filed an application to the City of Salinas for a warehouse and distribution facility, standing five stories tall—up to 110 feet—and 3.2 million square feet, making it one of Amazon’s largest facilities in the world. Around the same time, the City of Salinas received a request from an attorney representing Scannell to eliminate the restriction that “wholesale distribution” uses on the property must be “agriculturally-related or serve the agriculture industry.” Then-City Manager Steve Carrigan agreed and struck the requirement, as is allowed under the specific plan. “Since the specific plan was adopted in 2010, ‘Wholesale Distribution’ has significantly changed with the rise of e-commerce, globalization, and more recently challenges in the supply chain and labor shortages created by the pandemic,” Carrigan wrote in a 2021 letter. “The agriculture industry has also significantly changed since 2010, such that the original basis upon which the specific plan was originally adopted may no longer be relevant.” In 2022, Carrigan said the project was tabled indefinitely, citing rising construction costs as the developer’s reasoning. However, in November 2023, the project was revived when Scannell purchased the property from Uni-Kool Partners for $14.7 million, County Assessor records show. Internally, the project was referred to as Project GOAT, and the fact the Amazon project was back on the table was never publicly acknowledged by the city until bulldozers showed up on the property and construction fencing was installed in mid-2024. The city issued a notice in August 2024, informing the public that Amazon was indeed back in Salinas, and with that would come various road work and other infrastructure projects. That includes widening Abbott Street and Harris Road, installing a ramp metering signal on southbound Highway 101 at the Abbott onramp, and converting the Highway 68 westbound ramps and Spreckels Boulevard intersection to an all-way stop. The city floated the idea of an enhanced infrastructure financing district (EIFD) for the project, which allocates the revenue from a development’s future property tax increases for up to 45 years toward funding infrastructure improvements. The city council approved a $129,000 contract with a consultant to explore the idea in late 2023. The proposal also required the County of Monterey’s participation. However, by February 2024, the contract was terminated. “After thorough consideration, we have concluded that we will not be pursuing the formation of the EIFD at this time,” then-interim City Manager Jim Pia wrote in a letter to consultant Larry J. Kosmont. County of Monterey spokesperson Maia Carroll confirms that the county has not received a request from the city. Still, money continues to flow in a city that is in desperate need of new revenue sources. On May 26, the Salinas City Council got its first look at the city’s budget for the next two years. A report to the council noted deficits were likely over the next three years due to economic uncertainty fueled by rising inflation and worldwide conflicts. Councilmember Andrew Sandoval took note of a plan in the budget documents to reallocate nearly $2.6 million Amazon’s 3-million-square-foot facility dominates the landscape. It is the first tenant in the Salinas Ag-Industrial Center.
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