Business View Magazine | December 2019

267 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019 BANNING, CAL I FORNI A Today, Banning has a population of approximately 32,000, and according to City Manager, Doug Schulze, the community has been in “a tough situation for the last couple of decades.” It seems that, at one time, Banning was a getaway location for the Hollywood elite, but, today, the city is a low-income community, with a median household income of only $30,000, which is comparatively low for a California city. “Interstate 10 came through in the 1950s; Palm Springs developed and Banning became a car stop. A lot of the local businesses that were thriving dried up,” Schulze explains. However, change is definitely on the way in Banning. The city has approved approximately a million-and-a-half square feet of new commercial space over the last year-and-a-half, and some existing businesses are expanding. “So the outlook is very positive,” Schulze avers. Another major aspect of Banning’s impending renaissance includes two major home construction projects that are slated to bring approximately 8,000 new homes to the city. “There’s going to be a significant change in population – roughly doubling it and changing the demographics considerably,” says Schulze. “With 30,000 new people coming into the community, that’s going to draw the attention of all kinds of businesses and other builders that are going to want to take advantage of the opportunities here. So these two new developments are going to initiate a transformation of the city.” The first project is a master-planned community called Atwell in Riverside County. Up to 4,862 single and multiple-family homes, across approximately 40 neighborhoods and spanning 1,528 acres, are being developed by Pardee Homes. Phase One of the development consists of 480 home sites, two commercial retail pads, and one K-6 school site. Model homes are anticipated to open in January 2020, with first occupancies scheduled for May 2020. The rest of Atwell Project in Riverside County