A Short Overview of Low Desert Communities
It’s been called the Low Desert or the Palm Springs area. Some people even think it is a part of the Inland Empire. It has been the home to desert rats and rattle snakes. The tracks of General Patton’s tanks from his training days can still be seen.
If you stand in the right spot, you can see The Angel on the Mountain. It has been the home to many Hollywood glitterati, some of which got streets names after them, although it is doubtful that young people today recognize Fred Waring.
The hot springs drew the crowd. After the war, Charley Farrell’s Racquet Club and TV show helped to make it famous. Actually the show was Gale Storm’s, but Farrell was elected mayor. He wasn’t the only famous Palm Springs’ mayor either. Years later, pop star Sonny Bono would also hold that honor.
Other names commonly associate with it include Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Elvis Presley.
The area has some of the most expensive housing in Southern California. It has enough date palms to generate an annual festival. It also has some of the best restaurants around.
On the map it is the Coachella Valley, and while primarily it is part of eastern Riverside County, it functions as its own separate world. Business there relies on such groups as the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership.
The Coachella Valley Economic Partnership’s purpose is to expand and diversify the regional economy of the Coachella Valley without compromising each community’s integrity and quality of life.
Its mission is to utilize a team of investors, community leaders, consultants and staff, to market, facilitate and provide economic information to its clients, investors and community for additional economic opportunities for all residents and businesses.
They recognize and celebrate individual community economic identity, competition and interests through their values of relationship building, shared vision and ethics.
Among the communities in the partnership are the following:
Palm Springs
The City of Palm Springs is, as we have established, internationally known as the playground of the Hollywood stars. It is a quintessential town where you can walk down the scenic and historic Palm Canyon Drive for shopping, dining and people watching.
The Palm Springs International Airport brings hundreds of thousands of travelers annually to the Coachella Valley. The year 2004 was a record year with 1.4 million passengers. Served by 12 airlines with 55 daily flights to 16 non-stop destinations, Palm Springs Airport is just but one connection from most markets across the United States.
The airport’s airfreight facilities, Interstate 10, and Union Pacific Railroad provide multiple transportation choices. The Palm Springs Convention Center recently doubled in size with a $34.7 million expansion.
The city’s population is just over 45, 000. That’s a 6.8 percent growth rate since 2000.
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians operates another of the city’s most sought-after attractions, the Spa Hotel and Casino.
Palm Springs is the most popular valley city for television and film production. In 2004, there were 781 days of production throughout the valley, generating $22 million.
Wind farms, that dot the land on the outskirts of Palm Springs and the Green Energy Peaker Plant, provide alternative energy sources.
The Palm Springs International Film Festival, spearheaded by the late Mayor Sonny Bono, draws more than 70,000 movie lovers and moviemakers and Hollywood celebrities annually every January.
Cathedral City
The city of Cathedral City is the second largest city in the Coachella Valley, enjoying its reputation as a major business center with large vacant developable properties along Interstate 10 and the Union Pacific Railroad’s transportation corridor. New homes and a newly created downtown with city hall, an IMAX theater and a mixture of national retail chain stores and “mom and pop” businesses help make Cathedral City a small town community with big city atmosphere between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage.
“Cat” city’s population is around 50,000. That’s an 18.7 percent growth rate since 2000,
Cathedral City has a good inventory of vacant land for business development, including retail and light manufacturing.
Downtown has been reshaped into a business-friendly locale of retail shops and businesses.
A new city hall anchors a redevelopment of the city's core business district.
City of Coachella
The City of Coachella is touted as “City of Eternal Sunshine - Gateway to the Salton Sea.” The optimistic slogan understates the tremendous large inventory of affordable land, including large tract agricultural acreage being converted to meet the demands of business. Coachella -- including the adjacent unincorporated communities of Thermal and Mecca -- are surrounded by more than 70,000 acres of land irrigated by the Colorado River via a strategic canal system. The water has historically been used to grow some of many of California’s largest crops of grapes, lemons, oranges, avocados, figs and persimmons. Tomorrow, it will be used to grow new business and industry such as the proposed entertainment district that could include a theme park, hotels, a sports stadium, junior college and two Indian tribe-owned casinos.
Its population is 30,764. That’s a 35.4 percent growth since 2000.
The city is located within the Coachella Valley Enterprise and Empowerment Zones, offering tremendous state and federal tax incentives for relocating businesses.
Highway 86, nicknamed “NAFTA Highway,” carries hundreds of truck trailers between the United States and Mexico through the center of Coachella creating new profitable import/export markets.
Coachella is also poised to take advantage of new development surrounding the Salton Sea, the largest body of water in California. Some $1.2 billion is committed to the Salton Sea Restoration Project, which will attract geothermal, and other new energy development and multiple new business parks.
The Imperial Irrigation District supplies electricity at lower rates than other energy companies serving the Coachella Valley.
Indian Wells
The City of Indian Wells, touted as one of the wealthiest per capita cities in America, is home to the internationally televised Pacific Life Open Tennis Masters Tournament at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the second largest tennis facility in the nation. Organizations from Fortune 500 to the Republican National Committee flock here for conferences. It’s no surprise that the top banks, stock brokerages and accounting offices have created a major financial district here for the Coachella Valley. Gated country clubs and million dollar estates are plentiful.
The Indian Wells population is just under 5,000. That is a 25.3 percent growth since 2000.
Combined, there are 1,500 hotel rooms at the Renaissance, Hyatt Grand Champions, Miramonte and Indian Wells Resort Hotels.
No.1 in Riverside County for income/capital and bank deposits per capita, this is the Coachella Valley’s financial district, enticing brokerage, accounting and banking firms.
Desert Town Hall Indian Wells lecture series features national and international figures such as Vice President Dick Cheney, President Bush Sr., former Great Britain Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Indio
The City of Indio, known for its International Tamale Festival and Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival, is the largest and fastest-growing city in the Coachella Valley. There is plenty of available land for commercial development. The city is redeveloping its downtown to attract more business, especially retail. The Imperial Irrigation District provides affordable electrical rates for industry and residential customers.
Indio’s population is just over 66, 000. This represents a 34.6 percent growth rate since 2000. It has a straight link to Interstate 10 (Los Angeles-East Coast) and Hwy. 86 (the controversial “NAFTA Highway”) to Mexico. It's the center of the Coachella Valley Enterprise and Empowerment Zones, offering tremendous state and federal tax incentives for relocating businesses.
Indio has 606.9 acres of available land for commercial and residential development. The number of firms in Indio has risen from 837 in 1991 to 1,019 in 2003, a gain of 182 firms or 21.8 percent with a large surge in 2003. Retail has been the largest increase. The City of Festivals hosts the International Tamale Festival, the Southwest Arts Festival, Native American ceremonial “pow wows” as well as world-class polo tournaments.
Light manufacturing companies are the majority businesses moving to Indio because of available, affordable land and lower energy rates.
La Quinta
The City of La Quinta, nicknamed the “Gem of the Desert,” is consistently ranked as one of the fastest-growing cities in California. The city also has the fastest-growing business center. Over the last decade, there has been a strategically planned surge in retail and commercial development, including the first Super Wal-Mart store in California.
La Quinta’s population is just over 36,145, which is a 52.5 percent growth rate since 2000.
SilverRock Resort has opened with the 7,553-yard Arnold Palmer-designed golf course. The master plan calls for another 18-hole golf course, a high-quality hotel, a boutique hotel, and retail shopping and recreational facilities for the community.
TheHighway 111/Washington Street corridor is one of the fastest-growing commercial areas in the Coachella Valley because of plentiful developable land.
The La Quinta Resort and Club, opened in 1926, is one of the best-known international resort getaways for celebrities, pro athletes, and industry leaders.
La Quinta boasts some of the world’s finest golf courses, including PGA West and Rancho La Quinta, home of the nationally televised SKINS Games. Each year the La Quinta Arts Festival welcomes the world to view the works of over 250 North American artists in the open-air atmosphere of town center.
Since 1997, La Quinta has generally added jobs faster than the surrounding Inland Empire, which is California's fastest-growing major metropolitan region.
Rancho Mirage
The City of Rancho Mirage is one of the most vibrant business centers in the Coachella Valley with $94.9 million in Low Desert Communities retail sales (3rd quarter 2004). Smartly designed, gated country clubs, golf courses and luxury million dollar estates make the city a highly-touted address for chief executive officers.
Its population is almost 17,000. That’s a 23.9 percent growth since 2005.
Eisenhower Medical Center has been recently named one the top 100 hospitals in the nation. The center’s family of services includes the celebrated Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center and Betty Ford Center.
The River at Rancho Mirage is a themed retail center with national, regional and local businesses including several well-known Southern California restaurants.
The Lodge hotel at Rancho Mirage has been the location for several national television specials.
Bermuda Dunes
Bermuda Dunes is primarily a residential area of about 3,000 residents and home to the Bermuda Dunes Airport, a private airfield.
Mecca - Thermal - Oasis
Situated in the heart of the Coachella Valley’s farming community, the unincorporated communities of Mecca, Thermal and Oasis are now poised to also be a major business and residential corridor.
There are approximately 2,500 developable acres for commercial, light manufacturing and business parks in the corridor, according to the Riverside County general plan.
Interstate 10, Highway 111, the Highway 86 Expressway, the Pacific Union Railroad and the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport, whose main runway has been extended to 8,500 feet to accommodate large aircraft, strategically serve this area.
New transportation routes also include the proposed East Valley Expressway; a proposed six-lane, nine-mile expressway would connect Monroe Street to Highway 86 along Avenue 62 that would benefit long-term business transportation. The proposed $26.5 million project would be included in Riverside County General Plan.
A 157-acre business park and a 30-acre business complex are proposed for the area.
Workforce training will be enhanced by the creation of a new 100-acre College of the Desert Eastern Valley campus in Thermal. Classes are expected to begin in fall 2006.
The developing residential community of Vista Santa Rosa is located nearby.
There are of course, many other desert communities, and the Journal will profile them at a later date. (Date! Get It?)