New ag tech business park coming to Salinas

SALINAS, Calif. — Ag tech startups and other businesses looking to set up shop in Salinas, Calif., will have more options after the completion of a project announced June 27 at the Forbes AgTech Summit.

SVG Partners, Borelli Investment Co., and Swenson developers and general contractors have partnered with the City of Salinas to develop the new Thrive Business Park, which will be a 206,000-square-foot flexible space that can accommodate research and development or warehouse and distribution uses.

Currently there is little vacant space available in Salinas for those uses, according to a news release from SVG Partners.

The new business park will be next to the city’s airport, and the development is expected to bring about 1,000 jobs to the city.

SVG created Thrive, a platform that supports startups that are looking to solve big challenges for agriculture, in 2014. Since then the company has invested in 20 companies, including Trace Genomics and Arable.

“The investment in many of our Thrive companies has already catalyzed economic development in the Salinas region as they locate here and continue to expand and employ in the region,” SVG Partners CEO John Hartnett said in the release.