SDAVA Wine Production Facility Escondido Ca

Exhibit A

AUGUST 24

VC men propose regional wine

processing center

Photo: Idea men John Barlow and Chris Broomell.

By David Ross

Idea men John Barlow and Chris Broomell—both of

Valley Center— envision a way to invigorate San DiegoCounty’s wine industry.

They call their idea the Custom Crush Wine Facility for San Diego County, a central clearing house

where small grape producers could create wines, bottle and market them, and sell samples througha co-op tasting room. There would even be a restaurant.

Right now it is an idea, but they have interested some members of the Escondido City Council,although the facility would serve the county’s scattered wineries.

Barlow, 24, was born and raised in VC and graduated in 2005 from Valley Center High School. He

attended college at Cal Poly Pomona’s Dept. of Agriculture, where, in the course of earning a BAin Architecture, he developed his senior thesis design for the Custom Crush Wine Facility.

Barlow works for Dan & Ben Holtz of Rocky H. Ranch as a project analyst. He wrote the proposal

in partnership with Broomell, proprietor of Vesper Vineyards, which recently produced its firstbottles of wine, and will eventually open a tasting room.

They combined Barlow’s research and Broomell’s contacts and knowledge as a vintner and a

member of a family of growers.

Barlow’s connection to ag comes through his father, Gary Barlow, a longtime avocado grove

manager.

Barlow told The Roadrunner, “I am interested in creating my own architecture job versus workingfor a corporate firm.”

He adds, “I am looking at my career from a self-starting, grass roots approach within the ag

industry. I don’t believe young graduates ‘have’ to start from drawing bathroom partitions andmove up to project management in thirty years.”

San Diego County’s farming situation interested him since among its challenges is high water cost,diminishing farmland, and foreign competition.

“It was natural for me to find passion in coming up with solutions for San Diego's ag future. I have

always been interested in architecture, starting with Clay Clifford’s hand-drafting class at VCHS.But now I am attempting to bridge influences to find my niche in the architecture field,” he said.

His yearlong thesis project included two quarters of research and a final quarter composing the

design. Students are encouraged to identify a project that benefits their community.

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“Growing up with my dad being in the farming community this project was a natural,” he says.

During his research he was impressed by the rising cost of water. “It seemed logical to think abouthow to help the wine community. It’s one of the ag communities that is on the rise, whereas the

others are facing challenges.”

Wine grapes require a quarter of the water used in an equivalent acreage of avocados.

“I’m sensitive to avocado growers,” says Barlow. “I’m not saying wine is a smarter move, I’m just

promoting part of the ag industry that I see a lot of potential growth in the next ten years.”

He compared the wine industries of San Diego and Riverside counties. He saw that Temecula,where Riverside’s wine industry is concentrated, has many wineries accessible from one main road.

“You can easily go from one winery to the next,” he observed. “In San Diego all of the wineries are

spread out on a vast geographic area. To see them all you’d have to drive to Ramona one day andSouth County the next.”

Broomell and Barlow’s idea was to unify those wineries in one central location. “It would be,

foremost, a production facility with high-quality equipment that invites up-and-coming vintners,”he says. “They wouldn’t have to spend a fortune producing the wine on their land. They could

spend their resources developing their product.”

Usually a winery has its own wine lab to test PH levels. This cooperative venture would have a

common wine lab where each participant could test and share information. The operation would

work like a time-share or co-operative.

“The hope is that vintners under one roof would share information and develop their products

faster,” says Barlow.

The 60,000 square foot facility would include fermentation tanks, a bottling line, and a crush pad,everything a vintner needs to make wine, except the grapes. Each producer would have office

space, storage and refrigeration space. They would share tasting rooms and wine labs.

When it comes time to harvest, the grapes would be brought to the facility for processing.

Barlow’s design follows the model of existing facilities in Northern California, such as Central

Coast Custom Crush.

“We would provide a production facility for experienced people and up-and-coming people whohave previously done it in their garage,” says Barlow.

Broomell is a “great example” of someone who would benefit from such a facility, says Barlow.

“His winery was built in 2005 and had its first crush in 2006. They are just selling their first labelthat will be sold in a tasting room that just opened,” says Barlow.

The center would also include education facilities. They would invite the MiraCosta HorticultureDept. to have classroom space and a student wine lab.

He would also like to see a restaurant there. “An underlying theme is that we want to connect

people. We are inviting the public to see the wine process. Connecting the public to the winecommunity. We’re inviting students who want to become vintners to get experience.”

One model is the Stone Brewery and what it has done for Escondido. “We are pretty confident that

Escondido would serve as a good location. It is centrally located. Most wineries are in NorthCounty. Escondido has all the road arteries. You can get grapes from Temecula and all over the

county and bring them there.”

Barlow expects to make a presentation to the Escondido City Council in September, and to thecity’s economic committee. He has been in contact with city council member Olga Diaz, who has,


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Barlow says, spread the idea to other members.

Barlow doesn’t expect the city to fund his project, but he has reason to believe the city council willdo what it can to make it easier to site such a facility.

It would not need to be built from scratch, he says. “I have many examples of structures that would

work, including the now-vacant police headquarters (across from the Escondido Transit Center).” Itis near the transit center and has existing office space.

It will still need investors. Barlow estimates that a fullscale production plant with top-quality

production equipment (destemmers, fermenting tanks, bottling line, etc) would cost $5–6 million.

“I want to emphasize that this building represents big ideas,” says Barlow. “Its location should

coincide with San Diego’s geographic center, creating a platform for collaboration, learning, and

industry success. The city of Escondido, currently in favor of the facility, would benefit from wineindustry sales, job growth, and tourism, not to mention re-establishing its identity as ‘original wine

country.’ ”

For more information, contact Barlow at [email protected] or call him at 760-975-8118.

Copyright© 2011, The Valley Roadrunner


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Exhibit B

With rows of grape vines in the background, Sharon Penrod, right, and Barbara Houser sip wine in the

shade at the Orfila winery in Escondido. HAYNE PALMOUR IV | [email protected]

Related Documents

Related: PDF: Proposed Escondido Wine Facility

Napa. Sonoma. Escondido?

City officials say a new proposal to have developers or venture capitalists build a cooperative

wine-processing plant in Escondido could turn the city into a prominent wine-growing region.

They concede the proposal is ambitious and faces many obstacles, but contend that Escondido's location

and rural character make it a good candidate to become the hub of San Diego County's blossoming wine

industry. They note that the city already has several wineries.

The proposal, which was praised last week by local business leaders and some vintners around the

county, envisions a cooperative grape-crushing and bottling plant in Escondido that would allow small

vintners to produce wine with dramatically lower upfront costs and operating expenses.

The crushing plant would encourage the kind of collaboration and expertise among vintners that typically

ESCONDIDO: Proposal could make city prominent wine region http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_b56dd1b6-64d7-...

2 of 6 8/6/2011 5:20 PM

leads to exceptional wines, according to a 55-page proposal created by recent Cal Poly Pomona graduate

John Barlow with help from some vintners.

"We can unify all the independent things going on with wine in the county," said Councilwoman Olga

Diaz, who has been presenting the idea to various local groups since she stumbled onto the proposal this

spring. "A cooperative crush pad would be a substantial foundation."

The city could help the process by relaxing zoning restrictions for wineries, promoting tasting rooms in

the Grand Avenue downtown district and marketing Escondido as a prominent wine region, Diaz said.

Skeptics could characterize the new proposal as another big idea for Escondido that won't pan out, such

as landing the San Diego Chargers or a minor league baseball team.

And the hurdles before the project include finding the private capital required to build the cooperative

crush pad, which could be as much as $9 million, and a suitable site. In addition, nearby Temecula has

already established itself as a prominent wine-producing region.

But Councilwoman Marie Waldron said the idea was appealing because it could boost small businesses,

create jobs, reinvent the city's identity and return Escondido to its roots as a prolific grape-growing

region.

"We want to encourage small businesses like that, especially when it fits with Escondido's history," said

Waldron. "Carlsbad has an ocean, and we have our wonderful agriculture."

Those sentiments were echoed last week by Jenni Cook, chairwoman of the Escondido Chamber of

Commerce economic development committee.

"Escondido definitely needs an influx of new businesses, and maybe this could help," said Cook. "This is

something that looks forward and that might change the city's image."

The idea was also praised by a consultant who has advised many of the roughly 50 fledgling wineries

that have opened in the county in recent years.

The consultant, Carlsbad resident Pete Anderson, said he frequently gets calls from new vintners

struggling to overcome the expenses and red tape required to establish a crush pad, fermenting facility,

bottling plant and tasting rooms.

Sharing a plant in Escondido, which vintners and wine consultants said would be the only plant of its

kind south of Santa Barbara, would make things much easier for them, he said.

Anderson said such cooperative plants have been quite successful farther north in California, and that

burgeoning membership in the San Diego Amateur Winemaking Society is evidence there would be

demand here.

Good timing?

Anderson said the timing for a cooperative crush pad could be perfect, with the rapidly increasing cost of

water prompting many local farmers to considering switching from citrus and avocados to grapes, which


3 of 6 8/6/2011 5:20 PM

require much less water.

The proposal could also save much of Escondido's agricultural industry, which shifted its focus from

grapes to more profitable crops in the late 1930s when several infrastructure projects made water more

plentiful in the area.

However, Anderson said the county's recent relaxation of rules governing tasting rooms could make

demand for the cooperative wine plant significantly less than it would have been a few years ago.

But he said the plant would still help give fledgling vintners the time to cultivate popular wines that could

create a strong reputation for Escondido.

"They've got to spend time finding the grape that grows best on their site, and then making wines that are

marketable," he said, explaining that the varied microclimates and growing sites in the county could each

be ideal for different grapes.

Chris Broomell, whose family owns Triple B Ranches winery in nearby Valley Center, said the

cooperative crushing pad would be helpful to established wineries as well as newcomers. Broomell said

his grapes could produce more wine than his equipment can process, and that the plant could help with

the excess.

But he said the most significant benefit of the plant would be reducing the enormous upfront costs that

often discourage aspiring winemakers.

"Your first wine won't be for sale until five years after you start ---- and that's rushing it," said Broomell,

who helped Barlow, the Cal Poly student, create the 55-page proposal. "It can cost millions of dollars to

break into the wine industry."

The plant would also foster crucial collaboration among vintners, Broomell said.

"It's important to build a community of people focused on producing high-quality wine," he said.

Location and features

The proposed plant would include a 1,250-square-foot education wing, which would feature a chemistry

lab for wine testing and a classroom operated by either MiraCosta College in Oceanside, which has a

horticulture program, or Cal State San Marcos.

The education wing and a proposed 7,000-square-foot restaurant would increase the plant's cost to

roughly $9 million, but the actual wine-making portion would be less than $4 million.

Broomell and Councilwoman Diaz said they haven't begun approaching developers and venture

capitalists.

Waldron and Mayor Sam Abed said the city couldn't afford to pay even a portion of the costs for the

plant. But both said they'd support relaxed zoning and city efforts to market Escondido as a wine region.

"Knowing that the city is interested and supportive might help create momentum," Abed said.


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Finding a suitable location is another problem, Diaz said.

The proposal envisions building the plant just south of Westfield North County mall in a region known as

Mule Hill, but Diaz said that location probably won't work because of sensitive habitat there and other

environmental concerns.

Diaz said she heard about the Cal Poly student's proposal accidentally during a chance encounter on a

plane flight to the Bay Area.

She also said that some leaders of Escondido's agricultural industry, most notably the Grangetto family,

have casually discussed creating some sort of local cooperative for wine-making in recent years.

"There's been lots of earlier whispers, but this proposal brings it all together," said Diaz, noting that she's

been encouraged by the positive reactions she received for the cooperative crushing pad idea in recent

weeks. "Somebody will come up with a way to make this work."

Call staff writer David Garrick at 760-740-5468

Copyright 2011 North County Times. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Posted in Escondido on Saturday, July 30, 2011 5:30 am Updated: 1:55 pm. | Tags: Inland, Escondido,

Winery, Temecula, Escondido City Council,

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Exhibit C

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jhbarlow

Eric L. Girven ~ Eric Girven - offering dedicated CA / CM...

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Cabernet grapes grow on the vine at the

Orfila winery in Escondido. (Photo:

HAYNE PALMOUR IV)

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Student Project Used by City to Define Its Future

Councilwoman Diaz said she heard about the

Cal Poly student's proposal accidentally during

a chance encounter on a plane flight to the Bay

Area. — North County Times

I always tell graduating students to take their projects

to real life and grass root campaign them. Well, so it

happened to one Cal Poly, Pomona architecture

student John Barlow, class of 2010 advised by

professor Kip Dickson, when his project fell into the

hands of interested Escondido City Council and the

rest of the story is very inspiring for young graduates

of design schools.

"City officials say a new proposal to have developers or venture capitalists build a cooperative

wine-processing plant in Escondido could turn the city into a prominent wine-growing region."

See the pdfs of the project here.

2 Comments

Liebchen

Aug 2, 11 4:47 pm

Hope someone saw fit to give the kid a job...

Orhan Ayyüce

Aug 3, 11 8:34 pm

Yes, but more importantly, he will create his own job. I've found this story very interesting

because as the model of architectural practice needs to change, so should getting into the field

from places outside of the classic architect's apprentice in an office. This model has been

keeping the profession at bay and the pattern needs to be broken.

Self starting and grass rooting within the respective communities by the young architects will

open new doors and new ways to take the profession into the 21 st. century. I don't believe

young graduates 'have' to start from drawing bathroom partitions and move up to project

management in thirty years.. The world events are much faster than that 19 th. century model of

building and design practice.

Post a new comment as jhbarlow:

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Exhibit D

Home / News / Opinion / Columnists / Rusty Harris / Rusty Harris

HARRIS: A purple future for Escondido

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HARRIS: A purple future for Escondido

By Rusty Harris North County Times | Posted: Sunday, August 7, 2011 12:00 am | No Comments Posted

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Escondido has been a city in a seemingly endless search for an identity, a sense of self.

But after exploring virtually everything to be known for and help create jobs, the city's best shot at

finding its future identity is in its past: the proposal to make Escondido a wine-industry hub with a grape-

crushing and bottling plant.

True, the city has a lousy record of going after grand ideas. So it would be wise to let this newcomer age

a bit before getting too excited about it.

This one, though, seems to require relatively little governmental involvement and cash to come to fruition.

But most important, the proposal fits Escondido and its history.

More than most of its North County brethren, Escondido in recent decades has appeared to be grasping

to be "known" for something.

From Oceanside to Fallbrook, each community managed to find its own sense of self or something that

others readily identify with them, be it a specific thing (beaches) or atmosphere (funkiness, charm).

Not so much Escondido ---- but not for lack of trying.

Since the 1980s, the city has tried mightily to make itself a regional cultural/arts hub with the

construction of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, and the infusion of millions in subsidies to

support it.

But after nearly two decades of effort, the term "financially struggling" is stuck to the arts center tighter

than the ivy on City Hall. Meanwhile, the rise of tribal casinos as entertainment venues all but dooms the

center's future.

HARRIS: A purple future for Escondido http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/harris/article_8ad9731...

1 of 3 8/7/2011 2:38 PM

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This century, there's been a flurry of other ideas, most prominently thoughts that the city might become

known as a sporting town.

First, it was the possibility of landing the Chargers' new football stadium complex. Then, the Padres'

minor-league farm teams considered calling Escondido home. Both were grand hopes that have since

withered away.

The grape-crushing plant proposal, though, actually fits the city, its location, and its present and past ----

all in a unique way no other community can match.

Escondido has a century-old history of being a grape-growing community, and is unique in hosting a

"Grape Day Festival" and having its central park named "Grape Day."

City activists revived the festival as an annual event in 1996, and the past few years have seen a

mini-boom in the art and industry of wine-making at Escondido-area vineyards.

Sure, Temecula's Wine Country thrives on the other side of the Rainbow Gap. But with hard work, its

existence could become a vital plus to the Escondido crushing plant idea.

Then Escondido's search for an identity would come full circle ---- back to what it originally was.

All hail the grape; may it and Escondido thrive.

Rusty Harris of Vista is the former managing editor of the North County Times. Contact him at

[email protected].

Copyright 2011 North County Times. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Posted in Harris on Sunday, August 7, 2011 12:00 am Updated: 5:40 pm. | Tags: Columns, Opinion,

Rusty Harris, Escondido, Wineries, Arts Center

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Exhibit E

Home / News / Opinion / Editorials / Editorials

EDITORIAL: Roses and raspberries

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EDITORIAL: Roses and raspberries

North County Times opinion staff North County Times | Posted: Monday, August 8, 2011 12:00 am | No

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A pair of 'Dedication' roses

A pair of roses to Lt. Cameron West and the Marine Corps to mark West's return to duty. The young

officer was seriously wounded in combat in Afghanistan last year, losing a leg, several fingers and part of

his vision. West has spent the past months recuperating from his wounds and going through physical

therapy. With a new prosthetic leg, the dedicated Marine is now able to return to work part time,

working with young recruits in weapons training. That West still wants to serve his nation after suffering

life-altering injuries is inspiring; that the Marines have evolved in their own thinking to keep wounded

veterans in the service rather than dismissing them, as in the past, is not only a morale booster (studies

indicate that wounded troops often feel isolated when they're involuntarily separated from the service),

but is a smart use of our human resources. The taxpayers spent not a little money educating and training

West to be a Marine officer, and that knowledge can be shared with younger Marines and put to use in

many other capacities as West continues his physical rehab.

A 'Creative thinking' rose

A blooming bouquet of red roses to the folks behind the proposed cooperative wine processing plant for

Escondido. The idea is that vineyards would combine resources for a single processing plant to reduce

costs and share expertise. Although such a plant would not be cheap or simple to build, the idea is

gaining some traction with the Chamber of Commerce and several City Council members in favor of

further exploring it. Such a proposal seems a good match for Escondido, fitting in with the city's

ambience, economic structure and history. It's too early to tell yet whether it will succeed, but it's

encouraging to see people thinking of different ways to reinvigorate the city.

SendRecommend Be the first of your friends to recommend this.

EDITORIAL: Roses and raspberries http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_351a785c-bc7a-5...

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SDAVA Wine Production Facility Escondido Ca

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