'Overnight success that has taken 30 years': Wonderful's Resnick jokes with audience at Shafter ribbon-cutting
His success in business is evident across the southern Central Valley, in sprawling ag fields and in a large distribution hub in Shafter. But it's not often Stewart Resnick is seen at large events in Kern County.
Late Thursday morning, though, the co-owner of Los Angeles-based The Wonderful Co. walked up, stood before an audience of more than 200 people just north of 7th Standard Road and took a moment to adjust the microphone downward. Then he opened with a joke.
Resnick, diminutive in a blue button-down, long-sleeve shirt and jeans, said normally when he comes to such events people look around and say, "You're Stewart Resnick?"
"I say, 'I used to be 6 foot 4. My competition came and beat me into the ground,'" he said.
He's humble, folks. Even when surrounded by dignitaries celebrating another one of his company's large investments in the local economy.
Resnick had come to join them to mark the opening of Wonderful's new Amenities Center, a gleaming new complex with a tech training center, office building and subsidized restaurant with an urgent care center still to come.
The center serves as the welcoming heart of the Wonderful Logistics Center, which the company proposes to almost double in the years to come. If the City Council approves, the company hopes also to build thousands of new homes for workers and their families.
Resnick called the already large development "one of our most ambitious projects," a state-of-the-art facility populated by Fortune 500 companies on land where three decades ago there were only orchards.
"This is an overnight success that has taken 30 years," he quipped after thanking those in attendance for sharing the day.
"Now let's go show the world what Shafter and the Central Valley can do!" he said in closing.
Wonderful has already had a big impact on farming communities in the valley portion of Kern County, especially in Lost Hills and Delano, where in addition to being a major employer, the company has opened charter academies, wellness centers and more.
Shafter is the next big focus. If Wonderful moves forward with an expansion of the distribution-center hub, the logistics center's employment base is expected to expand over time from about 13,000 to 50,000. Housing units the company proposes to build would expand Shafter's population by about 40%.
The Amenities Center is sort of a precursor to those developments. Its training center works in partnership with Amazon and Bakersfield College to introduce job-seekers to tech-oriented warehouse jobs. The office building boasts numerous art pieces, and the restaurant serves healthy meals at relatively low prices.
Thursday's gathering drew representatives of many of Kern's most prominent business, government and educational organizations, many of whom accepted offers to tour the new buildings.
Resnick's humility was matched by that of invited speaker Supervisor David Couch, who said he was coming from a local government perspective when he told the audience, "We can't do anything, and I mean anything, until you all make something, provide a service."
"The revenue that local government gets comes because you all come to work every day," Couch said. "It all starts because somebody … took the risk to invest their money in this community."
Shafter Mayor Chad Givens was up next. He said the city prides itself on how business operates in Shafter and how it is able to move in operators as fast as possible.
"We're a very business friendly city and we're thankful for that," he said before expressing gratitude to Wonderful for its work in the city.
Former City Manager John Guinn, now Wonderful Real Estate's executive vice president and chief operating officer, told the crowd Resnick and his wife, Lynda Resnick, have shown their commitment to the families of the Central Valley. In his experience, they want nothing more than for the region to become a strong, vibrant place to live.
"Everything they talk about, they actually do," he said. "That's uncommon."
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