Manteca looks to be next entertainment hub in San Joaquin County

CBS News

13-05-2025

MANTECA — Making Manteca the next best stop in the Central Valley. Already one of the fastest-growing cities in the state, Manteca is now planning on keeping people and bringing the entertainment to them.
Just north of Daniels Street, right next to the Big League Dreams Ballpark Complex and at the western edge of Manteca's city limits, is the area that could soon be called "the FEZ."
Right now, the area is zoned and ready for development, but the city wants public input first to see which companies or businesses they can attract.
It's all part of an effort to make people not only visit but hopefully make Manteca their home.
"What it stands for is the 'family entertainment zone,'" said Manteca Mayor Gary Singh. "As we know, the city of Manteca is the family city."
Singh says the city is ready to add to its sprawling footprint in the Central Valley with this next big project.
"Residential growth is here, it's already going on. The question is how do we keep all of those individuals that are living in our community to stay here and spend their money here," he said.
Annually, the city says it already brings in over one million visitors to the western side of the city.
Because of the success of the Great Wolf Lodge as well as the Big League Dreams Fields, now the city is hoping to expand by turning these empty fields on the western edge of the city that have sat dormant for years as the next big entertainment zone in San Joaquin County.
"It would be fun for the families. I got two daughters, so now I'd have somewhere to take them," said Adrian Rojo.
For Rojo and his growing family, he wants to see the city become that central hub in the Central Valley.
"Kind of tired of driving to Sacramento and Los Angeles and the Bay Area, so I think it would be super dope," he said.
In late March, Manteca posted a video to their YouTube channel trying to attract not only developers, but also users and businesses to the area.
The mayor says he and other city leaders are going to a conference next week in Las Vegas to market the FEZ around and see who wants to develop here. The area is already zoned, the mayor says, they're trying to make it as business-friendly as possible.
So how can the community help pick what they want?
The mayor says a survey already went out to some people around the city earlier this year and the results were restaurants, very family restaurant-driven.