Victorville scrambles to keep Rubbermaid

Victorville scrambles to keep Rubbermaid    Less than a month after breaking ground on a massive distribution center project, the City of Victorville is scrambling to keep their newest industrial resident.
   Part of the 10-year deal that lured consumer goods manufacturer Newell-Rubbermaid to build their center in Victorville was a promise by the city to provide enough electricity for the firm's new 408,000-square-foot distribution center.
   Rubbermaid's 10-year, $15-million lease for the property also provides an option to occupy up to 2 million square feet at the nearby Southern California Logistics Airport within five years.
   With a September deadline approaching, the city has had to appropriate $1.58 million of city money to the electrification project. If the city fails to meet the deadline, Rubbermaid could back out of the SCLA portion of the deal altogether.
   Under development by Stirling Airports International and the Victorville city government, the proposed 8,500-acre Southern California Logistics Airport project will convert a former military base into one of the largest combined rail, ground and air transportation centers on the West Coast. The complex is set to one day involve 65 million square feet of development and generate 13,000 jobs.