Paso Robles has an ambitious plan to create more jobs. Here’s how
If there’s one challenge in San Luis Obispo County, it’s finding a job with a livable wage — but the city of Paso Robles is trying to change that.
Through the development of its “technology corridor” along Airport Road, the city and its stakeholders hope to create thousands of new, well-paying jobs to allow locals to stay local.
Take it from these stats from Cal Poly: According to its 2026 graduation numbers, only about 18 percent of Cal Poly students get a job in SLO County after graduation. That means that of this year's graduating class of 7,500, only about 1,350 would realistically get to stay around.
Paso Robles economic development manager Paul Sloan said the city’s kept its eye on engineering graduates specifically.
“I think (Cal Poly has) a dozen or so engineering degrees, whereas, even up till now, people graduated from Cal Poly, they typically left the area because they knew where the jobs were, but they’d like to stay in this area,” he said. “They leave in the technical fields. They go up to Silicon Valley, down in L.A. or out of state.”
But Paso Robles is now hoping to have some skin in the game as it invites big tech to its airport area.
“The Airport Road corridor is taking shape as one of the most significant economic development opportunities Paso Robles has seen in a decade,” Sloan said.
Jobs in space technology
Right now, surrounding businesses in the airport corridor include the Paso Robles Municipal Airport, Hope Family Wines, the Ravine Water Park, the Paso Robles Horse Park and the Sensorio light installation, among others.
Between them all, there are about 700 jobs.
But now these businesses will have new corridor neighbors including Zone 5 Technologies LLC, a new SLO-based aerospace technology company.
According to Sloan, the company confirmed a warehouse and office space at the airport in May, with plans to bring 200 jobs.
While the company isn’t yet hiring for the Paso Robles location, its current SLO location at 827 Buckley Road has openings for electrical and mechanical engineers, among others, with pay ranging between $122,000 to $199,000, respectively.
Zone 5 did not respond to The Tribune’s request for comment about opening.
The aerospace company’s expansion comes amid the city’s efforts to obtain a spaceport license at the Paso Robles airport, which would allow space tech companies like Zone 5 to research space travel and launch horizontal rockets into Earth’s orbit right from the airport’s runways.
Jobs in tourism and development
Also on the docket is The Landing, an $800 million development projected to replace the old boys school on Airport Road, which has sat vacant for nearly 20 years.
Purchased by Los Angeles-based Majestic Realty, the company hopes to develop a 1-million-square-foot community hub with retail businesses, wineries, hotels and conference centers.
The Landing is anticipated to create nearly 2,700 permanent, onsite jobs, with an additional 3,200 jobs in construction.
What’s to come?
Stacie Jacob, president and CEO of Travel Paso, said that this is just the beginning of job creation at the corridor, and that these new developments could create 10 times the number of jobs that are there right now — that’s 7,000 jobs.
“We are unlocking jobs. ... We don’t even know what some of these other jobs will enhance,” she said. “We know The Ravine now just celebrated 20 years, the wine district is going to continue to grow and expand as the industry comes back — it’s pretty fascinating.”
