With 5,000 autos for sale at all times, its largest shopping mall newly remodeled and Wal-Mart breaking ground on the old Fedco site, National City seems likely to hold its place as the region’s smartest sales tax generator.

“We’ve found we have to be aggressive in attracting commercial businesses here,” says Paul Desrochers, executive director of the National City Community Development Commission. “We only have eight square miles — that’s not a lot of space to attract large developers. But we haven’t been sitting still, that’s for sure. If we do, we’ll watch all the other businesses go to other cities.”

Why is retail business so important to the city? Because the sales tax generated by these businesses runs the city, says Desrochers. “We have more sales tax revenue per capita than any other city in the county,” he adds. “We’re also one of the top in the state.”

The numbers back up Desrochers’s claim. Zinda Jimenez, senior accountant, revenue and recovery division for the City of National City, reports the city received $13.9 million of sales tax revenue in the 2002 fiscal year. That’s compared to $11.6 million in 1999. “So it’s visibly going up every year,” Jimenez says.

Much of this income is derived from one industry — the National City Mile of Cars. This group of 11 auto sellers with 22 franchises has become a top generator of taxable revenue for the city, with close to three-quarters of a billion dollars in sales every year, Desrochers says. The city receives 1 percent of these sales in taxes.

“Every year for the last 10, the Mile of Cars has set sales records,” notes Weldon Donaldson, co-executive director for the Mile of Cars Business Improvement District. “We sell about 24,000 new and used cars a year. Plus, all the dealers have a parts and service facility. We are the largest auto mall in the country as far as sales and the number of cars we have in stock.”

The 50-year-old affiliation of dealerships promises shoppers that 5,000 cars will be available at all times, a number that Donaldson checks periodically. The dealerships also employ about 2,500 people.

The next greatest revenue generator in the city is Plaza Bonita, with almost 1 million square feet of retail space. The mall has just undergone a remodel. Its owner, Westfield Shoppingtowns, is looking at options, such as revamping the defunct Montgomery Ward site. But business is picking up. “Robinsons-May at Plaza Bonita reports it has the most volume in the county after Fashion Valley,” Desrochers says.

The Sweetwater Town & Country Mall contains a Circuit City, a Pacific Theatre 9-plex and an Office Depot. Across the freeway to the west is a mall on the National City-Chula Vista division line. The Dixieline, Party City and Ross are within the National City limits, while Wal-Mart is in Chula Vista.

Mom-and-pop shops make up the bulk of the Plaza Boulevard and Highland Avenue retail zones, with many businesses catering to Filipino and Hispanic tastes, Desrochers says. In this same area is an abandoned Fedco site, which “for 30 years was the symbol of National City,” Desrochers says. Target had bought all the Fedco sites, but it already had a store within two miles. A deal with Kmart died when the chain filed Chapter 11 recently.

The good news is ground was just broken for a new Wal-Mart.

For decades, the downtown area of National City had a reputation for being “a mile of bars,” Desrochers says. But now that many of these establishments have closed, the city is concentrating on creating an educational center with an SDSU campus, a UC extension and a Southwestern Community College satellite. “It’s a $25 (million) to $30 million project," Desrochers says. “We expect the ground-breaking to occur in July.”

It’s constant work for National City to attract and retain its retail residents. But it’s an effort the city appears to be winning. “It’s a fight for us to keep our sales tax,” says Desrochers. “But it’s important to the city that we do so.”