City of Mesa
Home EconDev MenuJanuary 2023
2022: Another great year for economic development in Mesa!
We continue to have tremendous economic success in the City of Mesa. Our community is a hotspot for companies looking to expand or relocate. We continue to see increasing interest from the semiconductor, aerospace, electric vehicle, and advanced manufacturing sectors. Here is a quick review of some of the more high-profile achievements of the year.
JANUARY: Wharton Industrial announced plans to invest more than $200 million to develop a 1.5 million-square-foot, Class A industrial park, The Hub@202 in southeast Mesa. Lowe’s leased 1.2 million square feet in the Cubes at Mesa Gateway in southeast Mesa.
MARCH: FUJIFILM Electronic Materials completed an $88 million expansion of its electronic materials manufacturing facility in southeast Mesa adding 80,000 square feet and 120 new employees. Alverno College cut the ribbon on its new nursing education center in Mesa’ Fiesta District. Wetta Ventures announced the construction of the 450,000-square-foot Gateway Commerce Center II in southeast Mesa.
MAY: Meta announced it would expand the Meta Mesa Data Center Campus (currently under construction) to more than 2.5 million square feet, bringing its total investment to more than $2 billion.
JUNE: KP Aviation opened the doors of its 64,500-square-foot facility and corporate headquarters after relocating from Reno, Nevada. Gateway Grand broke ground on more than two million square feet of industrial space south of Gateway Airport. AeroCheck MRO expanded to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, taking 48,000 square feet of space. SkyBridge Arizona announced it would build a 129-room dual-branded Wingate and Hawthorn Suites hotel and an additional 500,000 square feet of industrial space.
JULY: Virgin Galactic announced it would locate a new assembly manufacturing facility for its next-generation Delta class spaceships at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The facility will be capable of producing up to six spaceships per year and will bring hundreds of highly skilled aerospace jobs to Mesa. Mekong Plaza located in Mesa's Asian District, broke ground on a more than 35,000-square-foot expansion of its existing 100,000-square-foot retail center. ViaWest Group broke ground on Advanced Industrial Park, a more than 335,000 square feet of Class A industrial development in the Gateway Area.
AUGUST: Danieli, one of the top three manufacturers in the world for metalmaking plants and machines, celebrated the grand opening of its West Coast Service Hub in Mesa's Gateway Area. Developers Principal, Newport Commercial, and Manncor Realty Advisors celebrated the groundbreaking of the more than 583,000 square foot of flex industrial space at Power Industrial in the Gateway Area.
SEPTEMBER: Boeing completed the expansion of its 155,000-square-foot advanced composites fabrication center and will hire an additional 150 employees. Contour broke ground on the 1.55 million-square industrial park, Sossaman Park 202, in southeast Mesa. Tharaldson Hospitality announced it will build a hospitality campus to include three separate hotels to support Bell Bank Park in southeast Mesa. In total, the project will include 365 rooms and 7,600 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
OCTOBER: JX Nippon Mining & Metals broke ground on its 273,000-square-foot electronic materials manufacturing facility. ASU and the City of Mesa celebrated the ground opening of ASU at Mesa City Center in downtown Mesa. The $97 million investment includes the MIX Center, The Studios, and the outdoor plaza. Thompson Thrift broke ground on Elliot Tech Center, a one-million-square-foot, mixed-use industrial and retail project in Mesa’s Elliot Road Technology Corridor.
NOVEMBER: IndiCap began construction on Eastmark Center of Industry, a 113-acre, 1.6 million-square foot Class A industrial Development. Gulfstream Aerospace, with a 250,000-square-foot facility already under construction, expanded its presence at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway by leasing an additional 58,000 square feet of hangar space.
DECEMBER: ElectraMeccanica opened the doors of it 235,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and engineering technical center and announced it would move its corporate headquarters to the Mesa facility as well. The facility will have the capacity to produce 20,000 vehicles per year.
The Office or Economic Development and its partners have worked hard to drive economic progress in Mesa. The Office has garnered a few awards of its own in 2022.
- Mesa Office of Economic Development was named Southwest Owner/Developer of the Year by ENR Magazine.
- Elyce Gobat, Mesa Office of Economic Development Project Manager, was honored as Young Economic Developer of the Year by IEDC.
- The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) awarded the Mesa Office of Economic Development a silver award for the special event, AZLabs Infinite Movement Conference, and a bronze award for the Meta Data Center Campus project.
- Arizona won a coveted Gold Shovel Award from Area Development Magazine. Three of the more than 10 economic development projects qualifying Arizona for this award where in Mesa – ElectraMeccanica, Meta, and Gulfstream.
- The Arizona Association for Economic Development (AAED) awarded the Mesa Office of Economic Development a Golden Prospector Award for Economic Development Deal of the Year for Mesa’s attraction of Meta’s 396-acre, 2.5-million-square-foot mission critical data center campus, a $2 billion project that brings 2,000 construction jobs and more than 200 high-tech operation jobs upon completion.
The volume and scale of the development activity in Mesa is extraordinary. Stay tuned for another great year as we expect to see strong activity in 2023. www.SelectMesa.com
Generational and performance expert Mark C. Perna to speak at Mesa Chamber Event
Join bestselling author Mark C. Perna to discover the game-changing strategies that are shifting the education and employment paradigm nationwide. Everyone – educators, employers, economic developers, parents, stakeholders, and community leaders – can use Mark’s nationally acclaimed tools to unleash the true potential of today’s younger generations.
Monday, January 23, 3-5PM
DoubleTree by Hilton Phoenix Mesa
1011 W. Holmes Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85210
Purpose-driven education and training is the heartbeat of this inspiring call to action. Though they are often painted in a negative light, today’s young people have incredible power to change the world. We just have to unleash it. As the skills gap widens, we must tap into the vast creativity, intelligence, and potential of the next generation.
A father to two successful young people, Mark delivers key insights on how they think, what makes them tick, and how they make decisions. Mark will show you how to connect, engage, and answer why. With clear action steps you can implement immediately both in your home and professional life, this message will help you forge a human connection with young people, move them from static to active purpose, and empower them to achieve at a higher level.
Now you can join your colleagues across North America who are using these cutting-edge best practices to improve the outcome for their students, employees, organization, and community. Join Mark to recharge your passion for making a difference and start motivating young people like never before.
Visit Mesa launches new advocacy video, sharing the story on visitor spending & impacts
Visit Mesa has launched a new storytelling campaign about the power of the visitors as part of the destination marketing organization’s on-going advocacy outreach under the brand: Visitors Mean Business. The new video highlights the latest visitor industry impacts.
The video, which is supported by a targeted marketing and social media campaign, illustrates three examples of how tourism activity in Mesa can benefit locals. Examples include visitation impacts from convention and meeting attendees, athletes, and visiting friends and families when large scale conferences and sports events are held in Mesa, in addition to year-round leisure travel activity. The educational piece was created to deliver the message to locals and residents about the value and benefits of a healthy visitor economy and was launched at the start of Mesa’s high tourism season. Visitor traffic to Mesa and the surrounding region supports existing and new restaurants, attractions, and small businesses.
Visitors to Mesa generated an economic impact of almost $1 billion and Mesa's visitors sustained 4,825 hospitality jobs in 2021, with an additional 2,220 jobs supported by the indirect and induced impacts. Combined, 6.7% of all employment in Mesa was backed by visitor spending, or one of every 15 jobs in the city. More impacts are shared throughout the video. To view the entire video click here; or go online to www.VisitorsMeanBusiness.com. Visit Mesa’s Visitor Profile and latest research can also be found online.
The 2023 Visit Mesa Visitors Guide is now available HERE.
Mesa named one of the top digital cities in the U.S.
Mesa has made the top 10 list among cities with populations of 500,000 or more in the Center for Digital Government's 2022 Digital Cities Survey and is the highest-ranked Arizona city in that category. This is the sixth consecutive year Mesa has made the top 10 list and the fifth in the category of 500,000 or more population. The annual survey recognizes cities using technology to tackle social challenges, enhance services, strengthen security, and more.
"I am very proud of our employees who have collaborated to make the City of Mesa more secure, user-friendly, efficient, and resilient," said City Manager Chris Brady. "Closing the digital divide is a major priority of the City, and their dedication and innovative efforts are making technology a driver of better, smarter and more responsive government as our population continues to grow. This award is a great recognition of that."
Mesa placed 5th among cities in its category, its highest ranking ever. San Diego was rated at the top of the list. Other cities in the top 10 include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Charlotte and Dallas.
The survey praised Mesa for several digital accomplishments:
As part of the effort to close the digital divide, the City has expanded Wi-Fi in the downtown area and recently signed license agreements with four providers, including Google, to increase internet options for Mesa residents.
Mesa's mature cybersecurity program has been bolstered by federal grant funding. A staff-designed backup system was recently created to harden vulnerabilities identified in a recent tabletop exercise.
The Real Time Crime Center, launched in May 2022, offers a host of innovative technology tools aimed at enhancing public safety.
Payment kiosks were recently installed at Mesa Municipal Court to integrate with existing systems to provide more self-service capabilities for residents.
More City departments are using the chatbot to improve community engagement. Fire and Medical, Police, Animal Control, Municipal Court, Transportation, Licensing, and Library now use the tool with plans to add it to the main website. The chatbot has answered two-thirds of the thousands of inquiries it receives, while directing the remainder to staff to follow-up.
Using multiple vendors helped mitigate supply chain limitations that have plagued information technology (IT) operations nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
A partnership with a local recovery company, ER2, gives the City credits for its older computers that are turned over to low-income residents in need of devices.
"The City of Mesa and the other top digital cities are taking the IT department far beyond the role of service provider," said Travis Cutright, Mesa Chief Information Officer. "We are exploring creative ways to leverage our technology investments and redefining the role of the public-sector technology leader at the city level."
The top-10 ranked cities will be honored at an awards dinner during the National League of Cities' annual conference in Kansas City Nov. 17.
The survey honors cities in five classifications: 500,000 or more; 250,000 to 499,999; 125,000 to 249,999; 75,000 to 124,999 and fewer than 75,000. The Center for Digital Government, which conducted the survey, is a national research and advisory institute focused on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Learn more HERE.