Businesses that have made the move to the West Valley spoke to an enthusiastic crowd last week at the annual economic development summit sponsored by WESTMARC (Western Maricopa Coalition). Those businesses that talked about why they chose the West Valley represented the aerospace and defense industry, education, health care, manufacturing and renewable/clean technologies.
Earl Wiggins, vice president of ultracapacitor operations for Maxwell Technologies in Peoria, gave the audience an unexpected piece of information, when he said his company is a net exporter to China. Headquartered in San Diego, Maxwell Technologies expects to move into its Peoria facility this year north of Thunderbird Road in the business park adjacent to Rio Vista Park.
For the last six years, Maxwell has experienced 20 percent growth per year – all based on ultracapacitors, electric energy storers.
Wiggins said there are more than 10,000 hybrid buses on the road that use Maxwell ultracapacitors.
“You can charge it and discharge it a million times,” he said.
Saying all of its growth would take place in the West Valley, Wiggins said by 2015, all manufacturing capacity will be its first on-shoring effort. It is able to get is costs lower in the U.S. than in China.
“We’re bringing industry back to the U.S.,” Wiggins said.
In 2014, Maxwell will add engineering teams to crate a product development center.
A fast-paced presentation by Nate Nathan, president and designated broker for Nathan & Associates, estimated there would be a 42 percent increase in single family residences the next three to five years in the West Valley.
“If you’re going to invest money in homebuilding, do it here,” he said.
He called the State Land Department the most important agency in Arizona, adding that private industry would need 75,000 acres in the next 10 years.,
“West of White Tanks is going to happen,” Nathan said. “The future is out here.”
Prime Solutions Group president Joe Marvin said his company went from one employee, himself, to 10 from 2007 to 2013. Home-based in Phoenix and Goodyear, PSG is a Military Re-use Zone and anchor tenant in the Goodyear Technical Center. He said one of the reasons Goodyear and the West Valley was chosen was its educated workforce, and its proximity to Luke Air Force Base. It is also in a central location, mid-state, and has formed professional and technical networks.
“We’re rapidly growing, here to stay, preparing to grow globally,” Marvin said.
Christine Clouse, director of development at Midwestern University, talked about the last 20 years of the medical school in Glendale, calling the time ambitious. Since establishing a presence in the West Valley in 1995, the school has constructed 15 buildings containing one million square feet on 156 acres.
Today, there are 3,500 students enrolled in six colleges and degree programs, and 4,500 alumni. Soon, Midwestern will open Arizona’s first college of veterinary medicine.
“The decision to expand has paid off,” Clouse said.
In all, Clouse said Midwestern had a $303.8 million impact on the Maricopa County economy in fiscal year 2011. Since 1995, she said, Midwestern has invested $265 million in Glendale.
Jeff O’Malley, vice president of strategy and business development for St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center explained his business, and why its parent company, Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Health Care), is building another hospital in the West Valley. It is the fifth-largest nonprofit health care system in the U.S. and the second largest in Arizona.
O’Malley said St. Joseph’s officials see growth in the West Valley, in spite of recent stagnant growth. The company is spending $44 million on a 60,000-square-foot facility that will house a 24-bay emergency department and 24 inpatient beds.
He said hospitals are 80 percent of the bioscience jobs in Arizona, and contribute $13 million to the state economy.
O’Malley said Dignity is responding to the shift to wellness and prevention by employers, growth in outpatient and preventative environment, and insurance companies moving to bundled payments. That response includes smaller, multi-purpose facilities, retail health care, consolidation of health care assets, and the trend to more employed or closely aligned physicians.
Bill Lawrie, corporate manager of manufacturing engineering at Sub-Zero in Goodyear, said his company outgrew its distribution space in 2007 in Phoenix, and by 2010, opened a new facility in Goodyear. In 2011, there were 278 employed in Goodyear, but that number has grown to 376, plus 56 people still at the Van Buren Street location in Phoenix. This year, Lawrie said three new product lines will be launched.
“More than 60 percent of all Sub-Zero products are made in Goodyear,” Lawrie said.
Why locate in the West Valley? For one, Lawrie pointed to the facility’s availability. He said the company has a partnership with Goodyear, is in the Greater Maricopa Foreign Trade Zone, and a major consideration was its proximity to California.
As for the future of the West Valley itself, Barry Broome, CEO of Greater Phoenix Economic Council, said 68 percent of economic growth in the Phoenix metropolitan area will occur in the West Valley. Broome said the West Valley is leading the nation in job growth.
Adding to the positive projections for the future of the West Valley, keynote speaker Michael Bidwill, president of the Arizona Cardinals, said negotiations are still being discussed with the City of Glendale concerning summer training camp for the football team.
Bidwill said the West Valley needs to improve its infrastructure, and he hoped WESTMARC would work with the West Valley caucus of state legislators to solve those problems. He said public private partnerships could solve those issues, starting at the state level, then the county, and finally, the city. With an Arizona Commerce Authority presence in California, he suggested quarterly trips to that state and “start telling our story.” He said the 2008 Super Bowl brought $500 million to the Valley, and the Cardinals organization credentialed 3,000 media.
When asked about the most important industry going forth, Bidwill replied, “tourism, aviation, and defense.”
“I think cyber security is huge,” he said.
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