By Don Harris August 30, 2019
It’s been a very good year for Goodyear! The West Valley city of about 85,000 is attracting some of the biggest corporate names on the planet – names such as Amazon, Microsoft and Nike. The West Valley city of about 85,000 is attracting some of the biggest corporate names on the planet – names like Amazon, Microsoft and Nike.
Goodyear touts its educated and skilled workforce, access to foreign trade zone sites, ample space for development, a low cost of doing business, schools with A ratings, and 20,000 acres of outdoor recreation. What’s more, it’s a transportation hub, with I-10 slicing through the city providing access to and from Los Angeles, and outer Loop 303 jutting north, connecting with routes to Las Vegas and Flagstaff.
Sandra Watson, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority, said Goodyear has experienced incredible economic growth over the past several years – notably in the manufacturing and industrial sectors.
“The ACA has proudly partnered with the city to announce recent projects from Microsoft, Nike, fairlife, Gorbel, Andersen Corporation and Chewy, Inc., which will result in significant job creation and investment in the community,” Watson said in an email. “In fact, since January of 2015, we’ve worked with 18 companies that have committed to creating 3,730 new jobs and investing $1,715,842,000 in Goodyear.”
Goodyear Mayor Georgia Lord said there are many reasons why Goodyear continues to attract companies of all sizes. In an email response, Lord said Goodyear has planned for this growth by making necessary investments to ensure there are shovel-ready sites available to go along with a safe and quality community.
Lord said Goodyear’s location plays a significant role in its success and growth, mentioning several major freeways, plus highway 85 that connects with Mexico.
“These routes provide important access for many of our business partners and residents, as well as increasing the workforce reach for our businesses,” she said. “In addition to these major transportation corridors, the National Fiber Pipeline parallels (highway) 85, which has contributed to attracting advanced technology companies to our city.”
The mayor also mentioned that the city “streamlined the process of how we get new businesses up and running in Goodyear – this efficiency change has proven our commitment to helping new businesses succeed by ensuring project timelines are met.”
Asked to comment on the Nike deal, Lord said, “The Nike project will bring over 500 new jobs and capital investment to our community. We are excited that they are committed to bringing Air Manufacturing Innovation to Goodyear and we look forward to seeing them become operational next year.”
Lori Gary, director of Goodyear’s Economic Development Department, provided an insider’s view of the city’s success.
“It’s all about understanding where you want to go, having a plan to get there, and focusing efforts to move the plan forward,” she said in an email. “In 2013, Goodyear’s Economic Development Department began the process of establishing a vision and a plan for economic development.”
The plan identified areas on which the city has been focused, specifically the need for pad-ready sites and spec buildings, and taking advantage of the existing military reuse and foreign trade zones.
When it comes to incentives, Goodyear determines the benefits each project will bring to the community. “Agreements may include specified reimbursements for hiring, training, relocations and related expenses for positions which meet specific wage and benefit requirements, and reimbursing all or a portion of review and permit fees,” Gary said. “The company also has very specific obligations which must be met in order to qualify for the reimbursements. All projects for which incentives are offered must have an independent third-party analysis performed.”
Goodyear also has programs to assist small and locally owned businesses and nonprofits – programs such as ASU Startup School at the InnovationHub @ GoodyearAZ, which consists of six free facilitated workshops, and monthly networking meetings as part of Business Builder. The city also offers one-on-one mentoring and special classes and workshops.
Microsoft announced on July 30 that it will develop datacenter campuses in Goodyear and El Mirage and a third one elsewhere in Arizona to support the growing demand for cloud and internet services. Microsoft said it is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop these datacenter campuses in Arizona, which are expected to create more than 100 high-level jobs.
A few days before the Microsoft announcement, Amazon Logistics said it will open a delivery station location in Goodyear – Amazon’s third facility in the city. Amazon said it will create hundreds of job opportunities for full-time and part-time employees, small businesses and independent contractors.
News in July of the Nike decision to cancel a shoe that featured an early design of the American flag and caused some racial concerns, triggered a middle-of-the-night tweet from Gov. Doug Ducey saying: “Arizona’s economy is doing fine without Nike.” He wanted to withdraw $1 million in incentives offered to Nike by the Arizona Commerce Authority.
Goodyear officials stood by their offer reportedly totaling some $2 million to lure Nike into building a manufacturing plant in their city. The deal reportedly involved waiving about $1 million in permit fees and reimbursing Nike up to $1 million for employees hired if certain conditions were met. At the height of the brouhaha, the mayor issued a statement: “We will honor the commitment we made in our agreement.”
Lord said the job creation agreement that was unanimously approved by herself and the City Council guarantees quality jobs, significant capital investment and sets a deadline for operations to begin in 2020.
“The city will reimburse a small portion of the revenues received through Nike’s investment, if they uphold their commitments which are outlined in the agreement,” Lord said. “In addition, the city expects to gain millions of dollars in revenue which funds key city services including police and fire protection and parks programs.”
Nike did indeed choose Goodyear, despite the governor tweet. The athletic apparel manufacturer promises to invest $184 million in its facility, hire 505 full-time employees, and pay an average salary of nearly $50,000.
Gov. Doug Ducey showed up Thursday for this Independence Day event wearing sneakers made by the company whose conduct he had criticized just the day before. (Twitter/Coconino County Democratic Party)
Ultimately, Ducey welcomed Nike to Arizona.
Another big win this year for Goodyear occurred when Compass Datacenters agreed to build two new data centers on a 225-acre tract, adding to the city’s growing technology corridor. The company’s plans call for six additional data centers there.
At the time, the mayor said: “Goodyear is quickly becoming a dynamic location for tech companies and knowledge workers.”
In a press release, Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass, said: “Greater Phoenix is a natural next step for Compass since it’s an important location for cloud and hyperscale customers, due to its geographic location, availability of fiber connectivity, affordable cost of data center operations, and the rarity of natural disasters.”
Asked how she responds to critics who say government should not be picking winners and losers by offering incentives, Lord said, “The city of Goodyear considers all our community partners to be winners. By vote, our residents developed and approved the city’s general plan which guides development and our decisions regarding prospective companies.”
About future prospects, the mayor said: “It has been an incredible year in Goodyear in terms of new business, and we hope this momentum continues. … We anticipate the announcements will continue into the near future.”
In Phoenix, where one of six new Arizona jobs is created, Christine Mackay, Director of Phoenix Community and Economic Development, said she expects to continue seeing strong interest from new companies attracted to Phoenix and Arizona.
During fiscal year 2018-19, new companies and those already in Phoenix created slightly more than 15,000 new jobs, accounting for about $1 billion in new capital investment, Mackay said.
Among Phoenix’s economic development prizes are: Wayfair, a supply chain provider, 50 jobs; Creighton University, which committed to a new medical school at Park Central, 100 jobs; Honeywell Aerospace expanded its presence in Deer Valley, more than 300 jobs; Amazon expanded its product division, 110 jobs; Central Admixture Pharmacy Services Inc., a California-based firm that specializes in the outsourcing of compounded sterile preparations, nearly 400 jobs; We Work, a co-working firm that offers a variety of options for flexible use of the workspace for companies and individuals, established three locations; and USAA, 1,100 information technology jobs.
Looking ahead, MacKay said, “We’re still seeing, as we have moved into fiscal 19-20, seeing really strong activity across all sectors. We’re not seeing one start to pause yet. Office, manufacturing, high tech, advanced business services – we’re still seeing really strong activity.”
But MacKay said some companies are getting a little more cautious with some of the things that are going on in the economy, including trade tensions.
“None of them seem worried,” she said. “None of them have given any indication that they see any slowdown in sight.”
While Phoenix provides a snapshot of economic development in the metropolitan area, rural Arizona communities are attracting new businesses as well. For example, Bullhead City landed Dot Foods, the largest food industry re-distributor in North America, for its Southwest Distribution Center. Dot Foods Inc., which carries 127,000 products from 930 food industry manufacturers, created more than 200 jobs.
Dot also began a close partnership with Mohave Community College to develop a commercial truck driver training program.
