By Lauran Sanders | Your Valley
As the city of Peoria continues to grow, the economic development team continues to support existing businesses while attracting new industries to improve the quality of life in the city.
“You hear the phrase, ‘live, work and play,’ and that’s kind of what we were after, so we have shaped a lot of long-term effort to improve the quality of life,” Chief Business Attraction Officer David Valenzuela said.
The team focuses on the workforce within the region rather than just the residents in Peoria, he said.
“We demonstrate the work to the workforce … Here’s where the businesses should be setting up because they have close access to the workforce,” Valenzuela said.
About 25,237 employers live within a 30-minute commute to a location near Bell Road and Loop 101, according to Maricopa Association of Governments commute shed analytics.
“If I want advanced manufacturing, I have to demonstrate to those companies that I have a workforce skilled enough to come in and build these products that they want in a very efficient manner,” Valenzuela said.
