By Cecilia Chan | Mesa Tribune
The city Office of Economic Development’s Foreign Direct Investment strategy is targeting countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Germany to recruit export-oriented, capital-intensive industries to Mesa.
The department launched the strategy this year.
“Our strategy focuses on attracting export-oriented, capital-intensive industries that strengthen the city’s advanced manufacturing and global trade economy – really leveraging our core competitive advantages,” Economic Development Director Jaye O’Donnell said.
Those advantages include the city’s two airports – Falcon Field and Mesa Gateway with its Foreign Trade Zone and SkyBridge, Arizona, according to O’Donnell.
Mesa Gateway is designated as a Foreign Trade Zone, which provides private businesses benefits such as duty deferrals and tariff exemptions.
SkyBridge is an international air cargo hub housing both Mexican and U.S. customs, enabling companies in Latin America to cost-efficiently transport goods by slashing delivery times.
Other advantages are the significant amount of workforce pipelines through educational partners, open land and industrial land or industrial buildings in the city’s inventory, O’Donnell told the City Council’s Economic Development Advisory Board.
She noted that although there’s some concern with the amount of industrial development in southeast Mesa, the good news is the inventory is quickly absorbed.
“We have almost 46 million square feet of inventory for industrial and flex space,” she said. “We’ve been absorbing year over year about 4.3 million square feet. Our vacancy right now is 21.6%.
“So we have 9 million square feet that’s vacant, another 2 million under construction, and so it’s still a bullish market. There’s still good absorption happening, and so people are confident that it’s still a good investment.”
