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Economic
& Business News Fall 2007
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Planning for the Phoenix “Megapolis”
The Arizona Department of Transportation announced that it is already
looking at possible routes for a new freeway that would run east-west traffic
around both Phoenix and Tucson.
The proposed freeway would cut off of Interstate 10 on the west side
of Phoenix and reconnect on the east side of Tucson. Currently, I-10 is the only freeway
connecting those two cities whose downtown areas are about 120 miles
apart. But the suburbs of Phoenix already stretch 60 miles south toward Tucson and the suburbs of Tucson reach 40 miles to the north. State planners expect the gap between the
cities to fill over the next decade and the population of the two metro
areas, now about 5 million, to double by 2040. The U.S. Census Bureau designation of this
twin city as a “megapolis” may help Arizona get more
federal funds for this $4 billion project.
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High-Rise Apartments Slated
for Downtown Phoenix
The Phoenix City Council
recently approved a second high-rise apartment complex for the downtown
area. The Jet complex will include
20,000 square feet for shops, 120,000 square feet for offices and 675
apartments configured in two towers.
One tower will have 23 floors and the other tower will rise 36 floors, 360 feet high. The other apartment building, Alta Phoenix,
will include 10,000 square feet of retail, a parking garage and 326
apartments in an eight-story tower.
The Alta Phoenix is already under construction and its modernistic,
loft-style apartment will be ready for occupancy by summer of 2008. The city of Phoenix has promoted these projects in
order to assure an adequate supply of affordable rental properties in the
downtown area. In order to keep the
rental prices down, the city will buy the land under the buildings, once they
are completed, and lease the land back to the developers at low rates.
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Airport to be called
Phoenix-Mesa Gateway
The authority that runs
the Williams Gateway Airport
is considering a name change to make it easier for the public to identify the
location of the airport. Almost
certainly the authority will adopt the name “Phoenix-Mesa Gateway
Airport” after
considering public comments. Some
veterans who trained at the former Williams Air Force Base are objecting to
the name change. After 60 years as a
military base, it became a civilian airport in 1993. Then in 2006 the city of Phoenix
bought a share of that airport, located on the eastern edge of the
metropolitan area in the city of Mesa,
with the intention of developing it as a reliever airport, particularly for
cargo. The airport has three parallel runways, two of them are more than 10,000 feet long.
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US Airways to Buy 92 New
Planes
US
Airways, now headquartered near the Phoenix
airport following the acquisition by America West Airline, announced that it
plans to buy 92 passenger jets from Airbus.
The new planes will replace older aircraft, specifically B 767 planes,
keeping the US Airways fleet at about 360 aircraft. Currently, US Airways has 205 Airbus planes
and 148 Boeing aircraft, the result of the merger of the two airlines. Airbus will deliver ten 330-200 planes
starting in 2009 followed by 60 A320 planes between 2010 and 2013. An additional 22 Airbus A350 aircraft will
be delivered in 2013. US Airways hopes
to use some of these A350 planes for a route to China that it is bidding on
now. The airline did not reveal the
price of the contract for the 92 planes, but the list price would total
between $10 and 11 billion.
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Amazon.com Opening
Distribution Center
Amazon.com, Inc. announced
that it will open a massive distribution center on the western side of Phoenix. It is leasing a brand-new, 600,000
square-foot-warehouse near Interstate 10 which leads to Los Angeles. Even though the Amazon.com facility will be
highly automated with sophisticated equipment to catalogue, store, retrieve
and pack thousands of books and CDs, the company plans to hire about 950
employees. During the busy season the
number of employee will expand to around 1,400. The good news for Phoenix residents is that they will now get
same day delivery for most products they order from Amazon.
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Operating Costs Lower in Phoenix
Phoenix ranked as one of the least expensive U.S.
cities for operating a large, administrative corporate office. The Boyd Company, a location-consulting
firm in New Jersey, recently completed a
detailed study about the annual costs of operating a hypothetical 55,000
square foot office with 350 employees in 30 major U.S. cities. New York City
was the most expensive at $28 million, followed by San Francisco at $26.7 million. Phoenix
ranked number 28 at just $22.4 million.
The study included labor costs, property and sales taxes, facility
amortization, corporate travel and utilities.
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Phoenix
School of Law Accredited by ABA
In June, the Phoenix School of
Law gained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association. This is good news for Arizona’s only
private law school, because this means its students will be allowed to take
the Bar exam upon graduation. The
school opened in January 2005 and currently has 128 students. The school will be eligible for full
accreditation in three years following further evaluation. The dean of Phoenix School of Law predicts
that enrollment will climb to 800 students within eight years.
The school offers part-time and
evening degree programs that are geared to practical training for
lawyers.
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Upgrades Planned for Deer Valley
Airport
The Phoenix Aviation Department
is planning about $130 million of improvements to the city-owned Deer Valley
airport. Deer
Valley is one of the busiest general
aviation airports in the U.S.
with more than 400,000 takeoffs and landings in 2006. City officials are expecting that number to
rise to 650,000 by 2025. In
anticipation, the City is planning to extend one runway from 4,500 feet in
length to 6,080 feet and to widen it from 75 to 100 feet. Corporate jets will be restricted to the
southern runway while the smaller, private airplanes will be restricted to
the northern runway. The new airport
layout will have to be approved by the Federal Aviation Authority before
construction begins.
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Phoenix is the Safest Big City
for Drivers
Allstate Insurance Company released the results of its annual
survey on accident rates in 200 U.S. cities. For the third year in a row, Phoenix ranked as the
safest city with more than one million people. The average Phoenix driver will have an accident every
9.8 years, according to the Allstate study.
In the overall list, Phoenix ranked as
78th safest city, well ahead of New York City
at 169, Chicago at 183 and Los Angeles at 185. The safer driving record of Phoenix can be
attributed to the newer, wider streets, generally clear skies, dry weather
and the near absence of snow. For
those same reasons, most of the suburbs of Phoenix also ranked among the top 100
safest cities.
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TGen Finds Genes
Related to ALS and Cancer
The Phoenix-based, non-profit
Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen)
announced that it had identified slightly over 50 genes with consistent
aberrations in the blood of people suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s
disease. Now it should be easier to
test for the disease and to find cures.
TGen identified these aberrations after
screening the genomes of 1,250 people with ALS and 2,000 people without
ALS. In a separate research project at
TGen, undertaken with Eli Lilly and Company,
scientists from the two companies discovered a recurring mutation of a
particular gene, the AKT1 gene, in people with breast, colorectal and ovarian
cancers. This is an important clue for
finding a cure to cancer.
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Company
Highlights
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Upcoming
Trade Shows
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First Solar, Inc. Expanding Production
Phoenix-based First
Solar, Inc. broke ground on a new plant to manufacture photovoltaic cells in Malaysia
in August. The company also has plants
in Ohio and in Germany. Its shares have increased sharply from the
$20 range when it went public in November 2006 to around $100 per share in
mid-2007. Sales revenue totaled $144
million for the first half of 2007 with most of the sales in Germany. First Solar, Inc. manufactures solar modules with an
advanced thin film semiconductor process that significantly lowers solar
electricity costs.
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Assoc. of Neuromuscular Medicine, Oct 17 - 20
The American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) will hold its 52nd
annual meeting at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix in October. About 1,000 neurologists,
physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians, and other specialists who
treat patients with muscle and nerve disorders are expected to attend the
conference. There is space for about 50 exhibitors. The AANEM meeting
is the premier event for physicians to learn about the latest treatments and
research related to neurological and musculoskeletal pain. Visit
aanem.org for more information.
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Avnet to Acquire
European Computer Vendor Avnet Inc., a Fortune 500 firm based in Phoenix, announced plans to purchase the
European Enterprise Infrastructure Division of Magirus
Group, an international IT company.
The transaction should close in October, after regulatory
approval. The acquisition should
greatly expand Avnet’s sales of HP and IBM servers, storage systems
software and services in seven European nations and Dubai.
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National Assoc. of EMS Physicians, Jan 10 - 12 The National
Association of EMS Physicians is planning its next annual meeting in January
at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix.
About 500 medical specialists are expected for the conference and
trade show, mostly EMS doctors. There is room for some exhibitors. The
conference will provide continuing education opportunities to providers of
out-of-hospital emergency medical services.
For more information, visit naemsp.org.
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Mayo Clinic Hospital
Expanding in Phoenix
The
Mayo Clinic
Hospital in north Phoenix is expanding its medical services and
its physical plant. The 208 bed hospital
opened a 175,000 square-foot-specialty clinic last October and now it is
adding rooms for 36 more beds. In
addition, Mayo is shifting surgical doctors from its research clinic in Scottsdale to the hospital in Phoenix.
The hospital specializes in cancer care, solid-organ transplants,
cardiovascular programs and neuroscience.
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Sports Turf Managers Association, Jan 14 - 20
The annual conference and trade show of the
Sports Turf Managers Association will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center
in January 2008. The Association is projecting
an attendance of more than 900 men and women who manage sports fields and
facilities at schools, parks and professional stadiums. Over 150 companies are expected to exhibit
their products and services. The
conference will feature the newest technologies for maintaining natural turf
and synthetic surfaces to safe and pleasing standards. Visit stma.org for
more information.
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Responses are welcome.
Please send questions and suggestions about this quarterly newsletter, or
requests to be removed from the mailing list, to Paul Katsenes at business@phoenix.gov.
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