Mesa has learned a valuable economic lesson.
The city used federal grant money to commission two studies on downtown: one on the viability of health-care-related industry, the other on higher education. City Council members had hoped the studies would recommend specific developments for Site 17, the notoriously empty swath of land near Mesa and University drives.
But that's not what happened.
Consultants had a difficult time studying the viability of either industry on the site because most of Mesa's assets in those fields exist outside downtown.
Both studies concluded there were significant health-care and higher-education opportunities to be had in Mesa. That's good news, considering those industries are the "H" and "E" of the city's "HEAT" economic strategy.
Mesa Mayor Scott Smith unveiled the strategy just after taking office in hopes of attracting more high-wage jobs by strengthening the city's existing health-care, education, aerospace and tourism industries. It's good to know the city is on the right track.
But neither study broke much new ground. The conclusions mirrored what Smith and others within the city have been saying for more than a year.
Neither included detailed recommendations for Site 17, a point that visibly disgusted several council members last week when the studies were presented during a study session.
But that's where the lesson comes in.
Smith recognized after the meeting that Mesa had fallen into a common trap, hoping the studies would offer grand ideas to fill a vacant piece of land. It was focusing on a real-estate opportunity, rather than on the most effective strategies to woo high-wage jobs Mesa's way.
Site 17 needs to be filled. But engineering the market to build something there is not the way to do it.
Smith says Mesa should focus its energy on selling the city to health-care companies and colleges and letting them choose the best site for their needs.
He's right.
Though much work remains to finalize that strategy, Mesa now has a much sounder foundation on which to build it - one filled with third-party data about Mesa's assets, not just city intuition and a desire to fill empty real estate.
An important lesson, indeed.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2010/09/09/20100909mr-edit0910.html#ixzz0z5tVakYu
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