Gov. Jan Brewer and the Arizona Commerce Authority announced on Nov. 4 that Apple had chosen Mesa as the site for its newest manufacturing facility, which will bring 700 permanent jobs and 1,300 construction and other associated jobs to the East Valley.
Apple has recently began a push to bring jobs that were typically overseas back to the U.S. The company has not disclosed what will be made at the new facility, but the city and state are excited to have such a prominent company in Mesa.
Gov. Jan Brewer said in a press release how excited she is to have Apple come to the region and invest in the state.
"Apple is indisputably one of the world's most innovative companies, and I'm thrilled to welcome them to Arizona," she said in the release.
The project to bring Apple to Mesa took only a few short months as much of the infrastructure and building that was move-in ready were already in place, Senior Project Manager Scot Rigby said.
"We had an existing large building so that helped, having a building ready to go and we had the infrastructure ready to go," he said. "So that means for a company like Apple to walk in turn everything on, do the improvements they want to do they can be up and running in a fairly short amount of time."
Mesa Mayor Scott Smith said he hopes Apple investing in the city will show the city and state's ability to have other technology companies invest.
"The name Apple carries some weight, and we hope that others will look at the area, Mesa in particular, to recognize that a big company like Apple will make an investment in the area (so) there must be something good going on," he said. "We've already heard from economic development people that they have had other inquiries since it was announced."
Professor Dennis Hoffman, director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute at the W. P. Carey School of Business, said he thinks the economy will grow because of Apple coming to Mesa.
"It's an export-based business," he said. "So manufacturing by its very nature provides economic benefits to the region."
Hoffman also said an company as well known as Apple will be helpful to strategists to attract other large technology companies.
"In this particular case, you've got Apple, which is an important brand name that can be used by economic development strategists to create a buzz among other technology companies," he said.
Bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. has been a part of a new initiative by Apple in recent months and Rigby said he thinks the quality workforce Mesa can provide played a key factor in bringing the company to the city.
"It's always great to be able to employ the American workforce," he said. "And I think by Apple choosing to locate here, not only in the U.S. but in Arizona. ... Mesa really stood out as being able to provide a quality workforce with very competitive utility costs (which) allowed us to beat out many other sites across the nation for this facility."
Sandra Watson, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority, said she thinks Apple coming to Mesa is a huge win for the state.
"Apple's confidence in Arizona and its selection of Mesa as the site of its newest manufacturing facility represents an enormous win for our state and a historic investment in our community," she said in a press release. "One that will create hundreds of quality jobs for Arizonans."
Reach the reporter at jshanco2@asu.edu or follow him Twitter @Joey_Hancock
