The airport is operated by the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority. PMGAA consists of representation from Apache Junction, Mesa, Queen Creek, Gilbert, Gila River Indian Community and Phoenix.
With news of space-travel company Virgin Galactic setting up a final-assembly manufacturing facility near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, other aerospace companies could be enticed to open in the southeast Mesa area, officials said.
The airport is operated by the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority. PMGAA consists of representation from Apache Junction, Mesa, Queen Creek, Gilbert, Gila River Indian Community and Phoenix.
Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. signed a long-term lease for the facility for its next-generation Delta class spaceships. It is under construction and is expected to be fully operational by late 2023 and capable of producing up to six spaceships per year and bringing hundreds of highly skilled aerospace engineering and manufacturing jobs to the area, according to a release.
“Virgin Galactic — we expect that is going to be about 800 jobs. There will be supply-chain consequences from having that type of a large manufacturing facility. There will be plenty of jobs and businesses that will be drawn to Mesa to support that,” Mesa Mayor John Giles said.
“And also, you can’t buy that kind of publicity as far as doubling down on the story of Mesa being an aerospace hub — Boeing, Gulfstream and adding Virgin Galactic to that list of logos is really going to elevate the whole area generally but also specifically when it come to aerospace,” he said.
The Delta class spaceship is Virgin Galactic’s production vehicle that is designed to fly weekly, supporting the company’s target of 400 flights per year from Spaceport America. Based on current schedules, the first of these ships is expected to commence revenue-generating payload flights in late 2025, progressing to private astronaut flights in 2026.
The company is selecting various suppliers to build the spaceship’s major subassemblies, which will be delivered to the new Mesa facility for final assembly. Virgin Galactic motherships will ferry completed spaceships to Spaceport America, New Mexico for flight test and commercial operation.
Aerospace is one of the city of Mesa’s strategic initiative industries of opportunity, Bill Jabjiniak, Mesa economic development director, said.
“I think aerospace has always been a focal point for us. It’s part of what I call our strategic initiative industries of opportunity,” he said.
It is also in line with the city’s H.E.A.T. initiative — health care, education, aerospace, tourism and technology, he said.
“So the aerospace piece of what’s going on is Virgin Galactic, Gulfstream’s expansion; when you think about aviation and aerospace, they’re sort of lumped together. So with both of those you’re going to see continued supply chain and primary employers. So it will be good. Every time we have a major announcement it’s more momentum for the city of Mesa,” Jabjiniak said.
Tilt-up concrete industrial warehouses are popping up all over southeast Mesa and more are on the way, as meeting agendas show for the Mesa Design Review Board, Mesa Planning and Zoning Board and Mesa City Council.
The buildings — many larger than 500,000 square feet — can be split up into smaller uses, such as 10,000 square feet.
“We’re seeing no slowing in it — even throughout the pandemic. I was surprised at how it continued through the pandemic. It was far from an economic downturn, it was really the best of times,” Giles said.
Danieli Corp.
A business supplying CMC Steel Arizona with equipment and parts recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new 10,000-square-foot west coast service hub at 4631 S. Power Road Suite No. 110 in Mesa in Mesa’s Gateway area.
Danieli USA is the American subsidiary of Danieli & C. S.p.A. which is in Buttrio, Italy. Danieli USA includes Danieli Co., Danieli Taranis and Danieli Centro Recycling.
While the business mostly ships its parts, the Mesa hub’s proximity to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is a plus, Paolo Losso, Danieli Corp. president and chairman of the board, said.
“Yes, very close to the airport. Usually we ship our equipment in by vessels, which is the easiest and conventional way. But, when we are in a rush, we air freight. And it happens quite often, to be honest, that we are in a rush and we need to provide parts for the running of the plant and for that reason if that happens having an airport nearby like Mesa [Gateway] Airport here is certainly to be a great plus for our own operations and eventually the CMC mill which will take advantage of it,” he said.
CMC Steel is constructing a second mill and using Danieli machines, Losso said.
“CMC Steel was already running a mill and then they needed to purchase more and they needed to produce a wider range of products to supply the Phoenix, Arizona, market and the southwest of the U.S. They decided to build a second mill next to the original one. It was the same technology they’re currently using in their mill, which has been perfected, made more efficient,” he said.
The focus of the Gateway area is advanced manufacturing and CMC Steel and Danieli are great examples of that, Mayor Giles said.
“This is really high-tech manufacturing, it’s very green, and so this is a great example of supply chain and a ripple effect. When you are spending hundreds of millions of dollars every few years to expand the steel plant, you’re going to have this kind of supply chain businesses that are going to locate here and you are going to multiply at the second and third and fourth tiers the employment impact and the economic impact of that type of an investment. So advanced manufacturing is certainly something we are targeting and CMC and Danieli are great examples of that,” he said.
About an hour before the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Danieli facility, Mayor Giles and other city officials marked the groundbreaking of a four-building Power Industrial flex development at the southeast corner of Pecos and Power roads.
Designed by DLR Group, the single-story speculative development will offer 583,955 rentable square feet of industrial space. It will be developed within Mesa’s Pecos Advanced Manufacturing Zone, with access to water, natural gas, fiber and SRP’s 69kV transmission, according to a release.
“We were just moments ago at another industrial park event and it’s the Pecos Advanced Manufacturing Zone and so clearly that’s what we are recruiting and targeting,” Giles said.
Clayco — a real estate development, master planning, architecture, engineering and construction firm — is collaborating with civil engineering firm Cole and structural engineering firm PK Associates to complete construction in March 2023, the release states.
The four buildings have been designed to provide parking and amenities for future tenants to maximize their space needs in this fast-growing submarket, it states.
Other warehouses
City boards and the council have recently discussed a variety of large and small industrial warehouse developments in southeast Mesa including:
• A commercial warehouse and office is planned west of Ellsworth Road and south of Pecos Road in Mesa. The Mesa Design Review Board on July 12 voted unanimously to approve the design and site plan for the facility. The site plan shows development of a 12,236-square-foot, two-story building with 6,500 square feet of warehouse space and approximately 5,700 square feet of office space. The proposed building height is 26 feet 6 inches.
• A special use permit was recently modified for a comprehensive sign plan at an industrial and commercial development west of South Signal Butte Road on the north side of East Elliot Road in Mesa. The Elliot Tech Center is designed for mixed commercial uses with multiple tenants. The permit was approved by the Mesa Board of Adjustment July 6 of a consent agenda with other items.
• Preliminary design for an industrial development on 34 acres north of Germann Road and east of Hawes Road recently was discussed by the Mesa Design Review Board. The site plan shows three large industrial buildings for a total of nearly 500,000 square feet.
• Preliminary design for an industrial development north of Germann Road on the east side of the Crismon Road alignment recently was discussed by the Mesa Design Review Board. The site plan shows one large-scale industrial building totaling approximately 1 million square feet,
Richard Dyer Managing Editor | East Valley @RHDyer
Meet Richard Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.
Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions.
Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.
Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.
Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.
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