As the city of Peoria continues to grow, the economic development team continues to support existing businesses while attracting new industries to improve the quality of life in the city.

“You hear the phrase, ‘live, work and play,’ and that’s kind of what we were after, so we have shaped a lot of long-term effort to improve the quality of life,” Chief Business Attraction Officer David Valenzuela said.

The team focuses on the workforce within the region rather than just the residents in Peoria, he said.

“We demonstrate the work to the workforce ... Here's where the businesses should be setting up because they have close access to the workforce,” Valenzuela said.

About 25,237 employers live within a 30-minute commute to a location near Bell Road and Loop 101, according to Maricopa Association of Governments commute shed analytics.

“If I want advanced manufacturing, I have to demonstrate to those companies that I have a workforce skilled enough to come in and build these products that they want in a very efficient manner,” Valenzuela said.

With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company building a semiconductor fabrication plant in the north Valley, they will need a workforce skilled in engineering oriented-positions, according to Economic Development Director Jennifer Stein.

“They’re located up there now because of our workforce in Peoria and this region. We have a number of engineers, software programmers and tech employees,” she said.

Stein added companies will typically expand to an area that supports their labor pool.

“The research that we do is to identify the kinds of jobs out there that are well paying, are future ready and will be good for several years,” Valenzuela said.

He added the key industries the team currently pursues include manufacturing, biomedical and cross industry businesses.

“I’m talking about something that adds value to semiconductor chips... something that’s advanced in both the product and the way it’s manufactured,” Valenzuela said.

Cross industry businesses earn the name when they do not fit under one category of industry.

“All you know is that it’s innovative, and they’re creating jobs. And they’re attracting people that need these kinds of jobs that are diverse, so we want to make sure that we’re paying attention to those kinds,” Valenzuela said.

The city recently worked with a company of educators developing and testing educational products. This company falls under multiple industries, including education, teaching, software or gaming, according to Valenzuela.

“They hired somebody to do programming with one of the game engines…. They are programming an environment in which they will then get VR [virtual reality] headsets to have students work with them,” Valenzuela said.

“We do the research into it to make sure we’re going after the right thing. ... It’s all about putting our limited resources for business attraction into the best possible way of getting jobs and being able to respond to others."

In addition to the research conducted by the economic development team, the team works with community advocates and ambassadors to remain aware of the residents’ desires such as health care, Stein said.

“People don’t want to drive a long distance to get a procedure, come home from a procedure or go to a physician’s assistant. So you’re seeing a lot more medical offices, specialized offices to accommodate the community,” Stein said.

Amanda Miller, a resident of North Peoria, said she feels the town needs more options for the younger crowd.

"I drove around the other night looking for something open at 11 p.m. and nothing that served drinks was open, so it was very frustrating,” Miller said.

Stein said the team continues to work on getting restaurants at 83 Marketplace, Park West and the P83 Entertainment District, including a dining district concept that the residents asked for.

Valenzuela said it’s not just a matter of can you get more restaurants.

"There’s limited chains that people would like to see around this area ... so we work with a lot of people who develop new concepts,” Valenzuela said.

The team plans to add more hotels in the northern part Peoria to support the tourism brought from Paloma park and Lake Pleasant.

“Different projects are in the works to accommodate tourism. We know that’s a really important industry and...that employment is expanding and growing in Peoria,” Stein said.

Valenzuela said executives come to Peoria for tourism activities, and they decide to bring their business here or start a business here.

“With the lake being in our backyard, we probably see in the million range [of visitors] that get out there and need amenities, and we’re getting them introduced,” Stein said.

Valenzuela and his team proactively target business within the top three industries, while working with developers to build space for businesses, which is at a premium right now.

“One of the challenges is having existing space right now for businesses that are 1,000 to 5,000 square feet. It is very difficult for them to find existing space to move into that’s affordable and let alone finding it at all,” Valenzuela said. “The cost of real estate has just gone up and up everywhere. And it’s affected how certain kinds of companies can lease space in certain buildings, buy land or build a building.”

People providing the finances for the buildings also play a crucial role in the types of buildings that get developed.

“Some guys only want to put money into big boxes half a million feet and up; some other developers want to put money onto smaller products,” Valenzuela said.

In addition to higher prices in real estate, companies also face challenges because of the inconsistency in the supply chain.

Companies order products months in advance to counteract the delay in shipping and to avoid increasing prices, according to Valenzuela.

“Pressures in the supply chain are huge factors that aren’t a shortcoming on Peoria, we’re just having to fight those larger environmental factors,” Valenzuela said.

Peoria remains a leading business location because of the work the city does to improve quality of life, the infrastructure and the preparedness for new businesses, Valenzuela said.

“We can go after anybody, and what they’re going to find is a community that we’ve made an investment in. The city council says we want to be the best place to live and that’s a bigger and bigger factor,” Valenzuela said.

Editor's note: Lauren Sanders is a student at the ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.