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TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – The University of Arizona’s Tech Parks Arizona is being recognized as one of the top innovation districts in the nation.
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The district allows companies from across the U.S. to come to the park and grow their businesses, bringing jobs to southern Arizona and more people living in the area, according to the park.
Tech Parks Arizona said the recognition will allow it to grow its reach further.
Company growth at park
Jesse Farrar and Sebastian Hunt-Farmer moved to Arizona in 2021 to help start Dimensional Energy, a clean energy company, at Tech Parks Arizona.
“We had less than 10 people on staff full time. Past that now, we’ve been able to rapidly expand,” Hunt-Farmer said.
Five years later, after turning a plot of land into a process facility in a year, the company has a hub in Vancouver, Canada, and has added more employees, many from southern Arizona and the University of Arizona.
“We get grad students; we got internships that can come out of that. Plus, we have the local industry with the mining industry and the oil and gas guys that supply the employees that have the skills we need to proceed,” Farrar said.
Dimensional Energy is one of more than 100 companies working out of Tech Parks Arizona.
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National recognition
The facility is one of six out of 42 innovation districts across the country recognized for performance in housing and neighborhood stability.
Casey Carrillo, Tech Parks Arizona’s chief innovation officer, said the park employs nearly 10,000 people with an average salary of $75,600, which exceeds the Tucson metro area. Carrillo said many of those employees are University of Arizona students and graduates.
“Attracting companies to land here in Tucson and then attracting employees as well, which creates this larger economic impact,” Carrillo said.
Researchers found that the neighborhoods surrounding the tech park outperform other regions in population growth, educational attainment, income growth, and housing development. Tech Parks Arizona has an economic impact of $2.6 billion per year, which Carrillo said will grow as the park works toward creating workforce housing surrounding the park in Vail.
“Obviously, Vail is growing at a great rate, so again, being able to have a location where these larger tech companies can have an outpost and really grow is part of our goal,” Carrillo said.
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