Pima County is a sun-drenched region in southern Arizona boasting a strong economy, a long history, leading academic institutions, a wide array of outdoor recreational opportunities, and an eagerness to grow. This eye toward growth is embodied in the Pima County Economic Development office, which works in tandem with other county and state entities to enhance opportunities for residents and businesses alike.
“Our reason for existence is to diversify this economy, create better career opportunities and earning potential, and make sure we’re doing that in an equitable way,” states Heath Vescovi-Chiordi, Director of Economic Development for Pima County.
There were 1.05 million people in Pima in 2023, according to Data USA, a 0.725 percent increase from the previous year. Residents are spread across 9,200 square miles, with a median age of 39.7 years old. In terms of geography, Pima is about a six-hour drive from San Diego, California, while the county’s southern portion abuts the border with Mexico. Pima County is blessed with good weather, enjoying more than 350 days of sun per year with an average daily temperature of 69 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pima County’s economy development initiatives, Vescovi-Chiordi tells us, fall under the categories of business attraction, business retention and expansion, infrastructure development, and workforce development. Business attraction is all about enticing new companies to the area, and to this end, Pima County economic development staff generate leads (using specialized software) and contact businesses directly. The county also aims to gain the attention of companies in other nations; Pima is “working directly with various states in Mexico to attract investment,” he says.
Pima personnel have visited Mexico, and the county has hosted Mexican trade delegations as well. Foreign investment might take the form of brick-and-mortar facilities or, alternatively, Mexican firms “could plug into supply chain or manufacturing opportunities” in Pima County, Vescovi-Chiordi notes.
As for business retention and expansion, county economic development representatives frequently check in with the owners of existing businesses to discuss their needs, challenges, and goals. When possible, the economic development office endeavors to connect business leaders with appropriate resources or contacts.
Infrastructure development centers on projects based on lands earmarked for economic development, while workforce development consists of “several different initiatives,” Vescovi-Chiordi explains. “One of them is the Pima Aviation Alliance, where we work with district schools to prepare individuals for careers in aviation and aerospace, because that’s one of our core industries in the region.”
The Pima Aviation Alliance is run in conjunction with Pima Community College (PCC) and other partners, with PCC offering an in-depth aviation technology program centered on aircraft repair and maintenance. The college is one of the leading educational institutions in Pima, along with Pima Medical Institute-Tucson and the University of Arizona (both of which are based in Tucson, the county’s largest city.) The University of Arizona conducts world-class astronomy and astrophysics research and accounted for the lion’s share of the 19,000-plus university degrees awarded in Pima in 2023. The Pima County Economic Development Strategy 2023–2026 estimates that over 33 percent of county residents aged 25 and up have a post-secondary degree.
County officials highlight local academic specialties as one way to attract new businesses. The University of Arizona’s Wyant College of Optical Sciences, for example, offers well-regarded optics and photonics programs. Such technologies can “support all of the other industries that we have in the area, like aviation and aerospace,” says Vescovi-Chiordi. The University of Arizona is also “a Hispanic-serving institution, which really helps bolster our opportunities and engagements with Mexico,” he adds.
He cites aerospace and defense, transportation, distribution, logistics, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, healthcare technology, biotech, and pharmaceuticals as industries Pima County would like to attract. Advanced manufacturing could include the production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, he notes. The county is also keen on clean and renewable energy (solar power being a bit of a no-brainer considering Pima’s enviable status as an epicenter of sunshine) as well as agriculture and agricultural technology firms.
“We also dabble in some mining technology opportunities… There’s a very significant presence of mining in the region,” Vescovi-Chiordi adds.
Given Pima’s eco-friendly ethos, the county prefers to work with mining technology companies that emphasize sustainable practices, “so that we’re mitigating the negative impacts of what mining does to the Earth itself with remediation techniques and technologies.”
Land ownership represents another tool in the Pima County economic development toolkit. The county holds “several types of assets throughout the region that are dedicated to economic development. One of these are land assets that we leverage for large-scale economic development projects. I think at this point we’ve got an inventory of about 2,000 acres, give or take, of publicly owned land that we deploy for economic development purposes,” says Vescovi-Chiordi.
As noted, the Pima County Economic Development office doesn’t operate in isolation. “We work on a lot of different things within this department, but by no means do it on our own,” he says. “We work with the City of Tucson and their economic development department. We also have 30-plus departments within Pima County itself. We do a lot of internal coordination with regulatory departments—the Department of Environmental Quality, Regional Wastewater, Flood Control—these types of things. We also work with other departments that are involved in things we do like community and workforce development.”
Pima County economic development representatives have also accompanied the Arizona Commerce Authority, a statewide pro-business organization, on trade missions abroad. “We went with them to Taiwan last year to [investigate] semiconductor and packaging opportunities, and we’re going to be doing that again this year. As mentioned, we’ve gone to Mexico several times on different missions and have had delegations from Mexico come here as well. So, we’re hitting it on all cylinders.”
Businesses considering setting up in Pima County have plenty of spaces to choose from at sites such as the Aerospace Research Campus, Kino Sports Complex, and the Southeast Employment and Logistics Center, to name a few. Details about these properties can be found on the Pima County Economic Development website, which also lists incentives the county can offer companies, from workforce training to assistance with zoning, planning, permitting, and financing.
As to why an individual or family might want to move to Pima, Vescovi-Chiordi cites jobs and quality of life. The county’s vibrant economy is “very attractive. Having the University of Arizona here is also an attractive asset, because of their investment in the community and the research they do,” he says.
According to Data USA, the Health Care/Social Assistance, Retail, and Education sectors respectively employ the most people in the county. The most common job categories are (in order of prevalence), Office and Administrative Support, Management, and Sales, and the median household income in Pima County was $67,929 in 2023 (a big 5.61 percent leap from 2022).
Other draws include a strong K-12 public school system with “very robust CTE (Career and Technical Education) programs,” says Vescovi-Chiordi.
Pima County also boasts outdoor activities galore, including hiking, biking, camping, and bird watching. Pima features more than 400 bird species, many of them hard to find elsewhere in the U.S. The area abounds in parks and preserves that showcase the county’s natural beauty, as well as Mount Lemmon, a 9,185-foot peak. Given this, it’s no surprise that tourism is a major industry in Pima.
On top of this, the county offers a high quality of life at affordable prices. The median property value in Pima County in 2023 was $286,900, according to Data USA figures, lower than the national average of over $300,000. And the average commuting time in the county is under half an hour.
While warm and sunny, Pima is largely free from dangerous weather extremes. “We get some pretty significant rains through the end of June into August, which replenishes our water table… We have the occasional dust storm—the haboobs that we’re known for—but those are far and few between. It’s a very, very nice climate down here,” says Vescovi-Chiordi.
For history buffs, Pima County is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the United States—Indigenous communities have had a presence in Pima for thousands of years. A Catholic mission was founded in the county in 1697 and remains in use today. Pima County was part of Mexico until the mid-19th century when it came under U.S. authority, and gold and silver prospecting once thrived in the area, which today features the huge Tohono O’odham Nation reservation, one of the largest holdings of Indigenous lands in America.
As for the future, county officials are currently developing a new strategic plan to address questions about service delivery amid population growth and other topics. For his part, Vescovi-Chiordi is excited about the positive impact his office and other county and state bodies are having on economic growth in Pima.
“I think the main takeaway is that we really want to create upward economic mobility for people in this region,” he says, by attracting firms that set up “diverse types of jobs—all the way from entry-level to CEO-level.”
