Tucson, Arizona

7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 10 like the Arizona Commerce Authority, have programs and ability to assist businesses as they are looking to locate and grow here in the community. The list goes on and on for sure.” The completion of a comprehensive Economic Development Strategic Plan has led the City of Tucson to identify target industry sectors. Coffee recounts, “We are already an important location for aerospace and defense related activity, and anything happening with space. We are home to Raytheon and their missiles defense systems are headquartered here. They continue to grow and they are our largest private employer with almost 14,000 people employed in Tucson.” Adopting the title of ‘Optics Valley’, due to their high concentration of optics and photonics industries, the city is also focused on continued growth in that sector. “The university is at the center of that in their world-renowned College of Optical Sciences,” Coffee acknowledges. “As you can imagine, that crosses industry sectors. There are applications of that in lots of manufacturing. We are very excited about the growth in that area.” Tucson will also continue to focus on bioscience and healthcare, as well as transportation, logistics, and manufacturing. “We know we are a prime location for logistics and transportation