Business View Magazine | August 2020

174 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 “Because of COVID, what’s going on is still the same, but not with the same furor that it was probably back in January and February,” she recounts. “We still have our Opportunity Zones here, both in the city and abutting the city and the county next to us. We are working with a broker who has a couple of folks who are coming into land that’s supposed to close in escrow this month. One of them is an Arizona company and the other is a national truck stop group that’s working with the county to build in the Opportunity Zone.” Regarding potential, incoming developers, Watson says that they generally come from bigger cities and are familiar with the types of things that often slow down development: impact fees, permits, building codes, etc. “So we offer them our concierge service,” she explains. “We’re very nimble; we get kudos all the time for turning around plans almost immediately; sometimes the same day. And we have some incentives that are built in to who we are - we have some of the lowest cost in water rates in the State of Arizona; we have only two impact fees, while most cities have five to seven. So, we promote those built-in benefits to do business here in Douglas.” “One of the things that we also focus on, as well, is the fact that, although from the U.S. perspective, Douglas is a small city, we are right at the border and the city on the other side of the border is a much larger city than ours – 150- 200,000 people,” says Deputy City Manager and Director of Economic Development, Dawn Prince. “So, being able to tap into that bi-national market and understanding that individuals from Mexico do come to the U.S. to purchase our goods and services means they’re a huge part of our city’s revenues. So, they really need us to give them that information about Mexican citizens that come to the U.S. to shop - where the people shop, how they shop, how much money they spend. We have a marketing letter that we provide investors that touches on regional demographics; when any investor comes in, douglas.arizona.edu Your degree. Your town.