Business View - December 2014 125
PUBLIC SECTOR
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
City of Escondido
WHAT:
126-year-old municipality in San Diego
County, Calif. that was home to 143,911 residents
as of the 2010 federal census count and whose
footprint covers 36.989 square miles
WHERE:
Northern San Diego County, about 30
miles north of downtown San Diego, 100 miles
south of Los Angeles and 18 miles inland from
the Pacific Ocean
WEBSITE
:
efits can be gleaned by the other cities.
Memorandums of understanding have been created
that ensure the cities will indeed work collaboratively,
and an extensive branding campaign is set for release
by the end of the year that will not only make the plans
known regionally, but also nationally and internation-
ally.
“Though one city may have a property to offer for the
business itself, another city may be a better fit for the
housing for the workforce that’s going to be at that
business,” Masterson said. “We’re trying to take it
from a bigger picture view, rather than viewing at each
other as competitors. That’s a pretty major step. It re-
ally came from the five mayors. They really were the
ones who pushed that concept forward and every-
body’s been working to make it happen.”
Ironically, an Escondido-based business that’s risen to
the No. 2 among tourist attraction in the north county
region – the Stone Brewing Company – relocated to
the city in 2005 after being founded in San Marcos in
1996. It’s been included 10 times on Inc. magazine’s
list of the country’s 5,000 fastest-growing private com-
panies, has been an 11-year fixture on the San Diego
Business Journal’s local list of fastest-growing private
companies and has averaged 50.4-percent annual
growth since its origin.
Stone Brewing products are distributed domestically
to 40 states and internationally to Japan, Singapore,
the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom and
Sweden, and the company announced plans in July to
create Stone Brewing Co. – Berlin, which would make
it the first U.S.-based craft brewer to own and operate
a brewery in Europe.
That facility, housed at a former gasworks plant, is ex-
pected to open in late 2015 or early 2016 after a $25
