The town of Fountain Hills' new economic development director wants to expand the business ecosystem within the community.started with Fountain Hills in March 2022 after spending more than 15 years with the town of Oro Valley in southern Arizona. During her 10 months with Fountain Hills, she spent time reaching out to the business community and the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce to learn about what current processes are working well and evaluating growth opportunities.
Most of the town's target industries in the past few years have been in the financial services, insurance and health care industries. Based on her conversations throughout her first year, however, Jacobs wants to lead more of a push in the startup community.Jacobs said the town is landlocked and can't expand its boundaries through land annexation, so developing vacant land and being strategic about the redevelopment of underutilized assets is key.
Of all submarkets, Fountain Hills has the highest vacancy rates within its office inventory at 17.2% and just a 1% vacancy for industrial. Fountain Hills has just three remaining industrial acres to develop on vacant land.