The members of REAL AZ have been working together for over a decade to drive economic development in Northeast Arizona, REAL AZ is Northeastern Arizona’s Economic Development Engine. The members have set forth three priority areas of focus:
* Industry Recruitment, including workforce development and coal community transition.
* Strategic Planning, including workforce housing.
* Broadband.
In this month’s column we are going to share some of the project highlights under the first two priority areas for the benefit of business and property owners and residents.
Industry recruitment efforts have assisted with several new industry players setting up operations in our region. We are pleased to welcome White Mountain Lumber, a new sawmill operator located on Highway 277. They are currently staffing up work crews for their sawmill operations and will continue to scale up with planner and dry-kiln crews to help meet the demands of the vitally important forest industry.
When it comes to our tourism sector, the development of Northern Arizona’s first motorcross racetrack is underway. Rutz MX has secured land and is near completion the building a pro-level racetrack, followed by an intermediate and a beginner racetracks. This Motorcross Racetrack will draw riders from up to three hours away (across I-40 and from Phoenix) for the weekend races, held in Holbrook.
While both of these developments bring direct jobs, the economic impacts also flow into local retailers, service providers, industry suppliers and hotel and restaurant owners in our region.
Strategic planning leads to smart growth and our REAL AZ partners are delighted to have been awarded multiple planning grants which will assist with our coal community transitions as our local economies move away from coal-fired electricity production to clean energy production.
A consortium of partners, Arizona State University’s JET Center, the City of Holbrook and Joseph City have been successful in their grant application which will support the tourism and transportation sectors. The City of Show Low has been successful in funding the planning efforts of their regional business incubator. The City of Springerville has also been recently awarded funding for planning and engineering for their industrial park. These strategic planning wins by REAL AZ partners reflect unique opportunities being brought forth to support our local economy during our coal community transition.
If you want to know more about how we are building resilient economies in our coal communities check out www.realaz.org/coal-community-resources/.
Another strategic planning grant that REAL AZ is proud to have brought to the entirety of Navajo County is the NACOG Route 66 Brownfields Coalition. This program has funding available for Navajo County landowners of commercial property that have potential environmental challenges negatively impacting re-development or sale of such properties. This Brownfields program is non-enforceable for property owners. This means that there will be no environmental monitoring and enforcement on properties that are part of this program.
The Brownfields program can benefit property owners by paying for the Phase 1 and 2 environmental assessments needed to re-develop or sell these commercial properties. Properties with environmental challenges could be old gas stations, industrial buildings or those commercial properties with suspected lead or asbestos.
This program will be available in January 2025, so if you are interested in finding out more, please contact Chris Pasterz at chris.pasterz@navajocountyaz.gov. In next month’s column we will share more local industry developments brought to you by the members of REAL AZ.
