SAN DIEGO—San Diego continues to show its potential as a diverse growth and innovation market with long roots in STEM talent, biotech and life sciences, med-tech and tourism, San Diego Regional EDC's COO Lauree Sahba told attendees at RealShare San Diego yesterday during her keynote address on the state of San Diego. Sahbee's address explored the factors that are driving San Diego's CRE market and outlined the opportunities to help San Diego grow as a city economically, talent wise and as a global entity.
Sahba said that despite many companies leaving Southern California for Texas due to its lower taxes and cost of living, many of them are back in San Diego because it is such a strong market that attracts residents and business. The three top economic drivers in the market are innovation, leisure and hospitality and defense and military.
And while the market has the largest concentration of military in the world, it is also a center for genomic companies and genomic studies, housing some of the most prestigious biotech and life-sciences universities in the world. The number-one factor in the growth of innovation economy is STEM talent, and there are 34% more STEM workers in San Diego than in other regions, Sahba said.
She also spoke of the newly introduced “San Diego: Life. Changing” campaign, which is anchored by the Brand Alliance, a brand campaign to highlight the region's growing innovation economy and startup opportunities as a way to drive economic growth in the region. The program underscores San Diego's life-sciences strengths as well as its ability to accept newcomers and enable them to change their lives here. Sandiegolifechanging.org introduces the concept as an interactive website with a blog, a pocket guide and map and a digital badge companies can download and use on the recruiting section of their websites.
The Brand Alliance includes a long list of major companies committed to improving San Diego's economic profile. Industries include aerospace, cleantech, craft beer, craft goods, cybersecurity, defense, genomics, healthcare, Internet of Things, key universities, life sciences, manufacturing, maritime, medical devices, research institutions, sports and active lifestyle, tech and unmanned systems.
Sahba added that other San Diego strengths include its ranking as the market with the their-shortest daily commute and its focus on tourism, which employs 197,000 people.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
