Willingham: San Diego has a very well-diversified economy. Defense is still a major driver in San Diego—out on the I-15, General Atomics now occupies 3 million square feet, and Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics both have a significant presence in the county; the defense industry is still a very important side of our economy. But we also now have a more-diversified economy compared to the past, with strong medical-device and diagnostics from companies like Illumina and Thermo Fisher. Up in Carlsbad, ViaSat started out on the defense side of satellite communications, but is now very active on the commercial side. ViaSat has been able to grow its footprint to more than 700,000 square feet. The e-commerce side is starting to make a big impact: Amazon just signed a large deal on the I-15. Generally, those deals were under 100,000 square feet, and then Amazon signed a 180,000-square-foot lease in Rancho Bernardo—the biggest building the company has taken down in San Diego. There was also a FedEx Ground build-to-suit which was recently completed up in Oceanside. The demand is to get things to the customer within a day, so you have to have facilities closer to the population.

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