Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee Meeting – June 12, 2025
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Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee Meeting – June 12, 2025
The Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee of the Phoenix City Council met on June 12, 2025, to hear updates from the Office of Innovation and the Community and Economic Development Department. The meeting included approval of prior minutes and a consent item, information reports, and a public comment period.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes (May 28, 2025): Motion made and seconded; passed unanimously.
- Annual Review and Updates to Code Enforcement Policy: Motion made and seconded; passed unanimously. A council member noted appreciation for increased communication in the process.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Pete Colorelli (transplant from Chicago, employee of Western Alliance Bank) spoke in support of the city’s economic development efforts, specifically emphasizing the need for expanded medical facilities. He shared a personal story about recruiting his son to Phoenix and thanked the council and staff for their work.
Discussion Items
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Office of Innovation Update (Michael):
- Launched in 2021, the office has run five Innovate Phoenix Challenges since 2023, focusing on air quality, heat mitigation, affordable housing, and smart cities. Over 750 participants have engaged.
- Partnerships with Venture Cafe Phoenix (global cohort; Phoenix recognized as most advancing globally) have led to hackathons; the fifth hackathon on June 12 had ~60 participants working on smart city solutions in accessibility, public spaces, and transportation.
- Chill Drinking Water Pilot Project: 140,000 equivalent plastic bottles of water delivered without waste. Six units deployed (City Hall, Roosevelt Park, Herberger Theater, Desert West, etc.). Plans for six more units at locations including Burton Barr Library and Central Station.
- Smart City Technologies: Augmented reality for community engagement (Girasel housing), smart sensors on water fountains tracking usage (highest usage at City Hall), heat-mitigating coating (ENCOTE) from Innovate Phoenix Challenge.
- Bloomberg Philanthropies: 10-year relationship; awarded $1M for data-driven job seeker/employer matching; Arts Challenge projects including temporary shade art.
- City Manager’s Performance Dashboard: Version 2.0 now includes 170 key performance indicators, visited by 40,000 users globally. New metrics for homeless solutions and bond funding.
- Councilmembers Stark and Hodge Washington praised the work, asked about future Chill Water location selection (answered: data-driven with surveys and council input) and data cadence on the dashboard (ongoing improvements for consistency).
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Economic Development FY2024-25 Review and FY2025-26 Work Plan (Christine Mackey, Zandon Keating, Nathan Wright, Lisetta Hogans, Gretchen Wolf):
- Key Results (through May 2025): 10,500 new jobs (second highest in 10 years), $21 billion capital investment, 700 business retention visits, 63,000 job seekers assisted, 498 jobs retained, 200+ recruitment/hiring events.
- Major Projects:
- TSMC: First fab opened, second nearing completion, third under construction. $65 billion capital investment (largest private investment in U.S. history) with an additional $100 billion announced in March 2025. Yields on par with Taiwan.
- Halo Vista: 30 million sq ft development, 62,000 jobs (conservative), breaking ground late 2025.
- Bioscience: 6.7 billion capital investment, 8 million sq ft of primary facilities, 14,000 jobs. Phoenix ranked #1 for life science biomedical graduate growth rate (90% growth). Key projects: Mayo Clinic $1.9 billion expansion, ASU Health headquarters in downtown Phoenix, CAMI (University of Arizona) under construction.
- International: 35% of business from international companies (10 years ago: 2%). Phoenix ranked #6 for foreign investment. 133 delegates from 37 countries hosted. Trade delegations to Taiwan, Germany, France, Prague.
- Film Office (50th anniversary): Adjusted permitting fees (first time since 1995), new permitting software. 2024 economic impact: $29.1 million spending, 77 projects, 5,000 jobs.
- Mobile Career Unit: 463 contingent offers (10 more added on June 11), youth-focused event in District 8 with 12 hires.
- Apprenticeship Programs: First Workforce Board in nation to become registered apprenticeship sponsor in semiconductor industry. Three programs now, partnerships with community colleges and NAU.
- Innovation 27: Workforce training center groundbreaking occurred.
- Downtown Growth: 3,000 units under construction, 3,300 in pre-development. $11 billion in transit-oriented community investment. Major projects: Central Station, LG development, Ray Phoenix, Saya, Astra (new tallest building), hotel at Central & Adams, entertainment district study underway.
- Retail/Entertainment: PV Mall redevelopment (Whole Foods, Sephora, Lifetime Fitness, etc.), Metrocenter redevelopment (The Metropolitan, $1 billion investment, 1,100 residential units), Levine Town Center (Fat Cats, Rush Funplex), Desert Ridge (Sprouts, IKEA small store opened).
- FY2025-26 Priorities (based on council input): Attracting jobs in base industries, business retention/expansion, retail and fun-tainment, sit-down restaurants, and hospitals (especially in underserved areas like South Phoenix).
- Councilmembers emphasized need for a hospital in South Phoenix (area of 200,000 people with no hospital from I-10 to 202, I-17 to South Mountain). Efforts underway: demographic study sent to all hospital CEOs, meetings scheduled, potential sites identified. Councilwoman Hodge Washington stressed continued prioritization.
- Discussion on destination resort at Gila Foothills: Active negotiations with a resort developer; a golf course issue may be resolved; five prospects being nurtured.
- Tourism: Office works in support of Convention Center and Visit Phoenix; need for cultural attractions (Hispanic cultural center moving forward from 2023 bond).
Key Outcomes
- Minutes of May 28, 2025 approved unanimously.
- Code enforcement policy update approved unanimously.
- Future agenda item: Sister cities update requested by council.
- Council directed continued efforts on hospital attraction in South Phoenix and resort at Gila Foothills.
- Information items (Head Start Birth to Five monthly report and Naloxone program update) received; no action taken.
Meeting Transcript
among Japanese American communities on the West Coast. Those early Taiko players repurposed the Y baroles to make a drums and they which gave a rise to the unique sound and a look that became iconic over taiko draw me. Traditionally Taiko was performed at festivals and shirai in Japan and that spirit continues today. In the US the powerful sound of Taiko Drama means has become a staple of Japanese American celebrations and festivals. And today's there are hundreds of taiko groups across the the North America and they continue to celebrate a Japanese heritage and bringing together players from all different Baygrounds. So this is the fifth Venture Cafe City of Phoenix hackathon. It's an all-day hackathon where members of our community come together and they hack solutions to top city priorities. Today we're hacking solutions to smart cities and we're focusing on three key areas accessibility public spaces and transportation. This is the first time we have about 60 participants coming together we randomly assign them teams and they work together as teams all day to hack on the problem and they do dry runs through their pitches and then they pitch on stage at Venture Cafe tonight for a chance for cash prizes as well as audience choice. Tonight as a judge for the hackathon I'm really looking toward seeing what the groups have outlined for accessibility for all types of disabilities in the community. So a smart city to me really means that it's accessible for everybody. So we looked at how can we improve the public transportation system in Phoenix and so what we looked at doing is essentially finding a way to collect and leverage data using AI technologies so that we can better service a wider range of people provide better accessibility and make buses more useful for people who live in Phoenix. We have a project called exit queue lighting helping drivers understand like what lanes are going slow, which lanes are going fast kind of preventing accidents as well as just keeping the flow of traffic going we've designed an app called Phoenix Moves that's gonna incentivize people to get out and use the bike lanes but more importantly it's circularity in that businesses will give them rewards. Community engagement is a very important component of our work as a city and getting to do this in a hackathon setting is a unique opportunity to explore out of the box solutions things that we might not think about every day over in City Hall or have the capacity to get really creative and dig into the opportunities out there. This has been a fantastic partnership between the City of Phoenix and Venture Cafe we've been able to implement some of the solutions that we've created here at the hackathon. The City of Phoenix prioritizes innovation and our innovate Phoenix challenge is an excellent opportunity to put this into practice to see what we can create together as a community and make the lives better for all of our residents here in Phoenix Check me. The Broadway Curve Project is in the works prepare for lane closures and detours stay ahead of the curve at I10 Broadway curve.com hello welcome to Phoenix in about a minute today we're here at Bert Run Bar Library in downtown Phoenix this amazing library is not just a normal library it has multiple special rooms on each of its five floors but not only that its unique architecture allows it to have a special and welcome to the June 12th 2025 economic development and housing subcommittee meeting Good afternoon and welcome to the June twelfth, two thousand twenty-five uh economic development and housing subcommittee meeting. I would like to call the meeting to order. Um I'll go first to our city attorney to please explain public comment. Thank you, madam chair, members of the subcommittee for citizen comment during citizen comment, members of the public may address the subcommittee for up to three minutes on issues of interest or concern to them. The Arizona open meeting law permits the subcommittee members to listen to the comments but prohibits members from this discussing or acting on matters presented. Should there be a person who wants to comment on an agenda item? They may speak up to two minutes on agenda items to be discussed comments to be related to the agenda item and action being taken or considered by the subcommittee. The city, the council or subcommittee and staff can I discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations or litigations. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, sir. And next we will have our interpreter, uh Mario Barajas introduce himself. Yes, madam chair, thank you. Well, once again, my name is Mario Guarajas. I'll be serving as today's uh Spanish interpreter for the meeting. I will now introduce myself to our Spanish speakers. Yo soy Mario Guarajas voy a estar siguiendo como interprete a los habla hispana. Is there a repasar brevemente con ustedes uhlespotra ayuda a poder uh participar mejor manera possible? Primeramente caremos informal de que si es que van a dar un comentario publico, but in a manera lenta y clara, this manera podemos uh interpretarles mejore y secondo su comentario completo y al final de que usted termine su comentario andar sin necessidad de hacer pausas. Muchas gracias. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, Mario. Um, I believe we do not have any public comments for the first section. Awesome. Um the first agenda item is approval of minutes from the May 28th, 2025 EDH um meeting. Do I have a motion to approve? I move that we approve the May 28th, 2025 meeting. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. Item two is on consent.
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