Arizona is showing its strength again as a leader in the business world, as the worlds largest tech company Apple has just announced plans to build a massive engineering plant in the South East Valley.
“This is a large structure,” Mesa Mayor Scott Smith said, “It’s larger than a regional mall where we all go shopping. That’s a lot of square footage. It’s gotta be built out so that it can be a manufacturing facility.”
With the large facility Apple is to create 2,000 manufacturing, engineering and construction jobs at a the new plant. The technology titan is beginning to shift production back to the United States. While Apple is known for its secrecy, the speculation is that the renewable energy powered facility in Mesa, Arizona, will produce laboratory grown sapphire crystals of the kind used in the iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner.
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Good News For Arizona
“Apple will have an incredibly positive economic impact for Arizona,” said governor Janice Brewer. “Their investment in renewable energy will also be greening our power grid, and creating significant new solar and geothermal power sources for the state.”
Run with solar and geothermal energy, which uses heat from deep underground, the plant has been designed in collaboration with local utility Salt River Project.
The building will be owned by Apple, while the furnaces will be supplied by GT Advanced, with a $578 down payment from Apple which will be reimbursed over five years starting in 2015 and is understood to come with certain exclusivity rights.
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Demand for industrially produced sapphire has rocketed since Apple began using the material to protect camera lenses in 2012, according to research firm IHS Suppli. The deal will help Apple secure control over a scarce resource.
“We are proud to expand our domestic manufacturing initiative with a new facility in Arizona, creating more than 2,000 jobs in engineering, manufacturing and construction,” Apple said in a statement. “This new plant will make components for Apple products and it will run on 100% renewable energy from day one.”
This is more great news for Arizona, and specifically the South East Valley. Just recently Intel announced plans to build a 5 Billion dollar facility in the South East Valley.
Effect On Housing
The continued investment from fortune 500 companies in Arizona shows great promise for continued growth in the housing market. As large tech companies complete these new facilities you can expect to see an influx of high paying jobs and employees looking for homes.
What do you think of Apples investment into the South East Bally? Let us know in the comment section below.
10 Responses
Awesome news!! Great to see job creation in the US, especially in the South East Valley 🙂
Arizona is back and going strong…what a year and this will only ad to it! Time to buy a home in SE Valley
Having an additional 2,000 more jobs/positions in the Phoenix area his huge. Great to hear…. Thanks for the information & all the current updates REEVES TEAM.
Just imagine what that does for home owners around the new plant…and the New Eastmark as well
That is wonderful news!!!!!
Extra Wonderful!! Thanks Terri
As much as i cant stand saying it, THANKS APPLE! Apple will be bolstering our local economy and immensely improving the work force thus entering huge $$ to our already incredible East Valley. Thank you for the info ReevesTeamUSA
(Intel Is next on the thanking block)
I have both Apple Product and Droid…. I may have to think twice before choosing one over the other……Apple in Arizona, YES!
This is AWESOME news!! We need as many jobs out in the East Valley to continue to grow the Southeast Valley. We have been doing pretty good, but this will help immensely. A ton of jobs, means the real estate market will continue to increase. And to run on renewable energy, that is State of the Art. Once again, excellent article Reeves Team.
This is Awesome…Very exciting news…Thanks Scott for the comment