Tapping the Wide Open Spaces

Originally called “Palo Verde,” the Oro Valley township could claim just over 1,000 residents in the mid-1970s, when it was officially incorporated as an Arizona community. From that point, however, Oro Valley’s growth took off, really hitting its stride around 1990, when the population reached nearly 30,000 residents.

Today, the town census counts around 47,000 residents. In that roughly 45-year time span, the influx of newcomers to the community has clearly swelled, drawing people from all across the U.S. who see in the Oro Valley something desirable and worth pursuing.

One of the many thousands of transplants to the Town of Oro Valley is Saurabh “Mintu” Saree, who owns and operates the popular Saffron Indian Bistro in town. He moved his wife and two children there from Tucson over a decade ago. Shortly after their move, he constructed the building that houses his 140-seat contemporary Indian restaurant, and opened it on little more than gut feel and some focused research. It was a risky move, as Saree points out. 

“Fifteen years ago, when I moved here, Oro Valley was just sort of coming up and developing,” he states. “I had a kind of vision that this place was going to boom one day, and I was right—that vision paid off.”

As the population grew, so did Saree’s fortunes. “Our business has been steadily increasing,” he says. “In fact, this past year, 2021, turned out the be the best year with the most sales since we opened.”

Saree credits a big part of his business success with the support the local Oro Valley community provides him and his fellow entrepreneurs.

“It’s the people in this community. They’re very easygoing and they’re mixed culturally, coming from all over the United States,” he says. “I have to say that even during the pandemic, when a lot of businesspeople didn’t know if they were going to survive, our customers were coming into our restaurant, buying gift cards, placing online and takeout orders. We struggled, but the business—the support from our clients—was there.”

Another critical means of business support that Saree cites is the commitment of the local government agencies to helping their retail partners in the community. “One of the things that’s really important about Oro Valley is that the town government helps us in many ways,” he continues. “They give us a voice and that voice is heard.” 

The other reason, Melcher says, has to do with Oro Valley’s ironclad commitment to its economic growth. “When you have employers like Roche Tissue Diagnostics, Honeywell, and Leonardo Electronics US Inc., [the company has purchased 12 acres in Oro Valley’s Innovation Park and is planning the construction of a new state-of-the-art semiconductor laser manufacturing facility], I think it speaks very highly of the community and its opportunities,” he says. “The bottom line is that we have assets in place that underlie people’s decision for moving here—not only for the natural beauty and amenities, but also because it’s a great place to work.”

One key industry sector that’s helping brand Oro Valley’s economic identity is aerospace. Honeywell Aerospace and Meggitt—a worldwide leader in aerospace, defense and various energy markets—are just two of the largest companies located in the valley.

“Also, when you consider the addition of Leonardo Electronics US to the mix of aerospace, it gives us an additional boost,” Melcher notes. “With Leonardo’s laser guidance systems and military applications, I think it’s another great addition to the military/aerospace cluster that’s already in place here.”
Another aspect of Melcher’s team’s focus is on future growth in “clean industry” clusters. As he points out, there currently are 19 sites in development for what he terms as “light-tech uses.”

“We’re utilizing the University of Arizona Center for Innovation’s incubator that’s available to us here in Oro Valley,” he explains. “Currently, there are four tenants in the incubator that are working on creating new bioscience-oriented businesses. Once they’ve graduated from the incubation stage, we’re looking at transitioning those businesses, to keep them here in the Oro Valley. One of our roles is to help develop a soft landing for those businesses, and then recruit other businesses to fill their spots in the incubator.”

Of course, one of the most important factors in fostering the further growth and development of Oro Valley’s economic profile is the strength of the community’s “human” capital—its potential pool of residents who can fill these very specialized jobs. Melcher points to the area’s strong workforce demographics, with statistics that indicate a far higher than average percent of residents with bachelor’s and advanced degrees in tech-related fields.

“We know that we have a really solid foundation in bioscience, aerospace and the emerging tech clusters, especially when you look at high-tech and the very tech-skilled talent pool from which we can develop those clusters,” he points out.

Yet another major component of the Oro Valley development plan highlights the valley’s spacious natural beauty, and all the forms of recreation that it spawns.

“Most of our [tourism-based] focus has been on wide-open spaces,” Melcher says. “It’s been a push that we’ve engaged along with the Visit Tucson campaign to feature some of our best attractions, like Catalina State Park, Honeybee Canyon, Big Wash and all the trails and other recreational opportunities that they offer.”

Nearer to town, Melcher describes recreational facilities such as Naranja Park, Riverfront Park and other settings that not only feature typical park-related amenities, but also have some connectivity to the popular Loop Trail and some of the other more outlying trails. “It’s really an integrated trails program,” he points out.