Tucson a ‘top 10′ city for high-tech

Fast Company magazine picked locales that offer the ‘most potent mix of talent, technology and tolerance.’

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

This time, Tucson made the great-place-to-live list without being consigned to the mid-size city category.

Fast Company magazine in its November edition names Tucson to its Fast Cities list – 10 U.S. cities that offer the “most potent mix of talent, technology and tolerance.”

Tucson is keeping company with the gold standard of high-tech cities that typically top “best of” lists: Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; San Diego; Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake City; and San Antonio. Rounding off the list are Phoenix; Sacramento, Calif.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Madison, Wis.

Fast Company sought out cities that in recent years have evolved into centers for the so-called creative class, the combination of scientists, engineers, artists and professions that create urban success.

The magazine latched onto Tucson because high-tech companies here have transformed Tucson into the fifth-fastest-growing high-tech community in terms of goods and services. Equally valued for ranking purposes is that recreation here is “serious business.” And on the diversity front, Fast Company noted the one-third Hispanic population here.

Fast Company is a 10-year-old magazine founded by two former Harvard Business Review editors who seek to chronicle how changing companies create, compete and reinvent how to do business. The 750,000-circulation magazine competes with Business Week, Forbes and Fortune.

Joe Snell, chief executive at Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, yesterday immediately took the Fast Company ranking news to the convention floor in Las Vegas, where he was attending a conference for corporate real estate site selectors – the people who scout locations for big companies.

“This is another example of how Tucson is positioning itself to become a city of the future,” Snell said. “The ability to attract and retain quality labor is going to be the key of the future.”

Tucson has placed high in several national rankings in recent years, including Entrepreneur magazine, which this month listed Tucson as the No. 2 midsize city for starting and building a business. Recent years have also seen Inc. magazine rank Tucson the eighth-best midsize city to do business in and the Milkin Institute rank Tucson as the 17th-best city for job creation and economic performance.

Even with these national plaudits, Tucson has had few high-profile announcements of companies bringing jobs to Tucson in recent years.

“We have the ingredients to make something happen,” Snell said. “We just haven’t found the recipe.”

But the recipe includes making corporations and site selectors more aware of Tucson’s existence, which is what Snell is doing in Las Vegas this week. Snell himself just moved here from Denver in July, sensing the same “blossoming market” that national magazines are finding.

Nancy Smith, TREO’s vice president of research and strategic planning, said rankings such as Fast Company’s could help attract more venture capital to invest with cash-poor entrepreneurs wanting to start high-tech companies.

“The fact there is so much more recognition from the outside community is helpful,” Smith said. “Is it anything new or are we just operating under the radar? The ranking is not finding anything new. It just brings up what’s happening in Tucson to the rest of the world.”

WHAT THEY SEE IN US

Fast Company magazine lists Tucson among 10 cities ideal for today’s high-tech worker. Among features mentioned:

* “Poster child” is Shibin Jiang, an optical engineer at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences, who gave the local “Optics Valley” moniker national play in the article.

* “Cornerstones” described Tucson as the fifth-fastest growing high-tech community, balanced with the $1.5 billion recreation industry focused on spas and golf, and anchored by nearly one third of the 900,000 people here being Hispanic.

* “Caveats” mentioned the high poverty rate, urban sprawl and Tucson’s $3 billion transportation shopping list.