Town of Oro Valley Innovation Park

Innovation Park in Oro Valley is a collaboration of government, real estate development and the biomedical industry to establish a base for the highly valued industry known for high salaries and a professional workforce.

Innovation Park was a 2011 winner of a Common Ground Award.

The original major employers at the park were Ventana Medical Systems, now known as Roche Tissue Diagnostics, Sanofi-Aventis, now known as Icagen, and the Oro Valley Hospital operated by Northwest Healthcare. Venture West is the developer.

“These companies have created a distinct environment as a leading center for big pharma,” said the project’s Common Ground Award nomination. “The park is a unique project with outstanding views of the Catalina Mountains and serves as a premier location for R&D companies looking for the highest in corporate image and presence.”

The development was 200 acres when it was awarded by MPA in 2011 and is now 535 acres with additional tenants including an aerospace industry tenant, Meggitt/Securaplane, and the UArizona Center for Innovation.

“There is strong collaboration … to help insure a physically and economically attractive environment for a world class location and promoting why these business giants are already there,” the nomination said.

“The increased visibility afforded though opening our R&D center in Innovation Park Oro Valley contributes to Sanofi’s transformation from a largely unknown local entity to community leader,” said Richard Austin, senior planning and resource manager at Sanofi-Aventis at the time, now the CEO of the startup Reglagene.

“Sharing an address with Ventana and the Oro Valley Hospital builds critical mass that will encourage other life sciences companies to locate at Innovation Park.

“Our first-class research facilities enable us to build on our record of value creation for our internal and external partners. Achieving LEEDS Gold status for environmentally sound construction and operation is icing on the cake.”

Prospective tenants can purchase land in the development or build to suit for purchase or lease. The Town of Oro Valley has approved a land-use code to allow for retail, healthcare, manufacturing and research and development at the park.

After nearly 23 years since breaking ground, Rancho Sahuarita still stands as an example of what collaboration among multiple private and public entities can do to transform a community.

Rancho Sahuarita was a 2014 Common Ground Awards Project of the Decade for the Town of Sahuarita. More than 18,000 residents live in close to 6,000 homes in the master-planned community that came together with stakeholders from the Town of Sahuarita, Sahuarita Unified School District, Rural Metro Fire, Cox Communications, and construction, engineering, design and builder groups. At the time of the award, about 60% of the town’s population lived in Rancho Sahuarita.

“We envisioned Rancho Sahuarita as a place where residents could have more time to enjoy what’s really important in life – like family, friends and fun,” said the late Bob Sharpe who began development on 3,000 acres of land in 2000 and closed on the first home sale in 2002. “It’s all about offering a lifestyle that makes people’s lives easier and more enjoyable.”

Besides building houses and the accompanying ame- nities, Rancho Sahuarita has built eight schools in the area.

“Great schools make great communities, and we are proud to be a longtime partner and supporter of the school district,” said Sharpe. At the time of the award, Rancho Sahuarita had donated almost 75 acres of land for SUSD schools. Rancho Sahuarita has also partnered with the school district on a number of programs and initiatives, including the Sahuarita WINS community engagement effort.

The zoning specific to Rancho Sahuarita was approved in 1995 shortly after the Town of Sahuarita was incor porated. The formation of the Sahuarita Water Company and the approval of the Sahuarita Wastewater facility followed several years later.

Retail, commercial, health and wellness, government and non-profit services have expanded in the area through the development of the Rancho Sahuarita Marketplace and the Sahuarita Town Center. Five major national homebuilders remain active at Rancho Sahuarita. Sharpe’s son, Jeremy, is now the president of Sharpe & Associates, the developer.

Tech Parks Arizona, a unit of The University of Arizona, is a multi-year winner of the Common Ground Awards for both the UA Tech Park and UA Tech Park at The Bridges, which brings together industry, government and academia to advance business.

Tech Parks Arizona has brought together various stakeholders to develop purpose-built environments to support businesses and facilitate university-industry interactions for nearly three decades. Over the course of 29 years, Tech Parks Arizona has worked across campus with different UArizona Colleges and departments, and also with businesses, utility providers, federal agencies, contractors, vendors, commercial brokers and land developers. Tech Parks Arizona has reimagined the traditional workspace through the perspective of the user and designed it to be very flexible with the ability to rapidly evolve based on insight gained from the parks’ extensive collaborators network.

Tech Parks Arizona creates environments that support and promote research and development, technology innovation and advancement, and business development and attraction. The UA Tech Park is an economic powerhouse contributing $2 billion annually to the local economy. It is a major employment with over 100 companies and nearly 6,000 knowledge workers. Covering 1,267 acres, the UA Tech Park at Rita Road is a destination for technology companies from startups to tech giants which significantly contribute to Tucson’s regional economy.

UA Tech Park at The Bridges is a 65-acre development in central Tucson with a long-term plan for 1.2 million square feet of office and laboratory space and room for about 5,000 employees. It is part of the 350acre, mixed-use development just north of Interstate 10 west of Kino Parkway known as “The Bridges”.

The first building on the site, The Refinery, opened in 2022 with 50% of the building committed to UArizona departments including Tech Launch Arizona, UArizona Applied Research Corporation, and UA Online, Distance and Continuing Education. Earlier this year, the first corporate tenant was attracted, Raytheon Missiles & Defense, which is leasing 14,000 square feet of office space at the four-story building. The Refinery is a 120,000-square-foot building whose name emphasizes its proximity to the talent and sharp minds that can be mined from the University of Arizona. This unique opportunity allows leading-edge technology companies to recruit the best and brightest, which in turn provides graduates with engaging employment and students with hands-on internships.

“We are excited to partner with the University of Arizona and the Tech Parks team on what we expect will be the first of many buildings within The Bridges,” said Matt Jensen, a partner and project manager with The Boyer Company, which built The Refinery. “This project has been a long time in the making and is the direct result of strong leadership within the university.”