TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - There's nothing like adding new jobs to make people sit up and take notice---especially if those new jobs will boost other businesses too.
One of Tucson's biggest employers is moving to a new building and pumping up its workforce too.
When other companies see where Geico expanded---and why--- they may want to build up operations here too.
When you look at the open piece of land north of Kino and I-10 you see mostly nothing but developers see nothing but potential for the piece of property to boost Tucson's business climate and help boost a renaissance that's already underway on the south side.
Geico is on the move, from offices near Speedway and Kolb, to the Bridges development and it's adding 700 workers to the 21 hundred it already has here.
The land is just north of a booming new commercial development near I-10 and Kino. Geico will add a new element to the boom, the potential of 28 hundred customers for businesses like the Planet Sub shop Suzanne Vinall opened just three months ago.
She says, "Very excited, very happy. This is gonna be awesome for this part of town. Lots of lunch eaters and dinner eaters."
Don Bourn of the Bourn Companies is developing the site. He says it's an ideal location, centrally located, with the space to build Geico a big new facility close to a lot of what Tucson already had to offer.
That gives the site a lot of potential to attract other big employers.
"I think there are all kinds of companies looking for a centralized location, easy access to a lot of the important pieces of the city, the downtown, and the university, the airport, as well as the workforce. Then there's also all the amenities that are there; the food, the entertainment and retail."
Tucson Councilmember Richard Fimbres has been working to boost business in his Ward. He says Geico's move adds momentum that's great for the whole area.
"For sales tax which the city lives off of and for housing and building industries and all the retail that's around this area. It's gonna grow."
