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Publication: The Business Journal; Date: 08/27/2004
New Falcon Field group promoting area development
by Mike Sunnucks
A veteran economic developer is forming a new group aimed at promoting the Falcon Field area of Mesa as a top corporate and industrial location.
Lois Yates is establishing the Falcon Field Area Alliance. The nonprofit group will launch a fund-raising effort and Web site and will establish an advisory board in September.
Yates, who is the group's executive director, said the goal is to market and brand the Falcon Field area and attract diversified businesses to its mix.
Falcon Field is a regional general aviation airport, and approximately 10,000 workers are employed in that section of north Mesa. The top employers include Boeing Co., which has 4,100 workers at an Apache helicopter production facility. Talley Defense Systems and Lockheed Martin also are located there.
Yates welcomes more aerospace and aviation-related firms but also wants to attract other businesses including possible regional headquarters.
Traditionally, regional headquarters and division operations have landed in Scottsdale, Tempe and Phoenix.
"We're going to look at financial services, shared service centers and we're going to look at educational things," said Yates, who has an extensive economic development background including working for state agencies in Florida and Maryland and with a
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