Forty-one years ago, when Bill Gore travelled from the east coast looking for a place to set up shop in the west, he fell in love with Flagstaff, Arizona. A plant was built, and today, W.L. Gore, is the city’s biggest private employer.

Gore was recently recognized as the state’s longest standing biosciences company, said Stacey Button, director of the city’s newly formed Economic Vitality department. She thinks Flagstaff could attract other high tech industries and diversify the economy.

“I think flagstaff is well known for government, retail, tourism, here in Northern Arizona,” said Button. “Having economic development in house and staff that are specifically working on those areas of technology and most recently the biosciences in particular, is really important.”

Button says Flagstaff’s quality of life attracts people with what she calls an incredible entrepreneurial spirit. She says businesses also benefit from affiliation with the university, which helps create a skilled workforce.

Andy Kruse agrees. He’s vice president of Business Development at Southwest Windpower, the world’s largest small wind turbine manufacturer. Kruse started the Flagstaff based company with David Calley in 1987.

Kruse said he believes the city is making it easier to move to Flagstaff.

“One example is the expansion of the airport and bringing in an additional airline. We have people from all over the world who come here and traditionally, trying to get here has been one of our biggest challenges,” he insisted. Kruse said improvements at the airport and other pro growth initiatives will help Flagstaff in its’ attempts to move forward.

Another step forward is the Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies, or NACET, which is known as a high technology business incubator. It’s a venture between the City of Flagstaff, Northern Arizona University and the Northern Arizona Council of Governments. The first tenants are occupying office space and others are scheduled to move in soon.

Tom Rainey, NACET's president, said the idea of an incubator is to provide physical space and other tools for emerging companies. These incubators have been around for about 25 years.
“There are about 1,700 business incubators around the United States at last count and the whole idea, really, is to create a central staging area for new high technology companies,” he said. “A resource rich environment where you can surround them with all the critical ingredients they need to be successful.”

The 10,000 square foot NACET building has state-of-the-art technology including video conferencing as well as wet and dry labs. The new facility is nearly 100 percent occupied and there’s a possibility of creating a second phase of the incubator.
NACET has a fairly stringent client selection process. The incubator is looking for businesses with a solid plan and the ability to grow and create jobs, said Rainey. Once a client is accepted into the program, NACET will surround them with resources to help the company succeed.

“It’s got a lot of potential,” said Michael Kerski, director of the City of Flagstaff’s Community Investment Division. He said the next phase in growing Flagstaff’s technology sector is building a science park next to the NACET building on McMillan Mesa.
“If tenants are successful in the incubator, they can move out of that facility into the science park. And I think that some of the companies that are going into the incubators see that as the next step,” said Kerski.

The size of the science park would be between 20,000 and 80,000 square feet, depending on demand and the economy.
City staff’s strategy of diversifying the economy by helping local start ups shows foresight and a monumental shift in strategy, said NACET President Tom Rainey. “Communities everywhere are working to attract technology related businesses and a city like Flagstaff could have more success ‘growing its own.”

The city will continue recruiting efforts, however. In February Flagstaff will be represented at the Medical Design & Manufacturing Conference in Anaheim. Kerski said Flagstaff is enjoying the benefits of affiliation at different trade shows. Companies like Gore, Machine Solutions, and Southwest Windpower, along with well known names like NAU’s Paul Keim boost the city’s reputation.

And with the many emerging technologies from Northern Arizona University, and the creative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit found in the region, Flagstaff’s future as a growing technology hub, shows a lot of promise.