Am I the only one who finds it strange that Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon appears to be putting so much energy into forging some kind of "economic development" agreement with Dubai? The Republic reports:
Phoenix leaders want to go global, and they’re banking on Dubai to
help secure the city’s place on the international stage. America’s
fifth-largest city wants to partner with one of the world’s
fastest-growing urban areas to attract investment, research,
transportation opportunities and more.
The pairing, Phoenix leaders hope, could bring everything from
sprawling new real-estate developments to collaborations on solar power
to a direct flight between Phoenix and Dubai, a wealthy desert
city-state between Saudi Arabia and Oman on the Persian Gulf.
It’s not that there’s no merit to the general principle. The Real Estate Industrial Complex, through its greed, monomania and, in come cases, outright corruption, has run Arizona into its worst recession in years. The state desperately needs to diversify its economy and gain foreign direct investment. And cities and metropolitan areas are the key competitive units in the global economy.
But Dubai?
Second terms seem to be graveyards for promising Arizona politicians. With the Dubai initiative, Gordon finds a useful publicity stunt — a global Opportunity Corridor. Or it smacks like a plea for a handout from the booming Arab city-state, which is far more progressive than Phoenix and is actually attracting private capital to build more than single-family detached houses.
What, really, does Phoenix offer as a partner? It let the solar industry slip away decades ago. It has been too slow to develop its biotech hub. It allowed the semiconductor industry, itself vulnerable to moving offshore, to go to the suburbs. It has failed to exploit its back-office and call-center operations (the good jobs, comparatively) to build higher-end assets, as has happened in Bangalore.
Does Dubai need the potential Phoenix exports of landscapers, second-hand ("antique") shops, check-cashing outlets, taquerias, mortgage chislers and unemployed illegal-alien framing crews? Perhaps Phoenix can teach Dubai how to contain sprawl and live sustainably in a desert environment? Well, no. Er…maybe the Dubai elite will want to spend, what — 12 hours in the air? — coming to the Biltmore to play golf? Or elderly sheiks would want to escape the freezing winters of the Middle East and retire in Maryvale? But read this in the Republic story:
City officials and others say Phoenix brings a lot to the table in
attracting Dubai: a shared desert climate, urban-growth planning,
strong airport capabilities, regional collaboration, higher education,
infrastructure expertise, and interests in sustainability and renewable
energy.
Hahahahahahaha. I especially like "urban-growth planning" and "infrastructure expertise." Hey, Dubai, we can wreck your city just like we wrecked ours! Who wouldn’t want that?
But then, far down in the news report, is the "tell":
Beyond Phoenix, Arizona has large parcels of state trust lands
available, which could be attractive for large mixed-use developments.
So to the extent that any real powers support this effort, it’s a desperate ploy to reignite the sprawl machine. Which is exactly what has left Phoenix as the hole in the urban donut, slowly declining into miles of linear slums. One thinks: Are they insane? Or just greedy bastards.
If Phoenix were serious — and it should be — it would take this time out from the "growth" orgy to focus on some serious economic development.
–It would reach out for foreign direct investment to Asia and Europe, where there are companies that might actually put facilities in the city to create jobs. Good Lord, even South Carolina has mastered this move.
–It would aggressively court companies from Southern California — and bring them to the city of Phoenix, not to some office "park" in Gilbert.
–It would find a way to use tax-increment financing, in some form, to bring private capital downtown.
–It would fast-track development of the downtown bio-sciences campus, and push for commercial ties to big pharma.
–It would tap the logistics potential of reopening the old "northern main line" of the Union Pacific railroad between Phoenix and Yuma.
But there’s no easy land scheme in any of those efforts. So…Dubai.
Phil Gordon and Janet Napalitano might be the two biggest disappointments the Deomcratic party has holding office in the USA. Totally worthless and totally unwilling to challenge the GOP status quo.
Mr. Talton wrote:
“But then, far down in the news report, is the ‘tell’:
” ‘Beyond Phoenix, Arizona has large parcels of state trust lands available, which could be attractive for large mixed-use developments.’ ”
Bravo to Mr. Talton, who shows why “follow the money” remains a truism (though an often neglected one). And cash is one thing the wealthy emirate of Dubai has in abundance.
I too had been puzzled by the Mayor’s seemingly off the wall obsession with Dubai. Did Mayor Gordon simply have a “wild hair”? He doesn’t seem the sort to hijack public policy with flights of personal fancy.
One of the earliest references to the issue is in a February 3, 2008 story in the Arizona Republic titled “Dubai partnership sought”. It states in part:
“The Greater Phoenix Economic Council is hosting a delegation of government and business leaders from Dubai this weekend. The delegation includes Mohammed Bin Ali Alabbar, chairman of real-estate giant Emaar Properties, and Richard Rodriguez, who oversees Emaar’s developments in the United Arab Emirates.”
So, immediately we discover that behind Mayor Gordon’s mysterious Dubai tangent lies a convergence of local and foreign capital markets: at one end, wealthy Dubaian real-estate magnates looking to make the United States an egg in their diversified investment basket; and at the other, CEO Barry Broome and friends, hoping to accomodate them.
Seeking to learn a bit about these previous GPEC visits, I found little, but did manage to locate a brief reference at the bottom of a November 19, 2007 sports story in the Arizona Republic, titled “Offense sluggish in second half”, whose last paragraph mentions in passing that:
“Cardinals President Michael Bidwell made a long commute to see the game. He arrived in Cincinnati on Saturday evening after a 15 1/2-hour trip from Dubai . Bidwill was there as part of a contingent from the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.”
Note that Michael Bidwell has a longstanding financial interest in multi-use development sprawl, as this 2003 speech by Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs to the Chamber of Commerce makes clear:
https://www.glendaleaz.com/Mayor/archivedspeeches_2003a.cfm
True, times have changed, but hope springs eternal, especially for local developers and foreign real-estate investors with more money than they know what to do with.
The Mayor, for his part, has his own ideas, even if he does sound a bit like a beanie-wearing boy on a sugar binge in this recent Phoenix Business Journal article:
“There’s no reason Phoenix shouldn’t have the tallest building in the world.”
https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/03/24/story2.html?page=1
Back in the late 80s, an unknown snowbird from Monaco entranced city officials with a proposal for a 114 story building. Real estate was on the downside of its boom/bust cycle, and the project’s fundamentals were, so to speak, airy. But it pointed out something about our capacity to believe strangers could rescue us. The major players downtown probably didn’t appreciate the contrast to their own lesser initiatives. Today’s major player is the mayor, which is all the more disconcerting for a city without much capital or even dreams.
So, we get Mayor Gordon entertaining Chicago developers with the hope that they would do here what they’ve done back home. I suspect the Dubai strategy is more of the same. If you’re going to build the world’s tallest building in some hellish emirate, why not do something like that in Phoenix?
Gordon is a real-estate pro and he knows how “confidence” is often the trump card. He acts the way he does not because there’s anything to really be confident about. Rather, in lieu of substantial cards, you play what you have.
He’s our own Willy Loman, riding a smile and a shoeshine.
A wonderful, wonderful partnership. As the Repugnant relates, an agreement “could bring everything from sprawling new real-estate developments ………” That’s it! More sprawl! “The Valley” needs more sprawl! Whoever characterized Arizona as Mississippi in the making, had it pretty much right. The downward spiral tightens.
Apparently cynicism is contagious, so I will make my comment brief lest I be infected.
Phoenix is not the only city courting Dubai — but they are all idiots chasing their tails. You are a genius, everyone else is stupid. If you click your heels and say it three time with your eyes closed . . . well, you know the story.
Jon,
Dubai courtship is very strange, but I think it’s more of a sign how desperate everyone in Arizona is for capital infusion. There’s no money left to spur growth, sprawl or otherwise. I’m calling it a hail mary call for cash.
If all else fails, cheap dirt has *always* been the fall back sales pitch in Arizona since circa the turn of the 20th Century. That’s about all there’s left on the positive side of the ledger. And right now, no one’s even buying the state lands, so the public schools (the direct beneficiary) are suffering even more than normal.