Economic Development Strategic Plan Services

The vendor required to provide economic development strategic plan including a detailed implementation strategy outlining goals, strategies, and tactics.
- Economic and market analysis
1. Assess mesa’s economic landscape:
•    Analyze the local economy including key industries, business mix, employer profiles, and employment trends at local, regional, and national levels.
•    Conduct a needs assessment to evaluate mesa’s current competitiveness, identify gaps, and outline areas for future improvement.
2. Conduct sector and cluster analysis:
•    Identify high-growth and emerging sectors 
•    Evaluate feasibility of sector growth based on demand projections, local resources, and community values.
•    Analyze mesa’s economic diversification and clustering opportunities.
•    Identify key international markets aligned with mesa’s priority clusters 
3. Forecast market demand and talent flows:
•    Provide retail, industrial, and commercial space demand projections.
•    Identify trends influencing these dynamics and their implications.
4. Evaluate mesa's regional role:
•    Assess mesa’s position and influence within the phoenix metro area.
•    Identify collaboration and competition risks and opportunities related to market overlap and proximity.
5. Perform soar (strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results) and peer city benchmarking:
•    Conduct a comprehensive soar analysis for mesa’s economic positioning.
•    Benchmark mesa against at least two peer and competitor cities (based on size, age of development, accessibility, proximity to tourism, business mix, etc.).
•    Include alternative scenario modeling for key business districts.
- Business districts, redevelopment and regional competitiveness
1. Review business corridors and place-based assets:
•    Evaluate the six business districts.
•    Recommend any necessary changes to improve marketability.
2. Evaluate existing redevelopment strategies, financing, and tools 
•    Assess their effectiveness in attracting private investment, supporting infrastructure improvements, and enhancing livability.
•    Analyze outcomes and progress of redevelopment initiatives in mesa’s core districts identifying areas of success, underperformance, and opportunity.
•    Identify barriers and recommend improvements to current redevelopment approaches, including:
o    Regulatory or zoning challenges
o    Incentive tools 
o    Infrastructure or amenity deficiencies
o    Funding sources compatible with state gift clause and prohibition in extending the city’s credit
•    Propose updated or alternative strategies to maximize redevelopment impact, including alignment with the new strategic plan’s priorities, market demand, and equity goals.
- Business attraction, retention, and entrepreneurship
1. Develop a business attraction target list:
•    Use cluster and psychographic data to define target business types for attraction. 
•    Consider business types that complement or could create a competitive advantage with our educational institutions.
2. Support international competitiveness:
•    Recommend actions to attract global investment, partnerships, and talent.
•    Prepare an FDI target list of global companies with site selection plans.
•    Create tailored value propositions for foreign-owned enterprises considering.
•    Identify international travel and tourism partners to attract and leverage leisure travelers.
3. Enhance retention and growth programs:
•    Recommend strategies to support business retention, expansion, and scaling, particularly mid-sized companies.
4. Strengthen small and micro business development:
•    Identify strategies to support micro businesses transitioning to brick-and-mortar opportunities.
•    Recommend strategies to support small business retention, expansion, and scaling.
- Workforce development and talent
1. Assess workforce dynamics:
•    Identify workforce gaps, underemployment trends, and talent retention challenges.
•    Review alignment between workforce programs and target industry needs.
2. Develop workforce strategies:
•    Amplify efforts to connect populations in need with quality employment.
•    Leverage existing programs for greater efficiency and coordination across agencies.
- Strategy development and implementation plan
1. Facilitate strategic goal setting:
•    Identify and prioritize key areas of focus with specific, measurable goals for the next three years.
•    Goals should be fundamental enough to guide decision-making and resilient to market shifts.
2. Draft an actionable economic development strategy:
•    Include short- and long-term actions across
o    Business attraction and retention
o    Workforce development
o    Innovation and entrepreneurship
o    Redevelopment
o    Small business and entrepreneurial growth and development
o    Marketing and promotion
o    Visitor attraction
o    Cluster development
o    Incorporating and extending our retail strategy
o    Other economic initiatives
•    Identify key projects, stakeholders, and resource needs for each.
3. Define geographic investment areas:
•    Highlight zones, parcels, or corridors for concentrated investment.
4. Provide an implementation roadmap:
•    Deliver a timeline with major milestones and estimated deadlines.
•    Include resource requirements (funding, staffing, organizational capacity).
5. Support strategy execution readiness:
•    Analyze the city's internal ability to implement the strategy.
•    Recommend structures, cultural alignment, and cross-department coordination models.
- Metrics, tools and performance framework
1. Develop a metrics-driven evaluation system:
•    Define KPIs for each strategy and overall plan progress.
•    Recommend dashboards, tracking tools, and review cycles if different from mesa’s current tracking.
•    Integrate customer service metrics and satisfaction measures for business interactions.
2. Create a “living structure” for strategy management:
•    Decision-making criteria aligned with strategy
•    Tools for ongoing tracking, adaptation, and accountability
•    Framework to guide staff priorities, budget allocation, and cross-functional collaboration
3. Incorporate innovation and economic resilience planning:
•    Recommend policies and structures to withstand economic disruptions (e.g., downturns, automation).
•    Identify technologies, including AI, that could reshape mesa’s economy and how to respond or lead.
- Resource development and funding strategies
1. Identify funding and resource needs:
•    Recommend new or alternative funding streams to support implementation.
•    Provide insight into needed staffing, structures, and partnerships.
- Marketing and communications alignment assessment
1. Evaluate marketing alignment with the new strategic plan’s priorities, including:
•    Target industries and investment areas
•    Business districts and geographic focus zones
•    Workforce, entrepreneurship, and small business initiatives
•    Global and regional positioning
2. Identify gaps in marketing in relation to the new strategic plan and recommend enhancements to:
•    Better engage key audiences (e.g., site selectors, entrepreneurs, international investors)
•    Improve internal messaging and stakeholder coordination
•    Strengthen mesa’s visibility across digital, print, and in-person channels
3. Provide actionable recommendations for the new strategic plan, including:
•    Key messages and themes to emphasize
•    Audiences to prioritize
•    Channels and platforms to expand or refine
•    Suggested collateral or storytelling tools to develop
•    Advise on implementation, offering guidance for how city staff and partners can integrate these recommendations into future marketing efforts.
- Engagement and communications
1. Strategic plan presentation
•    Provide presentations to city council and stakeholder groups (including but not limited to downtown mesa association and mesa chamber of commerce).
•    Work with city staff, businesses, non-profits, and other partners throughout.
2. Develop a communications toolkit:
•    Branded materials to support internal and external messaging. 
•    Branding standards to be provided by city.
•    Assets for city council, EDAB, social media, and the website.

- Pre-Proposal Conference Date: November 24, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: November 24, 2025