Article by John Giles and John Lewis
The East Valley’s pioneering leaders who nearly 25 years ago began planning the future of the old Williams Air Force Base, choosing “Gateway” for its new name, were a prescient bunch. Or they had a spot-on crystal ball.
Williams Gateway Airport, now Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, has since been developed into a convenient, regional transportation facility employing 2,500 people, contributing $1.3 billion annually to the local, regional and state economies and housing burgeoning aerospace, manufacturing and electronics industries.
Now, it’s poised to throw open its gates to soaring international commerce due to a vision that traded rattlesnakes and tumbleweeds for booming economic development, with help from unwavering planning, cooperation and an aligning of the stars.
Within the next month, the airport begins its journey as a world-class hub between the United States and Mexico, as SkyBridge Arizona, the first and only joint customs clearance service between the two countries opens. U.S. and Mexico customs officials will be housed together at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway to expedite the processing of American goods headed to Mexico.
Consumers in Mexico, which experienced 9 percent growth to its middle-income population between 2001 and 2011 and, eventually, throughout Central and South America, will be able to purchase merchandise online and receive it quickly, as we do as consumers in the United States. E-commerce companies, manufacturers and other commercial interests conducting business south of the border will be able to more efficiently and cost-effectively transport goods, while guaranteeing proper inspections and safety controls.
This uniform cargo agreement between the airport, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexico’s Administration General de Aduanas is reciprocal. This means that, eventually, the wait time for Americans buying products, primarily produce, south of the border, will be reduced, too. Imagine avocados from Mexico arriving in your grocery store fresher and bigger because they spent two more weeks on the vine, rather in a truck on the border.
A decade from now, this import-export coup may result in an estimated 17,000 new direct and indirect jobs and the addition of 2,000 cargo flights each year eventually reaching 10,000 by 2036 from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, along with homes and businesses nearby to support new employees and their families.
Rest assured the PHX East Valley will have no trouble filling the jobs because the talent already is being grown and groomed right next door, at ASU’s Polytechnic Campus and Chandler-Gilbert Community College’s Williams Campus.
Additionally, the region has planned well for transportation needs, via the San Tan Freeway and an accelerated construction schedule for State Route 24 to link Loop 202 and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway.
The credit for this cooperation and success goes to scores of past and present government and business officials, starting with the pioneers and leaders following them who refused to compromise the airport’s viability by building an adjacent sea of rooftops.
Credit goes to David Rousseau, president of Salt River Project who introduced both the concept that led to SkyBridge Arizona and Marco Lopez, former U.S. Customs chief of staff, to Mesa city officials. And to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey for his entrepreneurial spirit, national connections and pro-Mexico trade attitude, and to the Arizona Commerce Authority, Maricopa Association of Governments and other visionary groups that viewed this as a regional asset.
We owe a debt of gratitude, too, to public servants from Mesa, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Apache Junction and the Gila River Indian Community who guided the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority, which owns and operates the airport.
And the aligning stars? What other major airport in a Mexico border state has three 10,000-foot runways and is surrounded by thousands of acres of undeveloped property?
For SkyBridge Arizona, the sky’s the limit.
John Giles is mayor of the City of Mesa and past-chairman of the board of directors of the Phoenix-Gateway Airport Authority.
John Lewis is president and CEO of East Valley Partnership and former mayor of the Town of Gilbert.
