Project Sun AnnouncementWe are honored to finally reveal that Project Sun is made up of two Taiwanese companies, PV Circonomy and EasyCycle. The hardware and software companies are the first of their kind in the United States. Their innovative technology allows for the recycling of up to 99% of the material from solar panels, something that is not possible anywhere else. PV Circonomy will be located in Menifee and EasyCycle will be based out of the TVE2 Building in Temecula. Project Sun is an excellent example of regional collaboration. Thank you to all our community partners who made this recruitment a success. The EDC was introduced to PV Circonomy and EasyCycle less than a year ago at SelectUSA in Washington D.C. After their visit, the companies were impressed not only by the region but also by the services they received at the EDC. Following their visit, they invited our Executive Director, Connie Stopher CEcD, to Taiwan to meet with fellow innovative Taiwanese companies interested in expanding to the US. The past year of collaboration has been fruitful for all parties involved; we look forward to all the future success PV Circonomy and EasyCycle will achieve here. Innovation Month April is Riverside County's Innovation Month. Southwest Riverside County will host a Quick Pitch Competition on Tuesday, April 16th, at the Lake Elsinore Storm Stadium Taproom from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The first-place winner will receive $1,000 and advance to the county pitch competition on April 30th. To apply, fill out this application and email it to sagajanian@murrietaca.gov by Tuesday, April 9th, 2024. Mayor’s Tech Idea ExchangeIt’s time for our next Idea Exchange in partnership with the City of Menifee. We are excited to continue supporting Tech in our region. Join us for our second idea exchange of the year with the City of Menifee Economic Development team on April 16th. The event will take place from 8:30 – 10:30 am at the City of Menifee City Hall and will include breakfast, an array of speakers, and opportunities to network. Our guest speakers will include Doug Kollmyer, an Entrepreneur in Residence at UCR and Scott Brovsky an Angel Investor, start-up mentor, and Associate Director of Regional Engagement at UCR. To attend, register here. DigiFestSupport digital creators at DigiFest. If you’d like to attend this 3-day event with several great speakers, click here. The event will take place on April 19-21. Site Selectors Guild The first week of April, our Executive Director, Connie Stopher CEcD, will be attending Site Selectors Guild Annual Conference in Nashville, TN. Site Selectors Guild is a great place to connect with site selectors from across the country and hear feedback to level up our region. Due to the date of this conference, there will be no EDC board meeting in April, and we will see you on May 2nd for our Next Board meeting. We will be having Chris Gray from WRCOG as our guest speaker. ThriveThank you to everyone who attended our first Thrive Inland SoCal – Southwest Riverside County meeting on Tuesday, March 19th. We identified barriers in our region and discussed different types of solutions. We need all your voices to help create a comprehensive economic development plan for our region. Help us collect more data by filling out this survey and you will receive a $50 visa gift card. If you haven’t signed up for our Thrive meetings, click here . Our next meeting will be on April 16th from 3-5 pm at the Temecula Entrepreneur Exchange building. If you need childcare or a ride to assistance get to the meeting, let us know; support is available. Please contact Connie at cstopher@edcswca.com. April Events at the TVE2Contact UsConnie Stopher, CEcD
Email: cstopher@edcswca.com Office: 951-694-9800 Cell: 951-557-8040
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ThriveWe are excited to announce that the EDC will be the Sub-Regional organization for THRIVE Inland-SoCal, a collaborative funded by California Jobs First (formerly known as CERF) to drastically transform communities that have been historically disadvantaged. As our region is growing to be a more technological, sustainable, carbon-neutral future, it is important to prioritize our people. We will be designing new plans and strategies to diversify local economies and develop sustainable industries that create high-quality, broadly accessible jobs for all Californians. We will host monthly meetings on the third Tuesday of every month at TVE2 Building from 3:00-6:00. The first meeting will be March 19th. Zoom options will be available. During these meetings, we will gather insights from organizations and community members. We want to hear from you to make an inclusive economic development plan and have conversations to better understand where you would like to see our region’s economy grow. To learn more and to register to attend, visit our Thrive page: https://www.edcswca.com/thrive.html New Degree OpportunitiesTwo new degree opportunities are now available at Cal State San Marcos. Students now have the opportunity for a bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity that will be delivered online. Starting this Fall, CSUSM in Temecula will offer a bachelor’s degree in software engineering. It is very exciting to see higher education opportunities expand for our students SoCal Gas GrantsSoCal Gas has announced they have $1 million in Gas Assistance Funds available today to support residential customers. This means eligible customers can apply for up to $200 to pay their SoCal Gas bill. To learn if you are eligible for grants, click here. To see more programs that can help customers save money and energy, visit socalgas.com/Save. Healthcare Idea ExchangeOn February 15th, we hosted the mayor’s Healthcare Idea Exchange in partnership with the City of Menifee Economic Development team. We want to thank our panelists, Mayor Bill Zimmerman, Mayor Pro Tem Deines, Kim Gerrish of Michelle’s Place, Ross Young of Clinical Notes AI, and Dr. Chitra Dorai of Amicus Brain Innovations. Thank you to our lunch sponsors: Rady Children’s Hospital & Loma Linda University Medical Center. Thank you to our annual sponsors: JDS Creative Academy, Brookfield Properties, Southwest Healthcare, Consolidated Contracting, Law Offices of Rosenstein and Rosenstein, and VFW Post 1956 for their continuous support of the EDC. March Events at the ERCMarch Board MeetingThe next board meeting will be held on March 7th at the Temecula Entrepreneur Exchange. We will be having a guest speaker, Paul Aguirre. He is a Field Specialist for the High Road Field Team of the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB). If you’re interested in attending this meeting, please sign up here. Reminder: there will be no April board meeting as the EDC will be attending Site Selector's Guild. TechSouthwestThe next TechSouthwest will take place on Wednesday, March 1th, at 3:30 on Zoom. If you are interested in attending this meeting, sign up here. Community EventsOn Saturday, March 23, 2024, Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District will be hosting their Splash into Spring community event from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the EVMWD headquarters at 31315 Chaney Street in Lake Elsinore. This is a free family event where attendees will learn about the process EVMWD uses every day to treat water in our communities. We are excited for Riverside County Office of Economic Development and the launch of Riverside County Arts & Culture Month. March will be a month-long celebration showcasing all the museums, parks, and cultural centers Riverside County offers. The arts and culture in our region enrich the lives of our communities while contributing to the economic and social vitality in our county. Contact UsConnie Stopher, CEcD
Email: cstopher@edcswca.com Office: 951-694-9800 Cell: 951-557-8040 New MemberWelcome our newest gold member... Kaiser Permanente. We are so excited to have Kaiser a part of our organization, and we look forward to all that we can achieve together! January Board Meeting RecapWe are one step closer to being Southern California's first accredited economic development organization. Accreditation is important to us as an organization as it shows our organization's quality of work and credibility. Thank you to each of you for your participation and collaboration as we work towards this accreditation. We launched another Google Ad campaign in January to continue our workforce recruitment efforts. In 2023, we began deep-diving into commuter workforce data and discovered that much of our population is getting on the freeway and commuting to surrounding counties for work. To retain the workforce, we have been using Google Ads to promote working in our region by creating ads that lead to our SoCaljobs board. February MeetingOur next board meeting will be Thursday, February 1st at 9 am. We look forward to hearing from Jim McLaughlin from TedXTemecula at this meeting. If one of your New Year's resolutions is to level up your business and surround yourself with the region’s best, please sign up to be a guest at our next board meeting. Mayor's Health Care Idea ExchangeOn February 15th, we are partnering with the City of Menifee for the Mayor’s Healthcare Idea Exchange. The event will take place at Rancho Family Medical Group in Menifee from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. Our guest panelists will include Kim Gerrish, CFRE, Executive Director of Michelle’s Place Cancer Resource Center; Ross Young, CEO of Clinical Notes AI; and Dr. Chitra Dorai, founder and CEO of Amicus Brain Innovations. If you are interested in attending this event, click here! Thank you to our Lunch Sponsor, Rady Children’s Hospital, and all of our annual sponsors! Opening of the TVE2 Entrepreneur FloorOn January 24th, we celebrated the opening of the Entrepreneurial Resource Center. Congratulations to the City of Temecula, Orange County Inland Empire Small Business Development Center, Riverside County Office of Economic Development, and Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship at California State University, San Bernardino, on their grand opening and ribbon cutting. The Entrepreneurial Resource Center (ERC) is now open and here to support our region's entrepreneurs, small business owners, and startups. Tech SouthwestThere will be no TechSouthwest on Tuesday, February 13th, as we will have our Mayor’s Healthcare Idea Exchange on Thursday, February 15th. Join us on March 12th for our next meeting. Riverside County Arts & CultureWe look forward to RivCoED launching Riverside County Arts & Culture Month in March. Throughout the month, the county will highlight all the museums, parks, and cultural centers throughout the region. If you want to learn more about Riverside County Arts & Culture Month, click here. As we wrap up the year with our final newsletter. We’d like to start by thanking each of you for your contributions to making this such a successful year. Over the course of 2023, we’ve reached new milestones and accomplished even more than we could have imagined just a year ago. Here is a snapshot of our recent news and a review of the year. Project PolarisDecember was a very exciting month for the EDC. We officially announced that Starz Electronics, a lithium battery manufacturer from Tunisia, has expanded its business to Temecula. Starz Electronics is a company that our Executive Director, Connie Stopher CEcD, met at SelectUSA this past May. Starz Electronics will be housed at the TVE2 in Temecula while they finalize their search for a manufacturing location in the region. Starz plans to invest $28 million in the first year in their facility and create 60 new jobs. This is a great win for the region, and we are excited to welcome them to the region. Healthcare Idea ExchangeThe Mayor’s Healthcare Idea Exchange will be taking place on February 15th in partnership with the city of Menifee. If you are interested in attending this event, please sign up here. This is a regional event for healthcare leaders and professionals. If you would like to learn more about the event or how to become a sponsor, please email Connie at cstopher@edcswca.com December Board MeetingThank you to our guest speaker, Jennifer Contreras, from the Ontario International Airport. Jennifer shared about the correlation between economic development in the region and the airport. Connie and Leah shared a recap of everything the EDC has accomplished this year. Here are some of this year's highlights:
Here’s to another great year in 2024! January EventsWe will be kicking off 2024 with our board meeting on Thursday, January 4th, at 9 am. If you’d like to invite a guest to be a part of this meeting please have them sign up here. Join us on January 9th at 3:30 for our TechSouthwest meeting, where we will be planning for our next industry-focused idea exchange. If you’d like to attend these meeting please sign up here. From all of us at the EDC, we want to wish you a happy New Year! Contact UsConnie Stopher, CEcD
Email: cstopher@edcswca.com Office: 951-694-9800 Cell: 951-557-8040 12/11/2023 Press Release: Tunisian Manufacturing Company Announces Expansion to Temecula, CARead NowTunisian Manufacturing Company Announces Expansion to Temecula, CAFor Immediate Release MEDIA CONTACT: Connie Stopher, Executive Director (951) 694-9800 cstopher@edcswca.co Starz Energies will be located in the Temecula Valley Entrepreneurs Exchange (TVE2) while they establish their first U.S manufacturing facility. Temecula, CA – December 11, 2023 – Starz Electronics, an American-Tunisian manufacturing company, announced plans to develop their first U.S. manufacturing location in Southwest Riverside County. For over 20 years, Starz Electronics has specialized in electrical and electronic manufacturing. Their new U.S. facility, Starz Energies, will manufacture lithium-ion batteries.
Starz Electronics’ Founder and CEO Ali Belakhoua shared how they chose the region for their first U.S location. “We chose Southern California as the place to locate our cathode, anode, and electrolyte manufacturing plant. Our battery assembly operation will be using the latest innovations in Lithium battery assembly technologies. Starz Energies has worked for the past six years to perfect its materials processing and contribute to the region’s environmental goals. We look forward to being part of the community.” Starz Energies will initially be located at the Temecula Valley Entrepreneurs Exchange (TVE2) while they work to establish their manufacturing facility that plans to employ 60 employees in their first year. In addition to their manufacturing presence in the region, they are looking to establish R&D partnerships with the University of California, Riverside. “We are very excited to welcome Starz Electronics to our region. UCR has established leadership in electric battery manufacturing and recycling research, which makes this a good match for some of the focuses of our OASIS initiative and offers a valuable chance for engagement with our faculty and students” shared UCR Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development, Rodolfo Torres. “The arrival of this company in Inland Southern California is a testament to the collective efforts of UCR, other institutions of higher education, government entities, the private sector, community organizations, and additional stakeholders in the region are conducting together to promote economic development and improve the quality of life for our community.” “We are thrilled that Starz Electronics has chosen California to establish a lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility,” said GO-Biz Deputy Director for International Affairs and Trade Emily Desai. “Their expansion proves the point that California’s proactive efforts to combat climate change serve as a draw for cutting-edge companies and spur economic development. Our team looks forward to continuing to work with Starz as they grow their footprint in the Golden State.” The California Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development or GO-Biz serves as the State of California’s leader for job growth, economic development, and business assistance efforts and regularly partners with local and regional economic development offices for recruitment and retention efforts. “We are excited to welcome Starz Energies to the region. They will be a great addition to our manufacturing and R&D sector and our growing EV economy” said Economic Development Coalition Executive Director, Connie Stopher. “The local and state-wide partnerships, including the access to talent and university collaborations were key to the success of this project. The Economic Development Coalition (EDC) works with communities in the Southwest Riverside region of Southern California to attract new businesses and grow existing industries. Advanced Manufacturing is one key sector that they have strategically targeted. The Temecula Entrepreneurs Exchange (TVE2) is a business incubator and regional resource center that fosters business growth and economic vitality for entrepreneurs. In addition to the incubator, the TVE2 house the Inland Empire SBDC, and offices of the EDC. We proudly extend a warm welcome to Starz Energies, an accomplished business whose success has resonated not only in their home country, Tunisia, but across borders,” says Mary Cervantes, TVE2 Manager. “Their exceptional achievements stand as a testament to the global reach of innovation and entrepreneurship. As Starz Energies joins our incubator, we look forward to fostering an environment where their insights will undoubtedly enrich and inspire our region”. For more information about Starz Electronics, visit their website: https://www.starzelectronics.com/ To learn more about the Economic Development Coalition and the Southwest Riverside County region, please visit us online at edcswca.com. About Starz Electronics Starz Electronics is a leading innovator in the consumer electronics industry, dedicated to providing cutting-edge technology solutions from providing electronic and electrical manufacturing services to introducing design and prototyping to its expertise. Their work includes R&D and the custom manufacturing of products for their customers around the world. About the Economic Development Coalition The Economic Development Coalition (EDC) is a non-profit organization that works with the public and private sectors throughout Southern California, formed to unite public and private stakeholders to leverage the region’s competitive advantage, attract business, and supporting a high-quality of life. The EDC serves the cities of Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Menifee, Temecula, and the unincorporated areas of Southwest Riverside County. |