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Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
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Clean-Tech Locations Are All Over the Map

Large renewable-energy firms such as Soitec Solar Inc. and wind technology provider enXco have recently set up significant operations in northeastern San Diego. That’s made some economic advocates hopeful that North County will one day become the region’s next big industrial cluster, focused on clean technology.

The reality, say experts, is that clean-tech is such a wide field — ranging from researchers to hardware manufacturers, installers and supply vendors — that San Diego County’s clean-tech geography currently extends throughout the region.

“Clean technology is really a lot of different kinds of companies,” said Jim Waring, president and CEO of CleanTech San Diego, a nonprofit organization that promotes development of the industry locally.

“Outside of the ones geared to life sciences, which are still locating mostly near the universities, we’re not yet seeing signs that these companies are concentrating in any specific areas of San Diego County,” Waring said.

CleanTech San Diego’s database counts nearly 800 local companies tied to the clean-tech industry. More than half — 432 — are located in various parts of the city of San Diego, with an additional 62 in Carlsbad.

The rest are spread among 14 other cities and 10 unincorporated communities throughout San Diego County.

“It’s mostly incubator type activity at this point, with a few smaller deals here and there around town,” says Tom van Betten, a local tenant representation broker who handles several industry segments for Cassidy Turley BRE Commercial. “A cluster in one place might be something for the future, but you don’t have signs that it’s happening just yet.”

Greg Bisconti, a San Diego senior director with brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield who handles the life sciences industry, noted that companies geared to biofuels — for instance, those seeking ways to turn algae into eco-friendly alternatives to oil-based fuels — continue to cluster in the region’s traditional biotech hubs of Torrey Pines and UTC.

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The key reason is access to experts and facilities at UC San Diego and nearby research institutes. This has been the case with companies like Synthetic Genomics Inc., led by genetics research pioneer J. Craig Venter; Verenium Corp. and Sapphire Energy Inc.

“It’s very fortunate that Craig Venter went to UCSD and maintains very close ties to this area,” Bisconti said.

Darren Morgan, a Cushman & Wakefield tenant-rep broker and a board member of CleanTech San Diego, noted that startup companies of all types, including those in clean-tech, are looking primarily at ways to minimize leasing and other overhead while making themselves accessible to potential workers.

For now, he said Sorrento Mesa and Sorrento Valley remain the key hubs for early stage companies involved in clean-tech. For instance, EcoATM, which recycles mobile devices dropped off at public vending machines, established itself at Sorrento Mesa after graduating from the EvoNexus incubator at UTC, operated by the nonprofit CommNexus.

However, larger and more established clean-tech firms have sought out places like Rancho Bernardo, where there are large manufacturing spaces available with quick access to Interstate 15.

Morgan was involved in the leasing deal that recently brought Soitec to a 176,000-square-foot building in Rancho Bernardo formerly occupied by Sony Electronics Inc.; and another that brought enXco to a building at Carmel Mountain Ranch.

“Soitec was looking at the I-15 corridor, and especially at Rancho Bernardo, because they wanted access to a highly skilled workforce,” Morgan said.

He said that corridor in the future could draw clean-tech firms and workers from both the northern and southern parts of the county, with state Route 56 providing access from coastal regions where traffic is generally more congested, especially along Interstate 5.

‘CleanTech Corridor’

Looking to continue the momentum generated by the arrival of companies like Soitec, the San Diego North Chamber of Commerce last year established a formal “CleanTech Corridor” program, through which it seeks to attract more manufacturing firms.

The program targets the area along I-15 between Rancho Bernardo and Escondido, and state Route 78 from the north coastal cities to San Marcos and communities farther inland.

Chamber President and CEO Debra Rosen said in an email that other firms will likely be taking advantage of North County sites with the recent growth of the ecosystem now in place, strengthened by Soitec’s arrival.

She said the organization is working with industry professionals, higher education institutions, business groups and elected representatives to have the North County considered for future development and production facilities.

“The amount of land needed for producing these technologies can be significant,” Rosen said. “In the North County region, we have an abundance of space availability.”

Groups such as South County Economic Development Council are also involved in efforts to bring clean tech companies to the region.

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