Local business people, educators and public officials joined Assemblymember Luis Alejo on a tour of select Morgan Hill companies Friday in order to learn more about what has made them successful since locating to the city.
“Hopefully as policy makers, we can replicate these success stories” throughout the state assembly district, Alejo said at the beginning of the tour. Alejo represents the 30th California Assembly district, which includes Morgan Hill.
Alejo added that Morgan Hill exhibits some “good examples” of perseverance in economic development through recent economic difficulties and the end of publicly-funded redevelopment in California.
The Morgan Hill business tour included stops at a mix of both well-established and new companies of varying sizes: Anritsu, SolarCity, Anaerobe Systems and Guglielmo Winery.
The tour was organized by Alejo’s office and the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce.
The first stop was Anritsu, which designs, manufactures and sells handheld wireless frequency testing and measurement equipment. The company is located on Jarvis Drive, and was in fact the original developer and one of the first occupants of the surrounding business park.
Anritsu employs about 550 people, making it the largest private employer in Morgan Hill, according to Deborah Morton, Anritsu Director of Human Resources. The company’s campus includes about 250,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space in four buildings.
The next stop was SolarCity, which established its regional office on Adams Court in Morgan Hill about a year ago, according to Dan Chia, SolarCity Director of Electricity and Policy Markets. The regional office serves customers from Capitola to King City.
SolarCity is a “fully integrated” solar power provider that sells solar power systems directly to residents and businesses, installs the systems, monitors customers’ electricity use remotely from the Morgan Hill office and provides maintenance, Chia said.
The Morgan Hill facility – which mostly serves as a distribution warehouse and sales office – employs 113 people who work throughout the region, according to SolarCity Regional Operations Manager Doyle Price.
“We’re within (SolarCity’s) top five sales regions in the nation,” Chia added.
Among the 20 or so attendees of the Friday morning business tour was Morgan Hill City Councilman Gordon Siebert. Successful economic development efforts often depend on cooperation among different layers of public agencies and the private sector, and Siebert explained he attended in order to help maintain “regional and statewide partnerships.”
“I’m delighted to share some time with Assemblymember Alejo, and to see he’s interested in what’s happening in Morgan Hill, and he’s very supportive of our business community,” Siebert said.
Morgan Hill Chamber Director John Varela said the Chamber is “all about economic development” and job creation. Bringing Alejo to town to see what the Chamber, City officials and employers have done to bring jobs to Morgan Hill is a key step to attracting more business, he explained.
A number of representatives of Gavilan College also attended the business tour, in an effort to identify ways to prepare and train students for the local and regional workforce.
“It’s exciting to see employment opportunities for our graduates,” said Sherrean Carr, Gavilan College Dean of Career Technical Education. “And it’s an opportunity for Gavilan College to partner with businesses to provide customized training” to qualify for local jobs.
The next stop on the business tour was Anaerobe Systems, a manufacturer of oxygen-free environments. That company was founded by Morgan Hill resident Mike Cox in 1978, and employs about 20 people. Anaerobe ships about 15,000 plates of anaerobic bacteria per day to hospitals, universities, veterinary hospitals, pharmaceuticals and laboratories around the world. These clients use the matter for research, to diagnose diseases and develop and test new drugs.
The tour’s last stop was Guglielmo Winery, a Morgan Hill winemaker and vineyard that was established in 1925. The company, which owns about 100 acres of vineyards throughout Santa Clara Valley, is headquartered on East Main Avenue.
