News from: The City of Coachella

In partnership with the City of Coachella, California Economic Development, City Possible, a division of Mastercard, Riverside County Office of Economic Development, Accelerator for America, and Blended Impact https://www.opportunitycoachella.com

The City of Coachella Economic Development Office wants

to remind residents, entrepreneurs and the business community that the Opportunity Coachella deadline for proposals and resident surveys are due on Tuesday, July 6 at 9am. Opportunity Coachella is a business attraction competition and community engagement survey awarding over $15,000 in prizes specific to the city’s Opportunity Zones. Go to https://www.opportunitycoachella.com/ for more information.

The City has received high interest from companies both inside and outside of the region, with applicants from Los Angeles, Tampa, and Atlanta to name a few. The City is fascinated to see a couple of companies on the East Coast that are looking to establish West Coast presence, ranging from co-living spaces in our lodging category to a smart technology kitchen appliance manufacturer in our cleantech category. Additionally, we’re seeing innovative and well thought out proposals from local residents which shows the entrepreneurial drive strong within our local communities.

Opportunity Coachella has had phenomenal nationwide coverage in the press. Due in part to the region’s popularity and the Coachella name but also due to the great interest in our Opportunity Zones and the benefits it may provide companies.

Coverage from tech channels like Crunchbase, Opportunity Zone specific coverage in OpportunityDB, as well as our local press and community partners like the Riverside County Office of Economic Development, Coachella Valley Small Business Development Center, and Greater Coachella Valley Chamber of Commerce were all instrumental in getting the word out so successfully.

The City is looking forward to seeing the responses continue and expects to see even more over proposals and survey responses submitted over the long holiday weekend. One of the frequently asked questions received is, “What size of business is targeted?”

The City wants to stress that this is for any size business as long as it’s growing and expanding. For early stage businesses, the City wants to encourage them to stay and grow here. The City also has a number of additional resources, incentives, and capital partners on standby to discuss with companies that may be larger and require more resources to consider coming to the region.

The City has also seen tremendous participation in the community survey. It ensures that the voice of the community is included, with representation from residents from the City of Coachella and unincorporated Thermal, Mecca, and North Shore.

Support and input has been overwhelmingly positive with residents expressing excitement for more cleantech projects and welcoming more recreational activities for the region. There’s still good odds for the community to win one of the 100 $50 prepaid Mastercards that will be selected at random, so the City is encouraging residents to still share their input on which type of businesses they would like to see in Coachella and unincorporated Thermal, Mecca, and North Shore.

The final deadline is next week July 6th at 9am, and we will begin selecting semi-finalists to advance that same day.

Apply: https://www.opportunitycoachella.com

The semi-finalists will be sharing live on July 15th at 1pm PST, join the event here to watch: https://opportunitycoachella.eventbrite.com

The City of Coachella was incorporated in 1946 and is a 29-square mile municipality of approximately 46,351 residents located in eastern Riverside County, in a region collectively known as the Coachella Valley in Southern California. Coachella is about 97 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border and about 1.5 hours from Los Angeles. For more information, please visit the City’s website: www.coachella.org.