For the past few years, the East Bay Economic Development Alliance (East Bay EDA) has been leading and supporting various initiatives and projects to help foster a vibrant regional economy and labor market. One of the most notable and visible examples of these efforts in action was our public-facing launch in 2023 of Resilient East Bay, a cross-sector initiative supported by academic, civic, and industry leaders to ensure that the East Bay continues to be one of the nation’s leading manufacturing regions. Specifically, this initiative sought to enhance connectivity and advance partnerships between business, education, government, and others to ensure that our manufacturing ecosystem receives ongoing investment and support.
Leveraging seed funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (U.S. EDA), this project has helped to enhance and expand the scope of East Bay EDA’s work into other projects and initiatives related to the use of our region’s industrial lands, which are among the East Bay’s most important assets, offering opportunities for advanced industries at the nexus of manufacturing, research and development, and technology. It was partly out of the recognition of this work that we announced in the summer of 2023 that both East Bay EDA and Contra Costa County were awarded technical assistance support grants by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to advance their Priority Production Areas (PPA), which are regional growth areas that have been prioritized for economic development investments. Among other things, these industrial land areas are a key part of MTC Plan Bay Area’s broader effort to achieve a better jobs-housing balance across the Bay Area, an issue that many East Bay leaders have been championing for some time. This work has recently gotten underway and will be continuing throughout the coming year into the first half of 2026.
East Bay EDA is excited to be able to build off the success of the Resilient East Bay initiative and the opportunities associated with the PPA work to help support the implementation of an action plan for the Green Empowerment Zone (GEZ). Authored by former Assemblymember (now State Senator) Tim Grayson in 2021 (at the time while he was serving in the California Assembly), the GEZ seeks to identify projects and programs to leverage investments that support the economic vitality of the Northern Waterfront area of Contra Costa County. This subregion has a rich industrial history and is one of the areas of focus under MTC’s PPA initiative. As these projects continue to move forward, East Bay EDA looks forward to leveraging the efforts and insights gleaned from Resilient East Bay (like this industrial lands toolkit) to support both the GEZ and PPA efforts as they continue forward.