By Dave Coffaro, President & CEO, Greater Irvine Chamber
Two years ago, the Greater Irvine Chamber and the City of Irvine began a conversation about a simple question:
What will drive Irvine’s next chapter of economic growth?
Former Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi, Assistant City Manager Pete Carmichael, and I began a series of discussions about Irvine’s economic future and how we could build upon one of the most successful city-building stories in America.
Since its incorporation in 1971, Irvine has experienced extraordinary, intentional growth. Guided by the principles of its Master Plan, the city created an enviable combination of great neighborhoods, employment centers, educational institutions, open space, and quality of life.
For much of Irvine’s first half-century, real estate development was an important engine of that growth.
But successful communities evolve.
Irvine is approaching a fundamentally different stage in its development. Much of the city has been built. Large areas have been intentionally preserved as open space and will remain that way. There are still opportunities for residential, commercial, and industrial development, but development at the scale that characterized Irvine’s first 50 years will not define its next 50.
That realization led us to another question:
If Irvine’s next economic chapter will not be driven primarily by what we build, what will drive it?
We believe a large part of the answer is what we create.
From Development to Innovation
Fortunately, Irvine enters this next chapter with an extraordinary advantage: innovation is already deeply embedded in our business community culture.
We have a remarkably diverse economy; from thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs to educational and research institutions, nonprofit organizations, and some of the world’s largest companies. We have exceptional talent and businesses operating at the forefront of emerging technologies.
But innovation alone does not create economic growth. Innovation must be translated into entrepreneurship, companies, products, services, investment, and jobs.
The Greater Irvine Chamber and the City engaged an independent external research group to help us better understand which areas of our economy are particularly well positioned for future growth. That work identified four high-growth sectors: healthcare innovation and medical technologies; foundational technologies, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing; next-generation defense technologies; and climate transition and decarbonization technologies.
Our research also reinforced something equally important. If we want more entrepreneurs to start, grow, and scale companies in Irvine, we need to make it easier for them to do it.
Making Irvine Easier to Navigate
That meant looking at entrepreneurship from the perspective of the entrepreneur.
How easy is it to obtain a business license?
Can permitting be simpler and faster?
Where does a founder go when they need help?
How do we connect entrepreneurs with mentors, talent, customers, capital, and other entrepreneurs?
How can the City and the Greater Irvine Chamber help people navigate the inevitable friction involved in turning an idea into an enterprise?
Those questions have helped shape a broader effort to make Irvine an even more welcoming environment for business formation and growth.
But one piece was still missing.
A place.
Entrepreneurship thrives on connections. Innovators need somewhere to meet other innovators, find expertise, access resources and capital, learn from experienced business leaders, and begin turning ideas into companies.
Today, that idea is becoming a reality.
The Irvine Center of Innovation & Entrepreneurship
On July 15, the City announced the launch of the Irvine Center of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, a landmark initiative that represents a significant milestone in the evolution of Irvine’s economy.
The 25,000-square-foot Center will be located at 510 Technology Drive. It is being designed to bring entrepreneurs, startups, investors, business resource organizations, and strategic partners together in one place.
The City has described the concept simply and powerfully:
“One place to start, many ways to grow.”
That is exactly what an entrepreneurial ecosystem should do.
The Center will provide flexible office and coworking space, lab and prototyping capabilities, business advising and mentorship, educational and accelerator programming, connections to capital and customers, and opportunities to connect with industry leaders and strategic partners.
In other words, it is intended to become a front door to Irvine’s innovation economy.
And importantly, the Center is an ecosystem. Initial partners include the Orange County Inland Empire Small Business Development Center and American Lending Center, with additional collaboration planned with the Greater Irvine Chamber, educational institutions, workforce organizations, accelerator resources, and other regional partners.
Irvine Mayor Larry Agran described the Center as an “intentional, generational investment in our City’s future.”
I think that description captures its significance well.
Building the Next Irvine
What excites me most about the Center is not the building itself. It is what will happen inside. I imagine a researcher developing a new medical technology who needs help commercializing it.
An engineer who has identified a problem no one else has solved.
A university graduate with a promising idea but little knowledge about how to build a company.
An experienced executive ready to leave a large corporation and launch something new.
Or a small business owner who simply needs the right introduction, mentor, financing source or customer to move to the next level.
Some of those ideas will not advance. Others will become small businesses employing five or ten people. And a few may become the next generation of Irvine companies employing hundreds or thousands.
We don’t know which ones.
That is precisely the point.
Our job as a business community is not to predict the next great Irvine company. It is to create the environment in which that company has the greatest possible opportunity to emerge.
For more than half a century, Irvine demonstrated what can happen when a community thinks deliberately about its future. The Irvine Center of Innovation & Entrepreneurship carries that tradition forward.
Irvine’s first great chapter was shaped by a remarkable Master Plan, by thoughtfully considering what we would build.
As we begin our next chapter, our economic future will increasingly be shaped by what we create.
Congratulations to the City of Irvine, Pete Carmichael, Karin Koch, and the economic development team, and the partners working to bring the Center vision to life.
For more information, visit the Irvine Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship webpage.
