“The future is so bright, we’ll have to wear sunglasses.” 

This quote from the early 1980s may sound cliché, but it sums up the PHX East Valley today.

If you have been reading the news, you know that East Valley economic development officials have been working overtime to bring best-in-class residential, commercial and industrial projects to the region. Thanks to their efforts, Apple, Google, LG and other big-name companies have discovered the benefits of doing business here. You can read more about these transformational projects below.

The East Valley has become ground zero for several ambitious projects, including one with a $20-billion pricetag. Whether already being built or in the pipeline, these developments, upon completion, will bring thousands of jobs to the area and a ripple effect of indirect jobs and additional investments.

Mesa’s Assistant Economic Development Director Jaye O’Donnell said the East Valley cities need to work together as a region to compete for major economic development projects on a national level. There appears to be plenty of activity to go around in the East Valley as Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Queen Creek and Tempe all have projects that fit that bill in the works or the pipeline.

Jaye O’Donnell’s priorities will include fostering connections between higher education and the business community for workforce development, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs grow and doubling down on efforts to bring high-wage jobs into the city through emerging industries.

In this guest column a high-ranking female executive with APS outlines her ideas on how women leaders in the state can help foster more equal access to opportunities and help both men and women rise up the career ladder.

Concordance Healthcare Solutions, Diversified Foodservice Supply and Paluo Solar Energy are set to take occupancy of their new Mesa warehouses in the coming months. Concordance and Diversified Foodservice each signed leases in Scannell Properties’ Gateway 202 industrial park while Paluo will move into Met 202, which was developed by Eisenberg Co. and Manulife Investment Management.

This week, Amazon (AMZN), filed presubmittal documents with Mesa’s planning office for two separate data centers about four miles apart in southeast Mesa. Both proposed projects would be built on land already owned by Amazon.

Gilbert Town Council unanimously voted to snatch up 18 acres in the city’s historic Heritage District. The purchase includes about two-thirds of the district’s long-range planning area. Here’s what is envisioned for the location.

Aerospace and defense giant Boeing is expanding its footprint in Mesa with a new 155,000-square-foot, $150 million factory at McDowell and Greenfield Roads to build parts for future combat aircraft.

Company executives and city officials cut the ribbon Sept. 12 on the Advanced Composite Fabrication Center, which will be a classified facility operated by Phantom Works, the division of Boeing that develops prototype aircraft based on the latest science.

Its “classified” status means people entering the facility will require a security clearance.

Located on the southeastern edge of the Valley, the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport has been a magnet for development, with the City of Mesa’s nearby Elliot Road Technology Corridor and Pecos Advanced Manufacturing Zone attracting millions of square feet of development to the area. Adding to the region’s economic vitality is SkyBridge, a 350-plus acre project that offers users the nation’s first air cargo hub with a joint U.S.-Mexico Customs inspections facility.

Amazon’s new 1.2 million-square-foot facility, its largest distribution center in the nation, will create more than 800 jobs to the east Valley.

The “storage and distribution center,” the first of its kind in the state, will have its grand opening Friday, and promises to make remote shopping a little easier for people throughout metro Phoenix.

The European Renaissance of the 14th through 17th centuries was a time of rediscovery and rebirth, ushering in some of the most memorable works — from the printing press and microscope to the Mona Lisa and Sistine Chapel (to name a very few). Now, largely due to future infrastructure planning and innovative thought leaders, PHX East Valley downtown regions are experiencing their own kind of renaissance. From mixed-use marvels and one-of-a-kind retail options to education hubs and opulent outdoor areas, East Valley downtowns — Tempe, Gilbert, Chandler and Mesa — are carving a space in Arizona’s history books.

Aerospace and defense may have started off as one small step for the PHX East Valley, but has now become one giant leap for Arizona. According to the Arizona Commerce Authority, the Grand Canyon State ranks in the top five for aerospace and defense manufacturing employment, houses 56,500-plus aerospace and defense workers, and contains a military talent pipeline of upwards of 625,000 service members and veterans.

LG Energy Solution said it will quadruple its initial budget for a battery manufacturing plant in Queen Creek and now plans to spend $5.5 billion for the project, which will create thousands of jobs and could become the largest stand-alone battery complex in North America.

Arizona State University started welcoming students to its new Media and Immersive eXperience – or MIX – Center in downtown Mesa earlier this month. City officials told the Business Journal it will be a boon to its economy, and it is already transforming the downtown area and attracting new investment.

In this guest column, the mayor of Tempe and a Valley real estate developer tout the transformational public-private partnership that helped the Novus Corridor project move forward in that East Valley city.

Semiconductor giant Intel officially broke ground Friday on two new factories in Chandler that will represent the largest private investment ever in Arizona at a time when chip suppliers are struggling to meet demand worldwide.

The two new factories, or fabs, will complement four existing ones on Intel’s 700-acre Ocotillo campus and collectively will mark the company’s largest manufacturing complex anywhere in the world. The additional $20 billion Intel plans to spend will bring the company’s total Arizona investment over the past four decades to more than $50 billion.

Social-media giant Facebook has announced plans to build a data center in Mesa, its first significant investment in Arizona and one the company said it will sustain largely by solar power and efficient water use.

The new facility will employ about 100 workers when completed in a couple years. It will house routers, switches, servers, storage systems and other equipment to keep important applications running and data secure. Facebook’s 2.5 billion global users exchange messages, share photos and interact in other ways.

Real estate developers are looking at abandoned bases for large projects like warehouse and logistics centers, which are needed to sustain the growth in e-commerce.

CNBC’s Phil LeBeau reports from Chandler, Arizona, which is becoming a hub for autonomous driving experiments.