San Leandro Plays to its Strengths to Attract Innovative Industries
In the August 16, 2024 issue of the San Francisco Business Times, Hayward and San Leandro are featured in the recurring East Bay Hot Spots series. The issue spotlights San Leandro’s continued support for innovative businesses–this time focusing on clean energy and battery manufacturing–and highlights Coreshell, one of San Leandro’s more recent arrivals in sustainable battery production.
San Leandro’s legacy as an innovation and manufacturing haven has been cemented in history by such names as Daniel Best Agricultural Works, Kellogg’s, Plymouth/Dodge, and Friden Calculators, and perpetuated by companies such as Ghirardelli Chocolate, OSIsoft (now AVEVA), and Torani.
Innovation is fluid and evolves with the needs of the future, and in order to provide the necessary support for startups and new companies to grow and succeed, cities need to evolve in tandem. And San Leandro is doing so.
In this year’s Hot Spot, the Business Times interviews Jonathan Tan, CEO of Coreshell, Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas, and San Leandro Economic Development Manager Katie Bowman. Coreshell is a developing a nanometer electrode coating which reduces battery degradation and improves lithium ion batteries.
Entitled ‘Cities Plug into a Battery Revolution,’ the article highlights the two neighboring cities as affordable and attractive destinations for innovative businesses, in part thanks to the discerning support that City staff puts forth to welcome new innovators like Coreshell and other San Leandro trailblazers in battery innovation such as Cuberg, Zelos Energy, and Quino Energy.
Bowman is also featured in a Q&A section, responding to questions surrounding housing, development trends, and how San Leandro is playing to its strengths to attract new industries. As innovation evolves, so will the City position itself to nurture an ecosystem capable of providing the support and infrastructure desired by the community.
The East Bay Economic Development Alliance has also contributed a piece that celebrates Hayward and San Leandro’s capabilities to concurrently balance a pro-housing and pro-business agenda. The East Bay EDA recognizes the two cities for not taking an either/or approach to economic development and housing, and for responding to the needs of both the residential and commercial communities in ways that can serve as a model for other area cities to follow.
San Leandro is also highlighted in a full-page advertisement of two of the city’s most innovative developments at present. Prologis Nexus is creating a state-of-the-art and sustainable industrial building from an existing building at 1345 Doolittle Drive. Speedway at Bayfair is transforming the interior of the Bayfair Mall into a research and development campus. (More below!) This advertisement is representative of the flexible and progressive approach that the City is championing in order to ensure that viable, environmentally sustainable, and biodiverse businesses have a place to set down roots and grow.
I appreciate your drawing the connections between San Leandro’s industrial past and its direct connection to its present – We still Make Things, this time as part of the Industrial Internet of Things. Well-written article – good to see the work of Economic Development highlighted!