PRESS RELEASE

Above: Mayor Rex Richardson stands with Ford's Electric Vehicle, Digital & Design Officer Doug Field and
Head of the new Ford Long Beach Division, Executive Director – Advanced EV Development, Alan Clark,
at the Grow Long Beach presentation on June 26, 2024. 

Long Beach, CA – This week, Mayor Rex Richardson hosted the Grow Long Beach presentation where he highlighted the progress made over the past year for the Grow Long Beach initiative, the City of Long Beach’s plan to build a thriving and sustainable local economy by focusing on five key growth sectors, as well as a look towards the future as Long Beach continues to attract new investments and interest from business looking to grow. Held at the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Honda Pacific Vision Theater, this year’s Grow Long Beach presentation drew hundreds of regional and national leaders from commercial and private investors, entrepreneurs, labor organizations and community stakeholders.

“The arrival of Ford Motor Company, along with the announcement of thousands of new clean tech and high-quality jobs on hand, is evidence that our Grow Long Beach focus is working,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “We’re fostering a hub of innovation by expanding engineering, tech and advanced manufacturing – creating jobs that also support families in our local workforce.”

Mayor Richardson noted that over the next two years, Long Beach can anticipate more than 1,000 new high paying engineering, tech and advanced manufacturing jobs, steadily growing the local industry workforce. Companies are also investing in Long Beach for the long term, selecting local sites for new headquarters and expansions for existing facilities.

Below are aerospace industry highlights announced during this year’s Grow Long Beach presentation:

• Ampaire, a Top 100 Global Cleantech company at the forefront of hybrid electric aircraft systems development, has selected Long Beach as the location of their new headquarters.
• Space Beach continues to soar.
  • SpaceX has renewed its lease for another five years and is doubling their facility’s footprint in Long Beach. Since 2021, SpaceX’s West Coast Recovery Operations Hub has been at the Port of Long Beach. Their facility will grow from just over six acres to 15 acres, including both dry and submerged land, office and manufacturing space.
  • Relativity Space and Rocket Lab, both headquartered in Long Beach, continue to hire new employees weekly. Relativity Space continues to hit their manufacturing milestones, and Rocket Lab recently launched its 50th Electron rocket.
  • Vast has reached 450 employees and is on course to beat its five-year goal of 800 employees by next summer, two years ahead of schedule.
  • Mayman Aerospace is joining the Space Beach community, relocating their headquarters from Ventura County to Long Beach.
  • NovaWurks, a satellite design, engineering and manufacturing firm, is relocating their headquarters from Orange County to Long Beach to occupy new, state-of-the art advanced manufacturing facility.
  • In coordination with the Mayor’s Fund for Long Beach, a new Space Beach Advisory Council will be established, bringing together Space Beach industry leaders to collaborate.
  • The inaugural Space Beach Youth Camp will also take place this summer for local youth ages 16 to 24 to inspire students from local schools to pursue careers in STEM.
  • NuSpace PCX Long Beach has renewed their lease for another decade at the Long Beach Airport. Occupying over 55,000-square-feet, they serve as a leading supplier of mission-critical pressure vessels for space and missile defense.

The presentation also shared a major announcement from Ford Motor Company. Ranked No. 17 in the Fortune 500, Ford Motor Company is launching a new, 250,000-square-foot Research and Development facility in Long Beach that will focus on creating a cost-effective consumer Electric Vehicle for production.

The Mayor also announced the awardees for the City’s Level Up LB: Extreme Small Business Makeover and Grant Program, which will connect selected entrepreneurs with essential business support resources and comprehensive workshops that focus on crafting new business and marketing plans, and, upon completion of the Program, will receive $10,000 in grant funding to help grow their small business. More information and the list of selected businesses are available here.

Long Beach also continues to play host to many major national conventions, with more than 290 meetings and conventions booked this past year. Announced during this year’s Grow Long Beach presentation, in 2026, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) will be coming to Long Beach for the first time in the over 90-year history of the organization, bringing to Long Beach more than 250 big city mayors from across the nation as well as White House officials, the California Governor’s office, and many federal officials and department leaders. The Intermodal Association of North America has also secured Long Beach for its annual convention for a four-year period, 2028-2031, and Optica has moved their prestigious annual conference to Long Beach from San Jose, where it has been the last decade, beating out many cities across the country. This conference will bring tech leaders from major companies around the globe in 2025 and 2027 to discuss the latest in optics, lasers and photonics.

As a boost to Long Beach's growing music and special events scene, Mayor Richardson shared that the completion of the City’s first-ever outdoor amphitheater is anticipated for summer 2025. The amphitheater will hold upwards of 12,000 seats and attract major bands, artists and acts from around the world and thousands of visitors to the Downtown waterfront. 

The Grow Long Beach presentation also highlighted advancements in other industry sectors. The Port of Long Beach is seeing record levels of federal investments to support clean energy, including a $1.57 billion investment and adding 1,100 new union labor construction jobs. Additional updates on increases in the local affordable housing production; decrease in homelessness for the first time in seven years; ongoing investments in arts, culture and tourism; and the City’s role as the largest venue city for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games were also shared.

The entire Grow Long Beach presentation will soon be available to view online at longbeach.gov.

About the City of Long Beach
Long Beach is nestled along the Southern California coast and home to approximately 466,000people. As an award-winning full-service charter city, Long Beach offers the amenities of a metropolitan city while maintaining a strong sense of individual and diverse neighborhoods, culture, and community. With a bustling downtown and over six miles of scenic beaches, Long Beach is a renowned tourist and business destination and home to the iconic Queen Mary, nationally recognized Aquarium of the Pacific and Long Beach Airport, the award-winning Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center and world-class Port of Long Beach.

For more information about the City of Long Beach, visit longbeach.gov/. Follow us on social to keep up with the latest news: Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.