Corporate HQ

BizTUCSONSeptember 30, 2026

3 minutes read

Choosing Downtown for Operations, Connection

By Rodney Campbell

Tucson Electric Power

When Tucson Electric Power moved into its energy-efficient headquarters 15 years ago, the company made supporting Downtown Tucson a priority.

The company, one of the first headquartered in Tucson during downtown’s resurgence, has invested in electric infrastructure that helps support redevelopment projects and the Sun Link Streetcar. TEP also is contributing $61,000 toward the Downtown Tucson Partnership’s Business Improvement District next year to support services that invite visitors and residents to explore the area.

TEP advertises on Sun Link, provides free electric vehicle charging stations in front of its building and supports regional events, including the Downtown Parade of Lights. A power provider since 1892, TEP knows the many benefits that come from a viable downtown.

“TEP supports Downtown Tucson because a strong city center supports our region’s economic health and quality of life,” said Steven Eddy, TEP’s director of public affairs.

The nine-story building accommodates more than TEP’s employees. The ground floor offers nearly 11,000 square feet of retail space.

“By locating hundreds of employees downtown and incorporating ground-floor retail space, the building helps increase economic activity, supports nearby businesses, and reinforces confidence in the city’s urban core,” Eddy said.

Caterpillar

Other companies have followed TEP’s lead. Ten years ago, Caterpillar was looking to move its surface mining & technology operations from Chicago. Upon making the Fortune 500 company’s finalist list, the Rio Nuevo District, Sun Corridor Inc. and the City of Tucson went into a full-court press.

Rio Nuevo Chair Fletcher McCusker convinced then-Gov. Doug Ducey to commit state dollars to help get Tucson into the game with site selectors. The battle with Denver was won when Rio Nuevo and other stakeholders were able to offer land, site remediation and construction costs to Caterpillar. It was a big step forward for downtown.

“Denver was really aggressive with incentives,” McCusker said. “We were successful because we made the economics irresistible.”

In 2019, Caterpillar opened its 150,000-square-foot building on Cushing Street west of Interstate 10. The new headquarters brought 1,000 jobs to the community, many filled by new residents moving from Chicago.

Word of mouth traveled quickly from the first wave of Caterpillar transfers. They told their colleagues that Tucson was a great place to live and work.

“The first 50 people came to Tucson, and they became the best marketing people we’ve ever had,” McCusker said. “At the end of the day, 95% of Caterpillar staff transferred to Tucson.”

McCusker said using public dollars to support downtown is a good investment. Without them, other communities would benefit from Tucson’s lost opportunities. The competition is fierce.

“There’s a lesson in that for people who hate tax ‘giveaways,’” he said. “Caterpillar will be the first to tell you if it wasn’t for Rio Nuevo, they would be in Denver.”

Hexagon Mining

A year before Caterpillar’s new building opened, positive ripple effects were already being felt when Hexagon moved its North American headquarters from the city’s outskirts to the City Park building on Congress Street. Hexagon’s mining division solves surface and underground challenges with technologies for planning, operations and safety.

Hexagon’s contemporary five-story building comprises not only private offices, but a rooftop patio, restaurants and a coffee shop, Wi-Fi workspace banks, communal areas to meet and brainstorm, a 400-person auditorium, and sound-proof rooms for solo work.

“Downtown Tucson is the ideal location for a North American headquarters of a global technology company,“ Josh Weiss, then-mining division president said in 2018. “It’s highly attractive for millennial talent from universities and abroad. Better yet, as a training center for customers, this location allows us to fully expose the rich possibilities of smarter, safer, fully connected mines.”

Then-Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild also celebrated the announcement of the relocation. “Bringing a tech company headquarters to a new downtown building is a double win for Tucson,” he said. “Hexagon will be part of Tucson’s emerging downtown technology hub.”

Bourn Companies

Bourn Companies has been a key part of the Tucson development community since 1990. President and CEO Don Bourn, whose company has played a role in numerous downtown projects, said it’s important to have his company’s headquarters on Congress Street.

“As the City of Tucson and Rio Nuevo made the commitment to rebuild our downtown, we felt it was important for us to contribute and lead by example − despite the cynics who warned that it was not possible,” Bourn said. “We are proud of what has been accomplished downtown, which has been an example of ‘all boats rising together’ with great cooperation and camaraderie between private and public groups.”

Bourn said a vibrant and growing downtown makes the community healthier.

“We have long believed that to be a great community, we need great nodes throughout the region where people want to gather,” Bourn said. “It is critical for Downtown Tucson to be at the epicenter of that ecosystem.”