TREO changing name to Sun Corridor Inc.

Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities is changing its name to Sun Corridor Inc. as it expands its focus across Southern Arizona and into Mexico.

The Tucson area’s main economic-development agency is steadily expanding its reach, officials said, and the name wasn’t reflecting what the group does.

“We’re one big market down here. What’s good for Tucson is good for Sierra Vista. What’s good for Nogales is good for Tucson,” said Joe Snell, president and CEO of Sun Corridor Inc. “We’ve felt it was time to get even more invested in this and the name is just part of that.”

Although the group has taken its name from the Sun Corridor mega-region that extends diagonally from Prescott in the northwest to Nogales in the south, Sun Corridor Inc. is not keeping to that area.

There are no hard boundaries on where it will offer services, but local officials said they plan to concentrate on the region south of Maricopa County down into Mexico.

“The key for us is we see this as bi-national; we see the Sun Corridor crossing over to Mexico. We’re really one market divided by an international border. Commerce and culture is aligned as one region for us,” Snell said.

Mexico’s growing economic power is part of a confluence of assets — along with the region’s strength as a transportation and logistics hub — that officials said presents an opportunity for Southern Arizona as a whole.

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Over the last few years, Sun Corridor Inc. members came to realize there is a significant opportunity to coalesce one market under a unified brand, executive committee member Dennis Minano said in a news release.

“We began to seriously consider a tangible structure that defines Sun Corridor business opportunities and provides a path to combine expertise in the attraction and expansion of business,” Minano said.

The group plans to aggressively market the region as one entity, officials said.

“The most significant economies and regions are built on places that identify themselves as markets, not by jurisdictions,” Snell said. “Silicon Valley, the Research Triangle, these are areas that have core strengths, core values.”

While the structure of the group will remain mostly unchanged, there will be an expansion in governance seats for people in other areas that previously weren’t serving on the board, officials said.

There will also be an expansion of services and programs in surrounding areas, along with a move from the group’s current address on Stone Avenue to a new location at 1985 E. River Road by Aug. 1.