Santa Clara, Calif. – April 7, 2006 – The California Association of Local Economic Development (CALED) has recognized the City of Santa Clara and its municipal utility, Silicon Valley Power (SVP), in its 2005 Awards of Excellence competition. SVP received merit awards for the City’s innovative Commercial Broker Workshop program and its economic development website, MovetoSantaClara.com.

CALED’s Excellence Awards program salutes significant contributions by members in three economic development categories: development partnerships, programs, and promotional initiatives.

“In 2003, with a 39 percent loss in commercial occupancies plaguing the City of Santa Clara due to the dot-com downswing, we knew we had to reach out,” said Debby Barry, SVP Business Analyst and Program Manager of the Commercial Broker Workshops.

In response, Santa Clara launched two new outreach initiatives: the Commercial Broker Workshop and the “Movetosantaclara.com” website. The broker workshops are designed for local commercial real estate brokers to provide them access to City staff and to help them promote Santa Clara to their prospective clients. Attendees receive information about Santa Clara’s benefits, marketing tools, a brief introduction to the permitting process and how to access key City officials. The workshops reserve time for Q&A and networking.

In addition, brokers who complete the workshop receive a “Certificate of Completion” and their name, specialty, company and web address are posted on the Movetosantaclara.com website. As many as 47 brokers, representing 17 major Bay Area and local commercial real estate firms, have participated in the workshops.

The MovetoSantaClara.com website targets commercial brokers, site locators, builders and developers by clearly outlining why it is smart business to move to the City–low stable electric rates, lowest combined utility rates in nine Bay Area counties and no utility tax. It also offers an economic profile of the City of Santa Clara, location data, key City contacts and an electric rate calculator, and describes the City’s services, including smart permits, streamlined business codes, single source contacts and the broker workshops.

Both the website and commercial broker workshops have helped spread the word about Santa Clara’s low electric and water rates, streamlined permitting process, energy rebates, efficiency recycling programs, and business-friendly community.

So what was the end result of these two, new programs? Last year, vacancy rates dropped 15 percent. With the assistance of the Broker Workshop and new website Santa Clara attracted such companies as General Dynamics, Magma Design Automation, Marvell Semiconductor and Hyperion Solutions Corporation.