The Long Beach, Seal Beach, and Lakewood area is thriving economically, with steadily increasing real estate value, jobs aplenty, and good investment incentives. Primary growth sectors are those of tourism, technology, trade, and retail.
Southern California’s beautiful climate and the warmth and beauty of the Pacific Ocean draw visitors from all over, and the charm of places like old Seal Beach and downtown Long Beach’s Pike district ensure that they come back. Retail and hospitality industries are going from strength-to-strength, with large employers including Target, Wal-Mart, and Hyatt-Regency.
Population density and diversity further supports a prosperous retail sector, and this region’s revenue growth is well ahead of most of Southern California. The Los Angeles Business Journal recently called Long Beach "the hot-bed of Southern California retail development," something that has long been true of Lakewood, a primary retail center since its inception in the early nineteen-fifties. Busy suburban centers stretch along the many important highways that serve the Long Beach, Seal Beach, and Lakewood region, and neighborhoods are ethnically diverse and serve a variety of income brackets. With new investors committing billions each year, property values are rising steadily in each of these cities.
Backed by a state university (in Long Beach) and several top colleges and technical training institutes, locals are able to provide the high level of expertise necessary to serve the region’s technology-based industries, which include IT, computer peripherals, software companies, and telecommunications industries like Verizon (a large employer). Aerospace (including orbital launch services) has long been important here, with the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and Boeing employing vast numbers of personnel. Gulfstream Aerospace is another major employer.
Long Beach is an important trade port, and companies providing sophisticated logistics and transportation thrive in the city.
Professional services firms contribute strongly to the local economy in all three cities and the health and education sectors are likewise flourishing.
The cities of Long Beach, Seal Beach, and Lakewood provide a variety of supportive measures to encourage investment both large and small, including services, helpful resources, programs, and financial incentives. The City of Long Beach for example offers grants to new businesses, competitive start up loans, retail sales tax incentives, and a free trade zone. Their excellent “HUB zone” program gives financial support to small businesses opening up in distressed areas, which has been effective in bringing jobs and money to lower income parts of the region.
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