Riverside added 18,000 jobs and attracted $4.3 billion in new construction projects over the past year, with manufacturing companies from South Korea and across the United States choosing the city over competing locations nationwide.
City Manager Mike Futrell painted a picture of accelerating momentum during his annual presentation to the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce on Wednesday, Dec. 11, highlighting major wins in advanced manufacturing, healthcare expansion, and tourism infrastructure while acknowledging growing pressure on the city's fire department to keep pace with increasing emergency calls.
"I hope you feel the excitement of what's happening in Riverside," Futrell told the packed Chamber audience, thanking Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson and the City Council for their leadership. "It's not happening everywhere, but by goodness, it is happening here."
Futrell called two projects "generational game changers" — the planned UCR Teaching Hospital and the long-stalled Riverside Live convention center expansion.
Manufacturing Companies Choose Riverside
The city attracted several major manufacturers in recent months, with companies citing Riverside's foreign trade zone status, low utility rates, and strategic location as decisive factors.
CHAEVI, the largest manufacturer of electric vehicle charging equipment in the Asia Pacific region, signed a memorandum of understanding in November to establish its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Riverside. The South Korean company plans to create hundreds of technology jobs and expects to begin operations in 2026.
"They did a national search of all states, 'Where's the best place for us to land?'" Futrell said. "And it was Riverside."
Icon Vehicle Dynamics, which manufactures advanced automotive suspension components and off-road vehicle parts, announced this week it will consolidate operations from six locations across the Midwest and West into a single Riverside facility. The expansion will bring 200 manufacturing jobs to the city.
The company plans to take advantage of Riverside's foreign trade zone designation, which allows manufacturers to import materials without paying tariffs, then ship finished products throughout the United States tariff-free.
The city added 2,370 new businesses in fiscal year 2025, a 10 percent increase over the previous year. Companies that opened or expanded Riverside operations this year include Ohmio (electric shuttle manufacturing), Voltu (electric vehicle manufacturing), Stored Power Technologies (energy storage), and Hyundai Rotem (hydrogen-powered trains).
Futrell credited the city's economic development strategy, which focuses on five key sectors: green technology, medical, aerospace and defense, arts and tourism, and general technology. The approach emphasizes jobs less likely to be displaced by automation while building partnerships with educational institutions to develop the workforce.
"We have to build that talent pipeline, have to teach the right skills for tomorrow's jobs," Futrell said, noting regular meetings with leadership from UC Riverside, Cal State San Bernardino, Riverside City College, La Sierra University, and the Riverside and Alvord Unified School Districts.
Police Department Success Contrasts With Fire Department Strain
Riverside police achieved full staffing for the first time in 20 years, hiring 90 officers over the past two years. The milestone contributed to a 25 percent reduction in crime in 2024 followed by an additional 22 percent drop in 2025.
"It is, for the size of this city, remarkably safe," Futrell said.
The department's Real Time Crime Center now monitors 1,250 security cameras throughout the city, and Riverside partnered with San Bernardino to establish the Inland Empire Fusion Center, a regional intelligence-sharing operation focused on gang activity and emerging threats. The city will break ground on a new police headquarters in 2026.
But as police resources improved, the fire department faced mounting pressure. Emergency calls increased 33 percent over the past decade, exceeding 47,000 in 2025 — one call every 11 minutes. The department hasn't added firefighters in eight years or opened a new fire station in more than a decade.
California's updated fire hazard maps added more than 13,000 Riverside parcels to high-risk fire zones this year while fire season evolved from a two-month period to a year-round threat.
"Fire season in California was maybe two months out of the year," Futrell said. "It is every month, every day, at risk in California now, and we see it."
Futrell signaled that expanding and modernizing the fire department will be a major priority in 2026, praising firefighters for managing increased workload without additional resources while warning against long-term strain.
"We're gonna have to have a conversation this next year," he said. "We do not want to burn out our firefighters. They have managed this workload because they are excellent, and they are get-it-done people. But we're gonna have this conversation this next year."
Infrastructure Investments Build Quality of Life Foundation
The City Council invested $40 million in parks over the past two and a half years, completely renovating 12 neighborhood parks. The city opened Tim Strack Park in November and this week opened the Arlington Pickleball Complex.
Public Works exceeded 51 miles of street paving for the second consecutive year.
The city invested in tree trimming, Victoria Avenue restoration, and completed dredging of Fairmont Park's lakes for the first time in over a decade. Construction is underway on a $25 million renovation of the Cesar Chavez Community Center and a $9 million gymnasium at Bordwell Park.
The city announced a partnership with Thompson Brewery to reopen the long-vacant Fairmont Park Armory building as a brewhouse and restaurant with outdoor pickleball courts.
"How could you possibly fail a brewhouse next to the pickleball courts?" Futrell joked.
The $20 million Eastside Library is under construction, replacing the longtime library location in a strip mall. State Sen. Sabrina Cervantes secured state funding for the project, which is part of more than $300 million in combined city and school district investment in the Eastside neighborhood.
"There's actually a Renaissance going on in the Eastside neighborhood right now," Futrell said. "It was a neighborhood in need, and indeed, it's amazing what's happening."
Riverside's general fund budget totals $356 million in revenue against $352 million in expenditures, while city staff administers an additional $268 million in outside grants — nearly doubling the effective budget.
Riverside Public Utilities maintained the lowest electricity and water rates in California. The city's 112,000 electric customers pay approximately one-third the rates charged by San Diego Gas & Electric, while the 66,000 water customers benefit from similarly competitive pricing.
"If you're on Edison, I apologize," Futrell said. "You should move to Riverside. That's what that means."
The city's homeless outreach teams conducted 7,726 contacts at 7,160 locations over the past year, with 266 people accepting services. Teams removed 502 tons of trash while operating seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Riverside strengthened partnerships on homelessness response, including a memorandum of understanding with the county, a new Caltrans contract allowing the city to clear state property and receive reimbursement, and planning a regional summit with neighboring cities in January.
"We are making progress," Futrell said, noting the city achieved functional zero youth homelessness through partnerships with school districts.
Teaching Hospital and Convention Center Expansion Called "Game Changers"
The UC Riverside School of Medicine's June announcement that it will build a teaching hospital in Riverside represents one of two major projects Futrell believes will reshape the city's economy.
The proposed 280-bed hospital would support a life sciences research cluster while helping address the physician shortage in the Inland Empire. The project requires an estimated $3 billion investment.
"It is a $3 billion adventure," Futrell acknowledged. "We, as a community, need to pull together, get to Sacramento, get to Washington, help get this thing funded and underway."
The teaching hospital would join major expansions already underway at Riverside Community Hospital ($1 billion expansion adding 770 beds) and Kaiser Permanente Medical Center ($800 million expansion adding 150 beds).
The Riverside Live project, stalled since the pandemic, will come before City Council on Jan. 6 for approval of final environmental documents and design-build-operate contracts. The $350 million development will expand the convention center from 50,000 square feet to 150,000 square feet while adding two hotels, a 15-story office building, and outdoor venue space.
A July 2025 study by HVS Convention, Sports & Entertainment Facilities Consulting projected the expanded convention center would increase annual events from 232 to 400, attendees from 80,000 to 137,000, and hotel nights from 19,300 to 32,600.
"Our convention center is jam-packed," Futrell said. "They are booking two years out. But I will tell you, Visalia, California, has a bigger convention center than Riverside. It is long overdue."
The convention center expansion would work in concert with two major Northside developments. The outdoor adventure center will begin construction within a year. The adjacent soccer complex must complete construction by spring 2027 to accommodate professional soccer's launch.
"Between 500,000 and 700,000 people a year into Riverside to enjoy this, eat in our restaurants, stay in our hotels, spend money in our city," Futrell said of the combined Northside projects. "Game changer for this city."
Looking Ahead: State of the City and Continued Momentum
Futrell closed by encouraging business leaders to advocate for Riverside.
"This is where I need you," he said. "I need you to tell that story as well. Talk to your vendors, talk to the people that you work with, talk to people out of town, and explain this is an amazing place."
A biotech CEO who visited last spring captured the sentiment Futrell hopes to spread: "This is what California used to be — high quality of life, lots of sunshine, and I could actually afford to buy a house here."
Futrell and Mayor Lock Dawson will deliver the annual State of the City address on Jan. 28 at the Riverside Convention Center, with registration and networking beginning at 4:30 p.m. and the program starting at 6 p.m.
"I love being your city manager," Futrell concluded. "Susan and I love living here. It has met and exceeded our expectations since we moved here 35 months ago, because this is an exciting place. And I hope you feel the excitement of what's happening in Riverside."
City Council does not meet this week. Cultural Heritage Board to review the Riverside 2050 Plan's historic preservation policies and Planning Commission considers of a 117-unit apartment development.
