Mexico is more than San Diego’s neighbor. It is an economic magnet, transforming Otay Mesa’s empty fields into busy industrial parks. Half of all the two-way trade between the United States and Mexico — about $20 billion worth annually — comes through Otay Mesa, says Alejandra Mier y Teran, executive director of the 336-member Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce. The trade activity has helped spark a wave of development on Otay Mesa, where 1,220 companies operate.

Mexico is the big draw. About 80 percent of Otay Mesa companies do business with Baja California manufacturers, although some locate near the U.S.-Mexico border simply because of affordable leases and competitive wages. “Basically, we are the last frontier of industrial and commercial land (in San Diego County),” Mier y Teran says.

Otay Mesa has long been a base of operation for maquiladora industries, with offices on the San Diego side and factories in Baja California. But a satellite of related service and supply businesses have sprung up, including some that have offered opportunities to Latino entrepreneurs. For instance, Latino-owned businesses such as Casas International Brokerage and Fernando Camacho Brokers dominate much of the commercial brokerage activity.

The recent U.S. recession took a toll on both sides of the border, with maquiladora investments plummeting during the past two years. The industries, however, have started to recover. Citing a report from Baja California’s Department of Economic Development, the Otay Mesa Chamber says that Baja California is expecting 62 new industrial projects this year, with another 200 possible investments.

Baja California already is a capital of television assembly. However, Mier y Teran notes that Tijuana is increasingly attractive to the automobile industry. Toyota will begin operating a truck plant in Tijuana this summer.

For Otay Mesa-based companies, a cluster of automobile factories in Baja could open up a new range of business possibilities. Because of provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement, the auto industry and other factories in Baja will be searching for suppliers in the region.

According to an Otay Chamber report, the 800 foreign-owned maquiladora plants in Baja receive only 2 percent to 7 percent of their components from Mexico. That leaves a $10 billion market up for competition.

Mexport, an Aug. 5 trade show co-sponsored by the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp., is designed to link regional suppliers with purchasing directors from Toyota, Honeywell, Sanyo, Sony and other Baja California maquiladoras.

In the coming years, industrial expansion on Otay Mesa also is expected to benefit from road construction designed to improve access and decrease congestion, says Mier y Teran. By late 2006, the area’s first link between Interstate 905 and Highway 125 is scheduled to open. “We really think that this will superaccelerate development,” says Mier y Teran. “We’re finally going to have that important factor.”

— Lynne Carrier