About Industry

Industry, officially City of Industry, is an industrial suburb of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County. Home to over 2,500 businesses and 80,000 jobs, but only 219 residents at the 2010 census—down from 777 residents in 2000—the city is almost entirely industrial. It was incorporated on June 18, 1957 to prevent surrounding cities from annexing industrial land for tax revenue.

The City of Industry has no business taxes and is primarily funded through retail sales tax from shopping centers located within the city limits, and property tax on parcels within the City. The city has the highest property tax rate in Los Angeles County, at 1.92%. In addition, there is a revenue-generating hillside hotel resort, known as the Pacific Palms Resort (formerly the Industry Hills Sheraton), which is almost completely surrounded by the city of La Puente but actually located in the City of Industry.

City of Industry is a popular investment area for Chinese businessmen and the city has also emerged as a high-tech import/export center for computer parts, with business links to the Asian marketplace. For convenience many Chinese entrepreneurs and staff live in nearby Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, West Covina, Diamond Bar and Walnut.

The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum is located in the City of Industry. It is a Historic house and gardens museum of 19th century and early 20th century Southern California history and architecture, and of the generations of the Workman-Temple family that were influential here and in the region. The property is entered on the National Register of Historic Places.

Industry is the home of the Puente Hills Mall, a major shopping center that was the "Twin/Lone Pine(s) Mall" in the Back to the Future movie series. Adjacent to the mall's property is a SpeedZone entertainment center, which was featured in a prominent scene of Kevin Smith's Clerks II. A former IKEA store located north of the Puente Hills Mall and across the State Route 60 freeway was used as a shooting location for the final fight scene in Mr. & Mrs Smith. Its exterior was renovated so it could be used for both exterior and interior filming; it was later demolished.