When Ratha Chea began looking to expand his Fremont-based company NRC Manufacturing, he looked to Elk Grove, California, a town 100 miles from San Francisco. He knew it was the right decision when employees of his previous start-up learned of the expansion and told him, "Don't forget about me when you start hiring."

Like other Bay Area companies, the circuit board maker eyed the city of Elk Grove as a place with a lot to offer: affordable homes, a top-rated school district, tax incentives, and a city eager to have them. And, like homeowners leaving the San Francisco Bay Area for less expensive housing, tech too is on the move.

Nearly every city official in the exurbs talks about attracting tech, but few have been as successful as Elk Grove in benefiting from tech's exodus from San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

NRC Manufacturing, ALLDATA, and Sacramento-based tech companies have settled here, adding more new jobs. Just recently California Northstate University opened a new medical and pharmacy school. Enrico Moretti, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in his book, The New Geography of Jobs, that a tech cluster can build on itself, and in doing so attract new companies, potential employees and a nexus of a new economy.

Elk Grove's administration is well aware of the benefits.

Elk Grove's Economic Development Coordinator Rachel Brown calls the town of 167,000, with median home values of $370,000 and a population where 35 percent have a college degree, "a hidden gem."

"Because we are a new city, we aren't maxed out to develop for office space," Brown said. "If a company wants to move here, it can happen."

Elk Grove, just south of the California state capitol, became its own incorporated city in 2000. What started out as a rural, farming community turned into a populated suburban development, lined with sizable tract homes and wide, green lawns. Since homes are 70 percent cheaper than in San Francisco, Bay Area residents moved in to buy affordable homes and commute to work. Elk Grove became the fastest growing city in the U.S. in 2004 and 2005.

"People want to raise their family and park their car in the garage," Brown said. "They can build what they wanted if they choose to."

NRC Manufacturing's Chea knew how interested Elk Grove was in creating more jobs for its growing population. While considering a new location for his company expansion, a friend encouraged him to speak with Elk Grove Mayor Gary Davis.

Chea was an experienced entrepreneur. Prior to founding NRC Manufacturing, he was co-founder of Orion, which grew to $40 million before it was acquired by CTS in 2008. Building a relationship with the city was not going to be difficult.

The city of Elk Grove agreed to give Chea tax incentives if they moved, paying them for each hire they make.

But Chea said his ultimate reason for the move was its affordability. He plans to start his facility at 50,000 square feet. Already he's placed an offer on an undisclosed location, near Apple, and other new tech businesses, but the process has been slow. Chea doesn't complain. The move will be cheaper than opening in Fremont, and he calculated that they will save more than half on their current electricity bill.

"All of the engineering and sales will stay in the Bay Area," he said. "But I am confident in moving the production to Elk Grove. And I know many people who worked with me will want to move as well."

And the synergy of creating a tech economy is already underway.

"[The Sacramento region] is a great place to recruit talent, " said Barry Broome, chief executive of the Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council. "We were the stepchild of the Bay Area, and now that's starting to change."

The transformation in Elk Grove is far from sudden. In 1994, Apple expanded and opened a manufacturing center along Laguna Boulevard, far from the Bay Area's earthquake zone. It's the first notable building you see when you drive into the city from Interstate 5, but still remains inconspicuous and easy to miss.

The campus handles receiving, warehousing and logistics. And while Apple is notoriously secretive about what exactly the Elk Grove campus works on, state records show that they also quietly repair iPhones. If you have ever called Apple for tech support, or received a repaired iPhone, it likely came from Elk Grove.

After CEO Tim Cook, who was Apple's supply chain chief at the time, closed the factory in 2004, Apple began quietly paving a parking lot adjacent to their 450,000 square foot warehouse in 2015. The 1,450 new parking spaces implied even more growth for the campus.

Broome said that while Apple's expansion was the start of the tech industry's move into the city, other businesses are purchasing land or buildings for sale.

California Northstate University, home to both the College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy, opened in 2015. It moved into the empty AAA call center building that moved out of the state in 2010.

Brown, at Elk Grove's city hall, said that the university keeps a low profile. So the city took it upon itself to create ads to publicize the school in both the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Business Journals.

"Our hope is to get the word out to Bay Area companies that Elk Grove is an affordable, yet enjoyable place to live and work," Brown said.

For the city, the benefits are clear: a strong tax base and a strong market for the 318,000 college students within a 95-mile radius of Elk Grove. Students, the city hopes, will choose to stay here when they graduate instead of moving to the Bay Area.

It is not just larger start-ups that the city wants to encourage. Elk Grove may develop its own tech unicorn at places like Innogrove, a coworking space that caters to companies and individuals focusing on technology and innovation.

The company, named with a play on the words "innovation" and "Elk Grove," rents space to 35 people. Software engineers, a web development company and others were given a chance to commit to a local scene when Innogrove opened in 2015.

"There is a lot of talent in Elk Grove," said Faith Roberts, Innogrove's manager. "And the city backs our work because they know this too."

City officials believe more tech businesses will move in.

"They will continue coming," Chea said. "The cost is what brings all of them."