News

Thursday, May 06, 2021

Overview More than 8,700 opportunity zones have been designated across the United States, established as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and are intended to foster long-term private sector investments in low-income communities. We can now begin to show the intersection of EDA's public investments and activities (more information will be added) near or within these zones. An initial assessment on the impact of these zones is available in this August 2020 report from the Council of Economic Advisors. What are Opportunity Zones? Qualified opportunity zones were created by the federal 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and designed to spu...

Texas Named Best State For Business By CEO Magazine For A Record-Smashing 17th Year In A Row

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

For the 17th year in a row, Texas has again been named the Best State for Business by the nation’s leading CEOs in an annual survey conducted by Chief Executive Magazine. The rankings are determined by the CEO’s assessments of each state’s business climate, workforce, and quality of life. Texas has secured the top spot each year since the ranking’s inception. Read full article.

Friar Ag Center Nears Completion

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Cuero showcases one of the top stock shows in the region each spring. Soon, they’ll also have the facilities to equal the event they put together every year for local youth. The newly renovated Friar Ag Center and Anne Friar Thomas Homemaking Building will not only be for stock shows, though, but it will have rental space available for public use. DeWitt County Extension Agent and Cuero Livestock Show board member Anthony Netardus relayed that the ag center itself was nearly complete at the time of this year’s show in late February-early March. There’s still a few things to do there...

What’s Driving Record Industrial Real Estate Demand

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

The global pandemic accelerated the growth of e-commerce as lockdowns and safety concerns prompted an increasing number of consumers worldwide to shop online. As a result, several years of online sales growth were condensed into 2020 alone, causing industrial leasing to surge globally as logistics became essential for retailers. Changes in population densities, shifting consumer expectations, and increasing transportation costs all played a role in this rise in industrial property demand. But it’s the need for speed that will shatter industrial CRE pricing. 2020 – A Banner Year for Industrial Throughout Asia Pacific, strong leasing and tight market conditions translated into double-digit increase...

2020: When Your Data Center Becomes Your Real HQ

Monday, April 26, 2021

Last year delivered plenty of wakeup calls to corporate real estate executives, but perhaps none bigger than this: Your site selection process for your company’s data center operations now carries more importance than your site selection for your corporate headquarters. In a world where remote work has become the norm for most non-industrial jobs, the headquarters facility has become a ghost town. Taking its place in critical importance is the data center, the lifeblood of your company’s entire global operation. The data center is what keeps you connected to your employees, your employees connected to each other, and your company connected t...

10 Things Economic Developers Must Know About Opportunity Zones

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Ten things economic developers must know about Opportunity Zones include what an Opportunity Zone is, how many there are, your role in attracting investors to your community, and more. Let's walk through them. 10 THINGS ECONOMIC DEVELOPERS MUST KNOW ABOUT OPPORTUNITY ZONES 1. What exactly is an opportunity zone? According to the U.S. Economic Development Agency, "an Opportunity Zone is an economically-distressed community where private investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for capital gain tax incentives." Residents who live in areas designated as Opportunity Zones tend to suffer from unequal economic growth and access to capital. Opportunity Zones are designed to spur economi...

Creative new ZoomTours help promote our innovative clients

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

When we launched ZoomTour back in December, we recognized that our innovative clients would produce a wide variety of interactive online tours this unique new virtual tour building software. We have not been disappointed! Client reviews of ZoomTour have been overwhelmingly positive. "ZoomTour was so easy to work with and a lot of fun," says Amber Shek, economic development specialist with the Greater Yuma Economic Development Commission (one of the tours featured below). “ZoomTour has been an excellent tool for us as we have had to find ways to showcase our region without our clients actually being able to travel to us," explains Andrew Golden, Marketin...

The Effect of Corporate Relocation Incentives on the Office Market

Sunday, April 18, 2021

The pandemic has left office markets across the country with more vacancies than they have seen in over a decade. With practically every occupier rethinking its real estate footprint, filling all that empty space will be a challenge. It isn’t just office landlords who are fighting for tenants in this softening market, cities are also competing to bring in workers. This will likely accelerate an already growing trend of cities offering incentives for corporate relocations and will have an impact on which office markets will recover the fastest from the reduced demand. Dallas has been the poster child for relocations sinc...

Building A Remote Workforce

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

BUILDING A REMOTE WORKFORCE Building a remote workforce is key in an age where more and more employees are choosing to work remotely. 2020 changed the perception of remote work for many employers and employees, bringing with it a rise in worker satisfaction, increased productivity, and better mental health for many. The benefits of the environment and housing market are other indicators that remote work is here to stay. As the trend of remote work continues to rise, you may be wondering how to include remote workers in your workforce attraction strategy. THE REMOTE WORK TREND WILL CONTINUE TO GROW Remote work ha...

Developing and Executing a Site Selection Game Plan

Friday, January 22, 2021

Before setting sail on your site selection voyage across the country or the globe in search of your project’s perfect location, it is imperative to first take an internal assessment of the current operations, needs, and industry trends influencing the project. Taking the time to perform a thorough internal assessment of the project and company will lead to new discoveries that will ultimately guide the site selection game plan to success. Challenging and rethinking some of the institutional wisdom will allow new and innovative ideas to surface, enabling the company to consider sites or regions they had initially thought wer...

First Person: Understanding and Investing in Current and Future Talent

Thursday, January 21, 2021

AD: Can you define people analytics for our readers? Williams: People analytics is described as the method of analytics which can support leaders as they make decisions about their employees and workforce. This method applies statistics, technology, and expertise to large sets of HR data, which should result in better business and management decisions by an organization. Another way of looking at this is how to get the best return on investment from their people — in an analytical, data-driven way. AD: How can the use of data help industrial companies satisfy their workforce requirements? Read full article.

The Future of the Workforce Is a “Better Normal”

Thursday, January 21, 2021

The world as we all knew it changed earlier this year with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly overnight, everything that we used to think was normal had changed, and things that once were deemed impossible for the workplace became the “new normal.” Now, seven months later, most of us have gotten used to this “new normal” — embracing the work-from-home lifestyle, using new technology, wearing masks, social distancing, and connecting virtually. But what comes next? Eventually this pandemic will end, a vaccine will be readily available, and we will attempt to return back to our “normal” lives. Bu...

Another Look at Rural Economies

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

As someone who lives in a city (albeit not a large one), I am perhaps not the most qualified to discuss the topic of rural economies. On the other hand, both my parents were raised on wheat farms in eastern Washington. Consequently, one of the most pressing issues in rural America is currently impacting my family directly: family farm succession planning. Additionally, each year the labor market analytics firm I work for produces a Talent Attraction Scorecard to rank how large, small, and micro counties are faring in building their talent pools. As a result, I’ve spent many hours combin...

Trends in Office and Industrial Parks

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Of course, the big factor impacting office and industrial parks going into 2021 is COVID-19. The pandemic has reduced business production and workforce (through illness, social distancing, and remote working), disrupted the supply chain and cash flow, and brought about significant investments in technology. Across the nation, the demand for suburban office parks is rising as more skilled workers move back to suburbs, due to concerns about housing costs and quality of education — they also feel safer from COVID-19 and the civil unrest that is happening in some larger cities. “The most notable shift is toward lower-intensity spaces, where getting int...

Recruiting and Retaining Today’s Manufacturing Workforce

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

AD: How has COVID-19 changed the employee experience in manufacturing, and what facets of this should organizations retain going forward? Zenk: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have been experiencing a drastically different work environment. Thousands of manufacturers across the U.S. and around the world were deemed essential during the pandemic, and their production lines haven’t stopped. They’ve continued to produce essential goods that the global community relies on — from the food we eat to the clothes we wear and cleaning supplies we use in our homes. As some manufacturers increased output and others reconfigured operations to satisfy urgent demands...

Supply Chain Execs Respond as Pandemic Creates E-Commerce Surge

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed our lives, and each one of us likely has a personal story to tell that underscores that fact. But there are also stories to be told of sweeping changes that virtually all of us have felt. One of those is the altered state of the global supply chain. The supply chain is, after all, an element of daily life that has an impact, either directly or indirectly, on just about everyone on the planet. The pandemic put a spotlight on the critical nature of this industry. Truck drivers and warehouse employees became everyday heroes o...

City of New Braunfels, Texas

Friday, January 08, 2021

Making the annual Top 10 Census population growth list is an accomplishment for a city or county. When you rank No. 3 over an entire decade as a city and No. 4 as a county in the U.S., that points to sustainable opportunity. New Braunfels grew over 56% from 2010-2019; and Comal County grew nearly 44% during the same time period. Having one of the nation's fastest population growths requires top-notch city and county government services, something the city has actively invested in. Successful city bonds in 2016 and 2019 are being used to provide upgraded streets, public safety, parks, an...

Get Creative to Uncover Top Talent When You're Hiring

Saturday, January 02, 2021

“She looked so good on paper.” Sound familiar? In your haste to fill an open position to keep your company running smoothly, you make a hiring decision that turns out to be a big mistake. If this is the case, you are certainly not alone, and the problem isn’t a lack of judgment. A US Chamber of Commerce Foundation study released earlier this year confirms what many of us on the front lines of recruiting candidates already know: There is a skills gap in the current labor market. The study found 48% of respondents lamenting that candidates lack the skills to fill the jobs at hand. In a...

Always Running Out of Time? Here Are 10 Tools That Can Help Save the Day

Friday, January 01, 2021

Life is hectic for an entrepreneur. When you're in charge, you have to juggle so many things, it's easy to lose track of time or have to reassess your priorities on a daily basis. Perhaps you just need a little help from technology. We've rounded up some of the top time-saving and productivity tools on the market, all of which are on sale now. Stop running out of time and start becoming master of it. 1. Track your time. Stop spending so much time on less important tasks. Klokki lets you create custom time-tracking rules so you can track the time you need to spend o...

Define Your Brand Identity in 3 Steps

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

A brand identity consists of the business values, and how the brand communicates those values through its products and services. It’s what the brand says, how it is visually represented with images and design, and what the brand intends customers to feel when they interact with its products. Essentially, a brand identity is the physicality and personality of your business. A brand identity is important for a few reasons. It's a template for your promotional assets, which means everything your customers are going to see from the logo on your business’s social profile to the product description copy on your e-commerce website. A well-defined brand identity, which aligns with the company’...

Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation lands large contribution to help end 2020 on a positive note

Monday, December 28, 2020

(Seguin) – Patients at Guadalupe Regional Medical Center no longer have to wait for the lab results that they need. Health officials at the GRMC say they are thankful to Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio for “blessing” the GRMC lab with a $140,000 grant for lab testing equipment, equipment they say will now expedite results. Cody Knowlton, Baptist Health Foundation president and CEO, says the foundation is committed to serving those who serve others. “The Baptist Health Foundation was formed about 17 years ago when the Baptist Health System sold and became a for profit institution and so the money fro...

5 Top GIS Planning Innovations of 2020

Monday, December 21, 2020

Safe to say, 2020 was a year for the books. No question, we'll all be glad to say good bye to this one. But in the midst of this crazy, challenging year of COVID and wildfires and chaos of all kinds, we also saw many instances of real innovation and advancement from leaders in all fields. As economic developers everywhere work hard (often from home offices, cleared off dining room tables, or hastily set up corners of their living rooms) to support their local businesses, collaborate with local officials, and continue to attract new investment to keep their regions smoothly...

How Zoom Won 2020 by Meeting a Surge of Demand

Tuesday, December 01, 2020

It was a Monday morning in mid-March. Schools in California had just gone remote, and Eric Yuan’s daughter was settling in for the first day of her new routine. Then she turned to him and, like kids were doing with their parents everywhere, asked him for help using Zoom. “She’d never asked me a question about Zoom!” says Yuan. Nor had he ever expected her to, even though he is the company’s founder and CEO. “When we created Zoom, the goal was to serve enterprise and business customers. I never thought about my kid having to use Zoom.” That’s when Yuan knew his world was about to change. Thi...

A Guide to Aerospace Investment Decisions

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry had a record year in 2019. Revenue passenger miles set a record, up 4.2 percent from 2018, and have been growing at roughly double GDP for the past two decades. Airbus’ and Boeing’s order backlogs ended 2019 at around 13,000 aircraft. The industry reported a record $780 billion in revenue — 5 percent over 2018. But in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the industry into crisis, literally overnight, with air traffic decreasing about 90 percent as society shut down and stayed at home. Hopes for a quick recovery have been dashed by the persistence of transmissions, and many believ...

2020 Top States for Doing Business Showcase Their Pro-Business Environments

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

It would be easy to look at current economic statistics and conclude that we may as well remove words such as “business growth” and “expansion” from our collective vocabularies for the time being. On a macro level, the economy is anything but healthy, thanks to the coronavirus. And yet there are plenty of individual businesses that continue to expand or relocate to desirable places. The question of which states are the best for doing business is as valid a question as ever. Our roster of location experts knows the answers, from years of experience helping to guide site decisions and negotiat...

Why are Foreign Trade Zones Making a Comeback?

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

FTZs Are Making a Comeback There was a double-digit growth in foreign trade zone use [in 2018], according to the federal government's report for that year. When the 2019 report comes out, that double double-digit growth will have increased even more. The reason is that these tariffs are a whole new way to save money, compared to before, when the most important things were speed to market, using direct delivery and weekly entry, cutting your supply chain time and lowering your cost of operations. Now it's cut your supply chain time, lower costs and mitigate the tariffs. The number one thing w...

City of Schertz, Texas

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The City of Schertz, Texas is part of the larger San Antonio region and in close proximity to Austin, and Houston. This proximity has fueled the community’s explosive growth. Over the past five years, numerous top Fortune® 100 companies have chosen to make major investments in Schertz. Caterpillar, Amazon.com, FedEx, and Sysco have collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars and constructed over 3 million square feet of space in the community. About the City of Schertz The City of Schertz is a business friendly, fast-growing community of over 42,000 residents. Schertz is an ideal location for business. From a cost advantage perspective...

City of Cibolo, Texas

Friday, October 23, 2020

Cibolo is the City of Choice, making our City a great place to live, work, or play. Cibolo is a Texas community strategically located on the Interstate 10 and Interstate 35 corridors just northeast of San Antonio. While careful maintenance of their "small town Texas" identity makes this a great place to live, several other factors make it a premier place to do business: proximity to major urban conveniences; transportation options; a decade of strong economic and infrastructure growth; and a young, highly educated workforce with the talents and skills to help companies prosper well into the 21st century. Location Near Sa...

10 THINGS ECONOMIC DEVELOPERS MUST KNOW ABOUT OPPORTUNITY ZONES

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

10 THINGS ECONOMIC DEVELOPERS MUST KNOW ABOUT OPPORTUNITY ZONES

Tuesday, April 20, 2021