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Cities acknowledge existing businesses

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Written by Mandy Hobby Saturday, 07 October 2006

Round Rock and Pflugerville city officials are often asked, “What’s new? What big companies like IKEA or Wal-Mart will be coming to my community?”

Map of Round Rock & Pflugerville Business Retention and Expansion Charley Ayres, Round Rock Chamber of Commerce director of business retention and expansion, says those questions overshadow the fact that as a city gets larger most job growth happens to the existing businesses.

According to the Economic International Development Council, 65 percent of all new jobs within a city are created by existing businesses.

Ayres’ job is to work with existing businesses in order to make sure their needs are being met inside Round Rock.

“You have to take care of what you already have,” Ayres said. “We visit local industries and do community assessments and find out any obstacles that keep those companies from growing.”

Out of the 46,000 plus jobs in Round Rock, a little more than half of the residents work inside the community. Ayres echoed the sentiments of other officials when he said the city’s goal is to have a community where residents can live, work and play, adding that the quality of a workforce lies in that it is highly educated and highly productive.

“As much as we benefit from having Austin so close to us, we want to embrace what they have to offer, but also not just be a community where people sleep,” Ayres said.

Pflugerville Community Development Corporation director, Charles Simon agrees with Ayres that the city needs to be responsive to the existing businesses and their needs. Long-time Pflugerville business, CoCom will relocate to Round Rock next month in search of a larger facility.

Simon said that losing a company like CoCom that has such a strong tie to the community is partly the city’s fault for not reaching out to check in on an existing business.

“Had we had retention in place and monitored CoCom, we probably would not have lost them,” Simon said. “There is so much going on all of the time, but we need to make an effort to keep up with our existing companies.”

Pflugerville is currently following recommendations to implement a step by step plan to retain businesses as set forth to them by a 2002 Transportation Improvement Program report.

St. David’s Round Rock, Medical Center

2400 Round Rock Ave.
What: Hospital including Heart Center with express testing, in-patient capacity of 107 beds, The Women’s Center and Emergency room.
Opened in 1983 with 75 physicians and 175 nurses and staff
Current number of employees: 600 plus physicians and 670 nurses and staff

TG (Texas Guaranteed Student Loan)

301 Sundance Parkway
What: Public, nonprofit corporation that administers the Federal Family Education Loan Program
Opened in Austin in 1981 with 17 employees, relocated to Round Rock in 2003 with 550 employees
Current number of employees: 596

Austin Foam Plastics

2933 A.W. Grimes Blvd.
What: Innovative packaging design
Opened in 1978 with one employee
Current number of employees: 325 in house and 200 plus temporary

Banister Tool, Inc.

3009 A.W. Grimes Blvd
What: Contract manufacturing company specializing in the production of non-active medical devices – primarily medical instruments, implants, and medical apparatuses to customer specification
Opened in 1979 with two employees
Current number of employees: 42