Austin, TX
Opportunity Austin Economic Development Strategy (2003, 2006, 2007, 2011)
The capital of the State of Texas and its five-county region experienced remarkable growth and economic prosperity in the 1990s, fueled primarily by the expansion of the Dell Computer Corporation and the semiconductor-manufacturing sector. However, the 2001 collapse of the technology sector, and ongoing global outsourcing of high-tech manufacturing, left the region reeling from job and income losses. In response, the area’s leadership retained Market Street in 2003 to develop a holistic strategy for long-term, sustainable development in the region.
With Greater Austin’s powerful local assets, Market Street’s challenge was to leverage the area’s many economic and demographic strengths to determine the most logical and compelling economic sectors for Austin to pursue, the most effective way to utilize the area’s economic development organizations, and also how to maintain the area’s competitive advantages in workforce and quality of life. The four-month process began with detailed economic and demographic research, a competitiveness analysis and extensive public input, and eventually led to the creation of the five-year, $14 million Opportunity Austin strategy. Opportunity Austin provided the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce with the capacity to build its economic development staff from one person to 14 and to develop regional and national marketing initiatives. Opportunity Austin was hugely successful, surpassing its four-year job and wage projections in only three years.
During the summer of 2006, Market Street was brought back to Austin to conduct a mid-term review of implementation efforts. Market Street’s work with Greater Austin continued into 2007, as we were retained to develop the next phase of the Opportunity Austin effort. Launched in 2008, Opportunity Austin 2.0 is a $21 million five-year plan designed to take the region to the “next level” of success. New strategies focus on pursuing greater international development for the Austin region, a more comprehensive emphasis on talent retention and attraction, pursuit of new target sector opportunities, a major effort to address the region’s transportation and traffic congestion issues, and other high-profile activities. In early 2010, the Austin City Council voted to extend its involvement in the Opportunity Austin effort for up to 10 years and $3.5 million.
Austin continues to attract and retain firms in high-wage job sectors. In 2009, VMware Inc. announced plans to add roughly 100 jobs at its Austin location, almost all of which will be professional jobs paying upwards of $50,000 a year. Another technology firm, HostGator.com, announced plans to open an Austin location in 2010. HostGator.com announced that it will be creating more than 200 professional jobs in the Austin area, which will start at $40,000 and extend to well over $100,000. In May 2011, Samsung announced a $3.6 billion investment in its Samsung Austin Semiconductor (SAS) plant, a significant increase to the capacity of its 12-inch semiconductor fabrication facility that will create as many as 500 permanent jobs. A month later, Austin was celebrated as Area Development’s most desirable place for doing business in the U.S. due to its business-friendly environment, investment, innovation, and high-tech workforce. The magazine recognized the critical role of Opportunity Austin and Opportunity Austin 2.0 for the region’s quality job creation, focused economic development targets, and visionary efforts.
Market Street returned to Austin in the summer of 2011 to conduct a mid-course review of Opportunity Austin 2.0 and assist the Chamber with prioritizing implementation efforts for the remaining two years of the initiative. The midterm update included stakeholder input, a competitiveness analysis of Greater Austin benchmarked against four peer metro areas, and an assessment of Opportunity Austin 2.0 goal implementation progress to date. The research components answered the questions:
• Is the Chamber doing what it committed to do in the Opportunity Austin 2.0 strategy?
• How well have implementation efforts been executed?
These findings lead to a set of strategy update recommendations, focused on the highest-priority changes that need to be made to the 2007 strategy and performance measures adjusted to the realities of the post-recession economic landscape.
For more information, please see the Opportunity Austin website.