If you are familiar with this column, you know that the Greater San Marcos Partnership (GSMP) exists to help facilitate the creation of new, good-paying jobs here in Hays and Caldwell counties — and you likely know that this has been a record-shattering year by all metrics.
With a record 13 announcements and more than $38 billion in the prospective pipeline of protentional capital investment pipeline already secured, we are now in the final month of our 2021 fiscal year. This year has seen twice as many announcements as any other previous year and is nearly equitable to the last three fiscal years combined. The prospective capital pipeline is also nearly six times that of our all-time previous record ($6.6 billion, which was also set in FY 2020) and nineteen times that of any other previous record before it.
These numbers are incredible for our region, and we anticipate a strong final push before our fiscal year closes on Sept. 30.
Just in the past few weeks, GSMP has helped secure two major employers who will now be calling this region home. The first, S. Watts Group, is a commercial construction firm which chose to place their first satellite office in San Marcos. What is notable about this location is that this firm chose San Marcos without any incentives, financial or otherwise. The company cited well-built relationships, a friendly pro-business attitude in the region, and a cultural feel that fits both the needs of the company and our region.
Similarly, another new company that’s been secured through the economic development work of GSMP has been Cooperative Laundry, a high-tech commercial laundry facility that caters to the needs of hospitality laundry services at an industrial scale.
The company will be located next to the new 1 million-square-foot Amazon distribution facility (another victory for GSMP secured in this last fiscal year). The Cooperative Laundry site is expected to be open and operational by Spring 2022. In addition to good wages for workers, health care benefits will be available on Day 1 for employees at the San Marcos facility, with families eligible after 30 days.
These two announcements, as well as the 11 other announcements made this fiscal year, don’t come by coincidence or accident. Led by our region’s consensus-driven, community-built plan (known as Vision 2025), GSMP has been working relentlessly to serve the needs of economic development in the Texas Innovation Corridor. We are committed and prepared to finish the year strong with events like our upcoming State of Workforce & Education Summit, our business retention and expansion efforts such as 1 Million Cups and our Business Booster series, and of course, our continued business attraction efforts.
All this work has led to a stronger business community, more economic opportunity through new, higher-paying jobs, and a higher quality of life for our region’s citizens. We are seeing incredible response from these efforts so far, and with our final month of the fiscal year remaining, we’re ready to take on the challenge of finishing strong and setting the bar even higher for our next fiscal year.
If you have questions about our work in economic development or how we market the region to relocating and expanding companies, I am always open for questions. Send me a note at [email protected] or reach me on Twitter at @JasonGiulietti.
