Big Spring Economic Development in the year of Covid
The past 12 months have been an economic beatdown for most people, businesses and governments. However, the coming year is looking much brighter and Big Spring is positioned well to take advantage of the resurgence.
Despite all the negatives over the past year, the Highway 87 Reliever Route opened and two new access roads to the Big Spring Airport/ Industrial Park are in the final stages of completion. The access roads, largely funded by the EDC ($6 million), should allow Big Spring to leverage the new reliever route to the fullest. These investments are already generating interest and should have Big Spring well positioned for the national recovery expected to accelerate in the second half of this calendar year. Oil prices are already reflecting those expectations and that also bodes well for our entire region.
An additional investment by the EDC of $2.4 million to update the rail infrastructure at the Airport/industrial Park ensures that Big Spring can offer air, rail and road access few other cities in the region can at one location. Those investments and the central location Big Spring enjoys will result in a recruitment focus on warehouse and distribution projects at least for the remainder of this year, though that will not represent the total focus.
In preparation for those efforts the EDC is in the process of updating its web site and marketing materials to better emphasize the advantages our
City has to offer. With live recruitment opportunities restarting in June the staff is preparing to hit the road and sell the City. Fortunately the various Texas economic development organizations that the EDC partners with help make for more effective outreach at a manageable cost.
Even with the virus the last 12 months have not been without some successes. As the Mayor announced at the last City Council meeting, the Spring Creek Mall is in the process of changing hands and the potential new owners have planned substantial redevelopment and perhaps even expansion involving potential involving new pad sites. The EDC was involved in shaping the City assistance package, that is revenue neutral for the City, and has provided data to some of the potential new tenants considering locating in the mall.
EDC staff has also been involved in the preliminary push to establish a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) downtown. A TIRZ allows the City to take advantage of economic growth in a particular area, leveraging the coming development in that area to get the required infrastructure in place to facilitate it. In a downtown situation that involves more redevelopment than new projects the TIRZ funding stream develops gradually, so the real benefit to the downtown is experienced over time. In this case the benefits may not be manifest for three to five years, but they will allow Big Spring to make the downtown a show place and a true visitor destination.
A second TIRZ involving the undeveloped land in the Airport/industrial Park area may be considered in the future, but that effort will require a specific large or multiple business commitments to move the financing process forward. However once that project or projects are committed the infrastructure investment can be much more rapidly deployed.
The EDC has also invested $100,000 in the construction of the new Howard County Community Health Center which broke ground recently. The new facility will allow the program to expand and adds to the quality-of-life elements important to people considering the City for relocation.
Finally, the EDC continues to contract with Leading EDG services to provide business consulting services to area businesses at no cost and to assist entrepreneurs exploring the potential of their startup ideas. The EDC recognizes that providing these types of services to our existing population is equally as important as bringing in new business and is exploring how that effort might be expanded, perhaps partnering with the City, Howard College and Leading Edge.
In conclusion, the base investments have been made and their completion seems to have been timed about as well as anyone could have hoped for. Now it is up to all of us to capitalize on the expected opportunities as we come out of the “Covid year.”