Opportunity Austin drives new jobs north
Written by Darcie Duttweiler Friday, 23 May 2008

This spring, the Austin Chamber of Commerce announced plans for Opportunity Austin 2.0, the next step in the Central Texas Business Initiative launched in 2004. The first launch relocated 27 businesses to Northwest Austin.

From 2001 to 2003, metro Austin, which had grown quickly during the tech boom of the 1990s, experienced massive job losses and record level unemployment rates. Income in the region dropped for the first time since 1987. In response to the dismal times, the Chamber of Commerce created Opportunity Austin.

"We started Opportunity Austin because the economy in 2003 demonstrated that we weren't nearly diversified or strong enough to withstand these downturns," said Gary Farmer, the chairman of Opportunity Austin.

The five-year economic development strategy aimed to create 72,000 regional jobs and increase regional payroll by $2.9 billion. With one year left to achieve its goals, Opportunity Austin has shattered all expectations with 104,200 new jobs and a regional payroll increase of $4.5 billion. Opportunity Austin 2.0 will build upon this early success.

Samsung Semiconductors
The project has reached its goals by successfully marketing Austin's low cost of living, low energy costs, reasonable wages and unique lifestyle through targeted media, direct mail, trade shows and recruiting trips.

These strategies enabled Opportunity Austin to persuade Samsung Semiconductors to build a 300mm chip manufacturing plant addition at its Northeast Austin location in 2006, as well as attract 123 other corporate relocations since 2004, nineteen of which were international companies.

"Samsung decided on Austin in part because of the efforts of Gary Farmer and his team," said Bill Cryer, the spokesman for Samsung Austin Semiconductor LP. "When Opportunity Austin showed up in Korea, it showed tremendous community interest and support."

The $5 billion plant, on the same site as the 200mm facility, began production on the first wafers last fall, becoming the largest foreign investment in the United States. The 300mm fabrication plant is only one of six of its kind in the country and the only Samsung semiconductor plant to be located outside of Korea. It currently employs more than 800 workers and, according to Farmer, 1800 workers indirectly, including suppliers, vendors and lawyers.

"The 200mm chip is at the end of its cycle," said Farmer. "The 300mm plant allows Austin to continue to be a player in the semiconductor industry."

Regionalism
Opportunity Austin focuses on strategies to make the Austin region, which includes Williamson, Travis, Bastrop, Hays, and Caldwell counties, more competitive with its rival regions by retaining its existing companies and attracting new businesses.

These overarching goals are achieved by using marketing schemes, such as out-of-region visits to recruit, called Mission Trips, and hosting prospective company visits to Central Texas to give first-hand experiences of what life is like in the Live Music Capital.

In addition to marketing Austin wisely to potential companies, Opportunity Austin works closely with outlying communities to promote the region as a whole, which was not always the case.

"Prior to Opportunity Austin, there was a lot more talk of regional cooperation than actually occurred," said Farmer. "We created a vehicle to start collaboration in the five counties."

When a prospective client visits the vicinity, Opportunity Austin contacts its partners in the five-county region and invites them to the presentation. The client is able to hear about each community and the whole area in terms of education, housing, and quality of life instead of merely hearing about resources within the Austin city limits.

"We've got all these great assets throughout our region," said Charisse Bodisch, the Vice President of Economic Development at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. "They're not confined to a city boundary, and that's attractive to a prospective company."

Opportunity Austin also gives smaller communities, such as Leander and Cedar Park, the chance to travel with them on mission trips in order to be recognized by national companies and vie for locations in their towns.

"The opportunity to get our community in front of potential companies is worth the investment," said Phil Brewer, the Economic Development Director of Cedar Park.

Even if the businesses may not locate their new facilities in the smaller towns, every community still profits.

"We benefit from the new location even if it's not in our city," said Brewer. "They live here. They create sales tax revenue. They get involved in our community. There's an indirect effect for the other communities."

These indirect effects include growth in the region, an increase in jobs and local businesses, such as restaurants and retail shops, more tax revenue and increased payroll.

Bodisch agrees that what is great for one city is good for the entire region, and that it is a much more lucrative strategy to band together.

"You don't have to create everything in every community," she said. "Everyone gains from each other's assets. You can easily snap a stick in half, but it's harder to break a whole bundle."

Opportunity Austin 2.0
While Opportunity Austin more than met its five-year goals in only four years, the organization is determined not to become complacent. With the launch of Opportunity Austin 2.0, the initiative's objectives have only narrowed in focus.

"We're enhancing the beneficial programs that succeeded and introducing new strategies," said Farmer.

New programs include the recent Human Capital website, where companies can post jobs to the site free of charge in order to attract a deeper talent pool to Austin in order to build local businesses.

Also hoping to build on their success with Samsung, Opportunity Austin 2.0 will widen its international strategy by hiring delegates in Mexico, Canada and abroad to represent Austin to companies in their countries.

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Opportunity Austin 2.0 aims to stay ahead of competitor communities by boosting economic diversification to strengthen the economy and keeping Greater Austin attractive to entrepreneurs and site selectors through advocacy on issues such as a regional transportation system and regional collaboration.

They plan to also target specific industries for growth, such as convergence technologies, creative media, green industries, corporate/professional headquarters and healthcare and life sciences. In 2008's first quarter alone, Opportunity Austin 2.0 has met with 34 prospects.

With Austin's high quality of life, eccentric citizens, more than 100,000 students enrolled in local universities and no personal or business income tax, it has become not only the fastest growing metro in the U.S., but also the third best city for jobs, according to Forbes, all very attractive to any business, small or large.

For more information, visit http://www.opportunityaustin.com/