One of the latest companies to follow this trend is ElementUSA, a mineral extraction and refining company that aims to produce metals used in electronics, which is preparing to set up a new facility in Cedar Park. Meanwhile, one of the city’s tenured companies, Firefly Aerospace, is making national news, as it’s on track to become the first private company to land a vessel on the moon.
And those are only two of the major tech, aerospace and life science corporations that have set up shop in Cedar Park, joining companies like Hyliion, Hanyang Eng, Enovis Corp. and many more.
Dan Byrne, chief investment officer for ElementUSA and a partner with investment group DADA Holdings, said he’s noticed the city has taken pro-business stances in dealing with Firefly, which DADA has a substantial investment in.
Byrne said the combination of location and the city’s pro-business approach was a major factor in bringing ElementUSA Accelerator Inc. to the city.
“The Greater Austin area is obviously a hotbed of talent in all sorts of industries,” Byrne said.
The big picture
The incoming companies are bringing jobs with them.
ElementUSA Accelerator has agreed to hire 28 people in the area by the end of 2027, and most of Firefly’s more than 700 employees are based in the Central Texas region, said Risa Schnautz, Firefly’s director of marketing and communications.
Enovis Corp., a multibillion-dollar life sciences company, is setting up a $25.5 million facility in the area, which is expected to create over 160 jobs, according to previous reporting.
On whether the companies will increase property values in the area, Arthur Jackson, Cedar Park chief economic development officer, said people moving into an area can drive up property values due to increased demand on the market.
“It’s just the law of supply and demand,” he said, noting that Cedar Park doesn’t have specific wage requirements for incoming companies, but the city does pay attention to the wages that will be associated with incoming jobs.
Jackson said bringing large employers into the area is important for the overall health of the community and living up to the idea of being a place where people can live, work and play.
“If you can live in Cedar Park, Leander, Georgetown, wherever, and not have to commute into a busy, dense downtown to find a job, that’s great,” he said.
The companies also contribute to the tax base, he said, noting it’s important to make sure a diverse range of industries are operating in town, so if there’s a crash in one industry, the city still has a healthy working community.
Jackson said the city is more interested in courting primary jobs, which are jobs that inject external revenue into the local economy, than science, technology, engineering and math companies specifically.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call [the primary jobs] all STEM, but I think it’s hard to get away from that term in any role today,” Jackson said.
Byrne said the incentive packages offered by the city, combined with the local talent pool, were part of the decision to bring ElementUSA Accelerator to the area.
Jackson said Cedar Park enables shorter permitting processes because departments are able to coordinate faster than larger cities.
“We can move faster,” he said. “Because we’re not as big.”
Element USA Accelerator Inc. will get $300,000 in incentives in exchange for:
- Leasing the Cedar Park facility by December. 31, 2025
- Hiring 19 full-time equivalent positions with a combined total annual payroll of at least $2.81 million at the facility by Dec. 31, 2026
- Increasing FTEs to 28 for a combined payroll of $4.2 million by Dec. 31, 2027.
Businesses in Cedar Park are making waves beyond the boundaries of the city, including in outer space.
Firefly currently has a mission underway to land on the moon and conduct experiments for NASA. Blue Ghost Mission 1 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 15, according to Firefly’s website.
NASA is paying Firefly $101.5 million to deliver instruments to the surface of the moon, Schnautz said. If successful, Firefly will become the first private company to successfully land on the moon, a goal the company expects to accomplish by March 2, according to its website.
ElementUSA also aims to be a primary jobs creator in the area. The company signed a lease to operate at 1200 BMC Drive beginning Feb. 1 and began building out the facility immediately, Byrne said.
Byrne said the U.S. is short on important materials crucial to modern technology, and it’s better for the environment to recycle waste materials rather than dig new mines.
ElementUSA Accelerator expects to be fully operational by the end of summer 2025.
Key instruments
Materials refined by Element USA can be found in several components, including:
- Cellphones
- Electric cars
- Computer chips
- Superconductors
- Steel
Firefly is preparing other missions for the next two years, including Alpha FLTA006, which will be the first of 25 contracted launches for defense and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
ElementUSA Accelerator aims to eventually refine the extraction process for removing minerals from 30 million tons of waste the company has rights to in Louisiana, Byrne said.
Jackson said bringing in these kinds of industry-leading businesses starts at the local government level.
“You have to be focused on everything, and that’s down to your parks, your recreation, your hiking and biking trails, which a lot of young talent wants to see,” he said.
