Humble City Council at its July 28 meeting renewed its $50,000 annual contract with Partnership Lake Houston to help promote economic development within the city.
According to the agreement, Partnership Lake Houston—which functions as the Lake Houston area’s chamber of commerce and economic development corporation—will aid the city in the facilitation of business-specific incentive programs, compile economic and business-related data for the city, and assist with the development of commercial activity in the area.
Stephanie Wiggins, Partnership Lake Houston's chief economic development officer, said she was looking forward to the opportunity to help bring businesses and jobs to Humble.
“Our vision at the Partnership is to remain the gateway where our local businesses, global economy and quality of life come together,” Wiggins said. “We will work to promote businesses, enhanced economic and community development, and serve as a catalyst for improving overall quality of life in the Lake Houston area.”
Wiggins pointed to several industries she said the Partnership was targeting when seeking out businesses to recruit to the area, including distribution and logistics, manufacturing, and life sciences and research.
“There's also a good market for a lot of the technology-driven [companies],” she said. “We're seeing the whole new development of the technology corridor, so I'd like to start engaging and working on projects in that avenue as well.”
According to Wiggins, Partnership Lake Houston worked with several large companies in 2021 to bring to them to the Lake Houston area, including Living Spaces-Humble, which created 200 jobs; Amazon, which created 350 jobs and is estimated to have a $129 million economic impact; and JSL Foods, which created 70 jobs and is estimated to have a $26 million economic impact.
Currently, Wiggins said Partnership Lake Houston is tracking 19 projects that have the potential to bring roughly 2,700 jobs to the region.
“[The projects we are tracking] are in biotech, manufacturing, information [technology], research and distribution,” Wiggins said. “90% of the projects in the whole Houston region are manufacturing. ... It may be on the health-sciences manufacturing; it could be on [information technology]; but they're going to be some type of manufacturing.”
Additionally, Wiggins said Partnership Lake Houston is planning to work with Humble Mayor Norman Funderburk and City Manager Jason Stuebe to revitalize the city’s downtown area.
“I've always been impressed and in awe of the history and the nostalgia of downtown [Humble],” Wiggins said. “To be able to have the opportunity to be a part of what that [revitalization] looks like in the next few years, I'm really excited about that.”
Humble Mayor Pro Tem David Pierce said he was excited about the opportunity to work with Partnership Lake Houston on the downtown project.
“Put a star next to the [downtown revitalization project], because we’re very excited about that,” Pierce said. “The ball is rolling; we just need a little shove.”
