Since 2015, companies like Lonza, Memorial Hermann and HCA Houston Healthcare have opened facilities along or near Hwy. 288 in Pearland.
“We’ve created a real destination in the [Hwy.] 288 corridor,” said Matt Buchanan, Pearland Economic Development Corp. president. “We’ve really been focused on trying to make it that destination here in this part of Brazoria County and southern Houston region.”
Among the reasons for Pearland’s attractiveness are the city’s proximity to the Texas Medical Center; ports in the Greater Houston area, including the Port of Houston; Pearland’s population; quality of life; and school districts, according to the PEDC.
Frank Bugg, vice president of Lonza’s cell and gene therapies facility in Pearland, mirrored the factors the PEDC listed when discussing what brought Lonza to the city. Lonza opened in 2018 along Pearland’s Lower Kirby District, a 1,200-acre mixed-use district that is roughly two miles west of Hwy. 288, according to the PEDC.
“Space, a vibrant locale, a talented and trained local workforce, and proximity to the Texas Medical Center all played a pivotal role in Lonza’s decision,” Bugg said.
Medical sector focus
Pearland was naturally able to become an area of interest for health care providers and life science companies because of the city’s community and employment base, Buchanan said.
The TMC’s influence was one piece of the puzzle, but Pearland’s growing population also played a key role in luring health care providers, Buchanan said.Pearland’s population grew 37.89% between 2010-20 from 91,252 to 125,828, according to the U.S. Census Bureau data. The growth created the need for health care providers to service the city, and they have continued to expand, Buchanan said.
On May 12, Memorial Hermann hosted a groundbreaking at the site of its new $15 million sports park, which is located at 10907 Memorial Hermann Drive. When it opens in 2023, it will feature fitness space, a professional sport-style weight room, and indoor and outdoor turf fields.
“People don’t have to travel into the [Texas Medical] Center in order to get services,” Pearland Mayor Kevin Cole said at the groundbreaking.
Both Memorial Hermann and HCA Houston Healthcare have expanded operations along Hwy. 288 with several buildings, including the HCA Healthcare Center for Clinical Advancement in June 2021 and Memorial Hermann’s second medical plaza Building in November 2015.
“It is an ideal spot when you look at the growth here of Pearland,” said Noel Cardenas, senior vice president and CEO of Memorial Hermann Pearland.
The hospital’s commitment to Pearland is still in an expanding stage, Cardenas teased during the sports park groundbreaking event. Cardenas said there was still plenty of land on Memorial Hermann’s 40-acre Pearland campus left to be developed.
Pearland is Memorial Hermann’s second-newest hospital in the Houston area, and the population in the area keeps growing, he said. To the south of Pearland, rising communities continue to spur the need for providers to stay ahead of the growth curve, Cardenas added.
“Down toward Manvel and Alvin ... we are also aware of all the housing developments that are going up, so we want to stay ahead of that and not get behind the growth,” Cardenas said.
Regional draw
On the manufacturing and research front, Pearland has seen a rise in companies selecting the city for opening their headquarters.
Merit Medical, a medical device manufacturer, first opened on Kirby Drive in 2011. Companies such as Lonza, which opened in 2018, and Millar—a medical device manufacturer with plans to open its headquarters in 2023—have followed. Location is key.
“The Texas Medical Center is known worldwide as a hub for biotechnology innovation, with some of the finest minds actively working on tomorrow’s medical breakthroughs,” Bugg said.
Lonza is not alone in taking advantage of the city’s labor pool. In Pearland, five of the top eight employers are health care provider companies or medical manufacturers, according to data from the PEDC.
Bugg said Lonza also looked for a metropolitan area with a robust port system, like the Port of Houston, to reduce logistics interruptions, receive raw goods and deliver their therapies efficiently and effectively.
The Port of Houston has exported more than 8,700 medical manufacturing products in each of the last five years and has imported more than 12,000 medical manufacturing products in each of the last four years, according to the Port of Houston data.
For manufacturing companies, proximity to global and domestic markets, a qualified workforce, and favorable government regulations and taxes all factor in choosing site locations, said Chad Burke, president of Economic Alliance Houston Port Region.
The Economic Alliance Houston Port Region is a nonprofit organization with a goal to grow the Houston region’s economy. It has a partnership with Pearland and the PEDC.
“Pearland and the entire Greater Houston area garner huge pluses in this evaluation because of the access to global markets via the port and the high-quality workforce we have,” Burke said.
Networking out of Pearland
Facilities from both health care providers and manufacturing companies in west Pearland are connected to the Greater Houston area, and they can take advantage of it in many ways, Burke said.
Memorial Hermann and HCA Houston Healthcare not only service the population in and around Pearland but, if needed, could connect patients to its other branches across the Greater Houston area. Both HCA Houston Healthcare and Memorial Hermann have air ambulance services that can transport patients to other locations.
Additionally, HCA Houston Healthcare trains hundreds of employees daily in Pearland from its Center for Clinical Advancement facility that ranges from newly graduated nurses, seasoned incumbent staff and other employees seeking to be better prepared for their positions.
While medical manufacturing companies are not directly interacting with patients, they can indirectly do so in the Houston area, nationally and beyond. Bugg said it is highly likely Lonza has played a role in producing new therapies used to treat cancer and other diseases at local hospitals in the Houston area but could not mention specifics due to contractual constraints with health care providers.
For Pearland specifically, all companies, whether in the manufacturing or provider side, benefit the city by diversifying the tax base. The PEDC values diversifying the tax base because it lowers the cost of city services across a broader tax base, Buchanan said. The city will continue to pursue partners that can help the city grow in the future, Buchanan said.
“Place is what, at the end of the day, attracts these companies,” Buchanan said. “We’re committed to building a place that companies and people want to live in and invest in.”
