As unincorporated areas in Harris County such as Cy-Fair continue to grow, local chambers of commerce have begun filling the void typically taken on by cities or economic development corporations to market the area to potential businesses and residents.
The Cy-Fair Houston Chamber launched the Discover Cy-Fair committee during the summer in an effort to market the area and help make it more well-known throughout Houston. The Houston Northwest Chamber also began several economic development initiatives in the last month, including the Grow Northwest campaign, which aims to increase the visibility of the northwest Harris County area.
"Anytime you market an area, all businesses there will thrive," said Leslie Martone, president of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce. "Nothing but positives can come out of that."
On the map
One focus of the Discover Cy-Fair committee is to help the 186-square-mile area known as Cy-Fair become more prominent in the Houston region.
"We need to market this area," Martone said. "It's about helping Cy-Fair become more visible on the map."
The committee meets once a month and has been discussing its goal and vision, along with the first steps in beginning to market the area.
One push to better market northwest Harris County occurred earlier this summer when ExxonMobil invited several Houston-area chambers to visit with employees from Virginia who will be relocating to the area in the coming year. ExxonMobil is constructing a corporate campus for 10,000 employees south of The Woodlands off I-45 near the Hardy Toll Road.
During the visit, Barbara Thomason, president of the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce, discovered not every employee wants to live within a stone's throw of the company campus, regardless of the close housing options.
"They wanted to be 25 or 30 minutes away, which is a third of their commute time in Virginia," Thomason said. "You can live off Hwy. 290 and by way of the Grand Parkway get to the ExxonMobil campus easily. Their options are wide."
Work on Segment E of the Grand Parkway, which will connect I-10 in Katy to Hwy. 290 in Cypress, will be complete by the end of the year. Segments F1, F2 and G, which will span from Hwy. 290 to Hwy. 59, will be finished by the end of 2015.
"I think the infrastructure in our quadrant of town with the Grand Parkway and the transportation access we have make this area explosive with the growth we're seeing," said Meredith Brown, events and marketing manager for the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce. "We're in a very unique position."
In mid-September, the Grow Northwest campaign launched a website that features information on the community, tax rates, incentives, management districts and other similar information to attract businesses and entrepreneurs who are considering locating in the area.
"For inquiring businesses toying with moving into the area, they'll find data, features and benefits about the area," Thomason said. "We want to make it easy."
The website, www.growhoustonnw.com, launched Sept. 13.
Economic development
Areas surrounding northwest Harris County—including Katy, The Woodlands, Tomball and Conroe—have economic development corporations in place to help attract business to the area, but there is no such organization in Cy-Fair or northwest Harris County.
Because the county does not collect sales tax revenue, other options to fund economic development include creating a privately funded economic development corporation or management district.
"It's not an option to hide our head in the sand," Thomason said. "In order to maintain a competitive position, we have to adopt some of the same elements and amenities that these surrounding areas are able to offer so we aren't overlooked."
There are several areas across Harris County with no economic development corporations in place, but the natural attractions are still there, said Fred Welch, vice president of economic development for the Greater Houston Partnership.
"The location decision has more to do with the needs for the project and company," said Fred Welch, vice president of economic development for the Greater Houston Partnership. "Now it comes down to other things required to support the project. Do they need larger, open areas? What type of infrastructure or road requirements are needed? [What type] of employees are they looking to attract."
The chambers oftentime work with the GHP when the organization is helping companies that want to move in to unincorporated parts of the county.
"We reach out to [the chambers] as we can and help catalogue available parcels of land that we can market," Welch said. "For those [businesses] looking for a neighborhood specific area, we go back to the chamber and let them make that introduction so they can get deeper community information to determine where they want to be."
As northwest Harris County grows in population, it will continue to provide a great deal of importance, Welch said.
"There are some strong legacy companies out along Hwy. 290 that have been there for years, and they continue to be a vibrant part of what makes up Houston and Harris County," he said.
