Houston Strategies

Spaceport Houston, NPR on HOU, top exporter, Charlotte learns from us, Energy Corridor's big future, and more

Some smaller items this week...

• How cool would it be if Houston developed Ellington Field into a spaceport?
• Clever Houston shirt
• National NPR story on Houston's diverse food scene.
• Really liked this Chronicle op-ed on the national attention Houston is getting: "Houston's diversity: Word of Houston mash-up of culture and ethnicity is spreading like a Texas wildfire"
• Houston tops NY as US’s leading goods exporter (may require free registration).  Hat tip to Christoph.  Excerpts:

The greater Houston area has replaced New York City as the largest goods exporting region of the US, official data have shown, thanks to the energy boom that is reshaping the country’s industrial landscape.
...
Mark Muro of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, said the city’s “increasingly global ethos” was also a factor in its export success. 

“Houston has a big airport serving a lot of international flights, and an increasingly international mentality, built up from its global position in energy and the importance of the port,” he said. 

About 28 per cent of Houston’s population was born outside the US, putting it in the top 10 of large US cities for foreign-born residents. 

In another sign of the region’s international perspective, direct commercial flights from Houston to Beijing began on Thursday, run by Air China. 

As well as fossil fuel products, the Houston region also has significant exports of manufactured goods including machinery and electronics. 

Although the latest numbers are for goods exports only, the shift away from New York and towards Houston echoes the US economy’s tilt away from financial services and towards energy. 

Since the start of the recession at the end of 2007, the New York area has added a net 75,000 jobs, a 0.9 per cent increase, while Houston has added 195,000, a rise of 7.5 per cent.

• Charlotte delegation comes to learn from Houston, with extensive Charlotte Observer coverage here, here, and here.  It's too bad they didn't spend more time on the value of our no-zoning approach and free market land use policies.  Hat tip to Jessie.  Excerpts:

Business, political and civic leaders on the Charlotte Chamber’s annual inter-city visit said Friday they came away impressed by how Houstonians think big, and pull together for massive business and public works projects.
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“If you can’t make it in Houston, you can’t make it anywhere,” said Huebner, president of the Houston Minority Supplier Development Council.

Love that quip about Houston! 

• Findings from the study by CDS Market Research portend a vigorous economic future for The Energy Corridor District (ECD).  It will get competitive with Downtown, Uptown, and the med center for total employment. Hat tip to Jessie.

The nearly 21 million square feet of office and mixed-use space now in the ECD is expected to swell to 38.4 million square feet within 17 years, according to CDS, a Houston-based marketing research and analysis firm. Three-quarters of the existing space is considered Class A. 

Already, 6.5 million square feet of office/mixed-use space is under construction or proposed for the District. A good portion of that is slated along what will soon be the extension of Park Row, a road now being completed by the ECD. 

The CDS research report features demographic projections, including a breakdown of where Houston’s engineers live. It also examines current and future parcels, 30-minute drive times, under-construction and proposed buildings – and perhaps the most telling finding, employment forecasts. 

Office and retail buildings under construction and proposed, according to CDS, could soon bring 22,000 additional employees to the District, now one of the largest workforce centers along the Gulf Coast. The ECD’s employment base is expected to grow from 84,000 to 147,000 employees by 2030, reports the CDS study.

Labels: aviation, demographics, development, economy, growth, identity, NASA, perspectives, rankings

posted by Tory Gattis @ 5:33 PM