Round Rock Chamber Refreshes Economic Development Strategy

In 2017, Garner Economics conducted a comprehensive assessment of Round Rock’s economic development competitiveness and created an action plan to serve as a roadmap to enhance the community’s competitiveness. With various market changes over the last four years, including game-changing project announcements in the Greater Austin region such as Army Futures Command and Tesla, the Chamber re-engaged Garner Economics in January 2021 to refresh and recalibrate the economic development action plan that will serve as the strategy for the next five years.

The three phases to the action plan included: discovery, analysis, and strategy/recommendations. The first phase included a local stakeholder survey along with a compilation of local facts and data points with quantitative analysis and some subjective opinions. The results of the first phase are what helped identify the target industries for Round Rock:

• Make It in Round Rock: Small Scale & Niche Manufacturing
• Think It in Round Rock: Knowledge Economy
• Green It in Round Rock: Clean Tech
• Health It in Round Rock: Health & Life Sciences

In addition, Garner Economic provided key recommendations for Round Rock’s continued success:

• Asset Development: Product improvement initiatives to ensure Round Rock can compete to attract, retail and grow the types of companies and talent that the community desires.
• Communicate the Brand: Marketing approaches for the Chamber to share the economic dynamism of the area with target prospects and talent.
• Execute Effectively: Organizational adjustments that allow the Chamber to work proactively in those areas that will directly impact the economic growth the community desires.

The Chamber team will take the findings and the recommendations suggested in the Garner Economics report to ensure the city can attract the types of activity that would benefit the city while also growing the area’s quality of place assets. Click here for a high-level summary of Jay Garner’s presentation of the refreshed economic development strategy.