From the cover
Making space
The framework
Dan Byrne, chief investment officer for ElementUSA and a partner with investment group DADA Holdings, said he’s noticed the city has taken pro-business stances in dealing with Firefly, which DADA has a substantial investment in. Byrne said the combination of location and the city’s pro-business approach was a major factor in bringing ElementUSA Accelerator Inc. to the city. “The Greater Austin area is obviously a hotbed of talent in all sorts of industries,” Byrne said.
Cedar Park has become a tech and aerospace hub for Central Texas over the past decade. A range of companies, creating everything from superconductors to lunar landers, have made Cedar Park their home, helping the city forge an identity as more than just an Austin bedroom community. One of the latest companies to follow this trend is ElementUSA, a mineral extraction and refining company that aims to produce metals used in
electronics, which is preparing to set up a new facility in Cedar Park. Meanwhile, one of the city’s tenured companies, Firefly Aerospace, is making national news, as it’s on track to become the first private company to land a vessel on the moon. And those are only two of the major tech, aerospace and life science corporations that have set up shop in Cedar Park, joining companies like Hyliion, Hanyang Eng, Enovis Corp. and many more.
The big picture
The setup
The incoming companies are bringing jobs with them. ElementUSA Accelerator has agreed to hire 28 people in the area by the end of 2027, and most of Firefly’s more than 700 employees are based in the Central Texas region, said Risa Schnautz, Firefly’s director of marketing and communications. Enovis Corp., a multibillion-dollar life sciences company, is setting up a $25.5 million facility in the area, which is expected to create over 160 jobs, according to previous reporting. On whether the companies will increase prop- erty values in the area, Arthur Jackson, Cedar Park chief economic development officer, said people moving into an area can drive up property values due to increased demand on the market. “It’s just the law of supply and demand,” he
said, noting that Cedar Park doesn’t have specific wage requirements for incoming companies, but the city does pay attention to the wages that will be associated with incoming jobs. Jackson said bringing large employers into the area is important for the overall health of the community and living up to the idea of being a place where people can live, work and play. “If you can live in Cedar Park, Leander, George- town, wherever, and not have to commute into a busy, dense downtown to find a job, that’s great,” he said. The companies also contribute to the tax base, he said, noting it’s important to make sure a diverse range of industries are operating in town, so if there’s a crash in one industry, the city still has a healthy working community.
“When you look at economic develop- ment, you do have to look at it holistically,” Jackson said. Jackson said the city is more interested in courting primary jobs, which are jobs that inject external revenue into the local econ- omy, than Science, technology, engineering & math companies specifically. “I wouldn’t necessarily call [the primary jobs] all STEM, but I think it’s hard to get away from that term in any role today,” Jackson said. Byrne said the incentive packages offered by the city, combined with the local talent pool, were part of the decision to bring ElementUSA Accelerator to the area. Jackson said Cedar Park enables shorter permitting processes because departments are able to coordinate faster than larger cities. “We can move faster,” he said. “Because we’re not as big.”
Charting Cedar Park’s growth
Cedar Park’s operating budget has grown over the last 10 years as employers come to the area.
+179.6%
$350M $300M $250M $200M $150M $100M $50M $0
ElementUSA Accelerator Inc. will get $300K in exchange for:
$310,320,000
Dec. 31, 2025
Leasing Cedar Park facility
Dec. 31, 2026
Hiring 19 full-time equivalent positions with a combined total annual payroll of at least $2.81M at the facility
$111,000,000
FY 2014-15
FY 2024-25
Dec. 31, 2027
Increasing FTEs to 28, making a combined $4.22M
SOURCE: CITY OF CEDAR PARK/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: CITY OF CEDAR PARK/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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