In an increasingly competitive economic development landscape, the City of Sugar Land is making a big play to keep the companies it already has.  Earlier this month, Sugar Land officials announced a new incentive program aimed specifically at the city’s office headquarters companies. The approved program provides $6,000 per job for qualified businesses to keep their headquarters in Sugar Land. As new office parks and commercial real estate developments pop up across the region and in competitor markets, Sugar Land’s move is a business retention tool designed to keep companies and investment inside the city limits.  “Retaining office headquarters is key to maintaining high-paying jobs in Sugar Land,” said Elizabeth Huff, Economic Development Director for the City of Sugar Land. “Our new incentive program ensures we maintain our office headquarter locations during this highly competitive office market and hopefully grow those high-quality job opportunities in our community.”  To qualify for the new incentive program, companies headquartered in Sugar Land must retain at least 50 primary jobs and renew their existing lease for five to ten years within the city limits. The program also requires companies commit a minimum of $1 million towards capital investment for build outs or office improvements. The investment requirement is expected to help Sugar Land, which consistently ranks among the fastest-growing suburbs in the state, to enhance its office infrastructure by encouraging companies to spend money to improve their existing space.  Sugar Land Mayor Joe R. Zimmerman said the new incentive program will enable the city to retain the companies that already call the Fort Bend County community home. “The new program allows us to target existing companies and selected industries in order to demonstrate our level of commitment and partnership to our business community,” Zimmerman said.  According to the Houston Business Journal, Sugar Land is currently home to the headquarters or principal offices of 19 companies across different industries, including a subsidiary of SLB (formerly Schlumberger), Noble Corp., Accredo Packaging, and Bluebonnet Nutrition. Learn more about why companies are choosing the Houston region.   

Greentown Labs continues to show its support for fostering energy innovation in Houston as the city aims to lead the world’s energy transition. The climatetech startup incubator has launched the Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy (TEX-E) to support students in developing next-generation innovations. The collaborative initiative includes MIT’s Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship, a research and teaching center that provides expertise, support and connections to MIT students, and five Texas universities, including Rice University, the University of Houston, Texas A&M University, Prairie View A&M University and the University of Texas. “Houston has long been known as the energy capital of the world, but to lead the world’s energy transition, the city must create a strong, vibrant innovation ecosystem to support the next generation of entrepreneurs and energy companies,” said Lara Cottingham, Chief of Staff at Greentown Labs, in a press release.  Students participating in the program will have access to mentorship with Greentown Labs’ entrepreneurs, networking events, career opportunities and cross-learning with MIT. The initiative will help continue to pave the way for Houston to solidify its role as the leader of the global energy transition. “The TEX-E collaboration will provide valuable opportunities to our students, and Houston is a natural location to create such an ecosystem,” said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president for energy and innovation at the University of Houston, in a press release. “Training new talent and supporting their pursuit of innovative ideas are vital in addressing the growing global need for affordable, reliable, and environmentally sustainable energy.” Greentown Houston experienced a successful first year, attracting more than 60 startups, including several that relocated from outside the U.S., proof that Houston is where Energy 2.0 companies want to be. From 2017 to 2021, venture capital funding in Houston’s energy space totaled more than $327 million. More than 4,700 energy-related firms are located within the Houston metro. “Boston and Houston might seem like an odd pairing, but they complement one another beautifully,” said Ben Soltoff, Ecosystem Builder and Entrepreneur in Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Despite Boston’s strong climate innovation ecosystem, startups looking to scale up “look towards Texas, where they can find talent, space, and industry knowhow in spades. Together, these two regions are unstoppable,” Soltoff said. TEX-E is also in line with the Partnership’s Houston Energy Transition Initiative, which aims to position Houston to lead the global energy transition to a more efficient and sustainable, low-carbon future, by deploying key strategies, including jumpstarting emerging technologies.