P PANEL DISCUSSION
of fun. What was new for me was working closely with Mike Rawlings. In the last 10 days, he was ‘directing traffic’ on Saturday mornings for three groups and a handful of consultants. That was pretty fun to be a part of. He was a cheerleader for everybody around the table, and did a magnanimous job.
Where do we go from here, in terms of the impact you think that it has had—and will have—on the region? Also, what’s the relocation pipeline looking like?
ROSA: The pipeline is strong. We’ve taken the point about the great data and information that was constructed. We’ve taken that many times and broken it down, and reassembled it to meet the needs of other clients and prospects who are interested in the market. Just last night we had a dinner with a corporate headquarters opportunity for the region. We are as busy as we’ve been. Every day that goes by, every month that goes by, more companies that we work with as a regional chamber are really keying in on where young people like to live: “Where’s the action? Where’s the fun? Where can we find the talent that we need?” The core of the region—the downtown Dallas core—just continues to elevate. We’ve got a thriving urban core—the largest urban core in the region. It’s doing very, very well and always on the rise. There’s a desire of companies to check it out to see if that might be the place for them. And we have tremendous suburban locations and tremendous cities throughout the region—large and small. It’s a neat balance to have. The companies that are coming in and looking, the companies making a location decision—they’re looking to the future. We know it’s a huge decision for them to make. It’s hard enough for me to think about moving my household, much less an executive moving an entire corporation and all the people they are responsible for. It’s a big disruptive thing to do. They’ve got to be sure, and they want to be in a place that they see is rising. For example, I remember working with Hilti’s North
SPRING 2019
RENDERING: HKS
THE BIO CUBE: AT THE CENTER OF THE PROPOSED CAMPUS WAS A BIO-CENTRIC HUB TO BE USED AS GATHERING AND EVENT SPACE FOR OCCUPANTS AND VISITORS.
America President and CEO Cary Evert. Hilti made a decision a couple of years ago to relocate from Tulsa: They’re in Plano now. Ed note: Hilti North America President and CEO Cary Evert retired in 2017, and Hilti Canada General Manager, Avi Kahn was named President and CEO. The folks in Europe and the home office considered Chicago and DFW. They were more familiar with Chicago, and Dallas-Fort Worth was more of a mystery to them. They said, in the end, [they could have] made a go of it just fine in Chicago, but DFW was a place that was moving—on the rise. They’re a company that was doing that, too. It felt like a nice match for them. We do very, very well when we’re talking with companies that have the same kind of vision that we see here: Moving forward and continuous improvement. We will be busy. MCMAHON: Adjacency is so important. That’s the other part of the equation: Big companies come here, and they bring a lot of their suppliers and vendors with them. That’s an important part of the process. It’s exciting to see what our future is here, particularly as we can grow not only the larger corporate locations, but also the small business and middle market companies coming here as well. That’s some of the strongest space we can build for our economy and for our city. ROSA: In terms of corporate recruitment and economic development, we will be successful. We will look back 20 years from now, 30 years from now, and we will have been successful if we are a place people want to be. And it’s not so much people like me. I’m in my late 50s, and it’s not so much what my taste and my preferences are. It’s more about my kids and my grandkids. If Dallas-Fort Worth is the kind of place they want it to be, then companies will follow that. We’ll look back and say, “Oh, it was really that simple: Are we a place that people want to be?” Years and years ago, economic development was pretty simple: ‘There’s a river, there’s a mountain with some iron ore in it. I guess we better put a plant right there.’ These days, with technology, there’s a lot of location freedom for companies and for individuals—especially for those that have talent. They carry that talent with them and live where they want and ply their trade where they want. More than ever before it’s about, ‘Do I want to be there?’ The answer for this city and this region has to be, ‘Yes, it’s the place that people want to be.’ It’s that simple when you boil it down.
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