August 2021 Richmond Texas Economic Development

Letter from the Director

Richmond Texas is growing and quite frankly the only thing missing is you unless you already consider this great place home! We have withstood the pandemic and remain excited about Richmond's future.

The Development Corporation of Richmond is committed to fostering entrepreneurship in our city and has partnered with two very accomplished small business development entities. Those are the Fort Bend County Small Business Development Center through the University of Houston Texas Gulf Coast Network, and the Greater Houston office for the U.S. Small Business Association. We are working with these entities and others to grow our businesses and assist them with creating new employment opportunities within our community. These entities have several programs that are designed to assist aspiring entrepreneurs as well as those who have been in business for years.

I can't express my sincere gratitude enough to my Board of Directors, City Administration, and our City Commissioners for their willingness to work with me as we continue to achieve new goals in our department.

Since November 2020, we have been able to achieve the following:

👍🏾 Successfully joined with other entities to advocate for the passage of House Bill 3097 & HB4301 (These two bills extend out State Rebate on taxes for our future Hotel/Convention project.)

👍🏾SB 374 (Successfully joined in to advocate to give cities in Texas the ability to annex right of way in order to continue growing the communities that call Texas home!)

👍🏾Signed a contract to engage Retail Coach (Currently have 18 developers in talks with them to assist those developers with locating and recruiting sales tax-generating businesses.)

👍🏾 Signed a contract with Bella Media to create content for our social media and website presence. Already we have seen a more than 200% increase in our social media presence.

👍🏾 Successfully hosted the new Richmond Economic Development Week! Folks were hired, businesses saw revenue and new startups are considering Richmond.

👍🏾Business Development meetings have increased as we continue to look for ways to incentivize business owners to choose Richmond.

We are well on our way and are wanting to connect with Developers, Small Business Owners as well as property owners who are looking to grow here in our community. The message from our department and our leadership is simple... WE WANT YOU!

Kind Regards,

Jerry W. Jones Jr.