City unveils five-year economic-development strategic plan outlining six focus areas and implementation tool

City economic-development staff and consultants presented the results of a nine-month strategic planning effort to the Round Rock City Council on Feb. 27, outlining priorities for the next five years and an implementation tool to track progress.

Barry, a consultant with Hickey Global retained for the project, told the council the plan organizes work into stakeholder engagement, ecosystem and cluster analysis and strategy. "We came up with kind of six major areas that we wanted to focus on," Barry said, listing marketing and business retention/expansion/attraction, talent, quality of life, strategic partnerships, real estate and corporate services/innovation.

The nut graf: The plan identifies industry clusters to pursue, recommends a mix of near-, mid- and long-term strategies, and provides an editable implementation spreadsheet city staff can use to reprioritize actions as conditions change.

Consultants described a cluster analysis that combines regional drive-time labor market observations and industry trends. Using a 45-minute drive-time catchment, the consultant noted growth in bachelor's and graduate degrees within the region and emphasized both professional services and local-serving industries that "bring new money" and retain spending locally. A sample technology cluster review showed recruitment needs such as software developers and engineers and cited an average salary of about $65,000 for one subgroup.

The plan lists 53 strategies across the six focus areas and suggests time horizons and lead actors for each item. Barry emphasized the collaborative nature of implementation: some actions will be led by the chamber, some by the city, and some by other community partners. He recommended maintaining the momentum the city has achieved through relationships among government, education and business.

Examples highlighted by the consultant included exploring a branded "cool" advisory group to market Round Rock's distinctive assets; encouraging brick-and-mortar transitions for successful Austin food-truck operators; studying a downtown main-street-type association; investigating a business park product to capture projects that cannot be sited elsewhere for lack of suitable parcels; and considering a higher-level retail/transformational facade/grant fund to limit retail leakage from the local economy.

Council members asked for a summary of the plan's single greatest strength and weakness. Barry said the community's ability to coordinate across education, business and government was a major strength and cautioned that success can make sustained coordination harder over time.

Ending: Staff said the final 250-plus-page report will be used as a starting five-year roadmap; the plan expects to be revised as market conditions change and the city will use the Excel implementation tool to update priorities and timing.