Mayor's office proposes Powell Electrical Systems for Texas Enterprise Zone nomination

The Mayor’s Office of Economic Development told the Houston Economic Development Committee it will propose nominating Powell Electrical Systems Inc. for a Texas Enterprise Zone designation, a state program that can reimburse eligible projects for state sales-and-use taxes, senior staff analyst Andrew Busker said.

The nomination would be placed on the City Council agenda on April 30 for consideration, Busker said; he said the company plans about $8 million in capital investment over five years across two Houston sites and listed 15 new jobs and a larger number of retained jobs in the company’s application. The state program requires a municipal or county nomination and is intended to encourage companies to invest in under-resourced census tracts, Busker said.

The Texas Enterprise Zone program is created in the Texas Tax Code, chapter 2303, and is administered by the state. It operates on a rolling application process and requires a municipal or county nomination as part of an applicant’s state submission, Busker explained. The city allocates a fixed number of nominations per biennium; Busker said Houston has five nominations remaining and proposed using one for Powell. He referenced a June application cycle and later said there is a state application deadline in mid-June for the company’s submission.

Busker told the committee the Powell nomination would cover two existing company sites in Council District I, one at 8550 Moseley and the other at 7232 Airport. He said the larger site’s planned work includes wastewater-system replacement and upgrades to tooling, assembly and tilt tables used in manufacturing electrical components; the other site would receive HVAC and IT infrastructure upgrades. He said the applicant’s materials list an average annual salary of about $105,000 across the jobs in the application and noted the state caps the reimbursable benefit at 500 jobs so any state refund would be calculated only up to that cap.

Busker also provided the program’s refund estimate: the maximum potential state refund he described is about $1,250,000 distributed over five years (roughly $2,500 per job for up to 500 employees, as presented).

Council members asked several questions. Vice Chair Flickinger asked how much the company would receive in the rebate and later said she did not see what the city "gets out of this," noting Powell already has facilities outside Texas and that the company has grown since earlier nominations. "I don't really see that we get anything out of this," Flickinger said. Council Member Ramirez asked whether the city can know if Powell would have created the jobs without the nomination; Busker replied, "We don't know. Basically, this is a tool for us to help to make sure that citizens in our community have good paying jobs." Council Member Martinez said Powell is "a great neighbor" and noted the company's local board participation in the Hobby Management District.

Busker said the city previously nominated Powell in 2013 and 2020 and that the company has grown since those nominations. He told the committee the nomination resolution is intended to be placed on the April 30 City Council agenda so the company can include the municipal nomination in its state application, which Busker said has a mid‑June deadline.

Next steps: the committee did not take a formal vote at the meeting. The nomination was placed on the April 30 council agenda for consideration; if the council approves the nomination, the company would include the nomination in its state application before the state deadline cited by staff.

Minutes of the committee meeting show committee members debated whether the state rebate would change the company’s plans and whether the city should prioritize nominations for projects that would not otherwise occur locally.