Cedar Park economic development office reports business-retention engagements, new tracking dashboard

Cedar Park — The city’s economic development office on Wednesday described a new business-retention and expansion (BRE) tracking dashboard and summarized outreach to local employers that staff say positions the city to support expansions and workforce connections.

Arthur Johnson, the city’s chief economic development officer, told the council the BRE program completed 75 business-retention meetings in fiscal year 2024; a new dashboard called “executive pulse” captured data from 24 of those visits because the software was implemented near the end of the year.

Johnson said the meetings covered a diverse set of industries—technology, cybersecurity, research and development, manufacturing and others—and most businesses in the dataset employ between about 20 and 40 full-time equivalents. He said several local companies have expansion plans underway and that city staff are coordinating with firms and state grant programs to support hiring and growth.

Council members asked about workforce availability and sampling. Johnson said the BRE sample is small (24 meetings captured in the dashboard) and that workforce shortages were not a dominant theme across respondents; one company reported difficulty hiring hardware and manufacturing engineers. Council members also highlighted the city’s role in connecting employers to Leander ISD and other local talent pipelines.

Johnson said the city has begun interviews to fill the economic development manager position vacated by Ashley Kirkpatrick and hoped to have the role filled by April 1. No formal action was taken.