Walker County economic development director outlines pipeline of RFIs and site-readiness push

Stephanie Smith, speaking for Walker County’s economic-development organization, told the July 13 court that the new entity has spent its first year building inventories, relationships and responses to requests for information (RFIs). Smith said the office has received 114 RFIs that collectively indicated large potential job and capital-investment numbers in the regional market pipeline; she described a smaller set of higher-likelihood projects the EDC is pursuing and emphasized the need to improve site readiness to be competitive.

Smith reviewed actions underway — working with local governments, utilities and Sam Houston State University on workforce readiness, coordinating with developers on speculative building and applying for opportunity-zone consideration (the office requested six opportunity-zone census tracts and also asked that the county be considered more broadly). She said the governor’s office will select submissions in August and encouraged commissioners to support the EDC’s renewal invoice and to attend an Aug. 6 workshop (10 a.m.–2 p.m.) to help set a shared strategy.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about what opportunity-zone designation means in practice and whether incentives or tax abatements would be considered for projects; Smith said incentives would be considered on project-by-project bases and that the EDC hopes to align local incentives and workforce investments around shovel‑ready sites.

Smith also announced a Sept. 17 economic-development conference and business expo and requested the court’s continued participation and financial support.