Katy, TX News – Katy Area Named Top Location for Headquarters Operations
Katy, TX News (December 10, 2014) – Written by Lance LaCour – President & CEO – Katy Area EDC
Compared to five other west Houston office sub-markets, the Katy Area came out on top for location of headquarters operations, which was recently presented by Katy Area EDC CEO Lance LaCour at a recent meeting. The analysis ranked the Katy area as the top sub-market for a 200 person headquarter operation seeking to lease a 45,000 sq. ft. building, and compared demographic, economic, real estate, and operational factors. The other sub-markets compared included The Woodlands, East Fort Bend /Sugar Land, Westchase, San Felipe/Voss, and Katy Freeway East. Chief among Katy’s location advantages were population growth rates, educational attainment, workforce participation, quality of life, office space under construction, and lowest overall operational cost for headquarters companies.
According to CoStar, the Katy area, which includes a portion of the Energy Corridor, has over 17 million in sq. ft. of office space with over 2.4 million sq. ft. under construction. Some of the new office buildings under construction in the Katy Area include West Memorial II (325,000 sq. ft.), Mason Creek Office Center II (129,000 sq.ft.), La Centerra Phase III (35,000 sq. ft.), and Katy Ranch Crossing (156,000 sq. ft.).
The study was commissioned by Katy Area EDC and conducted by DCG Corplan Consulting LLC, a site selection consulting firm based out of West Orange, New Jersey.
“Energy service office employers are our main target for business attraction. We have over 41,000 people employed in the energy cluster within a 30 minute drive time from Mason Road and I-10 (the center of the Katy area) and about 1,400 energy firms in that area,” says LaCour. The Office Market Comparison Analysis is part of a long term marketing plan called ‘HQ-Katy’ which involves marketing the Katy area to office developers and office employers.“We are pleased with the results of the analysis and will be using this information to competitively position Katy for recruitment of office headquarters and office related firms to the Katy Area,” noted LaCour.
Katy Area EDC recently won the Texas Economic Development Award primarily for the GEICO Insurance Claims Center, an office employer project that is bringing 1,000 jobs to the Katy area. Other office projects recently announced that are located in the Katy Area include Sasol (175,000 SF), Percheron (40,000 SF) DNV-GL (45,000 SF) and the expansion of Academy Sports and Outdoors (200,000 SF).
