During her presentation, Harris showed a graph detailing the MDC’s investments over the past decade. It included $51,168,826 that has gone toward infrastructure (roads, utilities, etc.) since 2002. She also noted that the MDC has invested $29,157,680 in its assets in business parks across Midland and in the downtown area. 

Harris also told to the audience of chamber members and local business leaders about ways to establish and expand businesses in the area, assist others in doing so and the MDC’s role in all of it.

The MDC and ‘primary jobs’

Harris started the presentation by defining the MDC’s goals as a type-A development corporation funded by a quarter-cent increase in the sales tax inside the city.

The MDC, she said, is devoted to purchasing and developing land and facilities, funding municipal infrastructure for new and expanded businesses and funding aviation facilities and rail switching facilities. It also incentivizes job creation in the area and wants to fund training for primary jobs through universities and colleges.

“In short, how I like to explain a primary job is any job that is going to bring funds into a community from outside or a job that produces something within a community that is going to be sold outside of the community,” Harris said.

These primary jobs, that the MDC is authorized to incentivize to create or provide training for include crop and animal production, computer system design, transportation and warehousing, scientific research and development as well as 14 others. 

“These are the jobs we’re looking for and these are our ‘bread and butter’ projects that we’re looking for when we bring in new companies to Midland,” Harris said.

The hunt for new companies

Harris commented on how the MDC is seeking new companies to add to Midland.

“One of our main sources is from the office of the governor,” Harris said, “they send out two to three projects every week to communities in Texas and businesses that are looking to expand and relocate,”

She added that these reports typically include a site criteria list for real estate purposes and workforce requirements.

“We will respond to those, send them back to the site selector and then start that dialogue,” Harris said. “Usually then they’ll come to the community, show them around town and then either Midland is selected as a final community or we get pulled from the list.”
Harris spoke briefly about tax abatements – specifically Chapter 380, 381 and 313 agreements before detailing the Texas Enterprise Fund, a financial incentive for businesses choosing between expansion to Texas and other states.

She then discussed how the MDC deploys its funds.  The corporation focuses on direct incentives to new and expanding businesses for capital investment and job creation, infrastructure funding agreements with the City of Midland and Texas Department of Transportation to accelerate new and improved road, sewer, and water.“

“We’ve done a lot of interlocal agreements with institutes of higher education to bring new training programs to Midland.  We have assets that we purchase, so the MDC owns 2 business parks – one on I-20 and one on 191 and then MDC also owns properties downtown,” Harris added.

Small business is crucial to Midland, MDC

Harris stressed the importance of small businesses to Midland and claimed the MDC assists start-ups and entrepreneurs. Harris explained how the MDC supports an entrepreneurial culture in Midland. 

“What we’ve been working to do over the past couple years is create a nexus of resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs,” she said. “Sometimes these small businesses go on to become larger businesses and Midland landmarks,” she remarked.

She explained the “1 Million Cups Initiative” – an opportunity for new business owners tell their story and meet investors and bankers, much like the television show, “Shark Tank.”

“What it is, is an opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs to meet with one another and with potential funders in a welcoming and collaborative environment that is set up every month at a different location around town,” she said.

Aerospace in Midland is happening

The MDC’s pursuit of the aerospace sector business is a “a major priority,” Harris said.

“It is a tremendously fast-growing cluster, $5 billion in private investment for aerospace last year,” Harris said, “that’s not NASA, that’s not Roscosmos that’s just private dollars.”

Harris explained the City of Midland has a spaceport license for horizontal launching, while vertical launches must occur over the ocean or in drastically unpopulated areas and aren’t possible in Midland. Still, the vision for the spaceport at Midland International is that spacecrafts will utilize the runways.

Two spaceport tenants are aerospace companies in Midland that Harris profiled.  AST SpaceMobile and Kepler Aerospace.

About AST SpaceMobile, which manufactures satellites, Harris said, “They are in the process of manufacturing a satellite array for telecommunications. What they will provide is internet and cellular complete access anywhere on the planet through your phone you have now through your current cell phone provider.”

Kepler Aerospace is the second Midland company, which looks to upgrade aviation technology and create satellite delivery systems.

The MDC also is currently working on projects downtown, at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center Child & Adolescent Psychiatry program, The UTPB Incubator and Markerspace Program and quality-of-life initiatives – like the Hispanic Cultural Center and the Hogan Park redevelopment and more.