While some of these developments have been reported, Round Rock city officials say that, taken together, they indicate that companies are still attracted by the city's "business-like attitude, vision and quality of life."
That attitude was illustrated in the 1980s when Cypress Semiconductor deliberated where in Central Texas to put a chip-making plant. When the company's CEO walked into a meeting with Round Rock officials, they greeted him with a building permit, signed and ready to go. Cypress chose Round Rock.
In the 1990s, Dell Computer Corp. made an even bigger splash when it established a major corporate campus in Round Rock, capping it off with the location of the company's headquarters. In 2000, however, crowding at the fast-growing Round Rock site prompted the company to put its executives in a Southwest Austin office building. And in 2001, the company cut thousands of jobs, many of them in Round Rock, to deal with a slowdown in computer sales. But at least the honchos are returning to Round Rock, the company said last week, where space has opened up.
In November 2001, Round Rock suffered another blow when Tellabs Inc. said it would close its operations in the city, eliminating 400 jobs and putting 127,000 sf of manufacturing and office space on the market.
In recent weeks, however, two companies have moved operations to Round Rock, one has completed a massive technology upgrade and another is adding jobs.
Sears, Roebuck & Co. plans to hire at least 150 workers in Round Rock, where it operates Sears.com, Sears Teleserve and third-party services. "There's not a lot of red tape and they have delivered on their transportation plan which has had a direct impact on our employees and therefore out bottom line," Steve Houghton, Sears' unit manager in Round Rock, said of the municipality.
DuPont Photomasks Inc. recently completed a $27-million project to add advanced technology to its Round Rock plant. The new equipment will help DuPont, which makes equipment used to make computer chips, stay competitive. It also added 10 jobs.
Other recent additions include DPT Inc., which repairs flat-panel displays. It moved 125 employees into 104,000 sf at the Crystal Park office and industrial center after city council offered an incentive program based on the number of jobs that the company creates.
Most recently, Streamline Technical Services Inc. announced its move to Round Rock from Austin. It occupies almost 11,000 sf in the Chandler Creek Business Park.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
