What’s Up? Video: National Economic Development Week in College Station

What’s Up College Station Archive

Grace Hallowell:
What’s up College Station? I’m Grace Hallowell, and today I’m joined by Brian Piscacek, the Assistant Director of Economic Development here at College Station.
Hi, Brian.

Brian Piscacek:
Hi.

Grace Hallowell:
We had David Brower from our community development services on a few weeks ago to talk about National Community Development Week, but you’re here today to talk about National Economic Development Week. There’s a lot of development going on in our city, and this week is a highlight of that and the growth and opportunities there. So let’s start things off by talking about what this week means for College Station.

Brian Piscacek:
Sure. This is a significant week. I mean, so often you just get completely stuck and focused on your work, and there’s an opportunity generally for folks at the city to stop and appreciate all the things that are happening around us. So that’s the purpose of this week at a macro level for Economic Development. This is something that is celebrated by the International Economic Development Council, IEDC, of which the city is a member. So there are going to be communities across the country and the world that are celebrating this week and recognizing the investments that are being made in Economic Development and how those are benefiting local communities.
This year, in 2024, it’s May 6th through 10th. So we’ll have a proclamation at a city council meeting. Here’s a great opportunity to talk a little bit about it as well. And then we’re also going to push some social media information out, just highlighting the big things that were happening in ’23 and what we do as a staff to hopefully extend a hand and try to help facilitate new business growth and development in College Station

Grace Hallowell:
Right. In a week like this, like you mentioned, you don’t realize how much you’ve done or how much has been done until you stop and really think about it. So this week is a good opportunity to look back at 2023 because a lot happened.

Brian Piscacek:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and like I said, it’s a chance to see, okay, so how are we evolving as a community? We get a lot of really great data that we try to push out. We have the opportunity each January to participate. The Chamber puts on a year in review style and then what’s to come for 2024. So this is really to me, an extension of that, of highlighting those big things that we’re doing in 2023, which we can certainly get into programmatically and key projects. But then also just looking at the data as a whole. And obviously, we are a community of growth and of innovation and technology. I mean, as a whole, the state of Texas is expanding rapidly, adding roughly in 2023, a thousand people a day. And we are clearly a beneficiary of that, of having additional folks move into town and what that means from a business and housing standpoint. You’re trying to keep pace with all of that, but we’re expecting for 2024 to add another thousand jobs.
We’ve got a pretty diverse group, further diversifying of industries, obviously heavily reliant on Texas A&M, and so appreciative for everything they do for the community. But we’ve seen a little bit of a shift over the last 10 years where there’s greater diversification in the private sector, which is good because you want to have diverse options. You’ve got so much talent and activity that’s happening across campus. You’ve got folks graduating every semester. You want to provide those opportunities for them.
So we’ve seen certain sectors really grow. Construction is a big one. Obviously there’s all sorts of stuff that’s going up. Northgate is a great example. Really using student housing is like an economic driver. All the activity that’s happening in Northgate. We’ve got healthcare expansions with what Baylor Scott White is doing. So we’ve seen a rise in employment opportunities from that perspective, in ambulatory services and hospitals and those related things. And then also in food and accommodation services.
So, honestly, when you think about College Station, you think about, again, the education sector with A&M and with the public sector, with cities and counties and a local government hub, I really think it’s reflective of our home as an education center and a hub for hospitality.

Grace Hallowell:
Yes. I was going to mention too, the hospitality industry with all the hotels that we have here and Visit College Station brings in a lot of conventions and competitions with competes or Compete College station. So our hotels are booked in busy.

Brian Piscacek:
That’s right. Yeah. 2023 was really a banner year for them. Obviously, coming out of the pandemic, we had some highs both in sales tax and hotel occupancy tax that we saw, but then also just general revenues assumed over $100 million dollars that hotels had brought in for 2023. And the market certainly has stabilized from that perspective. And what we’re really hoping for from a tourism standpoint is a really high watermark for this summer.
One thing that we saw last October that was really interesting was that we had really high hotel rates. It was a great month for sales tax, and part of that had to do with there were football games and those sort of things, obviously, big things happening in the fall. But we had some conferences and some other sports tournaments. We had a really big music festival that was Live at the Station that was headlined by Zach Ryan.

Grace Hallowell:
Yes.

Brian Piscacek:
So what gets me excited about that is understanding you’ve got all of these things that are happening. It’s not just football. It’s football plus music, plus all these other events. And to me, setting the table for the summer, that’s what we’re looking at. We’ve got USA track and field coming in July. That’s going to be a week that’s going to be incredible, thousands of attendees, spectators, folks participating. It’s going to be happening on campus at A&M. But then even before that, in June, there’s going to be a week that’s going to be nuts. And I’m sure we’ll be pushing all sorts of stuff about it. Right?

Grace Hallowell:
Yes. And I’m sure everybody’s heard the news of the George Straight concert as well as the Brazil versus Mexico soccer game.

Brian Piscacek:
That’s right. Yeah. And those are back-to-back weekends. I mean, June 8th is the soccer game. June 15th is George Straight. I mean, June’s going to be awesome for us. And from an economic development perspective, you want to leverage tourism. You want to leverage that visitor dollar that’s coming in because, again, it’s outside dollars that are coming in to the benefit of our local community.

Grace Hallowell:
And as you mentioned before, the people coming here because of the jobs and how Texas as a whole is growing. I was one of those people back in 2021. Moved from Pennsylvania to here. And just even since then, the growth in College Station has been remarkable to watch.

Brian Piscacek:
Yeah. I’ve been with the city since 2012. I’ve noticed a lot of changes too. And frankly, I’m from Hueco originally. I went to school out in West Texas at Texas Tech, as did my wife. And when we were looking to come back a little closer to home and start a family, got a job here in College Station. And again, fast-forward 12 years later, I’ve had the opportunity to continue to grow professionally and personally at the city. We’ve got two kids in College Station schools. It’s really incredible. And part of that is a tribute to the type of culture and community that is here, that already was here, but then everybody else is contributing to. And that includes individuals, but then also the business community as a whole. So I like to think that I’m a product of the quality of life that we’ve got.
And frankly, from an economic development standpoint, you’ve got certain assets that you can play. You think from a tourism standpoint, if you’re on the beach in California, that’s something that California can offer that we’re not going to be able to offer here or something. But again, you’re talking business parks. Maybe you’ve got a lot of land or you’ve got certain amenities that those businesses are really trying to identify. The things that you have in your pocket, you want to try to leverage the best you can. And what we have in spades, I feel like is quality of life. We’ve got great quality of life amenities. We’ve got great schools. Obviously traffic is certainly picking up. It’s a little different than it was back in 2012, but I still have a job where I can go home and eat a sandwich at lunch. So there’s certain things that you can get here. They’ve got, again, it sounds cliche, but small town feel, but big city amenities. It’s really an ideal location for economic development.

Grace Hallowell:
Yes. Well, if people are curious about more information on the city’s development or National Economic Development Week, where can they find out more?

Brian Piscacek:
Yeah, we have a specialized Economic Development website. It’s grow.cstx.gov. It’s part of the outgrowth of specific brands that we have for our Economic Development and Tourism department. So obviously we’ve got Visit College Station. That’s our premier Leisure brand. And under that, sub-brands for meetings and conventions. And then you mentioned Compete College Station for all the various sports activities and things that we do. We have a similar brand for economic development that’s Grow College Station. That’s our focus there. So it’s grow.cstx.gov You can find news information, data, information on our strategic plan, and then really any other business resources that people would want to access as well.

Grace Hallowell:
Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Brian. This was really informative.

Brian Piscacek:
Yeah, thank you, Grace.

Grace Hallowell:
And that’s what’s up.