Henderson has identified five industries in which to recruit businesses and enhance economic growth.
The city’s “Target Industry Study” gives it a “roadmap” of what industries have the ideal potential to grow the city’s economy, said Jared Smith, director of economic development and tourism in Henderson.
“This is reverse engineering,” Smith said. “We know we’re going after these types of companies, so now we will reverse engineer our proactive outreach strategies to go identify companies in these sectors, and then start recruiting them here.”
Many cities conduct similar studies to understand what types of companies are the best fit for the city and its economy, he said.
In Henderson, however, Smith said he wanted to take the research a step further by not just identifying one vague, overarching industry—but determine specifically the types of companies and specialties within that industry that are suited to the city.
For example, instead of identifying manufacturing as a target industry, the report specifically lists “electrical equipment and components manufacturing.” Similarly, it identified “logistics management and technologies,” as opposed to just logistics, or “warehouses,” Smith said.
“And these jobs and these companies—the industries that we’re aimed at—they pay great wages … they lean into the workforce of tomorrow,” he said. “They match up with our assets and our workforce. And we really want to understand the kinds of jobs that our people want. So it’s not just about, ‘We have the right assets.’ It’s, ‘We believe these are the types of jobs that our workforce is looking for.’”
He pointed to the Barclays location in Henderson as an example of a company that serves as a major employer in the area, with career opportunities for employees. The bank fits the definition for “financial and credit services,” another key industry identified in the study, which Smith presented to the Henderson City Council last month.
“They fall into the skill sets that our people here in Henderson have,” he added about Barclays. “It’s just win-win-win.”
Other industries identified in the study include “back-office management and support services” and “media and sports production.”
The latter is especially lucrative in Henderson, where more has arguably been done in professional sports than anywhere else, said Scott Muelrath, president and CEO of the Henderson Chamber of Commerce. Supporting facilities for the Las Vegas Raiders and the Vegas Golden Knights are just a few examples of how, he said.
“I like to say you can pick up Henderson and set it down anywhere in the country and it would do just fine,” Muelrath said. “It has a diversified base. … There’s a lot of institutions and companies that have chosen Henderson, specifically, because it’s not Las Vegas, and it has a lot of elements that are very family friendly.”
He pointed to the city’s park system and other amenities that make it appealing.
Henderson is a well-planned city, Muelrath said, and it hasn’t “left things to chance” when it comes to developing a robust economy.
“We appreciate the city ... thinking proactively—initiating an economic development plan,” Muelrath said. “What benefits Henderson benefits every corner of the Valley and vice versa.”
Smith emphasized that the industries specified in the study are by no means the only areas the city will invest in.
“We wanted to find those types of industries, those types of companies, that pay great wages—that offer real career paths that lead into the workforce of tomorrow and the industries of tomorrow,” he repeated. “So it’s not just about taking advantage of today. It’s about skating the puck for what we’re going to need over the next 20 years.”
He estimated it’s been about five years since Henderson last reviewed its target industries.
Going forward, the city is “reinventing” its strategy and will employ artificial intelligence and other data tools to launch a dashboard to monitor target industries in real time, instead of doing a whole new study every five years.
“So that we don’t ever have a study … that just sits on a shelf,” he said. “It will constantly be driving our strategy forward because we’re monitoring this in real time. ... We hope to be a model so that other cities can follow.”
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