Amarillo experiencing most economic development in 30 years
How our businesses are benefiting because of the growth.
AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Governor Greg Abbott recently held Amarillo out as an economic development success story.
Reports from the Amarillo EDC say sales tax collections for fiscal year to date are up five percent and hotel-motel tax collections for this January were up 7.8 percent from last January (pre-COVID-19).
Also, in December 2020, we had the biggest sales tax collection in the history of Amarillo.
“Pre-COVID, you know, we had three or four months of no COVID in 2020 and then nine months of COVID and were as busy as before as we are now. It mean it’s just been a great year for us from an economic development stand point and that comes from prospects. We’ve got prospects anywhere from people that just called in and then we got site collectors looking at us. And then we did some business retention projects, some of our existing businesses expanded and those were great projects, and so its just been a great year for Amarillo,” said Kevin Carter, president and CEO of Amarillo Economic Development Corporation.
“Economic activity is always important to us because of the small businesses and the family-owned businesses that we have here in our city. The best thing we can do to support those local businesses is to keep our economy diversified and strong and growing,” said Ginger Nelson, mayor of Amarillo.
Some projects in our area that are playing a part in boosting the economic development include Amazon, Food Manufacturing, Suspendem, Texas Tech University Vet School, North Heights Linen Service, Asset Protection Unit and more.
“You know, we’ve already started off 2021 on a good note. We haven’t got confirmation yet from Amazon, but Amazon has filled all the paperwork out and are doing a lot of dirt work on a million square foot facility that would a non-sortable facility at a cross from our Center Point Business Park to the West,” said Carter.
The Amarillo EDC been an organization for 30 years now, and Carter says this is busiest they’ve ever been.
“The more people we drive here economically, and the more economic dollars we bring in form outside our city will benefit their business as well,” said Mayor Nelson.
Carter says we have a lot of potential to grow post pandemic as they will be recruiting companies heavily in other states that have faced many challenges from the pandemic.
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