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In this episode, Tom Speaks with Susan Davenport, the Chief Economic Officer for the Greater Houston Partnership, about the economic, educational and cultural aspects of the City of Houston.   --- Transcription   Tom: Greetings, and welcome to The Remote Real Estate Investor. On today's episode, we have Susan Davenport, who is the Chief Economic Officer for the Greater Houston Partnership. And on this episode, we're going to deep dive into Houston, talk about points of interest, talk about the economy, and all that good stuff. All right, let's do it.   Theme Song   Tom: Before we get going and talking about Houston, Susan, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, as well as the Greater Houston partnership?   Susan: Yeah, wonderful. Well, thank you again, Tom, for having me this afternoon. Again, my name is Susan Davenport. I'm the chief Economic Development Officer for the Greater Houston Partnership. And we are the region's lead business organization. We serve a 12 County Greater Houston region that represents our membership base represents more than 1000 businesses and institutions throughout Greater Houston in that regional effort. Our members, the member companies that are part of our organization account for about one fifth of Houston's workforce.   So we have many large corporations as well as small and medium sized enterprises as well. So we have three areas of focus. One is to promote economic development and trade. The second is to advocate for effective public policy. And then the third is that we convene regional businesses and Houstonians on key issues affecting our region. Now, the Greater Houston partnership is an organization that has its roots and founding actually from 1840. We were the Houston Chamber of Commerce, was founded again in 1840. And then in 1989, there was a merger with what was founded following the Chamber's initiation in 1840, there was the World Trade Center of Houston and international leadership entity in regard to international business and trade, and then the Economic Development Council of Houston.   And so all three of those entities in 1989, joined under one umbrella organization, the Greater Houston partnership, and that's very indicative of the type of activity you see within our organization, again, having about 1000 member businesses and institutions that speaks to our chamber side, right. And our chamber roots, my team, which does economic development, and international investment and trade that harkens back to both the Economic Development Council as well as the World Trade Center activities. And really from an international standpoint, the Greater Houston partnership is really the the region's front door for international investment and trade, and work in connection with the city and other entities throughout the region that undertake pieces of that both from the transportation side airports, ports, a movement of goods and services, all of those things, exporting would would fall under a network of entities. But we really are the largest business organization. And so we have access to all of those entities within our region.   Tom: Very cool. Very cool. So just kind of curious, like is a lot of the day to day like working with companies that are like looking to move into Houston or existing companies that are in that I'd love yeah. Susan: Yeah, my favorite question. We talk a lot about economic development. It's a multi faceted, a scope of work, as you can imagine. But we really look at new business recruitment. And we look at that globally. And I want to spend a little time to talk about global in just a moment. But we really are do global outreach, we do new business recruitment, we also work extensively with our regional businesses on the ground, focusing especially on our members, obviously, but really are working on behalf of the entire business community. And so entities could say business retention, and perhaps expansion opportunities there.   And then from the startup ecosystem, economic gardening, whatever it is term that you'd like to say new business starts, we look at small and medium sized enterprises, and we have a strategy and economic development that really embraces six target industry sectors. And so when we are looking at the startup world, we're focusing a good bit on these target sectors and what they're going to bring to our regional economy in the forms of diversification of that they're heavily laden into, or heavily weighted into next generation technologies that we believe will bring great opportunity to these incredible existing ecosystems of business clusters that we have here in Houston that we are so fortunate to have and have had for generations oftentimes. And so looking at that innovation play, they're very closely aligned with where we see the future of Houston growing and that's a whole area that I want to talk about, but innovation and technology and how fast it's growing and all of our interest and results to date in that area.   Tom: Very cool. I know traditionally, having thought about the economy in Houston, I think a lot of people probably think of energy, think of gas, thinking of oil, but like over the last, I don't know, decade or so, or maybe even longer, it's been really diversifying. Do you mind speaking to a little bit in the way maybe specific industries? And if there's any specific companies in the ways that people should think about the overarching economy in Houston?   Susan: Yeah, I'll give you some quick facts as we set this up. So we are the fourth largest US city right Houston is is quite a large city, our Metro population again, those nine counties actually make up the Metropolitan Statistical Area. Our organization oversees 12, because three other counties asked to be part of our territory. But our numbers and figures typically evolve around those nine counties, which is the official MSA there's a population now of 7.1 million people. And so again, this is quite a huge region. We again have about 3 million jobs within this region and that's up about 15% from 2010 to 2020.   I'll speak to COVID and a little bit more in a few minutes. But again, that's that's kind of where we are today. We were really the fastest growing Metro by rate of population growth among the 10 most populous us metros from 2010 to 2018 we talk about constantly as again what I mentioned to you on this international piece Greater Houston or Houston is America's most diverse city and one in four Houstonians are foreign born, we speak 145 languages, here we have a third of our population growth is made up of immigrants from 2010 to 2019. We truly are a diverse and international city. And you see it exemplified in absolutely everything we do and who we are, food culture celebrations, we have 90 roughly 85 to 90 foreign consulates here. That's the third largest consular core in the United States, we have not one but two international airports. And we're one of only just a few cities that have two international airports.   And then we really have this talent base in our institutions of higher education. And again, just our international flavor goes through all of these different things.   So I say all of that to kind of set up who we are, as far as our industry sectors, I'll say a quick minute about talent, we call it the currency of economic development, your talent base is really the strength of what you're able to undertake. And that's, I always highlight that because it's really the underpinning of what we have here. But we have 360,000 educated millennials here, we have the youngest major Metro and median age about 34.6. There are 235,000 people employed in the technology sector, and 700,000 or so corporate professionals. When you get down to the base of our educational system, we really got 40 institutions of higher education in this broad region.   Tom: Wow. Yeah.   Susan: 20 of those are two year and 20 of those are four year, but they collectively enroll about 444,000 students. So when I say we're a young region, we really are a young region, and we have three tier one universities here, Rice, University of Houston, and Texas aam, also, affiliates with Houston it's sees itself as part of our region. And it's building more and more infrastructure directly in the city, while a campus major campus is about 80 miles from Houston, maybe from downtown, I guess.   Again, the industry sectors really have mirrored what we talk about a lot in our target sectors. And so traditional energy, you know, you mentioned immediately people that we are the energy capital of the world, undoubtedly, that is something that we're incredibly proud of. But we are also now even diversifying that base into what's the energy 2.0. Back to that technology I spoke about, you really have now this growing cluster of energy renewables clean tech, tech, digital technology that will fuel energy for its next iteration in many ways. But we see it as a whole continuum. We're not giving up that traditional energy, the world is not giving that up. We know that we're seeing diversification and how they deliver and what they're delivering. We're seeing added things on carbon capture, hydrogen, solar, wind, you name it, and then this digitization of energy and all components of this, we're really seeing a lot of our companies undertake those efforts. You know, there were research and development organizations for energy tucked into all of our major companies in different places.   What we tried to do with our technology play, bring them out. And we found a four mile corridor that goes through the middle of Houston called the innovation corridor. And we have our major energy companies all taking part in a common building, I call it called the Ion. It's in the middle of that it's called the district innovation district 16 acres right in the middle of the four miles, the four miles all being connected by a metro train. So you can hop on and off that connects the Texas Medical Center, Rice University, some of the university's research and development that Ion this building that they're putting 100 million dollars into, it will be finished the end of first quarter, it will be a place where all of the innovation efforts come together and connect in ways that will then bring this entire region together.   I'm talking NASA talking about the Medical Center. I'm talking about fortune 500 headquarters and research divisions for major energy companies, startup development organizations, you name it, this is the hub of innovation so that people can easily get it when they drop in to Greater Houston, there's a place for them to figure it out.   Tom: It's fantastic. I mean, so much to unpack there. I think, you know, I I love your point about kind of the nucleus that it all is these education centers and being such a young, educated population, just really great tailwinds. And a perfect transition to my next line of questions related to Houston, you talked about it makes me think of the Raleigh Research Triangle, talking about the different pockets within Houston, so I think that's a great place to start this super tech forward kind of almost think tank, a little mini city. When you think about Houston and the different pockets and regions, how would you categorize other parts? Or suburbs or little towns within it? It could be more kind of older industry, more workforce housing, more technology, more education? or How would you describe some of the different pockets within Houston?   Susan: Oh, well, there's so many, but I think some that many will recognize The Woodlands, you know, the northern part of our region, having a lot of headquarters and offices, as well as our downtown having those as well. But you've seen The Woodlands have some infrastructure there, some of our energy companies, major energy companies with campuses up there as well, you see the west side, what we call the energy corridor, and you see, energy companies of all types have been down some of the western side of Greater Houston, you see, kind of South Park, between Houston and Galveston I 45. You'll see obviously, NASA and some of the major parts of the infrastructure there. And the communities there that surrounded have been a big, big part of that. There's talent all up and down that area, right? Obviously Galveston and the coast and the coastal area, and the many assets that they bring to the region, I think they're really vast.   And then it's interesting, we look at the Texas Medical Center, which is again, in the kind of center focus, as I just mentioned, of this four mile innovation corridor, but people live again, in all of these communities that surround these areas. So there's multiple pockets of medical companies in different parts of the city. And I think one of the things we recognize is that we need to and I say us, we're working to really better articulate all the different pieces of this vast region. I think that's a piece of work we have to do. And you will see us do more and more in 2021. Because Houston is again, there's a lot of interest. And there's a lot of discussion ongoing now. And I think having that ability to articulate what you're asking which businesses in which part of town but then again, how that clear four mile area can bring together people as they they need to find some common kind of source of the innovation and the next iteration of our industry.   And again, when I say our industry, those six target sectors are big and broad, I say and they are aerospace and aviation commercial. We have been the home of Johnson Space Center. And we have this incredible one of the largest engineering talent bases in the country. And that's due in no small part to them, as well as our energy sector. But you'll see aerospace and aviation, you'll see the life science and the Industry and Energy 2.0 as I spoke about. Digital Tech has actually been a sector as we've been fortunate over the last 24 months to bring in, you know, Google office and Microsoft in a big way. And AWS is here now and those those folks weren't all here and 24 months ago, you know, these are, these are activities that are really coming to play now. So digital Tech has been an area headquarters. And we are seeing even a lot of us headquarters of international based companies really want to put their us office in Houston. And for obvious reasons, we're so international already there such connectivity, that makes perfect sense. So we see a lot of that.   And then advanced manufacturing. And this is one of the biggest manufacturing bases in the country, if not the world, and really that port, and all of the activity that is generated here, exporting and manufacturing, it's just, it's a huge part of who we are. We make things here make things and we, we like doing that. And we've got the talent to do it. They do it well.   Tom: Love it. Love it. You had alluded to it a little bit about airports. Let's talk a little bit more about just kind of general transportation within Houston, anything related to, you know, touch on the airports? Is there any type of kind of like light rail? Or how do people get around in Houston?   Susan: Yeah, it's still I think, you know, by car, we have Metro, and we do have a four mile train track, there's been some initiatives to expand that, obviously. And so some work will be done in those areas. And you'll see a lot of those initiatives kind of guarding the region as we work on that being such a big area. Now, of course, you're seeing some trends about post COVID, you know, people working in and out, but I think we're still committed, you know, obviously, looking at all the trends and watching that. But that innovation corridor, again, bringing people to some common spots will continue to start, you know, continuing our electronic work as we've been doing so successfully, actually. I'm a little bit surprised about that.   Tom: That's a great natural transition. I mean, obviously, with like restaurants and stuff, it's probably very difficult with COVID. But generally speaking, how do you think the economic climate in Houston as has been weathering the storm thus far?   Susan: Yeah, well, I can speak to it from a couple of places, and I'll pull out a little data for you. But you know, there's, obviously we've had some job loss. And back to what you were saying there's a natural group of small businesses that have been hurt. In addition to that, we were already seeing a little downclimb in energy. And so there was, there was some job shed shedding going on a COVID amplified a lot of that. And so it really accelerated some trends. But we lost, you know, in that immediate COVID moment, what in March, we saw probably 350,000 jobs lost. But we've already brought back about 150 of those. But net net, we're still working on about 200,000 jobs, and continuing to see each month some different pieces of that. And so we will finish the year, again, we think about 200,000 jobs that were down, it's about 4.2%, fewer than we started with that compares with about a 5.1% loss for the nation, and about a 4.1% loss for the state. So we're kind of in the middle there, we predict we're using some predictions from the periban group and they project next year will probably gain about 77,000 jobs about a two and a half percent job growth. And the US job growth is forecast about 2.6 or about 33 point 7 million jobs and Texas job growth predicted again by pyramid at about a two and a half percent increase in Texas.   So you know, I think we're kind of in the middle of that pack. That does tell us that we have further and diversified that economy because we remember and many Texans and Houstonians remember oil ups and downs over the years, it in years past it would be a much even deeper situation. And so I think that has shown us that we've diversified some we need to diversify more. And I would say again, not because we're shying away from our industry, but because we have such deep assets to grow these sectors and so much to give I think from an output side, it's such a rich place to do things like life sciences and and other types of manufacturing. And really looking at all of these pieces.   Houston's just quite fortunate to have the asset base that it has the students international peace, all of it. So so we're very committed to that. If you want to get into month by month, we can go into that.   Tom: Let’s do it!   Susan: So in September, we added about 24,000 jobs. And again, that just brought the recovered jobs from April to about 142,600. Since COVID. began right since April, the deep cuts in March and April that we saw immediately. And so but again, we're still about 200,000 jobs short of where we were pre March, April, initial COVID moments I called them, but that put us you know, just shy of 3 million jobs back to what I said so So again, we had 3.2 million, probably this time last year or back in February even so that's the Delta that we're working fromg   We'll see how 21 goes, I feel like we're well positioned. But we have to do our work just like everyone, right? This is a day to day economic development. And I have a team of 15 people right now and soon to be 17. And we get up every day. And we think about this. And we lead a team of regional chambers and organizations, probably in the smaller regions that surround us, we probably have 55 to 60, economic development specialists and executives, we live about 40 different organizations, and we meet monthly, we are connected, we are talking and working as closely in unison as we can. And I think that's the great part of our strength, right, we all are kind of getting very closely aligned and seeing what we need to do and what we want to do and how those two things kind of come together creating jobs and creating that future economy we all want to see.   Tom: It's great. And plus two on the job count just within your own org itself saying going from 15 to 17. I'm curious within the data that you have this is more just personal interest. Do you guys have like go granular with the growth in seeing what sectors the growth or recovering faster?   Susan: Yeah, I can try on September's and then I can pull all the different. So September gains, just using that as an example were concentrated in a couple of different sectors. Many of them they believe were tied to the students returning from summer break. So remember the timeframe we were talking about? So local education, school districts had about plus 19,000 jobs. Okay, so they're coming back online, right restaurants and bars at about 5,800 increased, right? state education, colleges and universities had about 4800 education services, select private schools, Test Prep tutoring, that was another 3,200. And then there were fabricated metal product manufacturing, which showed a gain of about 2,300. We were kind of looking at that when trying to kind of put that into context. And it may have just been considering drilling activity had decreased. You know, we were just trying to see is that when could that be, you know what it could be tied to and we didn't really know now, there were losses in other places that we had to look at. So but we typify as other services, we have about 5,400 jobs that were lost in other so just across an array, health care and social assistance were about 3,400, down financial lost about 2400 hosts wholesale trade about 2,200. And then arts and recreation about 1,700. Again, looking at probably effects of what we were still seeing and you know, different timing on monies that were coming down from shoring up, some of the businesses could have potentially affected these.   But you know, all the gains again, and all the plus and minus we're, you know, just shy of 3 million jobs. So for the region, you know.   Tom: Got a couple more questions. Well, while I have you today, I'd love for you to speak to sort of the culture of Houston. What makes Houston Houston as far as I don't know, just thinking about culture, wise things to do all that good stuff. And I bet it's extra fun being such a melting pot.   Susan: It really is. I have to say Houston is if people can think of one thing it is truly global. And that just gives it this kind of sophisticated, but very multi dimensional culture, right? We love food we love all kinds of, and we have some of the best in the world, right? Because all of these people live here. So it's I think we quantified our restaurants, right? So 10,600 restaurants, 650 bars, but here's the kicker they represent 70 different countries cuisine. So dining is a part of everything that we do. We're among the country's most visited and diverse cultural centers for the Houston museum department. I don't know how many people know the incredible art and and all of the different museums. Millions of dollars have just been even added to that again, we have world renowned Performing Arts in theater, dance, music, ballet, and we love that right? It's a really coveted part of what we do. And you know, we are a major league sports town. This is Houston. And so you know, all of our sports teams, from soccer, to basketball to football, baseball, we're in it all the way and you know, these are some ardent fans and so all the franchises are very important to us here.   And then I think what people don't know and this is probably the most misunderstood thing about Houston and again, you're going to see see and hear a whole lot more about this in 2021 but we are among the country's greenest cities and people would go Houston? You know we don't think of Houston like that. But they have been quietly putting in this infrastructure over the past probably decade. I've hundred miles of bikeways here 580 parks developed parks here and 170 open spaces. I would say our largest Park is called Memorial Park. It is twice the size of Central Park in New York, and they have just put millions of dollars into new green space the golf course. It'll be one of the most incredible public golf courses in the nation. Botanical Gardens, you name it, it's all there. So people are outdoorsy, sports minded, and they're International. And they just that's what makes Houston Houston I think.   Tom: I was in I was in Houston last year for a wedding up in the woodlands or like Lake conroe. And I was blown away just somehow it kind of beautiful and green and lovely as I highly recommend it. So this leads to a good good visiting Houston question. This will be my last one, then I'll let you cover anything else that we we may have failed to touch on. All right. So you get two meals in Houston. One of them is your fancy meal. You're getting dressed up and your other one is Oh, man, I need something kind of greasy kind of built, you know, yummy like that. So all right. What's your fancy meal? At what restaurant you getting it at? And then what's your down home meal?   Susan: There are literally too many. I will tell you chefs, we've worked a lot. And you'll different restaurants. But you probably know Chris shepherd.   Tom: Yeah. name drop away.   Susan: Yeah. Yeah. So from his kind of notoriety as a chef, obviously, and many others, the restaurant scene is highly acclaimed. And so literally, they really have such a diverse group that I try a different one all the time. Like, it's just interesting to me. And unfortunately for me, I've never not enjoy. Like, and I do go back. That's just the kind of place it is. But you can really find every kind of food and it's just it's incredible. Yeah.     Tom: Any shoutouts for a hole in the wall. Not the famous chef. Oh, man, I need something to fill me up. Any thoughts?   Susan: Oh, wow. It depends on like..   Tom: Tacos. Whatever you like.   Susan: Oh, no, that's that's always good. There's really a million that are fantastic. And then we've got some chefs that are true interior Mexican food. There's just really good ones. But you can find some awfully good tacos here. Breakfast tacos, lunch, dinner, you name it there. They're all fantastic.   Tom: All right. Any final thoughts on Houston's want to share with the audience? Before we close out today?   Susan: I think we've realized here the Greater Houston partnership, the incredible trajectory that the development of the innovation ecosystem has been on. And again, it was developed as part of our strategic direction several years ago, and intended to diversify the economy. But most importantly, feed the economy. And again, those sectors that have been here, there was a reason to make sure that they had the talent and the capabilities from a technology standpoint to move into the next generation. And we're always looking ahead right positioning this city. And so I think how much Houston has changed would surprise people. I don't think we've lost any of the great assets that made the city what it was. I moved here in the 90s and was gone for many years to grad school and to other places and hits. I've been back 24 months, and it's just an incredible city even more so than when I was here before I think and I really encourage people to look at it and see the differentiations in how it's progressed forward. And that's incumbent on us to get that message out. You're gonna hear it loud and clear in 2021 with a new brand and image to match who the city is now.   Tom: Love it. Susan, thank you so much for taking the time to join us.   Susan: Sure. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.   Tom: Susan, thank you so much again for jumping on and thank you everybody for listening to the Remote Real Estate Investor. If you enjoyed this episode, enjoyed the podcast, people we’d love it if you would subscribe and give us a review. All right. Happy investing.