Tommy Kurtz was torn when his former colleague and friend, Iain Vasey, offered him a position at the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corp. in mid-2015. Both men have close ties to Louisiana, with Kurtz growing up in New Orleans and Vasey once working for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel writes in her latest column.
But Vasey—who now serves as the CCREDC’s president and CEO—knew the opportunities that existed in Texas and was successful in luring Kurtz and his family away from the Bayou State.
Now they’re both killing it at their new jobs, Riegel says, noting that the CCREDC was the lead agency in landing the $10 billion ethane cracking plant being developed by ExxonMobil Chemical Corp. and Saudi Basic Industries Corp.—a deal Louisiana also sought.
“It was a huge win for Texas. It was a bigger loss for Louisiana, which desperately needs the 650 permanent jobs and $60 million annual payroll it promises,” Riegel writes. “But after talking to Vasey and Kurtz about the way they do things across our western border, you have to wonder if the competition was even close.”
Vasey and Kurtz note that Texas, unlike Louisiana, has the infrastructure for the project. The state, they explained to Riegel, has access to a deep-water port, rail lines, pipeline infrastructure and proximity to two major shale plays—the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford.
Another big factor—ozone attainment.
Vasey and Kurtz tell Riegel that ExxonMobil weighed heavily that the Corpus Christi site meets federal guidelines for ozone level attainment—something much of the Capital Region does not.
“‘When we were in Baton Rouge and were trying to locate a company here, if they needed to release emissions, they would have to go buy credits from someone else,’” Kurtz tells Riegel. “If you need to put 100 tons into the air you need to go buy 110 credits.’”
The credits, Riegel says, can be costly. Vasey estimates that for a project the size of the ethane cracker the cost could mean the difference of a hundred million dollars or so.
But perhaps the biggest factor behind Texas’ success in landing the project was the collaborative approach local economic development agencies use, Riegel says, noting that Texas agencies don’t work in silos.
“Rather, multiple agencies collaborate, and they’re very aggressive. They’re all on the same team,” she writes, adding that Vasey estimates as many as 50 to 100 people from all aspects of taxes, infrastructure, workforce training and education were involved in helping to pull this deal together. “That’s not to say Louisiana’s economic development officials do not work together, but there’s not the same level of coordination and participation across the board. There’s not the same level of sophistication, either, nor, apparently, an understanding of how economic development really works and why it’s so important.”
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