Dan Bowman, CEO & Executive Director, Allen Economic Development Corporation
As the city of Allen grows, so grows the business community. Dan Bowman, CEO and executive director of the Allen Economic Development Corporation (EDC), spoke to Invest: about the role of his organization in ensuring new businesses find a welcoming environment.
What were some of the major milestones for the city of Allen over the past year?
The city of Allen is unique and uniquely situated, being in Collin County, right at the intersection of 121 and US-75. You have a straight shot out to the airport in 30 minutes and you’re right there at the east side of the metroplex. We’re a little smaller than McKinney and Frisco, but we’ve got about 900 acres on SH 121 that we’ve been focused on developing with mixed-use projects, with some great entertainment projects coming in, as well as corporate office spaces.
As far as some of the major wins we’ve had in the past year: we’ve just announced the relocation of Onsemi, a Fortune 500 semiconductor supplier that is leasing a 100,000 SF office building in Allen and is planning to add 350 new jobs. You don’t see a lot of significant, 50-plus employee relocations like this one. They’re truly going to grow organically here, and they are hiring top-notch talent in engineering and R&D. We’re seeing a lot of these technology- and R&D-focused jobs relocating here; it’s really exciting.
In addition, Amphenol Fiber Systems International recently announced they will be the anchor tenant of what will be a seven-tenant complex currently under construction called 121 Technology Park. They are taking about 100,000 square feet in the park, leasing an entire technology-centric building. The development is more of a warehouse, with part manufacturing, part R&D, and part office and will have over 700,000 SF at full build out. Amphenol Fiber Systems International is already located in Allen but growing and expected to hit 250 employees.
How is your organization driving innovation and leveraging technology within the local business community?
Our focus is on creating a great environment. There’s a fantastic workforce in and around Allen. There’s all this tech talent. There are highly educated engineers with a lot of certifications across a wide variety of technology industries. Our goal is to create a fantastic business community where these companies can thrive and expand. The resources that we provide include access to the facilities we’ve supported, such as Stillwater’s 121 Technology Park and The Farm in Allen, our new mixed-use project on SH 121. We provide incentives on either a per job basis or lump-sum cash incentives, training grants, and workforce support in terms of hiring and training.
Collin College is our local community college, and it recently built the Collin College Technical Campus in Allen, a four-building campus that focuses on technology-oriented skills. The college offers everything from white collar to blue collar skills. It can engage the workforce and do customized training to support local businesses as they grow. Having that tech campus right in Allen has been huge.
For us, we’re really trying to enable those businesses that are looking to hire and grow a workforce to have a great location to land so that their employees want to come to work. Employee attraction and retention is huge. You need to create that environment where there are amenities nearby and people have things to do.
We are financially well situated as a Type A economic development corporation. We can help companies with costs surrounding the relocation of employees or of equipment. Every solution we provide is customized to help these companies get situated in our community.
What other emerging industries or markets do you think have potential for growth and that you are keeping your eye on?
We are much more focused on established companies and those involved with new technologies in areas that are growing. I know a lot of people are watching AI, and in that regard, we have a company called Inbenta, a Spanish company that has relocated its headquarters to North America and in Allen. We love to support those kinds of companies. We focus on innovative companies that might have as few as 20-30 employees doing new and innovative things in software development and new technology platforms that allow people to integrate their applications in innovative ways.
We’re also big into data centers. We have CyrusOne building multiple data center facilities, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new facilities. A lot of investment comes with things like that, as well.
Are there any areas in terms of parks and recreation that are the focus of development?
What makes Allen unique, if you compare it to surrounding cities, is our trails and parks. We have 70-plus miles of hike and bike trails throughout our community. We maintain our floodplain areas and creeks in pristine, natural conditions and we have large parks. We just opened our Stephen G. Terrell Recreation Center, which is a large $65 million recreation center on the west side of Allen. That’s exciting for residents. We’re also pursuing a variety of public-private partnerships, so that it’s not just a city park, but with something exciting to do that is connected to our park system.
In what ways do you see the business community improving its diversity and inclusion efforts going forward?
We recognize that companies, especially Fortune 100 or Fortune 500 companies, have significant diversity metrics that are important to them. We have a demographically diverse community. We encourage that and want to support companies with these mission statements. When companies decide to come here, we want them to find a place that is diverse and welcoming. The diversity of our population should be reflected in our local workforce. Across all different metrics, our goal is to support those efforts. We have a committee that the city has established to support those efforts as well.
