Bruce Davis, President, Prairie View Economic Development Corporation

Invest: spoke with Bruce Davis, president of Prairie View Economic Development Corporation, about regional growth, business attraction, workforce development, infrastructure needs, and the city’s economic strategy. Davis highlighted Prairie View’s location, university talent, and potential Opportunity Zone designation as key advantages. Looking ahead, Davis said: “We’re ready to go. We’re a business-friendly place, so we are looking to grow that way, helping businesses come here.”

What have been the most significant changes in Prairie View’s economic environment over the past year?

The most significant change has been Prairie View’s realization of its position relative to the cities around us and what is happening across the Greater Houston metropolitan area. As Houston grows west and northwest, we are seeing phenomenal growth in Waller, the city next to us. Waller is bringing in a major hospital and a community college that will ultimately have about 10,000 students, mirroring the number of students at Prairie View A&M University.

We are strengthening our relationships with the surrounding cities and the university. Prairie View is positioning itself to receive the right businesses for the right reasons. We have many students and faculty members, but neither the university nor the city currently has enough housing capacity for all of them. Many people go to surrounding cities for housing, goods, and services that are not available here.

Waller County is the second-fastest-growing county in the nation and the fastest-growing county in Texas. We are being approached by several businesses, so our board wants to ensure we are prepared to receive them and can determine what fits the city, its citizens, and our updated strategy.

What opportunities does Prairie View have to attract investment that might not have reached the community in the past?

We have a major thoroughfare and traffic moving through the city, creating opportunities for retail, gas stations, electric charging, and other services for short-term visitors. Beyond that, we need to take advantage of the engineers, architects, nurses, and business graduates the university produces.

We already have zones for light manufacturing and office park activity. A major hospital is coming next door, and Prairie View has a nursing school, creating opportunities for training and support services. Hospitals also generate demand for offices serving doctors and specialists.

Prairie View is positioned along U.S. 290 and near the proposed Highway 36A, which would extend from the Gulf of Mexico. If it comes to or near Prairie View, we could capitalize on logistics and transfer station opportunities within the city or its extraterritorial jurisdiction. International firms are also considering Prairie View for light manufacturing that would require people with business, engineering, construction management, and construction science backgrounds.

Major projects and businesses, including Tesla to our north, Daikin to our east, and H-E-B distribution to our west, surround us. These operations create demand for talent within a broad radius, and Prairie View and the university could become a feeder for that activity.

How is Prairie View collaborating with neighboring communities?

Prairie View and several surrounding cities created a group called the Westside Allies. It includes Waller, Prairie View, Hempstead, Brookshire, Sealy, and Monaville, and we are trying to expand participation. These cities are largely positioned along the corridors extending from Houston.

We share information and learn from one another about how to capitalize on the growth coming in our direction. If Waller builds a major hospital or Hempstead gains a large H-E-B distribution facility, those projects will need talent and supporting businesses. They are not isolated developments.

Agriculture also remains important along this corridor, and Prairie View A&M has a College of Agriculture. Within Prairie View, we have an international company producing roofing materials with little or no environmental impact that is looking to expand. We are also speaking with organizations interested in student, faculty, and staff housing, along with the retail needed to support that growth.

What is needed to encourage more housing and private development?

We need support from the county and state. We are renewing our membership with the Waller County Economic Development Partnership, and we recently reached an agreement with Retrain America to assist with workforce training.

Businesses consistently ask what workforce is available. Prairie View is attractive because we have university students, graduates, people with advanced degrees, and workers who can be trained for other workforce requirements. Prairie View students currently go across the nation and the world, but we need a percentage of them to stay and work for businesses here. Companies can also establish university partnerships and benefit from professors, doctoral candidates, and research capabilities.

The College of Engineering is seeking to become a space education and training hub. If that happens, it could generate demand for office park activity beyond the university’s facilities.

We have also applied, alongside other Waller County communities, for federal Opportunity Zone designation. The application is now at the state level, which determines which areas receive the designation. If Prairie View is selected, companies coming here would gain advantageous tax circumstances, potentially increasing investment and allowing us to be more selective.

Some factors remain outside our control because we are working with private landowners. We need to build relationships with them through business roundtables, breakfasts, or lunches involving the chamber, university, and surrounding businesses. We want to show landowners how development could benefit the community and create positive outcomes for everyone involved.

How will Prairie View balance investment with infrastructure and service needs?

We recently held a strategic retreat for the EDC with the mayor and council members. Its purpose was to reinvigorate and clearly communicate our strategic plan. We have developed plans before, but we have not consistently lived by them. A long-term city manager, supported by a well-communicated plan, can help keep the city moving in a consistent direction.

Anyone in the organization should be able to explain the plan. Citizens, students, and university faculty should be able to review it and quickly understand where the city is going. That clarity helps when pursuing grants, speaking with state and federal legislators, evaluating developers, or explaining incentives.

We are working with the organization that created an earlier economic development plan. We are combining that plan with a more recent Livable Centers plan and conducting a gap analysis. We are also working with the city to update the capital improvement and comprehensive plans.

We must keep our ears to the ground for grants supporting water, wastewater, and sustainable systems. Having the ability to write and pursue those grants will help us grow.

What would you most like to see change in Prairie View’s economy over the next three to five years?

I want the strategic plan to be well understood and communicated, with zoning that reflects what citizens, students, faculty, and long-term families want. I want Prairie View to benefit significantly from its strategic location and identify the sectors it will pursue.

Those sectors should emerge from surveys and citizen interviews rather than being dictated early in the process. Conditions have changed since the old strategic plan was developed about 15 years ago, so we need to reassess where we are today.

Within five years, we should address basic issues that inhibit growth, particularly water and wastewater capacity. We need adequate connections for smaller businesses and favorable conditions for larger companies that may help expand the infrastructure.

More business activity would generate the tax base needed for quality-of-life improvements, including better streets, sidewalks, lighting, walking paths, parks, and infrastructure repairs. We also want a stronger relationship with Waller Independent School District because families consider school quality and proximity when deciding where to live.

Our businesses can provide jobs for graduates and current residents while increasing the tax base that supports those improvements. We’re ready to go. We’re a business-friendly place, so we are looking to grow that way, helping businesses come here.