Every year, companies relocate their offices and headquarters to find a more robust and economically sound community for their businesses to flourish.
Why? Reasons may include:
Lower cost of doing business
Workspace and facilities upgrade
Labor and workforce opportunities
Quality of life
Perhaps these are the reasons why many businesses are relocating to The Woodlands, Texas. We’ve added a few additional relocation motivations that seem to sync with this list and also appear to be unique to our market.
Business-Friendly Location
According to CEOs who were surveyed by Chief Executive magazine for the Best and Worst States for doing business in 2019, Texas remains at the top of the “best” list.
Texas governor Gregg Abbott tells Chief Executive, “In football or economic development, the one thing that kind of record requires is relentless persistence – the pursuit of what needs to be done to succeed.”
The Woodlands, one of Texas’ most desirable communities and office markets, consistently answers the call of business friendliness. This 28,000-acre, award-winning master planned community continues to faithfully support emerging companies as they innovate, grow and expand. It’s home to over 117,000 residents and 2,200 businesses that employ more than 67,000 people, including seven Fortune 500 corporate headquarters.
“The Woodlands has always envisioned having 1.5 jobs per household in our community, and we have exceeded that goal,” shared Paul Layne, President-Central Region for The Howard Hughes Corporation. “Residents enjoy the short commute or even walking to work, having business meetings and presentations in the day, and being able to be home in time for their children’s extracurricular activities.”
The Woodlands offers a comprehensive availability of office types (including Class A office buildings), floor plans and build-to-suits to meet the needs of all companies. Businesses always enjoy a high-profile address from this location.
Business Incentives
Businesses want to catch a break. Here are just some of the ways The Woodlands helps them to do that:
Tax Abatements: Montgomery County and The Woodlands Township offer abatement of the property taxes on improvements for those who qualify. The taxes can be abated for up to 10 years, depending on the number of jobs created and the amount of investment.
Texas Enterprise Zone: This economic development tool allows local communities to partner with the state of Texas to encourage job creation and capital investment in economically distressed areas. Local communities can nominate a new or expanding business as an “enterprise project.” Approved projects are eligible to apply for state sales and use tax refunds on qualified expenditures. The refund level and amount depend on the capital investment and jobs created at the qualified business site.
Texas Enterprise Fund: This fund is a cash grant used as a financial incentive tool for projects that offer significant projected job creation and capital investment and where a single Texas site is competing with another viable out‐of‐state option.
Freeport Tax Exemption: Montgomery County, Montgomery County Hospital District and The Woodlands Township offer property tax exemptions on goods‐in‐transit. Items that are in the state for less than 175 days may be exempt from inventory property tax assessments.
Tuition Waivers: Companies that create jobs for which they must recruit employees from outside Texas may be eligible for a waiver of out‐of‐state tuition at state colleges and universities for those relocating employees and their family members.
Low Tax Rates
Another item to consider when relocating your business is the tax advantages (and disadvantages) in your market. Texas has one of the lowest tax rates in the country including:
- No personal state income tax
- Sales tax exemption for manufacturing machinery and equipment, and research-and-development-related materials, software and equipment
- Franchise tax exemption for manufacturers, sellers or installers of solar energy devices
- Property tax abatements, permitting fee waivers, local cash grants and local funding for qualifying businesses
- A franchise tax of just .375% on some wholesalers and retail businesses (This rate increases to .75% for other non-exempt businesses, based on total business revenues exceeding $1.13 million. Texas offers an across-the-board 25% reduction in the franchise tax to encourage business to grow their operations and workforce.)
Medical Presence
The Woodlands features a world-class medical hub, featuring five of the top medical providers both in Houston and globally. In fact, all hospitals are located within a five-mile radius of the commercial town center.
- Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center
- Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital
- CHI St. Luke’s Health The Woodlands and Lakeside Hospitals
- Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center The Woodlands
Healthcare is The Woodland’s second-largest industry, representing 24 percent of the total jobs with over 8,500 employees. The largest sector is energy (25 percent with over 9,000 employees).
Good to know that so much high-quality healthcare is nearby for you, your family and your employees.
Quality of Life
The Woodlands offers a quality of life second to none. With 7,665 acres of open/green space (28 percent of the community), 220 miles of connected hike and bike trails, 147 neighborhood parks and seven championship golf courses, The Woodlands offers residents and employees the convenience of modern life: an urban town center surrounded by an oasis of the natural outdoors. It’s the perfect live, work, discover lifestyle.
Find out more about the business benefits and life in The Woodlands here!