The Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) is doubling down on job creation, economic development, and investment in Southern Dallas County.
The DRC’s new website — the Southern Dallas County Economic Development Guide —highlights communities, real estate, employers, and available talent spanning 12 cities and 486 square miles. The regional recruiting tool also offers an interactive map to show development projects and a news aggregator to share the area’s success stories.
The resource is part of the DRC’s larger effort to drive investment and growth into Southern Dallas County. The DRC is currently working with multiple companies to bring new retail, office, and industrial jobs to the area. The organization also hosts vision tours with DRC members to help them understand the area’s potential, focuses on catalytic projects addressing food insecurity and banking, and partners with community organizations to grow the supplier-diversity pipeline.
“Southern Dallas County’s greatest opportunity for long-term economic growth is tied to good jobs,” said DRC President and CEO Dale Petroskey. “We currently have 15 projects in the Southern Dallas County economic development pipeline, and we’ve worked large relocation/expansion projects in the past. The DRC will continue to respond to the needs of Southern Dallas County’s current and future residents, leveraging our resources to help drive business expansions and relocations there.”
The Southern Dallas County Economic Development Guide benefits business and real estate decision-makers, community members, political and civic leaders, and small business owners.
“This guide helps tell the right narrative for Southern Dallas County,” said Latosha Herron Bruff, DRC’s Senior Vice President of Community Engagement. “We’re working to bring jobs closer to where people live in Southern Dallas County, and sharing this tool with companies will be invaluable to our work and to anyone looking to expand there.”
This guide is a continuation of the DRC’s economic development work in Southern Dallas County. The DRC incubated the DEC Network’s 2018 launch of the RedBird Entrepreneur Center in Southern Dallas, helped start the Southern Dallas Inland Port Transportation Management Association in 2019, which coordinates transportation services in the Inland Port, and supported the establishment of the Revive Dallas Small Business Relief Fund, raising more than $2.5 million for minority- and women-owned small businesses in Dallas.
More examples how collaboration can create more places where workers, entrepreneurs, and businesses want to locate, invest, and expand.
“We have Gatorade and Frito-Lay plants in Southern Dallas and more than 1,000 employees who work or live in the area, so, to us, Southern Dallas County has always been home,” said Steven Williams, CEO of PepsiCo Foods North America and co-chair of the DRC Community Investment in Underserved Areas Sub-Council. “As we continue to expand the economic opportunity for residents of Southern Dallas County by bringing more quality jobs to the area, this guide will be a great resource to help us and other companies move or expand in the county.”