Thoughts on City-owned business parks competing with private land owners
Just discovered this sub so I'm not sure how well this topic fits in here, but I work for a company that owns, in limited partnerships, several tracts of vacant land in Texas. Some of these properties are suited to business parks (mainly industrial).

In some of the cities where our properties are located, we find ourselves being direct competitors with "City-name" Economic Development Council (EDC)-owned business parks. These EDC parks pay no property taxes, then they use our (and other residents') tax dollars to buy land, install roads, utilities and drainage/detention, and market their properties. The EDC execs even regularly travel across the state, sometimes further, to court buyers. These are all luxuries which only a small percent of land owners can afford to take a risk on... meanwhile, if the EDC's improvements/plans don't work, or sales are slower than anticipated, no one at the EDC faces a "real" financial risk.

We haven't seen EDCs spec'ing buildings so far, but we have seen publicly available recordings of one Council's meeting during which the head of the EDC requested funds from the city for a spec building (this request was denied). 

We remain on cordial terms with the EDCs, and they've occasionally told us they've referred a prospective buyer or two to our property when their business parks weren't a fit... not that we've ever heard from any of these buyers.

I have no idea what percentage of readers on this sub are here to discuss vacant/undeveloped land, and clearly the EDC business park issue isn't going away. I'd just like to know if any of you have seen what I've described, and if so, what are your thoughts on it?

Thanks.
[{"id": "d2cah2u", "text": "EDC's are not-for-profit entities which explains why they don't pay taxes (although I didn't know about the property tax thing). These organizations from what I've seen typically get low interest rate loans from the city or banks or sometimes grants from private organizations, not from the government. I haven't  heard of them actually using government grants to develop.\n", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d2copuc", "text": "I've seen it on the industrial side. It makes sense from a local municipality standpoint. It allows them to provide cheaper rents to companies, which attracts businesses to their county/city. Sorry your business model is competing with them. Must be frustrating. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d2gq3wv", "text": "So there are two ways you can get into competition with EDC's and both are avoidable.  You can either build after they have their park up and running which of course is avoidable by not building.  This decision would be made on a case by case basis and thru market analysis and by understanding what their advantages are.  \n\nSecondly, if you're building where there is no EDC development, you should be working closely with them anyway and should be able to get out in front of any development they bring forth.  For example, they are less likely to build an industrial park if you already have a good product.  If they still want to build a park even if you have available land, show them how they can support your project instead at a higher return on their investment.  \n\nIt's a tough problem but now that he problem has show itself, it should be easier to avoid in the future.  ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d2i525j", "text": "A lot of the EDC's I have discussed (I am in commercial, not industrial, so I don't have much first hand experience) with local ED groups are net losers. The city or county will buy the land, spend a bunch of money putting infrastructure and utilities in, and very few people end up locating there - since they get better deals to go to private land with ED tax credits elsewhere. The parks sit vacant, or can only attract $10 an hour jobs that don't bring in much payroll tax. Thats anecdotal from when I was working in the KY, IN, OH, WV, and TN markets though.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]