Wylie Economic Development Corporation board members last week voted to promote Jason Greiner from the position of assistant director to the top spot of executive director of the organization.
Greiner takes over a job being made vacant by the retirement of Sam Satterwhite who headed the EDC for 25 years.
“We are pleased to announce Jason Greiner as the new Executive Director," WEDC Board President Demond Dawkins said. "We are confident in Jason’s experience and his abilities to lead our organization and we are excited about the future.”
Greiner joined WEDC in 2016 after working three years with Longview EDC and five years in economic development consulting.
"I worked the other side of it first," he said, explaining that he represented corporations prior to representing a governmental entity. "I worked with economic development clients from across the country, and from Canada and Mexico."
At Longview, he worked in business development, marketing and lead generation for the city and two regional trade groups.
Greiner decided to move to the DFW area when he married a woman, now his wife Lauren, who lived in Allen, and noted that he considered locating to Wylie before he took the assistant EDC director job.
In his search for new employment, he found the WEDC opening and was hired. As a requirement of his new position as executive director, Greiner and family will be moving from Allen to Wylie. The Greiners have two sons, Evan, 15, and Ethan, 13, and a 6-month-old daughter, Camdyn.
Economic development corporations for cities were created in 1979 to allow communities to conduct their own business and industry recruitment efforts using funding from a portion of sales tax collections. Wylie EDC receives a half-cent of all city sales tax collections.
The EDC executive pointed out that the Wylie retail sales area includes about 200,000 people who shop here and invest in the community through the EDC portion of sales taxes.
The organization serves independently of the city council, but with oversight from the council. For example the WEDC may purchase land for redevelopment or negotiate incentives with a business, then take the proposal before the council for final approval.
"We are an extension of the council," Greiner said. "We are all on the same team."
The EDC spent 10 years on a project to redevelop a site on Hwy. 78 just east of FM 544 that now is the site of several new businesses. Currently, the organization is purchasing and clearing 13 acres at Hwy. 78 and Brown Street.
"We are trying to bring it back to life," the EDC executive said.
He pointed out that the Hwy. 78 and Brown Street project and work to develop 220 acres at the Kansas City Southern intermodal facility should help stimulate downtown Wylie redevelopment, which he lists as a priority.
Greiner reported that business retention efforts are not visible but are one of the most important areas of work. He explained that the EDC needs to work has hard keeping businesses in Wylie as it does attracting them. To do this, the organization can assist with worker training, equipment acquisition, or expansion.
Last year, the EDC partnered with Wylie ISD and the chamber of commerce to put together a program for Manufacturing Day that turned into a month of activities involving businesses and students through tours and a luncheon. Greiner is now working on a similar program for Small Business Week.
The new EDC executive takes over the post on Feb. 14 when Satterwhite officially retires.
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