Surrounded by enterprise telecom and software companies, and in close proximity to the research and talent at UT Dallas, the city of Richardson is looking to revive a 1,200-acre stretch of the city and turn it into a hub of innovation and collaboration.
At the beginning of the year, the Richardson Chamber of Commerce announced the creation of the Richardson Innovation Quarter — or The IQ for short – an effort to create a large urban mixed-use community in the center of the city where both new companies and the public organizations that support them and can test new tech and ideas.
“There’s all sorts of innovation district types around the country and each one of them is uniquely different. This one we wanted to look at a little closer because it’s not directly adjacent to a university or directly adjacent to a hospital district, but it has some of the characteristics with some of the affordable flex space we have there with being transit accessible,” Doug McDonald, strategic initiatives manager at the City of Richardson, told NTX Inno.
Jon Jacobs, executive VP of economic development at the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, said after the telecom crash in 2000 and 2001, the area that would later become The IQ had a 40 percent business tenant vacancy rate by 2004, as the area was historically used by vendors and other smaller businesses that have supported the region’s larger companies. In 2009, a redevelopment of the area was put into the city’s comprehensive plan. After years of developing a vision and game plan, the city approved rezoning for The IQ.
Prior to the rezoning, McDonald said one of the larger obstacles the city faced in attracting businesses to the site was that the nearly 30-year old regulations largely prevented many redevelopment plans for the buildings there, especially building vertically.
“It was then that the bells went off and we realized that this was a very vibrant and important piece of the Telecom Corridor, that at some point was going to need to be redeveloped and that’s what all of this has been about,” Jacobs said.
By easing the zoning restrictions, leaders are hoping more businesses will be attracted to The IQ. And in addition to making investments in things like bike lanes, green space and walkability to help create a collaborative community, the city is also planning on investing in its own physical presence in The IQ, allowing it to work more closely with the businesses there.
“As we start going out there… our main goal is to try to bring resources, programming, events and the collaboration piece to it to all The IQ businesses. So we're giving them the tools to be successful were giving them the tools to be able to expand and grow here I the district, and not have to move off to other cities… and to really create that kind of hub of innovation,” McDonald said.
While the pandemic has caused many companies to rethink their need for physical office space, like local companies Bottle Rocket and Asset Panda announcing permanent work from anywhere policies and coworking companies like WorkSuites seeing an increased demand from companies for hybrid working space, McDonald said the city is still betting on companies needing a space, especially in tech companies where collaboration is key to developing new ideas. And he said Richardson has seen a lot of interest in The IQ even during the pandemic.
“What I see is the more innovative a company is, the more important for their engineers to be able to collaborate and talk to each other. And you can’t really do that from home,” Jacobs said.
Richardson isn’t the only city in North Texas betting on creating new areas for office development. In the last year, the City of Allen has opened or announced plans for more than 1 million square-feet of office space aimed tech talent. Further north, the city of McKinney has launched an Innovation Fund program to help fund companies that commit to moving their headquarters and expanding within the city.
Despite the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, North Texas has still seen a number of tech and startup moves to the region. Giants like Facebook and Robinhood have both recently invested in more office space in DFW. And smaller startups like CAGE Bio and Knox Financial have made expansions into the region.
“We’re still being really bullish on commercial real estate. We’re going to have a COVID hangover in 2021, 2022, no doubt, but (the consultants) believe this will last for a certain period of time,” McDonald said. “We’re still very much willing to invest in The IQ, in infrastructure, open space and building modernization grants and putting a flag ourselves in the district. We do believe that the collaboration that many of these companies desire and seek will happen physically again.”
Though Richardson Deputy City Manager Don Manger said there is some competition within the region to land new companies, overall it is a collaborative ecosystem, with each city benefiting from the success of others. He noted that while Richardson doesn’t have the ability to grant large incentive packages like Dallas or Fort Worth, the city sees its ability to respond quickly to a company’s individual needs are one of its draws. McDonald also added that the larger companies already established in the city, along with the innovative talent pool from nearby UT Dallas also make Richardson an attractive place for businesses.
Looking ahead, Manger said there are more plans in the works that will help bolster The IQ. One of the largest projects will be the redevelopment of the DART station at Arapaho, which due to vacancies around it the city hopes will become a centerpiece for the quarter. DART is also working on bringing online the Cotton Belt corridor, which will eventually connect the cities rail system to UT Dallas and the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. In addition, Manger said the city Is looking at a 2021 bond package to help further develop The IQ. McDonald also teased a number of big announcements coming from the quarter in the near future.
Already, The IQ counts among its tenants large tech companies like Raytheon, Verizon and Siemens, as well as smaller companies like video game software developer id Software.
“The opportunity is teed up, the obstacles are minimal so we stand ready to work both with development partners we already know and new development partners to the region and to the area to help revitalize these areas,” Manger said.
