Cedar Park businesses see expansion, new city data shows

By Chloe Young | Community Impact

A vast majority of Cedar Park businesses have been expanding their operations, according to new data from the city of Cedar Park.

The city launched a tracking software to further its business retention and expansion efforts in July, said Daniel Sousa, the city's community affairs assistant director.

The overview

The city held business retention meetings with 75 companies during fiscal year 2024. From July to September, the city began collecting data from 24 of these companies using a new reporting platform.

The system found that 95% of these businesses were expanding while 5% were contracting.

Despite signs of slowed growth in the economy, the city’s largest business expansions are continuing to progress, said Chief Economic Development Officer Arthur Jackson at a Feb. 27 Cedar Park City Council meeting.

Cedar Park's economic development team may help businesses hire more employees or acquire additional square footage by securing state grants and funding, he said.

Diving deeper

The survey showed Cedar Park having a wide diversity of businesses, with the largest industry being IT businesses at 23%, followed by construction and advanced manufacturing companies, each at 17%.

Of the surveyed companies, 74% were small businesses with 1-49 employees. The city has several large companies employing well over 100 workers, including Firefly Aerospace and Hyliion, Jackson said.

Something to note

More Cedar Park companies were returning to in-person work as 71% of businesses said 0-25% of their workforce was working remotely, according to city data.

With office developments slated to come to Cedar Park, the city felt it was important to monitor how many companies were working remotely, Jackson said. Financing office developments has been more difficult amid high vacancy rates in Downtown Austin, he said.

“Having this data has really helped our team to show and build confidence with developers that office products here in Cedar Park can thrive and be successful,” Jackson said.