Henderson analysis outlines industries the city plans to target for growth

Henderson officials last month highlighted five industries that the city plans on growing after it hired a private contractor to produce a target industry analysis.

“You can’t build a road map if you don’t know where you’d go,” said Jared Smith, Henderson’s director of economic development and tourism. “We wouldn’t be able to best target companies if we didn’t know what those targets were. Cities have unique assets and attributes, and so we want to be sure that our assets match up with the right types of companies.”

Smith said the analysis helps Henderson lay out that “road map” by taking stock of what it has to offer companies and considering how those assets can attract industries that fit the vision that city leaders and staff have for it.

Five target industries

The analysis highlighted five target industries for the city: logistics management and technologies; electric equipment and components manufacturing; financial and credit services; media and sports production; and back-office management and support services.

Smith said one of the city’s strongest assets that will help these industries grow in Henderson is its educated workforce, with the city leading Southern Nevada in residents with master’s and bachelor’s degrees.

UNLV professor Christopher Stream said this type of analysis is common among city governments. Some large cities conduct the analysis entirely in house, some partner with local universities and most hire third-party contractors to help with the study, like Henderson did.

The city agreed to spend $96,500 to the private contractor Emergent Method by the end of January for its help with the analysis, according to city documents. Smith said Emergent Method was brought in to provide extra staff to help Henderson’s small economic development division put together the report.

Stream said outside contractors also provide proprietary information from private companies that cities normally wouldn’t be able to access. Contractors can also suggest Henderson as a possible destination for clients.

‘Not a predictive analytics tool’

But Stream cautioned that Henderson should be careful not to neglect industries already booming locally to follow the results of the analysis, because that can alienate the base of those businesses already driving the local economy.

“You’ve built your economy successfully on the businesses you have there,” Stream said. “In some ways, what you’re telling those businesses is, ‘You’re not good enough, we want other businesses.’”

Stream also noted that the city should not treat the analysis as an outright prediction of the future, saying the report is “not a predictive analytics tool,” because positive results are not guaranteed and the city may invest too much in the targeted industries and end up losing out.

But Smith noted that while the city is looking to grow the targeted industries in its borders, Henderson understands that those are not the only industries that the city expects to grow.

“That doesn’t mean this is the only growth we’re going to see,” Smith said. “We’re going to see growth in manufacturing, in different types of manufacturing, other than electrical equipment and components. We know that, but this is what we’re going to proactively target.”

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Instagram @writermark2.