Business View Civil and Municipal | January 2021

46 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL JANUARY 2021 bar and one restaurant in downtown – that was probably 10 or more years ago,” Andrews says. “Now we have over 21 venues that are open. It’s a very vibrant downtown. All very walkable.” In the State of Texas, economic development agencies collect half-cent sales tax revenues to fund their proposed projects. The City of San Angelo Development Corporation (COSADC) is that agency for San Angelo, and they’re what is referred to in Texas as a Type B Corporation, meaning they can utilize resources for both economic and community development projects. On the economic development side, the COSADC contracts the recruitment and marketing functions to the Chamber of Commerce. “In San Angelo, the Economic Development Division (EDD) of the Chamber of Commerce partners directly with the City of San Angelo Development Corporation,” Looney explains. “The Chamber EDD works as a contractor, but we really act as supplemental staff to the City’s Economic Development Division. In doing so, we’re able to marshal all of the business retention and new business capture of the Chamber’s efforts and fold them into the guiding efforts of the COSADC. We act like one organization, and that’s highly effective because COSADC will see opportunities that we haven’t yet seen, and vice versa. We’ve become force multipliers to each other.” The Chamber EDD has a unique method of targeting companies within desired industrial sectors. In 2017, a special program called the San Angelo Regional Manufactures Alliance (SARMA) was developed under the umbrella of the Chamber. Its purpose is to act as the voice and unifying force for all heavy industrial enterprises in the San Angelo and Tom Green Counties, including manufacturers, fabricators, industrial services, and energy companies – basically, the core of their regional economy. “By carving out special attention through communications with these sectors, we’re able