Business View Magazine | April 2019

181 THE DIVIDENDS OF PROSPERITY complexes, and the Baytown Refinery located there is the largest in the United States. The Covestro manufacturing site is their largest in North and Central America, producing a variety of high-tech polymer materials, and the Cedar Bayou plant, in operation since 1963, is Chev- ron Phillips Chemical's largest manufacturing site in the U.S. Over the last several years, the availability of relatively cheap and plentiful natural gas has allowed several of those major manufactur- ing facilities to undergo multi-billion dollar expansions. “In the last five years, we’ve had more than $20 billion of industrial and corpo- rate expansions and looking into the future, we have another $45-50 billion coming,” re- ports City Manager, Rick Davis. “That is a tre- AT A GLANCE BAYTOWN, TEXAS WHAT: A city of 85,000 WHERE: The Gulf Coast region, 26 miles east of Houston WEBSITE: www.baytown.org