When ‘partnership’ is part of your organization’s name, being awarded for working on a partnership is about as good as it gets. Waller County Economic Development Partnership recently took home a bronze award for Public Private Partnership from the International Economic Development Council. “To be judged as one of the best in the world, by the best in the world, is truly both humbling and rewarding,” says Vince Yokom, the EDP’s Executive Director. The EDP worked with the Waller County Road Improvement District and Waller County to help Ross Stores, Inc. build a new distribution center in the community just west of Houston. “Ross has not even occupied the facility yet and it has already been a great corporate citizen in supporting our infrastructure improvements in the area and our economic development effort,” Yokom says. “This was a true partnership effort and one of the best experiences we have had in working with a prospect.” For many companies, Waller County is an obvious choice for a distribution hub. Served by a number of major highways and freeways, as well as rail and an airport, its strategic location on Houston’s west side is an incredible asset. It is now primed for development just as U.S. companies show renewed interest in reshoring operations. For decades, these factors such as cheap labor, inexpensive transportation and endless incentives convinced companies to move their production facilities out of the U.S. But the times, they are a-changin’, as the song goes. According to the Reshoring Institute, “a growing number of businesses have rethought their global manufacturing strategies,” which has led to an increasing number of companies bringing at least part of their production back to the U.S. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.