Incentives and relationships were key
By Justin Sayers – Senior Staff Writer, Austin Business Journal
Jan 29, 2025
About two and a half years ago, Enovis Corp. executives made a list of areas around the country where they could expand their Austin-based surgical division. Central Texas came in at No. 4.
That’s part of the reason why Enovis executives are quick to credit Cedar Park officials for landing the $25.5 million expansion, with the help of incentives, that will create at least 162 jobs in the region’s first big economic development project of 2025.
“I think the effort level and commitment from Cedar Park just really stood out throughout the whole process,” said Enovis’ Shayne Myhand, vice president of manufacturing and supply chain. “We needed a partner to grow with, and Cedar Park positioned themselves as the best long-term partner to grow with.”
Those involved in the site-selection process pulled back the veil on the multi-year project in interviews with the Austin Business Journal. Enovis leaders offered an in-depth look at how they ultimately chose to expand to a 100,000-square-foot facility at 2105 Scottsdale Drive in Cedar Park, which is emerging as a corporate and life sciences hub about 20 miles northwest of Austin.
Enovis is calling the new site its “MPOC,” or multipurpose operations center. The facility will more than double its current manufacturing capacity in Austin, expand distribution operations and include a state-of-the-art clean and sterile pack room.
Enovis officials said an expansion was the natural next step for the company, which was founded in 1995 and offers a wide range of products, services and technologies, primarily for the orthopedics industry. The company has more than two dozen locations worldwide and thousands of employees. While it’s made its mark globally, Enovis has quietly built up a notable campus in Austin on Metric Boulevard. It’s there that the company houses its surgical division, which is focused on the business of knee, hip and shoulder implants. Enovis has more than 600 employees there in divisions like operations, manufacturing and marketing.
The company last expanded the site in 2022, reaching 80,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Myhand said the company “almost immediately” realized it needed more, adding that the implants portion of the business went from $134 million in revenue in 2015 to $1 billion this year through growth and acquisitions.
About 10 months ago, company leaders enlisted the help of Opportunity Austin — the regional economic development group that’s focused on building up the life sciences sector — to vet options in the region. Company leaders were also eyeing other locales outside Texas, though they didn’t disclose where.
Enovis looked as far east as Pflugerville, as far north as Georgetown and as far northwest as Leander, as well as everywhere in between. But Cedar Park was the clear winner, Myhand said, pointing to an incentives package and the city’s pledge of support for workforce development to get the facility up and going.
“Almost instantaneously, we had a great relationship,” Myhand said. “I think they were very pro-business and very aggressive in terms of their recruitment and their offer of incentives. So, we were able to find a great location to grow our business here in Central Texas.”
Incentives seal the deal
An incentive package was unanimously approved by the Cedar Park City Council during a Jan. 27 meeting. And, as Cedar Park Mayor Jim Penniman-Morin welcomed the company to the city, the dais and crowd broke into applause.
The 10-year agreement provides Enovis up to $650,000 in performance-based incentives. It requires the company to hit certain benchmarks on the way to reaching 162 employees with an average salary of $65,055 by Dec. 31, 2034. It must invest $25.5 million at the site by Dec. 31, 2025, and occupy the space by the end of this year.
Enovis also is eligible for an employee relocation bonus of $10,000 for every residence or residential lot purchased in Cedar Park by an Enovis employee, up to a maximum of $500,000, and a membership to the Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce, valued at $5,000.
It was estimated that the incentives would provide a 10% rate of return for the city, meaning the payments would be recouped in about 10 years through various taxes.
Arthur Jackson, Cedar Park’s chief economic development officer, said Cedar Park was primarily interested in the company because of the city’s aim to build a life sciences industry. Recently, Zeteo Biomedical LLC, a company that specializes in nasal and sublingual drug and vaccine delivery devices, announced it is moving back to Cedar Park.
Jackson said the biggest challenge was competition, especially within Williamson County, but the city decided to put its “best foot forward.”
“If you really want to partner with a company, you figure out a way to get it done,” Jackson said.
Location, location, location
Another selling point was the location.
The project is in negotiations to be located in the 95-acre mixed-use New Hope project, which is a joint venture of Austin-based real estate firms Cordova Real Estate Ventures, Riverside and Live Oak. The $250 million project is expected to total at least 430,000 square feet of industrial space, along with potentially 29,000 square feet of retail space.
Officials broke ground last year on the 26-acre, 272,000-square-foot industrial development that serves as the first phase of the project. Enovis is eyeing a portion of the 150,000-square-foot Building 3 in the development. Ryan Whalen, Dax Benkendorfer and Doug Thomas of Live Oak are handling leasing.
After touring several big, empty industrial buildings, the New Hope developers and Cedar Park officials did a good job of helping the company recognize “what they needed out of a building” and offered more than just a manufacturing space, according to Mark Burgett, Enovis’ vice president for advanced manufacturing engineering.
“We are looking forward to a very tight partnership with the developer and with the city as we design and build out and make this site operational,” said Burgett, who added that he’ll oversee the Cedar Park building process.
Myhand said the potential for additional expansion at the industrial park was another selling point, though the company doesn’t have imminent plans to grow further.
The New Hope development team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A growing industry
There’s a concerted effort to bolster the life sciences sector in the Austin area.
The region has celebrated big wins recently, such as life sciences unicorn BillionToOne and its large campus underway in North Austin, and the Dell Medical School building out on the University of Texas campus.
“This investment highlights the strength of Cedar Park and the Austin region’s life sciences ecosystem as well as the area’s ability to support innovative companies with the talent, resources and business-friendly environment they need to thrive,” Opportunity Austin CEO Ed Latson said in a statement.
Myhand said there’s plenty that needs to be figured out before Austin can truly become a life sciences hub, primarily allaying concerns with power and water infrastructure. He also said economic development groups need to land a large life sciences “whale” — such as what Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Tesla Inc. did for the region’s semiconductor and electric vehicle sectors — to attract a supply base and tangential employers.
But Austin’s ability to attract innovative companies will help build up the sector, he said. For example, Enovis purchased a local company in 2022 that makes a VR headset that surgeons use, Mayhan said.
“That kind of technology prowess and talent and funding that we do see here in Austin will continue to make Austin very attractive to life sciences companies. That’s been a huge win for our company,” he said. “As you look at the med-device industry, technology is going to continue to play a bigger part in everything that we do.”
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