Deer Park City Council has unanimously nominated two of its largest companies to the Texas Enterprise Program. This state program allows local communities to partner with the state to promote job creation and capital investment within the community.  

 The nominated projects are as follows:

Shell Oil Company (Deer Park Refining Limited Partnership)

• Project Description: Capital project at Deer Park Refinery that includes equipment, capacity, process and technology updates to the facility

• Capital Investment Budget: $600,000,000+  over 5 year period

•  Retained Jobs: Minimum 500+ over 5 year period 

Rohm & Haas Texas

• Project Description: Capital Improvements at Deer Park facility including machinery and equipment upgrade projects aimed at maintaining quality and reliability and increasing capacity

• Capital Investment Budget: $150,000,000+  over 5 year period

• Retained Jobs: Minimum 500 over 5 year period

Deer Park’s first Enterprise Zone project was the Lubrizol enterprise zone application, whereby Lubrizol committed to invest $112,000,000 and retention of 502 employees over a five year period.  This application was approved by the State in February 2010.

The council approved both nominations on Aug. 17, for the State's Enterprise Zone Program, which is a performance-based program created to help companies grow and expand their business in Texas. It is an economic development sales tax incentive partnering the state and local government to help local employment and support business investment.   

The enterprise zone approval process is very competitive. There is some indication that there may be as many as 100 enterprise zone applications for the Sept. 1 deadline with possibly only 25 designations available statewide.

The State allocates only 105 of these enterprise project designations statewide per biennium.  The program allows the facility to receive state sales tax rebates that can amount to significant dollars.  To qualify, a company must be nominated by the City, submit an application to the state and pass an evaluation.  It should be known by late 2010 whether or not either of these two nominations gains state approval.  

During these tough economic times, the Enterprise Zone Program has supported more jobs than any other state incentive program.  In the last biennium (2008-2009), the State approved 89 projects that totaled $5,772,038,667 in projected capital investment, created 13,068 new jobs in Texas, and retained 38,693 jobs.

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