CULTURE Bay Area Houston Kemah Boardwalk Where Work Meets Play HOUSTON’S BAY AREA IS A HOTBED OF TECH-RELATED ACTIVITY By Alison Finney Bay Area Houston has mastered through the era of the Apollo research and technology development a fi ne balance between buttoned-up missions, to today, when new funding that will create jobs, retain and laid-back. With big attractions like technologies and new materials are the workforce and knowledge base, the Johnson Space Center, Ellington being developed to build the next- generate new revenue streams, and Airport and Ellington Field, and generation human exploratory system maximize future opportunities for the Kemah Boardwalk alongside a that will carry humans to the moon, Texas and the greater Houston region. booming health care and specialty Mars, and beyond. Ellington Airport and Ellington chemical industry, the Bay Area is “The Johnson Space Center is Field within the Bay Area have also at once a place where residents and a very active and busy place,” said seen a reinvention in recent years. visitors can kick up their heels and Bob Mitchell, President of the Bay Ellington Field was set to be closed a place where the industries that are Area Houston Economic Partnership about seven years ago, but with the big drivers of the area’s economy (BAHEP). “Not only do we continue help of former Senator Kay Bailey can settle. to have mission control for the Hutchison, BAHEP’s Ellington Field International Space Station, but Task Force facilitated a partnership BUILDING ON THE PAST we are also right in the middle of with the Texas Medical Center on The NASA Johnson Space Center designing and developing the Orion a land swap. During the past four was established in 1961 and renamed multipurpose crew vehicle, which is years, Ellington Airport has seen $180 for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the spacecraft that will replace the million worth of capital investment. 1973. Today the space center employs shuttle orbiter.” Big names like NASA, the Texas close to 14,000 people, including Mitchell added that the Bay Air National Guard, the Texas Army 50 active astronauts. Currently the Area Economic Partnership created National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, largest concentration of aerospace BayTech—the Bay Area Houston and others still use Ellington. In fact, engineers in the state of Texas resides Advanced Technology Consortium— the predator drones deployed in in the Bay Area. a 501(c)(3) technology consortium Afghanistan and Iraq are being fl own Culturally, the Johnson Space that brings together academia, industry, from Ellington Field, which continues Center has helped the Bay Area NASA/JSC, and the State of Texas. to develop its reputation as a top BayTech pursues federal and private military installation in Texas. grow, ever since the JSC’s beginnings, INC. LANDRY’S, PHOTO: 40 | OPPORTUNITY HOUSTON The Coast Guard has relocated to The Port of Houston will Ellington Field and is building a four- experience continued growth as story, 117,000-square-foot facility where the Panama Canal expansion is 350 employees will work. Likewise, the completed within the next 18 months Lone Star Flight Museum is moving It is projected that between 2010 from Galveston to Ellington Field. and 2015, $28 billion in capital and The museum will house the planes maintenance investments will occur that were formerly kept in Galveston, in the Ship Channel region, creating among them 13 fl ying and six display an estimated 16,000 new construction airplanes, plus other vehicles from jobs. “The activity and the growth World War II. are going to be phenomenal over the next fi ve years,” said Mitchell. INNOVATION AT WORK “We could not be better positioned The health care industry is the to capitalize on opportunities in the fastest-growing sector in Bay Area maritime industry.” Johnson Space Center Houston, making it a prime spot for companies like IDEV Technologies to set up headquarters for their businesses. IDEV is an innovative company that builds medical products for interventional radiology, vascular surgery, and cardiology. Its presence in the Bay Area includes a 48,000 -square-foot facility in Webster for research and manufacture of minimally invasive medical technologies such as peripheral stents. Ellington Airport WHERE LAND MEETS SEA The Bay Area’s unique position along the coast adds to the region’s economic impact—both at the Port of Houston and at the Kemah Boardwalk. In 2012, the Port of Houston created $178.5 billion of statewide economic activity and developed more than 2.1 million total related jobs statewide. Likewise, the Kemah-Seabrook area attracts more than three million people each year. The City of Kemah continues to develop plans for enhancements that will make it more accessible to the public. Studies are currently under way to improve parking and transportation to and from Kemah, making it easily accessible for residents and visitors alike. Two new cruise lines will soon be sailing out of the Bayport Cruise Terminal in Pasadena. Princess Cruises will begin service in November 2013, and the Norwegian Cruise Line will Caption Here begin sales in December 2013. PHOTOS: BAY AREA HOUSTON ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP ECONOMIC AREA HOUSTON BAY PHOTOS: OPPORTUNITY HOUSTON | 41.