Projects

In partnership with Willdan Financial Services, we served as lead analyst for a comprehensive water and wastewater rate analysis and update for the City of Primera, Texas.

Like many communities, Missouri City has invested significant time, energy, effort and money developing various plans: a Comprehensive Plan, Capital Improvement Plan, Economic Development Plan, etc. In an effort to clearly align the goals and desired outcomes of these various plans, Missouri City called upon the JDGray Group to facilitate a full Strategy Alignment and Strategic Plan Update.

We supported the City of Celina's defense of a utility rate case brought by outside-city ratepayers. Services included discovery coordination and written expert witness testimony.

As part of our continuing support for the Argyle Economic Development Corporation, we were pleased to assist the Town in attracting Integrity Performance Sports, a serious community sports facility. Our services included advising the Town on potential incentives and impacts of the project.

The City of Pflugerville selected the JDGray Group for a half-day Council Strategy Workshop using the Lean Coffee facilitation method. We used a very short timeframe to cover a lot of ground, providing the City Staff with serious discussion of a few key projects focused directly by the Council Members. If you have to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time and want the topics to be generated and focused directly by your elected officials, we'd love to help.

I'm sure that you have heard the phrase that if you don't know your destination, any road will take you there. That's good wisdom, but the same applies to the beginning of the journey. If you are not sure of where you are at, how could you hope to know the path to get where you want to be? Having a clear understanding of your current financial and operational situation is a crucial first step in charting a path forward. The Town of Argyle, Texas and their Economic Development Corporation wanted that clear understanding. We started them off with a Current State Assessment that identified 21 different metrics that matter, and then compared those metrics to six other similarly situated communities.

iChoosr is a company that specializes in being an independent expert for group buying programs. iChoosr aggregates residential energy accounts for volume savings all over the world. We worked with iChoosr to recruit a new Business Line Manager for the state of Texas.

The City of Frisco was looking for a sophisticated, yet simple method of managing their various strategic plans. We have provided a comprehensive Strategy Management System on a trial basis to the City for use with their Transportation Strategic Plan.

The CIty of Anna is growing at a fast pace. To keep up with the growth, the City is beginning to grown its Public Works Department and is providing focus to its water, streets, and wastewater divisions. We've customized our SmartSearch executive recruitment methodology to provide them and affordable limited recruitment for the Water Superintendent position.

We were pleased to be back in Hutto Texas during July 2017 to facilitate their annual City Council retreat. This year we had a specific focus on governance and the relationships between among the City Council. We followed up the retreat with a full after action report, including a summary of an action items for each agenda topic.

Hutto's vision is to passionately serve the public through innovation, sustainability, and diversity for the enrichment of current and future generations. Hutto was seeking a City Manager to help shape one of the fastest growing communities in America. Located 25 miles from downtown Austin, Hutto combines the quality of life of small-town Texas, the activity and energy of the state capitol, and the rare opportunity to build a community. We are working with the City to find that leader.

We are happy to have worked with the City of Frisco, Texas the Frisco Economic Development Corporation, and Patronus Land Development to bring a new Patronus Data Center to Frisco, Texas. This project is likely to produce over $400 million in annual taxable value for the City, Denton County, and Frisco ISD. We worked with the City, the FEDC, and developer to negotiate and structure a 20-year Chapter 380 Agreement and a Performance-based Economic Development Agreement. In addition, we have developed and provided a compliance tool with tracking methodology to help make sure that the project stays on track and to help manage the City's obligations under the Agreement.

Pennant Park is in the heart of the Frisco’s thriving commercial sector. Situated just 25 miles north of downtown Dallas, 20 minutes northeast of DFW airport and 20 minutes north of Dallas Love Field, this site is extremely well located to capitalize on high-quality commercial development. The current vision for Pennant Park includes a thoughtful mix of uses including commercial office, full-service hotel, and retail components for the ±14.6 acre site with 850’ of Dallas North Tollway frontage. The JDGray Group serveda s the lead negotiator for the City of Frisco in identifying a developer for the tract, completing a sale agreement, and securing the development of a 320,000SF Class A Office Building and top-notch food/beverage/entertainment venue.

The City of Sidney, Nebraska was seeking a new City Manager for the first time in over 15 years. We provided our SmartSearch Executive Recruitment methodology to engage candidates and provide the City Council and Selection Committee a depth and breadth of information on the talents, motivators and behaviors of each candidate that allowed the City a very high degree of confidence of their selection of Ed Sadler as their new City Manager.

In partnership with Willdan Financial Services, we served as lead analyst for a comprehensive water and wastewater rate analysis and update for the City of Hewitt, Texas.

In Partnership with Willdan Financial Services, we provided DCTA executive leadership with a review of their revenue and expenditure projection methods for their long-term financial forecast models. With greater insight into the trends and forces affecting DCTA's revenue streams, we have helped enable the Authority to have a more accurate pulse on their financial outlook.

In partnership with Willdan Financial Services, we served as project manager and lead analyst for a comprehensive water and wastewater rate analysis and update for the City of Heath, Texas.

As part of a redevelopment strategy, a major office park in the community sought to add Class A office and a mixed use development to their existing 2 million SF of office. The CIty of Frisco asked us to provide a revenue analysis on the proposed redevelopment to add insight to their decision.

We were invited to take part in the City of Lakeland, Florida's high-potential leadership development program "48 Hours: Invest in You". Working alongside city Human Resources staff and Executive Sponsors, we co-created an eight-hour interactive workshop to introduce and help apply the ten essential Servant Leadership attributes. The workshop also allowed us to develop and publish the Center for Public Servant Leadership Field Manual. The Field Manual is a curated database of dozens of books, articles, blog posts, and videos that connect Servant Leadership with the public sector. You can sort and filter the Field Manual based on any combination of Servant Leadership attributes and local government workgroups/departments. The Field Manual is available at: http://www.jdgraygroup.com/servant-leadership-resources. Helping local government leaders develop their Servant Leadership attributes is one of our passions. If you have an interest in the Servant Leadership journey, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

We were glad to be back in Argyle working with the Town Council and Economic Development Corporation on our Basics of Economic Development Workshop. We designed our interactive, half-day workshop on economic development with elected and appointed officials in mind. We facilitated an in-depth conversation about the purpose & goals of economic development and identified the tools & techniques available (and when to use them). We discuss the basic requirements & restrictions, and most importantly, cover the roles & responsibilities of the various economic development stakeholders.

We provided a four-hour training on the Essentials of Servant Leadership to the City of Pilot Point's executive team. We focused on defining what Servant Leadership is, and how the team could implement it effectively in their part of the organization.

The City of Frisco acquired 14.5 acres of land around its minor league ballpark several years ago in hopes that it could attract a premium mix of development partners to jointly develop the property in a way that added significant value to the City and worked harmoniously with the ballpark and its parking obligations. They turned to the JDGray Group to identify the best possible developers, negotiate multiple development and performance agreements and to serve as both a representative and facilitator on behalf of the City. After months of negotiations, we are proud to announce the Diamond - 300,000 square feet of Class A office space, 30,000 square feet of retail and a 320 room full-service hotel complete with a 9,000 square foot feature restaurant. To serve the City's needs, we worked with Northland Properties and LandPlan development to structure a development plan and incentive packages that will exceed Frisco's high standards and provide 800 structured parking spaces for games and events held at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco.

The Gun Barrel City Barrel City Economic Development Corporation is hiring an Executive Director, and they have asked us to help them find great candidates using our SmartSearch process. This is our 2nd engagement with Gun Barrel City, and we are excited to help them recruit an outstanding economic developer.

When the Nacogdoches Convention & Visitor's Bureau was in need of a new Executive Director, they turned to our SmartSearch executive recruitment methodology to help. We helped them better understand exactly what they were looking for in a new Executive Director, and helped them review, select, and hire Sherry Morgan, a veteran of the East Texas tourism industry for the role.

Multiple rate cases were filed among the member communities of the North Texas Municipal Water District regarding the fairness, equity, and sustainability of the agreed-upon rate structure. Seeking a mutual agreement rather than administrative adjudication, the member cities turned to the JDGray Group to help navigate and analyze over two dozen alternatives.

The City of Frisco was looking for an intuitive view of their sales tax collections. We developed an executive dashboard that tracks and analyzes current sales tax, market trends, KPIs, and budget performance.

The City of Frisco, Texas was seeking a new methodology for expanding and operating its already successful reclaimed water system. As part of the construction of the NFL Dallas Cowboy's headquarters​ and practice facility, the Cowboys had a need for a high-quality and high-reliability irrigation source that was not subject to drought conditions. On behalf of the City, we negotiated a reclaimed water expansion and use agreement with the Cowboys that meets their needs and allows for the new public/private partnership model that the City was seeking.

We worked with the City of Brazoria, Texas in their efforts to attract, negotiate with, and partner on a family-oriented waterpark for their community. We provided a feasibilty analysis, worked with the City's Bond Counsel and Financial Advisor to develop a financial structure and negotiated a development agreement on behalf of the City. To help the community understand the proposal, we also assisted in developing a public education phase for the project.

The City of Aubrey was faced with a development opportunity that would prove to be transformational for this rural community of about 5,000. A piece of land partially within the City Limits and partially outside of the City Limits proposed a 1400+ residential lot development using a Municipal Utility District and Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone as financial tools to offset the costs of development. The City of Aubrey called upon us to assist them in the negotiation with the developer and to provide analytical support for the proposed development.

Understanding the full impact of development is difficult. Our sales tax impact analysis model is used by Provence, Texas to provide important context to development decision making.

The City of Richardson, Texas has a long history of servant leadership. We have been invited to take part in the City's executive leadership program and to deliver a module on Servant Leadership for their 2020 class. We love to partner with communities on this significant topic, if you are interested in learning more, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Thanks to the City of Hutto for having us back again for their annual City Council Workshop. We spent two days offsite covering budget updates, long-term planning issues, and a variety of strategic initiatives.

City Councils and City Managers are often called upon to digest and understand complex issues within very short timeframes. One of our specialities is making the complex more simple through use of engaging presentation of our analysis. In 2019, the Texas Legislature proposed (and approved) SB2, which fundamentally changes the method of how Cities and Towns can use the property tax. We broke the legislation down into the formulas, charts, and impacts that the elected and appointed officials needed to confidently understand the issue and to establish their position on it.

We are helping the City of Bismarck update its Strategic Plan with a process focused on Citizen Engagement and Strategic Excellence.

Facing the largest and most complex zoning and development case in its history, the City of Frisco selected JDGray Group to lead the development negotiations on a 2,159 acre parcel located on the northern edge of Frisco. With significant frontage along the Dallas North Tollway, Preston Road, and Highway 380, Fields will become a world-class, mixed-use master-planned community that reshapes the fastest growing City in the nation. Uses include single-family and multifamily residential, Class A office, retail, education, and recreation.

The City of Hutto was operating from three separate documents to guide their strategy. Through facilitation of Council Workshops and one-on-one meetings with their executive staff, we developed a single Strategic Plan & Execution Guide aligning, combining, and assigning nearly 200 different goals and objectives. The process ended up with 5 distinct Strategic Focus Areas, 10 well-defined Strategic Objectives, and 144 measurable goals that will continue to move Hutto towards its vision.

The City of Frisco acquired property that included an existing BNSF microwave communications tower on a prime piece of potential commercial real estate. We developed a public-private partnership to encourage a third-party tower company to relocate the tower at its cost in order to recover the valuable commercial land.

The City of Pilot Point Texas selected the JDGray Group LLC to facilitate a revision of its vision statement and guiding principles. We are excited to work with Pilot Point, a city on the northern edge of growth in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. Working with the community to distill a vision statement and guiding principles will help Pilot Point formulate a full strategy for advancing towards that vision in the future.

The City of Frisco, Texas wanted a way to capture increased market demand for food truck venues, but wanted to do so in a way that allowed for an "experimental" venue to partner with as a living laboratory to help inform policy decisions in the future. The JDGray Group worked with a local restaurateur that had an interest and partnering with the City to develop a food truck venue with a short, revenue-sharing lease to give both the developer and the CIty an opportunity to explore this emerging market. The Frisco Rail Yard has been operating since September 2016.

The City of Frisco, Texas​ has aacquired tracts of adjacent land over several years in a strategic move to ensure the connection between their hostoric downtown and a new urban core. We issued this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to solicit responses from master developers and/or master development teams with proven successful track records in planning and developing historically and contextually sensitive infill developments and we are now negotiating with those developers to bring a signature project to the site.

We put our SmartSearch executive recruitment methodology to work for Gun Barrel City, Texas. The City was looking for a chief executive that could help them establish a strong and recession-resistant general fund revenue stream and professional management of the city that serves as the heart of the Cedar Creek Lake area. The City selected Bret Bauer as their new City Manager and now as part of our methodology, we are providing follow-up and coaching for a two year span to help the City transition quickly, fully and smoothly.