The Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC) recently awarded EDF with the 2005 Community Economic Development Award during TEDC’s Annual Conference in San Antonio.

EDF was given the CEDA award for its work in helping secure the on-site supplier park at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas plant. Toyota originally announced that 18 suppliers would locate directly on the plant site. Recently, Toyota announced that 21 suppliers will locate on-site, creating 2,100 jobs and $300 million in investment. Last year, EDF was recognized with the CEDA Governor’s Award for its work in securing the Toyota manufacturing plant, which is expected to begin production of Tundra trucks in 2006.

"After having received the Governor’s award last year, we are delighted TEDC is once again recognizing the cooperative effort our community has made to secure long-term, quality businesses and jobs in San Antonio" said Mario Hernandez, president of EDF. "As with Toyota, it was a great cooperative effort among the city, the county, the state and private businesses to see the on-site supplier park become a reality. We are grateful to our members whose support allows us to continue bringing first-rate businesses and jobs to our community."

According to TEDC officials, the Community Economic Development Awards program recognizes exceptional contributions of TEDC member cities toward the economic vitality of their communities and the state of Texas through creativity, leadership, and partnership in the achievement of business retention, business recruitment and community improvement.

The CEDA committee received applications from 33 member communities. Nominees were then judged on five criteria: innovativeness, transferability, community commitment and leverage, measured objectives, and secondary benefits.

The CEDA recipients in the five population categories are:

• Category I (<5,000 population) Strawn
• Category II (5,001 - 15,000) Yoakum
• Category III (15,001 - 40,000) Denison
• Category IV (40,001 - 100,000) Baytown
• Category V (100,000+) San Antonio

"Our CEDA luncheon is one of the ways in which our organization honors the excellent work done by our communities, their leaders, and their economic development professionals," noted Tom Mullins of Tyler, 2004 TEDC Chair. "Each community nominated achieved excellence in economic development and substantially improved the economic base of their respective regions. The recipient communities in each population category were recognized for extraordinary accomplishments in meeting the criteria set forth in the nomination process.