The Greater Houston Partnership celebrates our members making important announcements and sharing news about their operations and impact in our community. Learn more about some of those announcements over the last month below. 
 

Innovation

• Axiom Space recently launched a successful second private mission to the International Space Station. The four-person crew set out on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft with a mission to conduct over 20 scientific experiments that will help researchers better understand space radiation, weather in low-gravity conditions and more. 
• Greentown Labs announced that it will build a new wet lab facility. Ahead of construction, Greentown will look to its current and potential members to get feedback on what the new facility needs to be successful and to serve as a resource for Houston’s innovation community.
• Houston’s innovation hub, the Ion, added three major corporate partners including Oxy, United Airlines Ventures and Woodside Energy. The new partners will share expertise and industry leadership in support of Ion’s mission to transform Houston into a global innovation ecosystem and further empower the city’s workforce. The partners will also participate in the Ion’s programming and serve on its Leadership Advisory Roundtable. 
• Texas Southern University is expanding its aviation program by opening a training facility at Ellington Airport, further bolstering the region’s investment in the aviation sector, and training the next generation of pilots. The City of Houston authorized a memorandum of agreement between the Houston Airport System and TSU, which will span five years. HAS agreed to invest up to $5 million to build the new two-acre facility. Once complete, it will include an aircraft hangar, an aircraft apron, and 7,200 square feet of office and training/classroom space. 
• The University of Houston announced that it will break ground on a new 70,000-square-foot, high tech Innovation Hub this fall. The new complex is set to open in 2025 and will provide an immersive space for developing ideas, conducting research and expanding university-industry collaboration.

Business Moves

• Following the opening of its new training center at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, United Airlines hosted one of its largest career fairs as part of its goal to recruit 3,000 new hires. Despite concerns of a recession, United Airlines plans and continues to grow, and has even added 2,100 jobs in Houston since the opening of its training center earlier this year. 
• Jacobs announced its plans to turn its Critical Mission Solutions (CMS) business into an independent business. This transition will allow for a more customized approach to capital allocation and structure and help with talent retention and better alignment for investors. Following the separation of companies, Jacobs will remain as a provider of tech-enabled solutions for critical infrastructure and advanced manufacturing needs, while CMS will focus on space, national security, nuclear remediation and 5G technology.

Energy

• bp America received $33.4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to focus on the characterization and permitting of two commercial-scale storage sites along the Texas Gulf Coast with the capacity to ultimately store up to 15 million metric tons of CO2 per year. 
• Carbon Clean, a UK-based startup specializing in carbon capture technology, recently selected Houston as the location for its U.S. headquarters, marking a significant milestone in the company's North American expansion. This decision comes in the wake of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which has driven up demand for industrial carbon capture technology. As a result, Carbon Clean says it has experienced a 64 percent increase in U.S. inquiries since August 2022.

 
Education

• Through a $2.8 million federal grant, Houston Christian University will create a new program, LEAP, which will be dedicated to helping first-year and Hispanic students. The Learn, Engage, Achieve, Persist (LEAP) Program, will focus on bridging the gaps these students might face that affect retention, persistence and graduation.
• To address the region’s skilled workforce shortage, Houston Community College is partnering with Dwyer Workforce Development to launch the Dwyer Scholar Apprenticeship Program. The two organizations will collaborate to train and support up to 500 new health care professionals each year, as they earn a Clinical Nursing Assistant Certificate. 
• Texas Southern University received $750,000 from Truist Bank to address diversity needs in the banking industry. The funding will bolster TSU’s already established Future Bankers Leadership Program, that exposes students to the industry through their curriculum, interaction with executives and industry mentors, and commercial banking internships.
• The University of Houston unveiled the new Andy and Barbara Gessner College of Nursing after the couple made a $20 million donation. The donation will help strengthen nursing education and research, fund scholarships and fellowships for students, and ultimately increase the number of highly educated nurses in the workforce.

 
Real Estate

• The first dual-branded Hyatt Hotel in Texas has opened in Houston near the Texas Medical Center. The Hyatt Place Houston and the Hyatt House Houston together, is 14-stories tall and offers nearly 300 rooms, 5,900 square feet of meeting room and event space and a rooftop pool deck and bar. 
• In one of the largest real estate deals so far this year, LyondellBasell plans to move its U.S. headquarters from its namesake tower to a landmark Galleria-area skyscraper. The chemicals giant recently signed a lease for 318,504 square feet at the 64-story Williams Tower. The decision to move office spaces followed the company’s recent transition to a hybrid workplace strategy in 2021. Lyondell is set to move into the new office by late 2024 or 2025. 

If you are a member and want us to help communicate news about your organization, please send a press release or information about the announcement to [email protected] and we will share it with our content team for possible inclusion in an upcoming roundup. Learn more about Partnership membership.