Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has been a notable employer within the city of Austin for decades. Located in downtown Austin, the company has employed more than 200 people and is one of the city’s more respected employers. However, the real estate market has changed significantly over that time period. In 2015, HMH’s long-term lease expired and defaulted to the current market rates. This presented HMH with sticker shock, to say the least.

It was no longer feasible to be located in downtown Austin, but HMH wanted to remain within the Austin region. Working with a real estate broker, HMH found a site they liked in a northern suburb of Austin and received an offer of approximately $150,000 in incentives. In March of 2015, HMH reached out to AngelouEconomics as a way to increase the incentives being offered. However, AngelouEconomics started from a limited position due to the prior engagements that the client and their real estate broker had had with the community. The competitive process had been subverted.

At our consultation, the client gave AngelouEconomics the lead position on the site relocation project. From there, we were able to reincorporate competitive aspects back into the projects and renegotiate the incentives being offered. By the end of the process, AngelouEconomics had negotiated $1.2 million in incentives for HMH, an incentive package approximately eight times larger than the original package offered to the client.