The economic development field is undergoing a profound shift. For decades, economic developers were akin to big game hunters, looking to land rare and prized employers that filled large square footages, located company headquarters, and brought mega-projects to a community.
Today, the work of economic developers in many communities is stretching far beyond business attraction and expansion. It engages workforce development, transit and infrastructure, housing, and overall quality of place. As Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt noted in his own Centennial Thought Leader article, jobs (and businesses) follow people. A community’s ability to offer attainable housing, reliable transit, vibrant public spaces, affordable childcare, and a sense of belonging is as essential to its economic growth as its industrial parks, its incentive packages, or its tax structure.
This shift mirrors what IEDC President and CEO Nathan Ohle describes in Area Development: a profession moving from deal-making to systems stewardship. IEDC’s research shows that over 60 percent of practitioners see partnerships and networks as core to their work — connecting education, industry, and infrastructure to drive long-term prosperity.
When I was leading economic development for my hometown of Louisville, I often told people that there were two universal truths for every project: people and place. In the tactical work of business attraction, this translated to talent and real estate, every project coming with its own labor needs and real estate requirements. However, it also connotes a broader and deeper understanding of the fundamentals of what drives economic viability and vibrancy. I brought this theory of work to my role at Accelerator for America where we support local leaders creating greater economic mobility through place-based innovations and investments – and where our definition of economic development includes infrastructure, workforce, housing, and community investment.
Integrating Housing and Community Development Into the Economic Development Toolkit
When communities invest in the fundamentals of people and place, employers benefit from a wider labor pool, stronger talent retention, and more resilient local economies. Across the country, cities that embrace this broader mandate are seeing measurable returns.
In Atlanta, the city’s economic development agency Invest Atlanta plays a key role in its housing work. Invest Atlanta’s President and CEO serves on Atlanta’s Housing Strike Force, a housing crisis response team focused on reforming lethargic systems, deploying innovative housing solutions, and reshaping how affordable housing is delivered at the municipal level. The agency also is a member of HousingATL Funders’ Collective, a group of public, philanthropic, and private funders who are raising and organizing capital to support affordable housing development.
The results of Atlanta's housing work are undeniable: The city has delivered and has in construction more than 14,000 affordable housing units since 2022. Atlanta is well on its way to meeting Mayor Andre Dickens’ ambitious goal of creating or preserving 20,000 units by 2030.
In Chattanooga, Housing and Community Investment and the Office of Homelessness and Supportive Housing operate under the Office of Economic Development, a recognition of how housing profoundly affects economic growth. The city recently launched Invest Chattanooga, a $20 million public asset corporation designed to provide developers with advantageous financing and below-market public land leases or sales, ensuring the creation of permanent, deeply affordable housing units in exchange. In April 2026, Invest Chattanooga announced its first project, a 53-unit, mixed-income cottage development for seniors. Additionally, it has partnered with impact fund American South Capital Partners to acquire and construct mixed-income multifamily housing.
Oklahoma City is the country’s leader in investing in quality of place with their successful MAPS initiatives, which since 1993 has raised nearly $3 billion to fund debt-free projects, including the Oklahoma City Convention Center, its Innovation District, a streetcar, parks, school building improvements, and more. Those ballot measures and the community engagement around them are led together by the civic and business sectors in the city.
Transit and Mobility as Catalysts for Economic Growth
Phoenix offers an illustration of how transit and infrastructure investments translate into economic development. Maricopa County voters have repeatedly extended a half-cent sales tax for transportation, income from which has funded roadways and public transit, including two new interchanges that will directly serve the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. TSMC has committed to investing $265 billion in the region.
"Thanks to the funding in Proposition 400, we were able to build these two new interchanges with urgency and meet the growing needs of our community in north Phoenix. A big reason TSMC chose our city for their expansion was our modern transportation infrastructure, and these new traffic improvements are that asset in action,” said Mayor Kate Gallego (and a former economic developer herself!).
Similarly, in Nashville, the Choose How You Move initiative capped off its inaugural year by rolling out more than $163 million in infrastructure upgrades including expanded bus services, new sidewalks, and synchronized smart traffic signals. The ballot measure supporting Choose How You Move passed with 66% of the vote. This success was driven by a robust coalition, including the Nashville Chamber of Commerce’s economic development team and the local business community, alongside strategic support from Accelerator for America Action. This 15-year transportation strategy highlights a collective recognition that investments in transit and infrastructure are vital to sustaining the city's rapid economic and population growth.
These communities show how city leaders focused on economic development results are taking action into their own hands, convening the systems that determine whether people can access opportunity. As Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly told The New York Times, “The cavalry isn’t coming, so we have to figure this out on our own.”
Economic development has always been about building stronger, more prosperous communities. In today’s economy, that means ensuring people have attainable homes, reliable ways to reach work, and neighborhoods that offer safety, connection, and opportunity. Housing, transit, and quality of place are no longer adjacent to economic development; they are the tools required to achieve it.
Mary Ellen Wiederwohl is President & CEO of Accelerator for America and Accelerator for America Action.