Mayor Invites CRE Along As City Aims at Tech

WASHINGTON, DC-Mayor Vincent Gray didn’t go to SXSW in Austin earlier this month to convince the local market he was serious about building the District into a tech investment destination. He went because he is serious about positioning the District for tech investors—and the best way to do that is by meeting and greeting in person such companies on their own turf. “We are trying to redefine ourselves as something other than a company,” Gray tells GlobeSt.com in a telephone interview. “We don’t have a robust tech community right now, but we do have the makings for one.”

The idea of turning DC into a tech center was formally introduced in Gray’s five-year Economic Development plan. One of its goals is to make the District the largest technology center on the East Coast. To get to that goal, the mayor is making it his mission to go through the necessary steps – including attending tech conferences such as SXSW, where he was one of a very few number of mayors making the rounds.