Commercial real estate shifts northwest with residential growth

Betsy Ellison
30 | July 2010 Community Impact Newspaper • Northwest Houston Edition
Community Icon | Darcy Mingoia
Darcy Mingoia has worked hard to improve and assist the Cy-Fair community.
By Betsy Ellison
With more than 30 years of
experience under her belt, Darcy
Mingoia—current executive director
for the Lone Star College
System Foundation—has been a
strong force in the Cy-Fair leadership
community and continues to
make a difference daily.
After graduating with a degree
in journalism from The University
of Texas at Austin in 1974,
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Mingoia moved to Houston a
year later with her husband and
started a family.
“We first lived in Bellaire,” she
said, “but when we had children,
we moved to Cy-Fair for the same
reason a lot of people do: The
school district is like a magnetic
force for excellent education.”
While her children were growing
up, Mingoia became involved
with her new community by
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being elected to the Jersey Village
City Council in 1989.
She continued her council
duties while working at Baker-
Jackson Nissan where, she said,
she found her passion in community
and economic development.
“I was in charge of community
relations,” she said. “I started to
realize how businesses in this
area had the opportunity to
flourish and grow, and the more
successful the employees were,
the more vibrancy it would bring
the community.”
Mingoia volunteered with the
Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of
Commerce while at Baker-Jackson
and served on committees.
After almost nine years she said
she decided to take her chamber
involvement a step further and
applied to be its president. She
served in that capacity from
1998–2007.
“The chamber was a fabulous
experience for me,” she said. “Of
all the things I did while president,
I feel my greatest contribution
was helping to annex the
area into a community college
district.”
Before 2000, two local
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colleges—Houston Community
College and North Harris-Montgomery
Community College
District—served the Northwest
Houston area. Mingoia’s goal
was to create a one-college district
in the Cy-Fair area.
Working with the Harris
County Board of Education, she
ran a year-long campaign, which
involved collecting signatures,
and presentations from both
colleges. In August 2000 the
board held an election, and the
vote passed 70 to 30 percent. The
area was immediately annexed
into the NHMCCD, which later
became the Lone Star College
System in 2008.
“This was the first step in a
strategic economic development
plan,” Mingoia said. “Businesses
wanted better trained workers
with up-to-date skill sets. Local
higher education can provide
that. Two other main issues
were tax benefits and developing
an entity to market for local
businesses.”
Mingoia said one of her
proudest accomplishments within
the community was working
on a drunk-driving campaign
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about a dangerous stretch of FM
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that the Texas Department of
Transportation had deemed a
“death corridor.”
As the chamber president in
that area, Mingoia said it concerned
her seeing signs posted
saying, “Beware, 26 deaths happened
in the next seven miles.”
“We decided to adopt a program
that would make people
aware of the situation and be
more cautious when they are
driving.”
Mingoia and other chamber
volunteers, reached out to the
community and promoted a
drunk-driving pledge she said
helped to lower the number of
accidents in the area over the
one-year campaign.
Her current position with
Lone Star College has her working
daily to find scholarship
money for deserving students.
“My vision for the future of the
Cy-Fair community is that every
person has the opportunity to
be what they want, and that they
have the education needed to
accomplish that goal,” she said.
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