EVERETT – The Snohomish County Economic Development Council will put a heavier emphasis on recruiting and retaining new businesses this year.
“One thing we were hearing from our investors was that they really wanted us to focus on the big piece,” council president Deborah Knutson said.
In recent years, the council has devoted a significant amount of time and energy to public policy issues, including a new model process for processing permit requests.
“We had a (business) slowdown, and it was a really good time to work on policy issues,” she said.
But in the past year, the region’s economy rebounded and the development council’s in-house policy expert moved to a new job. Knutson filled that opening with a new business recruiting specialist who is working to bring new companies to the area or help existing ones expand.
Knutson said the organization remains focused on the county’s key sectors: aerospace, biotechnology and electronics manufacturing.
It’s been involved with aerospace companies looking to relocate to or expand in Everett as part of their roles in supplying parts to the Boeing Co. for its new 787. The organization also is working with a biotech manufacturer that’s considering sites in California and around Puget Sound.
One of the council’s big efforts this year will be working with the national site selection consultants who advise corporations on where to build new facilities.
Knutson said she and other officials have made trips to visit the major consultants in recent years. “Now we’re going to fly some of them out here,” she said. “They’ll know what’s here. They’ll have seen it themselves.”
Knutson said her agency is working with local government officials. They’ve started quarterly meetings to share information on development projects, and the council is helping Snohomish County with a business climate survey designed to find out what companies like – or lack – here.
The council also plans to work more with the Puget Sound area’s commercial and industrial real estate brokers, to make sure they’re aware of places available in Snohomish County.
“This year is going to be a target market outreach,” Knutson said. “The better we do at marketing and telling that story, the better off everybody will be.”
Knutson said one of her goals is laying that groundwork so that when Boeing announces, in a few years, that it’s ready to replace its top-selling 737 with a new 21st-century jet, there will be no question of it being assembled anywhere outside of the Puget Sound area. “We need to listen to what Boeing says now,” she said. “That plane could be assembled anywhere. We need to make sure it’s here.”
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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