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Tag: economic development

Inland Northwest Region Ranks High on Livability.com List

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Robin Ohlgren
Monday, 01 April 2019 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared on March 20, 2019 in The Spokesman-Review. By staff writer Amy Edelen.

Affordability, opportunities drive placement among top 100 nationally

Spokane again has made a national ranking – this time as a top place to live for its affordability, job opportunities and recreational options. The Lilac City is ranked No. 41 out of 100 cities in a list of Top 100 Best Places to Live in 2019 by Livability. com, which evaluated more than 1,000 cities based on economics, housing, amenities, education and health care.

“The cities on this year’s list represent the best of the best when it comes to affordability and opportunity,” Livability.com Editor-in-Chief Winona Dimeo-Ediger said in a statement. “These 100 cities are not just fantastic places to live in terms of their amenities, education, health care and infrastructure, they are places where young people can build amazing careers and communities.”

Spokane earned high marks for its parks, lakes, museums, and music and food scenes as well as accessibility to five universities and two medical schools, which boosted the city’s education score.

Affordability and job opportunities were top answers among 1,000 millennials surveyed nationally to determine what matters most to them when deciding to relocate, according to Livability. com.

The website indicated all cities on the Top 100 Places to Live list have median home values below $250,000. The median home price in Spokane is $239,900, according to February data from the Spokane Association of Realtors.

Spokane has the most affordable housing of all large counties in state, according to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington.

“Spokane is in very good position as far as affordability and sales price,” said Rob Higgins, executive officer of the Spokane Association of Realtors.

Higgins said that while housing inventory is low in Spokane, it’s expected to pick up in the next year, following a national trend of increased inventory in larger cities, such as Seattle.

Pullman and Richland ranked No. 86 and No. 30, respectively, on Livability.com’s list, while Boise topped the list as the best place to live. Moscow made the list at No. 60.

Spokane has been featured on several national lists during the past year, including “Cities on the Rise” by National Geographic Traveler magazine and “Best Foodie Cities in America,” by WalletHub.

affordabilityeconomic developmentinland northwestinlandnwrethinking rural

Rattlesnake Flat Wind Project to provide Renewable Energy to Avista Customers

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Robin Ohlgren
Wednesday, 20 March 2019 / Published in News + Updates

Agreement provides renewable energy intended to offset higher priced market purchases and fossil-fuel generation  

SPOKANE, Wash. – March 19, 2019: Avista, through a request for proposal issued in June 2018, has selected to purchase power generated by the proposed Rattlesnake Flat Wind project in Adams County, Washington.

Rattlesnake Flat Wind, a wind energy facility permitted and being developed by renewable energy developer Clearway Energy Group (“Clearway”), will provide Avista with approximately 50 average megawatts of renewable energy, or as much as 144 megawatts of nameplate wind capacity, under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with deliveries beginning in 2020. The PPA provides Avista with additional renewable energy, capacity and environmental attributes, which will offset higher priced market purchases. The PPA aligns with Avista’s 2017 Integrated Resource Plan which identifies that the utility will consider acquiring additional resources if such resources have lower long-term cost than electric market alternatives.  Avista expects to recover the cost of the power purchased through its retail rates.

“Recent market changes, including reductions in the cost of wind power facilities and tax incentives that remain in effect, have combined to make this an excellent time to acquire long-term output from a cost-effective wind resource, which has the added benefit of being located in our service territory,” said Jason Thackston, Senior Vice President of Energy Resources for Avista. “Rattlesnake Flat will help Avista meet its goal of providing reliable energy to our customers at a reasonable cost, while bringing even more renewable energy to our region, now and in the future.”

“We’ve been closely working with key stakeholders in Adams County, developing partnerships with landowners, businesses and local government to enable this project, and entering into this long term partnership with Avista is a very exciting next step,” said Benjamin Fairbanks, Senior Director of Wind Development at Clearway. “We’re proud that Rattlesnake Flat will be a source of home-grown renewable energy for the state of Washington and for Avista’s customers for many years to come.”

The wind farm will be the largest renewable energy facility in Adams County with the capacity to generate enough clean, renewable energy to power about 37,600 of Avista’s customers’ homes. Situated on 20,000 privately owned acres near Lind, WA, Rattlesnake Flat will tie into Avista’s electric system via Avista’s Lind/Washtucna transmission line.

SOURCE: Avista Corporation

adams countyavistaeconomic developmentinlandnwrattlesnake flatrenewable energyrethinking ruralsolar farm

Boeing 797 manufacturing facility could be hub for thousands of jobs in greater Spokane

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Robin Ohlgren
Monday, 11 March 2019 / Published in News + Updates
This article first appeared in the Spokane Journal of Business, February 28 2019. By Mike McClean.

Chicago-based Boeing Co. is signaling it likely will delay announcing until next year its much anticipated new aircraft line referred to as the new middle-market airplane, or more informally the 797, says Larry Krauter, Spokane International Airport CEO.

That delay could work to the advantage of Washington state’s efforts to convince Boeing to manufacture the plane within the state and quite possibly bolsters Spokane’s case that a significant share of the 797 manufacturing operations could be based here, Krauter says.

Krauter was appointed recently to the governor’s Choose Washington New Middle-Market Airplane Executive Council, which is tasked with convincing Boeing to choose Washington state for the design, production, and final assembly of the all-new aircraft. He’s also the chairman of the West Plains-Airport Area Public Development Authority, a tax revenue-sharing agency formed jointly by the city of Spokane, Spokane County, and Spokane International Airport to fund infrastructure to promote economic growth.

Though still early in the process, Spokane International Airport has developed a sketch that Spokane County Commissioner Al French describes as “what a 1 million-square-foot Boeing facility could look like.”

French also is a member of the public development authority board.

Todd Mielke, president and CEO of economic development organization Greater Spokane Inc., says such a facility could be the hub for thousands of good-paying direct and support jobs, including fabricators, machinists, welders, maintenance and operation personnel, administrators and managers, engineers, information technology professionals, and warehouse workers.

Boeing announced at the 2017 Paris Air Show that it was studying a new airplane design that would fill a market niche between its 737 line and its larger, long-haul 787 Dreamliner. The 797 aircraft would seat 220 to 270 passengers and have a range of about 5,200 nautical miles, the company said.

By comparison, Boeing’s 737 MAX series, its latest iteration of the 737, seats 138 to 230 passengers and has a range of up to 3,800 miles.

Krauter says Boeing is going through a diligent process to define the 797 to best fit customer needs for a middle-market plane.

“We’re aware of significant market challenges,” he says. “Some carriers are looking for twin-aisle aircraft with the economics of a single-aisle aircraft. Some carriers would like to carry more cargo and some less cargo.”

Due to anticipated competition from other plane makers for the market niche Boeing wants to fill with the 797, Krauter says Boeing likely isn’t in a position to defer the envisioned production date, and that creates potential advantages for Washington state and the Spokane area.

“I sense that they aren’t going to be able to slide that (market date) further out,” he says. “I think Boeing is going to have a more compressed time frame.”

That means the manufacturing site selection could be rapid once Boeing announces a decision to build the 797.

“Boeing is going to have to take advantage of existing infrastructure, both intellectual and physical,” Krauter says.

He contends Spokane has a compelling 1,200-acre site on the west side of the airport, and infrastructure improvements, including a rail spur and a truck-rail transfer facility, are planned or under way within the Public Development Authority district.

Also within the district, federally designated opportunity and trade zones could provide economic development incentives to enhance the manufacturing supply chain for such a major aircraft production, he says.

Krauter contends Boeing could bring in raw materials and subassemblies and manufacture a flyaway product at one potentially shovel-ready site here.

“From what I know, there’s only one megasite that can really work if Boeing wants the supply chain very closely located,” he says. “This aircraft has to be very economical. I believe Spokane has an incredible value proposition to be made to help drive costs out of that product.”

Krauter replaces Robin Toth, formerly of GSI, on the state’s NMA council, which falls under the purview of the Washington state Department of Commerce. Toth is now the state’s aerospace sector lead for the Commerce. She couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.

Gov. Jay Inslee also recently appointed former Washington State University Spokane chancellor and former state Senate majority leader Lisa Brown to be the Commerce department director, adding more Spokane roots to the department.

“I’m encouraged by that,” Krauter says. “Commerce is in the process of becoming a better partner for Spokane and a better department of Eastern Washington. It’s truly looking at a ‘one Washington’ approach to its mission.”

GSI’s Mielke says more than 130 companies supporting the global aerospace industry are operating in the Spokane area, making this the fifth largest aerospace cluster in the U.S.

He says many of those companies are part of Boeing’s supply chain.

French says one such company, Kent, Wash.-based Exotic Metals Forming Co., plans to expand in two phases on its 57-acre Airway Heights campus within the Public Development Authority’s jurisdiction.

Each addition will be similar in scope to the 150,000-square-foot plant the company built there in 2015, according to environmental planning documents.

French says, “When companies like that part of the supply chain are looking to expand in Spokane, that’s only good news. Not only does that make the case that we’re a good location, it attracts other (suppliers).”

French says the successful recruitment of Seattle-based online retailer Amazon.com Inc. within the Public Development Authority district only helps bolster Spokane’s case for a major Boeing manufacturing facility.

He says, “Now with Amazon, which is an international company, coming here, why not Boeing?”

aerospaceeconomic developmentgreater spokaneinlandnwspokane county

New Commerce Leadership on Both Sides of the Border

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Robin Ohlgren
Thursday, 14 February 2019 / Published in News + Updates
WASHINGTON

Lisa J. Brown, Ph.D., was appointed Commerce Director by Washington Gov. Inslee and began serving the agency in February of 2019. Prior to serving as Commerce director, Brown served as chancellor of Washington State University, where she led the health science campus in Spokane.

Brown served in the Washington State Legislature from 1996 – 2013 in the Senate where she was majority leader and chaired the Rules Committee, Ways and Means Committee, and Energy, Technology and Telecommunications Committee. She served in the state House of Representatives from 1993 – 1996, where she was minority whip and minority floor leader.

She has worked extensively on economic development in Eastern Washington and on gender equity.

Brown earned her bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Illinois and her master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

IDAHO

Tom Kealey is Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s appointment to serve as Director of the Department of Commerce, and began his service in January of 2019.  Kealey is co-owner of restaurant Chicago Connection and a former Morrison-Knudsen executive, and served on the Idaho Endowment Fund Investment Board under Governor Dirk Kempthorne.

A lifelong Republican and retired CPA, Kealey believes in protecting the Idaho Constitution, taxpayers money and credit rating.

Kealey earned his accounting and finance degree from the University of Washington and an MBA in Strategic Planning and Marketing from Harvard Business School.

department of commerceeconomic developmentidahoinlandnwinpwashington

Continued Job Growth in Spokane Metropolitan Area

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Robin Ohlgren
Thursday, 31 January 2019 / Published in News + Updates

Originally appeared in the Spokesman-Review, 24 January 2019. By Becky Kramer of THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW 

Education, health were key drivers in 2018, says economist

About 6,200 new jobs were created in the Spokane metropolitan area last year, reflecting the fourth year of strong regional job growth. The area includes Spokane, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties. For four years straight, the three-county area has gained more than 5,000 jobs annually.

Education and health care were drivers of job growth in 2018, said Doug Tweedy, regional labor economist for the Washington Employment Security Department. Both sectors added about 1,500 jobs last year.

Manufacturing also had a strong year, and so did professional and technical jobs. Attorneys’ offices and accountants were hiring last year, Tweedy said.

For comparison, the Spokane metro area created about 5,300 jobs in 2017.

Unemployment averaged 6 percent for the Spokane metro area in 2018, compared to 5.5 percent the year before.

Spokane County’s unemployment averaged 5.3 percent last year; Stevens County was at 7.2 percent; and Pend Oreille County at 7.3 percent.

CONTACT THE WRITER:(509) 459-5466 [email protected]

economic developmentinppend oreille countyspokane countyspokane metrostevens countywashington employment
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