Jump starting communities for success is topic for upcoming economic development meeting

Monday, 13 June 2022 / Published in News + Updates

June 13, 2022 (FAIRFIELD, Wash.)—Inland Northwest Partners (INP) is accepting registrations for a June meeting in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Rural economic development specialist, Jimi Coplen, will share her strategies for creating a spark in small communities.  “Jump Starting Your Community for Success”, is Tuesday, June 28 from 8:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. at Hayden Lake Country Club. Cost is $40 for INP members and $60 for non-members. Seating is limited. Register at www.inwp.org/events.

Jimi Coplen has been an economic and community development practitioner for 20 years, serving in small rural communities in Texas. During the pandemic, she launched an online platform, The Rural Spark, as an educational, and networking platform for other rural economic developers.

“My hope is to empower a new generation to lead their communities and lead strong”, says Coplen. “The pandemic created a shift. People are coming back to rural communities. They are buying homes, starting businesses, retiring, putting kids into our schools. Now more than ever, we need strong economic development professionals and programs.”

INP members meet quarterly to share common economic challenges and solutions within the eastern Washington and northern Idaho region. Topics can include technology, financing community initiatives, forging regional partnerships, civic capacity-building, business expansion and retention strategies, and talent attraction. INP often partners with local chambers or state organizations for value-added training.

For more information about INP meetings or becoming a member, visit inwp.org or email [email protected].

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Inland Northwest Partners (INP) is a non-profit organization focused on enhancing the long-term vitality of a two-state region through its core offering of educational meetings, programs, and seminars. More than 300 business and community leaders from eastern Washington and northern Idaho are members. INP is also part of a regional collaborative known as the Inland Northwest Economic Alliance (INEA), a consortium of fourteen economic development agencies. To learn more, visit inwp.org.

 

 

Story Contact:

KayDee Gilkey, Executive Director, Inland Northwest Partners

P| (509) 990-6105  E| [email protected]

Civic pride and apathy are topics of upcoming Inland Northwest Partners spring webinar

Wednesday, 09 March 2022 / Published in News + Updates

March 9, 2022 (FAIRFIELD, Wash.)—Inland Northwest Partners (INP) is accepting registrations for their 2022 Spring Webinar. Philadelphia author and urban planner, Jeff Siegler, will be sharing a new approach to help restore people’s relationship to their town and foster a sense of pride in their communities. The webinar, “Civic Apathy and Civic Pride”, is Wednesday, March 23 from 9:00 am-11:00 am. Cost is $20 for INP members and $30 for non-members. Register at www.inwp.org.

 

“Regardless of a town or city’s size, residents’ apathy can be a challenge. Too often, it is the same people who show up and address their community’s needs”, says INP Executive Director, KayDee Gilkey. “This webinar will provide small, simple steps that can be taken by communities to increase civic pride.”

 

Jeff Siegler grew up in a struggling rustbelt city and understands the devastating cost of civic apathy. After obtaining his Masters in Urban Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University, Siegler went to work on Main Street, first as a downtown manager and Business Improvement District director, and later as the Ohio Main Street State Coordinator.

 

Now a consultant, Siegler travels nationally and internationally to assist communities in their efforts to restore civic health. He places the focus on making our towns into places residents can be proud to call home rather than on economic development and tourism. Siegler founded the civic pride consulting firm, Revitalize, or Die and is a co-founding partner of Proud Places. He is currently in the process of writing his first book, titled Your City is Sick.

 

INP members meet quarterly to share common economic challenges and solutions within the eastern Washington and northern Idaho region. Topics can include technology, financing community initiatives, forging regional partnerships, civic capacity-building, business expansion and retention strategies, and talent attraction. INP often partners with local chambers or state organizations for value-added training.

For more information about INP meetings or becoming a member, visit inwp.org or email [email protected].

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Inland Northwest Partners (INP) is a non-profit organization focused on enhancing the long-term vitality of a two-state region through its core offering of educational meetings, programs, and seminars. More than 300 business and community leaders from eastern Washington and northern Idaho are members. INP is also part of a regional collaborative known as the Inland Northwest Economic Alliance (INEA), a consortium of fourteen economic development agencies. To learn more, visit inwp.org.

 

Inland Northwest Partners announces new executive director

Friday, 11 February 2022 / Published in News + Updates

February 11, 2022 (FAIRFIELD, Wash.)—Inland Northwest Partners (INP) is pleased to announce that a new executive director has been appointed. KayDee Gilkey comes to INP with more than 30 years of service to nonprofit boards on a local, regional, and state level, and is former two-term mayor of the Town of Fairfield, Washington. Gilkey is the economic development organization’s second director and assumed her position earlier this month. She succeeds Sharon Matthews, who held the position for 25 years. Matthews retired at the end of 2021.

Gilkey will concurrently remain as Directory of Industry Relations for the Washington State Beef Commission. She currently serves on the Liberty Community Education Foundation Board of Directors and serves as chapter advisor to WSU’s Alpha-Gamma-Delta chapter.

“We are so pleased to have KayDee joining us at the INP. Her expertise in non-profit leadership coupled with her passion for economic and community vitality is the perfect combination to help our organization succeed and support our mission, notes INP Board Chairman and Avista Regional Business Manager Paul Kimmell.

Inland Northwest Partners originated in 1986 as an in-house Avista economic development program and became an official non-profit corporation in 1996. In 2004, the organization developed the Inland Northwest Economic Alliance to better support community and economic development professionals from across the Inland Northwest. INP members meet quarterly to share common economic challenges and solutions within the eastern Washington and northern Idaho region. Topics include technology, financing community initiatives, forging regional partnerships, civic capacity-building, business expansion and retention strategies, and talent attraction. INP often partners with local chambers or state organizations for value-added training.

“Sharon was the consummate professional leading both organizations effectively for so long. Our Board and the entire region deeply appreciate her efforts and the positive economic impacts she helped foster here,” Kimmell said.

For more information about INP meetings or becoming a member, visit inwp.org or email [email protected].

Inland Northwest Partners (INP) is a non-profit organization focused on enhancing the long-term vitality of a two-state region through its core offering of educational meetings, programs and seminars.  More than 300 business and community leaders from eastern Washington and northern Idaho are members. INP is also part of a regional collaborative known as the Inland Northwest Economic Alliance (INEA), a consortium of fourteen economic development agencies. To learn more, visit inwp.org.

Engineering Idaho: David Evans & Associates consults on major traffic changes

Monday, 30 August 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in the Spokane Business Journal on July 15th, 2021, (Updated 7/16/2021 with new project cost and timeline on the Interstate 90-state Route 41 project.) by Kevin Blocker.

 

Established in Portland, Oregon in 1976, the transportation civil engineering consulting company David Evans & Associates Inc. has secured a solid presence in the Inland Northwest.

Especially in Idaho.

Despite the fact the biggest share of the company’s Inland Northwest employees are based in Spokane, it tends to secure more work in Idaho than in Eastern Washington.

“Idaho has a more robust program for consultants,” says Russell Leahy, the company’s transportation market leader for the Inland Northwest.

“(Washington state Department of Transportation) does a lot of work internally, so they don’t give much work to consultants,” Leahy says. The situation is similar for both the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley, he adds.

“Idaho typically runs lean, and they rely more on consultants to help deliver their work,” Leahy says. “We have a breadth of technical skills across the area and across the company that we can draw from. If we do a project here, we can pull people in from all over the company. We have the horsepower to deliver on tight time frames.”

The company has 750 employees in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and New York.

Roughly 35 employees are based in in the company’s Spokane office with another 20 in the Coeur d’Alene office.

Due to COVID-19, however, a significant part of the company’s Inland Northwest workforce is scattered across the region and working remotely, he says.

“We’ve got people in Clarkston (Washington), Lewiston (Idaho) … one in Riggins, Idaho,” he says.

More recently, a significant portion of David Evans & Associates’ Inland Northwest staff has increasingly turned its attention to a planned two-year, $57.2 million Idaho Transportation Department project for which the company is the consultant and design company.

Though he declines to provide specific revenue figures, Leahy says company revenues and projects have been on the rise in the last two to three years.

The project, for which construction will begin in 2023, involves the complete realignment of the Interstate 90-state Route 41 interchange in Post Falls.

“That is a major interchange upgrade to take a lot of the current goofiness out it,” Leahy says in reference to the area’s often inconsistent traffic flow. “But it’s going to be a disruption to everyone driving on the interstate because there’s going to be a lot of work on it.”

When finished, a portion of state Route 41 just off the freeway will be relocated to the west of its current location.

“By moving it away from the hillside, that’s going to allow us to move the westbound off ramp to prevent cars from backing up on the freeway the way they often do now,” he says. “It will give more time and room for people to slow down coming off the freeway.”

“The ultimate goal is to increase the operational efficiency of the interchange,” Leahy says. “It’s a really exciting project for us.”

David Evans & Associates also is the consulting and design company for ITD’s soon-to-be completed realignment of the state Route 53-U.S. 95 interchange just north of Coeur d’Alene and eight miles north of I-90.

In Spokane

But David Evans & Associates also secures a substantial amount of work in the Spokane area, Leahy says.

The civil engineering company currently is operating as the consultant to WSDOT for the current realignment project involving North Barker Road at East Trent Avenue in Spokane Valley, he says.

The project will place a roundabout at Barker and Trent while moving vehicle traffic below a BNSF Railway Co. line bridge to slow traffic while separating motorists from the rail line, he says.

“The separation of vehicular traffic from the railroad tracks is the big facet of that project,” says Leahy, of WSDOT’s desire to reduce keep motorists and trains away from each other as much as possible.

Leahy, a 15-year employee at the company, says most employees at the company have long-standing tenure.

“That’s one of our strengths; we’re a very stable company,” he says.

Despite that, Leahy says it has been a challenge to add more staff to the company’s Inland Northwest operations.

“Following the financial crisis of 2008, 2009, for two or three years, no one was hiring civil engineers,” he says. “A lot of people went to other fields and careers. Even still, it’s really hard to find good engineers right now.”

The growth in the Boise area, however, did result in the hiring of an additional 20 civil engineers to the company to handle work on burgeoning projects there, Leahy says.

“We’re hiring anybody we can right now, if they have skills and are good,” he says.

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Lessons from Malden teach volumes about how to strengthen community resilience

Monday, 02 August 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared on the Washington State Department of Commerce website on July 31, 2021.

Commerce work with local leaders in town decimated by wildfire reveals new approaches to better serve communities in crisis

Imagine feeling the scorching heat as you stand, stranded on the nearest small patch of green alfalfa, helpless against flames consuming the house on your family’s homestead settled generations ago. Or feeling a tightening knot in the pit of your stomach as you rush to the engulfed homes and businesses of your neighbors, making sure everyone is safe from the wildfire swallowing buildings whole. Imagine, then immediately shifting gears to lead rebuilding the devastated community, all while your own family is among those who lost everything.

That was reality for the current town mayor Dan Harwood and volunteer firefighter and town councilmember Scott Hokonson last September when the Babb Road fire roared through the rural town of Malden, Washington and destroyed 80 percent of its homes and buildings in a matter of hours. The small community of fewer than 300 residents sits among the rolling hills and fields of Washington’s Palouse, about 40 miles south of Spokane.

Horse in a pasture against background of green rolling hills in Malden, WA
Less than 300 residents call tiny Malden, Washington home. The town is nestled in the green, rolling hills of the Palouse about 40 miles south of Spokane. The Babb Road wildfire erased 80% of the buildings in this quiet rural community in a matter of hours.

Harwood, Hokonson and other local leaders and teams of dedicated individuals, have been working nonstop in their efforts to rebuild and come back even stronger. That effort has also challenged state agencies to rethink what it means to serve a community in crisis.

Community needs run the gamut, small to large, simple to complex

Immediate needs following a disaster are typically clear — food, shelter, water, communication and power restoration. Then what? What about the future? The extent of the damage in the community was near total, requiring extensive ongoing long-term recovery assistance.

For months, the president’s approval for a federal disaster declaration was delayed in Washington DC, leaving the entire community wondering if or when they could access recovery funds and resources for the town and its families and businesses. This put even more pressure on state and local government agencies, led by the state’s Emergency Management Division and Commerce’s Energy Emergency Management Director, to mobilize crisis response and support for the residents of Malden and neighboring Pine City.

Following the initial wildfire response, as the community looks towards recovery, Commerce Director Lisa Brown said the first step is simple but frequently overlooked — listening. She said all too often, well-meaning agencies show up to the rescue with a standard toolkit of services and funding in hand. Communities are unique, and this one-size-fits-all solution isn’t always what a community actually needs.

“Plenty of people are willing to step up and help, but coordination is the heavy lift,” said Commerce Director Lisa Brown. “We were able to embed with the community and listen carefully to their needs. Sorting out the processes for getting what they need is something local leaders very often just don’t have the capacity to track down and do in the midst of such chaos.”

Connections more important than funding

Commerce’s Community Engagement Team arrived in Malden and met with local leaders led by Mayor Harwood and Hokonson in his role as Long-term Recovery Project Director.

“It’s important to build the relationship — one-way communication is not what they need,” said Commerce’s Community Outreach Specialist Julia Havens who serves in the northeastern part of the state. “We didn’t come in with pre-conceived notions and try to do things right away. We started slow and kept showing up.”

With such overwhelming needs, it became clear that the question of “what can I do to be helpful” would keep changing.

Hokonson expressed that the community “will take whatever you have to offer, whenever you’re ready to offer it.”

Helping the local recovery leadership team map and track their myriad needs and then organize around finding the right resources was key. Small town leaders wear multiple hats under normal circumstances, so the strain in a situation like this is overwhelming. Commerce brought together “tech teams” to address everything from housing to broadband to water infrastructure with inter-agency partners.

Some needs, such as emergency housing and communications, were straightforward. Shortly after the fire, Commerce’s Community Services and Housing Division identified funds for emergency rental assistance, and the Washington Broadband Office jumped in to negotiate with private internet service providers to get and keep the community connected.

Other essential needs continue to pop up daily amid the destruction.

When the call came “we need highway signs,” Commerce connected the town with regional transportation officials to take the lead.

Every small victory keeps the team encouraged.

“They will have a replacement flag at the post office, a new outgoing mailbox installed and now a new nearby post office is in the works. These wins help the community realize the sense of place and they matter,” recalls Havens.

Rebuilding for resilience — planning ahead to be prepared

Dozens of federal and state agencies, nonprofit and faith-based organizations and other groups have come to the table to help strengthen the community. One of those organizations is the Washington State Public Works Board, a leading member of the infrastructure “tech team” of experts involved in the ongoing recovery work.

Malden’s water system had been severely damaged in the fire, and private wells in the community were contaminated by ash and debris.

The Public Works Board was able to use its statutory flexibility to adopt a new policy to expand the funding limit of its emergency program in the case of catastrophic events, and took action to do so at their April meeting. This new policy also provided the Board with latitude to approve up to 100% grant funding to requests meeting this criteria.

As a result, Malden applied for $3.7 million in grant funding to drill a new town well, connect the private wells that had been contaminated to the system, and install additional water mains and fire hydrants to provide and increase fire protection. The board awarded full funding on May 7, Mayor Harwood signed the contract days later, and the required review processes began the next day. Completion of this project will ensure adequate water resources, public health and safety, preserve property values and support economic revitalization.

Public Works Board Chair Kathryn Gardow said, “The measure of any community is the way it handles adversity. Few towns have been tested as harshly as Malden, and their resolve and passion to rebuild after this devastating fire is clear. The Public Works Board is proud to stand with the town of Malden as it rebuilds and transitions to a brighter future and look forward to seeing Malden rebuilt better than ever.”

One wrinkle in the funding remained. In order for the funding to be used, state law requires the municipality to have an updated critical areas ordinance (CAO) in place. Malden’s CAO was last updated in 2007. Commerce connected its growth management services staff with town clerk Micki Harnois to work collaboratively on expedited completion of the new ordinance.

“Here’s an example of a government agency starting from ‘how can we make this happen’ when it could have been ‘you’re out of compliance.’ When you’re working to help a small, local community be successful, the approach has to be totally different,” Havens said.

Mayor Dan Harwood and Town Clerk Micki Harnois

Mayor Dan Harwood and Town Clerk Micki Harnois are among the dedicated leaders working tirelessly to rebuild their community where so many families lost everything.

Another consequence of the fire was that it destroyed the built and natural identifiers for land parcel boundaries. Parcel boundaries are crucial for property owners as they begin rebuilding, as well as the town and county for land use planning efforts. In February this year, Commerce provided a $55,000 grant to help Malden conduct a land survey and plan for integrating the data into their future plans, which was recently completed.

“It’s been my privilege to meet Mayor Harwood and Micki. It’s absolutely an honor to play a very small part in the recovery of Malden, not just to rebuild but to build back better,” said Commerce’s Local Government Division Director Mark Barkley, who deployed numerous team members to assist the town.

Once the request for federal disaster declaration came through 151 days later on February 4, FEMA assistance finally became available, opening a cascade of other resources that had been dependent on the federal designation. Property testing and cleanup is underway, but the list of priority infrastructure projects is long. Local leaders press on, supported by many offers of assistance from philanthropic, religious and other community partners in addition to federal and state partners.

Other long-term efforts underway include looking at affordable housing throughout the Pine Creek area. Commerce’s community services and housing staff are working with community leaders to form a low and moderate-income housing roundtable to identify resources to help address long-term needs and build community resilience for the future.

Lessons learned will guide change

Commerce team members remain engaged in various aspects of the community’s long-term recovery.

“We showed up and we stayed; we were there week after week,” said Brown.

Havens, who is embedded with the town and local long-term recovery teams, continues to attend and support daily and weekly coordination calls.

“I am inspired by those who have lost so much and yet are completely dedicated to keep moving forward. I am doing everything that I can to continue helping them get those wins,” she said.

Beyond the short-term satisfaction of helping neighbors in need, Brown said the agency gained important insights that will guide future action.

The experience raised a set of questions about helping the next community in crisis. What needs to be there, ready to go? What can be done proactively to ensure community resilience in the face of disaster?

For example, Brown notes restrictions on state funding is a challenge. “We learned there’s just not much flexible funding out there that allows us to come in and cross program or agency boundaries to get the community what they need. That’s something we’ll be exploring with legislators.”

Above all, the experience reinforced for Commerce’s entire team and their many partners that there is no substitute for the power of ongoing, trusted relationships to strengthen communities.

New flagpole installed on the site of what will be the town’s new post office.

A fresh flag waves from a new flagpole where a new post office building will soon stand, seeming to signal that Malden is on the comeback trail.

Harwood, who calls himself a “glass half full” guy, is upbeat about his community’s future, in spite of challenges still ahead for the residents of this small town who have experienced the double trauma of COVID-19 and wildfire in one short year.

In addition to completing clean up of nearly every property, construction of new water and large scale septic systems and acquisition of two new fire trucks, Harwood is bullish on opportunities that will come with the town’s future fiber-optic broadband infrastructure.

He likens the potential impact of broadband to that of rail coming to Malden in 1903. Once the Port of Whitman’s plan for connecting the community to high-speed internet is complete, Harwood envisions more folks opting for the slower pace, recreational opportunities and lower land prices of small town life in a beautiful place.

And for some who already call the town home, Harwood paints a picture of what it could mean. He thinks about training veterans struggling with PTSD to work from home, providing supplemental income, and more importantly, he said, bolstering a sometimes battered sense of self-worth.

Harwood is matter-of-fact: “Broadband changes lives.”

He also strikes a serious tone as he speaks about challenges still on the horizon, such as mental health capacity for people to be able to have a proper “debrief.” Neighbors need to talk with each other, he said, about what they went through and how they survived it, first the trauma of COVID and then the fire.

Havens and others continue to stand side-by-side with local leaders as they navigate these and other emerging needs on the road to recovery.

“Commerce is the one of the best kept secrets,” Harwood offered. “I can’t name them all, but these people are ingrained in Malden. I can’t say enough about what all the support means for our community.”

Recordings of recent INP webinars now online

Wednesday, 03 March 2021 / Published in News + Updates

 

Now available in our Speaker Presentation Library, our recent webinars have been recorded:

INP 2021 Winter Webinar: Retail & Restaurant Recovery

Heather Thomson – It’s a Tall Order
Josh Wade -Hospitality Survival Strategies

Webinar Recording—> Click here!

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INP 2020 Winter Webinar:The Importance of Digital Inclusion

Monica Babine: Setting the Stage
Russ Elliott: State Programs & Resources (WA)
Eric Forsch: State Programs & Resources (ID)
Mike Kennedy: A Provider’s Perspective
Debra Hansen: Broadband Action Teams: How to Engage Your Community Utilizing the BAT Model

Broadband Action Team (BAT) Information Sheets

Webinar Recording—>Click here!

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INP 2020 Fall Webinar: 2020 Regional Economic Outlook

Sam Wolkenhauer: Inland Northwest Labor Market Trends (ID)
Ajsa Suljik: Inland Northwest Labor Market Trends (WA)
John Mitchell: 2020 Regional Economic Outlook-COVID, Zooming & Resilience

Webinar Recording—> Click here!

New residents are just one factor in rise in Spokane home values

Monday, 01 February 2021 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in the Journal of Business on January 14, 2021. By Patrick Jones, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy & Economic Analysis at Eastern Washington University.

Supply side said to have greater effect as listings fall short of local demand

Ever thought it’s those out-of-towners who have driven up housing prices here recently? You probably aren’t alone.

After all, the median house price for resale has climbed from approximately $284,000 to $330,000 over the past four quarters.

That $46,000 represents a 16% bump, a steep one for buyers. Spokane’s median price, while still considerably lower than the state value, cruised upward at a slightly higher pace than Washington’s median, which rose 14% over the past 12 months. (Supporting data is available on Eastern Washington University’s Spokane Trends website.)

Prices reflect many forces, both demand and supply. The key drivers of housing demand are income, financing, and population. Incomes here have moved upward in the past few years, but at a rate not too far from historical rates. For sure, mortgage rates have plummeted, leading some homeowners to consider trading up and some renters to consider buying.

Population growth, too, has surged over the past four years, relative to the past two decades. And like most western U.S. cities, Spokane’s population has expanded largely due to migration.

Local families continue to keep OB-GYNs busy, but in the larger scheme of things, it is migration that moves the population needle. For example, from April 1, 2019, to April 1, 2020, the number of heads in Spokane County rose by 7,350. Of those, 85% can be attributable to net migration.

Net migration accounts for the difference between those who move in and those who move out. Over the past five years, the number of county residents here due to net migration has been slightly more than 25,000. That’s a large jump from the prior five years.

Has it been just me who has seen more out-of-state license plates on Division Street or Interstate 90 since the pandemic struck? Observations from behind the wheel are not optimal research techniques. Thankfully, we can look at a public data series: driver’s license surrenders tracked by the Washington state Department of Licensing.

The surprise result for the first 11 months of the year: out-of-state license surrenders have dropped. From January through November the Department of Licensing reports about 7,700 new residents from outside of our state exchanging driver’s licenses. That total is down from 9,160 and 10,830 for the first eleven months of 2019 and 2018, respectively. So much for casual empiricism.

In retrospect, that shouldn’t be too surprising. The early months of the pandemic’s outbreak put a hard stop to mobility in this country.

A comparison of license surrenders in the second quarter of this year with the second quarter of 2019 is startling: 104 this year versus 2,360 last year.

Undoubtedly, the low numbers from this year are due to the closure of state offices for a good part of the quarter. Yet the third quarter, when obstacles to reregistering ostensibly were removed, didn’t compensate for the prior quarter. Licensing data show a gain of little more than 200.

In sum, the continued discovery by those from out-of-state, so strong in the recent years, shifted gears in 2020.

Yet, inflows might still be strong from movers within the state. The U.S. Census tracks annual flows from county to county in the U.S, compiled over five-year intervals. The most recent period is 2014-2018. It clearly shows the flow of Washingtonians to our county to be considerable.

Over that interval, the ratio of new residents to Spokane from Washingtonians to those outside of the state was just slightly below even. That is, a few more new residents have recently come from outside the state than from the other 38 counties in Washington.

It might be the case that the pandemic has changed that relationship, making it relatively easier for residents of Evergreen State counties to move here than those from hundreds of miles away.

In fact, among the top 10 U.S. counties contributing to in-migration here over the 2014-2018, period, seven were in Washington. Ranked by size of their flows, these were: Snohomish, King, Benton, Grant, Pierce, Stevens, and Lincoln counties.

Of the two out-of-state counties, one, not surprisingly, is neighboring Kootenai County, and the other, perhaps surprisingly, is Maricopa, Arizona. Though not a county, Asia as a whole rounded out the top 10.

Most of us have heard anecdotes about neighbors or friends of friends who have moved here from the central Puget Sound area. Many of the accounts describe the new residents as remote workers. That arrangement may well be part of the new normal for our economy and in particular for tech workers.

If so, these new neighbors symbolize a hope held by many in the economic development community: Someday Spokane will benefit from an arbitrage of labor from high-cost to lower-cost urban centers.

It is this observer’s hunch that current movement from other Washington counties has mirrored the decline of out-of-state new residents in 2020.

As a consequence, fingers can’t be pointed at Seattleites for the dramatic run-up in housing costs. Until we have data for 2020, we simply won’t know.

Attempts to explain housing prices solely to increased demand, however, miss half of the equation, perhaps the greater half. The supply side must be considered. Here, as has been widely noted, the offering of Spokane homes has been lowest on recent record.

The Washington State Real Estate Research Center, source for some of the housing data on Spokane Trends, tracks the number of listings by quarter in the county. For Q3 2020, the most recent quarter for which data are available, the count stood at 558. Compare that with 1,158 listings in Q3 2019, or 2,562 listings in Q3 2015.

Population has grown, incomes have grown, financing has gotten much more favorable, yet supply has diminished. Clearly this is a textbook case for rising prices.

The supply of homes (listings) rests on two sources: the number of local households selling their homes and the number of new homes coming onto the market.  Spokane Trends doesn’t track the latter, but does follow residential building permits, typically viewed as a leading indicator. (See indicator 2.3.3.) The graph clearly shows a peak in 2016, followed by a decline of 500 permits into 2019.

The reasons behind the decline are numerous.

They include: difficulty in securing land, the cost of developing lots, a tight labor pool in the building trades, and the rising costs of construction, especially lumber. Some of these forces might see some relief relatively soon, but others will take longer to resolve.

That is, unless hundreds of current Spokanites decided to sell and move to a different place. That doesn’t seem to be in the offing now. The pandemic has kept local residents place-bound, too. Once our community reaches a safe threshold of vaccinations, I don’t expect a big outflow. Continued low supply, growing popularity from outside the region, continued low financing costs, and no significant rise in departures imply rising home prices for the foreseeable future.

URM grocery purchases old Northwest Bedding facilities on West Plains, adds clients on coast

Monday, 21 December 2020 / Published in News + Updates

This article first appeared in the Journal of Business on October 22nd, 2020. . Written by Natasha Nellis

Spokane-based wholesale cooperative URM Stores Inc. has purchased the former Northwest Bedding complex on the West Plains to accommodate ongoing growth, as the organization expands west of the Cascade Mountains.

Located at 6102 S. Hayford Road, just west of the Amazon Fulfillment Center and north of West Plains Building Supply, the newly acquired property includes two warehouses with nearly 140,000 square feet of floor space—one with 117,900 square feet of space and the other with 16,000 square feet.

The structures will be used as additional staging and storage space, says Mike Winger, vice president of store development.

“It gives us some flexibility to better utilize the main URM facility,” he says.

A commercial change-of-use application on file with Spokane County shows tenant improvements in both structures are valued at about $12.4 million. URM purchased the 13.8-acre property for $3.7 million in September, according to Spokane County Assessor’s Office records.

The recently acquired Hayford Road structures previously operated as a boat manufacturer, Sun Runner, from 1977 to 1991 before transitioning into a Northwest Bedding manufacturing facility, says James Black III, Realtor with NAI Black who handled the transaction. The property has been vacant for roughly two years.

The expansion comes on the heels of a double-digit growth in revenues during the most recent fiscal year.

In its 2020 fiscal year ended July 31, the company experienced double-digit sales growth and closed out the year at a consolidated annual revenue of $1.3 billion, up 13% compared with 2019 revenue, Winger says.

Much of that growth is attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people cook at home and drive up sales at grocery stores, which in turn drives up sales at the wholesale cooperative, he says.

“The way the virus has impacted the restaurant trade has really changed people’s eating habits, and a lot of our retailers have experienced significant sales growth because people are now going to the grocery store and buying a lot of that center-store grocery product,” he contends.

Winger says it’s likely the new facilities will operate with a limited staff, as the facility is intended to be used as a temporary dry food storage facility. However, he adds, the significant growth and demand the company has seen this year has led to over 80 new hires at the URM headquarters, and the company is looking to add 30 to 35 additional employees before year’s end.

URM currently has over 670 employees.

In addition to eliminating periodic expenses related to off-site storage during the holiday seasons, the new facilities give URM expanded storage capabilities that Winger says will allow the company to better serve its growing client base in the large Pacific Northwest metropolitan areas.

“With the growth of our company, we’ve been pushing our trade area farther west,” says Winger. “Now, we service grocers over in the Seattle and Portland area.”

He adds that as more retailers are added to the company’s roster, the demand for specialty products could increase. The new facility will help to accommodate those products that the company headquarters, at 7511 N. Freya, currently doesn’t now.

Further, he says the grocery industry is continuously evolving, with new products being added every day, organic products growing in popularity and diversity, and ethnic foods growing in demand.

The new space will give the company the flexibility to accommodate those needs in the future as the company’s retailer base diversifies, he contends.

During the holiday season, the distributor often rents additional space to store the candy and other holiday treats the member companies only stock seasonally, Winger explains, so having the additional space will cut that expense.

The West Plains facilities currently are undergoing tenant improvements to ensure that the buildings are up to date with code requirements, he says. The buildings also aren’t connected to city water or sewer systems, and instead operate on a private well, so the company is inspecting them to ensure the life safety systems are operational, he adds.

Winger says improvements are slated to be completed by spring 2021.

“We have, for some time, been looking to see how we could expand our existing warehouse facility. We’re somewhat limited because we have the railroad property to the west of us and we have streets on either side,” he says of the company’s headquarters on Freya Avenue.

Much of the planned work is cosmetic, adds Winger. Additionally, the structure’s roof will be replaced, portions of the steel panel wall will be repaired, and the loading docks will need to be repaired or replaced to be properly sized for the company’s trucks, he says.

URM’s flagship distribution center on Freya Street is 680,000 square feet. According to the company’s website, its distribution center receives over 400 inbound truckloads weekly and ships over 450 outbound truckloads a week.

Its headquarters were established in Spokane in 1926. Since, the company has steadily expanded its space, with its last addition occurring in 2014 when the company added 77,000 square feet to its perishable groceries space.

URM services members in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Its offerings include dry groceries, frozen food, ice cream, deli foods, dairy products, fresh meat, general merchandise, and health and beauty aids.

The 99-year-old cooperative is a member-owned food distributor to grocers that include Center Place Market, Family Foods, Harvest Foods, Huckleberry’s Natural Market, Rosauers Supermarkets, Super 1 Foods, The Markets LLC, Town & Country Markets Inc., Yoke’s Fresh Market, and Northwest Grocers.

The company also provides supplies to two URM Cash & Carry stores.

Next year URM Stores will celebrate its 100th year, says Winger.

Spokane company leads with virtual solution to teach children with autism

Monday, 13 July 2020 / Published in News + Updates

Long before the era of COVID-19, Laura Kasbar was a Spokane mother who merely wanted to find a way to address her children’s autism.

Almost by chance, she noticed that video lessons would help, particularly with a child who doctors had declared would never speak.

Nine years later, in 2011, her son Max was mainstreamed, and her Gemiini Systems, still based in Spokane, has become a worldwide leader in online distance learning for people with autism, Down syndrome, dyslexia, speech delay, stroke and other issues.

Since the novel coronavirus outbreak, Gemiini has seen “an avalanche” of interest as families and school districts seek virtual solutions to real-life challenges of learning from home, Kasbar said from her home in Southern California.

The company, with about 50 employees, is run by her son Nicholas out of the Holley- Mason Building in downtown Spokane. After an initial adjustment, Gemiini has adapted to a surge in business.

Gemiini has opened its certification program to professionals and has waived the $490 fee for certification.

Gemiini is also offering schools and clinics the use of its system at no cost as long as they agree to submit the cost of the program to Medicaid.

Gemiini has proven to be a valuable solution for special education administrators, who are struggling to navigate this crisis to continue to meet the needs of special needs students and families.

For many children, “this can be the only link to therapy,” Kasbar said. “And now with COVID everyone is on that boat.

“Our team has been able to get to work immediately. Our subscription base has increased dramatically.”

Gemiini – the unique spelling is Kasbar’s tribute to her autistic twins, Max and Anastasia – was the product of Kasbar’s yearslong search for a solution.

Nicholas Kasbar is ready for a busy day at Gemiini Educational Systems located in the Holley-Mason Building in downtown Spokane. Gemiini Educational Systems, which Kasbar co-founded with his mother Laura, is a video-focused system to teach autistic children. Business is booming for Gemiini since the COVID-19 pandemic sent students home for school.

It was in 2001 that Kasbar recalled walking into a room in her Spokane home, saw all six of her children lined up in front of the television and “couldn’t really tell which were the autistic ones.”

At that time, conventional wisdom dictated the television should be turned off if autistic children were nearby. But that experience told Kasbar video was the answer.

She and her husband Brian had noticed that young Max wouldn’t make eye contact with them but would interact with the television.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got to get my mouth on the TV,’ ” Kasbar said.

That night, they made one-minute videos of a cup and Barney, the TV dinosaur.

“It was a close-up of my mouth saying the word ‘Barney’ next to the actual Barney and then saying the word ‘cup’ next to a cup. We did three sets in a row,” Kasbar said.

That night, after watching several times from his highchair while eating, Max made his biggest breakthrough.

Kasbar held up a cup and he said “cup,” his first word – 3 years and 8 months of age.

During the next decade, and with the help of her oldest son, Nicolas – who also had been on the autism spectrum – Kasbar developed the video program.

In 2012, thanks to funding from the Spokane Angel Alliance and Inland Imaging, Gemiini was launched.

Backed by studies from four universities, Gemiini serves 30,000 clients in 40 countries.

Its use of discrete video modeling, which presents only a specific piece of audio information, was showed by a Portland State University study to be 300% more effective than standard video modeling.

Kasbar was so inspired by the success of her program that she shared her experiences in a book, “Embracing the Battle: Secrets of Victory from a Warrior Mom.”

Closer to home, Gemiini has worked with former NFL star and Spokane native Mark Rypien to develop an application to address suicide prevention.

The goal, Rypien said last fall, is to connect circles of friends of persons at risk so they can better monitor their state of mind.

Lately, the main focus has been reaching children who have been isolated by COVID-19.

“It’s been pretty easy,” said Nicolas, who runs the Spokane headquarters. “After a few headaches, we’ve been able to keep going and helping people, and we’ve updated a lot of our instructions on Facebook Live to walk people through how our lessons work.”

Jim Allen can be reached at (509) 459-5437 or by email at [email protected].

A ten-point preparedness plan for our communities

Thursday, 09 April 2020 / Published in News + Updates

Published on Brookings Institute. Article written by Richard Florida and Steven Pedigo. 

As the dreaded coronavirus rips across the globe, city after city has locked down, transforming urban business centers, suburban malls, and other public spaces into ghost towns. This is not the first time this has happened—since time immemorial, cities have been epicenters of communicable diseases.

No pandemic or plague or natural disaster has killed off “the city,” or humanity’s need to live and work in urban clusters. Not the Black Plagues of the 14th century, or London’s cholera epidemic in the 1850s, or even 1918’s Spanish Flu, which killed tens of millions of people worldwide. That’s because cities’ concentration of people and economic activity—which serves as the motor force for innovation and economic growth—is just too strong.

We will get through this pandemic, too. We will go back to work and school and gather in restaurants and theaters and sports stadiums again. But when we do, cities and their leaders should not simply return to business as usual. Not only does COVID-19 threaten to reappear in subsequent waves if we do not remain vigilant, but there will always be future pandemics to brace against as well.

Our mayors, governors, and community leaders must do whatever is necessary to get their cities back up and running as soon as they safely can. After, we will need plans in place to prepare for future pandemics, and any social or economic lockdowns they necessitate. The federal government must do its part too, with bold and unprecedented programs to bolster the economic situation of our states and cities as well as our workers and business, especially small business.

Getting this response right may be as important as what we are doing today. Below is a 10-point plan based on detailed tracking of the current pandemic and historical accounts of previous ones, presenting some key measures to prepare our cities, economy, and workers for the next phase of the coronavirus crisis and beyond.

  1. Pandemic-proof airports: Airports are a critical engine of economic development—they cannot be idled indefinitely. We need to make sure they can get up and running again quickly, and that means mobilizing like we did in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by adding temperature checks and necessary health screenings to the security measures already in place. It also means reducing crowding: Simple things like stanchions or painted lines on floors can promote social distancing in waiting areas. Airports should have large quantities of masks and hand sanitizer available, and airlines will need to reduce their passenger counts and keep middle seats open during future health crises.
  1. Prepare large-scale civic assets: Cities are also home to other forms of large-scale infrastructure: stadiums, arenas, convention centers, performing arts centers, etc. Because they bring together large groups of people, city leaders must pandemic-proof these assets as much as possible, too. Audience sizes may need to be reduced in theaters, with seats left open. Masks may need to be required and made available to patrons as needed, and temperature checks carried out. This will be critical for communities that are dependent on such attractions: A Brookings analysis shows that COVID-19’s economic downturn will hit tourism-driven cities such as Orlando and Las Vegas hardest. The sooner such large-scale civic infrastructure can be safely reopened, the faster our urban economies will be able to rebound in the aftermath of a pandemic. 
  1. Modify vital infrastructure: As we’ve seen during the first phase of the COVID-19 crisis, buses, subways, and trains need emergency infusions of cash to keep the systems solvent when ridership is low or nonexistent. When they are back in service, design changes in stations and seating will be needed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Streets may need some retrofits too; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for pedestrianizing some New York City streets to promote social distancing during COVID-19. Some of these changes should be permanent. Cities need to expand and better protect their bike lanes too, while refining bike- and scooter-sharing programs for when public transit in compromised.
  1. Ready key anchor institutions: Medical centers, hospitals, and universities are on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19, and many are already overtaxed. With dormitories, dining halls, and large groups of people, they will be highly vulnerable to the secondary waves of contagion. How can we ensure that they can operate safely to carry out vital research during pandemics? Just as with other large-scale civic assets, classes in these institutions can be kept small, but institutions will need to retrofit dormitories and dining halls with temperature checks and ensure adequate social distancing so they can safely function.
  1. Embrace telework: We are in the midst of a massive experiment in remote work. Most people will eventually go back to their offices, but some workers and companies may find remote work to be more effective. Tulsa, Okla. has leveraged this concept through its Tulsa Remote initiative, which pays remote workers a small grant to relocate there while helping them forge community and civic connections. Cities can learn from one another about how to best support the growing cadre of remote workers and make them connected, engaged, and vital parts of their communities.
  1. Ensure Main Street survives: The restaurants, bars, specialty shops, hardware stores, and other mom and pop shops that create jobs and lend unique character to our cities are at severe economic risk right now. Some projections suggest that as many as 75% of them may not survive the current crisis. The loss of our Main Street businesses would be irreparable, and not just for the people whose livelihoods depend on them, but for cities and communities as a whole. The places that have protected their Main Streets will have a decisive competitive advantage as we return to normalcy. Loan programs from government, foundations, and the private sector as well as support from small business and technical organizations will be essential for ensuring these businesses survive. Cities need to provide this type of assistance and advice to these vital small businesses so they can safely reopen and weather the storm of future lockdowns.
  1. Protect the arts and creative economy: The creative economy of art galleries, museums, theaters, and music venues—along with the artists, musicians, and actors who fuel them—is also at dire risk. Cities must partner with other levels of government, the private sector, and philanthropies to marshal the funding and expertise needed to keep their cultural scenes alive. Once they are allowed to reopen, these places will also need to make interim and long-term changes in the way they operate. Cities should provide advice and assistance on necessary procedures—from temperature screenings, better spacing for social distancing, and other safety measures—for these venues to continue as part of the urban landscape.
  1. Assess leading industries and clusters: It’s not individual firms but clusters of industry and talent that drive economic development. Some of those clusters are at greater risk than others: Sectors such as transportation, travel and hospitality, and the creative arts will be hit the hardest, while e-commerce and distribution or advanced manufacturing for health care and food processing may grow. Cities and economic development organizations must assess the industries and clusters that are most vulnerable in their territory, evaluate the impacts future pandemics will have for their labor markets and communities, and plan to make their economies more resilient and robust. They should pull together cluster working groups of business and non-profit representatives and local academics and experts to best assess the impact of the pandemic and pandemic-related response on key clusters and develop medium-range plans.
  1. Upgrade jobs for front-line service workers: Nearly half of Americans work in low-wage service jobs. A considerable percentage of them—emergency responders, health care aides, office and hospital cleaners, grocery store clerks, warehouse workers, delivery people—are on the front lines of the pandemic. They need better protection, higher pay, and more benefits. States such as Vermont and Minnesota have paved the way by designating grocery store employees as emergency workers, making them eligible for benefits including free child care. Having a well-paid cadre of front-line service workers who can keep our communities safe and functional will help protect us from future wave of this pandemic and others that may follow.
  1. Protect less-advantaged communities: The economic fallout of pandemics will hurt most for the least-advantaged neighborhoods and their residents, who lack adequate health coverage and access to medical care, and who are the most vulnerable to job losses. This, too, is a fundamental issue of both safety and equity. Concentrated poverty, economic inequality, and racial and economic segregation are not only morally unjust—they also provide fertile ground for pandemics to take root and spread. Economic inclusion and more equitable development are critical factors for the health, safety, and economic competitiveness of our places. Cities and local leaders can work with federal and state agencies, community development organizations and local foundations to target needed funds, support services and technical assistance ot these areas.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. In the not-too-distant future, the pandemic will end and our cities will return to something approximating normal. What we do over the next 12 to 18 months can ensure that our city and metro economies get up and running again while protecting themselves against similar scenarios in the future. This is a time when our cities and their leaders can and must show the way forward.

 

RFlorida

Richard Florida

Professor – University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and School of Cities

Distinguished Visiting Fellow – New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate

Author – The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis

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Steven Pedigo

Professor of Practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs – University of Texas at Austin