Published April 2001

Tulalip biz park a catalyst
for county growth

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

Famous for the annual Boom City fireworks stands on their reservation west of Marysville, the Tulalip Tribes now are becoming famous for a different kind of Boom City — their new 800-acre, multimillion-dollar Quil Ceda Village retail center and business park on Interstate 5.

Already, a 150,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store is being stocked for a spring opening, and just beyond it a new 135,000-square-foot Home Depot will open a few weeks afterward. On another part of the site, hidden from the view of motorists on I-5, is the new Tulalip Tribes Bingo Hall.

Stretching from the 88th Street exit off I-5 to the 116th Street exit, the new development will include a new casino three times the size of the popular one that has been a powerful money engine for the Tulalip Tribes. An adjacent hotel and conference center also are planned.

For years, the Tulalip Tribes have dreamed of developing the business park, and today that development is becoming a catalyst for even more growth in north Snohomish County.

"Washington state, particularly the Puget Sound region, is something we are looking at very closely because there are a lot of potential Wal-Mart customers in that area," said Amy Hill, Wal-Mart's Western Region Director of Community Affairs in Reno, Nev. "Wal-Mart is a growth company, and we are always looking for opportunities to bring our stores into new areas. People don't realize we employ over 7,000 people in the state of Washington."

The Tulalip Wal-Mart store is expected to employ approximately 250 people.

At the south entrance to the business park, the Tribes recently announced plans for a 32,000-square-foot commercial center adjacent to Wal-Mart that will include a bank, retail stores, a tribal liquor store and a fast-food restaurant. Construction of the facilities is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

"We're really excited about this site," said the business park's project manager, Peter Mills. "We're particularly interested in working with the Greater Marysville-Tulalip Chamber and maybe getting some assistance from the Small Business Administration. Some of the entrepreneurs we want to work with include tribal members."

More than 20 tribal members have expressed interest in opening businesses in the park. Some have been on the waiting list for parcels since 1995, applying for such businesses as gift shops, espresso bars, drive-through convenience stores, massage parlors, consignment shops and galleries representing tribal artists. Mills said in late February that at least four banks also have expressed interest in competing to lease space in the new park.

John McCoy, Executive Director of Governmental Affairs for the tribes, said the Tulalips are studying the possibility of launching their own bank, which would be the first Native American bank in the state. Several inquiries have been received since a request for proposals was issued late last year. Tribal officials are still accepting and reviewing proposals. Nationally, the idea of tribal banks has been gaining favor on reservations where casinos and other successful businesses are generating new wealth for tribal enterprises and members.

"We've seen other tribes do it," McCoy said. "We're interested in it. We're always exploring ways to get the best return for our investment. It's all part of self-government."

He said no decision has been made yet whether the tribes would be sole owners of their bank or partners with an established financial institution.

On the southwest corner of the site, hidden by trees from the freeway view, the tribes recently opened their new 22,000-square-foot Tulalip Bingo Hall, which is attracting an estimated 5,000 people each month.

To the north of the current Wal-Mart and Home Depot development, land is cleared for construction of a retail center with a variety of stores, plus a regional entertainment complex that will include a hotel, conference center and a new Tulalip Casino.

More than three times the size of the present casino at Marysville's 4th Street exit from I-5, the new casino will employ as many as 1,000 people, many of them tribal members. The tribes are now doing an analysis to determine how large a market area the regional entertainment facility would serve, Mills said.

The Tulalips have maxed out their 675 video gaming machines allowed by the state, but they plan to lease the rights to as many as 800 machines more from smaller tribes with reservations outside metropolitan areas, according to McCoy.

More retail stores would be sited to the north of the entertainment center. Tribal officials say they have a number of prospective tenants, such as clothing retailers, but declined to offer more specific information because of ongoing negotiations.

At the northern end of the expansive park, the Tulalips have planned a "governance" center, with facilities for fire protection, police and emergency medical services that would serve the park and surrounding areas. There also would be room for tribal governmental offices. The Washington State Patrol already has a facility on 116th Street NE, the roadway that defines the park's northern boundary.

Original plans for the park have grown. In 2000, the Boeing Co. ended nearly 40 years of leasing Tulalip land for a testing facility. Now, that 1,200-acre parcel will allow the Quil Ceda business park to expand to almost 2,000 acres, providing room for future office buildings and light industrial facilities.

The development of the Tulalip Tribes business park is expected to be a powerful new economic engine that will propel development of the already fast-growing area for years to come.

Setting the stage for future growth over the past decade have been a number of significant developments in the area, both on and off the Tulalip reservation:

— The popular Tulalip Bingo Hall led to the launching of the tribes' casino, one of the largest and most successful of any of the state's Native American gaming centers.

— The building of the 88th Street interchange at I-5, promoted and partially funded by the tribes for the southern entrance to their business park, opened up new retail opportunities between the freeway and Highway 99 (State Street) in Marysville. A recently opened retail center on 88th Street includes a Haggen food store, a dozen tenants in adjacent retail centers and three gasoline stations.

— At the north end of the business park site, 116th Street NE is the I-5 exit to two more new retail centers, including a gasoline station, an Albertson's, Blockbuster video, a Medalia medical clinic and other enterprises.

— The 116th Street exit is also the main route to the Navy's support base for Naval Station Everett. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is based in the Everett harbor, but the base exchange, chapel, living units and other facilities are at the Marysville site.

— At the next freeway exit to the north, at 172nd Street NE, is the rapidly expanding Smokey Point retail center that recently was annexed by Arlington, a center that includes more than 120 businesses, from banks and grocery stores to restaurants and professional services.

— A few months ago, the new four-story Hawthorn Inn & Suites opened at Smokey Point, along with a four-story office building; a new restaurant, O'Berg's; and a large conference and convention center.

— The Tulalip Tribes recently awarded Mulvanny Architects of Seattle a design contract for the $7 million, 25,000-square-foot Tulalip Health Clinic. The clinic will employ approximately 75 people and is projected to handle 11,500 clinic visits within the first year of operation.

Along with residential subdivisions and new Navy off-base housing, the past decade's development of new retail and industrial sites at the Arlington Airport and the burgeoning population growth in Marysville have produced a swirl of interest in economic development.

The economic base is developing so fast in this area, in fact, that the Greater Marysville-Tulalip Chamber of Commerce and the Tulalip Tribes have sponsored two North Snohomish County Economic Summits, in 1997 and 2000, to draw together a confederation of developers, educators, citizens and government officials to discuss their common challenges and opportunities.

"Snohomish County is looked at as one of the last places in the state where we still have an opportunity to do things right," Chamber President and Summit co-Chair Caldie Rogers said. "The enthusiastic mandate of our first history-making summit was clear. People in North County want to continue working on issues that are important to us, specifically balancing growth and quality of life."

At the 2000 Summit, national consultant Doug Henton, an economic planning adviser and author of "Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs Are Building Prosperous Communities," urged the forming of partnerships between business, government and education. The partnerships, he said, would create an environment in balance with the needs of business, education and families.

The focus of the "new economy" is speed, innovation, flexibility, knowledge, networks and relationships between individuals, businesses and institutions, not simply the presence of various companies, Henton said.

The tribes' economic development is attracting interest from businesses that want to be in the general area near the business park, too.

Rogers said she has been in discussions with a high-tech company interested in locating its production facilities and headquarters on 80 acres in north Marysville.

If it happens, Rogers said, the corporate park on 152nd Street NE could dwarf Microsoft's Redmond campus and "absolutely change the whole face of Snohomish County."

Rogers credits the visionary development efforts of the tribes as a major force in changing the area's economy.

"We can't say enough about the (importance of the) role of the Tulalip Tribes in the growth here," she said.

While their synergistic work with nearby communities has had a dramatic impact on the north county area, the Tulalips never lose sight of their own agenda — helping tribal members. Over the past decade they have used their gaming revenues to promote economic self-sufficiency and a variety of education, health and social service programs for members.

The tribes also have not forsaken their environmental priorities.

"Planning for the business park has included protecting the environment as a number one priority," McCoy said, adding that businesses harmful to the environment or not offering livable-wage jobs are not considered.

The site plan provides for a 200-foot-wide strip of undeveloped land on each side of the park's salmon-spawning creek to protect fish runs, McCoy said.

"We're going to try to recapture the salmon habitat on the stream that runs through the park," McCoy said.

"We're going to have trees alongside it, some buffer zones, and we will put walking trails in there," he said.

Trees cut down to make way for the project will be used for cultural purposes, such as carvings or for fires during tribal ceremonies, McCoy said. The topsoil also will be recycled.

"A lot of the things we're doing to improve life for tribal members will also improve the quality of life for the entire reservation and the communities around us, not just tribal members," McCoy said. "There are a lot of direct and indirect benefits for the area."

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