Published April 2003

EDC to showcase county’s commercial space

It’s the job of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council to create economic opportunity. Opportunities for our friends and family to train for and win family-wage employment. Opportunities for us all to work in our areas of expertise near where we live, reducing congestion and traffic stagnation even as we experience greater quality of life.

One of the ways the EDC accomplishes this goal is to work with companies who want to locate in Snohomish County or who are considering Snohomish County as a place to expand. The economic reality is that for all of us to have access to the type of employment that provides well for our families, Snohomish County must keep the welcome mat out for companies willing to invest here.

At the EDC, our responsibility is to achieve and respect the delicate balance we each feel to provide for our families while preserving and enhancing our county’s environment and quality of life. We’re convinced that can be done. We see the possibilities and the results every day.

For example, according to the Department of Employment Security, 64.9 percent of Puget Sound jobs are in King County. Less than 12 percent are in Snohomish County. As many as 95,000 Snohomish County residents travel every day to work in King County. Just imagine the economic opportunity created, and the decrease in traffic congestion, if more of us were able to work nearer where we live.

In April, Snohomish County has two significant opportunities to reach the types of companies we believe will help make that happen: companies specializing in biotechnology, aerospace and electronics and the corresponding manufacturing.

On April 24, The Boeing Co. and the EDC are hosting an open house for commercial real estate brokers that will showcase Boeing buildings in Snohomish County available for lease as well as other buildings or build-to-suit projects located in Snohomish County. The event will provide us a forum to discuss the benefits of Snohomish County with brokers from Seattle and the Eastside who may be looking for sites suitable for companies ready to expand.

The next week, I will be meeting with several prominent West Coast commercial real estate consultants in Los Angeles to share with them the many benefits Snohomish County has to offer their corporate clients as well.

“Snohomish County has all the quality and sizes of space that Seattle and Eastside potential tenants are looking for,” says Derek Heed, senior vice president of Colliers International, a worldwide commercial real estate broker. A big attraction, he says, is the availability of affordable housing for potential employees, many of whom now commute south to work. “Bring the jobs north and that means a lot fewer people having to face those long commutes.”

Businesses eager to expand also are finding, sometimes to their surprise, that many of their employees already live in Snohomish County and would welcome a decision to move the company north. That was the case when Cyprus Semiconductor decided to locate in the Opus Northwest business complex near I-5, said Mike Ruhl, senior property director for Opus.

Snohomish County employees also were a factor in the expansion into Snohomish County in 2001 by Sparling Inc., the largest specialty electrical engineering and technology consulting firm in the United States.

April is an opportunity to present Snohomish County to the commercial real estate community both in Puget Sound and throughout the nation, and working together we can take full advantage of it. Because in the end, it is all about economy. Economic opportunity.

Deborah Knutson is president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council. She can be reached at 425-743-4567 or by e-mail to dknutson@snoedc.org.

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