HomeMy WebLinkAboutClallam County Economic Development CorporationMIC. ULVLLUNMLIN I C,UI- PUKAI IUN
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905 West 9th, Suite 221-222
PO Box 1085 Port Angeles • WA 98362 jf , JUN 9 2016
360.457,7793 www.clallam.org L
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Today we expect to seat two new members to the EDC Board. The first is Michael McQuay, well-
respected owner of the Kokopelli Grill in Port Angeles, and a man with a tremendous personal stake in
seeing our community thrive and grow. Beyond being an outstanding chef and restauranteur, for many
years Michael and his brother have owned and run a real estate management company in Houston with
over $400 million in assets. He knows a bit about economic development. The second is Kelly Fox, CEO
of Lumber Traders of Port Angeles. Lumber Traders is the holding company for Angeles Millwork and
Hartnagel Building Supply where he employs nearly 50 people. His company is structured as an ESOP
which makes every employee an owner. Using that structure, Kelly has highly ambitious growth plans for
the future.
FINANCIAL UPDATE:
As we approach the half-year date, our finances are in good shape and improving every quarter. Despite
an unplanned $9,000 expenditure for a program called Zoom Prospector which will benefit the Port and
many other organizations in the county, our revenues continue to grow above PLAN and our
expenditures are well below PLAN. Private Sector membership has grown from $12,850 at the end of
2014 to approximately $80,000 today. For this increase we are very grateful to the many new companies
that have stepped up to support our efforts. We also deeply appreciate our public sector supporters. We
meet with them regularly and they know we are grateful. We have already passed the Board's revenue
goal for 2016 by a wide margin and we have kept solid controls on costs. In 2015, we added about
A Private Non -Profit Corporation Working for Businesses in Clollom County
CLALLAM COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
$69,000 to retained earnings (or reserves) and expect substantial additions six months from now. That
said, we are still far away from our long term goal of 45 percent of total support from the Private Sector.
BUSINESS RETENTION & EXPANSION (BRE):
On March 29, 2016, the Employment Security Department reported that 550 new jobs had been added
in Clallam County in 2015. Larry Hueth receives his own jobs report at First Federal and his numbers are
exactly the same. Interestingly, in the fall of 2014 the EDC Board prepared a Strategic Plan and Direction
that set a goal of helping to create 500 new jobs by 2018. Our local economy was in a depressed state at
that time. We had all lived through seven very tough years and our timber interests were enduring
numerous mill closures. Few of us could quite see the turn coming. But it is here now. As we meet with
company after company our team is gaining greater confidence that we are about to enjoy high times. A
huge number of county companies are trying to hire right now. Our best anecdotal estimate is that
there are at least 1.000 new jobs available in the county with wages across a very wide spectrum. The
major issue before us is finding qualified and willing individuals to fill those jobs; people with aptitude,
good attitudes, and who show up on time. This issue may be near a crisis stage. Some examples:
■ Our major auto dealers like PRICE, RUDDELL, and WILDER cannot find good technicians fast enough.
Several are reaching outside our state to find them and the competition is fierce.
■ Substantial local companies in the construction trades have no up-and-comers from apprentice
programs. A glazier is paid about $54 an hour and demand is high. Is that a "living wage"? For the
job there are few takers.
■ Our financial services firms, particularly our banks, are being forced to reach out of state to find
qualified people for very high level positions.
The EDC team, led by Jennifer Linde and Amy McDonald, has been highly diligent about identifying
companies that we can help regarding planning and zoning issues, financing, understanding our
available tax incentives, or just general business advice. Their energetic outreach has been the key factor
behind the growth in our private sector support. In turn, we are trying — through a coordinated ad
campaign —to showcase our members as much as possible and to point out how strongly they are
behind economic development here. We will have run a member -focused ad at least once a week in
June and we will pick up the program again in September. Our leaders at the Department of Commerce
have told us that the Clallam County EDC's approach to Business Retention is being held up as a model
for other ADOs in the state of Washington.
BUSINESS RECRUITMENT:
Because we like it here, our lack of success in recruiting has been our own biggest surprise. Still,
momentum is building. A major wood products company is seriously considering locating in Port
Angeles. It would employ 45 to start. A well-financed restaurant group that expects to hire about 65
should eventually be coming here. The Port remains an ideal place for many companies in the marine
trades to relocate. The right waterfront property is now not easy to find in the Puget Sound region. In
A Private Non -Profit Corporotion Working for Businesses in Clollom County
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tandem with the Port, we are trying to court several. With the potential to have air service, many major
hotel companies would consider locating here.
As we have said often, securing direct flights to SeaTac from Fairchild will be a game -changer. The Port is
working hard on this matter — and is getting closer. WHEN an airline sets up shop here, our intent is to
assist its marketing reach by any means possible. As a community we must help to make that airline as
profitable as possible. We will want it to flourish and grow. If it eventually makes sense to install TSA, it
will be faster for a Bainbridge Island resident to drive to Fairchild than to face the security lines at
SeaTac.
JUNE 16 AGENDA:
As part of the June 16 board meeting we will be hosting three special presentations:
■ Kelly Fox of Lumber Traders will present the PBS video narrated by James Earl Jones which is both a
portrait of Kelly's company and the Olympic Peninsula.
■ Bob Larsen, President of the Board of the Composite Recycling Technology Center, will be providing
us with a full progress report.
■ Jacki Skaught, CERB Financing specialist from the Department of Commerce, will be briefing us on
the very valuable and low-cost CERB funding program that is potentially available to any company
locating on property owned by the Port of Port Angeles.
On Wednesday, June 22, from 4PM to 6PM, one our star SCORE counselors, Mike McCarty, will be
hosting a program at Peninsula College on the steps all businesses can take in the event of a disaster.
This is an important subject and if an EDC business owner cannot attend we hope they will send an
alternate. Preparedness is crucial. Please see the attached.
Last, please note that any EDC member is very welcome to our board meetings.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Greenwood Jennifer Linde Amy McDonald
Encl:
A Private Non -Profit Corporation Working for Businesses in Clallam County
Economists use a common measure of a growing economy that is called the
"multiplier effect" In 2015, 550 new jobs were created in Clallam County, and
the new dollars from those jobs have a significant impact. The "multiplier" can be
used to measure the advantages of buying locally. Generally, for every dollar you
spend in our county a portion of that dollar will be spent again and again as it
circulates through our economy. Depending on where you spend, the multiplier
will range from 4 to 8 times. As you buy locally the more likely it is that the force
of your dollar will tend toward the multiplier of 8.
So the next time you go out you might consider a visit to some of the companies
below. All are based in Clallam County and owned locally. And nearly one
hundred cents out of every dollar you spend stays here and circulates around the
community. Take care of each other. BUY LOCAL.
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`I1iis message is brought to you by the members of the
Clallam County Economic Development Corporation.
Clalltun County F..conomic Dcvdopment Corporation
905 \VCSt 901, Suite 222-223 *P(). [lox 1085 ' Port Angeles, WA 98362
PI I: 360.457.7793 WE13: www.clallam.org
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GELESSince 7960
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Over the course of the coming year, Lumber Traders, the holding
company for both Angeles Millwork & Lumber and Hartnagel
Building Supply, will be widely featured in a documentary on PBS
(Public Television) titled "Rebuilding America". Hosted by James
Earl Jones, it will focus on the benefits of doing business locally over
the long term and Clallam County will be a co-star in the show.
Why Lumber Traders? First, Angeles Millwork has served our -
community for 110 years. Hartnagel has done the same for 56 years.
They are companies that value their customers and their- employees.
'Keir product quality is high. They buy local and they sell local. In
2004, Lumber Traders became the first ESOP in the county and is
now 100 percent owned by its employees. When you walk into either
store, the person helping you owns the place.
Second, the CEO of Lumber Traders is Kelly Fox, a young man
recruited to lead the company after over twelve years of work at
Dunn Lumber in Seattle. And Mr. Fox has big ideas. Over time,
he hopes to acquire many companies comparable to Angeles
and Hartnagel. Using the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, he is
confident that his business form will allow him to attract others in
smaller communities in Washington State, and well beyond. He is
seeking the long dominant companies who have served their small
cities well, who have high reputations for doing things right, and
whose owners are seeking a long term exit strategy that should prove
to be quite lucrative.
Today, Lumber Traders employs 47 and is seeking at least four new
hires. Its business is growing. Sales should increase nicely in 2016.
The company "gives back" to our county in many other ways: from
discounts to active and retired military, to committed partnerships
with Habitat for Humanity, to numerous other civic projects.
Over the past 18 months, and while running the company, Kelly Fox
has been an on-line student at the Washington State Graduate School
of Business. In a just few weeks he will receive his Masters Degree in
Business Administration.
EDC SPOTLIGHT is supported I)y the members of the
Challom County Econorriic Development Corp.
(AalIaill County l'.Collo17lIC I)evdopment Corporat I on
905 West 9th, Suite 222 223 P(). Box 1m, * Port Aiydes, WA 98362
PI I: 30.457.7793 WEB: www.dallam.org
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From the hospital to hospitality...
Out here in timber country, where sawdust (lows through the veins of -in any, we have
a talented man whose blood and heart lie with the hospitality industry. Bret Wirta
grew up on the shores of Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, a popular resort area that
has welcomed tourists in summer and winter for almost 150 years. His grandparents
were the live-in managers at the popular Soo-Nipi Lodge. Wirta worked at man),
Sunapee resorts from a tender age, in every position from washing dishes, waiting on
tables, cooking, cleaning and front desk.
Wirta went on to the Hotel Management School at the University, of New Hampshire
but found his career turning toward the business world outside. For most of the next
twenty years he built a distinguished career at C.R. Bard, a top medical instrument
company, where he often found himself in a hospital operating room in Seattle
coaching doctors on the proper use of Bard's newest technology. By 2006, however,
he knew lie wanted to go back to his roots. And he determined that the mix of
tourism, beauty, and business in Clallam County offered the best chance for success.
Wirta developed River Road Plaza, Sequim, where he built the Quality Inn along with
his talented wife Trisha, who was the hotel's interior designer. Wirta sold pad sites to
the new Applebee's and Taco Time next door while hanging on to an extra lot for the
future. Next came the Holiday Inn Express in Sequim in 2010, the Black Bear Diner
in 2012, and the Magnuson Hotel Papago in Scottsdale in 2014. Wirta Hospitality
has grown consistently in excess of 25 percent per annum since inception. Employees
have increased from zero to 100, and about 75-80 are in the Sequim locations. Wirta
learned long ago certain keys to a successful business. lake care of the customer.
Treat employees well. Be generous. Make sure that your employees work up through
the ranks to positions of greater authority. In a business that is open 24/7 he knows it
is critical to have a far-flung team that he can always count on.
Wirta purchased and renovated the beautiful Papago Inn resort hotel in Scottsdale
two years ago and now seeks ways to lure a loyal customer base to all his properties to
cushion the darker winters of our peninsula and the summer heat of Arizona. He also
does not feel his work in Clallam County is complete. He sees enormous potential in
Port Angeles if the political will can be harnessed to create both a conference center
and a top-flight hotel. And lie has demonstrated his long and substantial support for
our county by contributing and raising substantial funds for numerous causes. A true
"citizen'; he is the Board President of Washington's National Park Fund and was a
runner-up (to First Federal's President Larry Hueth!) for our state's "Corporations for
Communities Award" Bret and Trisha Wirta care, And they are working very hard to
deliver the best to our county.
EDC SPOTLIGHT is supported by the members of the
Clallrarn County Economic Development Corp.
Clallam County I'.conomic Devclnpnunt Corporation
905 `oVCSt 9th, SUAC 222-223 ' P.CI. Box 1118~' Port Angeles, ANA 98362
PH: 360.4577793 WEB: w4aw.cla11am.org