Champions for Oregon

Facebook opened its first Prineville data center in April 2011 and has rapidly expanded in rural communities beyond. With stiff competition, Prineville needed to enhance its business environment to encourage Facebook’s continued expansion at their Prineville campus.
The solution involved the passage of SB 611 to ensure that data centers would not be centrally assessed OEDA’s legislative advocacy made a significant contribution to the bill’s passage. This initiative together with Prineville and Crook County’s approval of a new 15-year enterprise zone agreement led to Facebook’s investment in a 3rd data center at nearly half a million square feet. The City and County have a well-earned reputation for being business friendly and are committed to “working at the speed of business”.

Community Benefit

• Investment in excess of $200 million
• Job creation – approximately 38 jobs
• Franchise fees that the City uses for infrastructure and other local investments
• Facebook Community Grants in excess of $1M used by Prineville schools and nonprofits since 2010

For 17 years, Redmond Economic Development, Inc. staff worked to create and sustain a strong connection and friendship with the founder and CEO of Tigard-based Huntair who was considering a Central Oregon relocation.   Later this entrepreneur founded BasX Solutions, a manufacturer of modular clean room solutions for medical and manufacturing. Not only was BasX’s location to Redmond the gain of a significant employer, but it also repurposed the largest vacant building in town, a former Walmart.

Team Effort

• City of Redmond quickly accommodated a change of use from commercial to industrial and approved a five-year exemption on property taxes for renovations to the building and equipment allowed by the Greater Redmond Enterprise Zone.
• Deschutes County provided a cash incentive (forgivable loan) from their Economic Development Fund, which is supported by the county’s general fund for job creation

Community Benefit

• Nearly 200 jobs created and nearly $5 million in capital investment.
• 103,000 sf commercial building repurposed to industrial (usually the other way around)
• BasX boosted community confidence to achieve one of its ambitious economic development goals: create 10,000 “new century” jobs by 2025.
• Project provided positive PR for Redmond and helped spawn interest from other companies that have been considering the community for their operations. BasX Solutions was recognized as the “fastest growing company” in 2016 by the Portland Business Journal.
• Industrial vacancy rates have plummeted in the Redmond market which is putting increased pressure for new construction – something the town has not seen much of for nearly a decade.

The highly competitive selection of Madras as home for Daimler Trucks North America in 2017 hinged on the swift expansion of the Jefferson County Enterprise Zone. Expanding the E-Zone required the unanimous support and action of four local sponsors–Jefferson County and the Cities of Madras, Metolius and Culver—in an unprecedented amount of time and complex project management by Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) to encourage collaboration among multiple sponsor attorneys, all taxing districts, and state agencies. The result was the successful addition of 1,443 acres of City owned land at the Madras Airport.

Community Benefit

• Phase One investment totaled $18.5M and 35 new jobs.  In a community of 6,500, adding this number of well-paying jobs has a significant impact.
• Daimler extended their lease with the City and remodeled and added technology at their current shop for an additional investment in excess of $200,000.
• Employees are buying and renting homes in Madras and in surrounding communities. Phases 2 and 3 are moving out of planning with anticipated 30%  employment increase.

The City of Independence wanted to use its fiber to the home system to help attract business. The City secured an Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) Zone designation through the State and used it to recruit a contact center to an old shopping center previously left vacant by a church. The County provided a grant to fund the fiber connection to the property, and SEDCOR backstopped the City with negotiations and process. FCR opened in 2015 with 80 employees and now has over 200.

Team Effort

• OEDA provided legislative support for the creation and expansion of the State’s E-Commerce Zone.
• SEDCOR provided resources and negotiation assistance.
• Polk County provided a Business Development Grant for $27,000 to fund the fiber connection.

Community Benefit

• More than 200 jobs created with $6 million in annual payroll.
• $1 million capital investment to retrofit the building.
• Demonstrated to the community and other businesses the value of economic development tools such as E-Commerce. In this case, staff had been communicating with FCR for almost a year but when told that the City had secured the E-Commerce designation, FCR’s president indicated, “that was when I got in my car and drove to Independence.”

In April 2016, the City of Salem launched a small business retention program to address the needs of smaller traded sector businesses (less than 25 employees), as well as broader business needs within the Urban Renewal Area (URA). This work informed changes to the City’s urban renewal financial incentives and development of new tools to assist with business growth, further supporting the build-out of the Salem-Keizer Career and Technical Education Center for workforce development.

Team Effort

• The City of Salem benefited from the relationships established through the OEDA network to develop and implement its small business BRE program.
• SEDCOR, Lane County, Clackamas County, Marion County, and the McMinnville Economic Development Partnership, as well as many local partners, all played a role in formalizing Salem’s small business BRE program.
• Several of the growing businesses that the City met with are in sectors that are also target sectors for regional and statewide partners. Since many of these firms are small, family-owned businesses, they may not have made the new investment in equipment or building expansion without the Urban Renewal assistance.

Community Benefit

• The City has outreached to more than 240 businesses, including personal contact with 63 North Gateway URA businesses.
• As a result of that outreach and changes to the North Gateway URA grant program to expand eligibility, 10 businesses received commitments for funding to assist with equipment or expansion.
• In 2016-17 the North Gateway URA grant program committed more than $2.2 million for capital improvements to support business growth, including $1 million for the Salem-Keizer Career and Technical Education Center.
• North Gateway URA funds leveraged more than $16.2 million in private funding and contributed to creation of an estimated 60 new permanent jobs and more than 100 construction jobs.
• The City continues to strengthen relationships with the large concentration of Latino businesses and organizations in the area, including the Latino Business Alliance and Enlace (a start-up Latino community organization).
• The business investments contribute to overall tax growth for Salem.
• These success stories help reduce blight and declining investment within the North Gateway URA, attract new private investment, encourage the growth of family wage jobs in the community, and develop a proactive strategy for engaging small, traded-sector businesses within the community.