In its first eight years of existence, the Camas-Washougal Economic Development Association helped create an estimated 4,458 jobs and aided in the arrival or expansion of dozens of local businesses, netting more than $6 million in new revenue for the association’s three participating government agencies.
That’s according to the results of an recently-released “interim report card” for the association, authored by Vancouver consulting firm E.D. Hovee & Co.
The association was founded in 2011 by the Port of Camas-Washougal and the two cities, and is headed by former Camas Mayor Paul Dennis. The agency’s mission statement is to “help existing businesses succeed and bring new businesses and jobs to the area.”
The association’s initial task was to help the area rebuild from the economic damage inflicted by the Great Recession, Dennis says, but its job creation record has consistently exceeded its own internal targets, allowing the agency to push beyond raw business growth and start to play a greater role in shaping the community.
“The initial time frame was just about getting wins,” he says. “This time frame is more about assisting in helping the communities to realize their goals.”
63 major projects
From 2016 onward, the agency has been involved with 63 different major business projects, 14 of which are completed. Another 20 are listed as underway or active, with 29 listed as dormant or terminated. In comparison, the 2011-2015 period saw 21 projects completed over the five years.
Those new or expanded businesses have directly or indirectly created 4,458 jobs since 2011, according to the report, with the majority of the jobs added in the past three years. The construction of the projects created 2,183 jobs, again mostly in the past three years. The association’s original goal was to help create 1,400 jobs in its first five years, and in 2015 it set a new goal of 2000 jobs in five years — a goal it has already exceeded.
The report analyzes all of the major projects and deals in which the association played some sort of role, although Dennis acknowledges that every deal involved multiple parties, so it’s tough to quantify an exact value resulting from the association’s involvement.
“If something happens, it’s not just because of us,” he says.
However, the association was extensively involved in all the projects examined in the report, Dennis says; a one-time phone call with a business wouldn’t be enough to make the list. And the association’s involvement often helped businesses pursue larger-scale versions of projects than they otherwise would have considered.
Three major projects
The report estimates that 90 percent of the nonconstruction jobs stemmed from three major businesses that invested in the area: Fisher Investments, Holland Development and Sigma Design.
The average salary of the new jobs dropped in recent years, from $91,300 for the 2011-2015 period to $49,279 for 2016 onward — although the report notes that a $49,279 average salary from 2016 onward is closer to the $51,590 average salary for all of Clark County in 2017.
“The anomaly is Fisher Investments,” Dennis says. The company moved hundreds of its employees to its newly built Camas facility starting in 2011, and those jobs tended to have relatively high salaries, Dennis said, which substantially raised the average for association-assisted jobs created in the first half of the decade.
Return on investment
The cost of running the agency is split between the port and cities of Camas and Washougal, with the port supplying $100,000 each year and the cities supplying $50,000 apiece.
The report estimates projects championed by the association generated one-time revenues of $21.4 million and ongoing revenues were estimated at $3.9 million since 2011.
The biggest beneficiary of the total revenue was the state at $13.6 million, followed by the city of Camas at $4.3 million, the Camas School District at $2.6 million and the Port of Camas-Washougal at $1.6 million.
The city of Washougal received $400,000, which puts it at the break-even point in terms of its return on investment, although Dennis says the relationships between the jurisdictions make the reality more complex than the numbers. For example, Washougal benefits from capital investments made by the port, which are funded by tax revenue brought in by the port — which is boosted by investments and property development in Camas.
Additionally, Dennis said, Washougal has spent much of the past eight years working on master plans for several of its developable sites and is now poised to see more substantial growth, particularly in the Washougal waterfront area starting later this year.
“Camas has had some fairly substantial investments (over eight years),” he said. “Washougal has been in more of a planning stage. If we look five years from now, I suspect we’ll see far more projects in Washougal, starting to catch up with the Camas investments.”
