EDITOR’S NOTE: — Read the EDC update report that Bill Greenwood presented to board members at their Thursday meeting. Click on: http://issuu.com/peninsuladailynews/docs/edcupdate1120144/0
PORT ANGELES — Hotel, medical device and bottling companies are among 12 firms working with the Clallam County Economic Development Council on potentially locating on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Executive Director Bill Greenwood delivered an upbeat report on the agency’s business recruitment efforts to board members at their bimonthly meeting at the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center in Port Angeles on Thursday.
“There should be real hope with all the problems we’ve seen in the last three months,” Greenwood said.
In his report, he cited the recent closures of the Green Creek Wood Products and Interfor Corp. mills and Kenmore Air’s shutdown of commercial passenger flights out of Port Angeles, which he predicted will not return.
“We’re helping companies that are local or are working hard to bring companies to the area,” Greenwood said.
“We have the expectation we’re going to get some” to move to the Peninsula, he said.
Greenwood discussed three of the prospects, which he did identify by name:
■ Hotel: A company wants to put a first-class hotel near the Black Ball Ferry Line landing.
But the firm needs a conference center nearby to survive the offseason, Greenwood said.
“If a conference center is supported by the city and a hotel is paid for by a private hotel, the community will have something special on the waterfront in Port Angeles,” Greenwood said.
The city is updating a conference center study that should be completed in the spring, Nathan West, city community and economic development director, said in a later interview.
The study will not review specific potential sites.
West, who attended the meeting, said the privately built, managed and maintained conference center could generate hotel occupancy from mid-October through mid-April.
He said no hotel companies have approached city officials with an interest in coming to Port Angeles.
■ Medical device company: A Lynnwood technology company recently raised $10 million of equity for a medical device that delivers drugs through the nasal passages and directly into the brain.
The company is considering relocating to Clallam County or the Tri-Cities area of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland.
It would employe about 150 people, many from the Seattle area.
“They are worried about what they can find in terms of local employees,” Greenwood said.
The company would build a large facility to manufacture the product.
“We are quite confident they are leaning toward coming here,” Greenwood said.
The EDC is helping the company secure lending sources, tax abatements and other incentives.
Company representatives are expected to visit the area in December.
■ Bottling company: A Gig Harbor company may site a bottling facility in Forks that would employ 50.
“The owners and founders are in love with Forks,” Greenwood said.
The company works with oil and natural gas companies in the West and South who do fracking — the process of injecting liquid underground at high pressure to open fissures and extract oil and natural gas.
Company officials will visit Forks in early December.
“They think they can make a better bottle of water than anybody,” Greenwood said.
“These people are very successful and have the dough.”
Here are other businesses the EDC is actively recruiting through the state Department of Commerce, according to Greenwood’s written report to the board:
■ Project MX: A boat builder that would employ about 70.
■ Boat builder: The company, which would employ 200, has been asked to consider locating on 19 acres of Port of Port Angeles property.
■ Boat builder: A builder of offshore supply vessels, aluminum crew boats and barges has been asked to consider 10-25 acres at the port.
The number of potential employees is unknown.
Port officials have sent both boat-builders information and have yet to hear back from them, Ken O’Hollaren, port executive director, said Thursday in a later interview.
■ Call center: The Michigan company would employ 150 people.
■ Confectionery producer: The company, which would employ 20, would invest $20 million in a facility.
■ Furniture manufacturer: The international company is evaluating the state of Washington for a manufacturing facility that would employ 400.
■ Technology company: The Vancouver, B.C., company, which would move to the Carlsborg area to be closer to its largest supplier, would employ about 10 people.
■ Insurance company: The specialty insurance concern that would move a portion of its business to Clallam County would employ 10-50 people.
■ Mushroom farm: The world’s largest mushroom farming company, which would employ 800 to 1,000, needs 300 to 350 acres of flat land ready for greenhouses.
“This project seems like a long shot, but is an interesting example of what flows our way via [the state Department of] Commerce,” Greenwood said in his report.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
