July 27, 2007

Economic Development Program Reaches Nearly 500 Businesses in FY 06-07 

In 2004, Jive Software relocated to Portland from New York City and found an initial home in the Portland State University Business Accelerator. The Portland Development Commission (PDC) provided the company with a loan and grant finance package to help them move to downtown Portland and expand from 10 to 18 employees. Jive Software has since grown from a small open source project to an Inc. 500 company, and is working with PDC on a new round of financing to support company expansion in the Downtown/Waterfront urban renewal area. They expect to grow from 27 to 40 employees in the next two years.

During Fiscal Year 2006-07 (July 1 to June 30), PDC staff engaged 490 companies through the Business Retention, Expansion and Recruitment (BRE) program, using PDC’s business finance, Enterprise Zone and storefront grant programs to assist local business and attract new companies to the region. PDC’s work with Jive Software is just one example of the agency’s role in job creation and business growth. PDC’s economic development efforts have assisted businesses in retaining and/or creating a projected 3,783 jobs this past fiscal year and these efforts are expected to leverage more than $55 million in private investment through related business financing and incentive programs.

“PDC’s Business Retention and Expansion program provides a strong foundation for the support of the region’s companies, both small and large,” said Bruce Warner, Executive Director of the Portland Development Commission. “Our business outreach work provides significant assistance to Portland businesses in the form of job retention and creation and business expansion.”

In FY 06-07, PDC committed $9.8 million in loans and grants to 63 businesses, and anticipates $55.6 million in private investment as a result of that assistance. An additional $1.4 million in Storefront Improvement Program grants to 135 businesses is expected to attract $5 million in private investment. 

The successful recruitment of sixteen companies to the region added 1,348 projected jobs to the year’s total.  New-to-Portland businesses include:

• LABfx
• Lumencor
• QuantRX Biomedical Corp.
• SiC Processing
• Solaicx
• SolarWorld
• U.S. Barge

Two of the recruited companies, SiC Processing and U.S. Barge, also worked with PDC to enroll in the North/Northeast Portland Enterprise Zone, which attracted a total of 10 new participants.

PDC focuses on several specific industries for business outreach including bioscience, creative services, specialty foods, metals and transportation equipment, high tech and sustainability. Target industry contacts comprised 71 percent of the total BRE contacts made through June 2007. Small business (defined as fewer than 50 employees), another strong focus of the retention and expansion program, comprised 62 percent of the year’s contacts. Small businesses made up 95 percent of the businesses receiving financial assistance. 

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