Camas ushers in work on $30M Fisher Investments complex

California businessman Ken Fisher and a few of his Clark County friends ushered in a new era of corporate growth Tuesday in Camas with a ceremony to mark the start of construction on a $30 million office complex.

Work on the project formed both background and contrast for the event, a showcase of elected officials and business folks who praised the development while gritty steelworkers shouted and welded together the frame of the first of two five-story buildings.

Fisher’s company, Fisher Investments, already operates from a Vancouver satellite office with 325 workers who will fill up the first four floors of the Camas building, a fact applauded again and again by the approximately 30 people at Tuesday’s gathering.

“Often, we hear about a company or large business that might move somewhere … and it never happens. That’s not the case here,” said Randy Printz, a Vancouver land-use attorney who represented Fisher Investments in its development proposal.

But it remains to be seen whether the 1,155-employee company will pull up its San Francisco Bay-area stakes and transfer lock, stock and barrel to the Camas location near the city’s western-most border.

Fisher, 59, also has made site selections in Texas and Florida, which share non income-tax state status with Washington.

“That’s a big deal for the people we bring here,” said Ken Fisher’s wife, Sherri Fisher, after Tuesday’s event.

She explained that Fisher Investments’ employees, who annually earn between $75,000 and $200,000, would be harder to recruit if Washington voters approve Initiative 1098, a ballot measure that would tax the incomes of people who earn $200,000 or more.

“It could kill the whole thing,” Sherri Fisher said, adding that even if it does not relocate its headquarters, the company will continue to use the Camas building.

During the event, Printz praised a list of elected officials, including Congressman Brian Baird, D-Wash., who helped navigate the project’s 150-acre wetland-dotted tract through the federal stormwater guidelines established by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Printz also commended Jaime Herrera, R-Ridgefield, an 18th District state representative who is running for Baird’s soon-to-be vacated House seat.

Herrera has pledged to help gain the state financing needed to bring infrastructure to Fisher’s site and other vacant sites by connecting Vancouver’s Southeast 20th Street with Northwest 38th Street in Camas.

“The extension of 38th will not only access this project, but open the area up for all sorts of employment expansion,” Printz said.

Aside from the 38th Street entrance, Fisher’s complex, situated near the northern end of the site and surrounded by 1,200 parking spaces, will be accessible by a road leading in from Pacific Rim Boulevard to the south.

Herrera touted the project as a shot in the arm given Clark County’s high unemployment rate, which was 12.2 percent in September.

“It’s a bright spot for us in an area where unemployment numbers are high,” Herrera said. “I hope the jobs will stay here in Clark County.”

Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart called Fisher’s development “the start of something great to diversify the local job base.”

Camas Mayor Paul Dennis said it has been about four years since the city first annexed the Fisher site as part of a large, contiguous parcel of vacant land it planned to use to recruit future corporate development.

“At one point, we were wondering how are we were going to extend water and sewer lines to the property,” he said.

During Ken Fisher’s time at the podium, the Forbes columnist and billionaire entertained local politicians with quotes inspired by Farmer’s Almanac.

“Because it’s cold, I’m not going to talk about I-1098,” Fisher said. “We’re happy to be here. We like Camas a lot.”