Even if you couldn’t care less about Oregon Ducks or Seattle Seahawks football, there is already a reason to be optimistic about 2015. Southwest Washington’s economy seems to be firmly on the upturn.
Scott Bailey, regional labor economist for the state Employment Security Department, notes that current job growth is 4.7 percent annually. That’s sizzling when compared with 2013’s 2.7 percent, which in itself was a good performance.
Construction remains strong, but not too strong, particularly in the homebuilding sector. Consumer spending is on the rise. Professional firms and business services are expanding, and health care is growing.
Bailey will be just one of the many experts speaking at The Columbian’s annual Economic Forecast event, set for Thursday, Jan. 22, at the Hilton Vancouver Washington. The keynote speaker is Ken Fisher, founder and CEO of Fisher Investments, which manages money for high-wealth clients.
Fisher, too, says he is upbeat about the U.S. economy in general and Clark County in particular. In the last few years Fisher has been a believer in Clark County, shifting many of his operations and employees from California’s Silicon Valley to his new corporate campus in Camas.
Following Fisher and Bailey, four breakout sessions will discuss sectors of the local economy in depth. For details on the event or to register, visit www.columbian.com/economicforecast.
Of course you don’t have attend the breakfast or study the numbers to see signs of economic recovery after the Great Recession.
In east Vancouver, construction along the 192nd Avenue corridor has accelerated. The east part of Vancouver will soon welcome two new hotels. Banfield Pet Hospital is relocating to Columbia Tech Center, and telecommunications company Integra has turned the lights back on at the old Hewlett-Packard campus off Southeast 34th Street.
New retail and office space is sprouting along the Highway 99 strip through Hazel Dell, with the first tenant, Panera Bread, already open.
Some of the biggest changes are in downtown Vancouver. The headliner is the waterfront redevelopment project, where infrastructure is still being installed. By the end of the year, the first buildings should be under construction there.
But there is action throughout downtown. The old Vancouver city hall at 210 E. 13th St. has been gutted and rebuilt and the first tenant, land-use planning firm BergerABAM, has moved into what is now a much more attractive building. Across from the popular park, the city’s old Esther Short building was sold and remodeled, and has also welcomed its first tenant, Davidson Insurance. Along East Evergreen Boulevard between Broadway and C streets, developer Ryan Hurley has transformed the old Sparks Home Furnishings building. It too, is welcoming its first office tenants, even as the remodeling of the retail space concludes.
More and more people are living downtown. Ellie Kassab’s luxury apartment development on the site of the old city police station and downtown Burgerville is complete, and a new apartment complex is under construction at Columbia and 13th streets. At least two more multifamily projects are envisioned for the downtown core.
Times could always be better. Wages could be higher. Unemployment could be less. The middle class could be boosted. But compared with six or seven years ago, so far 2015 looks like a winner.
