With many businesses nationwide still struggling to emerge from the recession and regain their economic footing, there is hope on the horizon for Auburn, according to a new report released by City Economic Development Manager Doug Lein.
The report, compiled from information gathered from business license applications the City received from January to October of 2011, touts an eye-popping increase of 140 new businesses and 719 new jobs in Auburn.
Although the report lists several high-profile businesses, including OHL – a logistics company that accounts for 133 jobs – and Pick-Quick and La Quinta Inn, that added 40 and 20 jobs, respectively, Lein said a “fairly high percentage” of the licenses issued come from small home-based or Internet businesses.
The list also contains several already-established businesses that might have undergone reorganization of some sort, requiring a new business license, Lein added.
Regardless, the City is optimistic about the growth.
“Over 1,000 new Auburn jobs is exactly the type of goal our City Council was hoping to achieve when they began launching various target initiatives,” Mayor Pete Lewis said in an e-mail announcing the report. “Auburn is open for business, and this is exactly the kind of message that resonates: looking forward, we can and do expect these numbers to grow.”
According to Lein, who took the job as the mayor’s chief economic development advisor in January, that optimism is firmly grounded in several new programs and infrastructure improvements aimed at attracting business and improving the profitability of existing business in the city.
“We starting hosting a series of business assistance programs,” Lein said. “The idea is that a lot of these businesses are running lean and mean right now. You’ve got owners who half the day may be out on the plant floor. They’re sitting at the desk paying bills and hiring and firing. They’re trying to be good business people and running tight. But those folks need good information. They want help and they want to do it quickly.”
The City began offering free seminars, ranging from loss prevention for retail establishments to information on insurance requirements to advice on setting up the legal framework needed for limited liability corporations.
“These two- or three-hour programs are designed to be done here locally,” Lein said. “They’re always free and on Thursday afternoons. They can get in and get out.”
In addition, the City began taping the sessions so those unable to attend can view them on the city’s website at www.auburnwa.gov/ecdev.
“Our goal and hope is that they’ll become better informed. They’ll become more profitable and able to hire more people,” Lein said.
He also added that the City’s redevelopment of downtown, which includes infrastructure upgrades specifically aimed at attracting business, could prove instrumental in drawing new business.
“It’s pretty to see a new street and trees,” Lein said. “But the real value, other than the esthetic value, is what’s under the dirt. For example, one of the things that can be a real core industry for us here in Auburn is the financial industry because of the infrastructure improvements.
“We’re sitting here with an extremely sophisticated network of redundant fiber-optic cables,” he continued, adding that local Internet providers could eventually offer speeds of up to 100 megabits per second through the downtown area.
“Now for an IS (information systems) manager sitting somewhere, that’s huge,” he said. “And it can be delivered within 80 feet of their building. That’s state-of-the-art capabilities.”
Ultimately, Lein said the programs in place, along with the City’s commitment to identifying the needs of business, would benefit residents.
“We’re just poking around at a lot of stuff, trying to see what the community wants, what it needs, what can we do quickly and inexpensively from the taxpayer standpoint and the company standpoint that can have an impact on our local economy and job market,” Lein said. “(That will) ultimately raise the quality of life for our Auburn residents.”
