Greater Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce Newsletter

How do we make business grow in Poulsbo?

We need a concise business development plan to bring and retain businesses in Poulsbo. Often called strategic visioning, a business development plan should be created with input from our existing business owners, the City of Poulsbo (as a major land owner), the Port of Poulsbo, existing business associations and property owners within our community. The development of this plan should be created by using the expertise of economic and land planners in a stakeholders setting. The Goal: create a business development plan that we could use for business recruitment. One of the greatest costs associated with business development is uncertainty. If the City of Poulsbo can create a level of certainty regarding our vision for economic development we stand a greater chance of creating an environment that supports business stability and growth.

For our Downtown Core: We need to recruit an anchor business to locate within our downtown. Some have suggested that this business could be something like a Trader Joe's. I would think a more appropriate anchor business would be a small boutique hotel (50 rooms) including a restaurant and small conference rooms. Without an anchor business, we will continue to have small business turnover within downtown. Additionally, the business development plan should address re-development of Anderson Parkway to improve parking, an analysis of vacant properties for development and a way to grant better public access to our waterfront park and the Port.

For West Poulsbo and Viking Ave: There is a group of citizens that have property interests in West Poulsbo that are coming together to create a vision for their neighborhood. We should support these property owners and include their work within our business development plan. We also need another anchor business for West Poulsbo. Our anchor business used to be auto and RV sales. We hope that the auto sales will return soon, but it is obvious that this business is very cyclical. We must diversify our risk by seeking out a secondary core business for west Poulsbo.

For 10th Ave: We have an anchor business now moving into 10th Ave. Harrison Hospital (Thank you, Ed Stern. Ed was instrumental in bringing Harrison to Poulsbo.) Private property owners are moving forward with planning for the properties along 10th Ave. We should support this activity by streamlining our ordinances and through revision of our zoning codes and the uses associated within our zoning codes.

For Olhava: Support Olympic College as it moves towards expansion of educational opportunities. A new group is forming called the Friends of Olympic College. Work with this new group and with existing educational administrators to increase course offerings at the College. Kitsap County needs an institution that can grant a bachelors degree in Engineering. This should happen at Olympic College, Poulsbo. Additionally, we need to support the creation of a new zoning code called Office, Commercial Industrial (OCI). With the use of this zoning code, light industrial businesses have the ability to maintain a show room for direct retail sales.

Our business development plan is only as good as how it would be implemented. To implement the plan, we should "incentivize" business recruitment by developing an internal business development group that would actively market the plan to new key businesses. This group (Poulsbo Economic Development Coalition - PEDC) would actively recruit businesses into our community. Who would be included in this group? Business owners, city officials, existing business organizations, neighborhood representatives, financiers, and private sector land developers. What kind of incentives? Be more flexible and creative with our building codes without sacrificing the character of our town. Research, develop and implement key financing opportunities through the use of subsidized loans. Lending is critical to business development. These subsidized lending opportunities already exist through State and Federal programs. We need to implement this type of lending locally for our community. Actively promote our economic development plan by approaching key businesses.

The PEDC would create a timeline for activity and written objectives for operation. So often we commission studies and plans and then never implement them. Make the PEDC accountable for business recruitment using the business development plan as its guide.

We need to create a plan to make business grow in Poulsbo, and we need to start this work now.

Becky Erickson, Poulsbo City Council