It's Electric! EVs are on the move in Juneau

New Ford Focus Electric available at Stanley Ford (http://stanleyfordjuneau.com/)

The Juneau Assembly passed a resolution on Monday the 16th in support of electric transportation and its supporting infrastructure. This resolution was proposed to the Assembly by the Board of Directors of JEDC on behalf of the Renewable Energy Cluster Working Group. Juneau's own Stanley Ford is now selling and servicing two models of electric vehicles and Alaska's first electric tour bus should arrive in Juneau for the 2015 tour season.

A team of six from Juneau, including JEDC, USFS, AELP, CBJ and UAF have been selected to participate in a week long workshop called the E-lab Accelerator. The Juneau team was invited to participate in this event along with 11 other teams from around the nation based on Juneau's success and leadership in electric transportation.

JEDC STEM Summer Camp Registration is open!

JEDC has another great line-up of STEM Summer Camps ready to go for 2015. Options are available for students entering grades 2-9 including NOAA's Sun to Sea Camp, SeaPerch, LEGO Robotics, and Girls Rock Summer Science. Each of these camps will give kids hands-on experience in STEM. Space is limited so be sure to sign up early!

The 2015 Juneau Maritime Festival will be Saturday, May 9

This year's festival, celebrating our Maritime History, Culture and Commerce, will be held Saturday, May 9th, at Marine Park and Plaza, from 11 AM - 5 PM. The second annual Port to Starboard Progressive Dinner (and Fundraiser for the Festival!) will be on Friday, May 8.

Want to get involved? E-mail us at maritime@jedc.org! or Sam at sweinstein@jedc.org. Next planning meeting is on Wednesday, March 25 at 3:30PM at the JEDC Conference Room--just show up!

2015 Storefront Stars Awards Encourage Downtown Businesses to Sparkle for Summer

Attractive buildings attract business, so it's time to spruce up for summer and invest in ourselves! All participating businesses get free advice from experts, and the downtown businesses that shine the brightest will take home cash prizes. The best news is: you can't lose. Everyone will benefit from a better looking downtown.

Entering is easy! Just take before and after photos and fill out a short online application before the May 15th deadline. The competition is open to business or property owners in the downtown business area from the Rock Dump to Norway Point. For more details, contact Margo at mwaring@jedc.org.

Alaska's Top FIRST Tech Challenge teams head to Oakland!

Six of Alaska's top FIRST Tech Challenge teams will head to Oakland for the FTC West Super-Regional Championship on March 27-29. Seventy-teams from 12 states will spend 3 days at the Oakland Convention Center vying for 10 coveted spots at the FIRST World Championship in April. You can follow our teams and learn more about FIRST on the FIRST in Alaska Facebook page.

Curious about why JEDC invests in FIRST? As part of this year's challenge, FTC teams were asked to make 30-60 videos explaining why they choose FIRST. We think their videos answer the question quite nicely. The "Promote Video" winner from the FTC Championship is featured here with links to all of our submissions. Hear first hand why this program is making a difference in our state!

FIRST in Alaska is made possible by generous support from our statewide sponsors: BP, Alaska Airlines, GCI, and Alaska Communications.

Alaska FTC Promote Award Winning Video - "Why I Choose FIRST"

Click on a team to see their video and learn why they choose FIRST:

JEDC Program Feature: Southeast Alaska Revolving Loan Fund

The Juneau Revolving Loan Fund is JEDC's longest running program. It was originally capitalized with federal resources made available through the Southeast Alaska Economic Disaster Fund for job creation and economic development and provided to JEDC by CBJ Ordinance specifically for direct lending to businesses in Juneau. It has become a key economic development infrastructure which has helped banks lend to startups and other worthy projects which do not qualify for traditional commercial financing. It has been proven to create recurring municipal revenues and jobs. Since inception the Juneau Revolving Loan Fund has revolved almost 4 times, and over time the companies financed have generated property and sales tax revenues far in excess of the original $1,743,000 loan fund capital. Those companies have generated payrolls many times larger than the loan fund capital. JEDC has leveraged these resources to provide over 10 times the amount of the initial fund capital in additional financing from banks and private investment.

Some of the large and small ventures that were launched with financing from the Juneau Revolving Loan Fund include:

Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure
Spruce Meadow RV Park
Tracy's King Crab Shack
AJ Mine/Gastineau Mill Enterprises
Juneau Mercantile & Armory
Paradise Caf�
Alaska Grafix

Expansion loans we have made to support local businesses have provided job growth, job security and allowed businesses to transition successfully to new ownership or weather difficult situations. A few examples of these include:

Southeast Waffle Company
Capital City Broadcasting
Rodfather's
Tracy's King Crab Shack

The Juneau Revolving Loan Fund supports many of the initiatives and action steps of the Juneau Economic Plan and augments JEDC's ongoing industry cluster work.

If your business needs extra help planning for or obtaining financing for growth, please call Margaret O'Neal, Director of Operations at 907-523-2326 or email her at moneal@jedc.org.

Juneau Housing Update

JEDC organized a group of mobile home park owners and lending institutions to meet with Alaska Housing Finance Corporation's director of mortgage lending to revise AHFC's Type II manufactured housing financing program (applies to manufactured homes in parks built after 1976) to increase the maximum loan amount, lengthen loan terms, and to look at a real-estate appraisal value and property inspections rather than year built to determine loan term and amount, and make some other changes that should make these homes easier to finance in Juneau.

Featured Economic Indicator: Juneau Deplanements

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, T-100 Market Data

Interested in the effect of Delta Airlines' arrival in Juneau? The above chart shows Juneau passenger deplanements (arrivals) by month for the years 2012, 2013, and 2014, January through September (the latest available data for 2014).

In May of 2014, Delta Airlines started up a flight to Juneau, and as the chart shows, the extra flight option increased arrivals substantially: from 2013 to 2014, May arrivals increased by 2,494, June arrivals increased by 4,646, July arrivals increased by 3,890, and August arrivals increased by 3,250.

You can see the latest updated air passenger volumes, along with other community economic indicators, on JEDC's website, at JEDC.org