Enterprise Zone approval attracts immediate attention

With businesses already lining up to take advantage of a tax abatement program, Beaverton city officials are wasting no time putting to use an economic development tool the state just added to the city's collection.

The city learned on Friday its Enterprise Zone application to the Oregon Business Development Commission was approved. The designation allows the city to offer three- to five-year tax abatement deals to companies promising to invest $1 million or more into expansion, remodeling and job-creation strategies.

New and existing manufacturing businesses within the designated areas - about 5 square miles in three or four industrial areas southeast and west of Central Beaverton - are free to apply to the city for property tax-abatement incentives. Retail, financial and construction-oriented businesses are excluded.

Although he wouldn't disclose company names this early in the process, Community and Economic Development Director Don Mazziotti said the program is attracting immediate interest.

"We met with a large company this morning to talk about how the Enterprise Zone could fit potential plans they might have, or might want to make," he said Monday afternoon. "As we go down the list, we'll put them on notice that this (option) is available to them.

"The Enterprise Zone designation, in combination with a number of other tools the mayor and council have worked on," he added, "will make Beaverton's great transportation access a magnet for industrial users."

The Enterprise Zone program fits goals set out in Beaverton's Civic Plan, particularly analyses indicating the city needs "additional tools" to spark industrial-related development in the city. The plan identified eight census tracts surrounding key industrial areas that qualify for the Enterprise Zone designation.

The largest areas of eligibility include a vertical swath between Jenkins Road and Tualatin Valley Highway bordered by 153rd Drive and 158th Avenue, a wider chunk bisected by Western Avenue between Highway 217 and Elm Avenue and a lengthy stretch between Fanno Creek and Highway 217, roughly from Allen Boulevard to Scholls Ferry Road.

While the tax abatement tool provides obvious incentives for existing businesses looking to grow, Mazziotti noted the program is also enticing to businesses that seek to have never had a presence in the city.

"We certainly want to help existing companies expand, but this also applies to companies looking to develop or site new locations," he said.

Outlining the Enterprise Zone concept to the City Council in May, Mazziotti, former chief of the Portland Development Commission, described the city's unfortunate position between two municipalities free to offer tax-abatement deals to companies willing to expand.

"In Portland to the east and Hillsboro to the west, virtually every company engaged in manufacturing and fabrication wants to know if we have an Enterprise Zone. If we tell them we don't, they say, ‘We'll see you later,' and relocate to where they will get an enormous startup advantage."

The council approved the Enterprise Zone application, for which Beaverton was vying for one of nine openings. Four existing zones expired, and an Oregon House bill that Beaverton city leaders lobbied for created five more zones. Along with Beaverton, Business Oregon most recently approved zones in Veneta, Springfield and Portland.

City Councilor Catherine Arnold said Monday the Enterprise Zone approval offers encouraging news - a sign she hopes indicates of an economy on the upturn.

"There's already a few people interested in (the zone), so it might be good to see (its effect) if someone's going to use it soon," she said. "We want to be competitive with the surrounding areas. It's a good tool for creating living-wage jobs, or encouraging the creation of living-wage jobs."

Mazziotti said the program's approval makes the job of his department a little easier.

"With every inquiry we receive, one of first questions we get from companies is do we have an Enterprise Zone designation," he said. "Now we can say that we do."