Jobs Plus ‘Annuity’ Paying Off Agency Begins New Decade, Commits To Ambitious Goals
Jobs Plus entered its second decade Wednesday with the promise of attracting six new companies, 300 new jobs and a 10 percent increase in average wages in Kootenai County every year through 2000.
The privately funded economic development organization, founded in 1987, made good on that promise in 1997, said President Bob Potter.
Last year, Jobs Plus recruited six companies that will generate a total of 273 jobs. Those firms have signed agreements to fill 83,000 square feet of commercial space and will invest a combined $27 million in capital improvements, Potter said.
Joining the list of North Idaho employers will be the new Burlington-Northern servicing center at Hauser, a new downtown Coeur d’Alene call center for Dakotah Direct, and Pinkerton Retirement Services, which recently moved into offices in the Ironwood District. Three manufacturing companies also selected Kootenai County for relocation in 1997, including TS Products near Post Falls, and Weaver Industries and Space Screw, both moving to Rathdrum.
“When we started Jobs Plus, we had no leads - we had absolutely nothing,” Potter told a gathering of about 100 people attending the group’s 1998 annual meeting. “We’ve built what I call an ‘economic development annuity.”’
During the past 10 years, that “annuity” has paid off in the form of 52 companies employing 2,200 people at an annual payroll of more than $51 million, Potter said. Jobs Plus recruits now fill a total of 1.3 million square feet and have made capital investments of $113 million.
According to Potter, those employers are raising the bar on salaries. The average annual wage in Kootenai County is about $21,100 - about $2,250 lower than the average salaries paid by Jobs Plus recruits.
“We’re going to bring in six more companies in 1998 and create 285 new jobs,” Potter said, adding that contracts are pending for two employers in Coeur d’Alene, three in Post Falls and one small company planning to move to Spirit Lake.
Potentially the largest base of new jobs will be located in GTE Northwest’s new order-processing center, scheduled to open in April at the Cd’A Tech Center. That facility initially will employ 65 workers, but could grow to as many as 400 jobs, GTE officials said Wednesday.
Potter declined to identify the other relocating firms or elaborate on when they might arrive.
To meet its growth projections through 2000, Potter said Jobs Plus must press for a partnership between business and education to provide skilled workers for manufacturing firms coming to Kootenai County.
“We need to find ways to improve the readiness of our work force,” he said. “If we want to be leaders, we’ve got to work with North Idaho College and our high schools to make that happen.”
, DataTimes