Tiny Cody Courts Local Businesses
Spokane businesses are once again in the economic recruiting cross hairs, but this time it’s just tiny Cody, Wyo., on the other end of the gun.
Six members of the Cody Economic Development Council will be visiting Spokane businesses March 29 and 30. Their pitch to small businesses: get away from the growing crime, air pollution and traffic, and get out in the country.
“We’re targeting businesses with 5 to 30 employees that are less dependent on interstate travel and that rely heavily on UPS or other shipping for most business,” said Paul Hoffman, executive director of Cody’s council.
“We’re not necessarily trying to steal businesses from Spokane - we’d like to see more if businesses having success up there would be interested in expanding or perhaps moving here.”
The Cody team’s visit doesn’t exactly have Spokane’s business recruiters circling the wagons. Bob Cooper of the Spokane Economic Development Council said the city gets three or four visits a year from cities looking to lure businesses away.
Most cities, including Spokane, go to larger ones looking to persuade businesses to relocate.
“Some of our businesses got the letter that Cody’s team sent to them and then sent the letter on to me with some humorous notes on it,” Cooper said. “This is pretty common practice. We had that group from Mississippi come up here trying to do the same thing last year.”
Cooper said the Mississippi team had no luck in getting businesses to move from Spokane.
Hoffman said about a half dozen businesses in the Spokane area have responded to calls and advertising about the recruiting trip. He declined to name which companies.
Cody, a town of 12,000 tucked in northwest Wyoming, sports a much bigger retail base than its population suggests, Hoffman said. Tourists headed to Yellowstone National Park increase the retail market to about 35,000 people, he said.
Plus, Wyoming has no corporate or personal income tax, low workers compensation rates, lower sales tax and lower property taxes, he said.
Cody has been recruiting businesses to come there since 1985, and picked Spokane because the climate is similar and the business climate is strong, he said.
“We find it’s a lot better to talk with a business about expanding or locating elsewhere when it’s on a high lick,” Hoffman said.
Cooper said Cody may have some tax advantages, but his staffers who have been there say Cody and Spokane aren’t too alike. Cody has few trees and has more of a high desert plains feel instead of the greener Spokane, he said.
“These groups often drop in on us when they’re on a three- or four-city tour of the region, and they’ll try to see if anyone will bite,” he said. “Nobody’s called me yet to see if we’ll match a deal offered by Cody.”