Location: the product that sells itself

Steve Griffitts’ shop must be the most unassuming in The Shops, Coeur d’Alene’s high-end retail center. No fancy displays, just a blank door with signs “Coeur d’Alene Area Economic Development Corporation” and “Jobs Plus” on the wall.

No matter. You don’t look inside to find out what he’s selling. You look outside.

“This is my product,” Griffitts says, looking out his window towards City Beach on a morning as brightly blue as his gingham shirt.

Griffitts, president of the economic development agency – the corporation and Jobs Plus are one and the same – can barely keep his product on the shelf.

In 2004, Kootenai County added 3,100 jobs. Griffitts says that put the county fourth among 416 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. By comparison, Spokane County added 1,800 jobs.

His problem is not recruiting businesses. He and assistant Hilde Shetler have never been busier. Griffitts says his challenge lately has been assuring businesses they’ll continue to find enough of the quality workers that brought many to the area in the first place.

He relies on the North Idaho College campus in Coeur d’Alene – a “jewel,” he says – and its associated Workforce Training Center in Post Falls to train and retrain employees. Part of his job is to communicate business training needs to college officials.

“We need to make sure our work force is strong and vibrant,” says Griffitts, who notes that more and more of the needed workers are streaming over the border from Spokane County.

Griffitts says he dedicates half his time lately tending to businesses already in Kootenai County, in part due to work force issues. He usually spends 75 percent of his time selling the area to very willing buyers.

Griffitts downplays competition with Spokane despite recruitment victories with companies like Buck Knives, which recently relocated its factory to Post Falls from the San Diego area. Spokane economic development officials are more often allies in campaigns to attract new business, he says. And without the transportation, infrastructure and cultural assets of Spokane, Kootenai County would lack some of the attributes that sway business decision-makers.

“The best ‘Les Miz’ I’ve seen was in Spokane,” says Griffitts, who has seen other productions of the epic musical in London and New York City.

Spokane’s economic development officials are just as complimentary towards Jobs Plus despite the rivalry.

Griffitts says he tries to get every potential relocation candidate to visit North Idaho.

“We get people up here to see the area, to touch it, feel it, smell it,” Griffitts says. Quality of life opens the door; he seals the deal by identifying a business’s critical needs and hooking up leadership with suppliers, banks or government officials who might be able to help. Partnerships are critical.

Anxious as officials are to help business, Griffitts notes Idaho has few incentives to offer, although the Legislature this year passed several.

“I want those companies who feel a kinship with the area and want to give back,” he says. “If they come here with their hands out, they’re going to leave with their hands out.”

Griffitts credits the success of Jobs Plus to the basics: Idaho laws and regulations that are friendly towards business, like lower unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation premiums. And public and private officials working together as a team.

“We have great leaders who get it,” he says, crediting officials at the local, state and national level.

There’s also the considerable foundation laid by Bob Potter, the organization’s first president, and founders Tom Richards, then president of Idaho Forest Products, Coeur d’Alene Mines CEO Dennis Wheeler, and resort owner and publisher Duane Hagadone.

Potter became synonymous with North Idaho’s emergence as a refuge for the tired but not-so-poor among American businesses. He started from zero.

“We weren’t on the radar screen,” says Griffitts.

Griffitts, a 1973 graduate of Coeur d’Alene High School, shares a background in the telecommunications industry with Potter, but the two never worked together at Jobs Plus. Griffitts was a regional vice president for AT&T when he had to choose between staying in the area or taking a position elsewhere with the company.

“I did not want to do that,” Griffitts says, adding that economic development has its rewards. Even at a much slower rate of job growth, “I can positively affect 10,000 families in 10 years,” he says.

Busy as he is, Griffitts says he’s mindful of the competition. “When you’re first, it’s pretty tough,” he says.

But what a product.