Catching up with: Jobs Plus, now known as CdAEDC

The Coeur d’Alene-based nonprofit originally known as Jobs Plus, which was formed in 1987 to diversify the extractive resource-dependent economy in Kootenai County, has become more selective in business recruitment and more involved in housing and labor issues in recent years, says its President Gynii Gilliam.

The Journal of Business last contacted Gilliam directly in mid-2015 during her first year as president of Jobs Plus, when Transamerican Auto Parts, of Compton, California, announced plans to open an 85,000-square-foot distribution center and retail store, creating 32 jobs in Post Falls.

During Gilliam’s tenure, the organization has assisted more than 200 companies, 67 of which have created more than 3,500 direct jobs with estimated annual payroll in the range of $116 million to $182 million. In that timespan, it also has helped attract over $253 million in capital investment, generating over $1.7 million in annual tax revenue, she says.

Gilliam says the organization now prefers to go by a name that emphasizes broader economic development because many people were contacting Jobs Plus to drop off resumes, thinking the organization is a staffing agency.

“Legally, we’re still Jobs Plus,” she says. “We are doing business as the Coeur d’Alene Area Economic Development Corp.”

That name has been stylized as CdAEDC, she says noting that the EDC portion of the acronym is known within business and economic development communities.

“Yes, we’re about job creation, but we’re not an employment agency,” Gilliam says. “I told my board I was wasting my 15-second elevator speech explaining who we’re not. As opposed to who we are. CdAEDC made it so that I can talk about it.”

Gilliam says the organization spends as much effort helping existing businesses grow as it does trying to attract new businesses to the Coeur d’Alene area.

“We have enough businesses here that want to expand, grow, and diversify, that we also need to provide assistance to them,” she says. “Our ultimate goal is to build a healthy economy. Whether we do that by attracting new business and industry to the area or helping our existing businesses grow, it creates jobs.”

She says the CdAEDC currently is trying to be more selective in the businesses it recruits than it was in 1987, meaning it’s seeking to expand jobs in such industries as advanced manufacturing, health care, and biotechnology, rather than in call center-type businesses it once recruited.

“We want to make sure that they’re high paying, more competitive, with more opportunities for the people who are going to work for them,” Gilliam says.

She notes that average hourly wages in such companies last year climbed to over $24 in the Coeur d’Alene area.

However, even though wages are significantly higher than a few years ago, they’re not keeping up with home prices.

Traditionally, economic development entities recruited companies and helped businesses expand and left housing and labor up to other agencies, Gilliam says, noting that has changed.

“In the last three to five years, just about every economic development entity across the nation has been heavily engaged in (housing issues),” she says. “So we’re more actively providing support for the Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance and the Housing Solutions Partnership.”

On the labor front, she says, “We’re going to have to help our businesses be more creative in terms of retaining the workforce, recruiting the workforce, and maintaining a talent pipeline.”

CdAEDC supports all levels of education, including university, community college, high school, and junior high school programs.

“If we can’t create the workforce we need, our businesses won’t succeed,” she says.

CdAEDC is based at 3731 N. Ramsey Road, in north Coeur d’Alene.

Its staff consists of Gilliam; Josh Wise, who handles economic development projects; and Loren Whitten-Kaboth, who handles investor relations and special projects.

The organization’s annual budget is about $525,000 and is partly funded by several communities, including Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, and Rathdrum, Gilliam says, adding that 75% to 80% of its funding comes from local businesses.

The CdAEDC is working with several Eastern Washington entities on programs that include the annual I-90 Aerospace Conference & Expo, the American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center tech hub, a biotech industry coalition, and an Economic Recovery Corps fellowship that aims to establish creative districts in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

She says CdAEDC often collaborates with Spokane’s economic development organization Greater Spokane Incorporated.

“We’re still competitive, but we purposely work together, because we know that any growth on any side of the border is good for the area,” she says. “So if there’s a recruitment or expansion in Spokane Valley or Post Falls, people are going to cross the border if it’s within their industry and they want to apply for the job.”