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Thoughts of the Week |
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A Look At Caldwell ID; Economic ResearchCaldwell and Nampa Idaho Research Economic Report on Caldwell, ID. First I would like to comment on the first rate job being done by Mr. Al Ames of the Caldwell Economic Development Council. He and his team have devised a revitalization of the down town area. There is a river flowing under the city, which has been paved over and built upon. They will be uncovering about 10 blocks of it and changing the area to allow for a Downtown River Walk like in San Antonio. It will be called the Indian Creek “River Walk” (actually the Boise River officially still) and it is impressive and they have in place all the funding. At the end of the area is a Turn about being built to allow for five directional traveling including allowing people to get onto the two downtown one-way streets. There is a six-acre piece of property available which was an old pallet factory, the owner wishes to move it. Perfect for a Large Service Business. Many new homes going in and we expect a continuing growth there that will be unparallel and should surpass the Nampa, ID growth in terms of percentage increases in 2004-2006. Nampa now the sign says 68,680 but that is wrong way more people and growth everywhere. When we met with Mr. Ames for an hour, he said he was meeting with Senator Mike Crapo that afternoon to alert him of the ongoing progress and excellent recruitment work. They are inline with our thinking, Caldwell is going to have a population explosion and they are revitalizing just in time. They are working on implementing a project called L.I.F.T. Local Infrastructure Financing Trust. Mr. Aimes worked under President Carter in charge of NV, ID, OR economic development and did an awesome job creating jobs and setting the local cities and counties back on track to help tax base and cities provide services. Mr. Aimes also was in charge of the Torch in Downtown Newport Beach, CA. during his stint there. It has been burning 30 years now. I have been discussing on this board the various river walks and downtown revitalizing a key to cities, which have had agriculture (now done by machines and corporate farming) based economies and manufacturing jobs that have gone over seas. As economies move to retail and services and leisure and the baby boomers grow older and desire these things this is a good play to help those towns which have had areas boarded up and small businesses gone out of business due to decreased jobs and box store corporate merchandising. The population in Caldwell is a mere 30,800 up from 25,900 in about a year and a half. New residential park going in now called; Delaware Park, with single family dwellings. Some of the older crowd moving in who cannot afford the higher priced Meadow Lake Retirement Village, similar to a Sun City, ID style. Sky Ranch Industrial Park is a major upgrade, 65 acre industrial park which will make it the largest in ID and rivaling Anaconda Industrial Transportation hub area outside of Butte. West Valley Medical Center allows for those older people to move in and have all the medical services they need, it also allows for many high paying jobs. Canyon County is growing at about 2.6% since 2000. Nampa at 4.8% and Garden City has about 11,000 people in it now. Meridian has 34,919 and Eagle has 12,000 now and growing high end. The whole area is picking up the growth that the build out in Boise could not sustain as the construction and growth has nearly hit all city limits. Since 1970 ID has lost about 4,000 family farms, some to corporate farmers like J.R. Simplots buying them up for sales of frozen potatoes to McDonalds. Also grown in this area of ID are Peas, which makes it number one in the world for peas. Barley, Hops, Onions which were originally Simplots first crop which they dehydrated and shipped which helped build the town. In 1941 they started doing potatoes in WWII. Caldwells origins were with the railroad during the gold rush in CA. Many hotels, saloons, etc, made the town grow fast in its early days. Caldwell was named after C.A. Caldwell Ex-governor of Kansas in 1890. In 1884 the area before it became a city had 600 residents, 150 buildings, 40 businesses and 3 churches. Albertson College was built in 1891. Yes same family that own Albertsons Grocery today which is HQ in Boise, ID. Today Canyon County has some 380,000 irrigated acres, most irrigated from Snake River. Caldwell has much Dairy Industry farms. For every 1000 Dairy Cows it employs about 30 people. National Dairy Association. Milk, Cheese and Cows are big business in the US and huge in this region. The Annual Fair is happening now until August 19. The Aircraft Museum has moved to a brand new Facility in Nampa. $5.00 per visit and worth the money. The business community is very united and aggressively working with the economic development departments and the city on behalf of small business in the area and sports a large chamber of commerce. The office space and retail space leasing prices are about; $8.00 to $15.00 in Ada County it is little higher by a buck or two stated a commercial real estate broker we met in Starbucks in Boise. In Canyon County 61% of the Population is either in Nampa or Caldwell, Industrial is low at about $.20-35 or so. Over 60% of the industrial buildings in the county are within city limits of Nampa and Caldwell. check out the aerial views on that site. Lots of opportunity in this region of our Great Nation; Caldwell is next to have the exponential growth in ID; Mike Gable agrees Exec. Director. In Caldwell we found some nice properties too near the freeway for about 175K per acre, so for businesses moving in it is quite affordable. We also talked with the Chamber of Commerce in Caldwell and Meridian both were hyper-optimistic about growth and working hard to keep infrastructure ahead of the curve, the program is working; We agree with their observations completely. Tourism is alive and well. The average California Tourist spends $349.00 in Idaho. Oregonians spend average of $104.00 and Washington travelers spend $113.00 . Tourism is about to get even better after the Indian Creek River walk is completed. But also not to be underestimated is businesses such as Darigold, West Farms and Crookham Seed-Hybrid Corn. Many people work in Boise and live in Nampa and Caldwell, which is stressing I-84 and the 184 City Center FWY link. Some jobs are call center jobs, one is for Direct TV and they pay $8.00 per hour instead of $5.15 minimum, because they say listening to a complaining caller about their HBO service. For information about all of this check out the 43 Billion Sales in ID. Canyon County’s Labor force is over $69,000 and unemployed is 5.9% so things are good for operating a service business in that region. This region of ID is looking good for 2005, we are bullish on the Caldwell, Meridian, Eagle, Nampa Markets. About The Author Lance Winslow - Discuss Thought Provoking Concepts, Controversies and Major Social, Economic, Political, Science and Technology Issues That Impact Our Planet At The Online Think Tank: http://www.WorldthinkTank.net/wttbbs Geniuses Wanted. Join our free forums to develop the genius in you or share your unique perspectives. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/ |
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