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Traded Sector Jobs Strategy
Vision: Gresham as a premier economic engine and key partner in Portland metropolitan regional growth.
Goal 1: Manufacturing
Strengthen and grow Gresham’s existing manufacturing sector.
Retain family wage jobs and create more by expanding existing companies and recruiting new companies in target opportunity areas.
Strategies
- Evaluate incentive programs and consider modifications to attract high value and high employment manufacturing companies.
- Offer businesses streamlined, responsive and customer driven services for expansion and new construction and new business start-ups.
- Focus on retaining existing manufacturing companies and keeping in contact with companies to:
- Assess situation and provide needed support services.
- Connect companies with new opportunities.
- Strengthen regional partnerships that provide programs for national and global expansion and growth of the manufacturing sector.
- Refocus recruitment strategies to highlight Gresham’s value proposition and pursue integrated target opportunity industries with overlapping functions.
Targeted opportunities
- Advanced electronics
- Specialized machinery and equipment
Advanced electronics are integrated into a wide variety of sectors – crisscrossing traditional industries and companies that have not historically aligned – where electronics are integral to the overall product.
- Next generation of semiconductors, development and manufacture of displays and haptic/touch screen technology
- Incorporation into consumer-based health care devices and automotive electronics as companies migrate to more electronic-based platforms
- Gresham can leverage the region’s attributes such as workforce talent to attract firms that build and design products in the advanced electronics industry
Target industries:
- Automotive electronics
- Avionics
- Electronic medical devices
- Micro electronics
- Semiconductors
- Clean technology
- Growth in specialized suppliers and service providers for advanced electronics and medical/biological sectors will require new advanced and specialized equipment to meet these industries’ specific needs.
- The need for domestic development and production of machinery and equipment is on the rise as production operations require better market access and adaptability to changing needs and technologies.
- Gresham can market the value chain in the region along with robust utilities, availability of prime industrial sites, and a strong history of support for manufacturing.
Target industries:
- Agriculture
- Electronics
- Food processing
- Medical/biological
Goal 2: Professional services
Encourage job creation and new investment in Gresham’s industrial and regional centers.
Focus on professional service companies fitting the industrial services model allowed by Gresham’s development code.
Strategies
- Research and implement new tools/programs to encourage industrial/professional service firms in Gresham’s industrial and regional centers.
- Market the attributes of Gresham’s available industrial and employment areas to state and regional developers, brokers and appropriate business associations as a viable location for professional service firms.
- Tap into regional strengths in professional services (software, design, creative services) to support target opportunities.
Incentives
Gresham has a number of ways to help businesses invest in Gresham.
Read more about our incentive programs.