Think Seattle business is booming? Welcome to Kent
When you think about the Puget Sound Region’s boom, where do you think it’s coming from? Many people would answer Amazon, in South Lake Union. Or the Eastside, with its band of glittering tech companies.
Few people would think of the Kent Valley, but there too a boom is underway.
The Kent Valley runs from Renton at the foot of Lake Washington, through Kent and past Auburn. Besides the Green River, which meanders through the valley, its main feature is its canyons of warehouses. It’s the second largest distribution zone on the West Coast and has been for a long time.
But demand for warehouse space has been exploding. Land prices are up and vacancy rates are down. NAI Puget Sound Properties reported that last year was the "greatest year the Kent Valley has ever seen."
All of the economic indicators were “off the charts.”
The reason is Amazon, and not simply because of the company’s vast warehouse complex in Kent; it’s the fact that the company has set a new standard: same-day delivery.
"The demand has increased for the ability to locate your warehouses close to your consumers so you can offer that," said Steve Balaski, business development manager at the Northwest Seaport Alliance.
But distribution warehouses aren't the big jobs engines of the Kent Valley, the way Amazon has become the big jobs engine of Seattle.
Doug Lein of the City of Auburn pointed out that out on a recent tour of a large distribution company.
"You can see in there — all that product and what have you got? You've got three people in there working," he said.
Warehouses don't create a lot of great jobs. They don't even bring in sales taxes.
Manufacturers like Creative Ice in Kent, however, do create jobs.
Creative Ice operates out of a building anonymously named Q, where Steve Cox and his small team set about the day’s business.
"This is ice cube morning," Cox announced on a Tuesday as two of his employees hauled a giant block of ice toward a formidable-looking saw. The saw proceeded to cut slices of ice, then bars of ice and finally perfectly clear ice cubes.
In the afternoon the work will shift to the sculpturing that drew Cox to the business in the first place, a talent he discovered after graduating culinary school and working at a hotel.
Around Easter they had lots of bunnies to make with little backpacks and baskets. The bigger sculptures head to the weddings and casinos and the parties in our boomtown.
Creative Ice is in Kent because it's smack in the middle of Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue — as the delivery truck drives. Cox said there are other important benefits: He can buy spare parts for his saw from the neighbors.
"I found it a half mile away,” he said. “I went in and got it right off the shelf. That doesn't happen in most places."
Opportunities to expand are here too.
"If we wanted to get into food service, all the food service distribution warehouses are in this valley. All the liquor distribution houses are right here," he said
And though Creative Ice doesn’t need more than a truck to get its product to market, there are many businesses here with a reach that extends farther. For them, there are the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma and the international airport. They’re all only 10 to 15 miles away.
“It’s the biggest industry that nobody’s ever heard of,” said Balaski of the Ports Alliance. “It affects everybody but you never see it.”
