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Economic Development

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

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
Specialized machinery and equipment
  • 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.