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Regional partners outline 2025 wins and 2026 priorities: Paine Field, SAF, workforce and business recruitment
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Summary
Economic development partners told the Snohomish County committee on Jan. 13 they secured state funding and international leads in 2025, highlighted Portal Space Systems'expansion supported by a $350,000 state strategic reserve, and prioritized sustainable aviation fuels, workforce training and business recruitment for 2026.
A coalition of regional economic development organizations briefed the Snohomish County Finance, Budget & Administration Committee on Jan. 13, describing 2025 accomplishments and priorities for 2026 focused on Paine Field, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), international recruitment and workforce development.
Mike Fong opened the briefing and framed 2026 as a year for alignment across county teams and partners to support commercial passenger service and terminal expansion at Paine Field, including infrastructure planning funded in part by a state grant and coordination with WSDOT and Propeller Airports. "We secured some state funding this year...to finalize a scope with WSDOT that will allow us to move forward with some infrastructure planning," Fong said.
Ray Stevenson of the Economic Alliance described the Alliance's 2025 work, including completion of an associate development organization (ADO) redesignation that reaffirmed the Alliance's countywide role, business retention and expansion efforts, health-care workforce roundtables, and international outreach. Stevenson said Snohomish County helped secure a $350,000 strategic reserve from the Washington State Department of Commerce to support Portal Space Systems' next phase in the county. "Portal Space will soon create up to 100 jobs and within five years is expected to grow to 700 jobs," Stevenson said.
Rebecca Lovell, acting CEO of Greater Seattle Partners, presented regional marketing and recruitment work across King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. She said GSP engaged roughly 400 companies in 2025 and maintained about 75'80 active projects; GSP reported 22 top leads sourced from the SelectUSA spin-off for Snohomish County and said the organization recorded a 650% increase in engagement year-over-year, with about 1,000,000 organic impressions and roughly 7,500,000 impressions when paid media is included in 2025. "SelectUSA spin-off has been our most successful source of leads," Lovell said.
Diane Kimianka, executive director of the Northwest Innovation Resource Center (NWIRC), described workforce and entrepreneur programs: a Snohomish County-funded data analytics program that placed graduates on local company projects, AI and data-analytics courses in partnership with Workforce Snohomish, and pilot efforts to colocate entrepreneurs with workforce training. Kimianka emphasized supply-chain, feedstock and workforce challenges for scaling SAF production and described regional coordination with technical colleges and industry partners on training needs. She also outlined plans to collaborate on a regional "fusion week" event this May to broaden workforce and supply-chain participation beyond primary fusion producers.
The briefing emphasized coordination across jurisdictions, targeted industry pipelines (aerospace, clean energy, health care, maritime), and continued pursuit of state and regional grants to support infrastructure and workforce investments. Committee members were invited to submit follow-up questions to presenters after the meeting.
What to watch: infrastructure planning related to Paine Field terminal expansion, further detail and funding tied to Portal Space Systems' expansion, and follow-up workforce training programs for SAF and fusion supply chains.
