KEDA: A Year of Milestones and Ambitious Plans

Reflecting on 2024 Achievements and carrying 'One Kitsap' forward in 2025

2024 was a significant year for the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance as the organization celebrated key milestones while laying the groundwork for future initiatives. Guided by our vision of Economic Vitality for All in One Spectacular Place, KEDA has emerged as a leader in regional economic development. With the launch of our ambitious One Kitsap five-year regional economic strategy last year, KEDA is charting the course ahead for a vibrant, thriving economic future in Kitsap. 

Reflecting on 2024 Achievements

 Last year, KEDA prioritized initiatives across business retention and expansion, workforce development, Kitsap’s Defense economy, and entrepreneurial development to notable success. Team KEDA worked tirelessly to ensure our efforts addressed our community's immediate needs and long-term vision for economic vitality. 

Job one in economic development is to retain and grow your local firms while encouraging new ones to emerge. It’s easy to see that this is KEDA’s focus, as we had well over 100 interactions with local firms last year. In those engagements, and across our 44 site visits to local companies, we learned about the daily reality those firms face, collaborating to help them overcome obstacles and capitalize on opportunities. Regarding new business development, we also worked with 18 startups seeking to create economic impact locally. Big or small, new companies are important, precious things in a local economy: They offer the opportunity to grow wealth and jobs here at home while improving the fabric of everyday community life.

KEDA also runs two programs focused on tightly-scoped areas of economic development, “APEX” and “WAV-C.” Our APEX Accelerator, a program that focuses on ensuring that small businesses have an opportunity to obtain government contracts, held 44 training events with 546 attendees. They obtained 44 new clients, 10 of which were manufacturers. The success of this program is unsurprising, given its team of seasoned business counselors—both retired Navy Contracting Officers—have extensive expertise in federal contracting. 

Meanwhile, our future-forward program for a new economy in Kitsap, WAV-C (the Washington Autonomous Vehicle Cluster), saw significant success: In October, jobs related to maritime autonomy ended up in downtown Bremerton, when Booz Allen Hamilton announced the opening of their Maritime Technology Facility which hosts over 50 jobs focused on high-tech applications in Defense, like supporting the operations of Unmanned Undersea Vehicles Squadron One (UUVRON-1), based at Keyport. WAV-C also held its January 16 Connect event in Bremerton, with 80 attendees joining us from across the nation to hear about the emerging industry of maritime autonomous vehicles. The keynote speaker was DC-based Lt. Cmdr Patrick Rawlinson from the Defense Innovation Unit, who talked about how maritime autonomy vessels are integral to the Navy’s future.

In Kitsap, Defense is our biggest business. It’s also where KEDA is most focused, given the opportunity the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (“SIOP”) will bring to our community: Billions of federal investment dollars will likely flow into Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in the interest of modernization over the next decade. KEDA’s been all over this work: Launching a microsite exclusively focused on SIOP and its opportunities (find it at kitsapeda.me/SIOP), engaging with Navy real estate managers on local leasing approaches; helping train local investors and real estate professionals on how to respond to Navy solicitations; hosting our annual Kitsap Industrial Readiness Summit, which focuses each year on how we can position our community to be ready for the upcoming SIOP investment in the interest of local economic growth.

Soon, we’ll release a half-year of work analyzing our industrial land, buildings, and infrastructure in the community, recommending actions to increase local jobs and wealth. This will be informed by two things: One, what is “economically healthy” for our natural economic growth here; and two, the one-time but catalytic economic opportunity provided by SIOP. 

Economic Development: A Wide Field and Broad Mandate

Economic development is a field where so much appears on our to-do list. That’s because, it turns out, so much is connected to the economy. Here are a few of the other things we’ve tackled at KEDA that we will cont

inue to work on: 

Local Permitting: KEDA is having, and growing, the discussion with local governments about the importance of timely, predictable, and client-focused permit processes. We know it’s important that things get built here efficiently and with less pain. This is perhaps the greatest “low-hanging fruit” in our community that would provide a near-term economic boost: If we can improve this, we’ll increase local investment, redevelopment, housing opportunities and more.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Together with the Washington Department of Commerce, Washington State Microenterprise Association, Kitsap Community Resources, and local nonprofit Matchstick Labs, KEDA launched the second year of its Microbusiness Accelerator to foster small business growth. A preview: We’re about to launch the third year of this program soon. While the program has been held in Poulsbo for two years, it’s also expanding to Bremerton this year, so stay tuned!

Key Events: Last year, KEDA hosted pivotal events like our BIPOC Business Forum, Workforce Roundtable, Meet the Agencies, Kitsap Projects and Priorities, and Fall Forum 2024: Celebrating Small Business. These events underscore KEDA's commitment to fostering stakeholder dialogue and collaboration in the name of economic growth.

Did I mention there’s more? We're leading a task force on increasing our community’s childcare capacity. We're commenting on comprehensive plans. We’re conducting research, like our Top Employers Report and just-published 2024 Economic Profile. All the efforts mentioned above and the direction we’re headed as an organization make KEDA the place where our community’s economic future is planned, directed and executed.

One Kitsap: A Vision for Transformative Growth

KEDA stepping up to take on that central role is all part of the change that came with One Kitsap, a comprehensive, holistic plan to bring our community together on efforts that can grow opportunity for all right here at home. Launched in 2024, One Kitsap is a five-year regional economic strategy. A public-private partnership with clear deliverables and key performance indicators, One Kitsap aims to enhance KEDA's capacity to deliver solutions, create impact and foster sustainable growth.

"This initiative is about creating a resilient and vibrant economic future for Kitsap,” said Roger Newton, CEO of Newton Building and Development and Chair of the KEDA Board. “With One Kitsap, we’re establishing a platform for collaboration, accountability, and growth that aligns with our region's unique strengths and needs."

One Kitsap is focused on tangible outcomes such as job creation, increased incomes, and GDP growth. It aligns with regional plans and engages a broad network of stakeholders including municipalities, educational institutions, and private employers. Some of the clear metrics we’re pursuing as part of the plan include helping create or retain 2,500 jobs, reduce vacancy rates at major employers by 25%, and add 350,000 square feet of industrial/commercial space here in Kitsap by 2029.

Plans for 2025 and Beyond   

Building on the momentum of 2024, KEDA will soon release its update of One Kitsap for 2025. While much of what’s above will carry into the new year—economic development is a slow process that takes multiple years of work to show results—here’s a preview of what some of our priorities are for this year:

Southside Infrastructure Growth: KEDA aims to see increased infrastructure along the corridor from Gorst to Belfair, an area capable of far greater industrial and commercial growth. Our analysis indicates this is where so much of our future opportunity lies: The area along Highway 3 could host potentially thousands more jobs and generate billions in additional regional income if the right underlying infrastructure was in place along with the appropriate buildings.

Workforce Initiatives: Given the state of healthcare in our community, it’s an economic imperative to identify ways for local healthcare providers to increase their talent pool. We’re teaming up on that, and identifying ways to retain talent from the largest employer in our community, the Navy: Expanding programs and partnerships that will help keep more of our transitioning military personnel in our local workforce, matching them with employers right here in Kitsap. It’s also our goal to see that their family members have access to strong workforce opportunities here as well.

Partnerships: In the end, economic development is a team sport: It requires multiple stakeholders to come together to get things done and create opportunity. No one entity can do it alone. As a public-private partnership, collaboration is one of our core skill sets at KEDA, and we’ll continue to grow it, teaming up with Kitsap’s communities, tribal nations, educational institutions, developers, investors and public entities, all in order to align economic development efforts and increase impact.

A Community-Driven Future   
One Kitsap is more than Kitsap’s first-ever regional economic strategy; it’s a commitment to fostering a vibrant and self-determining community. By leveraging public and private investments, engaging diverse stakeholders, and focusing on measurable outcomes, KEDA is well-positioned to drive long-term economic prosperity here in Kitsap.

Our progress in 2024 establishes a strong foundation for the months and years to come. With initiatives like One Kitsap, KEDA is addressing today's economic challenges while preparing our region for a rich future: One characterized by innovation, diversity, resilience, and shared success.

Joe Morrison (morrison@kitsapeda.org) is Executive Director of the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance.