MARYSVILLE—The City of Marysville is continuing to develop its massive, 5.1 million square foot, economic development zone through next year that will bring an estimated 20,000 jobs to Snohomish County in the next decade, the city says.
The project is called the Cascade Industrial Center (CIC) and has been a multi-year cooperation between the Cities of Arlington and Marysville since 2015. The center will include over 4,000 acres of manufacturing and industrial-zoned land with more than 1,700 developable acres.
Located along the Interstate 5 corridor, beginning at 122nd Street Northeast, and stretching passed the Gissberg Twin Lakes in Smokey Point—57% of which falls within the City of Arlington and 43% within the City of Marysville—the CIC is Snohomish County’s largest Manufacturing and Industrial Center only second to the Paine Field/Boeing Industrial Center in Everett.
The Cascade Industrial Center received its regional designation as one of only 10 manufacturing industrial centers in Puget Sound region, and one of two in Snohomish County.
Several businesses have already either opened, begun construction on facilities, or leased properties at the CIC including Pepsi Frito Lay, Amazon, Echandia, Gravitics, Coconut Kenny’s, Evans Manufacturing, Eviation Aircraft, Vashon Aircraft and more. The City of Marysville began occupying the space during the Summer and Spring of 2022.
To incentivize new businesses to set up shop in the Cascade Industrial Center, the Cities of Marysville and Arlington are offering to exempt property taxes for the value of new construction of industrial/manufacturing facilities for up to 10 years so long as a business can create a minimum of 25 new full time jobs paying at least $18/hour, and the building is at least 10,000 square feet and valued at $800,000.
The City of Marysville passed an Ordinance (3020) in April, 2016, approving this incentive.
According to a market analysis conducted back in 2016, the price of securing a property at the CIC is approximately $6 per square foot which is lower than nearby Paine Field.
Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring has also committed to a streamlined permitting process with many areas of the CIC pre-evaluated for impacts allowing for an expedited process.
Businesses may also be incentivized to open up shop given the CIC’s convenient location along the I-5 corridor, directly south of Arlington Municipal Airport, a short 30-minute drive to Paine Field Airport, a 20-minute drive from the Port of Everett, an hour North of Seattle, and about 2-hours south of the Canadian border. The region is also supported by rail, via the BNSF Railway, and bus service, via Community Transit, for worker commuting.
Several infrastructure projects are in the works to allow for greater accessibility to, and from, the CIC including a $42 million 156th Street Northeast Freeway Interchange, which is currently fully state funded and will convert the current overcrossing to a full freeway interchange providing direct transportation access to the CIC. Construction on this is estimated to begin some time this year and will be completed by 2031.
Marysville is proposing to build a new five-lane east-west arterial aligning 156th Street Northeast and 152nd Street Northeast, connecting to this new freeway interchange (costing an estimated $70 million), and widen State Route 531 (costing $39 million) to allow much-needed traffic capacity and include access. The project is currently in its design phase with no known construction start date.
The Washington State Department of Transportation also funded a $84 million I-5/SR 528 Interchange and Northbound Corridor Improvement project adding a full freeway interchange, providing a new southern entry point to Marysville and alternate to the highly congested SR 528 near 4th Street.
In addition, the Tulalip Tribes led efforts to make improvements to I-5/4th Street and 88th Street Northeast Improvements costing $35, of which 100% was secured through the state.
The Cities of Arlington and Marysville project the CIC will bring in $14.5 million annually in state and local taxes.
According to the Snohomish County Economic Alliance Snohomish County has the highest concentration of manufacturing jobs west of the Rocky Mountains. Manufacturing is 20% of Snohomish County’s workforce, which is twice the state’s average.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
