Tygart Media

Tag: Business Development

  • Tacoma’s Quiet Talent Engine: How Bates, Clover Park, PLU, and UW Tacoma Are Building Pierce County’s 2026 Workforce

    Tacoma’s Quiet Talent Engine: How Bates, Clover Park, PLU, and UW Tacoma Are Building Pierce County’s 2026 Workforce

    Tacoma’s Quiet Talent Engine: How Bates, Clover Park, PLU, and UW Tacoma Are Building Pierce County’s 2026 Workforce

    If you run a manufacturing shop in Frederickson, a clinic on the Hilltop, or a logistics operation near the Port, you already know the hardest part of growing in Pierce County isn’t demand — it’s people. The good news, and it doesn’t get nearly enough ink, is that Tacoma sits on top of one of the most layered post-secondary talent pipelines in the South Sound. Between a technical college that trains apprentices in six state-approved trades, a second technical college that opened a brand-new community campus in 2025, a private university quietly graduating nurses into a chronically short-staffed sector, and a public research university downtown, the machinery to staff this city’s growth is already humming. The trick for local employers is knowing how to plug into it.

    This is the higher-ed and apprenticeship layer of the story — distinct from the K-12 pipeline and the new Maritime 253 program that Tacoma Public Schools is launching this fall. Here’s how the colleges feeding Tacoma’s economy are positioned heading into the 2026-27 academic year, and where the real openings are.

    Bates Technical College: The Apprenticeship Backbone

    Bates Technical College, anchored at its downtown campus at 1101 S. Yakima Ave, is the closest thing Tacoma has to a dedicated trades-and-apprenticeship engine. Bates works with six Washington State-approved apprenticeship training partners spanning fields from aerospace to construction. The model is the part employers tend to underrate: apprentices earn wages at a percentage of the journey-level rate while they work in the field, then attend classes part-time — usually evenings — for one to five years. On completion they receive a journeyman-level certificate from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries Apprenticeship & Training Council (batestech.edu).

    That earn-while-you-learn structure is exactly what cash-strapped young workers and budget-conscious employers both need. Eligibility is deliberately wide: typically a high school diploma or GED, a minimum age of 16, and the aptitude to complete the program.

    The AJAC Manufacturing Academy Lands at Bates

    The most concrete near-term opportunity sits inside Bates’ downtown campus. The Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee (AJAC) runs its no-cost Pierce County Manufacturing Academy there, with the 2026 cohort scheduled for April 1 through June 10, 2026, meeting 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (ajactraining.org). The academy is hands-on prep that funnels graduates toward registered apprenticeships — including aerospace machinist roles — backed by AJAC’s Career Navigation Team. AJAC partners with more than 40 manufacturing companies in Pierce County alone, building products for aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, food processing, and plastics. For a region trying to capitalize on the manufacturing magnet forming in Frederickson, that’s a direct conveyor belt from classroom to shop floor. Requirements are straightforward: Washington residency, 18 or older, legal authorization to work in the U.S., and full attendance.

    Clover Park Technical College: Scale, Aviation, and a New Front Door

    Just down I-5 in Lakewood, Clover Park Technical College (CPTC) brings the scale. CPTC offers more than 120 certificate or degree options across seven schools — Aerospace & Aviation; Automotive & Trades; Advanced Manufacturing; Business & Personal Services; Health & Human Development; Nursing; and Science, Technology, Engineering & Design (cptc.edu). Its aviation program runs out of the South Hill Campus near Thun Field, feeding graduates toward major and regional airlines, repair stations, and aircraft component manufacturers.

    CPTC also broke ground on credential ladders early: it was the first two-year college in Pierce County to offer a baccalaureate degree, the Bachelor of Applied Science in Manufacturing Operations. That matters because it lets a worker start as a mechatronics technician and climb to a four-year applied degree without leaving the regional system.

    The Eastside Training Center: College Comes to the Neighborhood

    The newest development is geographic. In January 2025, CPTC opened the Eastside Training Center at East 60th and McKinley Avenue in Tacoma, in partnership with WorkForce Central and the City of Tacoma (blog.cptc.edu). The center deliberately targets communities that haven’t traditionally been well served by higher education, blending CPTC’s skills training with WorkForce Central services that connect job seekers, employers, and community organizations under one roof. Early programming includes HVAC training and Running Start access for high schoolers. For Tacoma’s East Side, it’s the difference between a 30-minute drive to Lakewood and a walkable front door.

    The Invista-to-CPTC Corporate Education Shift Employers Should Know About

    Here’s a piece of institutional history that still trips up local business owners. Invista Performance Solutions — the long-running collaboration of Pierce County community and technical colleges that delivered customized employer training in lean process improvement, leadership, ESL, and industrial skills — was formally dissolved on June 30, 2023. Clover Park Technical College, Pierce College District, and Tacoma Community College ended the limited liability partnership, and Invista’s training professionals were brought on directly at CPTC (choosetacomapierce.org).

    What that means in practice: if you’re an employer who used to call “Invista” for a custom training contract, that capacity now lives inside Clover Park Technical College Corporate Education. The offerings — and crucially, access to Washington State’s Job Skills Program (JSP) matching grant, which can offset the cost of training built to your company’s specific needs — carried over. If your last conversation about workforce training predates mid-2023, it’s worth a fresh call.

    Pacific Lutheran University: The Nursing and Business Pipeline

    On the private side, Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) plays a different but essential role. PLU offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and graduate programs across business, education, kinesiology, marriage and family therapy, and nursing, with a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,446 as of fall 2024 (plu.edu). For a regional economy fighting a healthcare staffing shortage, PLU’s School of Nursing is the standout. It runs a traditional BSN and an Entry-Level Master of Science in Nursing (ELMSN) on the Tacoma campus, plus an accelerated BSN in Lynnwood — all accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (plu.edu/nursing). Those graduates feed directly into MultiCare, CHI Franciscan, and the rest of the South Sound’s clinical employers.

    UW Tacoma: The Four-Year Anchor Downtown

    The University of Washington Tacoma is the research-university anchor of the whole system, with seven schools offering more than 50 undergraduate majors and minors and 15 graduate degree programs, including engineering and technology tracks that align with the region’s advanced-manufacturing and tech ambitions (tacoma.uw.edu). One programmatic note for prospective students: UW Tacoma’s Educational Administration program is set to pause following the 2025-26 academic year, so anyone eyeing that track should confirm timing directly with the school.

    Reading the Enrollment Tea Leaves

    Zoom out and the statewide context shapes what local employers can expect. Washington’s community and technical college system — 34 colleges overseen by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) — trains roughly 307,000 people a year for the workforce, transfer, or continuing education (sbctc.edu). Enrollment dropped sharply during the 2020 pandemic and has held steady with modest gains since, though it hasn’t fully returned to pre-pandemic peaks. Community college baccalaureate programs tell the same story — a slight rebound, with certain career clusters gaining share even as the overall number lags.

    The takeaway for Tacoma employers is counterintuitive but useful: a system running below its enrollment peak is a system with capacity. The seats and the training infrastructure exist; the constraint is awareness and the willingness of local companies to build the partnerships — apprenticeship sponsorships, custom training contracts, internship pipelines — that turn classroom capacity into hired workers.

    What This Means for Pierce County Business

    The pieces of Tacoma’s talent engine don’t always talk to each other, but together they cover the map: Bates and AJAC for the skilled trades and manufacturing apprentices, CPTC for aviation, advanced manufacturing, and employer-customized training, PLU for nursing and business, and UW Tacoma for the four-year and graduate anchor. The employers who win the next few years won’t be the ones who post the most job ads. They’ll be the ones who pick up the phone — to AJAC’s career navigators, to CPTC Corporate Education, to a Bates apprenticeship coordinator — and build a pipeline before they need it.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the AJAC Manufacturing Academy and when is the 2026 Tacoma class?

    The AJAC Manufacturing Academy is a free, hands-on manufacturing training program that prepares students for registered apprenticeships and manufacturing jobs. The 2026 Pierce County cohort runs April 1 through June 10, 2026, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Bates Technical College’s downtown campus (1101 S. Yakima Ave, Tacoma). Applicants must be Washington residents, 18 or older, and legally authorized to work in the U.S.

    What happened to Invista Performance Solutions?

    Invista Performance Solutions was dissolved on June 30, 2023, when Clover Park Technical College, Pierce College District, and Tacoma Community College ended the limited liability partnership. Its training staff were hired directly by Clover Park Technical College, and the employer-training function now operates as CPTC Corporate Education — including access to Washington’s Job Skills Program matching grant.

    Where can Tacoma residents get apprenticeship training?

    Bates Technical College is the primary apprenticeship hub in Tacoma, working with six Washington State-approved apprenticeship partners across trades from aerospace to construction. Apprentices earn wages while they work and attend part-time classes, finishing with a state-recognized journeyman-level certificate after one to five years.

    Which Tacoma-area college offers a four-year manufacturing degree?

    Clover Park Technical College was the first two-year college in Pierce County to offer a baccalaureate degree — the Bachelor of Applied Science in Manufacturing Operations — letting students advance from a technician credential to an applied four-year degree within the regional system.

    What is the Clover Park Eastside Training Center?

    The Eastside Training Center is a Clover Park Technical College campus that opened in January 2025 at East 60th and McKinley Avenue in Tacoma, in partnership with WorkForce Central and the City of Tacoma. It brings skills training and workforce services to Tacoma’s East Side, an area historically underserved by higher education, with programming such as HVAC training and Running Start.

    Reporting reflects publicly available information from each institution as of June 2026. Program dates, eligibility, and offerings can change — confirm details directly with the school before enrolling.

  • The Restoration Hiring Roadmap: Which Seat to Fill First as You Scale From $1M to $5M

    The Restoration Hiring Roadmap: Which Seat to Fill First as You Scale From $1M to $5M

    The Restoration Hiring Roadmap: Which Seat to Fill First as You Scale From $1M to $5M

    The hardest org-chart decision in restoration is not who to hire. It is what order to hire them in. Get the sequence wrong and you spend money on a seat that doesn’t relieve the bottleneck — while the real constraint, almost always you, keeps strangling growth.

    Most owners build their team reactively. A big loss comes in, they’re underwater, so they grab whoever is available — usually another tech. Six months later they have more trucks and the same problem: every job, every estimate, and every collections call still routes through the owner. They added capacity to the field and zero capacity to the bottleneck.

    Here is the honest sequence — the one that actually pulls the owner out of the truck — mapped to the revenue milestones where each hire pays for itself.

    First, Find Your Real Bottleneck (It’s Probably You)

    Before you hire anyone, do the boring exercise. List every function the company performs — answer the phone, dispatch, scope the loss, write the estimate, run the crew, order equipment, invoice the TPA, chase payment, do payroll. Next to each one, write the name of who actually does it. Count how many times your own name appears. That number is your bottleneck, and the first hire should remove the most expensive, most repeatable item from your list — not the one you enjoy least.

    The trap is hiring for relief instead of leverage. Hiring a third tech feels good because the trucks are full. But if you are still the only person who can scope a loss and write a winning estimate, those trucks just create more work that funnels back to you.

    $0–$1M: You and a Lead Tech

    At startup scale, the org chart is two boxes: you and a strong lead technician. You are the estimator, the PM, the dispatcher, and the collections department. That’s fine — and unavoidable — at this stage. The rule of thumb most operators use is roughly $150,000–$200,000 in annual revenue per field technician before adding the next one, because that’s the point where there is genuinely enough work to keep another body busy and billable.

    The mistake here is hiring a second tech too early to look bigger than you are. Idle techs are the fastest way to torch a thin startup margin.

    $1M–$2M: The First Office Hire — Not Another Tech

    This is the milestone where most owners hire wrong. They add a second or third tech when the seat that actually frees them is administrative. An office coordinator or office manager who owns scheduling, job-file documentation, TPA paperwork, and the collections follow-up is the single highest-leverage hire at this stage. Restoration office and administrative coordinator roles commonly run in the $45,000–$60,000 range depending on market, and that one seat can claw back ten to fifteen owner-hours a week — hours you can redirect into estimating and sales, which are the only two activities that grow revenue.

    The math is simple. If you are personally billing $150-plus per estimating hour and you hand off twelve hours of admin a week to a $55,000 coordinator, the hire pays for itself almost immediately and converts owner time into top-line growth.

    $2M–$3.5M: A Dedicated Estimator / Project Manager

    Once admin is covered, the next thing chained to the owner is almost always scoping and estimating. This is the hardest seat to give up because it feels like the part only you can do — and at first, it is. But a $2M shop cannot scale on a single estimator who is also the CEO.

    Hire a restoration estimator/PM who can scope a loss, write the Xactimate estimate, and manage the job to completion. Expect this to be one of your more expensive seats: restoration project manager and estimator compensation broadly lands in the $60,000–$90,000 range nationally, with experienced, supplement-savvy PMs commanding more in tight labor markets. Plan for a ramp — a new PM rarely writes estimates as tight as an experienced owner on day one, and supplement recovery may dip during the handoff before it recovers.

    This is also where your tech stack starts to matter. If your estimating, job management, and TPA reporting all live in the owner’s head or a spreadsheet, the new PM can’t be effective. The hire and the system have to land together.

    $3.5M–$5M: An Operations Manager and the Owner Comes Off the Truck

    By this stage you should have a small bench: lead techs, an office manager, and at least one PM/estimator. The seat that defines a $5M shop is an operations manager — someone who is not you and, ideally, not a relative — who owns daily execution: dispatch, crew utilization, equipment, and job throughput. Restoration operations manager pay broadly runs from roughly $63,000 on the lower end to around $89,000-plus for experienced managers, depending heavily on market and revenue scale.

    This is the hire that lets the business survive without the owner physically present. It is also the one that most directly changes what the company is worth. Restoration shops under about $2M tend to trade at roughly 2.8x–3.0x SDE, while companies that cross $5M with a diversified service mix and a real second layer of leadership command 4x–7x EBITDA. Buyers aren’t paying that premium for revenue — they’re paying for an operation that runs without the founder in the dispatch seat. The operations manager is what makes that true.

    A Sanity Check on Labor Cost

    As you build the team, keep the whole picture in view. Healthy restoration shops generally run blended gross margins in the 50–75% range depending on mix — water mitigation sits at the high end (roughly 70–80%) because equipment does much of the work, while reconstruction and fire work run leaner. Well-run operations keep total operating expense, excluding direct job cost, in the rough range of 40–55% of revenue. If a new hire pushes overhead past that band without a clear path to more billable throughput, you’ve hired ahead of your revenue — slow down and fill the pipeline before you fill the seat.

    The Bottom Line

    The order is admin, then estimator/PM, then operations manager — and only more techs as billable volume genuinely demands them. Hire to remove yourself from the bottleneck, not to make the trucks look full. The owners who hit $5M and sell at a 4x-plus multiple are not the ones who hired the most people fastest. They’re the ones who hired the right seat next, every time, until the day the business no longer needed them in the truck.

  • Tacoma’s Mid-Biennium Budget Reset: How the City Closed a $24 Million Gap Without Gutting Public Safety

    Tacoma’s Mid-Biennium Budget Reset: How the City Closed a $24 Million Gap Without Gutting Public Safety

    When the Tacoma City Council gaveled through its Mid-Biennium Budget Modification on October 28, 2025, it did something every business owner in Pierce County understands intuitively: it looked at the books halfway through the cycle, saw that the numbers had moved, and adjusted before the gap got worse. For a $4.7 billion organization, that is not a small course correction. It is the difference between a managed slowdown and a crisis.

    If you run a storefront on Pacific Avenue, manage a warehouse in the Tideflats, or sign the checks for a contracting crew that bids on city work, the way Tacoma balanced its 2025-2026 budget at the midpoint tells you a great deal about the next eighteen months. Here is what actually changed, why it changed, and what it means for the people who keep this city’s economy moving.

    The Numbers Behind Tacoma’s 2025-2026 Budget

    Tacoma operates on a two-year (biennial) budget. The 2025-2026 plan that the Council adopted in December 2024 totaled roughly $4.7 billion across all funds, with about $635 million committed to the General Fund — the discretionary pot that pays for police, fire, parks, libraries, and the day-to-day services residents actually touch.

    That General Fund figure is worth sitting with. At roughly $635 million for the biennium, it represents about a 4% increase over the $615.2 million in the 2023-2024 budget and a 21% jump from the 2021-2022 cycle, according to the city’s Budget in Brief. Spending has been climbing steadily. The question Tacoma had to answer in October was whether revenue could keep pace — and the honest answer was that it could not, at least not without adjustments.

    Why a Mid-Biennium Modification Was Necessary

    Washington cities are required to revisit their budgets at the midpoint of each biennium. But Tacoma’s 2025 modification was driven by more than statutory housekeeping. The city was staring down a structural deficit — the built-in gap between ongoing costs and the revenue that reliably comes in to cover them.

    Reporting from The Center Square pegged that lingering gap at roughly $24 million as the city worked through its planning. To close it, the city leaned on a mix of staff reductions and one-time savings: about $5.6 million was tied to 26 position cuts, most of them filled rather than vacant, with another $1.4 million pulled from projected vacancy savings. Even after those moves, the city still had to identify additional cuts to bring the ledger into balance.

    This is the part local operators should not gloss over. A structural deficit is not a one-time hole you patch and forget. It signals that the city’s baseline obligations — wages, benefits, contracts, debt service — are growing faster than its baseline revenue. When that happens, the pressure does not disappear after one budget cycle. It carries forward, and it shapes how aggressively the city pursues fees, taxes, and code enforcement in the years ahead.

    Where the Money Is Going: Public Safety Leads

    Even with the belt-tightening, Tacoma protected its core. Roughly two-thirds of the General Fund goes to the Police and Fire departments, and the adopted budget added funding to both, according to the city’s budget materials. The mid-biennium modification continued that emphasis, directing money toward public safety, community health, and housing stability while pushing for internal efficiencies elsewhere.

    The city also folded in newer approaches to safety. Alternative response programs — sending the right responder to the right call rather than defaulting to an armed officer for every situation — remained a funded priority, alongside resources for mental health and chemical dependency treatment and enhanced crisis intervention. For business owners in districts that deal with street-level challenges, these programs are not abstractions. They shape how quickly a call gets answered and what kind of help shows up.

    Capital Projects and the Six-Year Horizon

    Tacoma plans its big-ticket investments — road reconstruction, facility upgrades, utility infrastructure — through a six-year Capital Facilities Plan. The 2025-2030 CFP lives inside the larger budget book and represents the city’s long-range bet on where physical investment should flow.

    The mid-biennium modification touched the capital side as well, with the Council adopting both operating and capital budget ordinances to reflect new grants, revised revenue projections, and updated Council priorities. New grant dollars matter enormously here: when the city captures outside funding for a watershed, a corridor, or a facility, those dollars stretch local money further and often open bid opportunities for Pierce County contractors. If your firm does any work that touches public infrastructure, the CFP is the document you should be reading before your competitors do.

    The Liability Fund and Other Quiet Line Items

    Not every budget adjustment grabs headlines, but some carry real weight. Among the larger new expenses in the modification was an additional roughly $8 million directed to the city’s third-party liability fund — the reserve Tacoma draws on to cover claims and settlements against the city. A growing liability reserve is a defensive line item; it reflects either rising claim costs, a deliberate move to shore up reserves, or both. Either way, it is $8 million that cannot go to a new program, and it underscores how much of a modern municipal budget is consumed by obligations that have nothing to do with new services.

    What This Means for Tacoma Businesses

    Strip away the accounting language and a few practical signals emerge for anyone operating in Tacoma or the broader Pierce County market.

    First, revenue pressure tends to flow downhill. When a city faces a structural deficit, it scrutinizes every revenue stream — including the business and occupation (B&O) tax, sales tax remittances, and licensing fees that local employers pay. Tacoma’s combined sales tax rate sits at 10.4% for 2026, near the top of the state. That rate shapes consumer behavior and your margins, and in a tight budget year the city has little appetite for cutting it.

    Second, the public-safety emphasis is a stabilizing signal. A city that protects police, fire, and alternative-response funding even while cutting elsewhere is one that understands a safe commercial district is an economic asset, not a line item to gut. That is a reasonable bet for business owners to factor into their own location and investment decisions.

    Third, the grant-funded capital pipeline is where opportunity lives. The contractors and suppliers who track the Capital Facilities Plan and the city’s active projects portal position themselves for work that the rest of the market only learns about after the bid closes.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is Tacoma’s total 2025-2026 budget?

    Tacoma’s 2025-2026 biennial budget totals roughly $4.7 billion across all funds, with approximately $635 million allocated to the General Fund that pays for core services like police, fire, parks, and libraries. The budget was originally adopted by the City Council in December 2024 and modified at the midpoint in October 2025.

    What was the Mid-Biennium Budget Modification?

    It was a set of operating and capital budget ordinances the City Council adopted on October 28, 2025, amending the 2025-2026 budget to reflect updated revenue and expense projections, new grants, and revised Council priorities. The modification emphasized public safety, community services, and infrastructure while addressing the city’s structural deficit.

    How big is Tacoma’s budget deficit?

    The city was working through a structural deficit estimated at roughly $24 million — the gap between ongoing costs and ongoing revenue. To help close it, Tacoma cut about 26 positions (saving roughly $5.6 million) and applied additional one-time savings, while still needing to identify further reductions.

    Did Tacoma cut public safety funding?

    No. Despite the deficit, the city preserved and in some areas increased public safety funding. Roughly two-thirds of the General Fund goes to the Police and Fire departments, and the budget continued investing in alternative response programs and crisis intervention services.

    How can local contractors find Tacoma capital project opportunities?

    Tacoma plans capital investments through its six-year Capital Facilities Plan, available in the city budget book, and publishes active work through its projects portal at projects.tacoma.gov. Monitoring both — along with new grant awards announced in budget modifications — is the most direct way for Pierce County firms to spot upcoming bid opportunities.

    Reporting compiled from City of Tacoma budget documents, the October 2025 Mid-Biennium Budget Modification, and local coverage by The Center Square and Hoodline. Figures reflect the city’s published budget materials as of the 2025-2026 biennium.

  • Tacoma Power’s Clean Energy Buildout: Cushman II Turbines, EV Charging Expansion, and the Green Hydrogen Rate Reshaping Pierce County

    Tacoma Power’s Clean Energy Buildout: Cushman II Turbines, EV Charging Expansion, and the Green Hydrogen Rate Reshaping Pierce County

    If you spend any time tracking Pierce County’s economic development conversations, you’ll notice that Tacoma Power keeps coming up — not just as a utility, but as an active player in where jobs land, which industrial tenants choose Tacoma, and how the city positions itself inside Washington’s accelerating clean energy mandate. In 2026, that role is getting harder to ignore.

    Three concurrent initiatives are reshaping what Tacoma Power looks like heading into the next decade: a major turbine refurbishment at the Cushman II hydroelectric facility that will keep the dam running for another century, an EV charging buildout targeting 85 public ports by year-end, and a first-in-the-nation green hydrogen tariff that has put Tacoma on the radar of electrolysis companies from Europe to the Pacific Rim. Each thread is worth pulling on independently. Together, they tell a story about a municipal utility actively engineering its future rather than waiting for state policy to dictate it.

    Cushman II: A 96-Year-Old Dam Gets a 100-Year Extension

    The Cushman II hydropower plant sits in Mason County, just west of the Pierce County line on the Skokomish River system — close enough that Tacoma residents have been drawing power from it since 1930. The facility’s three turbine-generator units produce a combined 81 MW, enough renewable electricity to serve approximately 40,500 Northwest homes. That output has been reliable, but the hardware is aging. Tacoma Power moved to address that head-on.

    In late 2023, Tacoma Power selected GE Vernova’s Hydro Power business to refurbish two of the three 27 MW turbine-generator units. The scope covers new generator stators, refurbishment of rotor poles and shaft thrust bearings, replacement of turbine distributors, and rehabilitation of the turbine runners and draft tubes. As of mid-2026, the project remains on schedule for completion this year, according to public reporting from Renewable Energy World and the American Public Power Association.

    The expected outcome: increased availability and reliability at a plant that provides the foundational renewable generation underpinning Tacoma Power’s carbon-free supply mix. Hydroelectric power already constitutes the overwhelming majority of Tacoma Power’s generation portfolio — a structural advantage that becomes more valuable as Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act tightens requirements on utilities statewide.

    Why Dam Maintenance Is a Business Story, Not Just an Engineering One

    Every megawatt-hour that Cushman II produces is a megawatt-hour Tacoma Power doesn’t have to source from the market. For industrial customers — the manufacturers, data centers, and electrolysis operators the city is actively recruiting — rate stability is a primary site-selection criterion. A more reliable Cushman II means a more predictable cost base for everyone on the system. For Pierce County economic development, that’s not a footnote. It’s a selling point.

    EV Charging: 85 Ports and a Rebate Program Worth Understanding

    Washington’s electric vehicle adoption rate ranks among the highest in the nation, and Pierce County’s charging infrastructure is scrambling to keep pace. Tacoma Power is targeting 85 public charging ports by the end of 2026, including additions to its DC Fast Charging network — stations capable of adding 100+ miles of range in roughly 20 minutes.

    The buildout is complemented by one of the more thoughtfully designed utility rebate programs in the state. Through Tacoma Power’s Community EV Charging Rebate, businesses and multifamily property owners installing Level 2 networked chargers can receive $5,000 per port, capped at $50,000 per project. Projects in designated underserved or overburdened areas qualify for enhanced incentives: $10,000 per port, up to $70,000 total. The equity lens embedded in that tiered structure reflects both federal program requirements and a genuine local priority — parts of South Tacoma and East Tacoma have historically been underserved by charging infrastructure despite high rates of commuter vehicle dependency.

    Non-networked Level 2 chargers remain eligible for a $2,000 per-port rebate, capped at $15,000. Tacoma Power also covers utility infrastructure upgrade costs up to $10,000 for networked projects or $7,000 for non-networked ones — a detail that matters for older commercial properties where panel capacity is the real barrier to charger installation.

    Residential Customers Are In the Mix Too

    For Tacoma Power residential customers, the rebate structure is simpler: up to $600 in bill credits for installation of a qualifying Level 2 charger, smart splitter, or 240-volt outlet. Paired with Washington’s existing sales tax exemption on EV purchases and federal IRA incentives, the stacked value proposition for a Pierce County resident going electric in 2026 is meaningfully better than it was two years ago.

    One note: as of this writing, the Community EV Charging Rebate program’s funding is temporarily paused, but Tacoma Power is accepting applications in priority order for when funding resumes. If you’re a business or property manager planning an installation, getting your application in now preserves your place in line.

    The Green Hydrogen Tariff: Tacoma’s National First Is Still Drawing Interest

    Of all Tacoma Power’s clean energy programs, the electrofuels tariff is the one that generates the most interest from outside Pierce County. When the utility’s board approved the rate in December 2020 and it went into effect in April 2021, Tacoma Power became the first consumer-owned utility in the United States to offer a rate specifically designed for green hydrogen producers.

    The mechanics are straightforward. Industrial customers operating electrolyzers — equipment that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen — can access a discounted energy rate of $0.033147/kWh and a demand rate of $5.72/kW-month, plus a monthly administrative charge of $7,445. In exchange, Tacoma Power reserves the right to curtail service up to 1,300 hours per year — about 15% of annual hours — with just 10 minutes’ notice.

    That interruptibility is the key. Green hydrogen production via electrolysis is inherently flexible: you can dial it up when cheap, surplus hydroelectric power is available and ramp it down when the grid is constrained. From Tacoma Power’s perspective, it’s demand response at industrial scale. From an electrolyzer operator’s perspective, it’s access to some of the cleanest and most affordable power in the country, from a utility whose generation is overwhelmingly carbon-free.

    According to Utility Dive, since the tariff launched Tacoma Power has fielded numerous inquiries from domestic and international companies considering locating electrolysis operations in its service territory. The Blue Sky Maritime Coalition has also flagged Tacoma’s green hydrogen potential in the context of decarbonizing Puget Sound ferry and port operations — a use case that would put Pierce County at the intersection of maritime decarbonization and clean power production.

    Why the Rate Structure Matters for Pierce County Jobs

    An electrolyzer operation large enough to be commercially meaningful might draw 10–50 MW continuously. At Tacoma Power’s electrofuel rate, that’s a significantly lower operating cost than what industrial customers pay in most U.S. markets — and the power comes from a utility whose carbon intensity is near zero. For companies with clean-fuel mandates from European automotive OEMs, aerospace supply chains, or Port of Tacoma shipping customers, that combination is genuinely differentiated.

    The Port of Tacoma handled over 2.6 million TEUs in recent years and sits adjacent to one of the only U.S. utility territories with a purpose-built green hydrogen industrial rate. The alignment between Tacoma Power’s tariff structure and the port’s long-term decarbonization obligations deserves more local attention than it typically receives.

    Washington’s Clean Energy Mandate and Tacoma Power’s Compliance Roadmap

    Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act requires all utilities to eliminate coal power by 2025 and achieve 100% clean electricity by 2045. For most utilities in the state, that’s a heavy lift. For Tacoma Power, it’s closer to a formality — the utility’s hydroelectric-dominated generation mix is already more than 90% carbon-free.

    That doesn’t mean there’s no work ahead. Tacoma Power is currently developing its 2026 Integrated Resource Plan, a 20-year roadmap required under state law that guides resource investment decisions. The IRP will determine how Tacoma Power balances load growth from electrification — EVs, heat pumps, potential hydrogen facilities — against its existing hydro resource base and any new generation it needs to acquire. Rate adjustments effective April 1, 2026 reflect the cost pressures of that transition; Tacoma Power’s board-approved rate schedule is publicly available through mytpu.org.

    Community Solar: The Gap Between Potential and Availability

    One area where Tacoma Power has room to grow is community solar — shared programs that allow renters and homeowners without suitable rooftops to subscribe to a portion of an off-site solar array and receive bill credits. Tacoma Power’s original offering, launched in 2016 with 300 kW across four arrays on the TPU campus, sold out quickly — a clear signal of unmet demand.

    Washington State’s Community Solar Expansion Program has since reached $25 million in obligated funding for the FY2026–FY2029 biennium, per Washington State Department of Commerce reporting, creating financial pathways for utilities to expand shared solar access. For a city with a significant renter population and substantial multifamily housing stock, community solar is one of the cleaner equity tools available. Whether Tacoma Power moves aggressively on that opportunity in the next IRP cycle will be worth watching.

    The Bigger Picture: Tacoma Power as Economic Development Asset

    Municipal utilities don’t often get framed as economic development assets, but Tacoma Power increasingly functions as one. The combination of low-carbon hydroelectric power, a first-in-the-nation green hydrogen tariff, competitive industrial rates, and an EV infrastructure buildout gives Pierce County something genuinely differentiated to market to site selectors and clean-industry investors.

    The Cushman II refurbishment isn’t just about keeping the lights on — it’s about preserving the generation reliability that makes the electrofuel rate credible to international industrial customers evaluating a 20-year facility investment. The EV charging buildout isn’t just about convenience — it’s about making Tacoma a viable destination for a workforce that is increasingly buying electric vehicles and expects charging at work, at multifamily housing, and at transit nodes.

    These programs don’t exist in isolation. They’re threads in the same fabric, and Tacoma Power is one of the quieter but more consequential institutions weaving them together.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is Tacoma Power doing to upgrade its hydroelectric dams in 2026?

    Tacoma Power selected GE Vernova to refurbish two of the three 27 MW turbine-generator units at the Cushman II hydropower plant in Mason County. The work — covering new generator stators, refurbished rotor poles, new turbine distributors, and draft tube rehabilitation — is expected to complete in 2026 and extend the plant’s operational life by 100 years while improving reliability for the 81 MW facility.

    How is Tacoma Power expanding EV charging infrastructure in Pierce County?

    Tacoma Power is on track to reach 85 public charging ports by end of 2026, including new DC Fast Charging stations. Through its Community EV Charging Rebate program, businesses and multifamily properties can receive up to $5,000 per networked Level 2 port ($10,000 per port in designated underserved areas), with project caps up to $70,000. Residential customers can claim up to $600 in bill credits for L2 charger installations.

    What is Tacoma Power’s green hydrogen interruptible rate and how does it work?

    Tacoma Power launched the nation’s first electrofuels tariff in April 2021. It offers green hydrogen producers a discounted energy rate of $0.033147/kWh (roughly 15% below standard industrial rates) in exchange for allowing Tacoma Power to curtail service up to 1,300 hours per year — about 15% of annual hours — with just 10 minutes’ notice. This lets Tacoma Power dispatch around grid constraints while attracting clean-fuel industrial customers.

    Is Tacoma Power on track to comply with Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act?

    Tacoma Power is currently developing its 2026 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), a 20-year roadmap guiding investment in energy resources aligned with Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act, which requires utilities to eliminate coal power by 2025 and achieve 100% clean electricity by 2045. Tacoma Power’s predominantly hydroelectric generation base — over 90% carbon-free — gives it a significant compliance head start compared to most utilities in the state.

    Does Tacoma Power offer a community solar program for residents who can’t install rooftop solar?

    Tacoma Power has offered community solar since 2016, when its initial 300 kW sold out quickly. Washington State’s Community Solar Expansion Program reached $25 million in obligated funding for FY26–FY29, creating additional pathways for shared solar subscriptions for renters and homeowners who cannot host rooftop panels.

    Related Reading

  • Tacoma’s Sister City Playbook Is Growing Up: How a South African Trade Delegation Signals the City’s Expanding Global Reach

    Tacoma’s Sister City Playbook Is Growing Up: How a South African Trade Delegation Signals the City’s Expanding Global Reach


    When a delegation from South Africa’s Garden Route District Municipality touched down in Tacoma last April, they weren’t here for tourism. They were here to talk trade — specifically, how two port-anchored communities on opposite sides of the globe can build supply chains, share skills, and move goods between them.

    The April 23–28, 2026 exchange — part of a formal partnership between Tacoma Sister Cities International and the Garden Route District — is one of the clearest recent signals of how seriously Tacoma is beginning to use its 15 sister city relationships as genuine economic infrastructure rather than ceremonial diplomacy. And for Pierce County businesses paying attention, the implications are worth understanding.

    From Handshakes to Deal Flow: What the Garden Route Visit Actually Covered

    The Garden Route District Municipality spans South Africa’s Southern Cape, coordinating seven local municipalities and representing more than 630,000 residents. Its relationship with Tacoma traces back 28 years to a connection with the city of George — but in a move that quietly made international trade news, the Tacoma City Council formally elevated that relationship to a full district-wide partnership, substantially expanding the scope of what’s possible.

    The April delegation got specific. According to the Garden Route District Municipality’s official release, discussions centered on three concrete areas:

    The global ostrich industry. South Africa’s Garden Route — particularly the Klein Karoo region — is one of the world’s dominant ostrich product hubs, producing leather, feathers, and meat that move through international luxury and food supply chains. The delegation explored how the Port of Tacoma’s freight infrastructure could facilitate new export pathways for these high-value goods into Pacific Rim markets.

    Port logistics and trade facilitation. Both communities are defined by their port identities. The delegation examined how improved coordination between their respective port operations could reduce friction in bilateral trade flows — a practical, operator-level conversation, not a ceremonial one.

    Skills transfer and educational exchange. South Cape College and Africa Skills Village entered discussions about formal academic and artisanal exchange programs with Tacoma institutions, creating the kind of human-capital connections that tend to precede sustained economic relationships.

    Community reporting from South Africa’s The Gremlin described the visit’s tone as focused on “collective approaches to boost economic growth, skills transfer and sustainable tourism” — language that sounds like an investment thesis, not a cultural exchange brochure.

    WTC Tacoma: The Infrastructure Behind the Relationships

    None of this happens without an institutional engine. The World Trade Center Tacoma has quietly built itself into the largest membership-based trade organization in the Pacific Northwest, and by some measures the fastest-growing World Trade Center in North America over the past several years.

    WTC Tacoma’s core function is converting diplomatic relationships into actual commerce. It provides trade research, business matchmaking between local firms and international partners, import/export consulting, and manages both inbound and outbound trade missions. Critically, it also runs Tacoma’s foreign direct investment attraction programs — the effort to bring capital from abroad into Pierce County projects.

    The most visible example of that FDI work is the Tacoma-Fuzhou Trade Initiative, which grew out of Tacoma’s sister city relationship with Fuzhou, China — a city Xi Jinping led as Party Secretary when the original bond was formed in 1994. In 2019, Tacoma and Fuzhou simultaneously opened trade offices in each other’s cities, with the City and Port of Tacoma contributing $100,000 to fund the Fuzhou office. China remains the single largest trading partner of the Port of Tacoma.

    The 2026 WTC Globe Awards — scheduled for September 24 at Port of Tacoma Headquarters — will mark another year of recognizing the businesses and individuals driving this work. It’s worth attending if you want to understand who’s actually moving the needle on international trade in Pierce County.

    The Port Numbers That Explain the Strategy

    Tacoma’s sister city diplomacy doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s backed by real freight infrastructure that gives international partners a reason to engage seriously.

    The Northwest Seaport Alliance — which combines the ports of Tacoma and Seattle — handled nearly $76 billion in waterborne trade with 176 trading partners globally in 2024. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan all rank among the top five trading partners. The port complex handles approximately 1.8 to 2 million TEUs of container throughput annually.

    In 2026, the story is mixed but mostly positive: NWSA breakbulk cargo volumes are up 24 percent year-over-year through April, driven by project cargo and heavy lift freight. Container volumes dipped in April amid broader trans-Pacific trade disruptions, but the port’s long-term Pacific Rim positioning remains intact.

    That infrastructure is the reason why a South African delegation talks seriously about using Tacoma as a Pacific access point. The port makes the pitch credible.

    The APCC Expansion and the Cultural Backbone of Trade

    Sustained trade relationships require cultural infrastructure, not just port capacity. In Tacoma, that infrastructure runs through the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, which has been working toward a significant expansion that would add a demonstration kitchen, cultural classrooms, an Asian Pacific Islander library, office and conference space, and a large exhibition hall.

    Federal funding has advanced through the House to support that expansion — Congressman Derek Kilmer’s office confirmed the appropriations movement — giving the APCC the resources to serve as a genuine anchor for Tacoma’s AAPI business community and its international connections.

    Tacoma is one of the most racially diverse cities in Washington State, with nearly 40 percent of residents identifying as Latino, African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, Multiracial, or Native American. That demographic reality is also an economic one: the region’s API-owned small businesses, workforce bilingualism, and cultural networks form a substrate that makes international business development more viable here than in many comparable mid-sized cities.

    What This Means for Pierce County Operators

    Here’s the practical read for local business owners and operators: Tacoma’s international infrastructure is more developed than most people realize, and it’s increasingly organized around generating actual deal flow rather than ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

    The sister city program — through Tacoma Sister Cities International — can connect businesses to counterpart organizations in 15 cities across multiple continents. WTC Tacoma’s membership provides access to trade consulting and matchmaking that most small businesses couldn’t afford to replicate independently. The Economic Development Board at choosetacomapierce.org maintains a dedicated international business support function.

    The April 2026 Garden Route visit is a useful model to study. It wasn’t an abstract diplomatic exchange — it was a structured conversation about specific products (ostrich goods), specific logistics (port connections), and specific human capital pathways (skills exchange programs). That’s what mature sister city relationships look like when they’re working. Pierce County’s international trade apparatus, at its best, operates the same way.

    The WTC Globe Awards in September will be the next public moment to see who’s driving this ecosystem. Between now and then, the Garden Route partnership will either produce tangible agreements or fade into the archives of well-intentioned visits. Based on how deliberately both sides have framed this one, the early signals favor the former.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How many sister cities does Tacoma have?

    Tacoma currently maintains 15 official sister city relationships spanning Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific. Key partners include Fuzhou (China), Kitakyushu (Japan), Cheboksary (Russia), Cienfuegos (Cuba), and — most recently elevated — the Garden Route District Municipality in South Africa.

    What does the World Trade Center Tacoma do?

    The World Trade Center Tacoma (WTC Tacoma) is the largest membership-based trade organization in the Pacific Northwest. It provides trade research, business matchmaking, export/import consulting, and manages inbound and outbound trade missions. It also coordinates Tacoma’s foreign direct investment attraction programs, including the Tacoma-Fuzhou Trade Initiative with a sister office in Fuzhou, China.

    What was the purpose of the April 2026 Garden Route delegation to Tacoma?

    The Garden Route District Municipality delegation visited Tacoma April 23–28, 2026 to explore trade opportunities in the ostrich products industry, establish port logistics connections, and build skills exchange programs with local educational institutions. The visit built on the Tacoma City Council’s formal elevation of the city’s 28-year relationship with George, South Africa to a full district-wide partnership with the Garden Route municipality.

    Why is the Port of Tacoma important for Pacific Rim trade?

    The Port of Tacoma is one of the leading deep-water ports on the U.S. West Coast, handling over $25 billion in commerce annually as part of the Northwest Seaport Alliance. China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan rank among its top five trading partners. In 2026, NWSA breakbulk volumes are up 24 percent year-over-year, underscoring Tacoma’s growing role as a Pacific gateway for project cargo and specialized freight.

    How can Pierce County businesses get involved in international trade through Tacoma?

    Local businesses can engage through WTC Tacoma (wtcta.org), which offers trade consulting, matchmaking, and mission programming. The Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County (choosetacomapierce.org) also connects businesses to export resources and international investor networks. The annual WTC Globe Awards — scheduled for September 24, 2026 at Port of Tacoma HQ — is a key networking event for anyone engaged in the region’s international trade ecosystem.

  • The 2025 RIA TPA Scorecard Results: Who Rose, Who Fell, and What It Means for Your Program Strategy

    The 2025 RIA TPA Scorecard Results: Who Rose, Who Fell, and What It Means for Your Program Strategy

    If you work insurance program work, this is the one report you should actually read. Every year, the Restoration Industry Association’s Advocacy and Governmental Affairs committee surveys contractors who have worked with TPAs in the past 12 months. No vendor marketing. No TPA spin. Just anonymous contractor ratings across 8 categories that actually matter: value, claims process, contractor support, scoring clarity, guidelines, credentialing, claim volume, and geographic coverage.

    The 2025 results are in. 379 contractors rated 13 TPAs. The industry average sits at 2.7 out of 5 — a 54% satisfaction rate. That’s not a ringing endorsement of the TPA model, but it tells you something more useful: the spread between programs is significant, and knowing who’s at the top and who’s at the bottom changes your program strategy.

    Here’s the breakdown, with the data that matters.

    The Leaderboard: Who Contractors Actually Trust

    ONCORE Claims Network: 3.1 stars — #1 for the third consecutive year. This is the benchmark. ONCORE (formerly CORE) outperforms everyone across nearly every category: 3.4 on credentialing (the highest of any TPA), 3.3 on guidelines, 3.2 on value, and 3.0 on contractor support — the only TPA to crack 3.0 in that category. Claim volume is their soft spot at 2.7, which contractors consistently flag: the program is good, but there aren’t enough jobs to go around. If you can get in and get volume, this is the cleanest program to run.

    Lionsbridge: 3.0 stars. Tied with Sedgwick for second and rising. Lionsbridge improved 3% since 2022 and scores well on guidelines (3.1) and claims process (3.1). It operates as a CCA Global Partners cooperative — meaning members get access to significant group buying power on equipment, credit card processing, and supplies in addition to leads. The program is selective and built for established contractors. Their claim volume score of 2.4 is the weak link, but the jobs they do send tend to be cleaner to close.

    Sedgwick: 3.0 stars. The highest geographic coverage of any TPA at 3.2, tied with Alacrity and Contractor Connection. Sedgwick is a large TPA that manages claims for major commercial carriers. Their value score improved from 2022 and holds at 3.2. Contractor support fell slightly to 2.8, which is still above average. Sedgwick’s biggest contractor complaint: they want better advocacy with carriers when scope disputes arise (34% of contractors flagged this as their top improvement priority).

    The Middle of the Pack

    Westhill Global: 2.9 stars (+27% from 2022). The biggest mover in the 2025 report. Westhill climbed from 2.3 to 2.9, the largest percentage gain of any TPA. They earned the highest credentialing score in that category at 3.2, and their value rating jumped from 2.0 to 3.0. What drove it? Contractors report that Westhill made meaningful process improvements and the program became easier to actually manage. Watch this one — if the trajectory continues, they’ll be in the top tier in 2027.

    Preferred Repair Network (PRN) / Hancock Group: 2.9 stars (down from 3.5 in 2022). The biggest drop in the report. PRN was the top-rated TPA in 2022. Two years later they’ve fallen 17% across all categories — contractor support cratered from 3.5 to 2.7. The program score fell sharply (from 3.5 to 3.0), guidelines dropped, and claim volume expectations are down 23%. Contractors aren’t abandoning the program — the claim volume and geographic scores are still reasonable — but something changed in how the program is managed. If you’re heavily weighted in PRN, the trend line warrants attention.

    Direct Claims Management Group (DCMG): 2.8 stars (+12% from 2022). DCMG improved across the board and earned the highest scoring clarity rating (3.1) and tied for the top value rating. Their communication scores are better than average, and they’re rated best-in-class for not requiring contractors to take estimate-only projects. Smaller program footprint, but if you’re in their coverage area, worth evaluating.

    Alacrity Solutions/Alacrity Nexxus: 2.7 stars (down 4%). The largest program by claim volume alongside Contractor Connection — and that volume score (2.7) is their strongest asset. Contractors use Alacrity for the jobs, not the relationship. The program scored 2.3 on contractor support, the second lowest of any TPA. Key contractor complaints: 38% want better advocacy with carriers, 34% want overhead and profit addressed, 33% want more flexibility in guidelines. Alacrity knows this and has invested in contractor relations improvements (rebranding from the original Altimeter structure), but the needle hasn’t moved enough to show in the scores yet.

    The Programs That Are Losing Contractor Confidence

    Brightserv: 2.6 stars (flat). No change from 2022. Contractors score timely payment as a weak point (29% flag it), and contractor support (2.3) needs work. The program hasn’t gotten worse, but in a field where others are improving, flat is a problem.

    HOMEE: 2.6 stars (new to 2025 survey). Debuted slightly below average with a concerning claim volume score of 1.8 — the lowest of any TPA. Contractor support is at 2.6, and 46% of contractors rate “improve partnership with TPA” as their top request. As a tech-forward TPA operating in the gig-economy model, HOMEE is a different kind of program — useful for certain contractors but not a primary revenue source for established restoration companies.

    Contractor Connection (Crawford): 2.6 stars. The most widely used TPA in the restoration industry — 289 contractor responses, the largest sample in the survey. Geographic coverage ties for highest (3.2), claim volume ties for highest (2.7), and they’re among the best for timely payment (only 8% of contractors flag slow payment, one of the lowest rates). The problem is everything else. Contractor support sits at 2.2 — second lowest. Contractor advocacy with carriers is the top complaint at 42%. Guidelines flexibility is flagged by 39% of contractors. They send the most work. They’re also the most frustrating to work with. The calculation you have to make: is the volume worth the margin compression and administrative friction?

    Accuserve (formerly CodeBlue): 2.1 stars — last place. The lowest-rated TPA in the 2025 report, and it’s not close. Accuserve scores below 2.0 on value (1.9), scoring clarity (1.9), claims process (1.9), and contractor support (1.9). The only category where they score above 2.5 is credentialing (2.6). Fifty percent of contractors working with Accuserve say providing pricing consistent with market value is their top requested improvement — double the industry average. This program has structural problems that go beyond management tweaks.

    What the Numbers Actually Tell You

    The overall industry average of 2.7 out of 5 means most contractors are running TPA work that’s tolerated, not preferred. The five most important things contractors want from TPAs — in order of importance they rated themselves: claims process efficiency (4.4/5 importance), contractor support/advocacy (4.2), claim volume (4.2), value/ROI (4.2), and guidelines flexibility (4.1). On every single one of those, TPAs are delivering somewhere between 2.3 and 2.9. There’s a consistent gap between what contractors need and what they’re getting.

    The other number worth noting: 53% of restoration firms now report zero TPA revenue, up from 45% the prior year. That’s not a blip — it’s a structural shift. Contractors who built their own lead channels through Google LSA, direct plumber and agent referrals, and organic SEO are generating work at better margins without the administrative overhead. The TPA model still works, but fewer operators are treating it as their primary revenue strategy.

    How to Build Your TPA Program Intelligently

    The operators who do TPA work profitably aren’t in every program — they’re in two or three that fit their capacity, their geographic footprint, and their operational model. Here’s the framework:

    Use the RIA scorecard as a filter, not a verdict. A 3.1 from ONCORE doesn’t mean the program works in your market — claim volume (2.7) is the constraint. A 2.6 from Contractor Connection doesn’t mean you walk away from the largest volume source in the country. But it does mean you know where the friction is going to come from before you budget for it.

    Cap TPA revenue at 40-50% of total revenue. The moment more than half your revenue runs through a program, the TPA controls your business. They can change pricing, add administrative requirements, or reduce your zip code coverage — and you have no leverage. Keep direct work as your floor, TPA work as your upside.

    Track margin per TPA, not aggregate TPA margin. The programs that send the most work aren’t always the ones generating the most gross profit. A company doing $800K in Contractor Connection work at 28% gross margin is generating less than a company doing $300K in ONCORE work at 44% gross margin. Build a simple spreadsheet that tracks average gross margin per job by program. You’ll know within 90 days which programs deserve more of your capacity.

    Document your TPA scorecard complaints. The RIA survey directly affects how TPA programs are managed — TPA executives receive this data and respond to it. If you’re running program work and experiencing consistent friction with a specific TPA, log it and participate in the next RIA survey. That’s not altruism. That’s how contractors collectively move the needle on program terms.

    The Bottom Line

    If you’re choosing between TPA programs in 2025, the data is clear: ONCORE leads, Lionsbridge and Sedgwick are solid programs for contractors who qualify, and Westhill Global is the most improved. Contractor Connection sends the most work but has the worst contractor support score. Accuserve has structural problems that pricing alone won’t fix.

    Don’t build your business on programs. Build your business on direct marketing, strong referral relationships, and operational capability — then let TPA work be the fill you take when capacity allows. The contractors who get that order right keep their margins. The ones who get it backwards spend their careers negotiating scope with adjusters they’ll never win against.

    Source: RIA 2025 TPA Scorecard Report, Restoration Industry Association Advocacy and Government Affairs Committee. Survey conducted anonymously among 379 restoration contractors.

  • Frederickson Is Becoming Tacoma’s Manufacturing Magnet – And Global Companies Are Noticing

    Frederickson Is Becoming Tacoma’s Manufacturing Magnet – And Global Companies Are Noticing

    There is a moment in every city’s economic life when the signals stop being coincidental. When a 130-year-old Japanese conglomerate signs a lease for 300,000 square feet in a Pierce County industrial park — and a national flooring retailer deploys the Pacific Northwest’s first hydrogen-powered warehouse fleet at the same address — you stop calling it a trend and start calling it a destination.

    That destination is Frederickson. And if you want to understand where Tacoma’s economy is heading, the industrial corridors southeast of the city tell the story better than any press release.

    Kowa’s Big Bet on Pierce County

    In August 2025, the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County announced that Kowa Co. Ltd., a Nagoya-based global manufacturer founded in 1894, had signed a lease for more than 300,000 square feet at the FRED310 industrial park in Frederickson. Facility improvements were already underway at the time of the announcement. Production is expected to begin in 2026.

    Kowa employs more than 8,000 people worldwide and operates across a remarkably diverse portfolio: pharmaceuticals, medical devices, vision technology, textiles, machinery, construction materials, and energy products. Its North American footprint spans offices in Boston, New York, Honolulu, Morrisville (NC), Montgomery (AL), and Torrance (CA) — but Frederickson represents the company’s first manufacturing operation of this kind in the Pacific Northwest.

    The company isn’t yet ready to disclose exactly what it will manufacture here. But the scale of the commitment — 300,000-plus square feet, facility buildout, local hiring — signals a long-term operational anchor, not a satellite office or a distribution pass-through.

    “This is a major win for Pierce County,” said Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello in the EDB’s announcement. “Kowa’s expansion demonstrates that our region is well-positioned for global investment. It reflects our shared commitment — across public and private sectors — to building a strong, resilient economy that offers opportunity and innovation.”

    A Recruitment Three Years in the Making

    EDB Vice President of Business Recruitment Sarah Bonds confirmed that the organization had worked with Kowa on its site-selection process since 2023 — a two-year courtship that involved Pierce County, Tacoma Public Utilities, Puget Sound Energy, Impact Washington, the World Trade Center Tacoma, and the Washington State Department of Commerce.

    That level of regional coordination doesn’t happen by accident. It reflects a deliberate strategy by Pierce County’s economic development infrastructure to position the area as a credible alternative to Seattle for industrial and advanced manufacturing investment — one with land, utilities, workforce, and port access that Seattle simply can’t replicate at comparable cost.

    “This project showcases what’s possible when regional partners are aligned and committed,” Bonds said. “Each partner brought critical expertise to the table, and together we created a compelling case for Kowa to invest in Pierce County.”

    Washington Commerce Director Joe Nguyễn called Kowa’s decision a “significant milestone,” adding: “This expansion highlights Washington’s strengths as a manufacturing powerhouse and underscores the importance of our robust community partnerships.”

    Why Japan Keeps Looking at Tacoma

    Kowa’s arrival isn’t a one-off. It follows a pattern of Japanese investment that runs deep in Pierce County’s economic DNA.

    Japan is the top export destination for oceangoing cargo containers out of the combined ports of Tacoma and Seattle, according to 2024 data from The Northwest Seaport Alliance. Japan also ranks third in inbound container volume. That trade relationship creates a natural gravity for Japanese manufacturers — proximity to the port means lower logistics costs and faster transit to home markets.

    It also means the local business community already knows how to work with Japanese companies. The World Trade Center Tacoma maintains active relationships with Japanese trade and commerce organizations. Pierce County’s sister-city relationships with Japanese municipalities have produced business networks that proved useful in Kowa’s two-year recruitment. When a company is evaluating a major international expansion, those pre-existing relationships matter.

    The EDB recognized Kowa’s arrival as one of the region’s 10 standout economic development projects of the year at its 2026 Annual Luncheon, held at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center — one of the so-called “Excellent 10 Awards” that highlight investments shaping Pierce County’s future.

    FRED310: The Industrial Park That Keeps Delivering

    Kowa isn’t arriving in a vacuum. The FRED310 industrial campus in Frederickson has become one of the most active addresses in Washington State’s industrial real estate market — and the roster of tenants explains why global companies keep showing up.

    In 2025, Floor & Décor opened a 1.1-million-square-foot distribution center at FRED310 — one of the largest industrial facilities in the state. But the headline wasn’t just the square footage. In October 2025, Floor & Décor announced it had partnered with Plug Power to deploy a fully hydrogen-powered material handling fleet at the Frederickson facility — 77 pieces of equipment running on hydrogen fuel cells, with a 10,000-gallon liquid hydrogen storage system on-site.

    The system eliminates more than 400 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent annually at the facility — the emissions equivalent of burning roughly 45,000 gallons of gasoline — while generating approximately 300 liters of water per day for recapture. It’s the first zero-emission material handling fleet deployment in the Pacific Northwest at this scale, and it positions Frederickson as a proving ground for industrial sustainability technology.

    Floor & Décor’s Frederickson center was also recognized in the EDB’s 2026 Excellent 10 — specifically for being the company’s first distribution center to pivot to green hydrogen.

    Add NewCold’s automated frozen storage facility in the greater Tacoma area — the Netherlands-based company’s largest U.S. automated warehouse — and the picture that emerges is of a regional industrial ecosystem actively competing for and winning marquee tenants at a scale that would have seemed improbable a decade ago.

    What This Means for Tacoma’s Workforce

    The practical question for Pierce County residents is simple: what does all this investment mean for jobs?

    Kowa has confirmed it will hire for roles in operations, logistics, and administration, with hiring set to begin ahead of the 2026 production launch. Specific headcount hasn’t been disclosed, but a 300,000-square-foot manufacturing operation in this sector typically supports between 100 and 300 full-time positions depending on the product mix and automation level. The EDB confirmed the project will stimulate local supply chains and generate additional tax revenue for public services.

    Floor & Décor’s Frederickson distribution center already employs more than 80 workers and is actively growing. The facility’s hydrogen infrastructure partnership with Plug Power is expected to support additional technical and maintenance roles as the system scales.

    The broader manufacturing momentum in Frederickson also feeds the pipeline at Maritime|253, the new skills center under construction along the Thea Foss Waterway that will offer Pierce County high schoolers tracks in manufacturing, skilled trades, logistics, and maritime technology. It’s expected to open Fall 2026 — just as Kowa’s production line comes online.

    That alignment is not accidental. It reflects a regional strategy built over years: recruit advanced manufacturers, build a trained workforce pipeline, and leverage the Port’s competitive position to keep logistics costs low enough to compete with Sun Belt alternatives.

    The Honest Counter-Signal

    Not every headline out of Tacoma belongs in the win column. In May 2026, Delta Camshaft — the largest custom camshaft regrinding company in the United States, which had operated in Tacoma for nearly five decades — announced it was relocating to Arizona. Owner Jon Bodwell cited crime, taxes, and regulatory friction in Washington state as the drivers of the decision.

    Community forums and local conversations have noted the departure, with some longtime residents expressing concern that the business climate supporting small and mid-sized manufacturers is eroding even as large international deals get signed. (Community signal: this tension between big-deal wins and ground-level friction is a recurring theme in South Sound business conversations.)

    Worth holding both realities at once. The macro story — port access, shovel-ready land, coordinated recruitment, workforce development — is genuinely compelling and producing real results at the global level. But the micro story — regulatory burden, public safety concerns, cost of doing business — is also real and driving decisions by businesses that don’t have the scale to absorb friction the way a multinational can.

    EDB President and CEO Michael Catsi acknowledged this directly at the 2026 Annual Luncheon, noting that “uncertainty is hurting us” — particularly around tariff volatility — while arguing that economic uncertainty historically creates opportunity for regions prepared to move fast.

    The Bottom Line

    Frederickson is not a fluke. The combination of FRED310’s industrial infrastructure, the Port’s trade relationships with Japan and Asia-Pacific markets, competitive utility pricing, and a regional economic development apparatus willing to run a two-year recruitment campaign has produced a corridor punching above its weight.

    Kowa Co. Ltd. — 130 years old, 8,000 employees, global reach — looked at the entire West Coast and signed a lease in Frederickson. That’s the signal. The rest is follow-through.

    For Tacoma, the job now is to make sure what gets built in that 300,000-square-foot building is worth the investment — in infrastructure, in workforce training, and in the unglamorous work of keeping a business environment functional for companies at every scale, not just the ones that make the Excellent 10 list.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is Kowa Co. Ltd. and why did it choose Frederickson?

    Kowa Co. Ltd. is a 130-year-old Japanese conglomerate headquartered in Nagoya, employing more than 8,000 people worldwide across pharmaceuticals, medical devices, textiles, machinery, and energy products. The company chose Frederickson’s FRED310 industrial park for its first Pacific Northwest manufacturing operation, citing the region’s skilled workforce, port access, favorable utilities partnerships with Tacoma Public Utilities and Puget Sound Energy, and a well-coordinated public-private recruitment effort led by the EDB for Tacoma-Pierce County.

    How big is Kowa’s new Frederickson facility?

    Kowa is leasing more than 300,000 square feet at the FRED310 industrial park in Frederickson. Facility improvements were already underway as of the August 2025 announcement, with production expected to begin in 2026. The company has not yet disclosed what it will manufacture at this location.

    What jobs will Kowa create in Pierce County?

    Kowa plans to fill roles in operations, logistics, administration, and more. Hiring was set to begin in late 2025, ahead of the 2026 production launch. The EDB confirmed the project will stimulate local supply chains, support infrastructure development, and generate additional tax revenue for public services.

    What other major companies have recently expanded in Frederickson?

    Floor & Décor opened a 1.1-million-square-foot distribution center at FRED310 in 2025, deploying a hydrogen-powered material handling fleet in partnership with Plug Power — eliminating more than 400 metric tons of CO₂e annually. NewCold operates its largest U.S. automated cold storage warehouse in the greater Tacoma area. Both were recognized in the EDB’s 2026 Excellent 10 Awards.

    Why is Frederickson attracting so much manufacturing investment?

    Frederickson offers shovel-ready industrial land, proximity to the Port of Tacoma, competitive utility rates, a skilled trades workforce, and a coordinated regional recruitment effort involving the EDB, Pierce County, and the Washington State Department of Commerce. The area has become one of the most active manufacturing corridors in the Pacific Northwest.

  • Tacoma’s Pacific Rim Playbook: Sister Cities, Japan Trade Missions, and the International Business Momentum Reshaping Pierce County in 2026

    Tacoma’s Pacific Rim Playbook: Sister Cities, Japan Trade Missions, and the International Business Momentum Reshaping Pierce County in 2026

    If you spend any time tracking economic development in Tacoma, you notice something that doesn’t always get enough attention: this city has been doing international business since before “global supply chains” was a buzzword. The Port of Tacoma has been a Pacific gateway since the late 1800s. The sister city program stretches back to 1959, when Tacoma first linked up with Kitakyushu, Japan. And the World Trade Center Tacoma — the only full-service WTC in the Pacific Northwest — has been quietly connecting Pierce County operators to overseas markets for decades.

    What’s changed in 2026 is the pace and the intentionality. State-level trade missions, newly expanded sister city partnerships, and a foreign investment pipeline into downtown Tacoma are all converging at once. Here’s what local operators and community leaders need to know.

    The Japan Trade Mission: Tacoma Sent a Delegation to Tokyo in May 2026

    The most significant recent development on the international business front is the Washington Secretary of State’s Japan Trade Mission, which ran May 16–27, 2026. Led by Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the 40-member delegation traveled to Tokyo to reinforce Washington’s position as one of Japan’s most important American trading partners.

    Tacoma’s fingerprints were all over this one. The World Trade Center Tacoma was among the coordinating organizations, and the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County (EDB) participated directly. The delegation covered sectors that matter deeply to Pierce County: aerospace, sustainable aviation fuel, agriculture, and advanced manufacturing.

    The numbers behind this relationship are not small. Japan is the largest foreign investor in the United States, and the Washington State-Japan bilateral trade relationship is valued at $11.1 billion. Tacoma and Pierce County are specifically home to multiple Japanese-owned U.S. subsidiaries that have collectively invested more than $550 million in capital expenditures over the past decade, according to the South Sound Business Journal.

    These aren’t abstract statistics. They represent factories, logistics facilities, and engineering jobs that exist in Pierce County because of sustained relationship-building over years. The May 2026 mission was the continuation of that work — executives and public officials in the same room, reinforcing connections that underpin thousands of local paychecks.

    Tacoma’s 15 Sister Cities: The World’s Longest-Running Business Development Network

    People sometimes think of sister city programs as ceremonial — plaques, cultural festivals, the occasional student exchange. That undersells what Tacoma’s program actually is. The Tacoma Sister Cities network encompasses 15 relationships across four continents, and for operators with international ambitions, these connections represent real access.

    The full roster includes:

    • Asia-Pacific: Kitakyushu, Japan (1959) | Fuzhou, China (1994) | Gunsan, South Korea | Taichung, Taiwan | Davao City, Philippines
    • Europe: Aalesund, Norway | Biot, France | Hvar, Croatia | Brovary, Ukraine
    • Russia/Eurasia: Vladivostok, Russia (1992)
    • Africa/Middle East: George/Garden Route District, South Africa | El Jadida, Morocco | Kiryat Motzkin, Israel
    • Americas: Boca del Rio, Mexico | Cienfuegos, Cuba

    According to the City of Tacoma, the program focuses on cultural arts and tourism, global education, government relations, and international business development. That last bucket is the one that deserves more attention from the Pierce County business community.

    Why the Pacific Rim Relationships Are Particularly Valuable

    Of Tacoma’s 15 sister cities, the Pacific Rim relationships carry the most direct commercial weight — which makes sense given the Port’s geographic position. Kitakyushu has been a sister city for 67 years and has an industrial economy that mirrors Tacoma’s: manufacturing, logistics, environmental technology, and steel. Fuzhou is a major Chinese port city and manufacturing hub. Gunsan, South Korea has aerospace and automotive ties. Taichung is Taiwan’s second-largest city and a semiconductor and machinery manufacturing center.

    For Tacoma businesses looking at export markets, these aren’t just symbolic relationships. They’re introductory infrastructure — a channel into business communities that are otherwise difficult to access cold.

    A New Chapter with South Africa: The Garden Route Partnership

    The most recent headline in Tacoma’s sister city world comes from the other side of the Pacific Rim frame — the South African coast. In March 2026, the City of Tacoma officially elevated its 28-year relationship with George, South Africa into a broader district-wide partnership with the Garden Route District Municipality, a coastal economic zone that shares notable similarities with Pierce County: port access, maritime culture, outdoor recreation, and a growing agricultural export sector.

    That expansion was followed quickly by action. A Garden Route delegation visited Tacoma from April 23–28, 2026, according to the Garden Route District Municipality’s official release. The visit, coordinated by Tacoma Sister Cities’ Melannie Cunningham, focused on port city and maritime trade alignment, agricultural export opportunities in the ostrich industry, skills transfer and vocational education exchange, and tourism and sports diplomacy frameworks.

    This is what a mature sister city program looks like in practice — not a one-time visit but an escalating series of structured exchanges that build toward actual commerce. The Garden Route partnership expansion suggests Tacoma’s international affairs office is actively working to add economic substance to these relationships.

    The World Trade Center Tacoma: Your On-Ramp to International Markets

    If you’re a Pierce County business owner thinking “I’d like to be in the room when these delegations come through,” the World Trade Center Tacoma (WTCT) is where you start. Operating as the lone full-service WTC in the Pacific Northwest, WTCT specializes in organizing inbound and outbound trade missions, connecting local firms with international buyers and distributors, export counseling and market-entry support, and coordinating with state agencies, the Port, and the EDB on investment attraction.

    The Port of Tacoma has described WTCT as the connective tissue between the region’s trade infrastructure and the individual businesses that want to use it. For mid-sized manufacturers, ag exporters, or tech firms looking at Pacific Rim market entry, WTCT is the most direct path into that network.

    The Bigger Picture: $52 Billion in Annual Trade and a Port That Beats LA on Speed

    All of this diplomatic and organizational activity sits on top of a genuinely exceptional piece of trade infrastructure. Pierce County’s position in the Pacific Rim economy isn’t aspirational — it’s structural. Tacoma trades nearly $36 billion in goods with Japan and China alone. Total international trade value through the Northwest Seaport Alliance approaches $75 billion annually, supporting 48,000+ jobs and $4.3 billion in regional revenue. The Port’s location gives shippers access to Pacific Rim markets several days faster than LA or San Diego. And the Port’s Foreign Trade Zone #86 allows businesses to delay or eliminate U.S. Customs duties on imported inputs.

    According to Make It Tacoma, Chinese foreign direct investment alone has contributed more than $300 million toward downtown Tacoma development, including a 22-story four-star hotel and mixed-use projects near the Convention Center.

    This is the context in which those trade missions and sister city exchanges happen. They’re not feel-good diplomacy layered on top of a standard mid-size American city. They’re relationship maintenance for a regional economy that is genuinely, structurally embedded in the Pacific Rim trade system.

    What This Means for Pierce County Operators in 2026

    The immediate takeaways for local business owners and economic development stakeholders: The Japan relationship is active and being tended. If you’re in aerospace supply chain, agriculture, manufacturing, or logistics and haven’t engaged with the EDB or WTCT about Japan market access, the May 2026 trade mission is a reminder that state-level infrastructure is in place to support that work.

    The South Africa expansion is a signal worth watching. The Garden Route partnership is broader than a single-city tie — it’s a district-to-city framework that could open agricultural and maritime commerce channels that didn’t exist before. Operators in food production, port services, and vocational education have specific angles here.

    And the sister city network is real infrastructure, not ceremony. With 15 relationships active and the City’s international affairs office clearly engaged, Tacoma has warm introductory access into business communities across Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and beyond. That access has to be activated by individual businesses — but the on-ramp exists.

    Tacoma has been a Pacific Rim city since the railroads arrived. The difference in 2026 is that the diplomatic, organizational, and trade infrastructure is more sophisticated than it’s ever been — and more of it is accessible to operators who know to look.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How many sister cities does Tacoma have?

    Tacoma has 15 official sister cities spanning four continents, including Kitakyushu (Japan), Fuzhou (China), Gunsan (South Korea), Taichung (Taiwan), Davao City (Philippines), Vladivostok (Russia), Aalesund (Norway), Biot (France), Hvar (Croatia), Brovary (Ukraine), El Jadida (Morocco), George (South Africa), Boca del Rio (Mexico), Cienfuegos (Cuba), and Kiryat Motzkin (Israel).

    What is the World Trade Center Tacoma and what does it do?

    The World Trade Center Tacoma (WTCT) is the only full-service World Trade Center in the Pacific Northwest. It facilitates inbound and outbound trade missions, connects Pierce County businesses with international partners, and coordinates with state agencies to support export growth and foreign direct investment in the region.

    What was the 2026 Washington State Japan Trade Mission?

    Led by Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the May 2026 Japan Trade Mission sent a 40-member delegation to Tokyo from May 16–27. The delegation included World Trade Center Tacoma, the EDB for Tacoma-Pierce County, state legislators, and industry leaders in aerospace, agriculture, and creative industries. Japan is Washington’s largest foreign investment partner, with bilateral trade valued at $11.1 billion.

    How much trade flows through the Port of Tacoma with Pacific Rim countries?

    Tacoma trades nearly $36 billion in goods with Japan and China alone, with total international trade volume across the Northwest Seaport Alliance approaching $75 billion annually. The Port of Tacoma’s location gives shippers access to Pacific Rim markets several days faster than West Coast ports like Los Angeles and San Diego.

    What is Tacoma’s newest international partnership in 2026?

    In March 2026, Tacoma elevated its 28-year sister city relationship with George, South Africa to a broader district-wide partnership with the Garden Route District Municipality. An exchange delegation visited Tacoma April 23–28, 2026, focusing on port city trade, maritime culture, skills transfer, ostrich industry exports, and academic exchange programs.

  • When to Open a Second Restoration Location: The $5M Threshold and What Has to Be True Before You Pull the Trigger

    When to Open a Second Restoration Location: The $5M Threshold and What Has to Be True Before You Pull the Trigger

    Most restoration owners get the second-location itch around $3M. The honest answer is they shouldn’t scratch it until $5M — and even then, only if a specific list of things is already true inside the first shop.

    Opening a branch is one of those decisions that looks like growth on the surface and turns into the slow bleed underneath. The mistake is almost never the second location itself. The mistake is the first location wasn’t ready to be left alone yet, and the owner went from running one healthy business to running two broken ones.

    Here’s the honest framework. Not the cheerleader version.

    Why $5M Is the Real Threshold (Not $3M)

    Industry valuation data makes this concrete: restoration shops under $2M trade at roughly 2.8x–3.0x SDE. Once you cross $5M with a diversified service mix, multiples jump to 4x–7x EBITDA. That gap is not just about revenue — it reflects what buyers see in the operation. A $5M shop has a real second layer of leadership. A $3M shop almost always doesn’t.

    When you open a second location from a $3M base, you are usually taking the only person who knows how to run the business — you — and splitting yourself in half. The first location’s gross margin starts compressing within ninety days. The new location burns cash for twelve to eighteen months before it stabilizes. Now you have two locations that both need you and neither one is the business it used to be.

    At $5M, you typically have an operations manager, a production manager, a dedicated estimator or project manager bench, and recurring TPA volume that doesn’t depend on the owner answering the phone. That is the difference. The threshold isn’t a dollar figure — it’s whether the first location can run a full week without you in the building.

    The Five Things That Have to Be True Before You Open

    1. The first location can survive 30 days without you. Not “the work gets done.” That you can be unreachable for a month and the financials, the TPA scorecards, and the production schedule all stay inside normal range. If you can’t do that, you don’t have a second-location problem. You have a delegation problem at the first one, and adding geography won’t fix it.

    2. You have an operations manager who is not you and is not a relative. Family members can run a second location, but only if they were already running a P&L inside the first one. The second-location playbook is the operations manager playbook. If you don’t have someone who can hold gross margin, manage WIP, and run a weekly production meeting without you in the room, the branch will not work.

    3. The new market has documented demand, not a feeling. Pull the data before you sign a lease. Carrier referrals you’re already turning down in the target market. TPA territory gaps your existing programs have flagged. Search volume for “water damage restoration [city]” and the CPC on it. If the only reason you’re picking the market is that your cousin lives there or you saw a competitor’s truck, you don’t have a market — you have a hunch.

    4. The first location is throwing off enough cash to fund 18 months of branch burn. A new restoration location typically loses money for twelve to eighteen months. Plan for the long end. SBA expansion loans usually want a 1.25 DSCR before they’ll touch it, which means your existing operation has to be healthy enough to service the new debt while the branch is still in the red. If the math doesn’t work without the new location immediately producing, the math doesn’t work.

    5. Your tech stack scales without bolt-ons. If your job management software, Xactimate workflow, and TPA portal logins are all stitched together by tribal knowledge inside the first office, the second location will not run the same playbook. It will run a worse one. The system has to be portable before the branch opens, not after.

    What Most Owners Get Wrong

    The most common second-location failure pattern goes like this. Owner hits $3.5M. Owner is tired, ambitious, and has an opportunity — a competitor closing down, a key employee asking for an ownership path, a city forty-five minutes away that “doesn’t have anyone good.” Owner signs a lease, hires a production lead, and tells himself the branch will be self-sufficient by month six.

    Month six arrives. The branch is at 40% of projected revenue. The original location’s gross margin has slipped four points because the best production manager got moved to the new branch and the bench underneath wasn’t ready. The owner is driving between two offices three days a week. Cash is tight. The owner doubles down — hires another person, runs a Google Ads campaign in the new market, increases the burn — and by month eighteen the branch is either limping or being quietly wound down.

    This isn’t a hypothetical. It is the most common growth-stage failure in the industry, and it happens because the second location was opened as a revenue bet when it should have been opened as an operational bet.

    The Counter-Pattern: What Works

    The owners who successfully open second locations almost always share three traits. First, they spent eighteen to twenty-four months building the leadership bench inside the first location before they ever talked about a branch. Second, they entered the new market with a known revenue floor — either a TPA program that committed volume, a large commercial client base in the geography, or a key person from the new market with their own book. Third, they treated the first six months of the branch as an investment, not a revenue line. They didn’t expect the branch to carry itself. They expected to lose money buying market presence and learning the territory.

    The phrase that separates the two camps is simple. Failed openings start with “we need to grow.” Successful openings start with “we have the team and the demand to grow.”

    The Bottom Line

    If you’re under $5M and you don’t have a real operations bench, do not open a second location. Spend the next twelve months building the bench, hardening the tech stack, and proving the first location can run without you. The valuation gap between a clean $5M single location and a $7M two-location operation where both are slightly broken is enormous — and it almost always favors the clean single.

    The second location is a multiplier. It multiplies whatever is true about the first one. If the first one is humming, you’ll build something worth selling for 5x EBITDA. If the first one is fragile, you’ll build two fragile ones and discover that the buyers paying premium multiples will pass on both.

    Build the bench. Document the playbook. Hit $5M with the owner out of the truck. Then open the second.

  • What Your Restoration Company Is Actually Worth in 2026: Multiples, Buyers, and the Operator Playbook

    What Your Restoration Company Is Actually Worth in 2026: Multiples, Buyers, and the Operator Playbook

    If you own a restoration company today, you are sitting on the most attractive asset class in the home services sector — and the buyers know it. Private equity has deployed more than $6 billion across 50+ restoration platforms since 2018, and the consolidation wave that started with brands like ServiceMaster and BELFOR is now grinding through the middle market. Regional operators doing $5M to $25M in revenue are getting unsolicited LOIs every quarter. Most owners have no idea what their business is actually worth, what they could be doing right now to add a turn or two to their multiple, or which buyer in the market is the right exit for their specific situation.

    This is the bottom-line guide. No fluff. What buyers pay, what they discount for, and what to fix before the call.

    What restoration companies are actually selling for in 2026

    Valuation in restoration is driven by size, revenue mix, and operating quality — in roughly that order. The brackets break down like this:

    • Owner-operator shops ($500K–$2M revenue, $150K–$400K SDE): 2.3x–3.5x SDE. These are individual-buyer or local-strategic deals. The owner is the business; the buyer is essentially buying a job with a customer list.
    • Established multi-tech operations ($2M–$10M revenue, $400K–$1.5M EBITDA): 3.5x–5.5x EBITDA. This is where most PE add-on activity happens. Buyer expects you to be transferable.
    • Multi-location regional platforms ($10M–$50M revenue, $1.5M–$5M EBITDA): 5.5x–8.0x EBITDA. Now you are platform-grade. TPA program participation, named carrier relationships, and 24/7 infrastructure matter heavily here.
    • Premium platforms ($12M+ EBITDA, multi-state, modern operating system): 7x–11x+ EBITDA. This is the HighGround-to-Knox-Lane tier. Rare air, but it exists.

    To translate: a $1M SDE owner-operator is looking at roughly $2.8M–$3M at sale. A $3M EBITDA regional with a clean TPA book and a working second-in-command is looking at $18M–$24M. The gap between those two numbers is mostly operational discipline, not revenue.

    The buyers actually writing checks right now

    The named platforms most active in restoration add-ons through 2025 and into 2026 include:

    • Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (American Restoration): An 8-brand roll-up across 10 states, headquartered in Dallas. Acquired by MSCP after building out residential and commercial mitigation in regional markets. Looking for tuck-ins that fit the regional brand model.
    • Knox Lane (HighGround): 13 acquisitions in 5 years before exit. Aggressive on multiples for the right strategic geography.
    • LP First Capital / Align Collaborate (Rewind Restoration): Newer platform, launched with the Icon Restoration acquisition in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Stated goal of building one of the largest residential restoration businesses in the US — meaning they are at the early, hungry stage of a platform.
    • Osceola Capital (Fortify Restoration): Platform launched mid-2025. First add-on was Beach Contracting in South Florida. Focused on structural restoration and southeast geography.
    • Crossplane Capital (Mooring USA): Dallas-based PE shop that took Mooring private. Commercial-leaning thesis.

    None of these buyers want a vendor brochure. They want clean books, low owner dependence, and a story about how revenue keeps coming after closing.

    What buyers actually grade you on

    Pretend you are sitting in the LOI meeting. The questions on the buyer’s checklist, in order of how much they move the multiple:

    1. Revenue mix. Buyers want recurring service contracts, TPA program participation, and managed-repair work. They penalize reconstruction-heavy mix (lower gross margins) and they penalize catastrophe-heavy revenue. The savvy ones expect CAT work to represent no more than 15–20% of total revenue — anything north of that gets discounted as unpredictable.
    2. TPA and carrier relationships. A documented Contractor Connection, Alacrity, Code Blue, or PSA program book — with active job volume and clean compliance history — is worth real multiple turns. A regional platform with $4M–$12M EBITDA and a strong TPA book is the difference between a 6x deal and an 8x deal.
    3. Owner dependence. If you sign every estimate, talk to every adjuster, and make every hiring call, your business is not transferable. Most buyers want a turnkey, profitable operation, and creating SOPs that remove yourself from the daily grind is the single highest-ROI thing you can do in the 18 months before a sale.
    4. Financial cleanliness. Multiples above the median require demonstrably above-median EBITDA margin and clean financial documentation that survives a third-party Quality of Earnings review. If your bookkeeper is your spouse and your books are on QuickBooks with no monthly close, you will get repriced in due diligence.
    5. Management depth. A strong GM, an operations lead, and a finance person who isn’t you. Buyers will request to meet key employees during due diligence and may want to adjust transition terms based on who is staying.

    The things that quietly destroy your multiple

    Sellers walk into deals not knowing these compress them by 1–2 turns:

    • Reconstruction-heavy revenue mix with low gross margin.
    • No TPA program participation — meaning revenue is fully dependent on local marketing and referrals.
    • Weak 24/7 response infrastructure (no real on-call rotation, no after-hours dispatch).
    • Paper-based or hybrid workflow with no modern job management system.
    • Single-territory exposure with no expansion playbook.
    • Lapsed or thin IICRC certifications across the technician base.
    • Concentration risk — one TPA or one big carrier representing more than 25% of revenue.

    The timeline that wrecks sellers

    Due diligence typically runs 30 to 90 days and is the most intensive phase of any restoration sale. Owners who go into LOI without having done their own internal QoE, their own SOP documentation, and their own legal cleanup almost always get retraded. Sometimes the retrade is mild — $200K off the headline number. Sometimes the buyer walks. The sellers who hold their price are the ones who showed up ready: trailing twelve-month EBITDA reconciled monthly, contracts organized, employee agreements in place, tax returns matching financials, and a clean cap table.

    Most restoration deals take six to twelve months from first conversation to close. If you are thinking about an exit in 2027, the time to start is now.

    The honest bottom line

    If you are under $2M in revenue, an owner-operator, and reconstruction-heavy: your real exit number is probably $400K–$800K, not the $2M figure you’ve been telling yourself. Sell to a local strategic, take three years of earn-out, and get to your number that way.

    If you are $3M–$10M with a working TPA book and a real management bench: you are exactly what every active PE platform is shopping for. Get a Quality of Earnings done now, fix the obvious holes, and start taking the calls. There are a dozen named buyers with active mandates, and the market for quality regional restoration assets is the strongest it has ever been.

    If you are $12M+ EBITDA with multi-state coverage and a modern operating system: you are not selling a business, you are negotiating a platform price. Hire a sell-side advisor who has actually closed restoration deals — not a generalist broker. The difference between a competitive process and a one-buyer conversation is two turns of EBITDA, which on your numbers is real money.

    The window for premium restoration exits is open. It will not stay open forever. Climate-driven loss frequency is up roughly 35% since the 1990s, which is fueling buyer enthusiasm — but interest rates and PE fundraising cycles will eventually cool the market. Sellers who prepare now will catch this wave. Sellers who wait for “the right time” will sell into a softer market.

    The right time is when your business is ready, not when the market is hot. The good news is the market is hot and the operational work to be ready is straightforward. Get started.

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