North Bay Business Journal

Visitors to Sonoma County spent $1.47 billion in 2011, a more than 9 percent increase over 2010, according to the latest figures released by Visit California.

SANTA ROSA — To help strengthen local business access to global markets, keep jobs at home and provide North Bay companies with information they can use to expand and facilitate foreign trade, the Sonoma County Economic Development Board and the U.S. Department of Commerce plan to co-host a first-of-its-kind export seminar in Petaluma on May 9.

In other import-export news, a proposed expansion of the existing Foreign Trade Zone No. 3 to encompass much of the North Bay has moved closer to completion.

Executives of Sonoma County businesses are more confident about the current and near-term future prospects for the local economy than 2006, when the local economy started slowing, and are even more positive about their own industries, according to report released today.

And the business outlook over the next six months for Sonoma County is positive in several industries, according to a periodic survey commissioned by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

Following a year when Sonoma County businesses provided some of the fastest job growth in the nation, local economic-development groups are rolling out initiatives to continue the momentum in 2013.

ROHNERT PARK — Sonoma County’s economic recession that led to more than 25,000 jobs lost is mostly over, as job growth through most of last year outpaced that of the Bay Area, state and nation as well as nearly matching national growth leader North Dakota, an economist with the closely watched UCLA Anderson Forecast told an annual gathering of civic and business leaders in the county.

SONOMA COUNTY — Boosted by wine, tourism and a growing medical device sector, Sonoma County’s economy enters 2013 with “new positive momentum” and is expected to outpace the state and national averages for job growth next year, according to a quarterly economic report prepared by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

NORTH BAY — While the Federal Reserve’s continued effort to keep interest rates as low as possible has helped many borrowers to refinance existing debt or purchase property in 2012, that same economic policy has also narrowed margins for financial institutions and investors and created a period of historic challenge for firms of all sizes in the North Bay and beyond.

NORTH BAY — Oakland-based microlender Oakland Business Development Co. is now actively pursuing borrowers in the North Bay and beyond, bolstered by a new loan program backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration and by demand created in a financial climate that has pushed traditional lenders away from smaller loans in recent years.

With a steady increase in import-export activities by a growing number of companies and manufacturers in North Bay, the Port of San Francisco has approved eligibility for the expansion of the boundaries of its existing Foreign Trade Zone No. 3 to encompass much of Sonoma County, part of Napa County and all of Marin, Solano and Contra Costa counties.

Sonoma County businesses and lenders are co-dependent in the region’s economic recovery, with a first-ever countywide report showing that a financial sector that was hard-hit during the recession has been seeing opportunities for lending amid the renewed activity in other industries.

Overall business confidence in Sonoma County reached a five-year high this summer, and local executives note even higher confidence for their own industries, according to the most recent quarterly Business Confidence Report by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

SONOMA COUNTY — Residential construction in the North Bay’s most populous county is projected to improve this year as prices for unsold homes finally hit bottom heading into 2013, but the pace of homebuilding going forward will be slower than before the economic recession and profits will be pinched harder, according to a new county government report.

The Sonoma County Economic Development Board, along with the county Department of Health Services and Health Action, recently launched the Healthy Businesses Recognition Program, as the wellness trend wends its way through nearly every sector.

NORTH BAY — As part of the federal health care overhaul bill passed last year in Washington, medical device makers will have a new tax imposed on them that is forecast to generate roughly $20 billion in new government revenue.

SANTA ROSA — The pace of Sonoma County’s economic improvement will increase in the second half of this year and into 2012 with improvement in the state and national economy, according to an economist at a Sonoma County Economic Development Board conference this morning.

SANTA ROSA — Despite concerns from some members of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors about more spending at a time of county budget cuts, the board this morning voted 4-1 for a three-year grant for $100,000 annually to the economic development program Building Economic Success Together, or BEST.

SONOMA COUNTY — A new report on the economic health of Sonoma County predicts that rising levels of employment, innovation by local technology firms and hotel occupancy will lead to a stronger growth for the county this year, according to a spring 2011 local economic report by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board, Sonoma County Workforce Investment Board and research partner Moody’s Analytics.

NORTH BAY — Tax exempt bonds and loans are increasing as an alternative way for industrial, manufacturing and nonprofit construction projects to get financing.

SONOMA COUNTY — The Sonoma County Economic Development Board, in partnership with city councils and chambers of commerce, has released a new series of City Economic Reports for each of the nine incorporated areas in Sonoma County. Areas covered by the reports include employment, demographics, residential and commercial real estate, consumer spending, and education.

SONOMA COUNTY – The Sonoma County Economic Development Board’s 2011 work plan introduces several new initiatives that build on past efforts made possible by a major new grant.