Prosper Portland’s industry clusters — one way the agency directs economic development — has a new industry in the mix, one that's been clamoring for support.
With the approval last spring of its latest five-year economic development plan, Prosper has added Food and Beverage Manufacturing to its four existing industry clusters: Athletic and Outdoor, Green Cities, Metals and Machinery, and Software and Media.
It’s a designation that adds heft to the local industry.
Supporting food and beverage makers is the first aspect of the agency’s Advance Portland Economic Development Strategy to launch, said Shea Flaherty-Betin, economic development director of Prosper Portland. The goal is to augment existing work by ad-hoc groups and nonprofits. In fact, Flaherty-Betin comes from one of those groups. Prior to Prosper he spent two years as director of Portland Mercado, a food business incubator run by Hacienda CDC. (The Mercado was recently damaged in a fire and many vendors are closed.)
Yvonne Smoker, a seven-year Prosper veteran, will lead the agency's food and beverage work. She'll direct founders and executives to resources available through Prosper and other organizations. She has already tapped into groups like Built Oregon and Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, which support consumer products across the state, as well as informal organizations like the PNW Packaged Food & Beverage Group.
The biggest need she has found so far? Access to capital.
“The biggest support I’ve provided is connection to our loan officer internally,” she said. Prosper Portland has grant and citywide loan programs. For example, its Growth Capital program can lend up to $250,000 for working capital or equipment purchase, or its Tenant Improvement program can lend up to $2 million for physical improvements.
“Thankfully, in addition to my coming on board, there is a loan officer in our lending team that’s specifically dedicated to both Central Eastside and Food and Beverage, which is great because food and beverage manufacturing are (increasingly) in the Central Eastside,” she said.
Smoker has been helping founders navigate city hall and providing guidance through the permitting process. She's also doing a lot of listening, she said. One of the biggest challenges she's heard from small business food and beverage manufacturers is a lack of co-packing options.
Smoker is also the industry liaison for the Software and Media cluster, which supports entrepreneurs through partnerships with Technology Association of Oregon, and TiE, which provides angel investment and programming to young companies.
Propser's relationship with each city cluster is different. For instance, support for the Metals and Machinery cluster includes helping companies attend trade shows, Flaherty-Betin said. Or in 2023 there was a lot of convening around semiconductor opportunities and supply chain or trade opportunities.
Flaherty-Betin said the food and beverage cluster designation is a welcome addition, especially with “food being such a crucial part of our city’s cultural fabric, and certainly a lower barrier to entry for entrepreneurs to get into (business ownership).”
He said Prosper was slow to embrace food and beverage as a cluster in the past in part because of lower wages relative to industries such technology and traditional manufacturing. Now, though, Flaherty-Betin said wages are rising and the barriers to start a business and scale, especially within communities of color, is lower than in a lot of other sectors.
“We now recognize that in a landscape where we have partners like Built (Oregon) and others who are particularly focused on consumer products, the time (for a food and beverage cluster) was right,” Flaherty-Betin said. “I think we’re a little late to the party, but folks are saying, ‘you know we’re grateful for this, thank you for the pivot.’”
