20 THE CHARBONNEAU VILLAGER February 2022
Wilsonville brings on new economic development manager
Matt Lorenzen excited to help local economy
BY COREY BUCHANAN
After going many months without a full-time economic development manager on staff , the city of Wilsonville has found its person .
The city hired former Estacada economic development manager and West Linn resident Matt Lorenzen to the position , and Lorenzen began work Dec . 28 .
Lorenzen grew up near Phoenix , Arizona before attending school near Salt Lake City . His wife is from Oregon and they settled in West Linn a little under a decade ago . He was initially a high school teacher before working for a developer that built educational facilities like charter and private schools . This work sparked his interest in urban development .
“ I got to see the full lifecycle of real estate development and it was more interesting than I thought it was going to be ,” he said .
As the economic development manager for Estacada , Lorenzen helped the city attempt to revitalize the downtown main street . They did this using urban renewal — which collects the taxes associated with increases in property values and uses that to fund public projects . He also worked with property owners to find grants , helped facilitate the extension of urban infrastructure to new areas and worked on tourism development to help reframe Estacada ’ s reputation as an economically-depressed logging town and increase investment . During the pandemic , his role came down to helping businesses connect with resources and stay afloat .
“ Estacada itself isn ’ t quite a tourism destination yet , but there ’ s a lot of destination-worthy places right around Estacada . We did marketing work to tell a new story of Estacada ,” he said .
Along with wanting to work closer to home and take a new career step , Lorenzen said he applied for the Wilsonville job in part because he said the city has a strong reputation in the region . And he said the city ’ s use of urban renewal funds — which it has used more prolifically than most cities in Oregon — was creative and impressive . Lorenzen cited the city ’ s Wilsonville Investment Now program that has established criteria businesses can apply for to receive tax abatements . Twist Bioscience was the first business to utilize this program .
“ I would say Wilsonville is one of the more creative communities in the region in terms of trying to use urban renewal in ways that are statutorily legal but maybe outside the box ,” he said .
However , he said his philosophy is that while urban renewal is a useful tool , tax breaks should not be the primary way for forging a booming local economy .
“ The greater strategy is more holistic . It ’ s about building a robust , desirable community where employees want to live and businesses want to be long-term
even when whatever incentive may have tilted the scale in Wilsonville ’ s direction initially ( ends ),” he said .
One difference between Lorenzen ’ s old gig and his new one is that Wilsonville has many large industrial businesses with hundreds of employees . However , he felt that this difference wouldn ’ t drastically affect his approach .
“ It ’ s about learning about aches and pains , what their aspirations are , helping to figure out how to solve aches and pains and get them to that next level ,” he said .
Lorenzen said he will spend his first few months getting the lay of the land . Then , he hopes to help make a positive impact .
“ I think it ’ s a real privilege and opportunity to get the job and be able to work with the team there that has clearly done a lot of work that is the envy of , I think , many other communities in the region ,” he said . “ I ’ m happy to be associated with those folks now and hopefully contribute something as well in time .”
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