usiness is booming on the Kenai Peninsula, in large part due to the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District (KPEDD), one of only four federally recognized business districts in Alaska. By leveraging the involvement of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, these economic development districts—including Southeast Conference in Juneau, Prince William Sound Economic Development District in Cordova, and Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference serving Kodiak, Bristol Bay, and the Aleutians and Pribilof Islands—are able to establish a strategic blueprint for economic development regionwide.

As the first such federal district designated in Alaska, as well as the first of nine Alaska Regional Development Organizations (ARDORs), KPEDD has been involved in public works projects, shellfish industry development, international trade, promoting a North Slope natural gas pipeline to Cook Inlet, infrastructure development, workforce planning, community action plans, and tailored business assistance.

“We have gas and oil, but not like they have on the Slope. We have tourism, but not like they have in Southeast. We have commercial fishing, but not like they have in Southwest,” explains KPEDD Executive Director Tim Dillon. “We have a variety of amazing things here to offer, and that makes us unique.”

Realizing that potential natural gas projects, like the proposed AK LNG pipeline to Nikiski, would require a local workforce, KPEDD approached filling that niche four years ago.

“There was no reason that companies should need to hire a roustabout from Louisiana or Texas for entry-level positions when people right here in Alaska can be trained for that job,” says Dillon. “Working with the [Alaska] Petroleum Academy in our building and the [Alaska] Construction Academy on our property, we came up with a 40-hour class that trains local people to take those jobs. Whenever businesses are looking to fill these entry-level positions, we get with the Department of Labor [and Workforce Development] to offer the class, which has a 90 percent placement rate.”

One of the reasons that businesses are attracted to the Kenai Peninsula is because they receive a wealth of assistance from KPEDD. The organization’s 30-acre facility in Kenai serves as a business incubator helping new businesses to get off the ground.

“Right now, we’ve got nine businesses in the building incubating, and we’re also working with sixty to sixty-five businesses around the Peninsula,” says Dillon.

One of these businesses is Kenai Peninsula Driving Instruction (KPDI), which recently moved out of the incubator to its own property two miles away. The business was started in response to Alaska’s lack of local workers with commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).

“Five years ago, there weren’t enough CDL-licensed drivers on Alaska’s roads, and one of the reasons is that the only place to go to school to get that license was up in the Valley,” says Dillon. “Alex and Sarah Douthit started a driving school, and it has become so successful that they are not only turning out new CDL drivers but have been able to help companies like Enstar [Natural Gas Company] and Homer Electric Association do check rides that are required by their insurance.”

“It’s a heck of a lot better to do them here in Kenai instead of sending drivers to the Valley and paying overnight and per diem charges,” Dillon says.

Alex Douthit credits KPEDD with helping the burgeoning business cut through the red tape required to start a driving instruction business in Alaska.

“In the very beginning, we needed a lot of help with the licensing process; it was a big hurdle to get around the cumbersome regulations, and I was getting stonewalled throughout the process,” Douthit explains. “Tim and KPEDD were able to help point us in the right direction and to make contact with the people we needed to reach, which was integral to us starting the business.”

The company has grown from a three-person driver instruction company to a multiple-employee business and training team that provides commercial driving instruction, class D drivers’ education, and third-party DMV services, including drivers’ licenses, tags, and titles. It also holds contracts to provide Transportation Worker Identification Credential and TSA precheck for federal contractors and background checks.

Once located in a roughly 100-square-foot space in the KPEDD incubator, KPDI moved in August 2023 to its own 1,700-square-foot commercial training center that includes a shop on 5 acres of property in Kenai. Its unique hybrid CDL program, which consists of online remote learning followed by one-on-one student-instructor training, has proved to be extremely popular with both students and businesses alike.

“One of biggest shortages that communities face right now is not having enough commercial truck drivers locally,” says Douthit. “They are struggling to get new drivers in entry level positions, and we’re making it possible to train the staff they have now.”

To date, KPDI has graduated more than 1,000 class D (non-commercial) drivers and 826 CDL drivers, with an approximately 98 percent placement rate.

“It’s been eye-opening for me and my wife to realize how much we’ve grown in such a short period of time, and we are proud to be part of such an amazing community that is so supportive and receptive to us,” says Douthit, who notes that now that they have paved the way for other driving schools, including a new one in Southeast. “We’re continuing to look for new training opportunities to fill niches locally and statewide.”

He adds that his wife, Sarah, specializes in the grant writing process, so she can help direct small businesses to tools that enable them to send their students to KPDI for little or no money out-of-pocket.

“It’s really neat to go to different functions locally and see our students who are now garbage truck drivers, food and beverage delivery drivers, and gravel drivers doing dirt work year round, who tell us what a difference the school has made in their lives,” says Douthit. “These jobs are all integral components of a small community.”

In addition to providing the workforce that businesses need to be successful, KPEDD can also provide financing to help young startups succeed. For example, it recently helped Genevieve DeRoos, the owner of Rustic Roots in Seward, when she wanted to start her own business.

“This 19-year-old woman had just graduated from high school and wanted to start a mobile boutique capitalizing on cruise ship traffic,” says Dillon. “I’ve looked at business plans for years, and I have to say that her plan was one of the best I’ve ever seen.”

KPEDD provides small loans for entrepreneurs who might not qualify elsewhere. “Most banks won’t write a check for someone who is only 19 to start a business,” Dillon says. “She and her father redid a bus, and now it’s the most awesome store you’ll ever see on four wheels.”

KPEDD also collaborates with other economic development districts and departments to provide funding for entire industries with the goal of establishing new businesses. KPEDD worked with Robert Venables at the Southeast Conference, for example, to get a $49 million federal grant to develop a mariculture industry in Alaska.

“We held a mariculture meetup with a variety of growers of geoducks, oysters, mussels, kelp, and seaweed to ask how we could help them,” explains Dillon. “What we kept hearing is that in mariculture, because it is a nontraditional industry, you can’t just walk into a bank and get a loan.” With proper financing, though, Dillon estimates that ocean farming could create a $100 million annual revenue stream for the state in the next ten years.

“We are in the process of taking a pool of dollars from the $49 million we got from the Build Back Better program to backfill collateral,” he continues. “If a person has a good business plan, we will go to the bank with them, and if they need collateral to get a traditional loan, we will work on backfilling that amount for them.”

KPEDD also works with businesses when they fall on hard times. When COVID-19 hit, the organization helped local small businesses apply for an Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority program that provided up to $100,000 each to help businesses keep their doors open.

“This money would help them pay mortgage, rent, electric, water, equipment, and more, so we sat down with the business owners to help them understand what they needed to do to apply,” says Dillon. “Those who were not tech-savvy would not have gotten the money if we hadn’t helped.”

While it certainly helps to be centered in an economic development district, the Kenai Peninsula has other advantages as well. For JAG Alaska, which provides marine repair and maintenance for ships, the state’s northernmost ice-free deep water port provides great protection from storms and rough weather while also providing numerous opportunities to grow.

“We’d made a couple runs at acquiring the Seward Shipyard prior to finally getting a deal done in 2018,” says Tim Jagielski, co-founder and executive vice president, JAG Marine Group. “At the time, the volume of vessels coming through the shipyard was extremely low, and the sheer volume of vessels either home ported or operating in Alaska waters was extremely high.”

Jagielski cites a database at the time that showed 6,489 commercial fishing vessels, 152 vessels supporting oil and gas, 576 vessels supporting the passenger and cruise trade, 296 tugs and freighters, and 108 barges operating in or passing through Alaska waters. To serve them all, he adds, “There were only two viable shipyards capable of drydocking large vessels, which were in Ketchikan and Seward.”

He notes that the supply chain was more attractive in Seward than in Ketchikan, as it is directly connected to the highway, which allows for multiple options for dealing with consumables, materials, and technical support by trucking, barging, or air. Seward is also home to the Alaska Vocational Technical Center (AVTEC), which provides a wide array of classes geared directly toward trades that align with JAG Alaska’s employee needs.

“We have utilized past graduates of AVTEC all through our workforce, and they remain a great potential source of employees moving forward,” says Jagielski.

Since taking over the lease assignment in Seward, JAG has grown from 6 employees to approximately 147 employees. Each governmental vessel that uses the shipyard also comes with a crew of roughly 20 people and five to ten port engineers, tech representatives, and contracting personnel.

“This has a direct impact on hotels, restaurants, rentals, and gas stations,” says Jagielski, adding that Seward, while a small community, offers a wide array of support businesses that complement what JAG Alaska specializes in.

He adds that the company also likes to have open discussions with all of its city, state, and federal officials. “You can literally pick up the phone and call them to discuss issues,” he says. “This is not the case in the Lower 48, at least for a business of our size.”

Like many growing businesses, JAG Alaska has worked with KPEDD to connect with other businesses that can support various work items and/or specialized tasks.

“They made initial introductions with AVTEC when we first came into Seward, which has really helped out across all trades of our operation,” says Jagielski. “Tim Dillon is usually our first call when we get into situations where we need assistance.”