(Shown is one of three new light industrial buildings in the Sisters Industrial Park | Photo courtesy of EDCO — Sisters Country)
Eric Strobel, Sisters Country director for EDCO, has been a busy man in efforts to attract traded-sector businesses to the town’s Industrial Park. “About 60 percent has been leased,” he said, “which shows really great growth — with three new buildings that offer a total of 40,000 square feet of available, light-industrial space for expansion.” In fact, he noted, “they are getting leased up right now.” As Strobel summarized:
Industrial Park Activity
GFP Response, a premier provider of emergency mobile services, specializing in base camp solutions and emergency management, has expanded into new buildings totaling 43,000 square feet, and has plans to create a storage yard for trailers and trucks being deployed to Sisters from other areas.
BASX, Deschutes County’s largest commercial employer, expanded from its Redmond location with a new 21,000-square-foot building, employing 40 workers who operate seven days a week across two shifts assembling surgical clean rooms.
Holy Kakow manufactures organic chocolate sauces, café syrups, and cacao powder — “using only the best quality, responsibly sourced ingredients. Period.” Having relocated from Portland six years ago, the company has experienced ongoing retail and wholesale growth — frequently introducing new flavors such as chestnut and jasmine — and is moving from its previous building to a new 30,000-square-foot facility.
Humm Kombucha has expanded into Sisters with a production facility, complementing its primary roots in Bend. The company moved into a 16,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by Laird Superfood “that was perfect for their needs and required just a couple of changes. Now it’s getting up and running,” Strobel said, “and currently developing a two-ounce energy shot drink.”
Cascade Spirits will be making tenant improvements to the former Laird Superfood warehouse and plans to move in by Q4, marking a large expansion of its own warehouse operations. As Stobel explained, plans for its new Broken Top Whiskey tasting room on Cascade Avenue are moving forward, but won’t occur after the expansion is complete.
Boxkill, which is developing compact modular homes built from precision-engineered metal components, recently completed construction of its first prototype, a 230-square-foot home that “marks a major step forward for a company that only a few years ago existed mostly on paper,” according to the company’s website. Boxkill has leased a second 8,000-square-foot building — formerly occupied by Laird Superfood — as it continues to expand production “and open sales for its exciting product,” Strobel said.
According to Strobel, “The building owner had a heck of a time leasing Laird’s space, which had been built to the company’s specific production requirements, and are really happy to have Boxkill, Humm Kombucha, and Cascade Spirits move into those buildings. It’s a good fit.”
He added that “As Boxkill moved from concept to prototype, EDCO helped connect the founders with potential investors and facilitated introductions throughout the regional business community. And, as the City of Sisters currently doesn’t have a code for placing the kind of compact modular home Boxkill fabricates on a lot, we also familiarized leaders such as the city manager, city council, and city planners with the concept, which included seeing what the new prototype looks and feels like.”
Regional Expansion
“As it takes years of lead time to build a new campus, versus being able to lease space and begin operating in a month, we’re seeing that some of our Sisters-based companies are expanding regionally — willing to make a short commute in order to start up their operations quickly,” Strobel said.
Sisters Coffee Company has added two Bend locations (Old Mill and Jackstraw Apartments), and was chosen as a concession tenant at the Redmond Municipal Airport’s new dining area — part of RDM’s multi-million-dollar terminal expansion slated for completion in November 2027. It Is also being considered for Costco’s Bend store, Strobel said. He foresees the company expanding its roasting facility in Sisters to accommodate this growth.
Sisters Meat and Smokehouse, which established its Sisters store in 2016, added a second location in Redmond in 2023, and recently opened its third in Bend at Bend’s Jackstraw Apartments.
Crosscut Warming Hut # 4 — Serving craft beer, cider, wine, and a selection of whiskey — as well as having a food truck operation — in its “family-built and dog-friendly environment” in Bend’s Old Mill District, Crosscut Warming Hut #5 is opening a second location (projected for this November) next to the 35-acre Sisters Woodlands on the town’s west side. Currently under construction, Crosscut Warming Hut # 4 will have three private commercial kitchen suites available for lease.
New Businesses
Domino’s Pizza opened in July on the north side of town at the site formerly occupied by Subway. The locally owned store is “hiring for 20 open roles,” according to the Source.
Lazy Z Ranch Wines, a family-owned bee ranch and winery that crafts small-batch fermented honey wine (mead) using regenerative agriculture, opened a tasting room in fall 2025. Strobel described it as “having a lot of character, with beautiful views of the Cascade Mountains.” Homesteaded in 1885, the historic property sat alongside what was then a “dusty wagon road carrying families into the High Desert frontier,” which eventually evolved into Hwy. 20.
As EDCO’s Sisters Country Director, Strobel — in helping local businesses start, grow, and expand in the area — views his role as “connecting companies to people in the community in ways they need and to people they might not have known.”
And although EDCO’s focus is traded-sector companies, he emphasized that “both traded-sector and retail/restaurant businesses are important for Sisters. Having both types operating in a healthy and successful fashion creates a good economy for a small town such as ours.”
