(Mountain Star Family Relief Nursery chose the La Pine Business Park for its newest location | Photos by Andrea Hine)
Having gathered business and community leaders from throughout Central Oregon — including Deschutes County’s three commissioners and its newly elected sheriff, as well as a city manager and council members, CEOs of major contributors to the local economy, and an array of sponsors — the executive director of SLED, Patricia Lucas, detailed the organization’s current activities for the sold-out annual luncheon’s audience.
Her focus, the La Pine Industrial Park, has available parcels ranging in size from .2 acres to 38.73 acres, with an infrastructure that includes Class A roads, high-speed internet, a 10”-12” water line providing 250 GPM, and an 8” sanitary sewer.
Its utilities are provided by Midstate Electric Cooperative (30 MW service available), Cascade Natural Gas (2” line with 53 psi), and La Pine municipal water and sewer.
Site assets include the industrial park’s location just .5 miles from U.S. 97 (the major transportation route from Oregon to California); and BNSF rail that runs along its eastern boundary, with pre-planning for spur installation having already taken place.
And, as Lucas emphasized, all this is competitively priced at for $1.75 per square foot.
She noted that SLED has nine potential businesses in the project pipeline with an estimated investment of $67 million in 66,900 square feet of building space. These investments are estimated to create at least 64 new jobs.
Sunriver Resort remains the region’s largest employer (private and public) by far with a 2025 count of 975, followed by the Bend-La Pine School District (297 employees) and — coming in third — the Sunriver Homeowners Association (125 employees).
Also speaking at the luncheon were Mid Oregon Credit Union’s CEO Kevin Cole (who pointed out that membership in La Pine and Sunriver now totals more than 5,800), La Pine City Manager Geoff Wullschlager, Deschutes County Commissioner Tony DeBone, La Pine Community Health Center CEO Erin Trapp, Midstate Electric Cooperative’s CEO/General Manager Jim Anderson, Visit Central Oregon’s President and CEO Scott Larson (who noted that there were 4.2 billion overnight stays in 2023), COCC President Lori Chesney, and Carl J. Riccadonna, the state’s chief economist.
