BERK Analyzes Kirkland's Business Competitiveness

Between permit fees, land costs, building rents, impact fees, taxes, and other costs, it can be difficult and confusing to understand how your community compares to its neighbors in terms of the costs of doing business. Kirkland wanted to answer this question, and hired BERK to complete a comparative analysis of Kirkland’s business competitiveness in the region.

BERK analyzed the comparative costs of new development for representative development types, as well as the costs of establishing a new business for representative business types, for Kirkland and four neighboring jurisdictions: Bellevue, Bothell, Issaquah, and Redmond. Our work showed that fees, taxes, and other costs vary heavily by type and amount among eastside cities. One of the main contributors to this is the cost of land, and subsequently rental lease costs, and impact fees for development.