What to know about Millersburg’s economic development
Millersburg is an attractive place for big companies to build new facilities, making the small town a hub for economic development.
- Several large companies are investing over $500 million to build new industrial facilities in Millersburg.
- The city has become a mecca for new or expanded industrial growth due to its low property taxes, available industrial land and pro-development attitude.
- The city of 3,000 people has become an attraction to businesses due to its proximity to Interstate 5 and railroads.
Ball Corporation, Timberlab, ATI and Gordon Truck Centers are pouring a combined $500 million, at least, to build manufacturing plants and other businesses in Millersburg.
That’s the kind of economic development any city would love. Large employers bring jobs and an expanded tax base, among other benefits.
In a city of 3,000 like Millersburg, just south of Salem, those numbers make a major impact.
While some governments get “caught up in red tape and rule books” that make development difficult, Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist said, Millersburg city leaders welcome businesses.
“How can we get to yes for you on this?” Nyquist said.
When Millersburg uses the slogan “We Are Open for Business” on its website, it’s not just a line.
Millersburg’s low taxes, large tracts of developable land and easy access to Interstate 5 and rail service have made it popular for businesses. Few cities along Oregon’s predominant north-south arterial highway have experienced the city’s level of industrial growth, and certainly none of its size.
“What the difference is that attitude is from our council,” former City Manager Kevin Krietman said. “I will tell you that historically Millersburg has always had a council that understands the value of the industrial base and protecting that industrial base and growing that base for the benefit of the community.”
Millersburg was incorporated in 1974 to keep taxes low
The town was established as Millers Station in 1871 when a rail station was built for the Southern Pacific Railroad. It became a large shipping point for cattle in the 1880s and renamed Millersburg around 1900.
The U.S. Bureau of Mines established a facility to produce zirconium there in the 1940s. That plant was sold to Wah Chang and the company produced metals including hafnium, tantalum and niobium. The company was later renamed Teledyne Wah Chang and it became a Superfund site.
The environmental clean-up took 20 years.
The Willamette Kraft Corporation built a paper mill along one of the two rail lines that cut through it in 1952 to process wood chips into kraft paper. When it was owned by Weyerhaeuser, the plant was known for a smell reminiscent of rotting cabbage that greeted people driving by it on I-5.
“That was the smell of money, man,” Nyquist said.
Millersburg incorporated as a city in 1974, partially so businesses and residents could avoid being annexed into Albany and pay that city’s higher property taxes.
About a third of the city’s land was designated for residential development, which left lots of room for industrial and commercial growth.
International Paper created new urgency in attracting industry
The paper mill closed for good in 2009 and cost 270 workers their jobs. It was then owned by International Paper and torn down by 2012.
At the time of its closure, the mill was paying about $2.6 million per year in property taxes, the most in Linn County.
“We lost a lot of jobs,” Millersburg Mayor Scott Cowan said. “And so that was a big impact, and then of course as that sort of was the immediate situation once that news got out was of course the financial impact to the city was by the franchise fees and taxes from the IP property, we felt that.”
The loss of that revenue was significant to the taxing districts — officials had to find ways to replace the revenue to pay for city services and road repair, for example.
Millersburg didn’t levy a property tax for its first 40 years because the city earned enough money from franchise fees to pay for basic city services. It now charges the maximum $3.50 per $1,000 of assessed value. Most of that goes to contracted fire and sheriff’s services.
The city long tried to attract businesses to fill the gap left by International Paper.
In 2008, Peak Sun Silicon broke ground on a 10,000-square-foot building where it would employ 500 people to product an ingredient in solar cells.
The state foreclosed on the property when Peak Sun defaulted on a $14 million loan in 2012.
In 2019, the state gave $25 million to Linn County to build an intermodal facility on a portion of the former International Paper property.
That project cost $35 million, but has never operated.
Why companies are building in Millersburg now
When Timberlab was looking to build a new facility to manufacture mass timber, the company considered locations around the Willamette Valley including Independence and Corvallis, President Chris Evans said.
Then Timberlab found a 33.5-acre site in Millersburg. The location had challenges. It had a fish bearing stream, needed an entry road and the main connecting road to Old Salem Highway was under construction.
Still, Timberlab purchased the land from the city and expects to complete its first building this year. That project will bring an estimated 100 jobs to Millersburg.
Gov. Tina Kotek, who attended the March 2025 groundbreaking, said Oregon is “leading the way” in mass timber and pointed to the new roof at the Portland International Airport terminal.
“The city really facilitated taking a lot of the issues out of the sites here, so they could invite somebody into the community and have a quicker turnaround to have something rezoned from agricultural to industrial,” Evans said at the facility’s groundbreaking.
That will include a 185,000 square foot manufacturing facility and it has plans for 85,000 and 126,000 square foot buildings in the future.
Companies that build in Millersburg reap the same tax rewards as its citizens.
Property owners in Millersburg pay a combined tax rate of $15.61 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, one of the lowest rates in the state for a city that offers the services that Millersburg does.
A company building a $100 million facility can save over $1 million per year on property taxes compared to other cities if it builds in Millersburg.
The money brought in from taxes and fees also means residents don’t have to worry about being barraged with bonds and levies from the city.
“But don’t worry, our residents still complain about our taxes,” city manager Janelle Booth said.
Companies like Timberlab also get a tax break by building in enterprise zones, areas designated for large-scale industrial development by the state.
Enterprise zone projects have to meet requirements including a minimum investment cost, employee count and must pay workers between 130% and 150% of the county’s average wage.
Businesses are also exempt from paying property taxes on capital improvements for three to five years. In a rural enterprise zone, such as the one in Millersburg, businesses could be exempt from paying taxes on those improvements for up to 15 years.
In the meantime, the city will still benefit from the Timberlab development as it collects franchise fees from the company. Millersburg received nearly $1.2 million per year from Pacific Power last year, and that will go up with more power being used by Timberlab and Ball Corporation.
That money pays for basic city services like roads, parks and city administration.
“We’re looking at it for that long-term benefit, too,” Booth said.
Infrastructure investments make economic development possible
Millersburg has invested heavily in infrastructure that benefits residents and businesses. The city shares water filtration and wastewater treatment facilities with Albany.
Pacific Power owns and runs a regional operations center in the southern part of the city.
Millersburg city leaders convinced Pacific Power to build a new substation on Conser Road across the street from the Jefferson Fire Department station in 2024. That provides large industrial users with plenty of electricity for whatever they plan to build.
Several large parcels inside the city limits were zoned industrial and never developed. Over the years, Millersburg acquired several of those parcels for free or close to it.
To spur economic development, the city took an active approach in marketing the industrial properties.
The city updated its comprehensive plan in 2020, which essentially served as a sales brochure for prospective development.
“That’s an incentive that we can have with the industries to encourage them to come in,” Kreitman said. “We went through and we put together a presentation and the state asked us to come and talk about it for other communities to look at. It’s really helped us.”
The city council opted to be selective which companies it would sell properties to. For example, they chose not to sell land for warehouses that employ few people.
“As the property owner, the price of the property is one of our tools to get what we want in here,” Booth said.
The city still owns about 70 acres of flat, undeveloped land that is zoned industrial.
Ball Corporation development leads to interest from others
Cowan said Ball Corporation’s plans to build a plant helped spur much of the new economic development in the city.
“We heard about another company that was interested, but it was a lot of this loose interest and no one really serious until Ball came along,” Cowan said. “That really was a big one.”
Ball Corporation’s facility could be larger than 500,000 square feet when it’s finished, according to city planning documents, but will be smaller to start, Kreitman said.
It is unclear how many jobs the Ball facility will provide once it’s finished. The company did not respond to requests for comment from the Statesman Journal.
Center Market is planning a new 5,200 square foot building for its store and offices. Pure Energy is build a 7,480 square foot building.
Several businesses have announced plans for the former International Paper property.
Aymium, formerly known as National Carbon Technologies, signed a 16-year lease on 22 acres in 2022 to build a plant that uses carbon products to produce things like filters. Linn County approved a pause in that lease in 2025.
“And if they don’t go forward, we’ve got, guess what, flat land available at a reasonable price in close proximity to I-5 and rail,” Nyquist said.
In 2024, Omni Energy agreed to lease the site to transfer biodiesel from train to trucks. That still hasn’t happened.
“It’s going to take some infrastructure investment,” Nyquist said. “The operators want to work out a longer-term lease to justify that investment, and so that’s what we’re working on today.”
Corvallis-based Samaritan hospitals owns a 2.3-acre plot of land in the north part of the city at the intersection of Old Salem Highway and the I-5 interchange.
The hospital system planned to build a regional medical center when it purchased the property for $1 million, according to city documents.
“While we do not have definitive plans for that property at this time, we do consider it a very important asset that can help us meet community health needs as Millersburg and surrounding areas continue to grow,” Larissa Balzer, vice president of strategy and planning at Samaritan Health Services, said in a statement.
Millersburg still lacking in commercial, residential development
While Millersburg has a lot of industrial development, it lacks commercial businesses.
Humpty’s Dump Bar & Grill and Oregon Barbecue Company are among the few commercial properties in town.
The Love’s Travel Stop just off the North Millersburg exit, which opened in 2018, is the city’s most recent commercial development.
The city owns about 8 acres along Old Salem Highway between the new fire station, which the city built for $5 million in 2023, and Center Market. It has designated that for commercial development.
Unlike many small Oregon cities, Millersburg doesn’t have a downtown.
“We’re hoping to create one,” Booth said.
The city also lacks affordable housing. The only houses for sale in Millersburg are advertised for over $500,000. There are no apartments or multi-family housing.
“That is the constant feedback we hear from our community and our council and our planning commission, 10,000 square foot lots is the hill to die on for our folks,” Booth said.
There are a couple large parcels of undeveloped property zoned for residential development in the city limits. The city had significant housing growth until 2023, when the last parcel of developable land in the city limits was built on.
City leaders say they can’t expand the urban growth boundary to the north or west because of the prime farmland in those areas.
The city is looking to expand to the east side of I-5 at a long-hoped-for new interchange for more commercial and high-density residential growth.
Millersburg also owns land it intends to use for a YMCA building and a school, something the city hasn’t had since the last one closed in 1983.
“Last we knew, they are very interested in getting something in here,” Booth said.
Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
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