Regional investments in Bristol Bay and the Aleutians: funders help create local jobs and meet community needs.

• Author: Dischner, Molly
• Position: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Some rural Alaska businesses are getting a leg up from targeted investment efforts. Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) is one of several companies choosing to invest in rural businesses.

For the Alaska Native regional corporation, investing in local endeavors is something of a no-brainer. The corporation set up as Bristol Bay Development Fund (BBDF), a wholly-owned subsidiary, in the fall of 2014. For the first round of investments, the company wants to dedicate $5 million to Bristol Bay businesses. That's part of a larger effort by BBNC to invest in the region where it's rooted--a few years ago, the company announced plans to invest about 10 percent of its assets, or $30 million, in the region.

By early 2015, the development fund had invested in four businesses, committing a total of $675,000 to them. The fund started its investment efforts at the heart of the Bristol Bay economy: the fishery.

'Being Local'

South Naknek resident Randy Zimin received one of BBDF's first investments. Zimin, who owns ADESCO LLC, is a long-time contractor in the area. In 2014, he bought a vessel from another local business with an eye toward tendering in the sockeye fishery.

Bristol Bay's fishery is dependent on thousands of fishermen who catch sockeye and other salmon and processors who get those fish to market. Connecting the two groups are tenders stationed in each of the five fishing districts. Those larger boats are where the Bristol Bay fleet offloads fish, refuels, and can get ice, water, and other supplies. Many of those tenders come from other parts of the state on contract with the major processing companies.

Zimin wants to see a whole fleet of locally-owned and operated tenders.

"Hopefully we can get some more tenders in the area because it saves the fishermen money and the canneries money, or the processors, because they don't have to pay the fuel and crew all the way from Seattle or Dutch Harbor or Kodiak," Zimin says. "And the bottom line is the money probably comes from fishermen, and if we can save the processors any money at all by being local, it's definitely going to help."

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Zimin says when he heard about the BBDF, he saw it as a way to grow his business and benefit the corporation at the same time.

He purchased his first tender, the Miley Jean, for the 2014 season. That boat was out for upgrades in 2015, including a conversion from an ice-tote system to a refrigeration system that will result in higher quality fish storage. That's being funded in part by a loan from BBNC and BBDF. With his main BBDF investment he purchased a second boat to keep his tender operation going for the 2015 summer and plans to start...