A major Washington manufacturer says it is expanding out of state because regulations and state-level decisions are making it harder to grow locally, adding to concerns that businesses are increasingly looking beyond Washington for their future.
Janicki Industries, a Sedro-Woolley-based aerospace and defense supplier, announced a multi-state growth plan that includes new and expanded facilities in Washington and Utah, along with the evaluation of up to 2 million square feet of new manufacturing operations in Idaho or Montana.
DEVELOPING: Janicki Industries, an engineering & manufacturing company, announces it is "pursuing out-of-state growth" because of Washington state's bad policies:
“Decisions at the state level not only make it difficult for our employees to achieve the American Dream, but it is… pic.twitter.com/WUNFwgFBbw
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) May 1, 2026
Company president John Janicki said Washington remains home but warned that growth in the state is slowing. “Washington is our home, and that is not changing. Our footprint in Washington has continued to grow but is slowing due to ever-increasing regulations and lack of business understanding at an executive and legislative level,” Janicki said.
He added that state-level decisions are making it harder to create jobs locally and pushing the company to look elsewhere. “It is best for Janicki to focus its large-scale expansion into a more business-friendly environment, so we are pursuing out-of-state growth.”
Janicki is still investing in Washington, including a new 40,000-square-foot facility in Mount Vernon, expansion of its Bellingham operations, and a new 162,000-square-foot manufacturing building in Hamilton. But the company is also expanding in Utah, where it plans to add 70,000 square feet and more than 50 jobs at its Layton facility.
Longer term, Janicki is evaluating up to 2 million square feet of new operations in Idaho or Montana, citing workforce availability and “business-friendly environments” as key factors.
The announcement comes as other major Washington employers are also reducing or shifting their local footprints. Starbucks recently announced a $100 million Nashville expansion that will move or hire 2,000 workers over five years, while closing Seattle stores and cutting corporate jobs locally. Sources previously told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI that Starbucks had paid out the remainder of a lease on one Seattle-area office and vacated the building ahead of the Nashville move.
Seattle’s office market is also showing the impact. Downtown Seattle office vacancy reached 36.5 percent in Q1 2026, according to Cushman & Wakefield, with notable move-outs including Meta, Amazon, and other major tenants. In one quarter alone, the city lost more than 250,000 square feet of occupied office space, driven by companies reducing their physical footprint.
Amazon alone has allowed hundreds of thousands of square feet of leases to expire in Seattle while shifting jobs to other locations like Bellevue.
Meta’s latest Washington reductions followed earlier rounds of layoffs and mark another contraction in its Pacific Northwest footprint.
Seattle, once defined by rapid expansion and office construction, is now dealing with record vacancies, slowing growth, and companies rethinking where they invest next, and are increasingly choosing to grow somewhere other than Washington State.
