By Mike Fong and Laura Solis, Lower Valley Matters
October 10, 2026
In 1892, Walter Granger founded Zillah, where he and his wife made their home. Twelve years later, the Granger Land Company established a new town called Granger and named it after its founder. Since then, while generations of Leopards and Spartans have done battle on fields and in gyms, the two local governments have worked together to share costs around services and both business communities have cross-promoted the region through their chambers of commerce.
As small cities struggling with balancing budgets and maintaining services, it is no surprise that Granger and Zillah have sought opportunities to align their efforts. At the same time, leaders from both cities have deployed different strategies for economic development and business growth to help sustain the overall quality life and opportunities for residents. Lower Valley Matters takes a look at those efforts in this week’s column.
Infrastructure and Site Readiness. Zillah has approached its economic growth with intentionality. In 2023, it hired a city administrator with a salary of over $100,000 a year to focus on community and economic development. It has also invested in “site readiness,” creating a 250-acre commercial and tourism zone corridor along I-82 called the Vintage Valley Parkway Corridor ready for future development. This roughly 3-mile stretch includes roads, sidewalks, a walking pathway, lighting, new sewer and water lines in place for ‘development-ready’ parcels for private investment. Since the $11 million public investment was completed in 2022, the corridor has seen several small businesses move into two buildings at the new Parkway Plaza development. Yakima Chief Ranches opened its new corporate headquarters there, and the site has attracted a new Burger King. The city is also pursuing a new year-round indoor/outdoor public market along the corridor and is in the middle of a major downtown revitalization effort and launching a 3-5 year economic development strategic plan.
By contrast, Granger has focused its infrastructure investment mostly around its community’s core needs: for example, currently underway is a major roundabout and water main improvement project at 3rd Street and SR 223. But while Granger has not focused on future development infrastructure in the same way Zillah has and doesn’t currently have a strategic plan for economic growth, the city has still seen a major agricultural industry investment in Cargill’s new retail animal feed manufacturing facility. The facility produces 125,000 tons of animal feed annually, which has added 21 jobs and increased commercial trucking traffic in the city. In 2023, Dollar General opened a new store that also creates a steady stream of retail sales tax revenue for the city. Mayor Hilda González has emphasized the need for more tax revenues to increase maintenance and infrastructure investment to facilitate growth and development.
Population Growth. Cities can grow their economies by attracting more residents; population growth means increased demand for housing, businesses, and services, which also increases revenues through taxes. By this measure, Granger is significantly outpacing Zillah. From 2014 to 2025, Granger grew by roughly 400 residents (3,400 to 3,800). In the same period, Zillah had almost no growth, with a population holding steady around 3,100. And Granger has a much younger population that could become the economic engine of the future as they age into their prime spending years, with nearly 50% of its residents under the age of 24, and only 6% of its residents 65 and older. Zillah’s population under 24 is about 37%, while 17% of Zillah’s residents are 65 and older.
To put these growth trends into perspective, between 2015 and 2025, Granger’s growth, at 12%, nearly matched Washington State, which grew by about 13% (1 million people). But Zillah in that same period grew by less than 1% (25 people). This relative lack of residential growth likely means that Zillah’s economy will become more reliant on non-residents than Granger’s.
Tourism and I-82. As small cities on the I-82 corridor, Granger and Zillah rely heavily on visitors, tourists, and transitory populations traveling through the Lower Valley for commerce and economic activity. Both Zillah and Granger have made concerted efforts to create a unique tourism identity. Granger’s tag line is “Where Dinosaurs Roam,” and nobody can miss the theme in town that started in 1994, when Baby Brontosaurus made its first appearance in Hisey Park. Over 30 dinosaur statues can be found today in Granger. This tourism strategy focuses on day-trips, kids, and a roadside Americana novelty hook to attract people to the city.
Since the late 70s and early 80s, Zillah has marketed itself as the “Heart of Wine Country.” The area now boasts dozens of wineries and a number of overnight lodging locations. This strategy leans on the concept of premium experiential tourism to draw in wealthier visitors for longer stays.
Beyond tourism, both cities rely heavily on visitors stopping off of I-82. While Zillah focuses on destination travelers to the area for a more luxury experience, Granger captures a high volume of travelers and truck traffic through two workhorse gas stations/travel plaza off of exit 58. By design, the Granger Travel Plaza features 50+ truck stalls and diesel fueling bays specifically to capture stops along this heavy freight corridor.
Comparison of Sales Tax Revenues. Sales tax revenue is a data point that can help measure economic growth. To the extent that Granger and Zillah are working toward growing their tax base to generate revenue for service and infrastructure investments, we compared sales tax revenue for both cities between 2014 to 2025.
When we isolate the city’s portion of sales tax revenues, we find that Zillah has historically brought in more sales tax than Granger, and continues to do so: In 2014, Zillah brought in $318,000, while Granger brought in $102,500. In 2025, Zillah’s sales tax revenue was $600,000 while Granger’s was $350,000. Zillah started from a more robust tax base in this period and continues to collect more funding than Granger in property, sales and utility taxes annually.
But these raw numbers could obscure an important fact: Granger’s growth in sales tax revenues has outpaced Zillah’s by a huge amount. Zillah’s revenue grew by a healthy 89%, but Granger’s revenue grew by a whopping 240% over the same time period.
It is difficult to pinpoint why Granger’s sales tax growth has been much more robust than Zillah’s over this period, but one likely factor is that Granger started from a much lower sales tax base, and it may not have taken as much to move the needle quickly. But another significant reason may be tied to the growth in freight traffic along I-82 over this decade. Statewide, freight volume grew by 100 million tons from 2014 to 2025. I-82 is designated as a high-volume freight corridor by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Granger’s approach to capture these short transitory visits may have proven to be the right bet to capitalize on this growth.
These are just some observations and data points on Granger and Zillah’s economic growth. What are your thoughts? Do you think they are on the right path? Are there other factors you’d like Lower Valley Matters to dig into? Let us know in the comments or email us at lowervalleymatters@gmail.com
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