The news that Potlatch Corp. has agreed to merge with Deltic Timber is worthy of cheers from the Spokane business community. 

Not just because Potlatch adds to its land holdings in other parts of the U.S., strengthening its position as a leading timberland real estate investment trust. Or because the new company will have a significantly expanded sawmill capacity. 

While those are positive consequences of the merger, the announcement that the combined company will be based in Spokane arguably is the most welcome news for the local business advocates. 

The merger is expected to be completed in the first half of next year, after which the company will go by PotlatchDeltic Corp. 

Potlatch has had a decades-long presence in the Inland Northwest. In 1997, it made the unconventional move of relocating its headquarters to Spokane from San Francisco, in part to reduce costs. It’s gratifying to see that as the company takes a major step toward expansion, it will remain based here.

Too often in recent years, major changes involving publicly traded companies based in the Inland Northwest has resulted in those headquarters being moved, absorbed, or eliminated. In recent months, Red Lion Hotels Corp. moved its headquarters to Denver. Avista Corp. agreed to be acquired by Toronto-based Hydro One, and while it will be the U.S. operations of its parent company, with leadership here, it no longer will be publicly traded independently.

Before that, but during the past five years, Coeur Mining Inc. moved its Coeur d’Alene headquarters to Chicago. Portland-based Umpqua Holdings Corp. bought Sterling Financial Inc., of Spokane. Sandpoint-based Coldwater Creek Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection then shut down, and Spokane-based Ambassadors Group Inc. discontinued operations. The list, unfortunately, goes on. 

Of course, losing publicly traded companies isn’t unique to Spokane. The Portland Business Journal regularly reports on merger-and-acquisition activity in the tone of losing “yet another” company.

Still, as the Journal reported in September, a Hart Capital analysis showed that the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area has about half the number of publicly traded companies now that it had five years ago. The data also show that it’s lost such companies at a greater clip than similar-sized cities. With the loss of those companies, the community loses scores of high-paying jobs, which can have a ripple effect. 

In the end, that trend appears to be due to circumstances specific to each company that has moved, been acquired, or shut down. In other words, it doesn’t appear to be indicative of some inherent flaw in the Inland Northwest’s business climate.

It’s important that economic development specialists find ways to replace those companies that no longer call the greater Spokane area home, perhaps organically through startups.

That said, retention of the companies currently based here is a key focal point as well, and a public company staying and getting bigger certainly is welcome news—and something to advocate for in its own right.