Levi Basinger, Planning Team Assistant, No Phone Number Available
Monday, February 8, 2016 at 11:58 a.m.
Around Spokane, you may begin to notice some increased activity in some of the City’s historic business districts. Over the last few years, Spokane has undergone a renaissance of economic development, with more robust projects recently completed and currently underway in and around Downtown, Kendall Yards, South Perry, and other inner city districts.
Building on this momentum of economic activity, the City Council has voted to support the establishment of business recruitment, retention, and expansion strategies and new incentive programs for business development. This continues the City’s existing targeted area development strategy to align public capital and streetscape improvements with private investments. Since City government does not have the fiscal or human capacity to focus all redevelopment resources everywhere, targeted area development strategies and incentives are currently limited to six defined priority areas:
Public investment is well underway in these areas. Over $60 million in capital improvements will be constructed around East Sprague and the University District through 2020. In addition, with the assistance of grant funding from the EPA, City staff is working with the Hillyard community to identify, cleanup, and redevelop contaminated industrial (brownfield) sites. Recently, some areas have formed business improvement districts and public development authorities to assist in the direction of capital investments and increase awareness of incentives available to new businesses.
We would like to hear your thoughts on the City’s targeted investment strategies, your observations on local economic activity, and what changes you anticipate for the future of these targeted areas.
