Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Council member Palmer? Here. Council member Scott? Here. Sher Diaz? Here. Moving on to public comment. Clerk, is there anyone signed in to testify today? No one in person and no one online. Great. If anybody online decides they wanna do that later, we can open a bag up, but we'll close that now Uh-huh. And move on. I would first go ahead and move to our first item on the agenda, which is Tacoma venues and events management team introductions. For that, I will call on Adam Cook from Tacoma venues and events.

Very much, chair Dia, deputy mayor of Chanel, council members. Good morning. My name is Adam Cook. I am the director of Percomo Venues and Events. Great honor of having served in that role since, late twenty twenty one, and having been with the city since 2019. Excited to be here today to introduce the team that actually makes Ultimate Magic happen that I get to show up and take credit for sometimes. So really excited for that. Good. Give me one second. I'll get the PowerPoint up.

A little bit of a unique introduction in that we actually brought a PowerPoint in addition to our people just because we have a a little bit of a unique structure to our department that's not sort of prototypical among other city departments. We can go to the next slide, please. So TBE is structured very much in alignment with our business lines, but the way we our staff operates is in alignment with business units that cross all of our business lines. So whereas other departments maybe have a head of a certain business line, our heads involve all of our business lines. So where we operate, the Tacoma Dome, obviously, our 22,000 seat arena throughout the city, one of the most iconic buildings in Washington in the Northwest.

The Greater Tacoma Convention Center, our 115,000 square foot convention center, bringing in significant conventions, conferences, economic impact for the region. The Tacoma City theaters, which include the Pantavis Theater, the Rialto Theater, and Theater On The Square, as well as the Jones Building office tower next to it. The Tacoma sorry. Cheney Stadium with the Tacoma Rainiers. And then our community events program, which is all of the city's right of way permitting for community events, sponsorship grants that we provide, as well as support and structure or trainings and things like that for community events in the city.

So those are really five core business lines that we execute on behalf of the city. We operate as an enterprise one. So for the dome and the convention center specifically, we are entirely self sustaining. For the theaters and Cheney Stadium, the city and the general fund contribute. You'll hear a lot more about this next week, actually. We're gonna be in study session to do our orientation at that point. So much more to come, but this is just a really quick overview. We can go to the next slide. So working through all five of these business lines, we have all of our business units, and that's the team I have with me today. So as I mentioned, I have the great privilege of helping lead the team, but the work is really executed in different segments.

And so I'm gonna start off with Josh Krop, who's at the end of the table. He is the assistant director for TBE in charge of our facility operations. That is all of the maintenance, the engineering, janitorial, basically making sure that the infrastructure that we operate is maintained and fully functional. Josh, go ahead. Hello,

Josh Roth. Like I said, director for facility operations. I've been with the city for about four and a half years. I came up to Tacoma area from East Coast where our business for numerous venues

in Pennsylvania and New Orleans. So That's why Josh is down on his Lucky Eagles fan right now. We still do not He's doing alright. Next is John McCleese, our our veteran of the team, heading up our event services. So these are the folks who, when an event comes into the building, they make sure everything goes seamlessly from guest services to security to all of our event management.

Hi. Okay. Like like I said, John McClis, assistant director for events. They're also in well, all that encompasses is the event managers that are at the and the convention center, the head of our security for the department, the technical services, our guest experience manager. So all that's it's a team that is, very, very vast and a lot of experience. The all the event managers have been in the roles over ten years, some over twenty years in the building. Like myself, I've been

in the I've been in

the department twenty five years. One of what our next guy is about 22. He's getting ready to retire. So there is a lot of unicorns in ours on our staff. You don't normally see event managers hanging around this long. It's a labor of love. Love our jobs. Love the city. As well as our guest services manager, she's the lowest, only about two years. Our technical term, we can go over eleven, and our security is just over five. So we have a good team behind us that helps run all the events coming to the building, help the safety and security of the guests coming in.

You. And then Tammy Bryant, who is our TV assistant director in charge of a whole lot of things that you can read in. Marketing communications, sales, booking, basically everything having to do with our forward facing image, our revenue generation, all of that. Let's see Tammy's here.

Hi. Tammy Bryant. I've been with the city now for ten years. I started marketing. And as Alex said, I do oversee a number of departments. Marketing communications is a big one. You probably see us on social media. We have also numerous websites, brands that we manage, booking for the Tacoma, our business development team, which does corporate sponsorships, our special events department, which you'll be involved in with awards, certainly. I've been here ten years. Prior to that, I was at Comcast Arena in Everett and was a concert promoter to start off with in Canada and Houston.

Tammy runs out our international attention once we lost the director. She's our Canadian in the group, so we are Yep. Next up, Diane Hager, our finance manager who heads up all things financial and make sure that we are straight and narrow with all that we do across

13 funds. Yeah. At least. Yep. Yes. Diane Hager. Most of my career has been in private equity and venture capital backed businesses in Seattle, and I moved to Tacoma six years ago. And I've been with the city ever since. Love what I do. Love this department.

I started my career ten and a half years with Ticketmaster, so I understand that world of ticketing, which is really a lot of what we do, where all of our resources come from. And, know, I really am kind of that liaison between the city's finance department, city's management, office management, budget. So we have to kind of run our own business and have our own financials. And at the same time, we still have to fit into the city system. So that's a lot of what I think is just that that, you know, kind of that gel that, you know, brings both of those together from a financial perspective. And, yeah, it's a lot of fun and hard work.

A lot of fun. Next, we have Dawn Lisa Scott, our office manager, who we were very grateful to see a lot of the city manager's office, but she is the glue that holds us all together from an administrative side. So

Hi. Good morning, everybody. I'm Dawn Lisa Scott. I'm the office manager. I've been with the city for ten years, and I have been with this department for about four and a half. Prior to coming to TB, I worked for the council and mayor. I worked for both mayor Strickland and mayor Woodruff's more time.

Really enjoyed my time here, but

my career led me to another direction, so I'm really enjoying my time working with people. Thank you.

Thank you. And then not a city employee, but still a member of our leadership team. We contract the management of the Tacoma City Theaters to a company called Legends Global. They are a private veggie management company that spans, you know, couple 100 buildings across the world, that they operate on behalf of their ownership groups, whether it be municipalities or private ownership. So they have the full operational control of the theaters themselves with TV providing guidance, sort of direction on where we want the theaters to go. And so with me is Erin Jepsen, our general manager who works for Legends Global.

Yeah. Hi. I'm Erin Jepsen. I've been with Tacoma City Theaters coming right up on a year. Previously before that, I spent some time at convention and event centers, and then before that, at a nonprofit performing arts center that also ran an amphitheater and did events at the University of Arkansas Basketball Arena. So pretty varied career that has led me back to a passion, which is theater. I lead a team of people that oversee marketing, our booking team, ticketing, events, and production, as well as some light building maintenance in partnership with Josh to make sure the big stuff gets managed. So it's a real exciting job and a fantastic team that run the theaters, and excited to get to meet you today.

Erin, just joined our team. Most of you had a chance to meet Wynn Carlato. So when Wynn retired, we were very fortunate to steal Erin out of Wynwood. Actually, She was running the convention center up there and realized Tacoma is a much better place to

put it on. That is accurate.

Very happy to go down with us. We are very excited for that. And we'll go oh, the one face or call it business line you don't see on the slide is Cheney Stadium. While many of our team touch it in small aspects, especially Josh and the solely maintenance side, the stadium itself is operated solely independently by the Tacoma Rainiers. So that's Aaron Hartman and Brian and me on their team are their lead developers. So there we go. So just a sort of quick wrap up of of our team. We went this past year through a process to redevelop our vision and our mission for the organization. Previously, we talked about enriching lives and welcoming spaces. That was sort of us, better together.

If you happen to have been paying any attention at all since the pandemic, Better Together really became the entire catchphrase of the pandemic, and and we realized it was time to update and refresh. So, we took a deep dive with our team on what we do, what is our purpose in this community, and really centered around how our venues are community assets. They're not private management for a reason. They're not private ownership for a reason. They are the community's buildings.

It was a dome of our own when the Tacoma Dome was built forty years ago. And so for us, our vision, our why is to be Tacoma's connection for culture and commerce. We bring together all sides of that in collaboration with Tanya and her team, and everything we do is focused on how are we driving benefit for this community, how are we driving revenue. And we do that through building vitality through the venues and events. So when we talk about vitality, it's it's the really broad encompassing. It's economic vitality. It's livability in the community. It's the ways we are giving back through food drives and various other nonprofit. How are we supporting the community? So every one of the folks with me today wakes up every single day going, okay.

How can I take these buildings? How can I take my role and serve this community? Which I will own is this is my first municipal gig. I've been private management. I've been nonprofit. I've been private ownership. It is really refreshing and nice for us to be able to say my sole purpose is this community. It's not feeding another dollar into a billionaire's pocket. It's not caring about how I'm gonna get my next contract. It's how am I supporting this community? So that's a great thing for us. And with that, I'll open up for any questions. Team is happy to answer.

Thank you. Alright. With that, I'll go to my crew members. Does anybody have any questions or concerns? I I was just curious about the oh, thank you for all of them. Happy to meet all of you. Hopefully, spend more time talking. I I'm sure we will. But I was curious about the the health of, like, our venues and how we compare with, like, other venues in the area. Like, they're mostly, say, native or come to Tacoma. Yeah.

We have a bit of a mixed answer, and we'll talk a lot more about it next week. The the sort of high level version, the convention center is very, very strong at our youngest building now at 22 years old 21, 22 years old. It is heavily respected throughout the industry. We just won our sixth in a row, center of excellence from Exhibition Management Magazine. Really defines us as a a key place to host exhibitions and large events.

So very well respected. The revenue generation, the business generation has just been increasing ever since the pandemic. We are back to and well above our 2019 numbers right before the pandemic. So really excited for the future of that building, especially with the downtown Marriott online. We are transitioning our business model away from smaller events like banquets and small business meetings into the larger impactful events that really benefit the community with hotel nights and restaurant use.

Our other buildings, being very frank, are aging, and there is a lot of deferred maintenance on them. The Tacoma Dome is 40 years old. Cheney Stadium is it's in its sixties, maybe eighties, 65, I think. The theaters are a 105, a 106, respectively, for the two largest theaters. We have significant capital that is going to need to come into those buildings over the next five to ten years to keep them operating.

In terms of their place in the market, with Legends Global as a partner and the work we've done with our arts organizations, the community the theaters themselves are finding a great niche right now. We have some tremendous events coming in, both commercial events like comedy shows, concerts, as well as art shows through our resident arts group. So, really finding their footing and moving forward. Buildings like those are always going to need community support. They're never going to be self sufficient independently.

They just don't have the size and scope to do it. The Cheney Stadium, great business model, doing fantastic. The Komi Radius had their best year ever for attendance this past year. They continue to grow in popularity and attendance, so a really great activation for our community overall. And so that's great.

But, similarly, the facility has a lot of things coming up over the next several years to keep it operating. The Tacoma Dome, we have great opportunity right now of redefining our role in the market. We have some very specific segments that are core to us. We do incredibly well with electronic dance events. We do incredibly well with, k pop or sort of non traditional concert events.

Very, very good market for those. Obviously, we have a billion dollar competitor that opened up the road just a few years ago, and they have a partnership with the largest concert promoter in the Northwest, Live Nation, which is challenging for us. But we continue to have good business. We have steady stream. We are still self sufficient as an operating.

So doing very well there. But, similarly, over the next five years, maybe ten if we stretch significant capital investment. And when I talk about significant capital aggregated across all of the facilities except the convention center, which has a slightly different funding model, all of the other facilities, we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000,000 probably. So one of the things that we'll be talking about and working on on our side and have been for several years is that long term funding strategy, that long term master plan for what the buildings can be. We anticipate being able to bring something forward later this year for council consideration.

I

just just had one quick one. Thank you for all that. One of the questions that I had is regards to the hotel attached to the vet centers. My understanding is there's some issues with financing. Yep. Is there any updates on that going on?

Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you for the question, deputy mayor. Happy to provide a great update on that, actually. So, the downtown Tacoma Marriott did go into receivership. The investment group that previously constructed it and owned it, was defaulting on their payments to the bank at the time. They started and stopped an auction several times along the way over the last year, through that process. At, just the start of this year, they actually did conduct an auction, and as anticipated, it went back to the bank. So the bank now has the full ownership on it. That may sound troubling.

It's actually really beneficial for the hotel as a whole because the bank is putting money back into the hotel in terms of service, in terms of quality infrastructure. So they are doing a lot of great work to it. We have steadily seen the response since the banks sort of took the receivership. We have seen the reviews and the ratings for the hotel steadily increase over the last year. So we are actually really enthusiastic about the future for it. Marriott as a partner is on board to maintain that as a flagship for them, though we are not at risk of losing that flag, which is key to its connection to the convention center and how that works.

Does the bank intend on selling it at some point, or do you plan on

I believe at some point, they would sell. Banks hate to hold assets. They love to hold debt. But, realistically, it's probably a few years out there. The market as a whole and not just Tacoma but across the country is pretty ripe with the hotels right now that are up for sale and auction.

And that's right. Going off on a tangent. Just kind of thinking out loud. It would it be would it make sense for the city to come to. There are other cities across the country. Vancouver owns their own hotel and others, and it's attached to the convention center. It seems like it might be, like, a there.

I would say if the city were ever to consider it, we would be the owner of last resort. If the hotel were to either go away, be downgraded to a one star, something that would dramatically negatively impact our operations, that might be a consideration. Otherwise, it's not a business we wanna get into to the point. There are many hotels right now that are for auction or sale, and that's because it is a very challenging market for hotels. Yeah.

Just had to ask the question. Yep. Alright. Thank you.

Okay. Any other question? Okay. Yep. Go. As far as, like so some of them, the venues were, like, self sufficient. Right? But then there's others that are coming out of the the general fund. I guess I'm I'm wondering how do do the ones that are self sufficient contribute a little bit to the other venues as far as covering costs, or where where

Yeah. So right now, they do in some ways. So Cheney Stadium, I'll start with them. From an operating side, they are self sufficient. That is all the Tacoma Rainiers. They control all operating revenue and expenses, and they maintain all profits. So that all lives with them. The city's contribution to Cheney Stadium is purely from a capital side. So that's where that has come in. In the past year, actually, three years now, we did, roughly $5,000,000 in renovation to the seating pole in the stadium, sort of emergency work that needed to be done.

3,000,000 of that was covered by a grant that the reindeers obtained from the state on our behalf. 2,000,000 of that was covered in the general fund. The city does contribute a small amount each year to the general fund, but it's not significant. So that's where that comes in. It's when there are major capital as we foresee on the horizon that is general fund funded right now.

The Tacoma City theaters, the general fund supports the general operating loss that happens each year. That's to the tune of about 1 to 1,200,000.0 each year. It also the real estate excise tax contributes about 500,000 into capital building each year buildings. Within that theater operating, the dome and the convention center do support in minor ways. We don't directly contribute to the theaters.

What we do instead is we use our global contracts, for example, elevators or, HVAC maintenance. We have global contracts for the dome and the convention center. We bring the theaters in under those contracts and support them in that way. Yeah.

Great. I'm bit conscious of time so you have one more presentation, but I did have one quick question. And please let me know if that's for next week. I have heard a little bit from community members, maybe some of the RSOs about questions about how they can activate the spaces or how we can use some of those spaces when they're not in use for production but for other things. Wondering if that is an ongoing conversation or if there's other barriers that we should be aware of that we can help with.

Yep. So specifically to the theaters themselves, we are in the process right now of updating a lot of our policy, and one of those would be a community nonprofit policy. And so finding a structure that says, how do we structure our rates and and sort of scale to be able to bring in some events like that? Ultimately, at the end of the day, the biggest challenge we have with something like that is that the theaters are under a union contract to put a bargaining agreement with the local IOTZ group, which is fantastic. It provides us with tremendously skilled staff who are local and loyal to the building.

Unfortunately, it comes with a higher price tag that often precludes some smaller community groups from using the building. We did attempt to negotiate during the last bargaining session, Just didn't find a lot of purchase there to get discounted rates. As it comes to the dome and the convention center, we do bring in some community groups on tighter timelines. So Eloise's cooking pot uses our parking lots every week for food distribution. We've worked with on food distribution.

So things like that, will bring in. We've worked with Abraham's house in the past. Those are typically tighter turn events, something that we're booking about three months out when we know that we can't bring revenue generation in. And that's just as as an enterprise fund designed to be not in the general fund. We have to prioritize that from a calendar time, but we do everything we can to bring in those community groups on the dark days.

Super. Thank you. My last question I always ask, it sounds like I need to find $300,000,000 so we can update the deals with the RedBedMoney.

And it sounds

like Pam is Tailed. Okay.

She's got she's got the booking side. We'll find the money. We'll get the update. And yes.

Alright. We agree with Adam every time. Yeah. Alright. Well, thank you all for coming. Really appreciate you all being here. Sorry if it was an output for your Tuesday morning, but very appreciative. It's very nice to see all your faces and connect the dots with all the work you do in our city.

Might as well. We'll see you next week.

Thank you. Alright. We'll move over to the next topic, which is business engagement solutions team and business district program update. And for that, I would like to call Carol Wolf from the community economic development department. Welcome, Carol. Thank you. Lord is yours. Thank you. I learned a lot right there. That was really exciting. Thank you. Good morning, chair Diak and members of the committee. My is Carol Wolf, and I'm a division manager in the community and economic development department. I'm here to provide an update on the business services, share what we've learned from the neighborhood business district refresh, and some conversations we've had with you all in our debrief of '25. And so I'm here to share with you the direction of two programs.

One, the business district program, which is being refreshed from the neighborhood business district. And, also, what I am now realizing I am gonna call the best program, not an infrastructure. It's it's a way for us to deliver services based on so much of what we've heard from our business climate survey from our conversations with you and the goal to be more responsive to our business community. I'm gonna be reviewing where we're headed and discussing how city council at large, how you can engage with some of these things that we're doing to be a part of as we move forward. Anna, next slide, please.

So I wanted to start with what we've learned. So and what we learned most and foremost was that for our neighborhood business district program review, we were out of compliance. The crate we were out of compliance with criteria for neighborhood business districts, mainly the demand mainly the demand for our business district program was growing, and that the way it was set up, it was exclusionary. The neighborhood business district program excluded us from going into certain areas, and we learned that really wasn't working. And part of the reason why for our business districts that we're out of compliance is some of our rules in the TMC, which ordinance, is that they must be contiguous and compact, no more than three eighth of a quarter mile in length, and they can't be in a regional growth center.

So those were some of the things we learned during the refresh that really were exclusionary, but also the demand was growing for bigger. Our program made them slower, and they weren't really providing the services that we wanted to that were in demand by you or by the folks we were serving. From the city council, neighborhood business district for right to check, there was we heard strongly there was a continued support for the neighborhood business districts. And I will share with you. I was thinking about this.

When I first served the city in '99, over half of our city council were either members of a business district or a neighborhood council that had come up through that ranks into the leadership positions they held. And that was true for about the first ten to fifteen years of my time here in the city. So we know that the business district program, like the neighborhood councils, is an important way to engage with the community. We heard that again from you all. We needed we need to expand support to other districts.

That was another universal with all the feedback from you. We need to increase engagement opportunities for council members in it, and technical assistance must be culturally competent and geographically relevant. So when we talked about ways to improve or work with some of the business districts, what we heard on and on again is do not treat McKinley like you treat South Dakota, do not treat South Dakota like you treat Procter, do not treat Procter like you treat Portland Avenue. And so we heard that and so as we go through and expand the program and our business services, corporately confident, geographically relevant. That was really important to us.

Some of the other things we also heard from city council was that business districts were important for economic engines and the quality of life in our neighborhoods. They weren't just about economic drivers. They were also about neighborhood hubs. They were about economic engines. They were about arts and culture, and that was really important. And then also the part about because they were so important in the neighborhood fiber, their cultural competency and the involvement of other constituents in how we prioritize was super important. Next slide. So what was done? We've reactivated our partnership with Tacoma Neighborhoods Together. Tacoma Neighborhoods Together was a legacy partner of the business district program that was meant to support them in funding and capacity, and so we reactivated that tool.

We've activated some of the solutions to get our business district associations funded and participating and services met because we found we've been out of compliance, there were some challenges, And we begin to provide administrative capacity to the neighborhood business district associations and the CDA. What we also learned was the expectations we had on them to operate with us as volunteers in a public private partnership were greater than they had the capacity to do administratively and with some of our nonprofit roles, so we began to activate some support for them in there. When it comes to the business, the geographically relevant and being non exclusionary, We began to expand our business district outreach, and we developed a commercial outreach approach that kind of based on the business engagement solutions team, how do we go out to different areas and proactively engage. We've integrated the existing neighborhood business districts and existing commercial areas into a schedule, which I Adam will share with you about how we do just proactive outreach so we can get through the city equally and within the council districts, and we've developed that on an annual calendar. So those are some of the things that we've started to do, and you're gonna start to see as we go forward that calendar being published on our internal hub so that our colleagues and counsel assistants know where we're going.

And then also ways that we can engage with you and get some of your priorities as well. I have one of the things I wanted to share with you, and Casey, can you give me a copy of one of the handouts we have and we'll give it to you at the end. I wanted to go through when we were doing this slide, I wanted to share that in order for the business services to be activated, and this will be a handout, I'll include it, we get some of our activation through our stakeholder programs, business districts, neighborhood councils, the black collective, the chamber, EDB. Some of those stakeholder programs, they come come to us and they give us some priorities for business climate or direct business service. We also give it through partnerships, g ten, Downtown Tacoma partnership, again, world, world World Trade Center, workforce center, those types.

And we also do it by our traditional business retention and expansion. Right now, we're doing it by geography. Right? So those are already programmed into how the department finds out business services are needed and engages them. We're also working on them through some of the public engagement inputs. MCO is our partner. Press releases, social media, web page banners, things workshops are coming, things of that nature. Public meetings. Every time we share a public meeting, we do a presentation, individuals learn about us, and they reach out to us. The one area that tends to be a little different we wanna build out is that council and constituent feedback.

It's where you all are hearing constituents are having concerns and issues, but they don't come in through our normal business district program. They maybe worked at the city council meeting when something was shared, or they're not one of our partners, chamber of the EP. So that area that would be best team is meant to kinda help us gauge additional ways that people can access our business services. So what was also done in I apologize. I'm off.

Can I go to the next slide, please? I apologize, Anna. I'm still thinking about the TVE and all the great things at the beginning. So for the business engagement solutions team, we have stood up the internal middle middle management infrastructure that supports TMC 1.48. You guys passed that last year, and that we stood up an infrastructure team that we think can support you as you build out that. We have a cross functional service delivery within thirty, sixty, ninety days. When we see an area, we're starting to look at what can we do in that time frame to know what we can do and then what we need to hand off and say, you know, this is something that's a bigger problem, and we need a different resource than what we could do. And we're beginning to integrate this business district engagement citywide. We're putting it on the hub. We're talking to our partners.

We're getting Jennifer Camerson on transportation to know to get us into the loop for the six year transportation plan. We're getting them to tidy up in environmental services to get us into their schedule for when they're going up in, you know, districts. We're starting to make that kind of roll in the same direction with our partner organizations. In terms of what you've done and what we are gonna be doing to react to, the business safety and resiliency program, TMC 1.4, you guys passed that in December. We know that program proposals adopted in 2027 as it relates working with you, service committee, or otherwise with those program proposals.

And we're also advancing the objectives of multiple organizations. We're taking into consideration the community safety action strategies, which says that perception is one of the number one ways that we can begin to impact that sense of community safety to what our business districts and communities look like. We're taking into account TOMAIC 2035. How do we create more jobs through paying attention to our small businesses and these economic and neighborhood hubs? And looking into the climate action plan, how do we do place making and things of that nature that have sustainable environments like tree planting and other things, but also have special events that bring that vitality.

The things that TV permits in the right of way often, they're in our business district, so you can see that relationship there. Next slide. So who we talked to, just wanted to let you know, from 2014 through 2025, we've been doing elements of a business district refresh. We've had those surveys, had that feedback. We've been reviewing that.

We did a business climate survey in '24. The best team participant feedback throughout 2025, we've been engaging and asking folks for locations as well as responding to things like maybe homeless encampment in Lowe's or seventy second and Pacific when Fred Meyer left or in Lincoln in the area, or maybe there were some over overload of graffiti. We went out and dressed like addressed that. So we've been able to engage with the BEST team. And then also, we did our in 2025, doing the council debrief, I'd say, was one that's super helpful cause it gave us, again, a perspective on constituent feedback that we didn't always get from our normal programs and engagement.

Next slide. So let to let you know where we're headed. So in January, we're doing part of that geographical representation. We have a schedule, and we're gonna get that to you if it's not in your packet right now so you can take a look at. It tells you where we're going throughout the year. Right now, Lincoln, Hosford, the 12th Street Corridor, PACAP, business district, the DOM, and the Hilltop between now and February. We're starting to post our Tacoma hub, the information where we're going to our colleagues internally. And, again, I stress your council assistance and whatnot can start to look at that schedule and engage you where you'd like to be. We wanna coordinate engagement opportunities with with council, excuse me, in February '26 as well. We wanna learn from you some of the best ways we can and work with your assistance and infrastructure to do that.

We're gonna convene our twenty twenty six business district presidents, the neighborhood business district folks, the 15. If they weren't an active association, we're gonna find a representative from those as well, as well as Hosmer that's been working with the business districts for the past two years. We're gonna convene them and begin to roll out with them to go tell us how we can engage with you in '26, but also kinda co create these changes we've talked about. And then from March to October, we're gonna co create policy aligned changes, and you would expect to see a business district, ordinance update for 2027. You would also expect to see budget presentations that would be reflective of some of these new ways of engagement and some of the, projects and programs that will come out of this engagement.

So next slide. And I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. And I did go through a bit briefly, and we have some handouts for you, and we have the schedule of where we're going out. And I can tell you that it's very evenly. We looked at council districts to make sure that we tried to hit areas we don't normally touch so that we know of that high public investment to make sure we touch them in your districts.

And then we've also tried to respond to the emergent issues that come up like the closing at 72nd And Pacific. Or if we have another emergent area that comes up, we would obviously try to reset to the top. So if I could get Casey, if you would I'm gonna hand these out to you guys. And then also I have the calendar of where we're going, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Yeah. And thank you for my little bit of my scattered presentation style. I was really thinking about TV and some of the other things that I got to pull off my face. So thank you. No worries. They're great. Thank you so much. Does anybody wanna take off questions? I'm happy to. Oh, thank

you. One,

thank you. I also I left out a question, but I wanted to kind of share something that I was working because part of the reason I was talking about today is because I realized this is on the agenda. Wanted to just kind of daylight that I've been hearing various things from constituents, specifically in the Hilltop area and some other areas. And so I just wanted to share this estimate that I was working on. So I've I've been thinking a lot about the best thing the best program.

And, again, since it's on the agenda, I just wanted to take a moment to daylight the a proposal that I'm working on referring this resource. My proposal would most likely come forward as a resolution would enable the council to prioritize specific areas for best operations amid all the competing needs and all the resources that we're hearing about. The idea that I have is, at least in my mind, is pretty simple. Across the city, we have a lot of locations that are typically around, like, two to four blocks that can be called high investment corridors with high potential as an economic hub. And the corridors are really exciting because there have been public investment made already, and they have really good potential to help accelerate economic development and deepen community connections in the surrounding neighborhood.

But despite the investments that have already been made in many of the corridors, a lot of them are still falling into some disrepair. And as a result, many of the community members feel unsafe going to those locations. So, when high investment corridors don't feel safe, it doesn't really matter how good the restaurants are or the living options are. There are just a lot of people who simply aren't making their way to those areas. And then in in addition to that, businesses that can't operate in an environment where their employees feel safe, it just leads them to possibly having to make tough decisions about whether they can stay open or if they would like to stay open in that specific area.

So, sadly, it feels like that some of these borders are becoming a missed opportunity. And so I also worry that, you know, we're on the brink of some of them kind of losing that energy that has been put into a lot of them. As far as kind of what prompted us, I actually took it. Well, a lot of stuff, but most recently, I took a walk with Christina Kahn and Carole here. And we just kinda walked through the hilltop and, you know, with the things that we had had in mind, we walked from 9th On MLK to down to Ernest, Brazil.

Just ended up looking at some various things, some of the things that I just wanted to highlight that could help kind of bring that section of MLK to life is or things that have already kind of been in place. Like, we have the link light real stop, which is kind of right in the middle of the corridor that I'm talking about. There's a lot of new apartment buildings that are large scale, both on or adjacent to the corridor. There's lots of murals that have been installed, both on, like, you know, buildings, but also, you know, we have our the wrap boxes, the wraps on the boxes, and things like that. There's been new road infrastructure, including the J Street Greenway that improves bicycle connection to the light rail and to the Hilltop Business District with a lot of other things as well.

But even, again, with that investment, we're just seeing that it's not attracting a lot of new customers and community community engagement. And so in looking I'm thinking about this proposal, we asked you know, I've asked myself, but I've talked to others about, you know, why aren't more people showing up? And it's certainly not because, you know, people don't like the businesses or they don't find it to be a nice place to live, not because there's not transit, because there's plenty of that, and it's certainly not because there's a lack of, like, cultural or vibrancy that's happening in community connection. I think based on what I've been hearing, not just this year, but I have gotten a lot of outreach this year from community members in that area, both constituents who just live in the area as well as business owners, is that people just really don't feel safe in the area. As a result, a lot of of our established business as well as new ones are already facing a lot of financial strain.

And there are some stores that have already closed, and we're seeing vacant properties in the corridor that struggle to attract any new leases. So it concerns me, obviously, because I feel like a lot of these spaces are places where we should be seeing a lot of thriving and activity. It's just kind not reaching that level. And so I'm also optimistic because I know we have some great tools, some of them already funded, to help protect the corridors from decline. And I mentioned that, you know, these are becoming missed opportunities, but the great thing is that a missed opportunity doesn't have to stay missed.

And so where the best team and potentially the business safety and resilience program can come into play is that this is where the thing can come into play and just like, especially looking at that in connection with our community safety action strategy, which shows that fostering community is really community safety is really, like, a cross department team sport that goes far beyond just, policing and things that maybe we do, but there's also some activation and community and community partner, like, that that we can really be on there. And so when I when we mapped out that corridor, we were able to document more than 20 issues that the city could address within our existing resources and partnerships to just kind of bolster that spectrum of safety, and they fall across all of our various departments. And so, for example, there's graffiti cleanup, better lighting, landscape cleanup, more trash cans, dog waste stations. There are also several vacant properties and dormitory storefronts that need help being activated and refreshed. And so we know a lot of these issues can make people feel unsafe, but they are also issues that, like, impact projects can help address using our existing resources.

So that's why I think the VEST team is such a great concept, and it's uniquely positioned to help in using our resources to bolster our people's safety and community pride. So some of this can also be done by, you know, collaborating partners, Parks Tacoma. You know, it just there's a especially on in that area where a big part of this corridor is People's Park. Using that as the example because it's the most recent example, but I think that it these are very similar things that are, you know, that are attached and around to a lot of our these, like, high impact corridors. As council members, I know that we all kind of know not just our districts, but the city at large kind of like the back of our hands.

And so I think we're also kind of keen to play, like, a really vital role in, like, in the identification and the prioritization of these corridors that have these, like, high potential economic hubs. And so I wanted to bring this as I'm working on it again, this is, like, early stages. I just wanted it now since this was on the agenda. And so I plan to bring the proposal to EDC. That way, you all can chime in on it before anything moves to council, and we can kinda have a good idea just from each of you and what you're hearing in your neighborhoods and districts and that kinda help us.

And so the proposal will also call for the city's work and the corridors to include only those quick impact projects, as Carol mentioned, like, looking at that thirty, sixty, ninety day timeline. And so that will just ensure that the scope of work is kept within the existing resources. There are cases, obviously, where a partner might take on some work and things like that, and that might take a little longer for things that are coming specifically to this. Yeah. It'll be on that timeline.

I also plan to propose that this three blocks that I've identified off the top side would be the first to kind of test this model, just to complement the lease of public investments that have been made by transit, the housing authority, the city, as well as lots of other folks that have done development in the area, as well as community groups who are doing their best to keep the place engaged and activated. And to be clear, like, before I I'm almost done. Before wrap up, I just wanna make sure that folks know that, you know, this isn't about not addressing issues at other places citywide. Obviously, this we have more than just these board members that the best team can service and be really impactful for. And it doesn't you know, and I'm not looking to, like, figure out how we add more money to the pot.

I just really think that if we can sit down, have some conversations, think this out, we can find ways to just be even more intentional with our activation of these coordinated services. We are using limited source serve resources in a way that build on investments that have already, like, been made to accelerate the neighborhood growth and development. And so I just feel like this is ensuring that we have a process by which the best team is set in motion for council member request specifically, that as we're doing that, that there's equity to it, that it's citywide, and that it's built upon, like, realistic expectations and the opportunities that that are already there. And so, obviously, this isn't gonna solve all of the issues that go into community safety and, that these borders are gonna can and have and will probably continue to face in some way. But I think, we can look at these corridors as powerful tools as, like, helping to shape positively, like, the areas, the surrounding environment.

We have our crime prevention through environmental design program that the city will help with as well when they go out. So kind of like it's kind of that similar thing of doing it on a little bit of a broader, more, like, level that's not specific business reliant. So happy to answer any questions, anything I don't have an answer for immediately because, again, this is early on. Happy to take back and make sure I consider. And, yeah, I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on top of the chair about when

it gets to a point that it's. Thank you for daylighting that. That was gonna be my request is that you or Christina work with Anna and I on what your timeline is so we can make sure that it's in our slate of calendars so we can pro properly time what we have slated here. We have some need to dos and some want to dos Mhmm. And not hold you back.

So Yeah. No.

And coordinate the company.

Yeah. Sure. And if it's one of those things where if, like, you know, if it's not fitting in there and if it's better for me to, like, meet with you all so I can get your feedback and input on it back and forth when you set up one on ones, things like that, that's also I just wanted to make sure that since you guys are all obviously focused in on economic development as well, not just on this committee, but in general, that I got feedback from you guys. And so before it goes

to full council, so it's more baked. Thank you. And then I just so, yeah, we'll connect on timeline and on if you when we figure out the timeline, if you're gonna want this to be something that is sort of committee sponsored and moved on or we're just doing another imposition, we'll figure that all out. So thank you. Okay.

So if I could thank you very much for sharing that, councilmember Scott, that I really appreciate hearing that and the direction that you're looking at potentially options for going. I wanted to share a couple things about council engagement that doesn't have to slow down, you know, while you guys are doing the work you need to do for that policy development. I'm assuming by '27 as the ordinance called out. That's my filter that I'm looking at for time frame. That calendar right there, we wanted to get it to you, and we wanted to have it distributed, like, in such a way by council districts, but also touched a little bit of, like you said, the neighborhood business districts of the 15, but also the ones places we know we've never been, like Pearl Street, like Northeast Tacoma, Manito because of it emerged as an annexed area, and then also areas that we know we should go and touch more in different places.

So please, in this time, if you'd like, like, with your counsel assistance when you see that schedule, let me know. Like, you if you're going to the 12th Street corridor, we really like you to consider this area. Is this what you're considering in their 12th Street corridor? Because 12 in Pacific and Tacoma, we know they can go a lot longer. That's another way you can stay directly related right now. We are currently as we go out to these locations, we come back with things. Right? And so know that there are still business climate issues and direct business service, but also business climate issues being addressed around that. And the areas we are paying particular attention to right now is we are finishing up a little bit of a punch list in Lincoln because of some of the patsy serve. When there's grand openings or things that happen throughout the year, eyes come on it, so that came to us.

We like some of that. Also working in the Hosmer area, which is not one of our regular business districts that has been trying to form and get into that program for about two years. And because of that, we're still developing relationships. So that's an area we're doing a lot of business climate and engagement. But that area where we do invest more time as opposed to the standard outreach or the or the liaison to the associations, that is where coming together with the city manager's office in your direction, how we find those that we can do in a biennium and deliver, not just overpromise, but underpromise and overdeliver.

That is where we still need to build out with your and the city manager's direction. So I it seems timely. I just wanna share. So please know we can still service, and we are still servicing while some of that TMZ 1.48 gets worked out. Thank you. Does anybody else have any questions for Drew? Go.

I just wanted to comment on customer Scott proposal for just a second. Appreciate you taking the time and and with us. And just one of the things that as you were speaking, I was thinking about is I know that there's talk about DIA in the middle top area. I'm not sure what that's at currently, but I think a lot of these projects, things could be helped with the BIA in order to accomplish. And so and there might be, like, as you just mentioned, like, the quick wins, quick projects that we can do at the city level, but then, like, some of the more long term systemic things that we'd like to see.

I think a VA BIA would be a fantastic vehicle for making those things happen. So maybe this is like a a this and, like, election in the future. So I'm just thinking about that and and how that might be able to help accomplish. And then just love separately, just love the best team, what you guys are doing. I know that a lot of this kinda came out of the work that you're doing at Hawsbury Street, and I think it is a great opportunity to continue to use that work and those those kind of connections and how we made it happen in other parts of the city that I think would be very beneficial. So I'm looking forward to continuing

to see that. Thank you.

Thank you. And then for awareness, we do have the Hilltop BIA update in the matrix, so updates who I am. So I'm. And vice chairs in that meeting. Thanks so much.

That's why I'm calling. Thank you. On the BIA, I think, you know, I I think that there there it makes sense to have an organization that's because I think that's maybe what we're missing in it helped out some kind of lead in making sure that it stays on top of mind for developers and for whoever wants to take advantage of It's a good way for them to say that, but you understand. I I I'm loving that there is this attention, but I also I want there to be other options on the table besides the WIA for that organization. So I think that that's gonna come into the the conversation as it continues.

But I guess along those lines too, is there are there individual, like, business like, in Hilltop, there's the big HBA. Right? The Hilltop Business Association. Are they included in the neighborhood business district program, or are there independent ones kind of throughout the city? So so thank you very much. And that's where some of the BEST team and engagement as a general term, and then you have a program that's developing through BEST. The neighborhood business district program, the Hilltop is one of the original members and always has been and will never be taken off like a business district program if it's a neighborhood or business district. Right? It's it's in a mixed use center. It's incorporated in the regional growth center.

But part of what we talked about early on about our neighborhood business districts being out of compliance, Hilltop being one. It's not just compliance like we think about in terms of you didn't get your state filing in or you didn't get your bylaws passed in time. But, also, it was no longer it was one of them that was no longer representational. The business is the property or risk within the court. Right? And that happens because they become stakeholder programs where people have a lot of they get benefit, so it expands, expands, expands. The current president or acting president from the Hilltop Business Association has a business on 6 right across from Hilltop Heritage. That is not I mean, it might be the Hilltop on some maps. It might be in the regional growth center. It might be that.

Though we know it's not the Hilltop as a business district as we think of it. So that is one of the community representational corrections to make for the Neighborhood Business District program, but in a general way, as you know, because we love and appreciate anybody who steps into the play for civic responsibility. So in February, when we can convene the presidents, there will be the past president of Hilltop and then anybody else who was a representative on the executive that's from the part of that corps, and we're gonna bring them together in February and talk about the business district program, operational funding, special event support, technical assistance, business climate stewardship. But at the same time, that will help inform business engagement outreach and or if people wanna do a BIA an LID or an ABCDQ. You know?

It allows them then as an independent organization to give an authentic business and commercial property voice into whatever civic model or programs in front of them. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, yes, your spidey senses are right. They always have been. Yes. They had a compliance issue like others did, which is kind of getting diluted and part of our program and the focus, and they will always be more important just like Proctor. Procter's 6th Avenue Stadium, Hilltop, Dome, Lincoln are our six original that started the business program way back in 1591. Did that answer? Yeah. Did. Okay.

Thank you.

I think that it that's kinda to that point of what council member Scott's wanting to do and felt good thing on some of these areas that we we just know we we need that that added attention. Yeah. So that makes

sense.

In most of our districts, I'll just add, the ones that have had a public investment because there's a lot of energy and people come together for a project with the beginning, middle, and end. Having those same people stay on and engaged when that end is done and now it's for the benefit of associating civic involvement, shared responsibility, that's when it gets harder. And that's why we are refreshing, not blowing up or refreshing, expanding, more inclusionary, and then throwing some other programs off with your direction that help us improve our responsiveness and services. So I think we're. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. I think I have more to, I think, comments rather than questions. And one is, it would be helpful to know as we're sort of looking at these different business and just business areas, If folks can start to think about what the difference or what the what they're looking for out of a business district versus, say, a chamber, because the chamber should arguably be doing some of this organizing and some of these things, but these are so micro and in the neighborhood. And I just that comes to mind, particularly for businesses that aren't in any of these corridors.

Yeah. People who are sort of loose or different or just in, you you know, a little island business in one neighborhood, say. The other May I ask you clarifying? Is your point there that can we help them connect to other association or other entities outside of just strictly what the city is doing. Is that what I'm hearing there?

Like, places to maybe the chamber or to other I'm hoping that we can try to articulate what the goals of a business district are so that we can better delineate what they are as opposed to other organizations like a gay like a chamber, like Banking. Networking Mhmm. Business networking events that pop up, that kind of thing. So we can just have a clear definition of what this scope is. Because I have a lot of concerns about all a lot of these organizations being out of compliance.

They can't do the basic things like apply for grants if they don't have their tax status updated. They can't do the organizing if the board can't keep the leadership. So they have, I think, in a lot of ways, similar problems and barriers to the neighborhood district program. So it is or neighborhood council program. So I think it's yeah.

I I appreciate that you're looking at it holistically, but those are just my thoughts around how do we they really kind of pull that together. Because I think it's helpful for business owners to know what that vision is so they can decide whether or they wanna engage in that. Thank you. And then the other sort of comment, I guess, I had around this is I would also like to know or have the best team or, you know, all of us just kind of be thinking about how these organizations or areas engage with business owners versus property owners, not residential, but commercial property owners because so many of the businesses do not own their own their space, their renting. And so there's a dynamic there that I think is it needs to be a part of this conversation.

So council member Diaz, I just wanna share a couple things. One, thank you for clarifying your birth because we have Sherry Hart who's been with our business district program. She has tables of, you know, like the values. Do you really just want us here to help you put a garbage can in? Yes. Or are you here because you have a a special event you're trying to fund? Mhmm. Or do you really want to associate? Hausner is just an example since we talked about them. They have proven they want to associate for the long run, not just those individual things. Right? So think we have some tools and also the Tacoma neighborhoods together. Our first convening of presidents is to lay off options. You don't have to be a nonprofit just to partner with the city on a business district program. But if you want to get public funds, you have to make a choice about x.

You know? And here's ways you can leave. So we thank you for pointing out. So that's starting to get baked in. And so I think we can answer a lot of your questions, and we can provide that during the outreach that we do. And I think we can we can help with that quite a bit. And your other the last one, again, I apologize. My brain on a Tuesday. But the last comment you made, I also know that we have we're baking that into the program already in some of our outreach. And so I'm really excited that you pointed those out because I think we can satisfy those requests for you and see those moving forward. Perfect. Thank you. Anything else? That's it. Thank you, Carol.

Thank you so much. May I ask one question, chair Daniels? You have a different style of presenting information. I wanted to present this in a way that spoke with you. Did this give you the information that you were seeking? Yep. And that makes for the program. Like, thank you. I appreciate it. I can learn as more than everybody else has what they need, because I'll just ask for more meetings for, like, one online. So as long as it works for everybody else, we'll see. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll get that feedback. Appreciate you. Let's see here. Next on the agenda, we will go to Annalise for our topics for upcoming meetings. Oh, no. Tanya. Sorry. I didn't know who who's on first for upcoming eating. Just keep eating. Okay. Scripture. Scripture's on the. It was a

little bit

Our next meeting is on February 10, and we will have an overview of community workforce agreements policy development and. Will be back to talk about their service agreements on February 24 to tentative presentations on agenda and update on the work night. And on our shift, we're looking for. Perfect. Thank you.

And I wanted to be, like, that we did receive a letter or report. I'm not sure which, from a community member about the upcoming CWA work, and I think we'll probably include that in the packet for the February 24 meeting. It's a little bit more relevant for that report out. So just wanted to daylight. And some of us, I think, received it. Some of have been happy to share it beforehand, but I just for the public, I wanted to make sure that we're we do that in another committee that I'm on, that when we get committee correspondence, we include it in the packet. So Sure. Process. Are there any other items of interest to this? Customer stock, did you get what you needed for today? We can also follow-up. We can schedule it in too.

Yeah. I don't I mean, we're like I said, it's early on, so I I don't have, like, a specific time line at the the moment. So but just yeah. As I wanted to make sure you guys know about it. So the only thing that I would ask is that if you have thoughts, if you just wanna sit down and check

out more, just please, like, reach out to me. Perfect. Thank you.

Okay. Yeah. Does not follow-up and make sure, like, once we're getting to that and figure out the scheduled thing.

Yeah. Excellent. I just wanna give it its due time. Great. I will look so far to watch it. Take your time. Set. All those on paper? Aye. No one's opposed. We scan. Aye.