Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Perfect.

I'll also order the Economic Development Committee meeting of July 28th, 2026. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Aye.

Senator Bush?

Aye. Senator Thorpe? Aye. Senator Spaff?

Aye.

Senator Diaz? Aye. Moving on to public comment. Is anyone signing up? No one. Any Zoom hands? Okay. Zoom front, if you decide you want to do public comment at the end, I will try to open it back up. Time permitting. With that, let's go ahead and move on to our first topic. We'll go to Space Works Tacoma Annual Report. And for that, I'll call up Rebecca Salverson from the Economic and Community and Economic Development Department. Can I'm on it? The price is right. Jennifer, you said it. Yay! The game's all here.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Council Members. My name is Rebecca Salverson. I'm the Division Manager of Currents and Cultural Vitality.

I am Jennifer English, the Program Director for Spaceworks Tacoma.

And we're really excited this morning to share some impacts and a report from Spaceworks Tacoma. As you may know, Spaceworks work, but excited to share a little bit more detail with you today. Jennifer is going to share that, but I just wanted to give a little bit of background and context in terms of sort of the city staff perspective before she gets started. So SpaceWorks is a joint partnership of the city and the chamber, the Tacoma Pierce County Chamber of Commerce. It was developed to match vacant spaces with creative uses. So we think of it as a win-win. It's using an existing resource space and creatives to solve a problem, which is empty spaces and a need for affordable spaces. in the creative economy. Spaceworks came out of the Arts and Cultural Vitality Division and Community and Economic Development, and it was really developed to help us do things that we can't do on our own. It is able to lease commercial spaces and sublease them out. That's something the city really can't take on the risk for. And frankly, Spaceworks can do it in a more efficient way. It also allows us to leverage private funds. So besides private fundraising dollars, Spaceworks also allowed us to apply for a National Endowment for the Arts grant a couple of years ago that we used to support the neighborhood. planning program and the McKinley neighborhood plan. And that's something we wouldn't have been able to do on our own without a well-positioned nonprofit partner. And then they're able to just be nimble to community needs and opportunities in the way that the city is always built for. So we really value the partnership. And SpaceWorks currently receives funding from multiple city sources, including operational funding for arts and cultural vitality. This supports the partnership and creative economy work. The city does not have funding or staff to support a creative economy program. um a dedicated program we do it in lots of small ways but um the partnership with space works is really the primary way that we support creative economy at the city in my opinion i'm looking at debbie but it's really it's really the way we do this work um so as part of that um general operating contract. The city has applied it on the steering committee, so I currently serve as the co-chair. And we're bringing this presentation to you as sort of an annual report, and this will be the annual thing. And we are bringing Spaceworks and their impacts to you because it does roll up into the work that you all do. So with that, I'm very excited to pass it over to Jennifer and let her take it away and talk about all the good work that she and her team do.

Thank you so much, Rebecca.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for having me here today. I know we're all sort of familiar with Spaceworks. We've had conversations, but this will give me an opportunity to talk about it at kind of a higher level. Of course, I don't know, is there ever like the ideal time to do a presentation like this? We're in the middle of our strategic plan. There's a million amazing things happening right now. But I've hopefully dialed it down to give you some of the most important and impactful work that also aligns with your strategic plan. So next slide. Oh, am I in charge?

You can be in charge.

You want to be in charge? Last time I wasn't in charge.

Let's go.

All right, so like Rebecca mentioned, SpaceWorks was founded in 2010. It was a joint initiative between the City of Tacoma and the Chamber of Commerce. SpaceWorks was created to address vacant storefronts and underutilized spaces in the core downtown. We continue to support artists, entrepreneurs, property owners, and community partners. Spaceworks is no longer just, so now we've evolved, right? We're no longer just a vacancy reduction program, but we've evolved into a proven economic development leader that helps Tacoma support entrepreneurs, activate commercial spaces, strengthen neighborhoods, and increasingly serve as a model for communities beyond Tacoma. Excellent. Spaceworks has three strategic assets. Some you might be familiar with. Some you might not have any idea we do. That tends to be the feedback we get about Spaceworks.

Oh, yeah, you do this.

Oh, I didn't know you did that. So I'm going to highlight those three. We have the incubator, which is our business development asset. It provides entrepreneurs with training, coaching, technical assistance. We have an extensive alumni network that we engage frequently and also capital access pathways. We are the Kiva hub for Pierce County. We manage that. That's zero interest loans up to $15,000. A lot of creative entrepreneurs don't need a huge amount of money to grow and scale their business. It might be the difference of a $5,000 piece of equipment that can really give that business the leverage to grow. We're working with banking partners to develop new programs around community reinvestment dollars, and also exploring the Creative Economy Finance Network, which is launching in California. but has been working with the state of Washington to kind of change the landscape of how traditional banking works with creative entrepreneurs. Our Artscapes program, which I think is the more popular program because it's pow out there in your face, people see it all the time, is our place activation asset. It transforms public spaces. We support the artists and community engagement. and it strengthens the neighborhood identities all through public art. We also have our special project spaces. This is kind of our innovation asset, but kind of the OG Spaceworks model of developing affordable creative spaces, commercial activation, and cross-sector partnerships. Spaceworks supports both people and places. I think a lot of times people are just like, oh, space, space, space, but really it's It's a full circle moment. We're supporting the people and the places. And we recognize that thriving, creative businesses in vibrant public spaces reinforce and shore up one another.

Next slide. Did you talk about the third one?

Oh, yeah. The spaces.

Oh, sorry. Thank you.

Impact snapshots. You know, We continue to deliver measurable economic and community impact while serving as a long-term partner to Tacoma's creative entrepreneurs. Yes, I'm the director, but I'm also an incubator graduate. I own a pottery studio with my best friend. We're celebrating our 12-year anniversary next month. I'm one of many, many, many Spaceworks alumni that have gone through the incubator program. You can look at interviews of me 12 years ago, and it's the same message that we would not be able to have this community that we've built around pottery without SpaceWorks and that model of getting into underutilized vacant spaces. Some other notable alumni are Stocklist Goods, Tapertopia, ETC, Grit City Grindhouse, Manuscript and The Poet that recently opened up. In September, we'll have a triple grand opening on the 11th Street corridor here with Tacoma Knife Sharpening and Mercantile, which also is a partner with Downing Pottery. They're both Spaceworks alumni, Civic Roasters, and Hive Provisions that moved from South Tacoma away. We focus primarily on low to moderate income. That's the average, about 62% of all of our programming serves low to moderate income folks. Um, 90% are women and or minority owned, um, 30% are in brick and mortar. 78% still active. We took, it was like 90% and then COVID happened and dropped into the eighties and then, you know, social spaces and stuff. So, um, and we consistently deliver about over $50,000 paid out to artists and we continue to grow our alumni network every quarter. All right, supporting creative entrepreneurs, some incubator highlights. If you are unaware, Spaceworks began managing the Tacoma ArtsLive ACE program. There's a lot of overlap between their alumni and our alumni. So from about March to the end of June, we hosted a 10-week cohort. provided technical assistance and one-on-one business coaching, and then also provided some workshops, which we continue to do anyway. We basically absorb their alumni into our alumni network so they can continue to receive support for as long as Facebook is alive. We're a lifelong partner. We'll be operating from suite 15 halftime at the armory. So we're still at the chamber office. They have AC. And then part-time over at the Armory hosting our cohorts, workshops, coaching and technical assistance. We'll also be able to provide meeting space and co-working space free to alumni that includes ACE partners through that suite through the end of December. Because as we know, we don't know what the future is for that space, but we're there till the end of December. And then also we manage the second floor of the Mecca building, which is right down here off Broadway. We've been doing that for just about two years. I call it the mullet because the front half houses business and the back half is affordable artist studios. But the similarities between the two spaces is that we've provided infrastructure so you could roll up with a backpack and run your business out of it. The front half, we have six businesses. that occupy their own private offices. And then they have a bookable through a shared calendar, about a thousand square feet with workshop tables, chairs, AV, whiteboard, whatever they need to host a workshop or whatever. And then the back half, the same similar model for affordable artist studios. We just selected an artist for a one-year residency for that space, but again, They have a large bookable space. We have easels. If you want to have a, you know, a drawing workshop class, they could do that. We also have kind of gallery wall space if they want to reserve that and have it show. It's about providing space so that they can activate it. We don't need to activate everything. They know what they're doing. They just need the tools to make it work. And so we're there able to provide that through our partnerships with property owners. So yeah, entrepreneurs need more than training. They need community resources, long-term support. The armory and the mega spaces are providing that opportunity for us to be the catalyst with that. And then activating space through art. So Artscapes highlights. Public art is an investment in place. It shows care. We still manage the Woolworth Window artist installations at 11th and Broadway. We activate over 20 artists a year in those five windows, temporary and permanent murals, artist and organization collaborations. Some of our yearly collaborations that I super love are with Northwest Sinfonietta, Tacoma Light Trail, Tacoma On The Go, and the Downtown Tacoma Partnership. We activate underutilized spaces. And I'm going to go back to that DTP partnership. Come see us on Sunday at the Downtown Tacoma Block Party. We'll have five muralists live painting. The Woolworth Window artists will be out in front of their respective windows. Give them an opportunity to pop up, sell art, show you, talk about their art, have an activity. And then we'll also have a caricature artist out there. We've worked with her before. She's super fun. And then... I wanted to highlight this because it's gone through different iterations. It began in 2020, boarded up buildings, not super inspiring and doesn't make you feel really good. So downtown Tacoma partnership, the city and Tacoma created a rapid mural program. Today, that partnership is still with the city and tidy up Tacoma. And then of course we partner with artists and local businesses and property owners. If you cruise down 38th Street, the backside of Hong Kong supermarket, we just had nine artists complete rapid murals on the backside of that building. And now we're starting to activate some spaces on Hilltop. So we're in Lincoln. There's still a couple more there, but we're transitioning to the Hilltop area. And the benefits, some are super obvious, but, you know, transforms habitually tagged. and boarded up buildings, focuses on key high-investment corridors, likely Coonan Hilltop, improves the neighborhood appearance, and creates paid opportunities for others, keeping that dollar limit. So building pathways to commercial space. I told you a little bit about my story with the Pottery Studio getting into a space. Everybody's different. We have to come up with different pathways for creative. Sometimes you're making something at home and you just want to sell your stuff at a market. Love it. Sometimes you're small scale manufacturing because a lot of times creatives are small scale manufacturers. They just don't know that yet. And they want a place where they can scale and grow. And maybe you want a retail storefront in a brick and mortar district in Tacoma. And so our work addresses two of the biggest challenges that Tacoma and everybody in the United States is dealing with, and that's access to affordable commercial space and property owners being able to secure leases. And so we are working with THA, which we've partnered with many times in the past. We used to have a co-working and incubator model. At 1120 Hilltop, that's the old Key Bank building. There's a new building that sits there now. And the only reason that partnership ended was because the building didn't exist anymore. So now we're looking at other ways to partner. There's a lot of vacant space on Hilltop. We feel like we can help with that in that partnership. So stay tuned for more coming from that. I know I don't have to explain to you why this work matters, but just to kind of lay out how we respond, how Spaceworks responds to how communities across the country are experiencing everything on the left, Spaceworks can support and help alleviate some of those issues by doing the things on the right. So what was started as a response to vacant storefronts has become a comprehensive economic development strategy. Spaceworks is one of the few organizations intentionally operating at the intersection of art, economic development, and belonging. And I threw belonging in there because a lot of people do economic development. The Chamber does economic development. So what makes Spaceworks a part of the Chamber and a city different? We provide belonging, or we create belonging. So kind of shifting this into more like future forward looking and where we're at. And like I mentioned earlier, we're in the middle of our strategic planning process. And so I don't have a completed strategic plan, but this is kind of the direction that we're going in based on what we're acknowledging and seeing and people coming to us and asking us about what we're doing in Tacoma. But we're increasingly being sought out as a resource by other communities. And by leaning into this work, I think we can position Tacoma as a national model for creative, economy-driven community development, community and economic development. It's the same. Portland City Council sent a representative to interview me. I've been talking to San Diego City Council and their county, City of Shoreline, Inspire Washington, and other cities. statewide partners are reaching out. So I would like to see in the future developing a toolkit of some sort that takes kind of the 17 years or so of Space Works model. Not all arts and culture organizations have, this is something I've learned, they don't have a great relationship with their cities as we do here. We're very fortunate that I can come here and talk to you all today and have an opportunity to tell you what We're doing what we're seeing that I can't fix in other communities, but we do have a model that, and I know there's arts and culture organizations everywhere. So there's something in there. Spaceworks has built one of the most mature creative economy development models in the Pacific Northwest. And as communities across the country search for solutions to commercial vacancies and affordable spaces and small business support, they're increasingly looking at Spaceworks as a model. People love us. People love Tacoma. Quick side note, I was in Olympia. I think we're all so close to the work we're doing and we just don't realize the impact we have outside of Tacoma. People really do look at Tacoma as kind of their big sister, something that they want to emulate as far as creative economy support is concerned. I don't know if you know that. I just wanted to say that. So the next chapter of Spaceworks is about expanding impact while strengthening Tacoma's role as a leader in creative economic development. That's my personal take on that. People look up to us. We're working on developing a more comprehensive support system around capital access for creative entrepreneurs. The CEDC strategic plan specifically identifies Spaceworks as a strategy partner across almost all, I think there's only, I think the strategic focus number three is kind of a stretch, but basically all of the other ones, you know, we're an asset, we're in there as a support. That alignment reflects a shared understanding that creative entrepreneurs, activated public spaces and accessible commercial opportunities are essential components of a thriving Tacoma economy and community. As Tacoma continues implementing its economic development vision, Spaceworks remains a ready partner with proven assets, established community trust, all that social capital, and track record for delivering measurable outcomes. One last thing. We began going back to our beginning as a response to vacant storefronts. But today we're Tacoma's most established creative economy sector lead, supporting entrepreneurs, activating spaces, creating opportunities for artists and building a stronger sense of belonging throughout our community. And I think that together we have an opportunity to ensure Tacoma's creative economy is not only celebrated, but supported in a way that positions our city as a national model for creative economy driven economic development. Thank you so much for your time. If I have not taken all of your time, I would be happy to answer any questions. Lay it on me.

Perfect, here we go.

Yeah. First one is, I would love to take a tour of the . Let's do it. Let's do it. Yes, any tour. I know Council Member Palmer did a little downtown tour. Yeah, I would love to. Let's do it. And then my other thing is not really, I guess I wasn't questioning it. But the other thing was, I appreciate that you said people love us, people love Tacoma and I feel like we need shirts that people love Tacoma. Thank you. I know you guys. We have that you'll like Tacoma. You might like it, but you'll certainly love it. Tacoma loves Tacoma too. That's enough of it. Yeah. Thank you.

I think that's actually funny. It's something I observed is that one of the only cities that I know of where we're all wearing Tacoma stuff all the time. It's a really neat thing that we do. Besides maybe like Santa Clara. There are a couple of California cities that do it, but we wear a lot of our own.

Oakland. I was just in Oakland. Yes. Yeah. A lot of Oakland love. Spokane. We have a sister organization out there, Terrain, that had purchased our curriculum, our incubator curriculum. So they have a very similar model at Spaceworks. Interesting. I took our team out for a field trip a couple months ago just to see, we're getting ready for our strategic plan. What are you guys doing over here? They have a $56 million capital campaign. They're buying a 161,000 square foot six-story building to house all of their, so like imagine the Mecca, the Spaceworks headquarters, incubator, everything in one giant thing. But they have they make shirts and it says, Spokane doesn't stop.

We need Tacoma doesn't stop.

Yeah, thank you. Thanks for the tour. I learned a lot. I love this program. I think, and I love the vision. I think we do have the opportunity to grow what people already know about Tacoma even further and our support for creatives Can you talk a little bit about the incubator program a little bit more? Because I saw that Tacoma Knives on there. And I wouldn't necessarily think of them as creative entrepreneurs. So I'm just wondering, how is that?

How do we classify that? Yeah.

Who can participate?

So if I were to ask you what creativity meant to you, I would give a different answer from everyone in this room. And so it's been a difficult, and also creative economy doesn't have a standard definition either. But the state of Washington has kind of outlined what they think the creative economy is, probably because it contributes over 20% to the state's GDP. Just saying. But creative or innovative? Tacoma, knife sharpening, and mercantile, Stephen is a chef. He comes from that background. That's how he got into the knives. His partner is downing pottery also. So the retail, thinking outside of the box, is this something that, these are the questions that we go through when we're doing the selection process. Is this something that is needed in the community? Are there a million other people doing it already? What's the... the need for it and also if they can't get business training support from us is there somewhere else they can get it if the answer is no typically have them come in we also have tidy vibe cleaning how is how is that a creative business they pay their weight their workers livable wages so they're trying to change this and so that is innovation that we want to see in Tacoma um Similarly, oh my God, Link Community Clinic. They were the first naturopath, like dual naturopaths in Western medicine to take Medicaid. I get goosebumps every time because I was on Medicaid. My kids were on Medicaid. And if I had a naturopath option, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Where were they going to get business training and support to the level that we provide? And I fought for them in that selection panel. I don't get a vote, but I'm like, Where else are they going to get this kind of guidance?

I love that.

So it's very broad.

But also not. Yeah, if it's benefiting, if it's a niche, if we need it here at Tacoma, I love that there's a place to help. Can you speak a little bit about the manufacturing program? Yeah.

My friend Ryan is manufacturing there, which is modeled after the Spaceworks Business Plan cohort. That's our 12-week our big juicy training program of the incubator. Tammy and Nicole that were on that slide under the manufacturing, they're a perfect example of a creative economy person. They do, like they have laser cutters, engravers, they do signage, vinyl printing, all kinds of different things. So they're in manufacturing. They started in a space I'm not even joking. It was like a closet. It was like this. And now they're in a space as big as this room and they are more, uh, United States distributor for their laser printer thing that they ordered from like from China or something. So like they're, they have grown because they were able to stay in that space and grow and they were able to leverage their little space, um, and their growth to get a grant. I forget which one it was, but it was, yeah, that one. Yeah. To buy, I think that piece of equipment that now they're a district Northern, uh, American distributor of, so it's these steps, but if they had to move and sign a new lease, maybe, uh, uh, stalled out of it because they were able to scale in place and grow. now they're able to like create jobs and, um, all within the manufacturing. And I think there's this kind of awakening happening right now or over the last year or so where it's like, Oh, like I'm a potter. I'm a small scale manufacturer. I'm going to apply for manufacturing grants now. So it kind of cracks open this whole new perspective on where's the, where's their funding. Um, Just a mindset change on what you're doing as a business or creative. So that's the development of, I totally got sidetracked. But the manufacturing incubator, Ryan, who's the other chamber program director that you met.

And the co-chair. And the co-chair. So there are a lot of these conversations that are coming up in the steering committee around the overlaps and who's in front of them.

That's another really good tool. If you guys haven't been helped to that, this is the one. It's a great tool. And Ryan would love to take you all. And we also, Economic Development, helped them with their, we funded them to help with their curriculum that now, Clover Park, their first cohort's open, right? FPCs are open now for the first cohort of businesses.

And so we're really tied into that too. But that's a really fun tool as well.

I haven't been to the Mecca, so I wouldn't do that. But the manufacturing is fun too.

Looking forward to that program. I think it's so cool to have that to offer.

There's a lot of opportunity there. I just want to add, SpaceWork really helps lay the foundation for a lot of the work that I do. It's the CED business services. I've been involved in a lot of the fun program and worked closely with Jim for various projects, including the upcoming pilot of THA. And two of the businesses that Jim for, like Tacoma Design Company, manufacturing, They got the training from Space Works. They got the portable space. They got the grant from us that helped through the CRP project that helped them buy that equipment. The space that they were in also received CRP funding from the City of Tacoma. So they can have that equipment. To stabilize, to supplement 50% of their rent for up to a year, which then also allowed the space that they were in to help Tacoma Manufacture, Tacoma Design Company grow. or at Link Community Clinic, which is the naturopathic clinic right up here in Stadium. Once they graduated at the Spaceworks program with their solid comprehensive business plan, they came to me. We gave them a microloan partnership when it opened. Now, that was four or five years ago, and we're currently in talks with Link Community Clinic because they are growing and are needing to either purchase the building or find a larger facility. that just kind of demonstrates how crucial SpaceWorks is as a partner in this ecosystem and playing the foundation because we do have financial resources available here at the City of Tacoma, but if the businesses don't have access to the proper training and tools to get them ready to come to me, because most people are not ready on their own, then the money just sits. So I just wanted to also kind of what, how circular the ecosystem is and the role that SpaceWorks plays, not only in training, but working directly with us so that we can leverage our resources.

Thanks for that. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Chair. Really appreciate this program. You guys have been doing so much over the years, and I'm so excited how much it's done. And again, the leadership, I have heard about how great the Tacoma creative economy here is from all folks all across the area and the country. And so I'm just really pleased with how successful it is, but always room for improvement and always learning, which I appreciate as well. One of the questions I had is because the main focus has been about vacant storefronts, am I right to assume that we are tracking like where vacant storefronts are across the city? Or do we kind of have, do we have an idea of ballpark? That way we can be strategic in how we invest resources?

That is a capacity issue. So One of the reasons a lot of people don't know about the work we're doing is because we're a super small team and we're just doing our work. So that's another reason why I appreciate this opportunity to air everything out and be like, this is what we're doing. There's no official, like, here's a list of all the vacancies. I am working on something that I'd like to bring to you and maybe the Arts Commission that could citywide create a list like that looking at different models like Everett San Francisco there's other cities around the nation that have models that can kind of help with that right now it's tied to let's say maybe two or three things one of them is where the rapid murals are probably some big buildings so those run parallel and can feed one another The other pathway is our relationship with property owners. Because we're named Spaceworks, I think people Google and they call us thinking that that's what we do. It's not what we do, but I get property owners that call that don't actually know the breadth of work that we do. Then we become best friends and they'll show me all their buildings. I'm like, oh, this business would be great here. This would be here. I would love to hire a property-focused person. And that's all they did, was pairing businesses with property owners, reaching out to vacant, you know, because a lot of these folks are out of town, out of state, out of country, and then just letting the link sit and creating blight. Don't get me started. That's a whole other meeting we can get. I'd love to kind of talk to you about. But I think Council Member Palmer got some of that. But, yeah, it's very kind of rudimentary right now. It's working. But I would love to hire a properties person that is out there engaging and matchmaking.

Well, and we like the retail advocate downtown, right? And then the city of Tacoma funded that position and part of that position for a long time. And we don't currently anymore fund it. But that was kind of the original idea was maybe someday we can have those all over because Carolyn, her team goes out and they, when they're going to areas, they do note down and write down vacancies and they, but I think it kind of lives on a spreadsheet, you know what I mean? It's not, we haven't made the next step, which would be to get that out into public and to do actually the matchmaking. And I mean, having a JD in every area of the city would be amazing. You know, the kind of thing, you know, it takes everybody, you know, so many people have different insights and to get centered somewhere would be amazing. I will say that property owners are starting to get desperate.

So 12 years ago when, Spun was able to be at a storefront for six months for free to incubate our business. That's the old school kind of space works model. Property owners were desperate. The building we went into had been vacant for like 15 years or something. It was like crazy. And I feel like we're now coming back to that point again where they're starting to reach out like, hey, I've got these two buildings and they've been vacant for a long time.

My wife's getting angry. I need to start making money on this.

Yeah. I hate to say that they're desperate enough to reach out to us, but that's, you know, they're, you know, something's got to give and it's that.

Well, and sometimes the property owners really are like, we met with the Spire 11 property owner last week and they have lowered their rents 90% in their whole building, but they still, they're like, bring me somebody. I mean, they don't have, it's not necessarily there. They're very invested in getting them full, but they don't have time to go out and be, they can't, you know, matchmake. And so basically they do the typical like, oh, put this up on a website. Hope somebody sees it.

You know, but they're also property owners are getting frustrated with commercial real estate brokers because they're just throwing it on websites. Hope there's none in the room, but that's, that's what I'm hearing from. They're like, you've helped me activate this space and wait, you know, this has been, this commercial real estate brokers have this property on their list for several years and they don't do anything. They just, they don't promote it. They don't try to find people for it. They just put it up on the website.

Also, sometimes it takes a little bit of like a creative lens to figure out how to curate and to have that also the community context to know what's going to work in a neighborhood or who can work together. Like the Mecca is in, it's a weird middle space. How long had that been vacant for? They'd written it off as being a space that like, why would anybody rent that?

And that, I mean, that came out of. brain job has always been a supporter of space works he's not on our steering committee or anything but he's aware of us and supported and i was meeting with him when i became director and i was like got any weird spots you can't lease because i was thinking affordable artist studios we don't we don't need much um he goes actually yeah and i walked in and the front half was finished the back half was unfinished i'm like this is perfect for business incubation and of

studios he was on the downtown school partnership board forever yeah now his sister is so i mean it is it's like how the connections are all interwoven sometimes you just gotta ask like hold on a second like we could put a couple people in here the space you're gonna have to device it somehow yeah you can get something into it and we can help you they're just disconnected they don't know what's available or possible thank you for that yeah i i think a lot about like

Burnhill area where we have some vacancies. We have a lot of vacancies up and down Pacific Avenue, South Hosmer Street, and there's a lot of opportunity for additional support, rapid murals and things of that nature all across those areas.

We take recommendations too. So if you're like, hey, this spot in my district is needing a little extra love, send us an email. We talk with Carol and Sherry all the time about rapid murals and vacancies and I mean, once a month at least.

Maybe there's an opportunity that these folks can get into the Hosmer business group and see if there's some connection. It might be just how interested you guys are in the services you provide, that they might be able to be a little more creative in how they think about changing some of that. They're trying really hard to bring more businesses in and change a perception that they're at the purpose. The delicate balance.

You know, you can have the cart before the horse. You can't get people there until you have businesses there. But you can't get businesses there until they feel comfortable there. And we do have businesses there.

Yeah.

And so how do you remediate that before everybody leaves?

Exactly. So thank you for that. I'll try. I know I'll try to keep it a little bit shorter. The other thing is, especially out of a brand new name, these new businesses and trying to help them build. I'm curious about the intersection between our current code and zoning and things of that nature, because we talk about manufacturing, right? Well, believe it or not, code says you can only do manufacturing in these areas. I'm curious, especially when we have small businesses that want to grow and how that might intersect with our zoning code, what's allowed and not allowed.

So we do everything, you know, on the up and up.

So they do like a change use or something in a space.

So it's whenever, you know, so they've developed business plans. So we know that they're going to go down a manufacturing path before they get into a space. A lot of times these aren't branded businesses too. These businesses might be around for three to five years. They just haven't gotten to the point where they need a business plan or they're ready to grow or they're experiencing a major growth. So we advise them. And I'm not telling them what the code is. I make sure they go through the proper channels here at the city with permitting zoning. Again, we're not like building new buildings yet. I don't know. So we try to set them up for success at the beginning and give them the education and tools and resources to make sure that they're law abiding businesses.

I appreciate that. And then, sorry, my final question is, I lost it. Manufacturing, space, commercial space, light. You want to talk about light? I could talk about light. I won't do that. I'll just say that if it's important, I'll come back to that in a second. Thank you guys so much for all the work that you did. Oh, now I remember now. Because this is a city program, but it's technically separate, are you eligible for like to come appraise dollars?

Yes.

Okay. I could have swore I saw you guys on the list, but I wasn't 100% sure.

We are. Yes.

It's a joint initiative of the city of the chamber. So it's a program housed in the chamber now, but again, we support currently with a with a contract to help support the work, and we were housed in the city when it started. And so that partnership is really strong, but it's because it's able to access the Chamber's 501c3 nonprofit status, and so it's able to apply for two microgrids, it's able to apply for again with the NEA. So it is separate. It's not one of our programs, but we really lean on them to do this work. I mean, it made more sense, right?

I mean, it was born. We all think of it as a baby. It was born upstairs on the ninth floor, room 92. But then eventually, you know, it was better housed somewhere else where it could be a little more independent of it.

That's sort of how I explain it to people that don't quite understand because it's very confusing to be like, well, I say, you know, the city is our baby daddy and we live with our mom in the chamber at the house. You know, it's like, okay.

Cool. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Excellent. Example there. A couple questions I had were I think close to what Deputy Mayor was asking about, which is how And I'm sure you guys at CED already do some of this work, but is there more or what more could be done around trying to get you relationships with those big commercial real estate folks? On to the empty right, it's empty Walgreens. Grocery aisle mural for the Fred Meyer, even if they don't want us there. How do we start building some of that?

It all comes down to funding. Spaceworks is primarily reliant on grant funding. And so, you know, typically in these meetings, like, well, what's your ask? My ask is talk about us, please. Talk about us, the impact we're doing, make friends, get us to make friends with people that can help fund us so that we're not so reliant on grants. Currently, the TCRA board moves a CDBG funding for our incubator. That's the primary funding for our incubator program. That was frozen last year. We still did over 1,000 hours in technical assistance, because we're not gonna knock into the phone, right? We're gonna continue to do that. But we paused our incubator program and went on shared work because it was that impactful. I would love for us not to be so reliant on grants. that's what keeps me up at night is how do we become sustainable and increase capacity I'm sure everyone has that those nightmares but we could really use your help in advocating for space works to the folks like the owner of the Fred Meyer but they are going to have to chip in we can't pay for everything because it's basically Tacoma Crete's funding which is not a whole lot because of the we apply for the impact funding and not the, but anyway, that's the biggest thing that you all can deliver us is to connect us with people that can help with the funding.

Yeah. Cause like one of the, one of the things that I know I get asked, I get asked at least once or twice is like, we know where Wajima is going, but the science still says that it's for ladies, right? So like, how do we make that partnership? Like, what's coming, right? Like, I don't know what more we can do. I don't know what else we can do, but I thought I would ask.

Was that First Western Properties out there, I feel like?

I believe you.

Yeah. I looked at that sign. I still miss Top Foods, I'm just saying.

Yes, same.

Markdown Meat Thursday. Yeah, right. It's introductions, and then we'll take it from there. We can help them come up with creative ways. If you reach out and say, hey, you know, we're, you know, this is happening, but we need to do something here. Talk to Spaceworks. They can help figure something out with you.

Those are all that specific places. I know Wajimaya is getting ready to put up their own signage, but I feel like probably some of those little spaces are still for lease in there. And so they have, the broker has no reason to take that sign down because there are some spaces, but it makes it look like the top ones. People ask me too. I thought Wajimaya was going there, like, you know, and so, but I did get an email from them a couple of weeks ago that said they're getting ready to put up some signage. So it's like coming soon, but. But I know you're using this example, right?

But we do have, you know, we could work more closely.

We have a lot of contacts with the different commercial brokers or, you know, and like you said, I mean, the building owner has to know they're going to have to kick in something. This is not a free program.

And we try to be free and affordable to the business owners and the people that are the most vulnerable, right? The Korean economy is one of the most vulnerable sectors, financially speaking. So, We want to be able to provide all of this free little charge. But that means that people with the money need to help out.

But if they don't know that the tool exists, then they could, you know, they're like, wow, I have a vacant surffront. I'm not going to be able to get it filled for a while. Or we have a plan, but it's going to take a couple of years. I can't really do anything. Well, actually you could call Spaceworks. I could really affordably, if you could help them pay the artists a little bit of time, they can get a mural up there. You're going to not have to send people out all the time to do graffiti cleanup and people are going to be happier with you and it's going to look better. And so we have that tool and that's an incredible tool we built here in Tacoma to serve Tacoma. And so, so if it's just sharing. Yes. We're looking for things that don't cost anything right now because...

But I do wonder, there's a sale element there, too, from the city side to be like, look, if you come and you pay for some of this, the city's also paying for it through Tacoma Create. So, like, I don't know. I think it probably helps with some of those commercial real estate folks or some of those business owners who are like, the city doesn't do anything. They only take my money, right? So, like, how do we help leverage it? Yeah.

From the rapid mural program, that's the 38th street, the Hong Kong supermarket. When I went in to, cause it was before we had hired our new public art coordinator. I went in and talked to the, the travel agency and Hong Kong supermarket. And they had to reiterate, no, no, no, no. The city's paying for this work. You don't have to do anything. And they were like, they felt, they're like, oh, we feel so special. We feel like they genuinely felt. seen, dare I say, cared for. I was going to say loved, but cared for by the city.

Would they rather have that phone call or the one from our code enforcement saying, clean up the graffiti within 20 days or you're going to get fined? I mean, this is a much better outcome.

That's been an amazing partnership that's growing with Tidy Up. It doesn't work everywhere. You can't have your kids put it's not a cost cost back to just put a mural but it's a great tool and for them to use in those spaces where it's going to make a difference or it's where it's been chronic and we just do something to change the feeling of the narrative on that on that corner so that's been a really great partnership and we love we love ruby and our tiny friends yeah

I did have something that just triggered off me. You guys talked about trying to have fiscal sustainability and things of that nature. As your alumni groups grow and they are successful, have you Is there, have you guys tapped into them to be like, hey, thank you so much for going through our program. I hope it was successful for you. Help us help more people do this. Do you guys have, like, an alumni group or anything like that that could help back into the organization?

That's difficult because, you know, I don't, when I get emails from my college, from Evergreen State College emails me, it says, give me money. I'm like, I gave you all of them. Okay. That's difficult for us because a lot of these aren't businesses that are turning into Amazon. We have a hard time asking them to contribute money back and because we want to continue to be a service provider and a partner with them. However, they do, when they can, advocate, donate, provide a Mentorship to new and upcoming. Anytime I need something, I can reach out and ask them, hey, can you sit on an online panel from a new cohort and talk about your experience? Can you meet with this new business is struggling with this issue that I know that you dealt with like three years ago? Can you meet and mentor with them? So they give back in other ways. I'm hesitant to ask them for financial. It would have to take a lot. I'm hesitant to turn around and then ask them for financial support because we do reach out and ask them for a lot of data. We're always paying them for things. How can we help them make more money and contribute more dollars to Tacoma? We have a hard time. flipping that around the other way.

No, that makes sense. And I know that there are tangibles, as you mentioned, other than just a monetary thing.

You know, there's the time, the effort, the mentorship, which is really important, too.

I'm just trying to spit my ideas. I'll take all the pitfalls. Maybe one of them will become effective.

I've had a couple of VR guys, it's like, when I make it big, you were my earliest supporter. I'm waiting. I'm waiting for that phone call.

Thank you. The other question I had was around, oh, I guess I had two. One was, I want to say two months ago, I can't remember how long ago it was, we had the folks from California come in and talk about creative economy. Yeah, the Creative Economy Finance Network. And I know that I met the woman from Commerce who's helping manage their creative portfolio. Is there an update there or are there there that we want to share? Just sort of impromptu wondering.

So we are working with them to identify other community partners and banks. So they were up here. It was weird. Was it two weeks ago? Oh, it was the day before my birthday, July 14th. So yeah, they were just, it feels like months ago. Um, So they were just up here. We met with a bunch of different banking institutions. So for those that don't know, if you think of this as a bow tie, one side of the bow tie is the traditional funders like banks, credit unions. The other side are support organizations like Spaceworks, Mecentro, the Telf Tribe. And then in the middle is the community, oh my gosh, Creative Economy Finance Network that helps kind of tie them all together. There are statistics out there that say creatives are good, if not better, at repaying loans than standard businesses. It's a market that banks don't see value in yet. And so it's changing the narrative and some of these systemic practices that these banks and credit unions have around, say, I need a loan for my business. Great. What are you? I'm an artist. Bye. So really educating them on the value of adding creatives to their portfolios. So that's kind of what we were focusing on there. And then we met with Decentral and some other community development organizations. So that's where we're at right now. And so we're hoping to move forward. This could be an opportunity to create a new curriculum. So Spaceworks has our incubator. a business plan cohort curriculum that has been copywritten and we've sold it to Terrain in Spokane. I'd like to re-dust that off and re-push that out now that we're having conversations beyond to go along with other states on how they can activate space developing a financial curriculum specifically for entrepreneurs to help guide them through kind of the lending process. Mechanics Bank, I should be finding out this week, I think they met down in California for their community reinvestment dollars. Our friend Michael Schultzen up here who works for them put forth a program idea where say Rebecca has a business, she's graduated from the 12th week business plan cohort She's ready to do some stuff. She needs to take out a loan to buy a piece of equipment to grow her business, take it to the next level. She can take a loan out through Spaceworks, which is a community reinvestment dollars and practice paying back a loan and having that type of commitment. Let's say Rebecca needs the love of her life. I know you already did that, but if you move away to Spain and you decide you're not going to pay back that loan, the mechanics may forgive that. So Spaceworks is an option. So that's not a thing yet, but that's what was proposed in California last week. So I'll find out about that. But things like that are coming out of that Creative Economy Finance Network discussion. But we could also be a super leader there.

Great. I think that leads into the other question I have, which is around the finance piece. Because I imagine a lot of the lending stuff is how do they build capacity? How do they get their original sort of tools that they need to do the work that they want to do. But I think a big chunk of it is the capital side, right? So how do we get people into buildings long-term? How do we get people into ownership so they can have equity in the future, right? That's one of the biggest assets we Centro has is they own that building. And we don't talk about that, but that is the thing. So I'm just wondering how y'all are dealing with, you know, the nice way to say it, folks are buying everything and then no one else can buy anything. Is there a there there that we can help figure out or that we should look around that?

So capital loans, all of it. So we're working with micro enterprises, five or less employees. Oftentimes they grow beyond that. And it's not a black and white issue, right? It's a wide array. So a lot of our micro enterprises don't want to take a loan. Fair. We have options for that. They can do the zero interest loan through Kiva up to $15,000. But when they get to a point where it's like they need to have a loan, it's about the financial education. Do they need to get their own personal finances in order? Because if they have any trauma or anything around that, that just goes right into their business finances. So, you know, oh, I don't want to look at the bills. You have to. So there's an education component to that. Um, there's another component that tacks onto that when you're talking about businesses, purchasing buildings. Um, my business is currently looking at, uh, purchasing, uh, ceramics business that, and the building. So I'm getting a real, real world, um, run through of how it really works versus what people say, how it should work, um, for creatives anyway. And, uh, I would love to get them. And I think a lot of it's mindset. A lot of them just don't even think that that's a possibility for them. So changing that mindset. Yes, you can do this and you should do this. Starting conversations around like land trust stuff. I'm not super educated. I'm not going to pretend I am, but different looking at different options of how, how do we kind of mitigate some of the, capital G, gentrification. People buying up stuff and sitting on it.

Yeah.

Yeah, me again. I think that the role that face works plays in that larger, broader context, and like Jennifer mentioned, a lot of times working with the micro enterprises in an incubator phase, right, to nurture an idea, or maybe they have into business for a little bit and are trying to just evolve a little bit. So the folks going through the, like, corporate program are not quite at that point to come out of that program.

Yeah.

and of sorts to try to buy the building. But Spaceworks can help them in that launching and incubation phase to get started and get going. And I think that in terms of commercial property acquisition, which is one of our goals in our department, strategic plan, as well as anti-displacement, and transitioning folks from tenants to owners, we do have the tool in our department to provide that cap financing. And I think that for Spaceworks, as they continue to evolve and become more robust, I think just them having more resources so that they can continue to support alumni so that they can come back and get some of that additional training and coaching that they need to go through a process, whether that is with the city and our lending partners or the private bank. But we have those tools here at the city. We actually just closed a loan a week before last for... owner-occupied commercial real estate acquisition right here on Broadway. Four-story class B building. So that's something that we're actively doing. Spaceworks is a partner in that. And I think as they continue to, you know, build out their strategic plan in the future, it's just more of a support for alumni side for that kind of thing versus coming up here.

Makes sense.

And our alumni know they could pick up, they could be the 12th grade. graduated 10 years ago and they can pick up the phone and say hey I'm thinking about doing this or I need help with this this obstacle came up or my landlord sucks you know they know that they can reach out to us and we try to really make that known that we're a lifelong partner we won't be up in your stuff all the time but if you need us we're here and if we don't know the answer we know a ton of people and we'll put you in contact with the right person okay makes good sense

Thank you. Anybody else have anything else?

No, just thank you guys. Thank you.

Yeah, awesome. Thank you both. We will move on to the next thing here, which is topics for upcoming meetings. I will call on Jenny Vanilla, executive lead.

Thank you, Chair Diaz. So on August 11th, our next meeting, we have Creative Dakota Creates Advisory Board interviews. And on August 25th, the arts and cultural vitality plan update. Rebecca will join us again for that. And September 8th, meeting is canceled.

Okay. Does anyone have any other items of interest? I don't think we formalized it yet in this committee, but in other committees we talk about making sure that we go and revisit our boards and commissions. So I would just flag for folks that I went to the CERT committee last week. It was a really good time. They were talking about MLK. They were doing early brainstorming for what the MLK event theme will be. They land on a theme, but they're just trying to pick out some pieces to build on last year's. So it's really cool to go and see what folks are up to. So if folks want to do that, feel free to let me know if you need my help coordinating getting us to one so that we don't all show up at the Arts Commission one day. But if we need to control the trains that way, I'm happy to help facilitate that. And with that, I think I will entertain the final motion. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

No one's opposed. We stand in. Thank you.