Two Key Initiatives To Watch This Year

Despite dark clouds on the economic horizon, downtown Tacoma's redevelopment will continue this year with a key planning effort and a high-visibility project moving forward in the near future.

AngelouEconomics has been hired by the City of Tacoma to develop a comprehensive Downtown Economic Development Strategy, including:

• Inventory of downtown assets;
• Economic impact analysis of downtown Tacoma on the city, county, and state economy; and
• Long-term strategic plan for downtown's economic growth.

The final strategic plan will be incorporated as part of the City's larger Comprehensive Plan.

AngelouEconomics is an economic development consulting firm that advises companies and communities wanting to take advantage of the new economy. They specialize in the site selection needs of the technology industry and of the communities seeking to recruit them. The project is being managed by Katie Bullard.

Later this month, the Broadway LID project is slated to go out for re-bid sans the vaulted sidewalks in the original design specifications. An open house will be held after the bid opening to inform stakeholders of the outcome and to review any possible options with alternate bid items.

Construction of the project is tentatively scheduled to begin in mid-April and continue until late fall of 2009. Once a contractor has been selected by the City, another open house will be held to inform stakeholders of the schedule and identify contacts for the duration of the project.