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Corona economic development team outlines progress on downtown malls, business grants and innovation center funding
Summary
City staff and consultants reported ongoing actions under the 2022 strategic plan, including business grants, tenant work at downtown malls, a $2.5 million state earmark for an innovation center at the library, and retail-recruitment outreach; council received the report and provided feedback on next steps.
City economic development staff presented an update on implementation of the city’s 2022 economic development strategic plan and outlined near-term actions on downtown malls, business-support programs and a planned innovation center.
Economic Development Director Joel Belding and Manager Ashley Zaragoza said the department has advanced a broad set of initiatives since 2022, organized under six goals: entrepreneurship and small-business support; business attraction and retention; workforce development and training; planning and development facilitation; placemaking and downtown revitalization; and improved communications. “We have a team that is working on these items and we’ve started most of the 44 primary work efforts,” Belding said.
Key items reported: staff said the city fully expended two grant programs that awarded 60 entrepreneurship grants (~$5,000 each) and 30 small-business grants (~$10,000 each); completed 24 business promotions through the ShopDine Corona campaign (Ashley Zaragoza said those posts generated strong view counts); assisted 150 businesses through outreach and visitation; and facilitated 25 companies in site-identification or expansion work.
Downtown malls and innovation center: Staff reported active progress on both city-owned mall properties. The South Mall parking-lot renovation was near completion and two new dining tenants were expected to open; staff said they expect the South Mall to be fully leased and operating in the coming years. The city secured a $2.5 million state earmark for an innovation center at the library and staff said the center will host workforce and training partnerships.
Retail recruitment: Charles Parker of the Retail Coach said the city’s retail nodes perform above national averages for comparable anchors (for example, some anchors were reported at 50–100% higher foot-traffic benchmarks) and that the city’s true trade area draws hundreds of thousands of shoppers across the region. Parker described outreach to more than 100 potential retailers, restaurants and developers and said the principal obstacle to new retail is limited available commercial real estate and high new-construction costs.
Council feedback and next steps: Councilmembers praised the report and asked staff to make some performance data recurring (several asked that the economic snapshot slide be a standing update). Councilmembers asked staff to expand the LiveWork Corona pledges, continue retail outreach and present reverse-engineered data to identify which businesses local residents are currently leaving town to access. Staff described plans to score and prioritize the remaining action items in the plan, produce an implementation schedule and return with an updated action list. Staff also said they will consider additional, narrowly targeted incentives and will continue to coordinate with partners for workforce training and business support.
No formal council action was required; the council received the update and provided guidance to staff on outreach, downtown activation and data reporting.
