Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Economic Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Milwaukie business survey finds marketing, training and facade grants top needs; council to host roundtables
Summary
A city-run 2025 business survey of 252 respondents found shared marketing and promotion, training resources, and façade/tenant-improvement grants as top needs. Councilors directed staff to circulate slides, pursue targeted roundtables, and explore options for a license-funded revolving loan or fee adjustments.
Milwaukie economic-development staff presented results from a 2025 business survey that received 252 responses — roughly 28% of registered businesses — and showed broad neighborhood and sector representation.
"Shared marketing and promotion was number one," Economic Development Coordinator Sierra Fox told the council, saying training and façade/tenant-improvement grants followed. Fox said the ranking varied by business cohort: home-based and online firms prioritized different supports than restaurants or large employers.
The survey was run from mid‑December through January and asked about support programs, communications preferences, business challenges and licensing. Fox said roughly 20% of respondents identified as BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ businesses, and responses included firms with fewer than five employees up to businesses with more than 100 workers.
On communications, Fox said businesses most wanted information about events, collaboration and sponsorship opportunities and that restaurants and hospitality firms were especially interested in cross‑festivities and in‑kind sponsorships. She recommended council-hosted roundtables to clarify what "shared marketing" would look like in practice.
Councilors focused on near-term, low‑cost actions as well as policy changes. Councilor Khosroabadi proposed using business-license revenue to seed a revolving "rainy day" loan fund for firms facing shortfalls and floated loyalty or longevity fee reductions. "If businesses knew that those funds went to a revolving loan fund, they probably wouldn't be so inclined to push back on the fee," Khosroabadi said during the discussion.
Acting City Manager Joseph Breglio and council members urged staff to break out responses by cohort and geography to understand how needs differ by downtown, industrial and neighborhood businesses. Several councilors also urged making the survey results available to participants and starting quick pilots — for example, using existing marketing pilot resources to promote participating businesses.
Fox told the council staff will circulate the slide deck and follow up with proposed formats for roundtables and short‑term actions. The council identified April as a potential time to bring a more detailed implementation plan into a work session before final budget decisions.
The presentation flagged several persistent challenges for businesses: economic uncertainty, operating costs, and utility bills (Fox corrected an earlier slide to say 37% of respondents cited utilities as a burden, not 82%). Councilors asked staff to provide the annual revenue totals from the business‑license program so they can model options like a revolving loan fund, targeted fee waivers for home‑based or minority‑owned businesses, and modest marketing activations.
