Economic development staff highlight jobs, business-support pilots in quarterly update

Interim Community and Economic Development Director Debbie Beamer told the Economic Development Committee on May 12 that the department’s first-quarter work focused on four objectives — housing and real estate development, job creation and economy, placemaking and cultural vitality, and community engagement and partnerships — and that staff have moved several pilot projects from planning toward implementation.

Beamer said the arts-and-culture funding program Tacoma Creates drew 81 applications in the first quarter and that “almost all of those applications received some funding,” a sign, she told the committee, that the program provides community access and stability for nonprofits and the cultural sector.

The presentation highlighted a pilot to repurpose post-consumer glass with Hilltop Artists using material from Environmental Services and 1% for Arts funding. Beamer said the project’s long-term goal is “to provide a local reuse pathway for this post consumer glass collected from Tacoma area businesses and households and divert the glass to another use,” adding that the pilot will support public engagement and produce works for the city’s municipal art collection.

Carol Wolfe, manager of business services and workforce partnerships, described expanded outreach across commercial corridors, workshops for small businesses (including how to contract with the city and OMWBE certification), and a fiscal/administrative capacity-building pilot with Tacoma Neighborhoods Together (TNT). Wolfe said TNT was formed in the early 2000s as a fiscal sponsor for business associations and is being piloted to help associations steward public funds and manage compliance.

Wolfe and Beamer held up TNT Traffic Control as an example of city contracting that supported business growth: staff said the city has paid the company more than $1.2 million to date, and that the firm has secured a citywide contract to provide traffic-control services through 2027.

The committee heard numerical metrics for other programs: staff reported 97 business visits across six corridors (including first-time visits to four corridors), 128 businesses served through technical-assistance workshops, $49,000 in stipends tied to workforce programming, 99 participating students in training programs, 45 participants completing a green-jobs training cohort that led to about 27 job placements, and four projects closed this quarter representing $7.8 million in realized investment and 70 new jobs. Beamer also described an active pipeline staff estimated at about $800 million in potential investment and roughly 925 potential jobs; staff characterized those pipeline figures as prospective and work in progress.

On real-estate work, staff described efforts to reactivate the long-vacant Lincoln Hardware building: a local business owner purchased the property and is working with staff on tenant-improvement financing to open a restaurant and community club, and staff used a rapid-response mural program to reduce graffiti while the building is repurposed.

Committee members asked how the TNT pilot will change the business-district engagement model and whether the city can help legacy businesses with succession planning. Wolfe said staff plan to move business-association engagement to a quarterly meeting schedule, provide targeted programming of interest to associations, and expand playbooks and administrative support so volunteers and small associations can manage public funding and events more easily. Beamer said code updates are expected in 2027 that will further define program roles and expectations.

No formal policy votes were taken on the items presented. Staff offered to return with additional details and to bring the arts-related plan back to the committee for review before formal adoption.