Economic vitality update: staff reports falling downtown retail vacancy, flags rising office vacancy

City economic development staff presented the Downtown Committee with a year‑two update on the city’s economic vitality strategy, reporting measurable improvements in retail occupancy but flagging concerns about office vacancy.

Amanda Rotell, economic vitality manager, said staff had reported the update to City Council on May 26 and highlighted metrics the committee requested. "Downtown retail vacancy has continued to decline. So we went from 8.5 and we are down into 6.1," she said. Rotell also noted that downtown year‑over‑year sales tax moved from -8.5% to about 10% in the latest comparable quarter, crediting openings of new downtown businesses and category‑specific service growth.

Committee members pressed staff on how to present ongoing programs and metrics to City Council. Peter asked whether the reporting format could better capture ongoing work versus discrete projects; Rotell said staff groups continuing activities as an ‘ongoing’ bucket while tracking in‑progress and completed items for council reporting.

Rotell identified growing office vacancy as an area of concern that will be part of the year‑three work plan: recent corporate moves and acquisitions have led to increased office availability downtown, and staff will study strategies to address that inventory.

The committee asked for continued metric reporting, including new measures requested by council (for example, industrial zoning reporting next year), and asked staff to include clear summaries of results in business newsletters and outreach to make the impact of the strategy more visible to local business owners and residents.

Staff provided metrics in the staff report referenced at the meeting; committee members requested that staff continue to publish clear, periodic updates tying program activities to measurable outcomes.