Tax Raises $645,000 To Promote Downtown

The Downtown Spokane Partnership wants the 1,100 business and property owners in the city’s core to know how their money was used in 1997 and where it will go in 1998.

The nonprofit organization that taxes its members to pay for improvements and marketing for downtown Spokane collected $645,000 from its ratepayers in 1997, 41 percent of the partnership’s budget. Additional money comes from contributions, a parking program and a contract with the city.

In 1998, the partnership expects to collect $666,833 from its ratepayers. The 3 percent increase is due to new businesses moving downtown and improvements made to current businesses, resulting in higher assessments, said Karen Valvano, the partnership’s president.

Last year, that money helped buy 300 television, radio, newspaper and magazine ads that promoted downtown Spokane as the place to shop, eat and have fun.

It helped pay for 213 banners that decorate and promote downtown, 25,000 shopping and dining guides and 13 summer concerts on Wall Street. The money helped create and pay distribution costs for 200,000 copies of “Destination Downtown,” a full-color tabloid promoting shopping, dining and entertainment.

“It’s exciting to have those real tangible returns. You can’t argue with numbers,” said Marketing Director Annie Matlow, after the group’s annual meeting Tuesday.

The partnership’s security team helped to make downtown safer, escorting 500 workers to their cars, responding to 2,500 calls for assistance and providing information to 9,000 workers and customers.

The organization’s cleaning crew picked up 5,000 bags of litter, shoveled tons of ice and snow and removed 200 pieces of graffiti, most within 24 hours of notification.

About 80 downtown businesses participated in Easy Pass, a program that offers parking validation or bus tickets to downtown customers. Businesses pay 90 cents for each parking validation and 40 cents for each bus pass. The partnership subsidizes the rest. Last year 400,000 downtown customers used the program.

In 1998, the partnership will expand its approach. It will continue to promote safety, cleanliness and accessibility, and pursue new goals.

It will work with the city to develop a comprehensive Downtown Development Plan, replacing the current, 40-year-old plan.

It will focus on business development, working with real estate professionals and economic development organizations to generate jobs and recruit businesses.

And the partnership plans to publicly promote projects benefiting downtown, such as the planned Convention Center expansion.

“You’ll see us out there as an advocate a lot more,” Valvano said.

Charles Royer, former mayor of Seattle and an advocate of downtown revitalization, applauded Spokane’s progress during his keynote speech at the annual meeting. A strong downtown, Royer said, has retail, historic buildings, museums, parks and lots of housing.

Royer encouraged Spokane to continue its efforts to build housing downtown. In Seattle in 1978, 5,000 people lived downtown, Royer said. Today, more than 20,000 people live there. People making $100,000 per year live near low-income senior citizens and struggling artists. Downtown residents, he said, take responsibility for where they live.

“It’s not the neighborhoods vs. downtown,” Royer said. “Downtown is a neighborhood.”

, DataTimes