Terabyte Triangle Gets Marketing Boost

The dream of downtown Spokane becoming a high-tech corridor — attracting new businesses and boosting the local economy and real estate markets in the process — remains a work in progress.

Since Steve Simmons, a computer science professor at Eastern Washington University, revealed his “Terabyte Triangle” vision three years ago to the business community, the Triangle effort has functioned more like a social gathering than a structured organization.

Triangle backers, including the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce and the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI), have never launched a marketing campaign or trademarked the Terabyte Triangle name. And for a pitch that’s suppose to be aimed at technology-savvy firms, the Triangle has no Web site.

In an attempt to give the Triangle more structure, business leaders now plan to make it a non-profit entity under the auspices of the Downtown Spokane Partnership.

The move, which those involved view as a big step forward, would allow the Triangle group to raise money for promotions. A top goal is to attract to downtown local companies needing high-tech office space and companies outside the area looking to move into a low-cost environment outfitted with high-speed networking equipment.

The rough draft business plan, written by Michael Edwards, president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, calls for raising $50,000 by December, so marketing can begin next year.

“In future years,” the plan reads, “additional funding will be provided by a partnership of the DSP, SIRTI, private property owners, the City of Spokane and technology industries.”

The Triangle’s business arm will be called the Downtown Spokane Development Corp., which will also focus on retail development.

Edwards’ draft proposal was approved by a loosely organized Triangle committee during an afternoon meeting Friday.

“We need to move this (Triangle) thing out of academia and into real-estate development,” said Edwards.

Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, added, “It needs to be part of a bigger plan where it has consistent support for marketing.”

Under the streets of downtown Spokane, miles of fiber-optic lines already have been installed.

The fiber optic wires, which can transmit most any volume of data without delay, are demanded by companies that pass large amounts of information between offices or are dependent on the Internet and high-speed communication.

Fiber optic networks, installed by GST, Nextlink, Electric Lightwave, Avista Fiber and U S West are the crux of the Triangle, since they meet the needs of cutting edge companies that local business leaders want to lure downtown.

The so-called Triangle region generally extends from the Riverpoint Higher Education Park west to Browne’s Addition and north to the Spokane Arena district.

However, fiber optic services reach beyond those boundaries.

Since no formal counting system is in place, it’s unknown how many companies have moved downtown for its fiber-optic offerings.

Anecdotal evidence does highlight the importance of fiber optics to some companies that work here.

Tom Power, manager of the Fernwell Building at 505 W. Riverside, said that building has 40 tenants, some of which would not have moved in or stayed without the building being “wired.”

One such tenant is RealResume Corp., a Spokane start-up that handles online resume work for clients around the country.

Roy Massena, RealResume’s president, said, “Having a high-capacity Internet connection was massively important to us.”

RealResume, formerly Skillnet, financially backed efforts to bring fiber optics to the Fernwell in 1997. The company employs five, Massena said.

Another Fernwell occupant, Pacific West Internet, has three different fiber optic links running into its office suite.

“It had to be here or we weren’t going to be,” Darrell McDowell, company president, said of the connection.

And Bill Dixon, district manager of SJI Productive Networks, also in the Fernwell, added: “I did come here for a specific reason, and that’s because it had a ready Internet connection. All I had to do was plug into the wall.”

While the Fernwell Building was on the leading edge of embracing Triangle concepts, other office spaces, including the Holley-Mason Building, Steamplant Square and the U.S. Bank Building, offer fiber optic hookups.

Two studies will be commissioned by Terabyte Triangle organizers.

One will take inventory of what the Triangle’s assets include. The other study will compare fiber optic services in Spokane with what’s available in other cities.

Edwards of the Downtown Spokane Partnership said fiber-optic networks here are comparable to other metropolitan centers.

Where Spokane holds a competitive advantage, said Edwards, is in cost.

“The concept is not new … you can get all these things (high-speed services) in Seattle, but Seattle’s also $40 a square foot,” he said. Class A office space in downtown Spokane costs $17 to $20 a square foot.