With up to $25 million in state funding now secure, the City of Puyallup is ready to move forward with its economic revitalization plan.
Puyallup was named a recipient of a state Local Infrastructure Financing Tool grant Tuesday, following a clerical mix-up that originally awarded grants to the City of Vancouver and Whitman County.
Puyallup’s plan focuses on attracting new, high-tech jobs with improved telecommunications lines and a rapid transit system connecting downtown Puyallup and South Hill.
City officials are now meeting with developers to plan mixed-use projects capitalizing on the $1 million a year the city will receive for the next 25 years.
“We started this morning,” City Manager Gary McLean said Wednesday. “We’re putting teams of people together and talking with our partners and developers.”
The LIFT grant program returns a share of a city’s sales tax revenue to the city to help fund new infrastructure. The board that distributes the money anticipates those improvements will pay for the grant over time because they will spur development and generate tax revenue.
As part of its plans, Puyallup is looking to turn several lots it owns downtown into transit-oriented development projects or mixed-use condominium buildings.
Some of those projects might be parking facilities to serve downtown businesses and commuters who use Puyallup’s Sound Transit station, McLean said.
The city probably won’t receive any of the LIFT grant funds until 2010, he said. Until then, it will design and plan the projects.
Identifying potential developers is what city officials will focus on during the next few weeks, McLean said.
The state Community Economic Revitalization Board awarded $2.5 million in LIFT grants to three cities this year: Puyallup; Mount Vernon, Skagit County; and Yakima.
A total of 21 city and county governments applied, including those of Tacoma and University Place.
State rules prohibit the board from awarding more than one grant per county, and board members thought Puyallup’s proposal was superior to the other two Pierce County cities, chairman Tom Trulove said Wednesday.
“In terms of the overall economic health and vitality in the community that would be created by the project, Puyallup scored very highly on that,” Trulove said.
The board also thought Puyallup’s ideas would create more jobs.
The board estimated that Puyallup’s plan would bring in an estimated $910 million in private investment, resulting in 8,600 jobs and more than $499 million in additional state tax revenue.
Through property, infrastructure and other investments, the city pledges to contribute about $101 million to the LIFT plan.
“It’s going to benefit not only the City of Puyallup, but also any businesses that want to come to Puyallup,” Mayor Don Malloy said. “It’s going to bring us into the 21st century and to the forefront of many other communities.”
But Puyallup officials weren’t celebrating at first.
The Community Economic Revitalization Board announced in error last week that Vancouver and Whitman County would each receive a LIFT grant of $500,000 per year. The board rescinded those awards Monday after discovering an error in how the scores were entered into the computer. Vancouver’s score of 8 in one category was entered as 88, causing the city’s proposal to mistakenly rise to the top.
Puyallup came out ahead after the error was corrected. The amount it will receive equals the combined total of what Vancouver and Whitman County had requested.
Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058
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