Economic Development Board honors local businesses, health workers for pandemic survival
The Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County took a step toward a post-pandemic world this week with its annual meeting held online Nov. 17.
“Our mission is to grow high-wage jobs in Pierce County. And that hasn’t stopped because of the pandemic,” said board chairman Herb Simon during the Zoom presentation.
President and CEO Bruce Kendall told the virtual audience that among EDB’s work in the past year, “We pivoted to run the Working Washington Small Business emergency grant program with the state of Washington. We partnered with the Tacoma Pierce County Chamber to run exactly 100 Business info series webinars,” with those webinars attracting a wide audience of more than 100 on average each time.
The winners of the group’s Excellent 10 awards this year reflected a COVID pandemic theme of recovery. The awards serve as a roundup of notable economic projects from the past year that have helped boost Pierce County.
2021 Excellent 10 winners and EDB’s remarks on the selections:
▪ Marriott Tacoma Downtown Hotel: “Development of this project enables the Greater Tacoma Convention Center to host larger conventions that will result in opportunities to generate greater economic benefits to support and sustain businesses throughout our region.”
▪ Non-profit Ecosystem Business Support During COVID - Chambers, Tacoma Urban League, Korean Women’s Association, Asian Pacific Cultural Center, The Black Collective, Centro Latino: The entities “provided financial and technical assistance to thousands of businesses. Many of these firms are family-owned operations and are the bedrock of their communities.”
▪ Pierce County, City of Tacoma, City of Lakewood, Port of Tacoma and all other cities that provided financial, technical, and PPE relief for businesses and workers during Covid: “A few examples: Pierce County gave $46.5 million of funding to small businesses, including rent and mortgage assistance, operational loans and grants, COVID compliance grants, Personal Protective Equipment, direct purchase of local farm products for distribution to food deserts, and student financial aid. Plus, the Restaurant Rally supported hundreds of restaurants.”
▪ Pierce Transit COVID response: “Pierce Transit pivoted by converting buses into wi-fi hot spots, shifted to online outreach and open houses, formed a new volunteer partnership with Emergency Food Network’s Food Repack Project and Mother Earth Farm, and never skipped a day of service.”
▪ Retail and Restaurant Resiliency during COVID: “2020 was a year that most would love to likely forget, however, it was a year that showcased the resiliency of the industry.”
▪ Tacoma Public Utilities and PSE COVID Relief: “So far, between the two utilities more than $100 million has been provided to low-income households and mom and pop businesses.”
▪ Tacoma-Pierce Tech Success Stories: “A collaboration between the EDB, Startup253, and s2s Public Relations, the Tech Success Stories are highlighting the growth of the technology industry in Tacoma and Pierce County ... The series consists of 12 stories and will continue through December 2021.”
▪ Traffic Ave/State Route 410 Interchange: “Completed in November 2020, the improvements have increased capacity for motorized access to and across State Route 410 and completed a missing link in the non-motorized system in east Pierce County.”
▪ UW Tacoma’s New Milgard Hall: “Slated for opening in January 2023, Milgard Hall will be a home for innovation, where business and technology meet. ... The building will house elements of the Milgard School of Business, laboratory spaces to support the School of Engineering and Technology, expanded space for the Global Innovation and Design Lab, a High Impact Practices teaching space and general classrooms.”
▪ Washington State Fair Success During COVID: “The Fair led the way as the state reopened, as Washington’s single largest event and one of the first major events since the pandemic began.”
Its top award, the Golden Shovel Award, was given to South Sound health care workers. Mary Ragsdale from Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and Jim Beatty from MultiCare accepted the award.
Speakers at the annual meeting included Rachel Askew, head coach of NEXT, a South Sound business organizational culture consulting firm.
“Our organization is what’s next when you know better and you’re ready to do better,” she said. “And so we believe that removing barriers and beginning to change some of those systems that have historically and presently left our marginalized folks that are distant from power out. That is what equity means. That’s what equity does.”
Askew also serves as assistant director of the newly launched Pierce County Business Accelerator, created to boost local entrepreneurs and small-business owners with emphasis on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), veteran, and women-owned businesses.. She noted the active cohorts in training now with the PCBA’s expansion into Lakewood, connecting participants with mentors.
The keynote was delivered by author and urban studies theorist Richard Florida, who talked of Tacoma’s possible future in a world where urban office centers may become a thing of the past in light of pandemic-fueled change.
“Remote work empowers talent for the creative class and gives them many more choices in how to organize their lives,” he said. “And there is no return to old ways of living and working. So the crisis is an accelerator. It’s not a disrupter. It is a period of accelerating change, but it’s an acceleration of trends already underway, before the pandemic.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 1:26 PM.
