Tacoma's downtown is enjoying an astounding rebirth! Major projects like the Tacoma Art Museum's headquarters and the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center have transformed the city's skyline. The first segment of regional light rail links the traditional financial center to the Tacoma Dome area. Several private developers are completing projects adding more than 1000 new residences to the urban center. New retailers are lining up to get in on the action, including El Gaucho, South Sound Running, and The Melting Pot.

Destination Downtown
In 2001, stakeholders in Tacoma's downtown helped forge Destination Downtown, the portion of the City's Comprehensive Plan that provides guidance for revitalization of the urban center. Destination Downtown articulates the following vision for Tacoma's city center over the next two decades:

Downtown Tacoma will...

• Be a major urban center within the Puget Sound region;
• Offer a compact concentration of employment, shopping, educational institutions, entertainment and housing;
• Be served by a variety of choices in transportation including walking, rail transit, automobile and bicycles;
• Have a safe, convenient, lively and attractive 24-hour environment;
• Provide places to live for various types of households with widely varying income levels;
• Have many forms of publicly accessible open space, such as parks, plazas, waterfront esplanades, tree-lined streets and community gardens;
• Build upon its rich collection of handsome, historic buildings to create an environment of distinctive character and quality;
• Be a regional destination for artistic, cultural and visitor attractions.

Local Development Council (LDC) of Tacoma The Local Development Council of Tacoma (LDC), a private, not-for-profit corporation with a 501(c)(4) status. The LDC is composed of ratepayers and business people from the 84-block area wherein properties are assessed for the BIA (click here for a map of the current boundaries). What is the BIA? See Map Downtown Tacoma's Business Improvement Area (BIA) was formed in 1988 to provide additional security, maintenance and marketing services for the city's primary commercial area.

Since that time, the district successfully reduced crime, improved perceptions of personal safety and added sparkle to City Center's streets and sidewalks. It has also operated a business recruitment program and is currently providing general leasing assistance, including development of a "cutting edge" Internet program to market BIA properties in cooperation with the Economic Development Board and the City of Tacoma.

The BIA program has been prudently managed over its fifteen-year history, with current assessments totaling only about half their initial cost (when adjusted for inflation). In 1998, property owners in the area voted to renew the district for another ten-year period.

Blue Ribbon Serice: The mission of the Local Development Council of Tacoma (LDC) is to provide common services for property owners in the business improvement area (BIA), as well as to be an advocate for the general economic well being of downtown properties.

The LDC will provide services in three areas in such a manner as to meet or exceed standards established for each:

Common Area Maintenance: The LDC will clean sidewalks and other common areas throughout the BIA at least once per week. Higher traffic areas will be cleaned at least twice per week.

Security: The LDC will provide community service representative (CSR) patrols through every block within the BIA at least once per day. Radio-directed patrols will be available on call each day from 12 Noon to 11:00 p.m. at a minimum. Services will be coordinated with police and other public safety agencies to provide maximum flexibility in response to BIA needs.

Marketing: As part of its 11% increase in expenditures this year, the LDC will be asking its ratepayers to approve an expanded role in marketing downtown Tacoma.

Currently, the LDC assists local real estate professionals to identify and secure new leasing opportunities, provide timely information for potential lessors and lessees and assist in maintaining healthy occupancy in downtown properties via an awarding-winning web site: TacomaSpace .

The LDC will manage its programs in such a manner that operating efficiency and input from customers (i.e., BIA ratepayers) are given the highest priority at all times.

OVERSIGHT As part of its BIA oversight activities, the LDC Board of Directors meet monthly and is responsible for addressing ratepayer concerns, monitoring activities and developing an annual program, rates, and budget which is submitted to the City Council for review and approval. Three committees (Marketing, Maintenance, and Security) report to the Board. They make recommendations, monitor activities, and coordinate with other entities (e.g. various City departments, other parties involved in security in the downtown, Safe Streets, etc.)

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce has a management contract to provide management and administrative services; the LDC is audited annually, currently by Johnson, Stone & Pagano.