The plan for Seattle’s economic recovery from the pandemic includes small and minority owned businesses, according to the latest update.
Seattle’s Office of Economic Development has a number of work groups focused on different areas, like help for businesses navigating permits and other city offices or securing affordable business loans, especially since minority businesses often face bigger hurdles.
So O.E.D. director, Markham McIntyre, tells a city council members they’re working to make sure that help is interconnected, but he says access to the economy is “paramount”. “We’ve got a very dynamic economy,” McIntyre says, “but knowing that not everyone has had the same level of access or opportunity within it is something we need to level set for.”
McIntyre says one thing they hear often from business owners is that they need workers – often skilled workers – but he says there’s one area that can keep people out of the workforce. McIntyre says, “As we think about barriers to people participating [in] or having access to the workforce, child care is a hugely important one.” He says that’s especially true as they work through the Downtown Activation Plan, which includes trying to attract more workers back downtown with access to both child care and new schools in an area where the space to operate them is more expensive.
Some city programs are not only designed to help minority and female-owned businesses to succeed but to become neighborhood institutions.
There are a number of services offered by the city’s Office of Economic Development to help business owners who might be great at what they do, but they don’t always know how to navigate Seattle’s rules and requirements. Many of the programs involve helping businesses to grow in ways they can afford.
Heidi Hall with O.E.D. tells the city council’s Economic Development Committee about a fund that purchases street level commercial space in mixed use buildings, which allows businesses to pay below-market rent and keep lease payments flat long-term. “So the business owners occupancy costs stay consistent while rents around them may be increasing,” Hall says, “and this ownership model allows for greater stability and control of their commercial space, security from being displaced and long-term affordability for the community.” Hall says creating long-term business affordability in often-left out neighborhoods allows the owners to keep investing in their business – and ultimately build something they can pass on to future generations.
