Title
Recommendation to Accept the Economic Development Status Update and Provide Feedback Regarding Economic Development Efforts and Activities. (Base Reuse and Economic Development 10061810) [Not heard on March 18, 2025]
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jennifer Ott, City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Economic Development status report provides an update on the City of Alameda's (City) economic development efforts over the past six months and outlines planned initiatives for the next six months, with a primary emphasis on the new Storefront Vacancy Assistance Program.
BACKGROUND
Staff provided an economic development update to the City Council in July 2024. At that point City Council directed staff to return with more details on the City's efforts to ensure the long-term vitality of the Downtown and West Alameda Business Districts, and in particular to proactively address chronic vacant storefronts. This report and presentation are an update on the first six months of the program transition as well as a look forward to the next six months.
DISCUSSION
Economic development staff are focused on achieving a program that meets the needs of existing businesses and puts forth a robust effort towards attraction of new businesses and new investment in the community. To meet these goals, staff repositioned the program to focus on four broad areas - business attraction, business retention, economic development technology and enhanced efforts to integrate Alameda Point into the broader Citywide program.
Area 1: Updated business attraction efforts
Staff is implementing new efforts aimed at attracting new companies and new investment in Alameda. This encompasses a range of efforts to help fill vacancies in the West Alameda/Downtown Business Districts and attract new companies to Alameda Point and Alameda's business parks. To date, the following updated efforts have been put in place:
Marketing and Promotion Efforts
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