In 2025, the Economic Development Team advanced its mission to keep Rainier Beach a clean, safe, and vibrant place for everyone by supporting small-business retention, reducing neighborhood vacancies, increasing stakeholder engagement, and exploring BIA formation as a place-based economic strategy. During 2025, we completed 472 engagements with small businesses, delivering capacity building (40.6%), access to capital (32.6%), and technical assistance (26.8%) to support business growth & retention, strengthen operations, and improve financial access. Finally, for our mobile business-vending pilot initiative, the GigKart was leased 22 times and used by five local culinary businesses to increase their revenue.

We successfully launched roundtables to deepen public discussion and community action for all four (4) of our growth management areas. Our monthly Transportation & Land Use Roundtable focused on monitoring the implementation of Transportation Levy initiatives, the redevelopment of Rainier Beach Light Rail Station, and improving pedestrian safety. Our monthly Economic Development Roundtable (EDR) engaged in stakeholder conversations to garner support for forming a Business Improvement Area (BIA) in Rainier Beach; successfully conducted a Retail Study to manage vacancies with the Office of Economic Development (OED); and hosted a graduation for 90 Black-Owned businesses at our 2nd Annual Walk the Block Party in honor of Small Business Month.

The EDR hosted 163 attendees in 2025, including business owners, residents, and our partners. We provided technical assistance, financial resources, and discussions about issues shaping equitable economic opportunity. The Housing Roundtable, in partnership with the Black Home Initiative, hosted an Access to Housing Town Hall, launched an ongoing Homebuyer Preparedness workshop, and successfully hosted its first Women in Construction Fair. The newly formed Arts and Culture Roundtable hosted its first Arts Walk on Mapes Creek Walkway in partnership with Cascadia Poetics Lab and booked several visual and performing artists for the Annual Block Party.

Our monthly placemaking activities at the Rainier Beach Light Rail Station resulted in three community-centered events that reimagined the station area as a place for vibrancy and local entrepreneurship. We also hosted the 2nd Annual Rainier Beach Walk the Block event, which had 75 small businesses participating as vendors in celebration of National Small Business Month. Our ‘FIFA’ Video Game Tournament and Futsal Event, in collaboration with various community partners, served approximately 100 youth and families and earned media coverage in two publications: Seattle Medium and the South Seattle Emerald.

Our team invested 210 hours developing and implementing long-range growth management strategies in response to increased density growth projections. Exploring the feasibility of a Business Improvement Area (BIA) will help us offset escalating expenses for clean and safe services as the population grows. A second strategy was participating in the City of Seattle’s Retail Study to keep vacant commercial spaces occupied. Finally, we successfully released our monthly Rainier Beach Business District Neighborhood Update newsletter to keep the public informed of anticipated changes in all four of our growth management areas.

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