Donna Wendt
Abstract:
In January, 1999, the City of Tacoma published an Internet site designed to promote development in downtown Tacoma. Called TacomaSpace.com, it provides available property information for potential businesses and developers. The site uses ArcView IMS (Internet Map Server) with Java and customized HTML. TacomaSpace.com links to Internet yellow page sites that provide business and census data, keeping data maintenance efforts to a minimum.
Some of the data are updated by the business owners themselves, making this a public/private cooperative project. The partnership includes the Local Development Council, the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County, and the City of Tacoma. TacomaSpace.com, an effective low-budget project, was implemented in a relatively short period of time. It leverages basic Geographic Information System (GIS) data into an effective marketing tool for benefit to both the public and government.
The City of Tacoma is using "outcome measurements" in Economic Development. Feedback will be used to track the positive effect of TacomaSpace.com on development and new businesses.
This paper was presented on July 29th, 1999.
Background of the TacomaSpace.com Project:
TacomaSpace.com (http://www.TacomaSpace.com) is a multiple listing service for commercial properties in downtown Tacoma. One of many strategies to promote economic development in the City of Tacoma, it provides available property information for potential businesses and developers. Tacoma’s downtown is the first focus area for TacomaSpace.com. The downtown area is currently undergoing much building and development activity as a result of combined efforts from the City of Tacoma, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, the Local Development Council, and the Economic Development Board. Investment, business, and housing are on the increase, and violent crime has been virtually eliminated in this area. Prices for office space are very competitive with the higher prices seen in the Seattle-King County market to the north. The downtown area is known for it’s entertainment and theater district. Evenings are buzzing with people going to live theater, concerts, dining, and dancing.
This photo of Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma was taken at the start of the Great Race, an annual cross country rally of vintage automobiles. The buildings on the left are the historic Union Station and the Washington State Historical Museum.
An example of the economic expansion in downtown Tacoma, the University of Washington Tacoma campus shown above is an addition that has brought more people and activity to this area.
TacomaSpace.com provides interactive type-of-space and mapping query for the BIA (Business Improvement Area), which is 84 blocks of downtown Tacoma, plus the Thea Foss Waterway properties, adjacent to the BIA. Soon to be added will be the remaining business districts in Tacoma. The project is a public/private partnership of the Local Development Council (LDC), the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Board (EDB), and the City of Tacoma. The LDC is a group of businesses in the Business Improvement Area that "self-tax" to provide services such as additional security officers and street sweeping in the downtown. They provide $15,000 a year towards the collection and maintenance of the TacomaSpace.com listing data, which is coordinated out of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce. Once the data is collected into a Microsoft Access database, it is delivered to the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Economic Development Department, for loading into the web site. The City posts the data and maintains the web site along with city mapping layers such as zoning and streets. The EDB (Economic Development Board) provided the startup data and does regional economic development coordination.
In part through the joint efforts of all of the above agencies, TacomaSpace.com is a low-budget "efficiency" site. An existing 266 MHz PC houses ArcView and ArcView Internet Map Server (IMS). The application uses the IMS Map Café and custom Java, which was learned on the job. The site is part of Tacoma’s city web page, so no additional Internet servers were needed. The listing data is provided by the businesses, and the rest of the data is part of Tacoma Economic Development’s existing GIS. To minimize the work of data collection and maintenance, TacomaSpace.com has links to other key sites, including Yahoo’s business locations, Pierce County GIS, and the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer.
A key technical decision in the designing of TacomaSpace.com was whether to use ArcView IMS (Internet Map Server) or MO (Map Objects), both supplied by Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute, the company that supplies the GIS software used in Tacoma Economic Development Department, TEDD). Because the GIS staff in TEDD had not yet taken the Visual Basic programming training with MO, but they were proficient in ArcView, ArcView IMS was chosen. This enabled the site to be planned and posted in a relatively short period of time, three months of development, with a minimal amount of programming. Most of that time was not coding, but rather careful site planning and design which involved economists and Internet personnel from the City of Tacoma. Careful testing of the site was done to be sure that multiple versions of different browsers, PCs, and Macintoshes would all work. The intent was to reach as much of the public as possible.
Special recognition should be given to the City of Vallejo, California, whose Internet site also uses ArcView IMS. This site, http://209.21.13.19/sites/Vallejo/Maproom.html, was confirmation that the software, ArcView IMS, would be suitable for the TacomaSpace.com site.
The display of parking spaces is one of the site’s highlights. According to one of the city’s economists, "parking is everything" next to "location, location, location" in the siting of a new business. When looking at a specific site, the prospective business owner can enter the radius of a circle around that location to see the parking spaces both mapped and totaled by the number of public and private parking spaces.
TacomaSpace.com was posted in January 1999, but has already realized some kudos. Favorable recognition has been given from the City Council, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, and The News Tribune, the primary newspaper in Tacoma. The site will be used as one of the examples in a presentation to a national association of governors in August 1999, by Esri. TacomaSpace.com is a finalist for a national economic development award to be announced in October 1999.
Outcome measurements will be used to evaluate the impact of TacomaSpace.com. The ultimate goal is to promote economic development. The following measurable outcomes are indicators of progress toward that goal:
How the TacomaSpace.com Site Works:
The developer/programmer of this site is Mike Murnane (mmurnane@ci.tacoma.wa.us), Senior GIS Analyst for the Tacoma Economic Development Department. He has provided the following screen shots of TacomaSpace.com.
Opening pages of TacomaSpace.com.
The "Find Listings" button brings up these dialog boxes to choose the size, price, and
type of space. The prospective business owner chooses an address to examine and zoom to on the map.
Building and space information is displayed when a specific address is chosen.
More site information from the right frame. Links show the assessor’s parcel data, the Pierce County GIS map and nearby businesses, information about services from Tacoma Economic Development Department, and the Yahoo site of nearby businesses by business category. These external sites are not pictured in this paper.
The "Find Address" button zooms in to a specific site.
Query-an-area report for a specific address.
Chosen area with a radius of 300 feet.
Demographic data from an area report.
Conclusions:
TacomaSpace.com is being used increasingly by real estate brokers and developers as a tool for finding available commercial space in Tacoma. After the first six months of operations, indications are that this is a popular and useful Internet site. It has been stable and dependable. Feedback from Internet users of all backgrounds reveals that the site is intuitive enough to use without any special coaching or training.
Future plans for ongoing development of this site include adding the rest of Tacoma’s business districts and adding information, maps, links, and data that will help a new business owner’s family relocate to Tacoma. This, with the cost-effective reasons for locating a business in Tacoma, will complete the information needed by prospective business owners.
About the Author:
Donna Wendt, Senior Technical GIS Analyst, City of Tacoma, Tacoma Economic Development Department
email: dwendt@ci.tacoma.wa.us
Address: 747 Market Street, Suite 900
Tacoma, WA 98402
Phone:(253) 591-2052, FAX: (253) 591-5232