Verano

What’s Developing Within Economic Development

A lot has gone on within the Economic Development Department since our last update! It is this activity, energy, and diversity of activities which makes our department an exciting place to work. Below is a brief update on several important initiatives:

1. HOUSING, HOUSING, AND MORE HOUSING!: GHA Communities’ District at the Edge has successfully sold! With such strong demand and positive customer feedback, GHA is already coming out of the ground with their District East project. I just heard one of the homes within District East just resold for $850,000! DR Horton, America’s largest home builder, just closed escrow on approximately 100 lots within the Verano Masterplan located in North Cathedral City. DR Horton will be bringing their national expertise to building well-design homes at affordable prices in a community with a refreshing new-urbanism land plan. Another great addition to our community will be provided by the Rilington Group. Voted 2006 Coachella Valley Builder of the Year Mickie Riley and his team will bring experience, passion, and a commitment to crafting thoughtfully designed and well-built homes within the Rio Del Sol community.

2. CONTINUALLY UPDATED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WEBSITE: Stay abreast of the latest events, learn about our great City, and find important development facts by visiting and bookmarking http://www.ccedd.org/.

3. AGUA CALIENTE DOWNTOWN CATHEDRAL CITY CASINO: The casino is still on track! The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians are still working their way through the fee simple to tribal trust application process. The Tribe believes they will complete this Federal process in the early to mid-part of 2019. The current site plan still contemplates a 60,000 square foot casino consisting of 500 slot machines in 40,000 square feet of gaming space; 5,000 square feet of restaurant space; and 2,500 square feet of retail space. Given the Tribe’s success in Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage with two luxury destination-style casino resorts, we know the Tribe will deliver another first-class development!

4. BOB HOPE CROSSING: The developer is hoping to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first few commercial pads before the end of the year. This 9-acre property will offer travelers a variety of services including a 100+ room Best Western Plus hotel, AM/PM gas station, Starbucks, McDonalds, and several high-quality quick-serve restaurants. This project will be a great way to welcome visitors into our City and generate much needed revenue.

5. SUNNIVA: Construction on the Sunniva project is well under way! This $54m project is located on the south side of Ramon Road east of Date Palm Drive will be approximately 500,000 square feet at build out and provide 175 to 200 well paying full-time jobs.

6. HIRE LOCAL PROGRAM: Leisa Lukes continues working closely with City Council to implement a “Hire Local” program. This program promotes major new businesses to offer all jobs to Cathedral City residents first, before opening the same opportunities to the rest of the Valley. The City and the Council are working hard to not only attract new businesses, but ensure our residents are given first opportunity to land that great new position.

7. DOWNTOWN CATHEDRAL CITY: Truly exciting things are happening in Downtown Cathedral City. Recent or pending developments within Downtown include: (i) the casino planning process is underway; (ii) ground breaking will occur in early 2019 on the nearly $4m downtown amphitheater (located adjacent the parking structure); (iii) CV Rep Theater is selling tickets for their first performance in their new theater! “Chess” is scheduled to open on March 13, 2019. You can learn more and buy tickets by clicking here.

8. CVEP, SBA, & CATHEDRAL CITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP: The Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (“CVEP”) and the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) have partnered to provide free monthly bilingual workshops on a variety of business and professional development related topics. A class is being held tonight at 6pm at the Palm Springs Motors dealership. Times, dates, and program topics are available on our new Economic Development website (http://www.ccedd.org/). Be sure to check the City’s economic development website, CVEP’s (http://cvep.com/), and SBA’s (https://www.sba.gov/) website for other valuable and free or low-cost services.

In future communications, we will keep you abreast of new real estate developments, resources, and other opportunities that will improve the City’s quality of life, property values, and economic activity. All Cathedral City residents can help accelerate our economic development by making a commitment to “buy local” whenever possible and encouraging out-of-town guests to stay in one of our several hotels. It makes economic “cents” for you to keep your tax dollars within the City and help fund local community services and programs. Further, there is no better testimonial for attracting future new businesses than to make sure that our existing businesses are prosperous examples for other potentially interested enterprises to follow.

Also, making a special effort to properly maintain your own properties (whether residential or commercial) shows pride in our community. This is another important “selling point” when prospective businesses, commercial real estate agents, and developers tour our City scouting out future business opportunities.

Please share with your friends and contacts the City’s dedicated website www.DiscoverCathedralCity.com which highlights many of our community attributes. As a team, we all play a part in the long-term success of the place in which we love to live, work, play and stay!

Dr. Stone James

View posts by Dr. Stone James
Economic Development Director City of Cathedral City 68700 Av. Lalo Guerrero, Cathedral City, CA 92234 Direct: 760-770-0336 | Mobile 760-219-7227 Office Fax: 760-321-4509 www.cathedralCity.gov sjames@cathedralcity.gov
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