What’s Developing Within Economic Development

Much progress has been made since our last update.  For those of you who were unable to attend the State of the City address, I have a little bad news, a little good news, and a lot of great news to share.

Lets get the bad news out of the way first.  You missed an incredible event.  Mayor Henry, Mayor Pro-Tem Pettis, Councilmembers Aguilar, Carnevale, and Kaplan described the accomplishments the City Council and City Staff have achieved over the few years.

Now, the good news.  You can watch the entire State of the City Address online. Simply go to: https://youtu.be/auUS7d6DEYI.  We are also in the process of putting the State of the City recording up on our new www.ccedd.org website.

Now for a quick summary of the great news:

• $100,000,000 has been, and soon will be invested in the City’s infrastructure in order to make our roads and bridges safer and smoother;
• The very first portion of the exciting new CV Link multi-purpose trail has been completed in our City;
• Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is making progress on their plans for a new Downtown Cathedral City Casino;
• CV Repertory Theater’s purchase of the Desert Cinemas theater, and the renovations which are already underway;
• The progress we are making on two new hotels, and one new commercial project within Downtown;
• The anticipated groundbreaking in June 2018 2.5 acre, $3m Downtown Amphitheater;
• The hiring of a new Fire Battalion Chief, nine additional Firefighters/Paramedics, two additional Police Officers, one additional Code Enforcement Officer, and one additional Assistant Planner. With these additions to the Fire Department, each fire engine will now deploy on all calls with three firefighter/paramedics. This allows the fire engine first on scene of a structure fire to make immediate entry in order to begin saving lives without having to wait for additional units (a current OSHA mandate for all two-person fire engines);
• A cumulative drop in Part 1 crime of 54% since 2011;
• The fact that Cathedral City remains one of the safest cities in the Coachella Valley and has less than 7-minute response time to priority calls thanks to our dedicated Police Department;
• The $17m renovation of the Doubletree Hotel and Resort; and
• The construction of the $12m Staybridge Hotel.

Because there are so many more successes and developments, you really need to watch the full video online to completely understand.

Rather than taking a rest and celebrating these wins, the City Council and City Staff remain hard at work in order to build on our momentum. Just last night, the Economic Development Department rolled out the City’s new Economic Development Strategic Plan. This plan lays out how the Economic Development Department plans on achieving a number of goals for the City. Two of the biggest goals include:

1) Attracting new business, new development, and new investment to the City; and

2) Help support, grow, and retain the existing businesses.

Despite the Economic Development Department only having two full-time professionals on staff, our Department will achieve these goals by strengthening and leveraging strategic partnerships, and focusing on a combination of both near-term and long-term goals.  In subsequent articles we will go into more detail as to how we are contributing to our businesses, improving our economy, and, most importantly, improving the knowledge base of our community members.

Since knowledge is power, please routinely visit and bookmark our new Economic Development website http://www.ccedd.org/. On this website we offer a number of resources, to include information on the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership’s (“CVEP”) and the Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) monthly bilingual workshops. These professional workshops discuss a variety of topics on both business and professional development.  The classes are offered beginning at 6pm on the second Thursday of each month, and are held at the Palm Springs Motors dealership. More information is available on our ccedd.org website. You can also check CVEP’s website (http://cvep.com/), as well as SBA’s website (https://www.sba.gov/) for other valuable 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.  Furthermore, 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, we need the community’s commitment to properly maintain residential and commercial properties. Routine maintenance lets others know the respect and appreciation we have for ourselves, our neighbors, and our community.  Property appearance is an important “selling point” when prospective homebuyers, businesses owners, and developers tour our City looking for the “perfect” location.

Please share with your friends and contacts the City’s dedicated websites www.DiscoverCathedralCity.com and www.ccedd.org 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!