Spaceworks Fills Vacant Retail
Vacant storefronts don’t promote development and growth, Spaceworks manager Heather Joy tells us, so one way to fill them is to target small, creative tenants with rental incentives. Recently, four businesses, all local, opened at Spaceworks’ latest redevelopment, a 5,000 SF property on MLK Way in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood (above): a t-shirt shop, two art galleries, and an entertainment production company. A trial period allows the businesses six months' free rent through the Spaceworks program; afterwards, they usually become rent-paying tenants. Launched in 2010 as partnership between City of Tacoma and Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Spaceworks has worked with more than 150 entrepreneurs and artists to create 31 new sites for business and art in Tacoma.
