Good morning and welcome to the April 8th, 2026 Economic Development and Arts Subcommittee meeting.

I'd like to call the meeting to order at 10.05.

And then I will turn to our city attorney Dave Benton to explain public comment.

Morning, Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee.

During citizen comment, members of the public may have address the subcommittee for up to three minutes on issues of interest or concern to them.

These issues being addressed, however, must be subject matters that fall within the jurisdiction of City.

The Arizona open meeting law permits subcommittee members to listen to the comments or prohibit members from discussing your acting on the matters presented.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

And now I will turn to our interpreter, Elsie Duarte, to introduce herself.

Thank you, uh Madam Chair.

As stated, my name is Elsie Duarte.

I will be providing Spanish interpretation during today's economic development and arts subcommittee session.

I will now take a moment to introduce myself to our Spanish speaking audience.

But escuchar la reunion in espanhol presencialmente, favor de passar por unos audífonos ubicados al entrada de la sala de camaras.

Las personas registradas para ser un comentario publico sepan que podran hablar libremente sin interrupciones durante el tiempo disponible.

Sus commentarios serán interpretados al momento que usted termine de hablar.

Gracias.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Um we do not have any general call to the public, so we'll go to item one, which is approval of the minutes.

Do I have a motion?

I move to approve minutes.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Um hearing none, the motion passes unanimously.

Item two is a consent agenda item.

Do we have any questions on this item?

No.

Do you have a motion?

I move to approve the consent item number two.

Second.

A motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any nays?

Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously.

Turn to our assistant city manager on item three.

Good morning, madam chair and members of the subcommittee.

Item three is an update or was listed for discussion and possible action this morning on the downtown Phoenix Entertainment District implementation plan.

This was an item that was continued from the April meeting.

Staff had requested that at that time it would be continued so that we could do some work with our sister departments throughout the city who would be impacted by this plan.

And then this morning we were asking that the item be withdrawn at this time to be brought back at a future date in order to give staff time to do additional stakeholder engagement.

So there are many organizations that are listed in this.

Also, we need to also get with all the full city council as well.

So we're asking um respectfully, um, madam chair, members of the subcommittee if this item would be withdrawn today.

Thank you.

Um Ginger, I do have a question, David, because we do have um a speaker on item three.

If we withdraw the item, we do not hear that speaker.

Is that correct?

Okay.

So and do I need a motion to okay?

Do I have a motion to I'm sorry?

Um I have a motionwoman pastor.

I have a motion to approve, but then I have comments.

Two um so you're moving to uh I would like to continue it to May.

Um I've been requested that we need more time than that, and to actually just withdraw it.

Can we discuss it?

No, I'm willing to withdraw it, but I would like it to come back in May.

Um so madam chair and uh councilwoman Pastor, if the motion today could be to withdraw the item, and then we do hear the councilman's request that we bring it back in May.

Um, you know, but we do need the time to do the additional work that is necessary.

Okay, so uh a motion to withdraw.

Do I have a second?

Second.

And do you have comments?

I do have comments.

Um the entertainment district item has been uh I would say since January, maybe even December, an item that was expected to come in March, and then there was another delay, and there was a high expectation for April.

Um I get all the stakeholders and items, but knowing that this is a priority.

Um I'm disappointed that I heard about it this morning, and that we can we can't get the entertainment um plan up and going and being able to be heard.

Uh and it's not a reflection of anybody in the work, it's just this is a high priority for the committee, and we only have two more meetings, and so it is important to at least get the entertainment uh plan uh spoken about and the key uh community of the downtown area uh anticipating and waiting for this.

And so I am hoping that we will have it here in May.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments.

Any other comments?

Okay, I'll call the vote.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Um, any nays.

Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously.

So we are um also going to take a point of order to or to go out of order.

We are um and go to item number five, the opportunity zone guidance, and then we will come back to item four.

And madam chair, is he sitting down?

I do want to say that um because of the opportunity zones.

We used to designate the Paradise Valley Maw area as an opportunity zone, and today we opened up an IKEA in that area.

Very exciting.

Uh my staff is there to celebrate, but certainly having IKEA in your city brings a lot of sales tax.

Congratulations, councilwoman Stark.

It's a very exciting thing.

All right, ginger.

Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee.

We are here today to provide an update on the opportunity zone and provide guidance on the new um rules that have come out on that.

And so today to give this presentation, we have our community and economic development director, Ryan Tuhill, as well as our research manager from community and economic development, Jasmine Lombrera.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Ryan.

Thank you, uh Ginger.

Uh good morning, Chair, members of the subcommittee.

Um, Councilwoman Stark, I'm I'm excited about the IKEA, but I'm also a little nervous about my bank account considering we live so close to IKEA.

Um, and as a recent new homeowner to your district, I'm I am a little nervous.

Um, but uh but pivoting back to the presentation today.

Um we're here to talk to you about um presenting opportunities on uh the new excuse me the the update on the federal opportunity zone program.

Um we're here today because the federal government has issued new guidance on this program, and that's requiring the city to establish a new opportunity zone map.

And so our goal today is just to update um the committee on the the new guidance and outline the process that we're um have started to select opportunity zones, which will bring back for council action in April.

And so as Ginger mentioned to assist with today's uh uh presentation, we have Jasmine Lombero from our marketing and research team.

Jasmine's been a lead on this for for since the first program and has uh done a lot to stay abreast of these changes.

So she's gonna walk you through the presentation and then um I'll conclude with some remarks on how we're gonna continue to select uh these zones and then bring this forward for council consideration.

Okay, Chair, members of the subcommittee.

I appreciate the chance to be here and discuss the opportunity zones program with you.

So as part of the opportunity zones program in 2017, the tax cuts and jobs acts established the original program at the time.

The program was providing tax incentives to investors who reinvested capital gains into a qualified opportunity fund as part of that.

These were economically distressed communities that were looking for long-term private investment as well.

So as part of it, 42 qualified tracks were in Phoenix.

And you guys also have a map that was provided as a printout in your packet as well.

Um the 42 tracks were designated and outlined in blue on the map.

Since 2017, a variety of development has happened in and around these opportunity zones tracks, and the developments are highlighted with the red markers on the map as well.

The original program required qualified census tracts to meet the following federal criteria.

So a poverty rate higher than 20% or a median family income at or below 80% of the metropolitan statistical area.

As part of this program originally as well, there was a 5% track designation that could be provided that if if a tract was adjacent to a qualified tract and did not surpass the 125% medium family income.

It was able to be submitted as part of an opportunity zones track.

That is actually how Paradise Valley Mall got its redevelopment track as well.

As you can see in this picture here, there's a variety of development, and these are just a few examples of what has happened in and adjacent to the opportunity zones tracks.

On the left, you'll see the MAC Innovation Industrial Park in Deer Valley.

And on the right, it's the union at Roosevelt Phase 2 multifamily project that have been developed as part of the Opportunity Zones programs.

During the Opportunity Zones 1.0 program, investors received a temporary deferral of capital gains invested in a qualified opportunity zone fund, and that goes until 1231 2026, the end of this year.

There was also a reduced taxable gain, so a 10% reduction in gains if held for five years and a 15% reduction after seven years.

And states are expected to designate up to 25% of eligible census tracts.

And because the federal criteria is significantly stricter than 2016, it has also led to a slight reduction.

So to qualify for the new program, tracks in Phoenix must meet one of the criteria below based on the 2024 census data.

So a median family income less than or equal to 70% of the surrounding metropolitan statistical area.

If a tract fails to meet both that MFI and the poverty criteria, it does not qualify.

Thank you.

And I will pass it over to Ryan, who will conclude the presentation.

Okay, thank you, Jasmine.

Um so just to walk you through kind of how we've been reviewing um opportunity zones for for uh the second uh 2.0.

Um we're we've started with a kind of staff-led process um by which we've taken the criteria you've just heard about and run all of our census tracks through that criteria, and that is identified what we call eligible census tracks.

But as Jasmine noted, we have a cap on how many we can submit to the state.

So staff did further analysis across all of the divisions in CED.

We asked for input on where which tracks we see potential development opportunities over the next 10 years, and we use data from like CoSTAR or CoSTAR database.

We used market intelligence that we collect regularly and other general knowledge of project opportunities to help to identify what we would what we are calling our recommended eligible tracks.

So that was kind of our first step we did earlier this year.

Second, we're now going in and speaking to each city council district to share that information and gain input and feedback from the council districts.

And we're we're not through that whole process yet.

We've we've started that, and then we'll go back and do another round of discussions.

But that will that will lead us hopefully to finalizing a list of 33 qualified census tracks.

And then finally, the third phase is we will come back in April uh April 22 formal to ask for council's approval of the new opportunity zone map, and then staff will submit that to the state by the May 8th deadline to the ACA.

Um so with that, uh we are now available to answer any questions or on the opportunity zone program or our process.

Um Madam Chair, thank you.

Wonderful, thank you both.

Councilman Robinson, thank you, madam chair.

Um Jasmine, excellent presentation, and Ryan or Jasmine, whoever can answer this question.

The last slide you had up, the opportunity zone 2.0, the review process.

Is it your intent when you provide that information to the council members?

Is it the intent that we then go out to our community and engage them to get additional information, see if they agree with or disagree with?

Because I know what we're we're gathering this information based on raw statistics, so that's not gonna change, but there might be um input from the community occasionally that might counter to what you know be a little counter to what we're recommending as a as a city.

Sure, uh councilman Robinson, members of the subcommittee, thanks for the thank you for the question.

Um we we would encourage that for sure.

Um, and and we can also help facilitate those discussions if if needed.

Um we've we've uh provided the the tracks for to all the council members, but we can come back and discuss those, and then if there are questions about um from the community or you're hearing about somebody who's who's interested in the program uh from an investment standpoint, we're happy to have those conversations, and we can make that a priority ahead of the the 22nd.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um again, excellent presentation.

Thank you very much for the information.

Madam Chair, thank you for the time.

Any more questions or discussion?

Councilwoman um Stark.

Thank you.

Um I I have had an opportunity to look at the opportunity zones in District 3, and I think uh my experience with them is Paradise Valley Mall, we imagine, and it certainly is a successful tool for us, and I I am pretty supportive of the areas that you designated.

Um I too would like to just touch space with um some of the landowners in that area to make sure they're comfortable.

So thank you and thank you for the presentation.

Councilwoman Pastor.

Yes, um, I think I have I think I have 10 opportunity zones.

Um, my original uh paper, 10 or more.

Um my question is I'm not gonna be able to get to those 10 communities by April 22nd.

So if we're not able to get to those communities, then can that item go in May?

Uh members of the subcommittee council member, councilwoman Pastor, um, we would need to we are the deadline that is set by the ACA is is a pretty hard deadline.

Um we if we miss that I think we miss the opportunity we miss the chance to sit submit our our maps and our zones.

Um and so we would we would be available to help you with that outreach to make sure we get it done because it we kind of have a one-shot opportunity at this based on the state's uh mandated deadline.

Can you tell me what the deadline is?

Yes, it's it's May 8th is when we have to submit the the list to uh the the ACA.

Okay.

So we'll be doing um Madam Chair and Councilman Pastor.

So we're giving the presentation today to provide up an update on the guidance that we receive, and then count um staff has been working with the council members and different different offices to provide information on the maps, and now they need to have the discussion with each of you on what you would like your selected uh areas to be for the new um ozone opportunity zones um 2.0.

So we're trying to meet that deadline.

There are only two meetings between now and the deadline of May 8th, and so um there's the April 22nd meeting, just in case we need to you know rework it after April 22nd.

There is only one other meeting, which is May 6th, and so that's really pushing staff up against that May 8th deadline, and so that's why we're trying to bring it forward uh on April 22nd.

And my comment back to that is if we have if we need additional time, um, because I have 10.

I also have the food and medicine.

I also have FAA.

I also have budget.

Um there's a number of things happening within the community within that space.

My question is May 5th.

Is it May 5th that we have the May 6th?

Okay.

Then at that date, we're just saying we're blessing these opportunity zones, and it's in a I guess a letter, and you send it an email, or I don't know how it works.

I'm assuming they would take email, but I think there's time.

I'm gonna try to do what I have to do, but there may need to be additional time because we can't get all to get to all the stakeholders.

Um, Madam Chair and Councilman Pastor are members of the subcommittee.

That is correct.

So staff are gonna do all that we can to try to make this work by April 22nd, but that's why we also want to give ourselves just a little bit of wiggle room so that we can definitely meet that um deadline.

Thank you so much for the questions and comments.

I appreciate the um item today, the presentation.

I do think that the opportunity zones are incredibly important, and we don't want to miss that deadline, but we are as councilwoman Pastor has pointed out, there's a lot to go out to the communities right now, and so we do appreciate your help in making sure we get that stakeholder feedback uh prior to making our our decision.

So thank you again for being here today.

Thank you for the time.

Okay.

All right, we are gonna go back to item three and four.

And I'm sorry, not three, I apologize.

Item four.

Um, the upcoming events and programs at cultural organizations.

For this item, we'll be right hearing from Carrie Brown, the interim arts and culture director, and then she has several guests with her from some of our most prestigious and amazing uh facilities.

And I will let her introduce those folks.

Are you joining?

Okay, we do have another.

Chair O'Brien, members of the subcommittee, thank you so much for having us here this morning.

I am joined by some very dynamic and passionate arts and culture leaders here in Phoenix, and they'll be speaking about some of their upcoming events and programs happening at their facilities.

Um, before I turn it over, I just wanted to provide a brief update on um cultural cultural facilities in the city of Phoenix.

Several city departments, including the Office of Arts and Culture Manage Cultural Facilities, voter-approved city general bond uh funded a majority of these facilities.

Through the bond program, the city of Phoenix has developed, grown, and sustained a vibrant mix of cultural facilities that engage and serve residents through education and outreach programming.

They help attract new business development and draw more than six million visitors per year.

The Office of Arts and Culture manages the cultural facilities listed on the slide here.

The department primarily manages the physical building and property and is not responsible for the tenants programming services and administration, except for the Sotovaki Museum, which is managed by city staff.

And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our first speaker with Ballet Arizona.

If you push the button, it'll be your less.

Thank you.

And you know what?

Will you move it just a little bit closer too so we make sure we can hear you and get your audio?

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the subcommittee for the invitation to speak about the wonderful investment in arts and culture in our community.

Um, our facility located off 28th in Washington, is fully activated, 52 weeks out of the year.

Most of which is programming that serves education and community outreach.

Um, upcoming for the rest of the spring, we have programs such as Dance A Z, in which our staff are activated and going out into the community, serving schools with after-school or in-school dance education, in which they are provide they are performing their culminating performance in our dorance theater, which is a 299-seat black box theater for community members for free, and for the parents and families that are participating in these events.

These school programs is Ballet Arizona's commitment to giving back to our community as a thank you for the ability to uh hold our offices and studio rehearsals in that space.

We also serve many volunteer opportunities, activating more than 300 volunteers each year in various different programs.

Next week we have a volunteer appreciation event in which they will come and observe the education program for Dance A Z and witness the performance.

And in addition to those programs, we offer two free community engagement programs all year round, one of which is a Dance for Parkinson's program that is offered twice weekly for free to members and caregivers, so they can come and take dance education and training classes that are meant to provide a wonderful space for connection and reprieve from some of the other impactful situations that they have in their life.

We also do an adaptive dance for down syndrome program at our facilities all year round.

This is a nominal tuition-based program, as well as the Native American Hoop Dance Program All Year Round, which is a free program that we provide to this community as well.

This is run ran by our Tribal Nations Advisory Council, which is a subcommittee of our board of directors.

In addition to that, we also have a full school year academic program that serves more than 300 families each year and an adult class program activated all year round with thousands of students coming and taking class.

These students come from all over the country and some from even from around the world to take part in our dance education training programs.

And with that, I think may I see the next slide, please?

Oh, I think that's my last slide.

Thank you.

Thank you for the time.

And I'll turn it over to you, Kate.

I know how that works, Madam Chair and Council members.

Thank you so much for your time.

We really appreciate the opportunity to come and speak in front of you.

I'm Kate Wells, the CEO of the Children's Museum of Phoenix.

And I want to do a little share first of some of our statistics that the city helps make possible.

So last fiscal year we had 360,000 visitors.

As a reminder in our operating agreement, this the museum is dedicated to supporting 25,000 free tickets.

So we kind of blew that number away.

We also had almost 40,000 children come on field trips.

We had 623 volunteers that volunteered almost 5,000 hours.

And the really really big thing to celebrate from last year is we had our five millionth visitor.

So we're really excited to share that.

What we have coming up, as you all know, is our major expansion.

It was really kicked off by the city council's investment of 5.37 million dollars as part of the 23 Go bond.

All together, the project's going to be about 23 and a half million dollars.

So the museum is investing about almost 18 million dollars of our own money into the project, obviously spearheaded by your investment with the bond funds.

We're going to be touching all three floors of the museum.

We'll be bringing up all of the unused spaces of about 27,000 square feet up to code so that we can increase our exhibits, increase access, our capacity, and the expected completion of that construction project is in 2027.

So we're happy to also share that our phase one, in which all of our bond money will be utilized, will be done actually this year in the late summer.

So we're getting that bond money to work.

Included in our expansion will be a full full service preschool.

It will serve infants through four to five-year-olds.

This is in response to the child care desert that we have in downtown.

We did a community listening session as this is one of the community's priorities.

We're doing this in partnership with the Valley of the Sun YMCA.

We're also opening up a literacy center that will be like the best children's library on steroids.

We're very, very excited about that.

That'll be on site.

We'll be opening an additional eight to ten new exhibits, and we'll be reimagining some of the favorites.

So Noodle Forest is not going anywhere.

I promise there will be a citywide revolt.

But we are going to reimagine some of our favorites.

Thank you.

See everyone here, yes, right?

Noodle forest, I promise.

I think that's that's it.

So we're happy to give any of you all tours.

I know that Councilman O'Brien was recently at the museum to see what our expansion plans were.

We're very, very happy to do that at any time.

And we appreciate your investment in the children's museum through the Go Bond.

Um, also every year through the general operating budget.

Um, and we look forward, the arts organizations look forward to talking with you further about the next bond someday.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kate.

I'll turn it over to you, Jeremy.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Council, subcouncil member subcommittee members.

It's a privilege to be here.

It's the first time in front of you, so thank you for this opportunity and your time.

I have the privilege of leading Phoenix Art Museum, which has been uh a signature institution of this city since 1959.

On average, we welcome 300,000 visitors to the museum.

That's over the age of 18.

We also service not just at the museum, we service schools and school districts throughout uh the Valley region.

We're really fortunate to have quite a robust uh program at the institution.

And just to share with you some of our demographic information, out of those 300,000 visitors, 71% of those visitors are under the age of 60.

Most of them come within a 10 to 20 mile radius of the museum.

That's over 75%.

So we are truly a local serving institution.

In addition to that, our demographics, the makeup of our visitors are uh indexed with the Maricopa County Index structure.

So we are really serving a broad and rich audience.

And in addition to that, like many of my cultural colleagues, we also provide 32 hours of free access to the institution, which on average, on an average month, we welcome over 3,500 visitors.

So we're really fortunate to have those two particular programs that really impact and support our community.

To talk a little about some of the exciting programs we have coming up at the museum.

We have a very robust season.

We are, like many of our colleagues, 12 months of the year, fully occupied and full access.

Uh we have one program that is a signature of our institution, which is the Arizona Artist Awards, which has been in place since 1983.

We've awarded over 250 awards to Arizona artists and awarded over a million dollars in monetary support to those artists, and it's award program that happens every single year with direct support to our local artist community.

In addition to that, we are one of seven costume institutes in the country.

It is one of the hallmarks of our institution and of our community that's been in place since the 1950s.

It is our largest collecting area at the institution with over 12,000 objects, and it truly is just really a crown gem of this institution and this region.

And we've been focusing the last couple of years on the history of that collection, how it came to be, which is primarily built by our local community.

Next slide, please.

In addition to that, we have a robust, we work with a lot of colleagues.

We have a robust program that really looks at international and globally recognized artists.

We also look at things like what types of exhibitions they are.

We have install you know immersive installations that are becoming more and more of the common front uh for most institutions across the country.

So we're really excited to pair with a local uh collector here on the Janet Cardiff and George Burris Miller piece, uh, which is the first time that'll actually be installed in Arizona, so a true sort of historical moment for us.

And this is an interactive piece on the left there that you can actually go up and play uh the organ.

In addition to that, we work with many of our national colleagues.

Uh this fall, we welcome uh Kim Chong Hawk, painter of Sorak San, who's a South Korean painter.

This is a show that was organized by the High Museum in Atlanta, and we are also working with our sister cities programs regularly on these types of international and global partnerships to bring them forward and really enrich our relationships with both the city and the citizens of Phoenix.

Next slide.

So part of the new big things that we have coming up as well this November, uh, we are fortunate uh as we're an institution that's about 70% funded by private citizens or contributed revenue.

Uh, we just received a naming uh donation for the Asian wing, and so we're getting ready to renovate that particular space and launch that later this fall.

These are all improvements to our physical footprint as well as building collections in public trust for the future.

And then, of course, probably the biggest announcement coming forward is going to be the hosting of Nike Form Follows Motion, which is an international exhibition looking at the design history of the company Nike in time to partner, of course, with many of the great programs and sports programs that we have coming up here in our community, as well as working with a lot of our local sports teams through again initiatives like the entertainment district, those local owners of those sports teams, as well as the athletes, and really merging and really thinking about how we expand the rich cultural community that we have.

So it's been an absolute pleasure leading this institution.

It's been my it's my fourth year anniversary this week, and uh it's truly a privilege.

So thank you.

Thank you, Jeremy and Nicole.

I will turn it over to you.

Hi, thank you, um, Madam Chair and Council members for having us today.

Appreciate it very much.

Um, we're a little different in that we are actually operated by the City of Phoenix.

Um the land that we are located on is ancestral autumn, Akamel Otham land, and we are the only openly accessible um archaeological site in the city of Phoenix.

The land was donated to the city in 1924, and the museum was built by 1929.

So we have been there a long time as the our ancestral um uh occupants of the Salt River Valley.

So I've been at the museum 10 years this year.

I can't believe it it went back around so fast.

Um, and what we have been attempting to do is really bring the um the autumn and the ancestral autumn, previously known as the Hoecamp voices into the space, narratives into that space because it was very archaeological and uh scientific before we started working very, very closely with our communities, our local um and uh traditional native communities.

So we work very closely with the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community in Scottsdale and the Gila River Indian Community, just on the other side of uh South Mountain.

They have been very generous in in supporting us with their 12% grant money so that we can put on exhibits and change our main gallery that needed to be updated.

Um that's the work we've been working on.

We are also very blessed to have the support of a nonprofit group that does fundraising for us, and I have to push that we are doing our harmony event next Saturday.

So if you guys are free, you have the invitation in your handouts there.

This is a celebration, yes, it is celebration of traditional uh foodways.

We have uh world-renowned chefs coming to give you tasting bites of the the choya and the teprians and the kind of food ways that we really need to be bringing back and be celebrating.

Um that will be at the museum next Saturday evening if you'd like to join us.

Um, and this is a way for our nonprofit to fundraise to support the work that we do.

Um, I do want to note that we are members of the culture pass and um Act One, so we host uh Title I schools as much as we can.

The fifth fourth and fifth grade of every uh Cartwright School comes and visits us uh annually and the Walt School District, of course, which is right there.

So we're very active with our school kids as well.

Um, but we do have a robust tourist market as well, learning about the deep history of Phoenix, coming to where history began in the city of Phoenix.

Um, because of the work we're doing to really expand our connection to our indigenous folks.

Um, we will be hosting a new exhibit in the fall called Indigenous Identities, where we did a selection process to uh invite artists to come and speak through their art about how they feel about living in this urban environment and how that affects their identity.

So that uh opens this fall, and we have been branching out and uh repurposing some of our exhibits in what I call a satellite situation.

So we had an exhibit last year called Following Their Roots, where we're talking about um indigenous farming methods throughout the state of Arizona, and we have now um traveled that to the South Mountain Visitor Center.

So if you'd like to see that exhibit, it is still got a new life out there, and we want to continue to do things like that, for instance, at the airport museum and at City Hall and the gallery.

So that we are um spreading that history, that deep history of Phoenix, which I think a lot of our visitors don't understand.

We have been around a long time, and the in this indigenous occupation of this area is thousands and thousands of years.

So that is the work we do, and thank you for the opportunity to talk about it.

Thank you, Nicole, and last but definitely not least.

I'll turn it over to you, Shauna.

Thank you.

Good morning, uh, Councilman, uh Chair, and members of the committee.

The Schemer Art Center is a vibrant visual arts center.

It's unique and it's in District 6 in Arcadia, um, a city of Phoenix Point of Pride.

It is small but mighty.

We operate in a historic home on 3.5 acres, and currently we are attracting about 10,000 visitors per year.

Last year we had over 1700 students ages six through 94.

We employ 29 professional artists as instructors.

So we focus on supporting and showcasing Arizona artists through education, experience, and enjoyment.

Our summer youth camps and our summer, just our youth programming overall is very important.

Our summer youth camps are already sold out for June.

In fact, they sold out in one week in January, and many of you know how popular they are already.

In addition to classes, we showcase 11 visual art exhibitions per year, including our very popular New Horizons high school student art exhibition, which this year showcased the top two works of art from over 46 high schools across the valley.

We also host five community events per year, including our Furry Friends Fine Arts Festival, our Art in the Garden and Sparkling Tea, our Arizona Legacy Golf Tournament, our Shemer Arizona Arts Festival, and our Schemer Honors event.

And those are all done for the community and give many people a reason to stop by the Schemer Art Center for the first time.

This is in addition to operating our gift shop on site and our sculpture gardens, which have been expanding.

In the last 10 years, I that I have been at Schemer.

We have gone from an underutilized facility to a facility that is now at capacity.

We have a beautiful building that is now 107 years old and needs some TLC.

And we are currently working on two projects to keep the Schemer Art Center relevant in the future.

The first is our expansion and legacy campaign, which will help us continue the legacy of Martha Schemer and continue to serve the community.

The second is a legacy to architect Al Beetle and showcased right now.

You'll see the pavilion that we are creating, the White Gates Pavilion that will utilize the salvage materials we recently received from the historic home that was demolished.

And also, this will anchor our new albedle sculpture garden.

We've raised 1.4 million dollars in private funds for our expansion campaign, and we've raised so far 80,000 for our albedle campaign.

So we're over 75% of both of those, and we will be meeting this afternoon with Arts and Culture to see if we can get the planning for both of those started.

So we are very excited to serve the community in Arcadia, and we welcome your continued support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Shauna.

And with that, we're happy to answer any questions you may have.

Councilwoman Stark.

Thank you.

I must say over the years I've enjoyed going to the art museum.

I used to go with my mother-in-law, my daughter, and we had a lot of special moments there.

I do, and I have talked to Kate about this, but um it's not my dream, but one of my constituents' dreams that someday we have an exhibit, maybe not per minute, but about Sesame Street, because one of the creators of Sesame Street was born here in Phoenix, Arizona.

She's now 96 years old, and she's got quite a collection.

She lives in New York City now, of course.

But it is very interesting because she had such a great time growing up in Phoenix.

And so hopefully we can showcase the importance of Sesame Street, especially to children.

And just another little unknown fact, or maybe it is known, her grandfather was mayor of the City of Phoenix.

Oh.

And he created the first professional fire department for the city of Phoenix.

Before that, they were all volunteers.

So I think it's a chance that we can really capture something interesting and celebrate.

I know my kids grew up on Sesame Street, and I know kids still are growing up, so hopefully I can work with either the children's museum or art museum to have an exhibit one day.

So now you know my dream and my constituents' dream.

Thank you, May.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman Stark.

Councilman Robinson.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, just a couple of quick things.

Thank you all for the presentation.

Um it was exceptional.

Really appreciate it.

I wanted to give you each an opportunity for shameless plug.

Um Nicole did it, um, you know, talked about her event coming up.

It is the date of our youngest's wedding, so we're not going to be there.

Shauna, I know that you know yours is in the fall.

But Jeremy, don't you have something this Friday?

We do.

Yes.

We'll see you Friday.

We'll see you Friday night.

This is the Friday.

The party in the garden.

And Jamie.

Yes, actually, thank you for this opportunity.

Um, coming in a few weeks, we will be activating a full-scale production in our collaborative partnership with Desert Botanical Garden.

It's called Ballet and Bloom.

We perform for three weeks every evening, Tuesday through Saturday at Desert Botanical Garden, and we do a double bill beautiful performance under the stars as facing the setting sun of the Papago Butes.

There are tables and uh stadium seats available.

We have plenty of tickets available, and it is the perfect way to end our season with the beauty of the Sonoran Desert as our scenic backdrop.

So uh these scene set designs are free to the community because it's the beauty of the of the desert.

So thank you.

Please join us.

I like to bring these district six issues up to the forefront.

So shameless on my part.

And Kate, I know at the end of the year you guys have your fundraisers.

Yeah.

We do have our big gala in November, but one of the things I'm really excited to share is we are bringing in the traveling exhibit, Daniel Tiger from the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, and that will be here September through January of next year.

And it is a really big deal for us.

We um it is one of the most popular children's shows in the country, and it really resonates for those young children who were learning about literacy and friendship and all those executive functioning skills.

So we're really looking forward to that.

What we're really in the midst of right now is starting construction.

And let me actually shamelessly plug in your packet that I gave you is um an overview of our expansion plan.

So thank you.

And lastly, if I could say, Shauna made mention of the Owl Beetle exhibit that's coming up, and she really didn't do it justice.

She didn't explain fully how she engaged and really helped the council district and the community in dealing with the um a very interesting um problem, and I'll be very brief about it.

We had a historic home, Al Beetle Home on the side of Camelback Mountain.

Uh person purchased it, was going to tear it down.

Historic preservationists heard about it, came to our office, went all over the place, and folks were adamant about preserving this this home.

But the um owner of the property that couldn't come to terms.

Shauna stepped up, thank you very much, and we are able to now have an Al Beetle exhibit there on the um Shimer on the Schemer grounds, and we were able to save portions of the of the home, which actually made everybody happy.

Al Beadle's daughter and everybody else.

So, Shauna, thank you for that.

And thank you all for what you're doing.

We know how important the arts are to the community because that's something I hear about constantly.

Because that's why people, one of the reasons people move to Phoenix.

You know, they want to know what else is going on because it is it's a fabric of our community.

So thank you all very much, Carrie.

Thank you for your leadership in this whole thing.

And Jeremy, I'll see you Friday night.

Jamie, we'll look forward to seeing you out in the desert.

Shauna in the fall, Nicole, I'm sorry this year, but we'll catch you and Kate, we'll see you later this year.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Councilwoman Pastor Just thank you.

Um arts and culture is a necessity.

It brings vibrancy to our community, it brings people together, it brings life.

Um so thank you for doing that.

I do feel I don't think some people don't know my background as to uh how I got here.

Uh, but as a teacher, but really as a uh a fellow at Chicago Public Schools, uh there it was Mayor Daly, I was under Mayor Daly's watch, and uh and Maggie Daly.

Maggie Daly was a die-hard arts and cultural person.

And over there, the Chicago Public Schools and the museums are under the city.

And so as a fellow, and then led into my position, uh, I was uh tapped to do two new programs uh under uh Maggie Daly and the arts and culture department.

Um I'm a fellow, new.

What I learned, and uh where I really learned all my skills and picked up my skills was the opportunity there because I created uh along with many others, and it's not an eye, it's it's an hour and it's this with the city, created theaters and public schools.

And theaters and public schools was about bringing all the theaters together to recognize the power of one and going to Title I schools and exposing them to theater.

Then it went on to uh now a permanent position was museums and public schools.

And so I got to work with the world class six world-class museums and teachers and educators creating curriculum and making sure that when they went to their field trip that the curriculum was tied to what they were seeing, and so that they could feel and touch and recognize what they were learning.

Um art to me is it I don't even know how to describe it for me, but a joy uh to be able to expose many uh people in our community to different cultures and art um and science and be able to math and and in and all these and children at a very young age uh at development to be exposed because of at the development age is really critical, and and then be able to know history of of who we are from Arizona, and then the ballet is just being able to dance and be free, and then saving historic preservation or saving historic pieces and art is what makes us, and so thank you.

I did hear at my budget hearing about uh needing more additional dollars into the art, the investment into the arts, uh, the impact, economic impact it makes, uh, how jobs, how we support people within our community, and really support people in uh housing too.

And so once again, it's just thank you for for what you do.

I know the sometimes the struggle of that budget, so um appreciate you.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman Pastor.

And I too um want to first thank Carrie for uh bringing everybody together.

Uh it is no easy task bringing more than one or two people together, right?

So thank you for for all the hard work you did, and then thank you to you all for spending your time with us today.

Um, it was really important for us and our community members to be able to hear about the gems we have right here in our own Phoenix, um downtown Phoenix, District Six in the areas, so that it and it's all accessible, right?

Many of it, much of it by our transportation system.

I do want to highlight a couple of things that that caught my eyes and ears as you were giving your presentations.

Thank you so much, Jamie, for the movement that you're giving to not just children but to adults, especially with the Parkinson's disease.

It is so much that you're giving back to our community.

So I appreciate that.

And I look forward to also getting to attend um dancing in the desert, uh, ballet and desert gardens.

So it's beautiful.

Both of those things are incredibly beautiful.

Uh Kate had a great uh tour with you.

And um, not only did you hit your 25,000 uh free visits, you you blew it out of the water, and and that's so important.

The kids there were having so much fun when we were there.

Uh and I can't wait to come back and visit when you're done expanding.

But I do want to also highlight because it is such an incredible need, and people don't understand the economic impact it has is the daycare, that the preschool and and taking in infants through four and a five-year-olds, what that does for our community.

So thank you for acknowledging that and then doing something about it.

Uh Jeremy, you have a beautiful facility with incredible um art there and exhibits.

Uh, I am amazed by your statistic time and time again, even though I've not heard it for the first time tonight, that 75% of your visitors come from within 10 miles.

I think we need to work on how do we get a few more outside of that area, given the fact that district ones and district three are a little farther away, but we'll work on that for you.

Yeah, yes, I try to go too.

Um and then Nicole, uh beautiful, beautiful museum, and nothing more important than um learning about what the true history uh of this area, and so thank you for preserving that and sharing that and making sure the children in our school districts uh learn about it.

So appreciate that.

And then last but not least, um, I'm gonna have to make an appointment to come because I have not been to the Schemer Center, so I look forward to that.

And now I have a whole lot more events to attend as well.

But again, I couldn't be more thankful for you to spend your time with us.

It's precious and valuable.

And I'm excited to spread the words to other folks to come visit your facilities and continue our partnership.

So thank you for being here today.

And if there's no more comments or questions, thank you again.

We look forward to seeing you at all your events.

Thank you.

Our next item is the Phoenix economic overview and update.

It is part three, and it will cover land, real estate, and economic geography.

And we'll have Ryan Tuhill, our community and economic development director, as well as Anton Keating, our decade deputy community and economic development director.

Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee, uh good morning again.

Um today we're continuing our uh economic development series by focusing on land, real estate, and economic geography.

Uh in the first two parts, we discussed Phoenix's overall economic transformation and global positioning.

Um today we're gonna focus on the key reasons why growth is possible and how we've used uh uh land planning and infrastructure support uh to support our growth.

And this framework is really the foundation behind our ability to attract investment, support job creation, and continue growth in a meaningful way.

Um Phoenix has got up one fundamental advantage.

Uh we are at one of the few major cities in America that has available developable land.

And combining that with flexible zoning and master planning and some more supported by key economic development tools that we'll discuss later, um, Phoenix is able to deliver large projects at scale.

And that growth is is not accidental.

Um it's guided by our general plan, um, which uh and deliberate land use decisions that uh help us identify where to locate uh people and to for where they can live and jobs uh that so important support our fan Phoenix families.

Um we're focused on density around our urban core and our uh transit uh light rail system, uh, and we're also um you know really focused on green field, excuse me, green field development um in terms of uh being able to grow in a in a balanced way across our city.

Uh infrastructure is one of our most important economic development tools, um, whether that's light rail, freeways, or airport or utilities, uh, which guide where our growth happens.

Um, those investments are made possible through strong partnerships, uh, partnerships at the state level, uh the uh at MAG at ADOT, uh, and even uh from our voters who have approved uh funding measures to support infrastructure development.

Um we've used uh targeted economic development tools as well to unlock development.

Um, one of these is our transit-oriented communities policies, uh also you know, which has facilitated our light rail.

Uh we use land disposition and public-private partnerships to support uh new growth and redevelopment.

We use economic development tools like GIPLIT and other assistance tools to to help with uh spur on development, and then our GoBond investments in strategic areas really uh help lay the foundation for growth.

So this has really been enabling, uh not accidental.

So with that, um, we want to kind of walk you through as part of our series.

We've been looking kind of back to where we were and how we got to today.

And uh so to help us do that and to find out what really happened in our market, I'm gonna hand it over to Xandon, who's gonna walk you through uh several slides on on what we've seen over the past uh two decades.

Zanda.

Thank you, Ryan.

Um, Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee.

Um so uh Phoenix's ability to grow really comes down to capacity.

We still have thousands of acres available today with even more through the state trust lands and other future development opportunities that really allows us to grow in a way that other major cities just can't.

Um so going from recovery to um expansion.

Uh post-recession, uh Phoenix really changed its strategy and and reset our approach to growth.

We moved from a reactive growth model uh to really targeting uh key industries and investment in those particular industries.

That shift really positions uh Phoenix and our region for long-term competitiveness.

Our population has grown significantly, 230,000 residents since 2010, a 16% increase, which has reinforced the demand for jobs, services, and development.

Of course, that is a strength in a growing economy, a very strong economy, but it's also a responsibility that we're growing in the right way and creating great spaces for our population.

A little bit on uh real estate market conditions.

Uh so our real estate market really reflects that growth.

Uh the industrial and retail markets are performing very strongly.

Um, office is is really stabilizing, uh, but it's also repositioning for that next phase following the pandemic.

We had a lot of changes through the pandemic, but we're at a pretty stable um space today.

Uh this slide, these these kind of stats here kind of show you where those opportunities exist.

A lot of opportunities within uh the current office market with the the vacancy rates are there, but a lot of opportunity, especially on the retail side.

The 4.9% current uh vacancy rate is really, really low.

So there's definitely an opportunity for future growth and development opportunities within that retail space.

So, what is our development strategy?

We we really kind of focus on two areas, the the green field and then infill uh development strategies.

Um we use both of these strategies to balance development opportunities, um future growth opportunities, but also to grow in a very sustainable way uh for uh for the future generations of Phoenix.

And what are those?

What is what is the what are those terms mean?

So when we talk about green field development, it's really building on land that has never been developed before, previously undeveloped um land.

Um these green field developments are typically in growth areas, kind of on the the edge of the city.

Um they they are a little bit easier to develop because they don't allow any sort of demolition.

They're often very large sites and allow us to allow projects to move very quickly.

Um that also enables us to uh really focus on some large scale development, including advanced manufacturing, new employment centers, and those type that type of growth really gives us a clear advantage in delivering projects at speed and at scale.

Um examples of of where that uh type of development exists.

Uh, there's quite a bit along in North Phoenix, along the Loop 303, the I-17 corridor, also along the the 101 development or uh uh freeway.

There's also quite a bit in the Levine areas uh on the 202 South Mountain Freeway.

And then, like I said, just gives us the ability to move at a much faster pace with a lot fewer, many fewer um uh constraints uh from a land development standpoint.

And then what is um infill redevelopment?

So NFL is is building on land that that already has been developed, um, but it's focusing on reusing existing sites, existing buildings, replacing outdated or underutilized either properties or projects or developments.

And it's typically in central or established areas of the city uh in those sorts of areas.

So some of the areas where we really focus on that downtown, midtown, um, central Phoenix, South Phoenix, the airport areas, there's quite a bit of opportunity, and and we've taken uh advantage of a lot of that opportunity uh over the past many years.

Um a lot of this often ends up focusing also on higher density development, uh gives us that opportunity to focus those on strategic areas, uh, mixed use development as well, and then our our transit-oriented development uh policy really fits within uh this larger um uh chunk as well.

On the screen, you see the the Royale.

This was an adaptive reuse example of this.

You see the what it used to be at the top of the screen, the picture on the top.

It was a body shop, sort of a collection of some auto repair uh facilities, and it was redeveloped into the Royale, which has a restaurant, a coffee shop, uh, my wife's favorite flower shop in the city, and some other uses there as well.

Um so another example of of what infill is when we're talking about redevelopment and and uh infill development is mall to redevelopment.

This is a really a national trend.

You're seeing this across the country, but we're doing a lot of that work here in Phoenix right now.

Traditional malls are declining um everywhere due to uh e commerce, but also shifting consumer uh behavior.

People are just not as interested in going to malls.

They want something different.

And so we're really transitioning from that single-use retail model to more of a mixed-use environment that integrates other things like housing, entertainment, open space, and other services as well, are often included into that.

And then there's really an increased focus on the pedestrian environments, walkability, community spaces, you know, parks and plazas and that sort of thing within that.

And so, of course, we want to talk about some of our great examples when it's when we are talking about all redevelopment, the first being Park Central in District 4.

This was the one of the first redevelopments, all redevelopment projects we took on here at the city of Phoenix.

And it it this one maintained the mid-century modern architecture that was there and the design, the building buildings that were there, and um renovated it into what's there today, which is it's now home to uh Creighton Universities, uh first expansion outside of Nebraska for their medical school, which is a huge win for our midtown community.

Um there's a nine-story apartments building there, a new parking structure, there's an arts center that was developed within the existing footprints.

Um there's some uh several retail opportunities, uh, a new dual-branded hotel there as well.

So there's some significant growth and and um activation there at that mall.

The next example is Paradise Valley Mall in District Three, um, which this is uh was a very traditional mall footprints, um, and is is in the middle of being redeveloped into uh you know a new mixed-use plaza with retail restaurants, um, entertainment.

Uh there's uh a lifetime fitness uh very large project there with residential piece that goes along with that.

Vendors move their headquarters there, so there's some significant um uh pieces that have gone into that that creates it much more of that uh lifestyle and you know you can do pretty much everything within the the footprint of the the new new space.

And then finally we move to Metro Center in District One, uh, which is uh is at the very beginning of this process where it's it's now demolished, but it's transitioning into uh a new transit-oriented development at the end of our um light rail.

It's gonna be an 850 million dollar uh mixed use project that will have um residential, have ownership opportunities, rental, uh, as well as some pretty significant retail with housing and with entertainment and dining and and other uh retail opportunities there.

I'm now gonna pass it back to Ryan to complete the presentation.

Thanks, Sandon.

Um so we're what I hopefully we've demonstrated today is is we're really focused on building great places in Phoenix.

And that and that's important because that's not just economic growth, that's that's livability.

That's that's creating an attraction for those that live here to stay here, and that's that's about attracting new people to our to our city.

And that's through, you know, as you saw in some of our examples, mixed-use walkable environments, strong retail and entertainment districts to be anchors in a community, and then all the investments, uh, public and private that come with that to create the amenities and the infrastructure that we need.

And that really, when we talk about outcomes, leads us to, you know, first a better quality of life for all of our residents.

Um, these developments that we've talked about and the growth that we've seen have added significant housing options to our city.

Um we've we've now been able to facilitate job creation.

Um, and then we've added in recreation, dining, and culture.

So all things that, as people think about a great place to live, these are the outcomes that we're seeing that leads to a better quality of life for our residents.

And there's also a fiscal outcome.

So our team looked at data, for example, on construction sales tax, and since uh 2017, that's gone up by 168%.

Just at one example of a revenue source that's going back into our city that's helping to fund critical services that's helping to pay for the infrastructure as we develop.

And so there's a real fiscal benefit to in continuing our growth in a very balanced and responsible way.

Uh and that takes us to uh our final slide, you know, just kind of bringing it all together, thinking about how we continue to align jobs and housing infrastructure and keeping pace with our growth and using our land efficiently, particularly as we think about those redevelopment opportunities that Zandon mentioned.

And so uh with that, uh uh Madam Chair and members of the subcommittee.

Um, we hope that today we've we've showcased how we've uh used a really strong foundation over the course of the last um several years to build a really balanced community, one that's attracting investment and jobs and people, and we look forward to answering any questions you may have today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ryan and Zandon.

Do I have comments or questions from the committee?

Okay.

Well, you did such an excellent job that there are no questions.

But I yes, it was very thorough.

I do appreciate you continuing this series and um laying out for our community members and residents what is going on as well as the council members.

Um it's important to know where we've come from and and where we're headed to.

Um I am happy to see uh that towards the end there that you have the bullet point about infrastructure keeping pace.

Um I think we're Phoenix is finally growing at a faster pace than we've ever really expected.

And so we need to keep our eye on the ball and make sure that we're able to keep that momentum going.

So thank you both so much for the presentation.

We look forward to the next installation uh and and all the hard work that is continuing in the city of Phoenix.

Thank you, Ginger and uh Ryan and Zandon.

Um, with that, we will I will make sure we have no more call to the public.

Nobody is here.

Any future agenda items members?

Uh Councilman Pastor and then okay, yeah.

I would like to see the entertainment plan by anything by June.

Thank you, Councilman Pastor.

Councilwoman Stark.

Yes.

So I see in September upcoming events and programs, I really did enjoy uh the presentation today about all the different uh arts and culture programs that are going out.

I hope in September we hear a little bit about the science museum.

I hope that's part of it.

Yeah, I think the the list that was the comprehensive list that was included um on slide two and uh has some of the other folks we didn't hear from.

And so those I believe um Carrie's over there shaking her head at me.

I thought maybe she had left.

Okay, but yes, she'll be bringing in some of uh the other folks who we did not hear from today.

Really enjoyed today.

Thank you.

I am glad.

All right.

Well, with those requests in, then we will adjourn the meeting.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Nevertheless, this was as Rich mentioned, a very challenging project to complete.