Month: September 2014

DMC Trips – Washington

General

Some people might ask, “Why would DMC go to the state of Washington to learn about economic development?” Our answer to that question is, “Why wouldn’t we?” Two very different cities in this wonderful state taught us so many lessons—some similar and some quite unexpected.

The Destination Medical Center team spent two days in Washington state visiting Seattle and Bellevue. In Seattle, the city is designed similarly to the DMC development plan, in the sense that there are different “districts” throughout the area. South Lake Union was the first district that DMC officials visited. While there, we spent time at the Discovery Center, an amazing building that holds the history and future of the South Lake Union district. Multiple Seattle officials, as well as Vulcan Real Estate employees hosted DMC, to share and discuss how leaders planned for future growth and lessons learned along the way.

DMC Trips: the Portland Experience

General

Whew! What a whirlwind tour of the city of Portland, Oregon. With “day one” under Destination Medical Center’s belt, the consensus is that Portland has had amazing success developing its downtown districts, and they are still growing. The agenda was jam-packed with speakers, roundtable discussions along with tours, tours, and more tours.

DMC officials met with a variety of different groups from Portland that shared some wise knowledge, along with lessons learned.

  • If your community members want to be down town, then others will want to be there too – Patrick Quinton, Executive Director, Portland Development Commission
  • Building without parking is the biggest urban design challenge – Geraldene Moyle, Senior Project Manager, Portland Development Commission
  • Activating the first two floors of buildings is vital – Adelle Nofield, Original President, Pearl District Business Association
  • People come for the buildings, but they stay for the place – Dennis Allen, Director, Planning & Development Zidell Yards

Below are images of just of the few of the sites that the DMC team learned about and enjoyed during this site visit.

Next stop . . . Seattle!

Learn more about the DMC Trips

General

As you may have heard, members of the Destination Medical Center (DMC) team have a busy couple of days ahead of them. Board members from the Destination Medical Center Corporation (DMCC) and Economic Development Agency will be visiting five significant cities throughout the United States during the next two weeks to learn more about these communities that have managed major economic development projects and community transformations. The board members will have the unique opportunity to discover firsthand what works well in the cities they’ll be visiting, and they will also learn what these places wished they could’ve done differently. Some might compare these “site visits” to test-driving a car and being able to speak with the people who designed them.