SPOKANE, Wash. — It’s no secret Spokane is growing. Downtown is booming, the real estate market is hot and businesses are moving in.
City leaders are stepping it up a notch with a campaign called, "Hacking Washington." The $450,000 campaign aims to attract Seattle businesses and people to Spokane. Julie Happy with the City of Spokane said the campaign is part of the city's strategic plan for economic development. It is targeting Seattle because it is so close. Happy said that is what makes Spokane ideal for businesses looking to establish a second headquarters.
"There executives are making top dollar. They have a very successful and good quality of life in that area that maybe their second-tier organization, such as operations teams, really can't enjoy that same quality of life. So, building their second headquarters here in Spokane, similar to Amazon building its warehouse, just giving those people the opportunity to enjoy a good quality of life," Happy explained.
Happy said the campaign is also targeting people who may have grown up or gone to school in Spokane, but moved away, thinking certain opportunities did not exist here. The hope is they will return to Spokane, saying there are more opportunities now than ever. Plus, there are shorter commute times and cheaper cost of living. The website boasts of Spokane's 19-minute average commute compared Seattle's average of 45 minutes.
Happy said the city accepted two different proposals from two different marketing firms. Each one gave an estimate of how much it would cost to execute their proposals. Part of their estimates include the cost for buying ad space on various platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter. The other part includes the firms' staffing and service costs for the project.
The funding for the Hacking Washington campaign came from the city's communications budget. This means the money cannot be used for anything else, but city communication needs or projects.