The Redmond City Council agreed to allocate $110,000 from the city’s downtown urban renewal fund to fund the continuing operations of the Redmond Downtown Partnership, a group of property and business owners working together to make improvement to the city core.
RDP recently received approval from the city or $270,000 over the next three years to pay for the creation of a new brand identity and marketing collateral materials for downtown Redmond, including a logo and a tagline.
Much discussion about the fate of downtown Redmond has occurred since the opening of the Highway 97 bypass last month. Some business leaders say efforts need to be stepped up immediately to begin attracting people to the now pedestrian-friendly downtown center. Business owners are worried that since downtown traffic has been reduced by tens of thousands of vehicles per day, the rerouted highway may result in some stores going out of business if marketing efforts cannot immediately begin attracting people to shop downtown.
