economic development
September 12, 2018
Perodin Bideri, a west Phoenix shop owner who was raised in refugee camps in Tanzania, and Christy Moore, a veteran Valley nonprofit executive who is on a mission to disrupt the landromat industry, are in the same boat. Both are seeing things — opportunities, specifically. Both have a brand of […]
August 8, 2018
LISC Phoenix’s investments spur double-digit population, buying power growth over a 10-year period
March 7, 2018
Nearly seven decades ago, shop owners frustrated by the challenges of conducting business in downtown Phoenix went looking for the next big thing in local commerce. They found it on McDowell Road, which back then was on the outskirts of town. McDowell Road quickly became a mid-century commercially vibrant, pedestrian-friendly […]
November 6, 2017
Jenny Poon is thankful every day for LISC making it possible for her to expand her thriving co-working space, CO+HOOTS. CO+HOOTS currently houses more than 250 entrepreneurs, and demand is so high that Poon is in the process of expanding the venture to two more facilities in the Phoenix metro […]
October 25, 2017
Casual observations of the West Camelback Road commercial corridor served by Valley Metro light rail note the empty lots, vacant office and retail space, and facades in need of freshening up. They can’t be missed. But there’s nothing casual about the way LISC Phoenix and its partners, Local First Arizona […]
April 28, 2017
The area near the Park-n-Ride lot at 19th Avenue and Camelback Road is one of the most ethnically rich, culturally diverse parts of Phoenix. It has been for decades, largely because of a large concentration of immigrants, including refugees who are part of resettlement programs. It is one thing to […]
March 30, 2017
On a sunny March afternoon in downtown Mesa, a rooster’s call is louder than a light-rail train’s toots, a retiree tends a plot of an urban garden wrapped in local artists’ murals, and a party of four repeat customers talks shop during a meal at a restaurant with Mesa roots […]
February 23, 2017
Apache Boulevard has a storied history as a major thoroughfare for travel and commerce. Long before it became a legacy route for motorists heading to the West Coast, it was a trade route indigenous people used to move goods and make community connections. The boulevard’s long timeline shows decades of […]
January 18, 2017
When Maurice Jones became LISC CEO in September 2016, he set economic development as a key strategy to help lift up struggling communities. “You cannot have a sustainable growth path if you’re not figuring out how to make all of your communities ‘communities of opportunity’,” he said during a recent […]