SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane’s Hillyard neighborhood has been named as a Creative District by the state’s Arts Washington program. It’s the first in Spokane County to receive this designation.
Creative District status grants Hillyard access to exclusive grants and funding for beautification projects, street improvements and building new community spaces for the arts. They will also now join a collaborative network of over 20 other Creative Districts in Washington.
According to long-time realtor Marianne Bornhoft, this designation is also could also impact the neighborhood’s housing market.
“Now is the time to get property in Hillyard. I would buy a building here. I actually have an offer on a property right now,” Bornhoft said. “I predict within the next year or two, it’s going to go up 10%. It’s going to go up 20%,” she stated.
Arts Washington says the Creative District program is still in its early years, so collecting data on how economies in Washington’s Creative Districts grow is still in the works. Still, they are confident in the area’s growth potential, too.
“There’s a lot of power and resiliency in the creative economy,” said Aaron Semer, Program Director of Arts Washington. “There’s a lot of lenses and ways that you can help economically, but creative economy is definitely one of them.”
And while a growing economy is exciting for some. Arts Washington is well aware of what rising costs can mean for locals. However, they say the administrators who did the leg work to make Hillyard a Creative District don’t want to see locals left out of the neighborhood’s future.
“Hillyard is really working in their strategic plan to try to ensure that doesn’t happen there,” Semer said. “Really working to make sure that locals and people who live there are the ones that are really driving that and benefiting from that in Hillyard.”
Spokane City Councilmember Jonathan Bingle, who represents Hillyard and the rest of District One, says he also looking towards the neighborhood’s possible growth.
“I think it is going to be a great positive for Hillyard and I’m excited to see where it goes from here,” Bingle said. “It’s definitely progressing, I think, in a positive direction.”
Regardless, Bornhoft says she is looking forward to Hillyard’s new path forward as a Creative District.
“The future is unwritten,” said Bornhoft. “But with the help of our community we can make a difference right here in Hilliard.”
