Business Downtown: A Renewed Economy
From pop-ups to startups, Downtown Bellingham is home to an opportunity-laden economy. Start your business here or open up your second store — downtown has emerged as a prime location for commerce in the Pacific Northwest.
Positioned directly between Seattle and Vancouver, BC, Downtown Bellingham is a small city with massive opportunity. With a regional population of 200,000 and 4.1 million more within a one hour drive, Downtown offers the economic reach of a large metropolitan area with the lifestyle and amenities of a smaller community. Daily flights out of Bellingham International Airport connect downtown by air and daily connections on Amtrak by rail. The only missing link is you.
By The Numbers: What Business Downtown Looks Like in 2023
The Downtown Bellingham Partnership collects data and testimonials annually from businesses to gauge their current performance. In 2023, we wanted to understand how they were navigating business with COVID-related restrictions ending and current economic factors. We have been monitoring business health annually since COVID began in 2020 and we can see from this data that thankfully, top-line sales are rebounding for the majority of businesses. However, new challenges including increasing safety concerns, inflation, and increased costs of running a small business are top of mind.
We use these reports to evolve our services, programs, and advocacy as an organization.
Resources, Partners, and Tools To Help You Build Your Downtown Business
Bellingham and Whatcom County have several public, private and partnered entities supporting our regions economic growth.
Regional Commitment
This project, co-funded by the Port of Bellingham, City of Bellingham, and Whatcom County, is designed to help all business professionals find the information they need to be successful in Whatcom County.
Among the many resources, Choose Whatcom has a commercial property search tool to help you find the right space for your business.
Free Confidential Business Advice
The Whatcom Small Business Development Center works with local small business owners and entrepreneurs to discover opportunities, overcome roadblocks, improve operations, scale-up, and steward successful business transitions. Call, email, or register to be a client for this widely recognized, free and confidential, one-on-one, client-centered business advising, market research, and education.
The SBDC also maintains a free digital resource library. Put their team’s three decades of business advising experience to work for you.
City Services & Incentives
Opening your business Downtown means your are in a designated City of Bellingham Urban Village. You might be eligible for a graduated tax credit of 90% the first year, 75% the second year and 50% for the third year of operation.
Understanding permitting processes and requirements is essential to opening your business.
Downtown Bellingham Partnership Business Services
Our mission is champion the health and vitality of downtown Bellingham through the promotion of commerce, culture, and celebration. Business district vitality is essential to our work. When you open your doors to customers, we open our team and community services to you. Get started by engaging with a City Block Program meeting and get to know our team. You can also look forward to our signature events bringing hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of visitors downtown year-round. We offer seasonal grant programs when made available through the generosity of corporate sponsor partners to ease financial burden of improving storefronts or hosting artists to name a few. We also have a loyalty program with hundreds of card-carrying INSIDERS eager to experience new businesses offering deals. And finally, we take a moment each year to celebrate and award our business community with our Scepter Awards. Get to know us and onboard to all of our services!
