Welcome to SPBA - The President's Letter

Welcome to the South Park Business Association (SPBA) website, “Connecting Commerce and Communities.” I am the owner of a business that has been located in the South Park area of Seattle for 36 years. In all of those years, I have never experienced another period that has presented as many challenges to my business and community. But I have also never experienced a time when businesses, and the community as a whole, have had the potential to enact and solidify positive community enhancement as they do now.

In early 2010, when King County announced the closure of the South Park Bridge (one of two bridges providing access into South Park over the Duwamish River), things were looking pretty bleak for the community. Instead of giving up, the community banded together and demonstrated how vital South Park is to the region. Through joint collaborative connections from inside and outside of South Park, a funding package was assembled for a new bridge. Construction is now scheduled to begin in early May, 2011.

The spirit of this collaborative community accomplishment fostered by the South Park Business Association is what we intend to present on this website. A primary goal of www.southparkbusiness.org is to be a central hub of information and resources useful not only to South Park businesses but to the entire community. To that end, we have engaged in collaborative connections with organizations that have a strong desire to support South Park. One such group is the Business Advisory Group, a citywide group of business professionals who will be contributing articles to the website relating to their respective fields. Some other website resources include South Park news, a South Park business directory, job postings and both business and community events.

Our newest and most exciting educational initiative is our partnership with the University of Washington Business and Economic Development Center. This cooperative relationship between the University and the SPBA is designed to bring the educational benefits of the UW directly to our members in two ways. First, the University is offering direct on-site consulting in which students and faculty provide specific consulting in finance, accounting, marketing, IT and HR management. Second, the University is offering the BEDC Certificate program, which is a classroom-based program designed specifically to assist owners of small- and medium-sized businesses to improve their productivity and profitability. We are very excited to have been selected by the UW to promote these programs to the South Park business community.

In today’s economic climate, business survival and growth requires that each of us take a very proactive approach to promote and market our individual businesses and community to one another, as well as to develop South Park as a destination for others. I encourage you to connect to South Park through the SPBA.

Ron Cook
President, South Park Business Association