Harpreet Gill of Punjab Sweets knows that if the businesses on the East Hill would just work together, they could promote the area better as a shopping destination.<\/p>\n
But today, there is no umbrella group to bring all of the business owners together.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it\u2019s real scattered. People are just doing their thing,\u201d Gill said. \u201cYou don\u2019t see a lot of togetherness up here.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Gill is working with the Kent Chamber of Commerce to try and change that by creating an East Hill Partnership, similar to the Kent Downtown Partnership, to give all of the businesses a common voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel like Kent in itself doesn\u2019t really know about the hidden little places up here,\u201d Gill said.<\/p>\n
As a chamber ambassador who focuses on community outreach, Gill mentioned her idea for an East Hill Partnership at a chamber meeting in July and she said the idea started to pick up steam.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the people I have talked to, they\u2019re very excited about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gill said a formal partnership or organization could increase the clout of business owners on the hill as well as give them the opportunity to go after grants and other funding, like the Downtown Partnership has done in the valley.<\/p>\n
According to Kent Chamber of Commerce Director Andrea Keikkala, she began hearing that East Hill was underrepresented in the chamber and decided to host the meeting to see what the chamber could do for the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were issues the chamber could do for them,\u201d Keikkala said.<\/p>\n
Keikkala said the East Hill area is home to approximately 1000 business, including home-based businesses, and encouraged all interested parties to come out to the meeting to make sure their voices and needs were heard.<\/p>\n
Keikkala said there will be members of the police department as well as the mayor on hand to listen to the issues facing entrepreneurs in the area, from security to beautification.<\/p>\n
Gill said she hoped the group could work together to help promote East Hill as a shopping district, as well as work to change the perception of the area, which she said needs a \u201crevitalization.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is such a busy street,\u201d she said, pointing out the window to 104th Street, \u201cbut people hardly look twice over here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gill said many of the small strip malls on the hill may seem older, but the shops in them are vital and active.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of quality businesses up here,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is East Hill\u2019s chance to come together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Learn more<\/p>\n
What: East Hill Business Forum<\/p>\n
When & Where: 7-9 p.m. Oct. 27, Golden Steer Restaurant, 23826 104th Ave. S.E., Kent<\/p>\n
Contact: call Dana Krawchuck at 253-854-1770 or e-mail her at danak@kentchamber.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harpreet Gill of Punjab Sweets knows that if the businesses on the East Hill would just work together, they could promote the area better as a shopping destination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2982"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}