The Basics of my Internship

Hey everyone,

Noting this is an internship blog, it would be necessary to introduce you to my internship. I am an intern at the City of Phoenix, Downtown Development Office. I started January 5 and should complete the internship around the end of March/beginning of April. It's been great and an interesting learning experience thus far. I have an adamant belief that books and lectures can only educate one so far, the rest has to be learned through experience. It has been neat to see how the concepts I learn in class are applied in reality.

The goal of the Downtown Development Office (DDO) is in its title- develop/revitalize downtown. So far, the DDO has a number of projects aimed at this goal: the Sheraton Hotel, the bio-medical campus, ASU downtown, a number of condos/apartment complexes, Artist Storefront, Lightrail, CityScape, and Arizona Center. I am sure I am missing some, but those are the projects I have been working on. Again, the goal is to get businesses, retail stores, and residents into downtown Phoenix by creating an agreeable and enticing cultural setting. The City of Phoenix also issues something called GPLET (Government Property Lease Excise Tax). In lue of potential incoming businesses paying property tax, they pay the substantially less expensive excise tax and a lease rate to the city. The lower tax rates lure businesses to the area. The terms of GPLET are negotiable- most, however, last 25 years, at which point the GPLET rates are the same as property tax rates- thus, it would behoove the business to buy the property at that point and pay regular property taxes.

That's a brief overview. I will get more into what I do in other blogs. Let me know if you have any questions.