Riverside, California

R I VERS IDE , CAL I FORNI A Nathan Freeman, Sr. Project Manager for the City’s Community & Economic Development Department, relates, “My focus and area of expertise is our downtown region and our Innovation District. Over the last three to five years, I’ve helped facilitate almost $1.2 billion of private investment just in the downtown and the Innovation District area; that’s important because it’s almost as much private investment as we had across the whole city in the Riverside Renaissance project. The Renaissance project was self-initiated by the city 10 years ago – a $1.5 billion facelift. We improved everything from parks to roads - you name it. Ten years ago, when I started with the city, the downtown core area was a ghost town