Business View Magazine | January 2020

219 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 EmpirePoloEvents.com Tel. 760-342-2762 Thermal, CA EMPIRE'S GRAND OASIS EVENT VENUE Fully equipped as a wedding and special event venue, this tropical paradise offers endless possibilities. COACHELLA , CAL I FORNI A procedures for infill development; they really want more walkability and green development like that. And because we’re a disadvantaged community, we were recently able to get a $3 million grant to do an urban greening project on the Old Highway 111, which is Grapefruit Blvd. that runs through the downtown. That involves putting in street trees, new sidewalks, pedestrian amenities, bioswales, bike paths, and that sort of thing. So, all of that, in addition to everything else that was already happening in the downtown, is a big focus for our city council. They’ve always put a lot of resources into refurbishing our downtown. We had done a lot of streetscape and park improvements; we built a new library, recently. And then, the county also built a major social service facility in the downtown. So, all of that had a lot of positive momentum and we’re transforming the city as we speak.” Economic Development Manager, Gabriel Martin, mentions another upcoming development project in Coachella - the new Hotel Indigo. “It’s going to be a $50 million investment into the city,” he notes, “and it’s slated to open in January 2020.” Hotel Indigo, built on a 35-acre site, will have 250 rooms, 51 casita-like bungalows, a 10,000-square-foot chilled saltwater pool, and an 11-acre entertainment area to host events. The resort will also include a spa, a gym, a yoga studio, multiple restaurants, a general store, a coffee shop, and the Lighthouse Cannabis Boutique, the city’s first marijuana dispensary. Beyond downtown, Lopez says that Coachella is looking to some 3,500 acres of undeveloped alluvial hillside land east of the All American Canal that is currently being master-planned for a major new expansion of the city. (The All-American Canal, the largest irrigation canal in the world, is an 80-mile-long aqueduct that conveys water from the Colorado River into the Imperial Valley and to nine cities in southeastern California.) “They’re within our incorporated boundaries, already, and a lot of possibilities for the city’s future development is up there,” he relates. “The major challenge with