Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.): Kelly O’Neill has recently undertaken a project that I championed some time ago. He is currently notifying local property owners that still have signs displayed for businesses that have been out of business for some time now (examples: there are still monument/projecting signs for Curves, Christian Martial Arts, Sandy Meat Market and others around town). I will be helping him to identify those signs for Kelly so he can properly notify the property owner to remove them. More on this later….
Bunsenbrewers: Aaron Hansen, a chemistry master from University of Minnesota, is looking to open a tap room in one of Mike Maiden’s buildings (the one with Platt Electric in it) by the end of the year. This will be a good test to see if a commercial business like a tap room can make it in the I-1 zone. This gentleman has, in my opinion, a great product and a fantastic business model. He plans to brew beer in small batches to serve at this location, and will have hosted taps (presumably from other local brewers) to make up for what he can’t produce to start out with. As he expands, he plans to increase his production accordingly, eventually selling only his own product. However, like many new businesses, he doesn’t seem to be properly capitalized and failed to take into account things like SDCs in his initial budget. Time will tell…
Verizon Wireless store: This expansion project continues, with most of the build-out work now complete at the time this report has been written. There is a grand opening/ribbon cutting scheduled for this store during the September First Friday (Sept. 6th).
Ox & Marley: Work on this corner space in Jack Paola’s building on Pioneer continues, with the goal being a ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony during the September First Friday (Sept. 6th). While the owners (I have now met both of them) are both very vivacious and energetic, even they aren’t sure whether they’re going to meet their own deadline, but work continues. There is some lovely artwork on the door now, and the interior has been markedly improved. Definitely more to come….
The Buzz at Bakers: Tiffany Baker completed moving her barber shop from its current location on Proctor to the old Dotty’s property in the Clackamas FCU complex in the Bi-Mart parking lot. The new location has opened its doors (as of August 12) and is now fully operational. The rent is a little bit higher and she is now in a triple-net situation, but Tiffany thinks the improved parking and visibility will mitigate the additional expense. So far, so good….
Rainbow’s End Glass & Gifts/Royal Flesh Tattoo: An update to last month’s report on these two businesses in the Sah building next to City Hall….apparently these businesses did not fail, but rather were asked to leave by Mrs. Sah because she did not approve of their businesses. Neither business has complained to anyone at City Hall as far as I know. It does appear (though I have not been able to confirm one way or the other) that Rainbow’s End was given some sort of financial consideration in return (final month free?). Future occupancy plans are unknown at this time.
Public Information:
- Social media: Facebook followers = 3,238 (+43) // Twitter followers: 131 (+6) // Quite a bit more activity this month, as there was quite a lot going on in town in July. Biggest traffic generator was the announcement by the PD that the girl who was allegedly beaten up and had her bike stolen was in fact not a criminal investigation after all (21 likes, 31 comments, 38 shares). Considering the fact that most posters were quite judgmental and eviscerated the girl (who was a minor), it might behoove us as an organization to be a bit more careful when making statements like this on a social media site. The other active post this month was the announcement of Sandy Mountain Festival (39 likes, 4 comments, 38 shares). Sadly, hardly anyone commented on the departure of Scott Lazenby, although the turnout at his farewell party made up for that (although I suspect that most of our Facebook posters have no idea what a city manager is or what they do,so….)
- Current copy of H2O bill newsletter – G:\Economic Development\PIO duties\Water bill newsletter\previous newsletters\2013\Aug 2013.pdf
- Current copy of the Sandy Business Insider –
ED Committee: next meeting – August 6th, 2013 – look for an update in the August 2013 ED report.
Project work:
- destination hotel – I have had a few very short communications with Wendy, but nothing major happening on this project at the moment. She brought an architect and a project manager with her to the last meeting at City Hall with Scott and myself to look at the properties and discuss strategies. The question now is: Do they build with Johnson RV in place, or is there an opportunity to purchase that land from Brad Johnson and relocate that business to the other end of town? They would prefer to do the latter, but Brad would need to be on board with that plan to move forward. That discussion is happening now…
- SIFI fiber project – The company that purchased i3 America (SIFI – stands for Sewer Infrastructure Fiber Installation) has been negotiating with our IT team to produce a new contract that is amenable to both parties. Two options were placed in front of the SandyNet Advisory Board at the last meeting, and the Board will be recommending that the Council adopt the new SIFI contract and move forward. The other option (working with a local contractor to do a traditional build-out ourselves) would require so much debt and risk that the Board considered it a non-starter. While the new SIFI contract isn’t to our advantage as much as the i3 contract was, the Board felt that a) the i3 contract probably wasn’t sustainable on i3’s end, and b) this new contract is still far superior to doing nothing. Board recommendations will be presented to the City Council at the September 3rd Council meeting.
- PPLIP – Nothing new to report here….a few prizes remain, but this project ultimately did not improve usage or awareness of this parking lot. It has been a fairly good advertising medium for local businesses if nothing else…but we should really focus on the coming wayfinding program as a solution to this problem
- Hood to Coast [Aug.23rd] – Waiting for this event to take place on Friday, August 23rd. I will be present and monitoring the staging area for part of race day to observe and possibly assist race officials and local businesses with any issues that might arise. Will also be looking to determine how many coupons are returning to the 4 businesses participating in the coupon program. An after-action report will be available in August’s monthly report.
- Ford Family Foundation project – project completed (see below)
Conferences/training: [The Ford Institute Leadership Program] This project came to fruition on the weekend of July 19 as the entire cohort (along with SCAC volunteers and a few others that came to help) did the build-out phase of the project. The entire interior of the building was painted, the floor was polished and carpet steam-cleaned, and all of the fixtures were removed and placed outside under an aluminum framed tent we bought for them (this will be used in the future for covering the food box pickup area in their back parking lot to give the volunteers a little relief from the sun and/or rain). Once everything was dry, we replaced the fixtures and cashier’s counter with brand new versions from Grand & Benedicts (a company that provides fixtures for many of the shops in the Pearl District), along with a few modern display cases. We took the reconstituted shelving units donated by the Sandy Public Library and installed them along the walls of the store, installing custom bars between some of them to hang linens and fabrics. Finally, we widened the entry to the “Little Shop of Treasures” by about a foot, making it easier to access this area as well as monitor it, and installed security mirrors around the store for theft deterrence (believe it or not, this is actually an issue at the SCAC).
In addition, because we raised more money that we had initially projected, we decided to buy them a few things they really needed. We purchased a stackable washer and dryer unit to fit in a custom space in their pantry, which made sense because it fit perfectly, was already plumbed, and provided them the capacity to wash and dry donations there at the Center rather than have the volunteers take them home and wash them (which was SOP prior to this purchase). We also purchased them a commercial grade freezer to replace their old, worn down, energy hog floor freezer – this will provide them a ton more freezer space and a ton more storage space (upright!), and do so for a much lower marginal cost to their electric bill. This still left us with approximately $3,100 left over, which will be donated to the Action Center to do with as they wish once we close out the books.
This was a fantastic project all around. Initially I was not enthusiastic about giving up my Saturdays (especially during college football season) to do leadership training, even if it was free. However, I am glad that Dr. Lazenby “encouraged” me to take part in this program. The training was superb, the networking opportunities were fantastic and quite helpful to me as a new Sandy resident, and the end result of our project was to spruce up yet another downtown entity, which in my book is as much of a direct impact on Sandy’s economic development as the City’s façade program.
If you would like to see us in action, check out the Highway to Hood’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/HighwayToHood. There are lots of good before and after pictures…
[OCCMA Summer Conference] I also attended the Oregon City/County Manager’s Association summer conference as Sandy’s lone attendee. I found it quite amusing that the LO crowd sought me out for dinner on the first night there to grill me on what they could do to…um….how do I put this delicately?….”impress” Scott. There is definitely a different culture in Lake Oswego than there is in Sandy, no doubt. My advice to them was simple: Scott likes big ideas, thinking outside of the box, and using technology to solve problems. It is not necessary to read his fiction books (they actually asked me which books of his they should read multiple times), become a cyclist or learn how to play guitar to relate to him. Hopefully they are learning this now…
The conference itself was once again worth the money for the networking opportunities alone. I got to know the city manager of Gresham quite well on this trip, and feel like I have another good source for advice should I need it down the road. It was also nice to see MPA students and PSU Public Administration professors at this conference again, as succession planning is becoming more and more of a priority for cities as the baby boomers start retiring. From the students I met this time around, it seems like the Local Govt. focus of the MPA program is getting stronger. And we should definitely start thinking about potential graduation projects for some of these kids, as free graduate labor is something we have benefitted from in the past and should strive to do again in the future…