General notes:  As some of you might already know, I have been accompanying Terre on his initial fire/life safety inspections for several months now.  I feel that a) it is vitally important for me to understand the Building and Planning worlds a little bit better, and these inspections really help me to determine what Terre’s looking for and therefore how to advise businesses, and b) it gives me an opportunity to offer my services as the City’s business liaison and meet these business owners face-to-face.  While going through this process with a new business, we came across a problem that Terre runs into quite a bit, and one that might benefit from a little bit of direction from Council.

As we were walking through the property, we came across a fairly substantial “storage loft” (600-800 SF) that the business owner was planning on using as a day-care space for his kids while he worked, as well as to store equipment.  Upon further inspection, the loft was found to be recently (> 2yrs ago) constructed without permits, possibly by the building owner himself.  Terre instructed the business owner that he would not be able to use this section of the building until further notice as he needed to determine how and when this space was constructed, and was asked to post a sign saying that no children were allowed in this area at all.  He is currently researching the situation.

Terre would be well within his rights as a building official to make the building owner tear out all of the unpermitted work and start over.  However, this would definitely not be seen as being a “business-friendly” move, a goal that Council has made clear that they would like us to work towards whenever possible. We can’t ignore such a move because of the liability to the City, and because to do so would be unfair to building owners that play by the rules. My suggestion was to ask if there was some way we could require the building owner to get permits for the work retroactively, pay the permitting fees, and pay a penalty on top of those fees that would hurt, but not hurt as much as tearing out what might be perfectly good work.  But of course, this is a policy decision and is therefore not ours to make.  Looking forward to any thoughts you might have with regard to this issue…

Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):

Crawlers (38250 Pioneer Blvd):  Plans have changed for this space in Brian Tolle’s building at the corner of Bluff and 26.  As mentioned in previous reports, the Boring area auto repair shop that had its eye on this space has backed out of that deal for unknown reasons.  The current plan is for Sara McKay, daughter of Mad Dogz Hobby Shop owners Mike & Kathy McKay, to create a complimentary business in the space next door.  The plan is to build a “track” for the radio-controlled (RC) vehicles that Mad Dogz sells inside the back end of the property, and to build a RC-themed restaurant in the front called Crawlers to serve those folks that would like to run their vehicles there.  Sara tells me that the menu will be similar to Dea’s Restaurant in Gresham (burgers, fries, shakes, etc.).  They are currently in the process of building out the interior of the space, and project a March opening date.

Iris Healing Arts:  Iris House has landed!  After moving out of her space behind the Beer Den on Strauss Avenue, Heather Michet has worked out a deal with another health care provider here in town.  She will move the office portion of her business to her home, and she will be moving the practitioner’s portion of her business into a space provided for her by Anna Zell of Pearl Acupuncture.  This move should represent a significant savings in overhead costs for Ms. Michet, which should help to keep this business viable in the near to moderate future.

Two Bros. Mexican Restaurant:  Concerns here about the overall viability of this business continue, although the patterns here are a little confusing.  I have been checking regularly now, and this business no longer seems to be open for lunch at all, even while the sign on the door says that they’re open at 11am.  My contacts in the restaurant industry say that this is a sign of “the beginning of the end” for this business.  However, I regularly see decent crowds at this restaurant at dinner time.  Not sure what to make of this yet, but I will continue to try and get in to talk to Angelberto about his situation.  Councilor Gerberg:  Whenever you have the time, I will work around your schedule.  If you’re still up for it, let’s go chat with him sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Office # is 503-489-2159, and personal cell # is 503-475-8430 — call me anytime.  Como dije antes, la primera cerveza está en mí.   🙂

Mike’s Tire Service:  This is a small wheel and tire dealer/installer that is setting up a small shop in the industrial-zoned buildings at Industrial Way across from Fred Meyer’s gas station.  He is currently working on his initial fire/life safety inspection list – he has one mechanical permit in process, and needs to paint his air compressor storage unit to match his building before his business license will be processed.

Tamale Factory:  Spoke with Antonio Paez last week about how this build-out is progressing….he was unaware that the state law regarding grease interceptors had changed and that this would be required of any business serving any kind of food now.  This equipment can be expensive, and he had not factored this into his budgeting when writing up his business plan.  However, he has worked out some sort of deal with Andrew Muff (building owner) to split the cost somehow, and plans are back on track.  Look for fresh tamales starting in March! (old Coffee Station property next to Tovar’s)

Starbucks:  As mentioned in earlier reports, the (now) former Jack In The Box on US26 will be the new home for the Starbucks located next to Bi-Mart.  The pre-application meeting has already happened, and their contractor is currently working on the remodel for the interior of the building.  They are anticipating a summer move at the latest, and Starbucks employees are very excited to be moving to a building that has a) sunlight, and b) much, much more space.  From a business standpoint, this move should increase their visibility substantially and give a much more spacious, relaxing environment on the interior.

LoriRyland.com:  I’m really, really excited about this one….Lori Ryland has signed a deal with Dr. Eric LeMay of Bull Run Chiropractic to lease the space formerly occupied by Hahn Consulting on the corner of Proctor and Strauss.  Although the space is only about 1400 SF, it is substantially larger than her previous location and should provide a fantastic opportunity for Lori to expand her business.  Lori plans to continue with her art classes, but will now have a space that can be used both as a gallery and as a social gathering space in the future.

On a personal note, I had been hoping that Lori could find a space somewhere in the couplet so that we could keep her involved in First Fridays and other Sandy Main Street events.  Having a local artist in the downtown area, especially someone as talented as Ms. Ryland, will be quite advantageous to Sandy Main Street in the future.  Aubrey also plans to approach her to ask if she might consider serving on one of Sandy Main Street’s committees as our art and marketing advisor

Bunsenbrewers:  Aaron Hansen is operating on a temporary business license and is currently serving libations at Sandy’s newest brewpub!  He still has one plumbing permit open (thus the temporary permit), and has some things to complete for the county health inspector prior to being fully operational.  However, the mayor tells me that the grand opening a few weeks ago was standing room only, so Aaron has certainly been marketing his business well.  I will stop by in a week or two to see what kind of progress he’s making (and to get a growler of Heisenberg for sure!) – go to his Facebook page to see the latest (https://www.facebook.com/Bunsenbrewer)

Sandy Main Street:  Due to the fact that we do not appear to have administrative rights to the website for Sandy Main Street (and because our website is, quite frankly, a little lame), we have started work towards setting up an entirely new website.  I recently purchased the domain name sandymainstreet.org to use alongside sandymainstreet.com, and we will direct both to the new site.  Look for the new site to be up and running by the end of the month!  In related news:

• The restaurant promotion concept was, unfortunately, a non-starter.  Aubrey had floated this idea to as many restaurants in town as she could contact.  The general response she got was that they might participate, but only if it didn’t cost them any money (not just in participation fees but in offering specials as well – no discounting on anything).   She also heard several businesses say that they had tried this before, and it didn’t work.  Rather than beat a dead horse, we just let the idea go for lack of enthusiasm.
• First Friday starts in April, and planning for this year’s event has already begun.  We are currently going over what we would like to offer for this year’s themes, and will bring this up at the SMS Promotion Committee meeting next week.  Aubrey has been putting together new marketing materials for this year’s event, and they look fantastic.  More to come…
• In continuing to work with our two committees, we have basically told our committee members that next month’s meeting of the Promotion Committee is essentially mandatory, as we have a lot of outstanding items that require committee direction and action.  First Friday planning will require some action on behalf of committee members as far as contacting participating business and collecting fees, and staff cannot (and according to our charter and our national organization, should not) be doing all of the leg work.

Project work: 

• The Mayor’s “Business-Friendly” Task Force – The beta version of the “How to Open a Business in Sandy” Guide is now up on the city’s website.  I am currently working on the wording and flow of Step 4 (Meet with the City Building Official) with Terre and Noryne.  Once that process is complete, I will meet with Tracy to go over the parts of the guide dealing with planning issues.  There are formatting issues with some of the graphics, as with almost all of the pages on the city’s website.  We are waiting until the City moves over to the new web platform in the next few months, and then we will correct the current formatting issues and add additional graphics then.  As it stands now, the Guide is about 70% of the way to completion.

Conferences/training:  No conferences in the month of January.  [Next conference for me will probably be the OCCMA Spring Conference at Skamania Lodge in late March of 2014.]  There were two training classes this month, both being put on by the state Main Street organization.  The first was a networking and administrative meeting in Salem that introduced us to some more mature Main Street program, so it was good to make those connections.  We now have several people in places like McMinnville, Astoria and Oregon City that we feel like we can call and ask for advice, and Aubrey and I will be taking a field trip in the spring to some of the more successful organizations for advice on how to build the program.  The second was a 4-hour presentation by a Main Street organization from New Mexico that has completely transformed their town.  They placed a lot of emphasis on small, issue-oriented or single event workgroups rather than committees….I think they had 27 groups instead of the 4 committees that a fully-formed Main Street would have.  They say this worked much better and promoted much better participation by the volunteers.  We are analyzing this approach now…