General notes: The build-up for July 2014 is beginning in earnest, and this year July will be even bigger than it normally is. Preparations are starting at the Chamber for Music Fair and Feast, and the Sandy Mountain Festival Association is going full-bore to get ready for the Festival. The entertainment has been selected for the Summer Sounds concert series and Movies in the Park, the Public Market is up in Centennial Plaza on alternate Saturdays, and Urban Renewal is beginning work for this year’s Façade Program recipients. Business as usual.
In addition, this year Sandy Main Street will be hosting its Imagine Sandy visioning meeting on June 23rd to collect input from citizens, downtown business and property owners, and other interested stakeholders (see below) regarding the future of downtown Sandy. The Public Market will also have some competition, as both AntFarm and Organic Sandy will be offering their version on alternate Fridays in July as well.
With regard to the suggestion that I look into some good training classes related to business recruitment: Seth, Lisa and I have completed a review of my budget, and there does in fact seem to be some existing funding available for such an endeavor. I have potentially identified a good 2-day IEDC (Intl Econ Devl Council) course in Atlanta in August – you can take a look at the agenda by clicking below:
http://www.pe.gatech.edu/courses/iedc-economic-development-marketing-and-attraction
This will be the first attempt to educate myself to become the City’s marketing guru, but certainly not the last. As always, if you hear of a good resource on this topic, please forward it on to me!
Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):
Dolly’s Pet Shoppe: Finally! After (literally) years of looking for a new building to relocate to, Anna and Marlene finally signed a contract on the best space they could have possibly hoped for: the old Chamber space! Anna and I have been talking about this day for well over a year now, and it will finally become a reality on June 15th when their contract expires with their current landlord. The new location is almost twice the size of her current store, and the space is badly needed – she says she has about 300 square feet of displays and product sitting in the living room of her house because she has no space in her store to set them up. Plus, it has better visibility, off-street parking (and a virtual loading zone outside the side door on Pioneer), lighting, and proximity to the downtown core of activity. This will also put Dolly’s in a better position to participate in Sandy Main Street events like First Fridays and the Trick-or-Treat Trail, events that Anna has told me she would like to become more involved with in the future.
If you have pets, stop by and see her new store when it opens during the 3rd week of June. She has a lot of quality product lines and, after 9 years in business, really knows her stuff. Way, way better than PetSmart!
La Milpa Mexican Foods: Luis Corral and company are finally starting the process of moving their factory from their current home in Mike Maiden’s complex to the former home of The Eclectic Institute. This represents a very positive move for La Milpa – the new factory floor is twice the size of their current one, which will allow them to start manufacturing a few new products like tortilla chips and tostada shells. Fire/life safety inspection didn’t turn up any serious problems with the building, so the move should proceed over the next 3 months or so. Senor Corral and his business partner are excited to finally be expanding, as they have been contemplating this move for about 2 years now. Once they get ready to test out their new product line, I will introduce them to Antonio Paez – perhaps the Tamale Factory can be their test lab! (I know Antonio is thinking about adding chips and salsa to his menu, and I’m pretty sure he would be interested in a local supplier – “economic gardening” in action!)
Blue Sky & Daydreams, LLC: a.k.a. the Laundromat from Hades. I stopped by at lunch the other day to see if any of the work rumored to be done here has actually been done on this space. To no one’s surprise, the place is actually in worse condition than the last time I stopped by. The number of missing tiles on the floor seems to have multiplied, and it looks like someone tried to jack the change machines, which have wires sticking out now where the dollar bill accepters used to be. The vandalized sign referring customers to a phone number for refunds has been removed and replaced with nothing. Number of customers present: zero. So sad.
All-Ways Towing: Terre, Tracy, Don Patty and I descended upon the All-Ways site for a fire/life safety inspection, and it seemed to go very well. No huge problems were detected, and we got a little bit of insight into what they’re planning. Other than that, it was a fairly routine inspection.
Sandy Organic: Had the ribbon cutting for their Friday market concept on May 23rd. Many thanks to Mayor King for presiding, and for the strong presence at the event by both Council and staff. The event drew a fair number of people, and provided a great photo op for this new business.
Sandy Main Street: Believe it or not, Aubrey’s term of service with us is almost up! I completed the application for our new RARE student earlier in the week, and we will be conducting interviews the week of July 14th for Aubrey’s 2014-2015 replacement. RARE is estimating that we will have between 3 and 5 interviews to conduct, most if not all of which will be via Skype or telephone.
Also, we will be putting on Imagine Sandy, our visioning meeting for Sandy’s downtown core, on June 23rd at the Community Center. You all have invites in your City Hall mailboxes, and we would really, really love your participation if you have the time to spare. This event will be similar to the Prescriptions for ED event that Dr. Lazenby and I put on in 2011, but will be moderated by Sheri Stuart, our Oregon Main Street supervisor. Sheri has done tons of these types of visioning meetings, so it will be a delight to have someone with so much experience running the show. We will share the results of this meeting with the community at a shorter follow-up event in August, and with the Council at a future Council meeting (probably in late July). If you have any questions, contact Aubrey – this is her show!
Project work:
- The Mayor’s “Business-Friendly” Task Force – Meetings are now weekly and ongoing, and staff is finding them very beneficial in getting all city departments on the same page when dealing with issues. Topics of discussion this time around were: next steps regarding the boarding house, the pending La Milpa move, Imagine Sandy, and a site visit at the Cool Printing Building to discuss ADA/safety upgrades with Cyndi McCool (which went much better than expected).
- Bicycle Rental Program, part Deux – I don’t know if Council is aware, but Andreanne Rode of Otto’s Ski Shop applied for and received an additional grant from Clackamas County to put together some mountain bike events up on the mountain this year. Part of the grant money was to purchase a bicycle trailer capable of carrying a dozen bikes so she could take equipment with her on the road. The County requested that the bike trailer be purchased and owned by the City of Sandy (like the initial mountain bike purchase) to avoid looking like they were favoring a particular business over others. This has now occurred, so we now own a bike trailer (currently being stored in the PW yard) which we are free to use for our own events as well (CornCross!!!). Thanks Clackamas County Tourism & Cultural Affairs!
- Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce – The Chamber moved into its new home in May, substantially cutting our overhead for the next 5 years. We also hired a new part timer to help give Khrys a little bit of breathing room. Currently consumed with planning for Music Faire and Feast. So far, so good.
Conferences/training: [NetCity promotional video for Business Oregon – May 13] Although this did happen in May, I spoke about this in last month’s departmental report so I’ll spare you all the rehashing of old news. I am waiting with some anticipation to see the final product, which I will share when completed.
[ELGL#14 Planning Meeting – May 15] Ongoing, but nothing of significance yet other than developing a theme for the conference (Telling Stories – How We Communicate). We have some very interesting options developing for keynote speakers, but I don’t want to jinx anything just yet. More to come…