General notes: This month heralds the arrival of a document I have been waiting for since I got to Sandy years ago – the 2015 City of Sandy Market Analysis by Marketek. Mary Bosch has finally completed this report, and it is as fascinating as I thought it might be. The entire report will be posted on the Economic Development page shortly, but for those of you who don’t have the time to read a 50 page report right now, the following is an executive summary of the findings.
Target Market Area
The City’s target market area remains around 40,000 persons and about 3,500 employees for 942 businesses. Services have surpassed retail as biggest share of employee market. Visitor traffic is steadily increasing, and potential is high for restaurants as visitor spending is increasing even though they don’t like our restaurants (food spending double that of arts/entertainment/recreation)
Retail gap analysis & competitive assessment update
We have a surplus of “home improvement & gardening” and “food & beverage stores” business, although citizens have been strongly demanding healthier options from the latter sector. There is massive demand for “apparel” ($24M in demand versus $2M in supply), “electronics & appliances” ($12M vs. $2M), and “health & personal care” ($26M vs. $3.5M). We could support an additional 640K SF of retail space (up 125K SF from 2009) and this number is growing rapidly.
Opinion research
Shoppers survey had 250 participants, and respondents want casual apparel, organic grocery options, decent restaurants and a furniture store. 35% of shoppers do their shopping in Sandy, and this is an improvement over 2009. Shoppers say pedestrian safety and poor selection of goods and services are primary deterrents to shopping downtown, but they strongly value supporting local biz.
Business owner survey stated sense of community, helping the local economy and good visibility are strengths; proximity to services and amenities and city restrictions and regulations (specifically parking, sign permits and design standards) are weaknesses. Despite this, most businesses say they are growing, and 80% have made a significant investment in the past 2 years.
Top desired goods and services in Sandy by sector (per Shopper’s survey)
- Household goods: furniture (52%), building supplies (41%)
- Apparel: shoes (57%), women’s casual (55%)
- Specialty: sporting goods (43%), arts & crafts (45%), books (36%)
- Convenience merchandise & personal services: groceries (32%), tailoring/alterations (30%), other (29%) – most in the “other” category indicated natural foods/Trader Joes. Sandyites REALLY want an organic grocery that meets their needs.
- General services: day care (37%), appliance repair (33%)
- Health services: homeopathic/naturopathic care (42%), general health care (39%) – demand for natural health care options rising significantly
- Cuisine: steakhouse/grill (58%), seafood (52%), healthy/natural (40%)
- Leisure/entertainment: bowling (60%), concerts/live music (41%), other (27%) – most frequent response in “other” was child-friendly recreation (putt putt course, indoor playground) – NOTE: Sandy has a bouncy-castle business called “Wippersnappers” opening in July.
Other responses of note
- Improvements Sandy merchants can make: improve selection (57%), lower prices/sales (51%), expand store hours (45%), promotions/advertise (44%)
Business owner survey – responses of note
- Current business activity: growing (57%), holding our own (29%), declining (5%)
- Recent investments or improvements planned (more than 1 answer ok): new marketing/promotional (43%), new products, services (43%), physical improvements (38%), new staff positions (38%), no improvements planned (29%) – 3 out of 10 businesses in Sandy don’t plan to invest in their businesses at all in this new economy. Yet only 5% of businesses say they are in decline. That means at least one quarter of all profitable businesses in Sandy have no interest in growing their business.
Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):
Jeanne Young’s Carpet Outlet: After more than a year of sitting empty, it appears that Betty Tee’s building on Pioneer has a new tenant. This discount carpet store is being opened by long time Sandy resident Bob Young and his daughter, and by the time you read this they will be open for business. Mr. Young has extensive background in the carpet business, having worked for another regional carpet retailer for a number of years. They admit that Sandy Décor might be tough to compete against, but are confident that their discount pricing will draw them plenty of customers once they are established.
Laundromat in process at old Sandy Vac site/Blue Sky & Daydreams LLC site: So this couldn’t have worked out any better than it has…..the new laundromat that has been lurching forward in fits and starts in the old Sandy Vac location has ultimately decided, after numerous setbacks and delays, to call off the project. However, the old laundromat site was just leased by a business owner from SW Washington who wished to put in another laundromat with…..wait for it….ALL NEW MACHINES!!! In fact, the GC that Terre, John and I spoke to during the fire/life safety inspection for this site says they are rehabbing the entire site, top to bottom. New vinyl flooring, new electrical, new plumbing, all ceiling tiles will be replaced, new change machines and soap vending machines, new LED lighting, mag-lock doors and a coat of paint. Finally….a laundromat that won’t generate multiple complaint calls every week from disgruntled patrons!!!
UPDATE: I’ve been waiting for this day since 2011!!!
Paradise Quilts/Beads Down Under: For those who haven’t noticed yet, the Sah building (next to City Hall) has some new tenants. Paradise Quilts has moved into the two small units in the northwest corner of the building following the purchase of their old building by Mount Hood Cleaners, and is now open for business. Their new location is a little more spacious than the old, and the store looks sharp! Their new neighbor will be Beads Down Under, who will be moving from her location in the old church sometime this month and occupying the unit on the southwest corner of the building.
That leaves two vacant spaces in Barbara Sah’s building – one of which will likely be an expansion space for Trail Pals, and the other (the old Reel Tackle Shop) I just recently listed on the CoS Available Commercial Properties database a couple of weeks ago. Barbara just told me she just got a call from a gentleman that operates a small call center who saw that listing and would like to rent the property next month! It’s nice to see that these databases that I built are not only being used, they are bearing fruit! UPDATE #1: The call center business, according to Mrs. Sah, will be moving in June 2015. UPDATE #2: Mrs. Sah is very interested in getting fiber to her building, as several of her new and existing tenants would like the service. She has recently reached out to both myself and Joe K. about this. We would like to make sure that hers is one of the first buildings we do once UR funds become available for this purpose!
The B of A building: There has been some interest in this property recently, and it may be on the verge of changing hands. At this time, the change in ownership would be purely speculative, as a new tenant has yet to be identified. Watch this space.
Red Shed Public House (former Organic Sandy location): Now open for business. The interior is very nice – reminiscent of a small neighborhood tap house in Portland. I have spoken to a number of customers about the quality of the food, and they all had nothing but positive things to say. So far, Mr. Newberry’s business seems to be a hit with the community. Keep up the good work, Jeff.
Sandy Main Street: Our May First Friday had a little bit better turnout than April’s event, probably due to the comfortable weather as well as the participation of Impact Learning Center, the Action Center and a number of home businesses that were not a part of FF in April. The final First Friday that Sandy Main Street will manage is June 5th, and should be our busiest event in 2015 so far unless it rains. This event will have the year’s first business awareness activity [Safari Bingo!] designed to get citizens to visit every participating store.
June’s First Friday will be the last event that Sandy Main Street will be administering in its current form. It has been an interesting management project administering this organization over the last two years….sometimes a struggle, but mostly rewarding. I would like to loudly thank both of my staffers, Aubrey Erwin and Jennifer Marks, for not only keeping the organization going, but for expanding and improving our downtown community events to what they are today. First Fridays are a delight to participate in now, and the Trick or Treat Trail had 62 participating businesses last year and is truly a sight to behold. We now trust that whomever takes over these events through the Special Service Contract program will continue to build on what these two exceptional young ladies created. I will offer my services to assist with that transition, which will take place in July.
So when you see Jennifer and Aubrey out wandering the town during June’s First Friday, please give them a pat on the back and thank them for all of their hard work. They absolutely deserve it! And for those who have spoken to me about trying to retain Jennifer here in Sandy, fear not….Jennifer has accepted a position with SandyNet, and will begin scheduling work and a few other special projects for Joe in July!
Project work: I am pleased to announce that the Mount Hood Farmer’s Market is up and rolling! We have been through two markets as of this writing and the turnout has been moderate but steady, but both of those markets took place in less than ideal weather. The true test will be Farmer’s Market number three, which has a projected high temperature of 82 degrees. Many of our vendors have either run out of stock, or have had to send an employee back to the farm to pick more produce. Since the beginning, we have added eggs, honey and fresh bread from the AntFarm bakery. We will add Red Shed barbecue and fresh berries at the next market.
Not all of the kinks have been worked out quite yet, as we are still working on implementing the SNAP program at the market so we can invite more participation from the low-income segment of our community. We are also struggling with the departure of a key personnel member from AntFarm which is slowing us down a bit. However, our kids program at the market has been a huge success, and we continue to find musical entertainment that has really helped not only to draw folks to the market, but to get them to hang out and socialize. And many thanks to SandyNet (Scott Brown particularly) for getting the wi-fi setup in the Outdoor Building to operate at peak performance, making electronic transactions by market vendors a breeze. All-in-all, both vendors and market patrons have been very happy with the progress to date.
If you would like more information on the Mount Hood Farmer’s Market, click on the following link to be connected to AntFarm’s MHFM page: http://www.antfarm-international.com/mount-hood-farmers-market-2/
Conferences/training: None in the last 30 days.