General notes: So the August First Friday went off without a hitch, and turnout was medium. Participants by and large were happy with the event, and are hoping for a little better turnout in September. So far one of the biggest obstacles we have faced so far is how to remind folks about the event. When they know about it, they turn out. The transition has also highlighted that this is one area where the Chamber needs to do some….er….problem solving.
So far we have made changes in a couple of areas with a couple of reminders in our collective calendars (getting advance notice of the event to Karey so she can post on FB and the City webpage, and to Seth for mention in the “Weekend Update” – the Chamber forgets from time to time that the City has these great communications assets!). We will also start sending out an e-blast as a reminder to our membership – and there is talk that we might look for event sponsors for First Friday in 2016.
One other idea that we would like to ask you about is event signage. Since this is a community event, and we are largely not using the yellow “Main Street Event” flags anymore for obvious reasons, it would be helpful to have 5 or 6 signs to put up around the couplet (and eventually around the City) that say something simple like “First Friday – This Week – Friday the __, 5PM to 8PM” as a reminder to Sandyites that First Friday is happening. I can’t tell you how many people have told me “I forgot” when I ask them if they’re going to FF. Of course, sign code prohibits this….with exceptions for community events like the Trick or Treat Trail and First Friday.
I have asked Seth to put myself and our President/Executive Director on the agenda for one of the upcoming Council meetings to humbly ask for your permission to consider doing this. If you have questions or concerns, please call me. (x2159)
Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):
TCBY: Neighboring businesses inform me that this business closed sometime during the last week in August. This strikes me as somewhat strange, considering that they seemed to be drawing a fair amount of customers (they have been busy every time I have stopped by Papa Murphy’s to get a pizza in the recent past). Noryne is attempting to contact the owners as I type this, so hopefully we will have some more information soon. However, considering how much the property owners are charging for rent and triple-net charges in this building, I think I might have a good idea as to why this happened….
Crawlers: This business has recently closed due to pending eviction by the building owner. The building was purchased recently, and the new owner evicted this business for allegedly failing to pay rent. There is some sort of legal action pending concerning this eviction, but it is unlikely that Crawlers will return to this location in the future. It is possible, however, that this business will return in another form as a cart-based business. Time will tell…
NW Trading Post: So Mr. Booth does intend to open his pawn shop in Sandy, although the location has changed since my last report. Unfortunately negotiations with Galen Fancher to lease the Fastenal building were unsuccessful, so he has signed a lease (pending the capacity to get a business license) with Betty Tee to take over the vacant space in her building, which is the east side and downstairs areas. The carpet shop has moved from the east side to the west side of the building, triggering another recent fire/life safety inspection, which they passed.
However, this presents a problem that Mr. Booth and Ms. Tee will need to work out amongst themselves. Mr. Booth requires the downstairs of the building for storage, but the downstairs is currently posted as not available for occupancy by the building official. This condition is reversible, but Ms. Tee will need to make some serious repairs to that section of the building, including building out walls and installing a door for the electrical panels so that both tenants may have keyed access to them, which is required by law. The rest of the downstairs, if occupied by Trading Post NW, will also need extensive work before occupancy. The building owner indicated to the building official and myself that she intends to get this work done immediately and has contractors lined up to do the work.
It has now been two weeks since the building official’s initial inspection, and so far we have not received a request from the building owner for a re-inspection. My hope is that the building owner gets the work completed soon, but I am exploring back-up opportunities for the business owner in the event that he gets tired of waiting for this to occur should the process get stalled. I have also suggested to Mr. Booth that he personally do a walk-through at the property to make sure that it suits him, as he has not taken this step yet. I’ll keep you updated as to the progress here as it occurs.
B of A building: This building is in the process (hopefully) of changing hands. A potential sale of the property is being negotiated right now between the current property owner and a local business owner, and the progress to this point sounds encouraging. Since the current owner of this property values discretion, it would be prudent for the buyer to remain anonymous at this time. However, this transaction may be part of a larger deal between the two parties involving another downtown property in the near future. Watch this space.
16605 362nd Avenue: This is the tiny sliver of space available in the Fred Meyer Shops property (the mini-mall with Great Clips and Papa Murphy’s in it) next door to the AT&T Store. The property owner is asking $1,917/month plus triple-net charges of $663/month and a 5-year minimum lease for this 920 SF space. I have no idea why any retail business would agree to those terms in this market, but according to the realtor, that is what national chains are used to paying so he thinks he can get someone to pay that amount. I am highly skeptical of this, and the fact that this space has been unoccupied since the building was built and is almost small enough to be functionally unusable would seem to support my case [not to mention the recent failure of TCBY in the same building – see above]. Yet, they have somehow found enough national retailers to fill the rest of the slots at that rate, so I guess we’ll see…
35900 Industrial Way Suite 305: This is another property that I have had an extremely difficult time getting in touch with the realtor about. He gave me about half of the information I needed, but asked me not to post it for months while he worked out a potential lease with an unnamed company. This company allegedly signed a lease at the beginning of August. I asked him if, now that he had a signed lease, he would give me contact information for the company so we could get in touch with them regarding business licensing and a fire/life safety inspection (and so we could at the very least check and make sure that the business was a permitted use in this zone). At that point he went completely dark on me. This concerns me a little bit, as I now wonder if he has leased to a marijuana-based business and doesn’t want to tell us.
I have been checking on this property about once a week since then. No one has moved in yet (the realtor’s lockbox is still attached to the front door), and I will continue to check until something happens here. Hopefully my concerns are unfounded.
Cedars Laundromat: If you didn’t see the post I placed on the City’s Facebook page….Cedars is now open for business, and if you listen very closely you can hear the cries of “Hallelujah” coming from trailer homes and apartments around the area! The new owner did a FANTASTIC job of rehabbing this space from the disgusting hovel it used to be to its current form – the walls are clean, most everything works (there were a few machines out of order, but considering that the former business only had 17% of their machines working prior to leaving, I’ll take it!), the ceilings aren’t water-stained anymore, and the change and soap machines are brand new. They even installed a free wi-fi system and some nice commercial folding tables and new seating for their clientele. Amen.
Sandy Marketplace: This is the official name for the complex that contains Bi-Mart and Grocery Outlet. Under new management since July, the new owner has contacted me about placing three of their properties on the Available Commercial Buildings database, which I have done. They include the old Starbucks location, Cascade Vision’s location (see the July ED Dept report), and Baskin Robbins. The latter apparently hasn’t been doing all that well in recent years, and will vacate the space as soon as another business is interested in moving into their site. No takers yet, but Joe Knapp suggested that this space might make a good new location for SandyNet’s offices considering it is next door to Wave. 🙂
The new owners, Albanese Cormier LLC out of Texas, are also making arrangements to repair/repave and restripe the parking lot for this complex soon, which should mollify the retail tenants of this mall that have been demanding this of the previous owners for years.
Carlson property (old La Torta site): Another quick update on this property – Planning has informed me that Jerry Carlson has indeed agreed to run utilities to this property for his food cart pod concept. An excellent decision on his part, and one that I believe will bear fruit for him soon. Unfortunately, Mr. Carlson has decided that he is not happy with the currently planned configuration for parking at this site, and plans to challenge the requirement with the Planning Commission, which is his right. More to come (hopefully).
Project work: The pre-application for the City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Project has been approved by Clackamas County Tourism, but with caveats. Unfortunately, the County is not interested in funding the 2015 Bike Map piece of the project, stating that it would be more appropriate for the City to fund that piece directly. That leaves the project with two primary parts:
- Building a “Cycling in Sandy” master web page on the City’s site with a series of sub-pages to replace the old “Sandy: Bike HQ for NW Oregon” page that Dr. Lazenby created. The new pages will include dozens of new Sandy-centric rides along with pages for Cycling and Transit, Sandy Ridge, Sandy Bike Friendly Businesses, How to Get to Sandy on your Bike, and a lot of other amenities. (Let me know if you have any suggestions!)
- Creation of a public bicycle station in Centennial Plaza: this highly-visible station will include a Dero Fixit self-serivce bike repair station complete with attached tools and compressed air, additional bike racks, video monitoring and signage to go along side the public restrooms at Centennial Plaza.
I am currently working on putting together a budget for the project, and will complete the application for the grant no later than October 14th for submittal.
Conferences/training: None in August.