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

Goodwill Industries site (formerly Oja Lumber):  Progress.  Konell is now working on the grading stage of the project.  All of the Oja-owned buildings on the site have been raised and removed (see photo), and you can now see the Fresenius Dialysis building behind it rather prominently in all of its “Sandy-style” glory.  Goodwill Industries projects a December 2016 completion date for both the new Goodwill building and the additional 4,000 square foot retail building.  The retail building has not pre-leased to anyone yet as far as I know – still 100% available.

Lil Cubs Pre-School:  Kristin Turner is still searching for a new home for her business – Mike Maiden decided against renting one of his existing spaces to her after all.  I have not been able to speak to either party at length about this, but it sounds to me like Mr. Maiden was not confident that he could get all of the existing equipment and personnel out of this space quickly enough to remodel and open in time for the coming school year.  We are currently exploring another location option in one of Mr. Picking’s buildings.

Old Gifts of Past & Present space:  This building has been purchased by an existing Sandy business that would prefer to remain anonymous.  They have asked me not to share any specific information about their plans here until they start working on transforming the building to meet their vision, but I can tell you that they are planning to put a business in this space that will serve as a test store to see if the concept can be replicated in other cities in the Portland metro area.  This will be a type of retail business that does not currently exist in Sandy, but I suspect will be very, very popular with our citizens.  Watch this space.

old Paris Café space:  The day care center leasing this space did not hit their mid-May opening date and doesn’t look to be opening anytime soon, as there have been no permits filed or work done.  I suspect that this business may be looking at an opening date closer to the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

Sandy Marketplace:  I am developing a great relationship with the rep from Albanese Cormier that manages this property, and I am confident that the three vacant spaces in this complex will not be vacant for very long.  It sounds like AC is ready to spend some money on property maintenance soon, including painting some of the rougher patches on the building and perhaps resurfacing the parking lot.

I recently showed the old Cascade Vision space to a mortgage/real estate broker who is looking to anchor in the Sandy area, and he sounded like he was ready to lease the space right away.  This space may be filled and operating with a brand new business before my next report.  The old Starbucks space is still vacant primarily because Starbucks’ lease doesn’t run out until early 2017.  However, Kristyn at Albanese Cormier tells me that this is currently being worked out with Starbucks Corporate, and they hope the space will be available to lease in July.  She already has a tenant interested in occupying it (a bento chain?), so this space is likely to be filled by fall of this year.

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal: Work on this project is largely complete.  First, the old “Cycling HQ for NW Oregon” page created by our old city manager has been significantly upgraded.  Please check out the new “Cycling in Sandy” pages on the City’s website – I have greatly expanded the amount of information available on the site and have attempted to give the page more of a “bicycle tourism” feel.  Kathleen Walker has provided a lot of feedback to help make the page more accurate, and her feedback has been greatly appreciated.  Second, the Sandy Bike Station is now mostly installed and already being used by Sandy residents.  We still need to purchase some signage for the station, and wayfinding signage has been ordered but not yet received but everything else is up and running.  90% complete.
• Community Partnership Program grant: The 2016 City of Sandy Bike Map is complete and available at multiple locations around the City.  We have two versions of the map – a regular glossy tri-fold and a water and tear proof version.  The former can be found at any of the Bike Friendly Businesses around town, as well as Mountain Sports in Welches and the Zigzag Ranger Station (and more Portland-metro area bike shops in the future).  The latter can be found at Sandy Bicycle, Otto’s, the museum and the City Recreation Department.  Our printer (Phoenix Media in Portland) will keep the map on file electronically if we need additional copies in the future.  Special thanks to grant guru Nancy Enabnit, mountain bike and trails guru Kathleen Walker and super-Millennial Jennifer Marks for helping to make this happen.
• Mount Hood Farmer’s Market: Opened at the end of May.  We are already seeing a marked improvement in both number of vendors and number of customers over last year, and we have yet to install the enhanced signage we requested permission to set up from Council.  Vendors seem happier than they have ever been.  A booming success so far.
• City departmental webpages: Seth has asked me to take a look at all of the departmental pages on the City website and revamp them enough to create some city-wide consistency.  The focus will be primarily on how we can use buttons and pictures more effectively to reduce the amount of text and make the pages easier to read and navigate.  I have already completed work on the Library webpage, and will be moving to Transit and Code Enforcement within the next few weeks.

Conferences/training: 

Nothing in May.  Oregon Economic Development Association 2016 Conference (McMinnville, OR) in June.   Stay tuned…