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

Goodwill Industries site (formerly Oja Lumber):  It appears that the roof on the primary building is installed and that they are starting to put in lighting and electrical on the interior of the building.  Walls of the out-building are up.  Exterior construction seems about 70% complete on the primary building, and about 50% complete on the out-building.

[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.]

The Junker Building: This building is once again 100% full.  The end unit (A Place for Your Face, Ox and Marley) was recently leased by our old Psychic Shop friends who seem to have found their way back to Sandy.

Not sure how the Paola Bros. manage to keep finding tenants so quickly for this building, but kudos to them for doing so.  No doubt that the general shortage of commercial space in this community and the very reasonable leasing rates for this building are two factors….

“Free Land for Brewpub” site:  Had a very productive discussion with Mr. Benson last week.  He will have a personal acquaintance begin day-to-day management of the AM/PM store within the next couple of months that will act as his representative here in Sandy.  He seems very positive on the site these days, and informs me that while we have not heard much from Mr. DeSantis lately, plans are continuing for a brewpub to be proposed for this site and that we should hear from him about that before too long.

He is also still interested in additional development on the property, and bounced a number of ideas off of me.  He still seems to be enamored with an incubator space of some sort on the site, and I continue to encourage him to build along those lines.  Mini-storage also seems to be part of the future plans here, but he is looking at ways to make any mini-storage there less visible from the freeway.

Carlson property:  Property owner moving forward with paving the site.  Construction work in process.

Old Crawlers space:  Had a very productive conversation with the “new” owner of this building a few weeks ago.  He is mulling over several ideas right now, but the most promising seems to be a quality taproom with a decent food selection.  He was considering a food cart or two on this site as well, but the current layout of the site would make this difficult as parking is limited as it is and I asked him to discuss any plans of this nature with the Planning Department prior to enacting them.

The building owner is in the restaurant business and is aware of the requirements for this type of use and the demand for this type of business in the local market.  He has the experience and resources required to do this type of business correctly, and I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with here.  The only drawback is that he will have to pull out all of the unpermitted work the previous tenant did in this unit – particularly with the “kitchen” – and redo it because according to him it “was all done incorrectly anyway”.  [note: the Building Official did not order him to pull out the previous tenant’s kitchen work – the building owner told me he was going to do this of his own accord because of the incompetent nature of the previous build out.]

Anna Zell property:  Ms. Zell’s offices are now fully occupied by her contract tenants, and everybody involved is extremely happy with the results of the remodel.  Another Sandy success story!

Project work: 

• City departmental webpages: The Finance and Public Works department new departmental page is complete, and Chief Y tells me that she is getting a lot of positive feedback on the new PD page as well.  Next up – Community Services and Finance.  Check out the two newest City department pages here:
  • Sandy PD – http://www.ci.sandy.or.us/Sandy-Police-Department/
  • Public Works – http://www.ci.sandy.or.us/PW/
• I am working on a Sandy version of the City of Beaverton’s Tenant Improvement Program for Council discussion. In progress.
• “Vacant buildings” ordinance: we do have a second version of a draft ordinance prepared and awaiting a Business-Friendly meeting for discussion.

Conferences/training: 

International Council of Shopping Centers (Oct 12, 13 – The Nines Hotel, Portland) – I have been hearing from multiple sources for months now that I really need to join this organization and start attending meetings.  Those sources were absolutely 100% correct.  This was my first exposure to this organization, and despite the name, it was mostly local medium to large commercial developers, regional and national retail brands, and engineering firms specializing in commercial and municipal projects.  There were a few cities that attended this event (Kent, WA; Pasco, WA), but I was the only municipal economic development professional there from the state of Oregon!  When I inquired why this was, the developers I talked to all looked at each other and said “We have no idea.  We keep telling them to come, but they don’t for some reason…”

This was the audience I have been looking for, and they seemed really happy to have me there.  I made some great connections, and there is a group of “young gun” developers that focus on Clackamas County that are extremely eager for me to start coming to their local gatherings out here (as am I!).  Also got a chance to talk up some of our local projects and bounce some ideas off of them (they really like the TI incentive program!)

Best.  Conference.  Ever.