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

Timberline Meats:  This business has been rolling along for a while now and is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  Management reports that sales have been slowly and steadily increasing since they opened at the beginning of July.  If sales numbers continue along these lines, Timberline could be the flagship store for a Sandy-based chain of regional meat markets at some point in the future.

New retail space coming?:  We have a pre-app coming up in September for a new multi-tenant retail building in the downtown core that could potentially provide downtown Sandy with another forty-six hundred square feet of retail space.  This project is not yet guaranteed to happen, so I don’t want to give away any other details for now.  Watch this space.

Chariteas:  Unbeknownst to most of Sandy, this business as we know it closed its doors back in July.  The building is being remodeled inside and out, and will re-open before the end of the year as a “healthy market and tea bar”, but will be under new ownership.  Chariteas is transforming into a full service tea importing business.  They will have a business office on the mountain and have retained two employees from the store, and the owner will be spending more time overseas cultivating the business.

We are very appreciative of Ms. Chalmer’s nine year run here in downtown Sandy, and wish her continued success as her business evolves.  She has always been an active participant in Sandy Main Street and the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce, and the downtown business community will miss her immensely.  However, we also look forward to the new business that is currently setting up shop in the building and have high hopes for their success.  More to come…

The Elusive Trout:  We have approached the new owner of this building to see if he might be interested in a façade improvement project to make a few upgrades to both buildings.  He is very enthusiastic about the concept, and would like to pursue a project (potentially this year even) if he can figure out a way to finance it, which he seems fairly confident about.  The Planning Director and I walked the property with him and suggested a number of inexpensive to moderate fixes.  We also suggested a phased approach to rehabilitating the entire property, with a second phase involving the demolition of the residential unit behind the Trout and replacing it with a new parking lot.

We are in the process of developing a scope of work for the first phase this potential project.  I will update again once we have a few bids and a signed contract with the property owner.

Project work: 

• Current façade projects: Here’s where we stand on our 2017 façade improvement projects
  • Joe’s Donuts: We have received our first complete bid for this job, and it came in at about what we were expecting.  Waiting on a second bid before moving on to the next step….we anticipate this bid to come in sometime in the next 2 weeks.
  • Sandy Community Action Center: Contract signed; work in progress.
  • Trout Pub/Mariela’s Mexican Store: Project agreed to in principal by owner.  Will be pursuing bids shortly.
  • Next Adventure (sidewalks): Project complete.
  • Argue Building: Project complete.
  • La Bamba Nuevo: Project complete.
  • Leather’s Shell Station: Initial project complete.  [They are considering adding window treatments to the windows along Pioneer that would match the work done on the front door – this has been tentatively approved by the Planning & Building Director.]
  • Muff Building: Project complete.
  • Sandy Fire District #72: Contract signed; work in progress.
  • Pacific Pioneer – Dan Martin: Project agreed to in principal by building owner.  Owner has been difficult to contact recently; multiple messages in with owner to restart this project.
  • Richard Perry building: Project agreed to in principal by building owner.  Awaiting bids.
  • Timberline Meats: Project complete.

• Sandy Arts Commission: We have welcomed our Arts Commission intern, Mr. Zach Chamberlain, to City Hall last week and introduced him to the team and our local stakeholders.  Zach comes to us from Texas, and is currently working on his MPA at Portland State.  He is currently working out of Council Chambers, and will be here in Sandy on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the time being.  Stop in and say “Hi” if you get a chance.
• NorthStar – branding project: Our last meeting with NorthStar (Sept 5th) centered on a new logo for the City.  Unfortunately this was the polar opposite of our tagline meeting – we were not impressed with any of the logos they provided in the first round, although there were some good elements.  We asked them to go back to the drawing board and come up with another set of logos that were informed by our input.  We will revisit this issue again later in September.

Conferences/training:   ELGL (Emerging Local Government Leaders) Portland Conference on September 22 – attending with Emily and Emma.