ATTENTION CITY COUNCIL: THIS WILL BE THE LAST ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MONTHLY DEPARTMENT REPORT AVAILABLE HERE.  PLEASE LOOK FOR FUTURE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INFO AS A SECTION  OF THE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES MONTHLY REPORT. 

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

Mount Hood Cigar Co.:  The Mount Hood Cigar Company had their Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting ceremony over the weekend and is officially open to the public.  Chris Bailey, store owner and patriarch, brought his family here all the way from South Carolina with a brief stop in Lake Oswego.  They did a fantastic job of building out the store (they did the work themselves – Mr. Bailey is also a licensed contractor) and are very happy with the end result.  They had a wide variety of quality cigars from around the world on display, and really seem to know their stuff.  Curious to see if this store brings in enough weekend mountain traffic to really take off…

Sandlandia:  Both new carts (Swine Dining, Mountain View Café) are now operational.  It also appears that the Captain’s Galley is no longer located at the site, so we are net +2 for carts at Sandlandia in 2018.

Trout Pub space:  I am currently working with Chris Corbin (building owner) to put together the first City of Sandy Tenant Improvement grant to help create a new restaurant here.  At the time of this writing, Mr. Corbin intends to open his own restaurant at the site featuring quality burgers and sausages made on site.

Joy Teriyaki:   After a very long wait, Joy Teriyaki will be opening their new restaurant with a soft open on May 21.  Their grand opening/ribbon cutting will take place on Saturday, May 26 and will feature several prominent local politicians including our current state senator, Chuck Thomsen.  (Justin Hwang, owner of the franchise, is running for office in a neighboring district.)

Project work:  

• Downtown maintenance: We are beginning to focus our efforts on the downtown a bit more as spring kicks into gear.  Flower baskets are up, and AntFarm’s watering contract is in effect.  We are going to be collecting the remaining East County Gazette paper boxes lingering in our downtown (the paper is no longer being published) shortly, and beginning a number of façade projects that are currently in the works.  We are also in the beginning stages of a push to clean up some of the derelict buildings downtown.  Stay tuned…
• Community Partnership Program grant: Since we didn’t use all of the money allocated for our community due to the fact that we only had two valid applications, we requested that the AntFarm request for funding a farmer’s market study be fully funded (they had other funding from other grants listed in their original request) so the other sources of funding could be used elsewhere.  Clackamas County Tourism was happy to grant that request, so AntFarm will be receiving $6,000 for this study instead of the $2,500 they originally requested.Also, I should receive plans this week for the new Meinig Park Gateway Arch.  We hope to get this constructed as quickly as possible to have ready for the summer concert series and Mountain Festival if possible.
• CGI: I am currently beginning the process of updating our Welcome videos on the main page of our website with CGI Communications, the company that created them for us.  More to come soon (Mr. Mayor – We will also be updating the short video introduction that you did for us.  I will get in touch with you sometime in the coming month to schedule this.)

Conferences/training: 

• Travel Oregon Listening Session (April 4): This is an ongoing discussion started by Travel Oregon last year as they witnessed record numbers of tourists in the Columbia River Gorge.  The takeaway from this event was that, with gawkers out to look at the fire damage from last year, plus rapidly increasing tourism from places like China, the Gorge is now at capacity.  This should result in a lot more local tourism on our side of the mountain as locals look to get away from the congestion and hike and mountain bike in peace.
• SACC Candidates Forum (April 9):  This event represents the first efforts from the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce to provide infrastructure for local elections. We invited all of the primary candidates for local public office to state their case and take questions from Chamber members and the public.  It went exceptionally well, and we were inundated with thanks from the locals that came for putting on this event.  The SACC Public Affairs Committee is looking forward to doing this again for the general election.