Internal projects: 

Permanent Outdoor Covered Structures grant program:  The status of the first round of this program is reviewed semi-monthly at the City of Sandy Ec Dev Advisory Board meeting – here is the status of the program as of July 2022:

• Tollgate Inn – Keystone Architecture has now provided everything except the full sized plan sets with wet stamps needed for design review by the Planning Department.  Those are scheduled to be here by January 5^th.  We are hoping to have this project out to bid by the end of January 2023.
• All other projects are now structurally complete and under contract.
• Three applicants from the first round of this program have already satisfied their financial responsibilities for the applicant portion of the covered structure project.
  

Covered Structures Round 2:  Designs for the second round of the City of Sandy Covered Structures grant program were reviewed at the SURA and City Council meetings on January 3^rd, 2022.  Here is the status for this round of the program as of September 2022:

• La Bamba Mexican Restaurant – Completed July 21^st, 2022.
• The Smoky Hearth – Completed August 2^nd , 2022.
• Thai Home – Project on hold due to applicant medical situation.  We checked in on the applicant again in November; still undergoing treatment, will check back with applicant later in January 2023.
  • Wippersnappers Kid’s Play Place – Building owner has completed the removal of siding in preparation for this project.  Footings are completely installed; waiting until 2^nd week of January to complete construction per applicant.  Estimated project completion date: 1/30/2023.

Economic Development items:

Econ Devl – Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):

• New business – Nya’s Cakes:  The new specialty bakery featuring wedding cakes and other specialty baked goods mentioned earlier in the year in this report will be holding her grand opening on January 7^th, 2023.  This brand new business offering from Nya Dahrens (located in the old Paris Café site) already has a solid following, and staff is looking forward to watching this business grow over the next several years.  The Ec Dev and Building Departments have been assisting Nya with getting her doors open for several months now – special thanks to our Building Official for his help here; he has really gone above and beyond to help Ms. Dahrens get her certificate of occupancy in a timely manner.

• New businesses on the horizon?:  The Economic Development Office has recently seen an uptick in the number of businesses that are interested in locating in Sandy in the 4^th quarter of 2022.  I currently have active conversations going with a daycare operator, a retail candy shop and an upscale boutique consignment clothing store for women that are looking to site here.  I have never had conversations going with three businesses simultaneously.  I believe this bodes well for the new land opening up on the west side of the city for development in 2023 and 2024…
  
• Hood Street Daycare/Grandma’s House:  The grand re-opening of Grandma’s House Daycare at its new location at 38422 Hood Street happened without much fanfare on December 19^th.  Julie Littlepage is delighted to be in a brand new building with additional space and is looking to sign up new clients right now. 

Thanks for this project belong to the Sandy City Council for agreeing to address the current childcare business shortage by expanding the Tenant Improvement grant program to include childcare businesses.  This is the first project to fully utilize the TI program for this purpose.

Econ Devl – Internal Projects:

Downtown maintenance:

• AntFarm Downtown Maintenance:  The Downtown Maintenance program is shut down for the season and will focus on specific individual maintenance items as they arise until we start the program back up again in the spring of 2023. While we are quite happy with the way the street tree lighting turned out this year, staff is currently reaching out to one of our professional contractors that specializes in this kind of thing to pursue a quote for lighting our street trees professionally (meaning with a bucket truck and professional installers) starting in 2023. 
• Holiday Lights at Meinig Park:   The first year of holiday lights in Meinig Park was a tremendous success.  Below is a picture of the Shortest Day Walkway event held on December 21^st and sponsored by the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce – turnout was fantastic considering the temperature was in the 20s for most of the event!

Econ Devl – Economic Development Advisory Board:

As a general “thank you”, the Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Board was sent off at Boring Brewing to much fanfare, a few tears and a lifetime of free gig service from SandyNet on the evening of December 20^th.  I would like to thank everyone that came out to see Jeremy off, and it certainly seemed that a good time was had by all. 

The next step for this board will be for the application review committee to meet to review applications for the coming year for those board members who wish to return (Wipper, Jones, Schwartz), and to discuss changes to the makeup of the board for 2023, which is due to happen in January.

Econ Devl – Conferences/training:

The only economic development or tourism based conferences or training offered during the month of December was the initial meeting of the Highway 26 Steering Committee.  This committee was arranged by Clackamas County Tourism & Cultural Affairs (Mt. Hood Territory) to discuss tourism related topics on the south side of the mountain and how to increase visitors in the area.  The committee is comprised of several area business owners including the owners of the Skyway Bar and Grill, the Dragonfly Café, the Zigzag Mountain Store and the Chicali Café, as well as tourism promotion related organizations like Travel Oregon, the Sandy Ec Dev Office and the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce.

The next meeting of the Highway 26 Steering Committee is on December 10^th.  I will also be attending another rural Clackamas County Familiarization Tour with Mt. Hood Territory on December 18th.  FAM Tours are to familiarize people involved in the tourism industry with the different tourism draws around the county and how they are being marketed.  (this particular tour will be in the Wilsonville/Tualatin area)