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

Goodwill Industries site (formerly Oja Lumber):  The walls for the primary building are now mostly complete, and the foundation for the out building is complete.  Looks like the framing for the out building is currently under construction.

[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.]

9/7 SACC/Sandy PD Forum on Homelessness:  Chief Yamashita led a discussion about homelessness and its impact on the business community in Sandy on the morning of 9/7 at Buddha Kat Winery.  The Chief explained the new category of “travelers” we are starting to see in Sandy, and why this may be contributing to the number of homeless and the number of incidents requiring police response related to the homeless issue.  Some tips were issued (turn off your wi-fi at night, shut off or lock your exterior outlets, trim back your shrubs), and a request was made by the Chief for businesses to begin keeping track of the added expense (having multiple staff open and close for safety reasons, cleaning up messes made by campers, destruction of property, etc.) required to deal with this issue.  We had a number of downtown business owners show, and it was a good, positive discussion all around.

Special thanks to the owner of Mountain Moka (whom I personally invited), who shared the issues they have been facing and has had to add staff to open their store in the morning for safety reasons – her input was very well received by the group.

AEC building:  There have been many changes at AEC HQ recently.  The company is currently moving its employees into the space vacated by Firwood Design to make use of badly needed expansion space.  They also asked me at the beginning of August to add three of their interior offices to the Available Commercial Properties database for lease to outside firms.  Office space is at a premium right now in Sandy, and I can report that one of the properties is already leased (to a law office) and they are close to signing a lease on another.  Mr. Brache is also in the process of upgrading some outdated and inefficient HVAC components in his building.

Carlson property:  Building permits have just been issued to the property owner.  Next step should be paving of the lot.

Potential new business:  I have been approached recently by a specialty bakery that is currently operating in Sandy as a home-occupation business.  This nice young couple would like to move the business out of their parent’s basement and into a brick and mortar establishment sometime in the next few months, and are exploring their options.  They are quite interested in several properties around town, but would be most interested in leasing the old Crawlers space for a multitude of reasons (not really looking to be a retail business – they do mostly wedding/specialty cakes and baked goods for events of that nature).  I have reached out to the owner of that building to let him know that there is interest in leasing that space, and have also pointed them in the direction of a few other properties in the event that the owner of the building at Pioneer and Bluff is not interested in leasing.

Special note:  This couple initially started looking for commercial spaces in east Portland.  They felt compelled to comment on the following when I met with them – they said that their experiences with Multnomah County and City of Portland were abysmal and overly bureaucratic, and that the only thing those governments seemed to be interested in was how much revenue they could squeeze out of them and where to send the checks.  By contrast, they were actually impressed that I sat down and spent an hour with them explaining things, pointing them toward vacant properties and answering process question for them.  They said this made them feel like the City of Sandy actually wanted them to come to Sandy (which we do!), and that this was very, very important to them.

Anna Zell property:  Ms. Zell has asked me to take her property off of the Available Commercial Properties database, as it is now 100% occupied.  Her final practitioner’s space was filled by a hypnotherapist needing a small office.

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Project: 100% complete.  Please check out the new kiosk with the City’s bike map prominently displayed.  Many thanks to Clackamas County Tourism and Cultural Affairs for the grant funding for this fantastic new piece of cycling infrastructure.
• City departmental webpages: The Finance and Public Works departments are currently in process – barring any major issues, these should be complete by next report.
• I will be with Seth at the Council Workshop scheduled for September 13^th to discuss economic development incentives. We will discuss the concept of incentivizing business to build in Sandy, look at current Council goals pertaining to the recruitment of specific types of businesses, and analyze current examples of programs offered by other municipalities.
• “Vacant buildings” ordinance: the “Business-friendly” group has reviewed my initial draft, and I am currently incorporating their comments.

Conferences/training: 

Nothing this month.

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

Goodwill Industries site (formerly Oja Lumber):  With the grading stage now complete, construction is starting on the primary building on site (see picture below).  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.

Old Mike’s Tire location:  This space has recently had another business spring up within it’s walls virtually overnight.  The space is now occupied by a business called Events Etc NW, which according to their front counter employee is an event rental company catering primarily to weddings, bar mitzvahs and similarly-sized events.  They have not yet applied for a business license – although an application was delivered to the premises, the owner was out of town and it is unclear if the staff had the appropriate information available to fill it out.  Noryne and I will follow up with this business over the next couple of weeks to make sure that they are properly licensed and inspected.

This complex is now 100% occupied.

Old Thrifty Dollar location:  This space has been subdivided and will feature two brand new businesses.  The smaller space next to the Gateway Pub will become BDK’s Boardshop, Sandy’s newest “skate, surf ‘n snowboard” shop, but will primarily feature apparel and decks for skateboard-oriented millenials as well as a “skateboard museum”.  The space between this store and Rip City Glass will be Imagine Anything Art Gallery, Sandy’s second art gallery and art retailer.  Owner Allen Wilson and his partner sell art installations (primarily segmented landscapes on canvas or metallic backgrounds) at regional shows like the Mountain Festival and Timber Festival around the Northwest, but needed a “home base”.  The space will serve as a storage facility for their significant collection as well as a gallery for one of them to show and sell from while the other is on the road.  Their gallery promises to be an ever-changing space complete with moveable walls, and they already have some of their art prominently posted in the front of the gallery.

This complex is now 100% occupied.

Old Paris Café space:  We are finally seeing some progress at this site.  Julie Littlepage’s day care center has pulled permits and is currently the in process of building out the interior of the business, presumably to be open in time for the coming school year.  We are anticipating a late August opening…

This complex is now 100% occupied.

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Project: 95% complete – remaining project tasks are a) receiving 3 wayfinding signs (has shipped but has not arrived yet) and installing them, and b) receiving two-sided weatherproof kiosk (ordered but not shipped yet) and installing at bike plaza with bike map(s) displayed on each side.  This project should be 100% complete by next monthly report.
• 2017 Clackamas County Tourism Development Grant: I attended the required pre-application meeting for the next grant cycle, and I am delighted to say that there have been a few positive changes made to the program. First, the grant ceiling has been raised from $20,000 to $100,000, as the County would like to encourage grantees to “think big”.  Second, CC Tourism is really encouraging “multi-phase” projects and emphasizing that there is no time limit on completing stages of these projects.  I will be meeting with Nancy and a few prominent members of our tourism-oriented businesses (Sandy Inn, Buddha Kat) in the next few days to discuss options, but so far the idea of a two-stage project for Sandy River Park seems to be the strongest contender [Phase 1: parking lot, signage, lighting for the park; Phase 2: single-track mountain bike trails through the park to Cedar Ridge/Bignall Pool once the deal with the school district is finalized]
• City departmental webpages: Putting the finishing touches on Transit’s new page as I write this….should be complete within the next day or two.  The Police Department is next on the list, followed by Finance and Public Works.

Conferences/training: 

Oregon Economic Development Association 2016 Conference (McMinnville, OR):  A 1.5 day conference in McMinnville designed to get the state’s economic developers together for networking purposes.  Programming was very light, but focused on concepts that the State of Oregon has been pushing for years now – craft beer, wine, and farm-to-table restaurants featuring local meat, cheese and produce.  McMinnville has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to all three of these things, and the downtown area of the city is overflowing with fantastic boutique restaurants featuring beer and wine from the area (note: my father lives in Mac and is a prolific mushroom hunter – he sells virtually everything he finds to three of the local downtown restaurants)

It was good to reconnect with my peers at this conference, and I had a number of productive conversations with ED professionals from several cities around the county.  Also, it was here that I learned that my peer in Estacada (Terra Wilcoxson) was accepted for Jamie Johnk’s vacant position at Clackamas County Business & Economic Development, as Jamie has moved on to become the City of Woodburn’s new ED Director.  I look forward to working with Terra in her new position very soon.

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…

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

Carlson’s “Sandlandia”:  This project appears to be stalled – after speaking with Mr. Carlson, it appears to be because PGE is taking longer to install electricity to the site than they had initially estimated. The reason for this delay is unknown. Jerry also has a few details to work out with the Planning Department, but nothing that should cause any major problems.  He is justifiably waiting to pave and stripe the parking until the utility installations are complete.

Goodwill Industries site (formerly Oja Lumber):  The 60 day vacate period the Oja family had with the developer of this site appears to be over.  There is heavy equipment on the site now, and the main storage building next to Starbucks has now been taken down.  The only remaining building on the site is the old shuttlecock-looking mill building, and I anticipate this will be torn down soon as well.  Current project completion date is December 2016.

Michael Maiden properties:  It appears that Lil Cubs Pre-School, which has been looking for a new home for a couple of months now, has determined that the larger of Mike’s two available spaces might actually work for her.  After checking out the space with Terre and I, it seems that we might be on to a pre-application meeting with Planning to see if we can overcome some minor hurdles.  I will likely be working with Ms. Turner quite a bit over the summer to see if I can assist her with the financing of this project and getting a few resources to flow her way via the SBDC and SCORE.

old Paris Café space:  …is about to be occupied!  Julie Littlepage has put down a deposit on the property and is awaiting state and health department inspections prior to begin customizing the space for her day care center.  Terre has inspected the location and has given her a list of conditions to satisfy prior to approval, but there is nothing major on the list and we anticipate smooth sailing.  The building owner seems fairly pleased with the lease as well, as all three retail buildings in this complex are now 100% occupied.  Ms. Littlepage is anticipating a mid-May opening date – this is probably a little bit optimistic, but we shall see.

Sparky’s Pizza:  Spoke with Todd Sparks via email a few weeks ago.  He is currently drawing up the plans for his dining room expansion and plans to bring these in to the Planning Department for an initial review in a matter of weeks.  He seems to be genuinely excited about this expansion, and I have relayed to him that we are ready to go when he is.

I have also approached Todd about possibly being a vendor for Music Fair & Feast in July.  The Chamber is trying to organize this event in-house this year after the untimely passing of Kristy Wheeler, the event management vendor we contracted with.  We are now free to contract with any food vendors we want for this event, and we are making a concerted effort to include local Sandy businesses for this year’s Feast.  It’s too bad that Tamale Factory closed its doors when it did — we might have been able to help them out.  🙂

Smoky Hearth:  While contemplating new food vendors for Music Fair and Feast this year (see above), I traveled down to the Smoky Hearth to ask the owners if they would be interested.  Their response surprised me: they said they would love to, but they are so low on employees right now that they are beginning to wonder how they are going to keep their doors open this summer.  At the time I spoke to them, they said they are at least 3 FTEs down and are worried they might lose more once summer begins.  They also said they have tried everything to find employees – the state unemployment office, local job boards, Craigslist, the “For Sale in Sandy” Facebook page, the career center at SHS….they have even resorted to driving through all of the local drive thrus in Sandy handing out free hamburger cards and promising to train and put anyone on the schedule that was looking for extra hours.  All to no avail.

I immediately put them in touch with AntFarm’s program manager to get them a table for their upcoming job fair in May, and also sent a prospective employee their way — I happened to know a small business owner who is hurting for money right now who would happily wait tables or operate a pizza over for a few extra clams.  However, this got me thinking….I wonder if other restaurants and local retail are having a problem finding employees in general, or if the Smoky Hearth is just having a bad week.  I will speak with other small businesses in town over the next couple of weeks to see if I can identify any trends…

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal: Funding has arrived, and I am currently working on the webpage portion of this project.  This will replace the “Sandy: Biking HQ for NW Oregon” page that our former city manager slapped together with a much nicer, more streamlined series of pages.  Bike station has been received; waiting to receive bike rack before having PW install both.
• Community Partnership Program grant: All funding has been received.  The design work for the 2015 2016 City of Sandy Bike Map is finally complete, and the order was sent off to the printer on May 2^nd.  We should have two versions of the map (PolyArt for waterproof, tearproof version and a regular glossy version) ready for distribution at the end of May.  Grant funds covered all of the design work and the first 6,000 or so combined copies, and the map will be kept on file electronically if we need additional copies in the future.
• COGS project: For those interested, I am embarking on a cost of goods sold project with Damon Schwab for AntFarm this month in my spare time.  This project entails breaking down all of the items on the Café menu into their component items and determining the cost of each ingredient to see what is profitable on the menu and what is not.  We are hoping that this will help get the Café in the black within the next year.
• Mount Hood Farmer’s Market: Opens on 5/7 (and the evening of 5/6 for First Friday!) and will run through late October.  Many thanks to Sandy City Council for declaring our market a “community event”, thereby allowing proper signage without getting sideways with sign code.

Conferences/training: 

None this month – Thrive at 25 in May; Oregon Economic Development Association 2016 Conference (McMinnville, OR) in June.

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

Goodwill Industries site (formerly Oja Lumber):  This project should begin construction near the end of April/beginning of May.  A majority (although not all) of the existing structures on site have been deconstructed and removed, and this process should continue until the heavy equipment arrives.  The contractor is currently anticipating a December 2016 completion date for both the new Goodwill center and the 4,000 square foot retail for-lease building they are building closer to the corner of US26 and Kate Schmitz.  For leasing and other information, please see the entry for this for-lease building on the City of Sandy Available Commercial Properties database here.

Tamale Factory/Muff properties:  The Tamale Factory closed its doors in March.  I have not been able to contact the business owners to get the official reason for the closure.  However, a new Tamale Factory has opened in east Gresham next to the Harbor Freight store, which leads me to believe that the decision had something to do with moving to a larger market area to generate more sales.  The building owner has already made arrangements with the City for a fire/life safety inspection for a similar business venture. However, some code requirements for housing another food service business in this location may be cost prohibitive, as this space is currently without both a commercial grade ventilation system and a heating unit.

Also, please note that the rest of the building (formerly occupied by Tovar’s Auto Repair) has also been leased out to Morton Preservation, a business that provides maintenance and minor repairs to a portfolio of bank-owned residential properties in the greater Sandy area.  Chris Morton is a one-man shop, and will be looking to hire a seasonal crew to assist him with this maintenance – I made the suggestion that he speak with Nunpa over at AntFarm about filling these positions.

J. Carlson’s “Sandlandia”:  This is the space where the former La Torta Caliente once sat – there is now signage up indicating that this space is intended to be a food cart pod at some point in the near to moderate future.  Work has been happening at this location in fits and starts, and it appears that the property owner is getting close to paving the site and adding utility connections.  We anticipate seeing additional activity at this site soon…

Baby Goods:  Sandy’s newest retail business opened its doors to the general public on April 1^st, which coincidentally was the first First Friday of the season.  Ms. Goode worked the grand opening, and said she was pleasantly surprised by her sales on opening day, which about equaled an average Friday at her SE Portland store and was heavy on furniture sales and shoppers browsing her inventory and giving her encouraging words regarding future sales.  She tells me that cautiously optimistic about this market, and so far her intuition seems to be serving her well.  She is also already a SACC member and will be partaking in all of the downtown business awareness events (First Fridays, Trick or Treat Trail) in 2016.

Oregon’s Wild Harvest building:  Discussions between a local Sandy business owner and the property owner have ended without any transactions.  The interested parties were not able to come to a mutual agreement on a sales price.  The property remains available on both the commercial sales and leasing markets.

Trading Post NW:  Andrew Booth will be having a “grand opening week” from April 22^nd through May 1^st, so look for (properly permitted) temporary signage and balloons on the building during that timeframe.  Also, the SACC hosted a ribbon cutting for Mr. Booth on the 19^th of March – special thanks to Mayor King for wielding the big scissors.

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal: We now have funding secured.  All equipment except signage has now been ordered and should arrive within the next 2-3 weeks.
• Community Partnership Program grant: All four approved projects are underway.  The City of Sandy 2015 2016 Bike Map design work is in final process and will be approved for printing this week.  There will be two versions of the map – one created on a product called Paper Tyger that is similar to the waterproof & tear-proof versions of previous maps, and a less expensive version printed on regular matte-finish paper for the non-hardcore cyclist.  These should be ready by the end of April, and are a step up from previous versions primarily due to the new elevation tables included with each ride listed on the back.
• Special Service Contract Program: The off-year audits are complete, and all performance evaluation data has been collected.  All four grantees have been very cooperative and are living up to their end of the deal regarding performance evaluation data.  Here is the relevant data in a nutshell:

1. AntFarm International – Community Connect Program

• Number of unduplicated visits (i.e. homes served) completed through the AntFarm Community Connects program (Jul 2015 thru Feb 2016): 90
• Number of youth actively involved in the AntFarm Community Connects program: 81
• Number of volunteer hours spent providing services to end users through the AntFarm Community Connects program: 3,084 (total value: $59,158)
• Donations specifically earmarked for AntFarm Community Connects program: $52,035.07

1. Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce – First Fridays/Trick or Treat Trail Events

• Number of participating businesses for First Fridays and the Trick or Treat Trail:
  • 2015 First Friday (SACC took ownership of this event in August of 2015)
    • August 2015: 32
    • September 2015: 28
    • October 2015: 31
  • 2015 Trick or Treat Trail: 59

• Sandy Historical Museum – tracking visitor information

• Number of total visitors in 2015: 2,312
• % increase from prior year (if information is available): 6% (2,254 in 2014)
• Place of origin of visitors (2015):
  • Local visitors (Sandy area): 605
  • OR visitors (outside of Sandy area): 1,064
  • US visitors (outside of OR): 590
  • International visitors: 53

• Reasons for visit: (data taken from Aug 2015 thru Feb 2016 – 1,306 visits – 1,532 reasons given – multi-reason visits allowed)
  • Visiting museum: 24%
  • Visiting visitor’s center 85%
  • Visiting gift shop 71%
  • Purchasing Park pass    00%
  • Purchasing bus pass    46%
  • Other reason    74%

1. Sandy Community Action Center – improving service to the Spanish-speaking community

• Demographics of individuals served (specifically English-speaking clients vs. Spanish speaking clients – July 2015-February 2016):
  • Total families served: 2,224
  • Total Spanish-speaking families served: 278
  • Percentage of Spanish-speaking families served: 5% of total

Conferences/training: 

Broadband Communities 2016 (Austin, TX):  Spent the week in Austin, TX with Seth and Counselor Pietzold drinking from the firehose of knowledge regarding broadband generally and fiber-to-the-home and business specifically.  It was impressive to get a feel for how far ahead of the rest of the country we are when it comes to broadband, and what our project here in Sandy means for broadband propagation in other communities.  We here in Sandy really are kind of the rock stars of the municipal fiber world, and rightfully so considering how many other municipalities are considering diving in and using little old Sandy, Oregon as their model.

We made a number of good connections with similar communities (Cortez, CO and Westminster, MD) who look to follow us down this path, and I had a number of fruitful conversations with the economic development folks in both cities that have given me good ideas of how to proceed with marketing our network in the future.  It would have been wonderful to have Mr. Knapp with us on this trip, but it just wasn’t possible considering the workload SandyNet is experiencing right now.  Hopefully SandyNet will be in a better position for him to join us a year from now in Denver for BBC2017.

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

Double D Locksmith property:  This property has sold.  The business inventory was sold to another locksmith that unfortunately decided to locate in Gresham, and the property has reverted back to a residential property.

update:  The Double D van was recently seen roaming around Sandy, so I called the number.  The business has actually been restarted under the same name, and while the current owner is located in Gresham, he is actually looking to move the company back to Sandy as soon as possible.  He has already applied for a new business license, and should be setting up shop somewhere within city limits shortly.

Fastenal Building:  The buildout for Mattress World moved much faster than anticipated, and this business is now licensed and open for business.  Store manager Gary Richards tells me that business is popping and already outperforming projections.

If you haven’t been inside the building, I would suggest stopping by during business hours to check it out.  The layout of this store has been carefully considered and they are making maximum use of their space, including using what was originally the inventory space for Fastenal as part of their showroom floor.  Very professionally done.

Michael Maiden properties:  Mr. Maiden is opening up two other spaces in his pre-fab buildings across the parking lot from the foundry for lease.  One is a business that is waiting for another company to lease their space before they move to another location, and one is currently being used for foundry storage.

I bring this up to illustrate how clustering seems to be working in an unlikely place.  I recently nudged the proprietor of a local church basement based pre-school towards Mr. Maiden’s properties when she called looking for an expansion space.  She has 25 students and needed a space of a certain size at an affordable rate.  I asked her if she was familiar with Wippersnappers, and her response was: “OMG…I could take the kids to Wippersnappers for recess every day!!!”  This item alone might make the sale for Mr. Maiden, and I’ve no doubt that a business arrangement could be made between the two businesses that would be mutually beneficial.

Mark Benson properties:  According to the owner, there is a ton of activity going on with this property right now.  There have been many inquiries into the status of this property since the “Free Land for Brewpub” media circus surrounding this Oregonian story – the property owner says he has fielded calls from “over 100 businesses” since that story broke.

There are several promising actions being considered on Mr. Benson’s property right now.  I am working with him right now to determine whether or not the metering of wastewater for a brewery would be a worthwhile thing to look into for marketing purposes, so I would suspect he is at least talking to a brewery or two.  I have also participated in a discussion between Mr. Benson and our friends at Web Steel regarding pricing for a building involved in one of those “non-brewery” concepts.  So there are many things going on behind the scenes regarding this property at the moment.  More to come…

Baby Goods:  We have an established retail store from SE Portland opening a second location here in Sandy.  Baby Goods will be moving into the old Curves space next door to the UPS Store in Richard Perry’s building (across the parking lot from the library), and has already received their business license and certificate of occupancy.  Lynne Goode’s store buys and sells primarily second hand baby and children’s clothing, which should be a very popular store with young families moving to the area.  Many city staffers with small children have told me they are excited to check this store out when it opens at the beginning of April.

Mr. Perry’s building is now full.  This space and the Sparky’s expansion space were the first two properties I added to the Available Commercial Buildings database back when I created it, and they have remained on the database ever since.  The fact that these are both now occupied says very positive things about the local economy.

Oregon’s Wild Harvest building: …remains empty for now.  Discussions continue between a local Sandy business owner and the property owner, but prospects for a sale and transfer are unknown at this time.

Trading Post NW: This establishment is now open for business.  Andrew Booth is the son of TPNW owner Mike Booth, and will be the face of this business in Sandy.  There was a little rough water involved with this business in acclimating to a new regulatory climate here in Sandy, but I think we’ve passed the rough patch and are well on our way to developing a good relationship here.  Andrew is in the process of organizing a “grand opening week”, so look for (properly permitted) temporary signage to this effect on site towards the end of March/beginning of April.  Also, the SACC will be hosting a ribbon cutting for this business at noon on 3/19.  [Thank you again, Mr. Mayor.]

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal: Funding has still not arrived.  Inquiries are in with Clackamas County Tourism – they say an invoice has been processed and that funding should arrive any day.  The concrete pad has been installed behind City Hall, but the ordering of equipment will not occur until funding is received.
• Community Partnership Program grant: The Sandy Tourism Board met on 3/1 to look at the application and make local recommendations to the grant administrator at Clackamas County Tourism.  We received a total of 6 applications for a combined ask total of over $40,000 (total grant funding available: $20,000).  One application was rejected prior to board review for ineligibility due to multiple grant guideline violations.  One was rejected by the STB due to failure to acquire the necessary event permitting from a state agency (although the board did recommend this project for next year and encouraged the local business to work directly with Clackamas County Tourism to put their next application together).   The remaining four applications were approved for partial funding and forwarded on to Clackamas County Tourism for county-level tourism board review.  One application was rejected by the County, and the partial funding for that one will be spread between the remaining three projects (guided & costumed city tours by the Sandy Historical Museum; assistance with creation of a 2016 Sandy River Water Recreation Guide by the Sandy River Basin Watershed Council; completion of the 2015 2016 Sandy Bike Map)
• Special Service Contract Program: We are in the process of receiving financial and performance measure data information from our four grantees.  Data collection period ends on 3/31.  We will compile this data into a brief report for Council.

Conferences/training: 

Travel Oregon Tourism Studios (Recreation tourism follow up to Gorge Studio [March 16 = Cascade Locks]):  The State of Oregon’s tourism department held a follow up to their January Gorge Tourism Studio in Cascade Locks.  It offered attendees a look at a good assortment of outdoor tourism-related businesses from all over the Gorge, and promoted high-level thinking about how to tackle some of the problems related to tourism growth they are experiencing.

One of the most pressing problems in the Gorge right now when talking about tourism is traffic congestion, and the strongest feedback they received was that Gorge residents and businesses alike seem to be demanding a public transportation system of some kind to be developed rapidly.  This was underscored by a presentation by Clackamas County about the Mount Hood Express.  Gorge attendees seemed impressed by the concept, especially by how quickly ridership seems to be growing.  There is a bus/shuttle pilot program that will offer regular runs from Troutdale to Multnomah Falls that is being constructed right now, and the general consensus of the room was to strongly encourage this, as anything that will take cars off of I-84 during peak tourism season would be considered a benefit.

What this indicates is that we seem to be a little ahead of the curve on this side of the mountain.  While we don’t have quite the levels of tourism traffic (and congestion) seen in the Gorge, the MHX is a valuable transportation asset to both locals and tourists and is steadily increasing in ridership as people learn of it.  I will be incorporating a bunch of information about the MHX when I develop the expanded bike page on the City website as part of the Clackamas County Tourism Development grant bicycle project later this spring.  Anything we can do as an organization to encourage the development of stable funding and advancement of this program at the county level would be of benefit Sandy’s tourism economy.

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

Fastenal Building:  The buildout for Mattress World at this site is complete, and it appears that this store is now open for business.  There will be a request for Mayor King to wield the big scissors again very soon…stay tuned.

Wippersnappers:  I recently ran into Hans Wipper at the Mt. Hood Tourism Studio (see “Project Work” below), and I asked him how business was going.  I have never seen a small business owner light up so brightly….his business is more profitable at this point in its development than any of us had ever dreamed!  To give you an idea of how things are going for them…a few numbers – Hans’ business plan called for 10-12 birthday parties per month in the first 3 months of operation, and even he felt that number might be a little high.  Actual number of birthday parties in their first two months of operation: 22 in December, 36 in January.  They projected having two full time employees at this point, but in reality just hired their fourth.  But most impressively, they just tallied their January gross receipts and came in at almost 70% over projections for the month, and business seems to still be expanding.  And they have done all of this without any advertising!!!

Virtually everyone I know on the City’s payroll that has kids and lives in or near Sandy has had their kids invited to at least one birthday party at Wippersnappers, and everybody (kids and parents alike) I have asked has raved about the business.  Kudos to Hans and his wife for doing their homework, finding an opportunity and chasing it, Mount Hood Economic Alliance for providing the gap funding necessary to make this business happen, Mike Maiden for working with the Wippers to get the building set up for this type of business, and to the citizens of Sandy for patronizing Wippersnappers so heavily and keeping their hard earned money local!

Baskin Robbins: …signed a 5-year extension to their lease with Albanese Cormier, new owner of the Sandy Marketplace, effectively taking this property off of the market.

Mark Benson properties:  After years of no activity here and an obviously frustrated property owner, opportunity now abounds.  I have steered one business on Industrial Way that is looking to expand towards Mr. Benson’s property that is considering building a building in the 20K to 30K SF range on site.  Clackamas County HH&HS is looking to expand in 1-2 years, so I put them in touch with Mr. Benson as well.  We also have a multi-family dwelling developer considering this space for future apartments if a zone change is possible, and are looking at other potential sites for a substantial multi-family development.

I am putting together a meeting at the property owner’s request between my office, the property owner and Web Steel to discuss what types of buildings might work for each application and what kind of ballpark the costs might be in.  Just a 30,000 foot level discussion right now….but could develop into something tangible in the very near future.

Sparky’s Pizza:  …is expanding into the smaller vacant space next to them in Richard Perry’s property.  I haven’t had the opportunity to discuss this expansion with Todd Sparks yet, but his staff at the restaurant tells me that the additional space will be almost entirely dining space, as they are looking to expand their in-house business and to capitalize on First Friday and other downtown events by drawing people in to sit down and eat rather than just take slices to go.

Mr. Perry is quite happy with this development, as you can probably imagine.  This property had been vacant for a very long time.  An interior remodel is currently in-process, and should be completed within weeks.

Oregon’s Wild Harvest building: …has a local business owner interested in purchasing it if the price is right.  The business owner would prefer to remain anonymous for the time being, but he/she definitely has the proper funding to make this transaction happen.  Hopefully more to come on this topic soon.  Stay tuned.

39084 Proctor Blvd, Suite B:  This space had previously been leased for some time by a gentleman operating a medical equipment supply business, but strangely he never moved anything into the office and didn’t seem to use it for anything.  At one point, I called the building owner and asked him if he wanted me to post the property on the Available Commercial Properties database for him, only to be told that the property was actively being leased.  That arrangement ended a few months ago.

This space below SandyNet is now being leased by Lisa Page Music Studio, a business that will be providing private music lessons to clients on a number of different instruments.  It appears that the business will primarily operate after regular business hours.

Trading Post NW: …is in the process of moving inventory into their space in Betty Tee’s building as I write this.  Look for them to be open and operating within the next few weeks.

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal: Funding has been slightly delayed due to a lack of communication from the County stemming from a personnel change.  All is well now – we should see a check sometime within the next two weeks.
• CPP grant program: Application period ends 2/19.  Current number of community applicants: 0. Info will be re-distributed to City website, FB page, Chamber FB page, Chamber e-blast, and another story in the Post.  As usual, we have a couple of small city-sponsored projects ready to go in the event that no community members apply, as we certainly don’t want that County grant funding to go unused.
• Vacant commercial buildings: At Seth’s request, I have put together some basic information on an ordinance from the City of San Antonio, TX that regulates vacant commercial buildings.  It requires registration, proper identification of local property managers and regular maintenance performed on all vacant properties in the commercial districts.  An executive summary of the ordinance and a robust discussion are coming…
• Retail recruitment services: Also at Seth’s request, I am currently evaluating a couple of different companies that offer their data gathering expertise and relationships with regional and national corporate businesses to do retail recruiting for a fee. So far the results are mixed – the companies we are looking at do produce results in most cases, but there is considerable risk involved, the costs are substantial and the recruiting targets may not be quite what we’re looking for.  We will share our findings when complete.

Conferences/training: 

Travel Oregon Tourism Studios (Gorge [Jan 20] and Mt. Hood [Jan 25]):  The State of Oregon’s tourism department held two studios in January to kick-start the discussion about the substantial tourism increase in the region over the last few years and address stakeholder concerns.  There is a little bit more money available in the region (annual funding increase from $60K to $125K – provides for full time staff person), and they are trying to figure out how best to spend that funding.  Number one most needed infrastructure asset in both areas: public transportation.  Our input: MHX needs stable funding beyond 2017 and an expansion of the program (it’s growing exponentially right now – go look at how many snowboarders are waiting for the MHX bus in Centennial Plaza during any given day in Feb), and the Gorge needs a similar bus/charter bus/rail line to take traffic off of I-84 and give Millennials a way to see the Gorge without a car.

Sandy was represented quite well at the Mt. Hood Studio.  Thanks to Counselor Exner, Community Services Director Nancy Enabnit, Super-volunteer Kathleen Walker and AntFarm Board member Jay McCrostie Esq. for attending with me.

General notes:  In early 2016 I will be working with the SandyNet boys to help get the word out about SandyNet Business Fiber.  We intend to develop a master list of businesses that tell us they want fiber by the end of January using multiple methods, and then use that information to issue an RFP for engineering in February.  Hopefully we will be ready to issue another RFP for construction in April and begin connecting businesses in May.

In the beginning of this rollout we will use the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce’s e-blast tool to give SACC’s membership first crack at signing up.  We viewed this as the easiest way to let the business community know about the rollout, as it reaches a large number of brick and mortar businesses and costs the City nothing.  This is not to say that non-member businesses are not eligible, so if you know of a business that wants business fiber right away, tell them to get a hold of myself, Joe or Scott.  We will then send a snail mail letter to the same businesses as a follow up later in the month, and a general mailer to the entire Sandy business community (in qualifying areas) after that.

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

Fastenal Building:  I am pleased to announce that this property is now occupied.  There are crews working on the interior of this building right now transforming it into the showroom for Sandy’s newest retailer…Mattress World.  Galen Fancher tells me that they have signed a multi-year lease, and he is very happy with that contract.

And the Available Commercial Buildings database gets one entry shorter…

Eclectic Institute:  I was recently contacted by the principals at this business and invited down to their base at McKinnon Airfield for a tour.  Dr. Ed Alstat, Eclectic founder, has had a tough last couple of years with the business for a number of reasons, but appears to be working on digging himself out now.

He was interested in finding ways to get more involved in the Sandy community, and I think there are some opportunities for Eclectic to do so.

I mentioned to him that, according to our Retail Market Survey, there seems to be a strong community interest in alternative and naturopathic medicines and healthy food, and this appears to be an underserved market.  I strongly hinted that there are organizations in Sandy that EI would be well advised to make acquaintance with, including AntFarm, who is currently looking for a new home for their community gardens and is always looking to connect with people who need inexpensive youth labor (like herb farms, for example).  Unbeknownst to me, one of Dr. Alstat’s partners, Dr. Steven Bailey, works with a charity organization that does similar work in North Portland (and even operates in the Lakota tradition, as does AntFarm)

Look for Eclectic to have a presence at First Fridays in 2016.  Watch this space.

Barbara Sah properties:  Mrs. Sah (building includes Stephanie’s Intl, Trail Pals, Answer Ally, etc.) is currently working with SandyNet Fiber to have fiber run to four different businesses in her building, with the remaining two businesses “thinking it over”.  North Sky Communications has completed running the conduit to this building, and fiber should be run through said conduit within the next few weeks.

Also, it seems that we have had a construction contractor move into this building recently as well.  KLM Construction is currently in the business license/certificate of occupancy process.

Lamb properties:  Gary Lamb owns the building that Red Boot Branding is in, as well as a number of commercial and residential properties behind it near the corner of Strauss and Junker.  He has recently contracted with a developer/commercial real estate agent to look at the possibilities of building out the site.  Seth and I had a very promising conference with Tim Whiting of Amerivest (Gary’s agent) to look at some of the issues surrounding this area and what, if anything, the City would like to see develop here.  Tim has already begun working with Kelli Grover over at Firwood Design on some concepts for development, both commercial and residential, and showed us three concepts for different builds.

We told Tim that we are amenable to any kind of new development here, although it seemed to everybody involved that the residential build might be the best concept.  This concept involves building 7 or 8 modern rowhouses along Junker Street, with overflow parking to be contained by building a parking lot behind the RBB building.  There may be opportunities to use this overflow parking as potential public parking during business hours as well.  Tim also asked for contact information for the person representing the Connelly properties (btwn Action Ctr and RBB) to see if they might be amenable to a larger concept development, although this seems unlikely.

In preparation of development here, Tim was most interested in finding out what, if anything, the City might be willing to do to incentivize development.  We told him we would be happy to contribute up to 50% of the cost towards demolition of the existing dilapidated buildings on these lots, and would also be amenable to extending this offer to the Connelly properties if they might consider tearing down the three shotgun houses on their lots.  We also told him that we would be amenable to looking into using URA funding to potentially fund streetscape improvements and/or part of any parking lot that could potentially be used for public parking.  However, what he was most interested in from our end was some sort of mitigation of a hump that has developed in the street surface on Strauss a few feet from the south side of the intersection with Pioneer.  He says if we can find a way to correct this without burdening the land owner, this will make the development much more likely to happen.  We are looking into what mitigation of this issue would entail.

B of A building:  The merry-go-round has finally stopped!  While the DEQ and the current owner of this property are working towards closing out the hydrocarbon issue from years ago (and DEQ has taken the lead to get this done), the future owner of this property has decided to lease it from the current owner until this task is complete.

The new tenant and future owner of this property will be Dr. Jonathan Rhue of Oregon Trail Chiropractic.  Dr. Rhue is currently in the space that Dr. Hyland of Sandy Chiropractic was in for years, and both doctors are now working together under the OTC banner.  Dr. Rhue intends to move his chiropractic and massage services to the B of A building, and is leaning towards the idea of expanding into mental health services as well.  If he decides to expand, he will also keep his current location next door to Nails N Styles to house the new services.

Dr. Rhue also tells me that he is interested in fixing up the exterior of the building once he is the legal owner, and will be approaching Tracy to see if there is anything that can be done through the City’s façade improvement grant program towards this end.  He also intends to remove the trees behind the building bordering the back access to the building housing Sparky’s and the UPS Store and replace them with younger trees from the street tree guide to stop the degradation of the parking lot via tree roots and get rid of the crows that seem to congregate there and make a mess.  If his location in Estacada is any guide, he should be actively looking to improve the site and maintain it properly.

Oja Lumber/Goodwill:  The internal review process is complete, and Goodwill has now given Oja Lumber 60 days to wrap up business and vacate the site in preparation for construction no later than the end of February 2016.  They will be having a customer appreciation event on Saturday, January 16^th featuring refreshments and tours of the site, and are encouraging locals to come down, take pictures and share stories.

I spoke with the Oja family recently, and they are in good spirits and ready to wind things down.  I also offered to help them with publicizing the imminent closure to help them get rid of their current inventory….an offer they were happy to take.  I will be posting on the City’s Facebook page (and hopefully the Chamber of Commerce will assist with their available media outlets) several times between now and the end of February to help out this Sandy institution in any way I can.  [Update: After putting a FB post up on 1/4, the overwhelming majority of responses are upset that Oja is closing and even more upset that a Goodwill is replacing it.  Special thanks to one of the Oja daughters who commented on this post stating that her parents were retiring, that they deserved to retire, and that she would really like it if posters kept their comments to thanking the family and wishing them well.  That comment really caused the remainder of the community to check themselves and changed the tone of the post from that point forward.)

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal: Waiting on funding to arrive.
• Retail recruitment: I will be making some contact with the corporate offices of a few different small retail chains over the next few months to determine what would make Sandy a more attractive location to open a new store.  These chains include: Maurice’s, the Children’s Place, Beall’s and Sportsmen’s Warehouse.  Watch this space.
• I also had an interesting conversation with Officer Bickle’s brother Howard recently who is interested in starting a professional theater company here in Sandy. He appears to have some financing already established, and is in the process of looking for a location for a 150-200 seat theater somewhere in town.  In going through the vacant commercial properties that might work for this here in town, I was able to point him towards the old Paris Café as a potentially workable site (much cheaper and a better location (parking, neighboring amenities) than the other two sites he was looking at), and also suggested sitting down with SAT to discuss partnership opportunities and talking to Lori Ryland as a potential champion for his cause.  Will continue to research and keep the discussion going…

Conferences/training: 

None in December.

General notes:  The 2015 Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony turned out to be one of the better events in recent memory.  In looking at the event afterwards, there are a few things we will do differently next year, but from a citizen’s point of view, we seemed to pull it off without incident.  Here’s a quick recap…

Over the last two years, we have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,000 on putting up and configuring lights on the living tree in the Cool Printing lot.  This was in addition to fairly substantial labor donations by Konell Construction (they typically only charged us for the lift rentals, as they had to rent lifts to do the job).  Unfortunately all it got us was grief on our official Facebook page, as our citizens told us in no uncertain terms that they did not particularly care for the display.

This year we decided to do something different.  The Public Works department installed a 4’ sleeve of metal pipe directly into the ground of Centennial Plaza, and we had two new circuits wired into a vault right next to the sleeve.  I got a 22’ tree donated to the City from Bill Knapp at Knapp Farms, and the PW boys dragged that sucker down to the sleeve and hoisted it upright.  Tree decorations were done by the company that does them for the City of Gresham.  I was also able to borrow the bucket truck from Public Works for an evening, and cut as many of the LED lights as I could reach out of the Cool Printing tree.  These were repurposed by installing them on the transit shelter and the street trees surrounding Centennial Plaza, and we still have over 200 linear feet of lights remaining for Joe P. and I to install wherever we can find space to do so.  And as I’m sure you noticed, we set the tent up in a slightly smaller configuration parallel to the bus terminal instead of parallel to Pioneer Blvd due to the location of the tree.

These turned out to be the right moves.  I had scores of people approach me during and after this year’s event stating that they really liked the tree and the setup this year and were doubly happy when I told them that this would be the format of the event going forward.  Next year we can go bigger on the tree as well, as the PW boys tell me that their trucks can handle a 30’ tree without issue.  The citizenry was also happy that we sprung for a PA system this year rather than use the self-enclosed PA from the Community Ctr, although we plan to spend just a little bit more next year and have Shira mic up the choir too, as you could barely hear them if you were closer to Pioneer than to them.

As for the event itself, we made a few changes this year that really resonated with the community.  I decided that due to the season and all, we would allow non-profits only to promote events and services this year.  For profit businesses could help out (and our food and beverage donors came through again this year) by helping to set up and handing out goodies, but they could not peddle their wares.  The exception to this was Sandy School of Dance, but they were promoting a benefit concert they will be putting on at SHS as a fundraiser for the Sandy Action Center.  Our local taekwondo studio spent the night handing out candy canes to children (and Santa, as it turns out, who ran out!)  We also had SHS grad, AntFarm Outdoor Manager and all-around good kid Travis Roundy get on the mic for 10 minutes and speak about turning his life around through AntFarm.  I noticed that a lot of the high school aged kids in the crowd were listening to him very intently, and he got a nice round of applause when he concluded.

So all in all, a great evening.  Special thanks to the PW Crew and Joe Preston, Library Director Sarah McIntyre who co-sponsored the event with the Museum (next year the Library needs more visibility at this event – I’ll work on that), and to Mayor King for counting us down again.  And extra special thanks to Transit Manager Andi Howell for her infinite patience and for keeping her bus drivers from killing our vendors and myself for getting in their way — I’ll have a temporary loading zone set up next year, I promise!

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

Michael Maiden properties:   Mr. Maiden has recently contacted me about a new project he is considering for next summer.  Mike is in the beginning stages of planning for a new 12,000 SF building in the lot in between the foundry and the OTSD office property, and has already secured tenants (himself included) to fill about 7,000 SF of that building.  He is currently seeking a business (or businesses) to fill the remaining 5,000 SF, and will begin building as soon as he finds them.  He has stated that he has the capacity to build the building to suit the tenant, and can include things in the build like roll up doors, enhanced utilities, loading docks, and other items of this nature.

I have created an entry for this project (Maiden BTS Project) on both the Available Commercial Lands database and the Available Commercial Properties database for additional exposure (and because not everyone looking for a building to lease wants to lease it right this minute…)  I have also requested that anyone seeking additional information about this project call the ED office first so I can answer basic questions and determine interest level before routing interested parties to either Mike or his commercial agent.

I have also spoken with Mike about the monument signs for his current building, and informed him of the conversation I’ve been having with Aaron Hansen at Bunsenbrewer.  He said not only would he consider moving the sign to the corner of 362^nd and US26, he might just go ahead and spring for all new monument signs, as he agrees that the current ones are ugly and outdated.  More to come on this soon…

Red Shed Public House/Red Boot Branding:  I have had opportunity to speak with management at both of these new-ish businesses recently, and I am delighted to inform you that both are very happy with their respective locations, the responsiveness they are receiving from both the Chamber and the City, and most importantly, are making money.  Red Shed is going gangbusters, and is currently thinking about adding to their menu – Jeff Newberry says that he has a cook that makes one of the best Philly cheesesteaks he has ever eaten, and that will be a new menu item coming shortly.  It will be interesting to see how their business develops in the face of added mountain traffic for ski season, which it appears we might actually have this year!

Red Boot says that virtually all of their Gresham-area customers have followed them out here, AND they have developed several new business relationships with Sandy folk that are turning fruitful.  They couldn’t be happier, and it shows in their business.  And may I say, it is so nice to see a formerly empty building turn into a money maker virtually overnight.

B of A building:  So the merry-go-round is still spinning on this one, but it appears that we have some good news on this project.  When we last checked in, the local area businessman who is interested in procuring this property from the current owning family had the financing for this project put on hold by his bank because of a soil-hydrocarbon issue from years ago.  According to his office, he has researched this issue and found that there was, in fact, some mitigation of this issue many years ago as well.  I won’t have all of the details until I speak with him directly, and the property has still not officially changed hands yet, but it sounds like the deal is back on.  As soon as the deal is official and final I will identify all parties involved and let you know what he plans to do with the space.

Oja Lumber/Goodwill:  According to the Planning Department, plans for Goodwill’s new facility at the Oja Lumber site have been submitted to the City and are currently going through the initial review process.  There are a few minor issues with the application, but this is common and our planning director seems confident that these issues will find an acceptable resolution.

Once the plan review is complete and the regulatory requirements of the City are satisfied to the satisfaction of the Planning Department, Goodwill will contact Oja Lumber and give them 60 days to vacate the property per contractual obligation.  After this, construction may begin, and there is a possibility that they might begin construction in the winter months for a summer/fall completion.

There is also a secondary building in the plans for a 4,000 SF pad retail building for lease.  This will give our community something it badly needs….additional new retail space!  Hopefully they will offer these new spaces for a reasonable price per SF, as they will no doubt generate interest in the business community.

Project work: 

• City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal: We received final approval of partial funding for this project in late November. The County will provide $6,000 of funding, but strangely did not approve the table & benches or the security camera, so we will have to either fund those items with other funding or find low cost alternatives to replace them (like a wooden picnic table instead of a weatherproof metal table).  Seth assures me that, although it might take a couple of grant cycles, we’ll figure out a way to “get ‘r done”.
• Xmas Tree Lighting Ceremony: Complete and wildly successful (see “General Notes” above)

Conferences/training: 

None in November.  The CWWC Regional Workforce Strategic Planning Session will be held on Thursday, December 10^th.  I will be attending along with my counterpart and regional partner in Estacada, Terra Wilcoxson.