{"id":141,"date":"2014-09-03T23:28:57","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T23:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/?p=141"},"modified":"2014-09-03T23:29:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T23:29:12","slug":"141","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/2014\/09\/03\/141\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Development \u2013 Monthly Report \u2013 August 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

General notes:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>So far this month, I have been getting by about as well as can be expected.\u00a0 We are properly prepared for First Friday now, as I have hired Aubrey as a consultant for one day to help me tie up all of the loose ends with this event.\u00a0 She was able to catch about a half-dozen minor errors of mine, and was instrumental in getting materials distributed to the participants, leaving me to work on higher level details like the beer garden at Chariteas (all set up) and working on getting Crawlers\/Mad Dogz to participate (can\u2019t do it this year, but next year for sure).\u00a0 I will hire her for one more day during the week that Jennifer starts so Aubrey can help train her from the front line perspective.\u00a0 \u00a0And for the record, Aubrey was offered and has accepted a position with the Nature Conservancy in Portland, although rumor has it that another prolific Sandy resident is in the running for the Executive Director position with the Estacada Downtown Association.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you who it is yet as the position has yet to be offered, but it\u2019s someone you all know and respect.\u00a0 Watch this space\u2026<\/p>\n

Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ox & Marley:\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t heard yet, Ox & Marley has departed Sandy.\u00a0 They have relocated to the Monticello Antique mall in SE Portland where they will share a space with 4 other antique dealers.\u00a0 This was a pure business decision that was based primarily on the fact that the walk-up business that they were projecting at their Pioneer Boulevard location simply didn\u2019t materialize, whereas they will have orders of magnitude more customers at their new location by default.\u00a0 The only real complaint they voiced to me was the choice of businesses that their building owner occupied the rest of the building with\u2026.they got along with most of their neighbors but frankly were somewhat frightened by what they saw happening in the parking lot behind the building after hours.\u00a0 This was not a deal-breaker though \u2013 they just found a better retail space for their business and took it.<\/p>\n

Thrifty Dollar:\u00a0 Just had an informal chat with Will Runnels (one of the owners), and business seems to be going OK.\u00a0 Not making a lot of money, but they are profitable.\u00a0 They would be interested in expanding into the shop next door if it becomes available and is currently keeping an eye on the possibility (neighbor\u2019s lease runs out in Oct, but no idea if he plans to move on or not).\u00a0 The fact that the SCAC is expanding their food bank capacity at the expense of the second hand store seems to be helping business at the TD, but it\u2019s hard to say how much.<\/p>\n

Dolly\u2019s Pet Shoppe:\u00a0 \u00a0The latest: Marlene is now out of the hospital and in an assisted-living arrangement for the time being as she begins what is sure to be a grueling physical therapy regiment for the next several months.\u00a0 We at the Chamber have been keeping close touch, and several directors have been out to see her over the last couple of weeks.\u00a0 Anna (aka \u201cDolly\u201d) wanted me to let everyone know that our visits and cards are helping Marlene to maintain her sanity, and she is very grateful for that.<\/p>\n

Jack in the Box\/Starbucks:\u00a0 I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve noticed by now that JITB is gone, and that a \u201ccoming soon\u201d sign with the Starbucks logo is up at this property.\u00a0 Local Starbucks management tells me that an early-October grand opening is being planned, and that the current location will close a week early so that they may properly prepare.\u00a0 SACC has been notified of a potential ribbon-cutting opportunity here as well.\u00a0 Get ready for the coolest Starbucks in the county!<\/p>\n

Barbara Sah Properties:\u00a0 2014 fa\u00e7ade program improvements to this building are complete and looking fantastic.\u00a0 Kudos to Tracy for getting this property on the fa\u00e7ade program list \u2013 I\u2019m told that the overall cost to do this was fairly low, but the end result is a huge improvement.\u00a0 If that doesn\u2019t help some of these properties fill up, I don\u2019t know what will.<\/p>\n

Wheatland Building:\u00a0 2014 fa\u00e7ade program improvements to this building are also mostly complete.\u00a0 It looks like the only thing that remains to be done is the finish painting, which is happening as I type this.\u00a0 Again, a huge upgrade, and one that Dominic Giusto is very happy with.\u00a0 With the rental of the old Peak Trophy office by a medical products distributor, this building is mostly occupied \u2013 only a couple of the Jackson-Hewitt-owned offices in the front are available.<\/p>\n

Tamale Factory:\u00a0 The turf war between Clackamas County Health and the Oregon Department of Agriculture has reached a conclusion.\u00a0 Antonio has told me that he intends to switch over to ClackCo Health because their regulations are a little less burdensome on his operation.\u00a0 He also let me know that he is doing quite well in this location, and is astounded that the local restaurant community is doing so little to promote their respective businesses (preachin\u2019 to the choir, buddy).\u00a0 He is currently keeping an eye out for a location with a kitchen as he may want to expand sometime in the near future, and is also a little concerned that the Muffs have put his building up for sale and that he may be forced to move soon.\u00a0 I let him know that, while it\u2019s good to keep those things in mind, the chances that the Muff properties will sell immediately are pretty low.<\/p>\n

Crawlers:\u00a0 Finally, this business is up and operational.\u00a0 Terre completed his final inspection on Friday, and they were waiting for the ClackCo health inspector to show for their final with her, which I\u2019m told went well.\u00a0 They did have quite a few questions for me when I stopped in to check on them, most of which were around signage.\u00a0 I told them that the SACC was doing a brown bag later in the month specifically on signage, and asked Khrys over at SACC to send them an email invitation to that meeting, which she did.\u00a0 Looking forward to getting a lot of input about signs from a new business\u2026<\/p>\n

Sandy Main Street: \u00a0<\/strong>While waiting for Jennifer Marks to arrive, I have hired Aubrey as a consultant to get a few things done.\u00a0 She has committed to one day here to help me with the final arrangements for the September First Friday (which I desperately needed to insure that the event goes off smoothly) and one day in the second week of September to help me with training Jennifer (she will be able to train Jennifer on the specifics of website maintenance and event publicity better than I as she was the one who managed the day-to-day operations of SMS).\u00a0\u00a0 At $12\/hr, this should be a fairly modest expense since the total number of hours should not exceed 20.\u00a0 However, Aubrey\u2019s help will keep me from going mental as I try to run Main Street and the Ec Dev office by myself this month\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

First Friday: Gearing up for the September FF, and with Aubrey\u2019s help it is coming together.\u00a0 Preliminary reports on the weather look promising (preliminary reports say mid-80\u2019s and clear with a low of 56), and we are promoting our Safari Bingo! contest a little more heavily than the Poker Hand contest last month.\u00a0 This month\u2019s event of note: Chariteas will be hosting home-town brewery Bunsenbrewer <\/strong>for an outdoor biergarten<\/em> in her side yard complete with finger food.\u00a0 Stop by and meet Aaron Hanson (owner of Bunsenbrewer), learn everything you ever wanted to know about the brewing process and sample some local suds!<\/p>\n

Project work:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing at the moment<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Conferences\/training:\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0[IEDC Training Course \u2013 Economic Development: Marketing & Attraction \u2013 Atlanta, GA \u2013 8\/13-15] \u2013 after-action report:\u00a0 This course was as advertised.\u00a0 I am very impressed with the IEDC so far, as this course covered business recruitment quite well.\u00a0 \u00a0I have 2 two-inch 3 ring binders full of course material that I will need to revisit and condense into a more usable format in the near future.\u00a0 However, this will have to wait until my new RARE is settled in and trained and I return to a more normal schedule.\u00a0 Expect to see a more detailed report of what I learned in September or October\u2019s departmental report.<\/p>\n

As I told you last month, the IEDC (Intl Economic Devl Council) is the professional organization that certifies economic developers, and I\u2019m not exactly sure that I want to go the certification route just yet.\u00a0 However, there are a few more courses that they offer that would be beneficial to my continuing education.\u00a0 We\u2019ll see how the rest of the year (and my budget) pans out.<\/p>\n

[ELGL#14 Planning Meeting \u2013 June]\u00a0 Did the walk-through at Kennedy School for the 2014 ELGL Annual Conference, and it looks like we\u2019re on target for our October 17th<\/sup> conference date.\u00a0 Planning meetings have been happening fairly regularly via teleconference.\u00a0 Kelly O\u2019Neill attended this with me last year, and I will be encouraging other city staff to get involved with this organization by attending this conference.\u00a0 It is open to anyone who is in the beginning stages of their local government career, and is a great way to network with other staffers in the same stage of professional development in other cities and counties.\u00a0 More on this event as we get closer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General notes:\u00a0 \u00a0So far this month, I have been getting by about as well as can be expected.\u00a0 We are properly prepared for First Friday now, as I have hired Aubrey as a consultant for one day to help me … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}