{"id":202,"date":"2015-10-06T01:04:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T01:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/?p=202"},"modified":"2015-10-06T01:06:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T01:06:01","slug":"economic-development-monthly-report-september-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/2015\/10\/06\/economic-development-monthly-report-september-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Development \u2013 Monthly Report \u2013 September 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

General notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>The final First Friday of the season went off with only one minor hitch, and it seems that it was once again fairly well attended.\u00a0 The minor hitch was that the Chamber, in moving the petting zoo to the field on the Leathers lot, found out that FFA does not carry insurance for those sorts of events and that the person managing the Leathers family properties requires insurance for any event on their property.\u00a0 This makes sense, considering that farm animals do bite and\/or charge from time to time and this should be planned for.\u00a0 The SACC tried to purchase coverage for the event at the last minute, but as soon as our insurer found out that live animals were involved he said they would not insure us \u2013 full stop.\u00a0 Apparently events with live animals are absolutely toxic to insurers.<\/p>\n

Strangely, FFA does not carry insurance, and we did not find out about this until 24 hours before the event, making it impossible to move the petting zoo to another location even if we had one.\u00a0 Now that we know, we will make different arrangements for next year regarding that one sub-event, but it was a disappointment as this was very popular last year.\u00a0 Many FF goers made it known that they were unhappy about this development.<\/p>\n

Other than that, the Library said they did pretty well, and so did the usual suspects (Lori Ryland, Beer Den, Dita\u2019s, AntFarm).\u00a0 Trick or Treat Trail is coming up next on the 24th<\/sup> of October, and Khrys and Jennifer are working diligently on that event already.\u00a0 Flyers have been sent out and are available at City Hall and other locations around the City, but this event should be the same as in year\u2019s past.\u00a0 It will be exciting to see how many kids come out for this one.<\/p>\n

* – One more thing regarding the TTT: last year I had a couple of business owners (who shall remain nameless) complain that they were seeing kids coming to their stores from outside of Sandy, and that they didn\u2019t want to be paying for and distributing candy to kids who weren\u2019t \u201clocal\u201d.\u00a0 I have instructed everyone over at the Chamber to respond to any complaints like this with the following \u201cscript\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease remember that the Trick or Treat Trail is a business awareness event, meaning that the purpose of this event is to show people that there are retail businesses they can shop at in downtown Sandy.\u00a0 You should be delighted that people from outside of the community are taking the time to walk around our downtown business district and familiarize themselves with the stores here.\u00a0 If they came back next week and wanted to buy something from you, would you refuse them service because they were from Gresham or Portland or Vancouver?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026And if cost is your concern, consider this — you\u2019re going to meet a lot of potential new customers at TTT, and all it\u2019s going to cost you to get them in your door is a $0.10 piece of candy.\u00a0 In the promotional marketing world, it doesn\u2019t get any cheaper than that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

TCBY<\/u>:\u00a0 \u00a0This business has indeed closed.\u00a0 After contacting the property management\/commercial realty company that manages this complex, they did confirm that the owners have closed the business for good, although no reason was given.\u00a0 This property is back on the market, although I\u2019m not really sure how they plan on finding a lessee when they\u2019re asking $2.80\/SF\/month in combined rent and common area maintenance with a 5-year minimum lease.\u00a0 That rate makes the two properties available in this complex the most expensive commercial properties for lease in Sandy, with the next most expensive property not even being in the same ballpark.\u00a0 For comparative purposes, the two vacant properties between Sparky\u2019s and the UPS Store are being offered for $1\/SF\/month with a 1 year minimum lease.<\/p>\n

With rates like that, I have a feeling that these properties are going to be vacant for a very, very long time.\u00a0 I would love to be wrong about that.\u00a0 Time will tell.<\/p>\n

NW Trading Post<\/u>:\u00a0 This is now a done deal, and no back up plans were needed.\u00a0 This building (the one with the new carpet shop in it) has completed renovations and passed final inspection, and Mr. Booth intends to move his pawn shop into the east side of the building it before the end of October.\u00a0 Noryne and I have had many conversations with this business owner, and I am actually excited to see how he sets up his new shop.\u00a0 If his other two stores are any indication, this will be a nicely stocked compliment to the second hand stores in Sandy and will give us yet another successful retailer in the downtown area.<\/p>\n

B of A building<\/u>:\u00a0 Nothing new here, but negotiations are still ongoing regarding the transfer of this property to another local business owner.\u00a0 Buyer still sounds optimistic that something will get done here shortly.\u00a0 Stay tuned\u2026 \u00a0[LAST MINUTE UPDATE: just spoke to staff of the potential buyer, and have been told that a tentative agreement has been reached and that the contract is now “at the bank being processed”. \u00a0I will confirm, but if true, this is a done deal and I will be revealing the identity of the new owner shortly]<\/p>\n

35900 Industrial Way Suite 305<\/u>:\u00a0 The business leasing this property has finally shown up.\u00a0 The sign above the door states that the property is occupied by NW Elite Crete, which is listed as the \u201cNorthwest distributor, trainer & technical support for Elite Crete Systems, Inc. line of decorative concrete overlay system: basic resurfacing, acid staining, antiquing, stamped overlays, MicroFinishing, MMA Sealer, Epoxies & Urethanes<\/em>\u201d. \u00a0The gentleman operating this business states that his current business model is to provide installation and finishing instruction for installing concrete floors.\u00a0 He appears to have moved to Sandy from Troutdale.<\/p>\n

Strangely enough, there is another business (personal friends of the owner of Northwest Elite Crete) that is also claiming this as their business address, and it appears that for the time being they are going to share the space.\u00a0 The other business is a knife manufacturing company, and the couple that owns it seems nice enough.\u00a0 Of course, neither company had picked up a business application, and the primary business owner has already installed a wall sign without a permit (of course!)\u00a0 However, to my untrained eye at least, the sign looks like it complies with city code, and both business owners happily agreed to fill out their license and permit applications quickly and get them in to Noryne.\u00a0 I will follow up on this shortly\u2026\u00a0 [UPDATE: it appears that the knife company has turned in their business license application \u2013 LaClaire\u2019s Cutlery Shoppe\u2019s fire\/life safety inspection will take place on 10\/6]<\/p>\n

Oregon\u2019s Wild Harvest building<\/u>: \u2026..has a new commercial broker representing it \u2013 Colm Commercial Retail Services out of Bend.\u00a0 Pam Martin has contacted me recently to state that she is now willing to sell the property in addition to offering it for lease.\u00a0 She has been talking to Planning about possibly using UR money for a minor fa\u00e7ade improvement to help market the building if this would be an acceptable use of that money.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know all the details of that discussion, but I do know that Tracy is talking to her and that it sounds like a promising conversation.<\/p>\n

Benson property:<\/u>\u00a0 That rascal Mark Benson is at it again.\u00a0 Remember the \u201cFree Land for Brewpub\u201d sign during the Lazenby days?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s up again and asks for inquiries to be directed to an email address or at AM\/PM.\u00a0 I also received a call from our illustrious Hawaiian car dealer letting me know the deal is being advertised again, but he was fairly imprecise about what the actual \u201cdeal\u201d involves.\u00a0 I have an email request in with him to clarify, so as soon as I know more you will to.<\/p>\n

76 Station on Proctor<\/u>:\u00a0 This organization apparently closed for business over the weekend.\u00a0 I can\u2019t really say I am surprised by this development, as I very rarely saw anybody stop for gas there.\u00a0 Their prices were always a good bit higher than the Arco station across the street, they were farther down Proctor and they didn\u2019t really do anything to make their store stand out.\u00a0 I did take the time to pop into this store a few times over the summer to check them out, and the employees of this store were about as friendly as French policemen (not a compliment).\u00a0 Plus (and I don\u2019t really have any hard data to back this up, but\u2026) common sense would seem to indicate that playing loud gangsta rap in your convenience store probably appeals to a very, very, very small customer demographic and would alienate most everyone else.\u00a0 Probably not the best business decision on their part.<\/p>\n

Carlson property (old La Torta site)<\/u>:\u00a0 \u00a0I ran into our friend Jerry as I was out and about a couple of days ago, and here\u2019s the latest:\u00a0 he is indeed planning on setting up the property with utilities for use with a food cart pod, and has been advertising for food carts along those lines.\u00a0 He will have space for around 10 carts, and claims to be getting a good amount of interest in this concept from food cart operators.\u00a0 He is actually working well with Tracy right now to get things set up, and his \u201cdispute\u201d about parking issues sounds minor and not something he seems to be overly concerned with.<\/p>\n

He wants to call it \u201cSandlandia\u201d.\u00a0 [heavy sigh]\u00a0 If the food is good enough, I might<\/u> forgive him for that sometime in the distant future.<\/p>\n

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Project work:\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0Work continues on the \u201cCity of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal\u201d tourism development grant from Clackamas County Tourism & Cultural Affairs. \u00a0I am currently working on putting together a budget for the project, and will complete the application for the grant no later than October 14th<\/sup> for submittal.<\/p>\n

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Conferences\/training:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n