{"id":214,"date":"2016-01-15T02:14:02","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T02:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/?p=214"},"modified":"2016-01-15T02:14:02","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T02:14:02","slug":"economic-development-monthly-report-december-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/2016\/01\/15\/economic-development-monthly-report-december-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Development \u2013 Monthly Report \u2013 December 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

General notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>In early 2016 I will be working with the SandyNet boys to help get the word out about SandyNet Business Fiber.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Hopefully we will be ready to issue another RFP for construction in April and begin connecting businesses in May.<\/p>\n

In the beginning of this rollout we will use the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce\u2019s e-blast tool to give SACC\u2019s membership first crack at signing up.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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

Fastenal Building<\/u>:\u00a0 I am pleased to announce that this property is now occupied.\u00a0 There are crews working on the interior of this building right now transforming it into the showroom for Sandy\u2019s newest retailer\u2026Mattress World.\u00a0 Galen Fancher tells me that they have signed a multi-year lease, and he is very happy with that contract.<\/p>\n

And the Available Commercial Buildings database gets one entry shorter\u2026<\/p>\n

Eclectic Institute<\/u>:\u00a0 I was recently contacted by the principals at this business and invited down to their base at McKinnon Airfield for a tour.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Unbeknownst to me, one of Dr. Alstat\u2019s 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)<\/p>\n

Look for Eclectic to have a presence at First Fridays in 2016.\u00a0 Watch this space.<\/p>\n

Barbara Sah properties<\/u>:\u00a0 Mrs. Sah (building includes Stephanie\u2019s 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 \u201cthinking it over\u201d.\u00a0 North Sky Communications has completed running the conduit to this building, and fiber should be run through said conduit within the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Also, it seems that we have had a construction contractor move into this building recently as well.\u00a0 KLM Construction is currently in the business license\/certificate of occupancy process.<\/p>\n

Lamb properties<\/u>:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He has recently contracted with a developer\/commercial real estate agent to look at the possibilities of building out the site.\u00a0 Seth and I had a very promising conference with Tim Whiting of Amerivest (Gary\u2019s agent) to look at some of the issues surrounding this area and what, if anything, the City would like to see develop here.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 There may be opportunities to use this overflow parking as potential public parking during business hours as well.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We are looking into what mitigation of this issue would entail.<\/p>\n

B of A building<\/u>:\u00a0 The merry-go-round has finally stopped!\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

The new tenant and future owner of this property will be Dr. Jonathan Rhue of Oregon Trail Chiropractic.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 If he decides to expand, he will also keep his current location next door to Nails N Styles to house the new services.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s fa\u00e7ade improvement grant program towards this end.\u00a0 He also intends to remove the trees behind the building bordering the back access to the building housing Sparky\u2019s 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.\u00a0 If his location in Estacada is any guide, he should be actively looking to improve the site and maintain it properly.<\/p>\n

Oja Lumber\/Goodwill<\/u>:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They will be having a customer appreciation event on Saturday, January 16th<\/sup> featuring refreshments and tours of the site, and are encouraging locals to come down, take pictures and share stories.<\/p>\n

I spoke with the Oja family recently, and they are in good spirits and ready to wind things down.\u00a0 I also offered to help them with publicizing the imminent closure to help them get rid of their current inventory\u2026.an offer they were happy to take.\u00a0 I will be posting on the City\u2019s 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.\u00a0 [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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 That comment really caused the remainder of the community to check themselves and changed the tone of the post from that point forward.)<\/p>\n

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