{"id":46,"date":"2013-05-09T22:58:47","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T22:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/?p=46"},"modified":"2013-05-16T16:47:56","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T16:47:56","slug":"economic-development-%e2%80%93-monthly-report-%e2%80%93-april-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/2013\/05\/09\/economic-development-%e2%80%93-monthly-report-%e2%80%93-april-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Development \u2013 Monthly Report \u2013 April 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):\u00a0 <\/strong>Rumor alert \u2013 the property in which the Sub Shop currently resides has been looked at by the Local Cow, a Gresham-based organic burger joint.\u00a0 Their owner held his cards pretty close to the vest when I talked to him about a month ago, so they may just be researching the possibility of expansion.\u00a0 However, this business is a) pretty successful, b) owned and staffed by young, vivacious entrepreneurs, which would be a great addition to our business community, and c) makes an outstanding product.\u00a0 I let the co-owner know that we would LOVE to have one of their stores in Sandy, and I would help make that happen in any way I could.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I am working with a local artist to try and find a suitable property for a studio\/gallery in the downtown business district.\u00a0 So far we are just in the planning stages, but there is a possible development that looks promising.\u00a0 If this starts to look like it might happen, I will flood you with details, but right now it is probably better not to jinx it and refrain from further comment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Main Street tells me that the Park building has changed ownership by reverting back to the original owner, Dr. Sah.\u00a0 What impact this might have on the current tenants is not immediately clear, but I\u2019ll see what I can find out from them\u2026<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Stephanie\u2019s Restaurant:<\/span>\u00a0 Open for business.\u00a0 Have not had a chance to assess the quality of their product yet, but if the handwritten signs in their windows are any indication, it is my assessment that this business may not last very long.\u00a0 More to come\u2026.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Sandy Family Restaurant:<\/span>\u00a0 Open for business.\u00a0 The interior remodel is fantastic, and is a massive improvement over Stephanie\u2019s.\u00a0 Very modern, but still has a \u201cSandyesque\u201d feel to it.\u00a0 Food is much better than the former restaurant as well.\u00a0 Thanks to Councilor Coleman for helping me \u201ctest\u201d the business.\u00a0 The building has also been cleaned up fairly well on the outside, and is sporting a clean roof and a new coat of paint.\u00a0 Many thanks to Ria of Ria\u2019s Bar for buying the building and actually putting some money into fixing it up.\u00a0 May she profit handsomely from her investment!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Leathers property:<\/span>\u00a0 Will be speaking to Nunpa at the AntFarm at length about the produce shack revitalization on 5\/10.\u00a0 More to come\u2026.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Sandy River Brewing\/Lumberyard\/Psychic Shop property:<\/span>\u00a0 There have been, according to my contacts at Windermere, a few inquiries on these properties in the past few months.\u00a0 When potential buyers hear the asking price, interest evaporates\u2026<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Sandy Antiques &amp; More:<\/span> \u00a0Open for business, and seems to be doing ok so far\u2026<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Rip City Glass:<\/span>\u00a0 Open for business.\u00a0 I have met some of the employees, but not the owner yet\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Public Information:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Social media: \u00a0<\/strong>Facebook followers = 3,149 (+16) \/\/ Twitter followers: 121 (+2) \/\/ Again, lots of posts this month but few comments.\u00a0 Largest activity generator was a weather alert warning about high winds posted by Scott Brown from his smart phone (9 comments, 33 likes, 22 shares).\u00a0 No other post generated more than four comments.\u00a0 I do see that our posts are being shared quite frequently, which reinforces to me that people are finding them useful though. \/\/ Some departments were also getting a bit overzealous in posting and re-posting for events earlier in the month, which can often lead users to \u201cunliking\u201d a site because they feel like they\u2019re being spammed.\u00a0 This has been addressed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Current copy of H2O bill newsletter \u2013 \u00a0<a href=\"\/\/server001.cityofsandy.dom\/Data\/Economic%20Development\/PIO%20duties\/Water%20bill%20newsletter\/May%202013.pdf\">G:\\Economic Development\\PIO duties\\Water bill newsletter\\May 2013.pdf<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Current copy of the Sandy Business Insider \u2013<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>ED Committee:\u00a0 <\/strong>There was no ED Committee meeting in April \u2013 next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 14<sup>th<\/sup>.\u00a0 This meeting will be almost entirely dedicated to Catherine Comer from Clackamas County\u2019s Business Development Office.\u00a0 Catherine will be leading the committee and a few key staff and community members in \u201crapid response team\u201d training.\u00a0 In economic development terms, a rapid response team is a group of community members that can be called upon when a business is considering moving to town to answer any questions that company might have about the community.\u00a0 This includes things that directly affect businesses, like \u201cWhat is the tax structure like?\u201d and \u201cWhat kind of utility bills can we reasonably expect to pay?\u201d to more indirect questions like \u201cWhat is crime like in Sandy?\u201d or \u201cHow good is the school system out there?\u201d\u00a0 Having a short list of people available to businesses to answer these kinds of questions is very important from an economic development standpoint, as most good medium-to-large sized businesses expend a fair amount of resources doing their due diligence before making relocation decisions.\u00a0 As a community, we should be prepared to help them get the information they need as quickly and easily (and completely) as possible.<\/p>\n<p>The last committee meeting also ended with a call to have the group speak with representatives from Hood 2 Coast to see if there is anything we can do improve the event experience for both participants and the community.\u00a0 The last two years have seen some behavioral problems on both sides, with many complaints about public urination, trespassing and general rudeness on the part of <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">some<\/span> race participants, and the general rudeness being returned in spades by <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">some<\/span> local businesses.\u00a0 In doing my due diligence by talking to impacted businesses, I have found that the problem isn\u2019t as bad as I had originally thought, and almost all businesses view H2C as a positive thing for their bottom line, even if it is a little inconvenient.\u00a0 I also found that the \u201crudeness displayed by local businesses\u201d was essentially limited to one business.\u00a0 I spoke to the owner of that business, and he told me that it was pointless to talk to H2C and that I should give up, and was angry with the City because the PD wouldn\u2019t tow H2C members from the Safeway complex lot on race day for essentially not patronizing his store.\u00a0 He also patrols what he believes to be \u201chis\u201d parking spaces in the lot, confronts support teams about parking in those spaces personally, and told me that \u201csome teams are extremely rude\u201d.\u00a0 When I asked for a specific example, he could not give me one.\u00a0 He also locks some of the doors to his business and his bathroom doors on race day, and will only let his regular customers inside his store \u2013 when I told him that this was potentially illegal (there\u2019s a sign right above the door in question that says \u201cThis door must remain unlocked during business hours\u201d), he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. \u00a0He was also the only business that stated that he lost business on race day ($1,500!!!!).\u00a0 I can\u2019t for the life of me imagine why\u2026<\/p>\n<p>I have scheduled a meeting with H2C\u2019s President and their Chief Operating Officer for May 9<sup>th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Mayor King, Dr. Lazenby, and Chief Yamashita are all planning to attend.\u00a0 Looking forward to the discussion\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project work:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>destination hotel \u2013 <\/em><\/strong>The meeting with Jamie and Wendy went very well \u2013 the County is becoming very interested in this project, and is looking to see if Enterprise Zone incentives apply (they probably will).\u00a0 Wendy also asked for maps of any other property in Sandy that would be big enough for the project and has a great view.\u00a0 I think she\u2019s just doing her due diligence, but I did send her topographic and floodplain maps (thanks Liz!) of the Fleischman and Knapp properties right behind Brad Picking\u2019s property that she\u2019s currently looking at.\u00a0 These were the only other option in town with a potential view.\u00a0 If anything comes of this, I\u2019ll let you know.<strong><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>i3 fiber project \u2013<\/em><\/strong> NetCity delivered their \u201cCity of Sandy Broadband Adoption and Utilization Strategic Plan\u201d to us last week, and many thanks to everyone who took part in the process.\u00a0 The report can be found here: <a href=\"\/Economic%20Development\/SandyNet\/SandyNet%20Fiber%20project\/NetCity%20-%20broadband%20outreach%20and%20planning%20project\/Final%20Draft%20Sandy%20Broadband%20Plan%204-25-13.pdf\">G:\\Economic Development\\SandyNet\\SandyNet Fiber project\\NetCity &#8211; broadband outreach and planning project\\Final Draft Sandy Broadband Plan 4-25-13.pdf<\/a>\u00a0 Other than that, we are back in the holding pattern until a) we hear something from i3America, or b) we make the decision to abandon hope with i3 and head another direction.\u00a0 Next SandyNet Advisory board meeting is 7pm, June 6, 2013.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>PPLIP \u2013<\/em><\/strong> The program continues, and is generating goodwill with a) our citizens, and b) businesses that donated prizes to the program.\u00a0 Unfortunately it doesn\u2019t seem to be affecting parking counts much.\u00a0 Waiting for weather to improve and\/or wayfinding signage to be installed to see if this changes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conferences\/training:\u00a0 <\/strong>The Ford Institute Leadership Program that Beth Scarth, Monica Smith and I have been involved with is steaming ahead with fundraising, which should continue through June 1<sup>st<\/sup> at the very least.\u00a0 We have already raised enough money to max out the matching funds available from the Ford Family Foundation and to cover our projected expenses\u2026any funds raised from this point forward will either go toward making improvements above and beyond what was planned, or go into the Action Center\u2019s general fund.\u00a0 We are still soliciting local businesses for funds, and Buhdda Kat Winery has expressed interest in doing a fundraiser for our project.\u00a0 Several group members will be discussing this with the winery on 5\/10.<\/p>\n<p>For complete information on the FILP Highway to Hood Cohort and our SCAC Remodel project, check out our project presentation at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myplacetolearn.com\/uploads\/users\/files\/H2H-SCACPresentation\/index.html\">http:\/\/www.myplacetolearn.com\/uploads\/users\/files\/H2H-SCACPresentation\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have signed up for more OLLI training \u2013 I will attend a day class in Newport on May 22 entitled \u201cOregon Planning Procedures \u2013 From Application to Approval\u201d to boost my understanding of planning, as it will be important for me in the near future to work more closely with the planning department.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the Broadband Communities conference in Dallas that I attended (April 15-18) was somewhat of a disappointment.\u00a0 While the conference was well attended, I would estimate that over 90% of the attendees were private sector ISPs and content providers, so there weren\u2019t a lot of public providers for me to learn from.\u00a0 The private sector folks had no problem spending millions of dollars on buildouts, fancy software, and other expensive pieces of fiber networks as securing loans and booking large amounts of debt didn\u2019t seem to concern them much.\u00a0 This approach is clearly not feasible for a municipality.\u00a0 Of the few cities that were there (San Leandro, CA; Columbus, OH), most were much larger cities that had much, much more in the way of available funding to work with (many had gotten multi-million dollar USDA and USEDA grants, and all had sales tax money to work with as well) and did not have the limitations (topography, lack of existing infrastructure) that we do here in Sandy.\u00a0 When I asked about marketing and advertising strategies, almost every person or group that I talked to replied with variations on \u201cIf you build it, they will come\u2026\u201d, which doesn\u2019t really help to craft a marketing strategy.\u00a0 I did, however, gain some good advice from a few of the sessions, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A cut sheet for tech infrastructure showing a map of Sandy with all of the main fiber backbones, area cell towers and central office locations is necessary for marketing to medium to large-sized businesses. Should also address redundancy, statements of on-site capabilities, other service providers, and the potential to build out from current infrastructure.\u00a0 Hopefully I can get Joe or Scott B. to work with me on this in the near future.<\/li>\n<li>It would be a good idea to research all competitive business internet services available in the area and know what they are offering.\u00a0 This is critical to advertising, as we should be able to blow our competition out of the water when comparing bandwidth vs. price!<\/li>\n<li>We should not discount the possibilities of directly marketing FTTH to older citizens (65+).\u00a0 The online world offers great benefits to the elderly in the form of: staying connected to family, <strong>telemedicine<\/strong>, <strong>entertainment<\/strong> (a bigger deal than you might think \u2013 Netflix!), shopping from home, e-government, etc.\u00a0 On the e-government front, I believe it would be a good idea for Seth and I to put together a step-by-step online guide (with lots of screenshots) explaining how to pay city utility bills online.\u00a0 Anything that can be done online and save users a trip to City Hall (or anywhere, really) will appeal to the 65+ crowd more than the average citizen.<\/li>\n<li>It would not be a bad idea to begin marketing fiber services to commercial property owners now \u2013 unless the i3 deal comes back online soon, we might be a few years farther out than planned in getting this service to these folks for no buildout cost.\u00a0 However, the economy seems to be slowly coming back, and demand for commercial properties is increasing.\u00a0 What better way to highlight your property in the open market than to differentiate it by stating that it is already wired for gigabit fiber? (even if you do have to pay for it, you can get a super-low interest loan through the city, it will increase the value of your rental property, and will definitely increase the chances of renting property out now rather than 2 or 3 years from now\u2026why wait that long just to save $5-8K, especially when you can write the expense off?)<\/li>\n<li>As the ED manager, I should have a list of <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">local<\/span> business service providers (not just SandyNet, but business equipment, accountants, marketing experts, travel assistance, business legal services, business education, etc.) available to promote local providers. [I have already begun working on this\u2026more to come]<\/li>\n<li>Also received a lot of online resource sites for FTTH, which I will start researching as soon as my reporting is done for the month\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):\u00a0 Rumor alert \u2013 the property in which the Sub Shop currently resides has been looked at by the Local Cow, a Gresham-based organic burger joint.\u00a0 Their owner held his cards pretty close to the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/2013\/05\/09\/economic-development-%e2%80%93-monthly-report-%e2%80%93-april-2013\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-link"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","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=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}