{"id":88,"date":"2014-01-14T03:25:39","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T03:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/?p=88"},"modified":"2014-01-16T00:46:17","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T00:46:17","slug":"economic-development-%e2%80%93-monthly-report-%e2%80%93-december-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reports.cityofsandy.com\/economicdevelopment\/2014\/01\/14\/economic-development-%e2%80%93-monthly-report-%e2%80%93-december-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Development \u2013 Monthly Report \u2013 December 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

General notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>Regarding the \u201cSandy Syndrome\u201d issues that I brought up last month\u2026.I have spoken recently with the city manager and others on the planning\/building side of the City.\u00a0 I understand that we will begin to shift our focus to the handful of dilapidated, unmaintained properties around the City and what to do about them this summer.\u00a0 I believe that the first step in dealing with \u201cSandy Syndrome\u201d is to make sure that there is a functional price attached to failing to maintain your commercial property.\u00a0 Paying the costs of catching up on maintenance in addition to annual property taxes might be enough to motivate these property owners to do something with their property rather than just sit and watch them disintegrate in the Oregon rain.\u00a0 Whether they sell these properties to a speculator at a discount, tear them down and plant grass or fix them to minimum standards and develop them themselves, any of these solutions would be better than the disintegration path.\u00a0 In any case, I believe this will be a good start, and I will be more than happy to help out in any way that I can.\u00a0 If we maintain pressure on these properties to improve, I believe that the market will fix the rest (as in, if the only built properties left available by this time next year are SS properties, potential business owners will have to decide which is more appealing \u2013 overpaying significantly for a space, or building your own.\u00a0 If the latter is more appealing, SS property owners will be stuck with failing buildings that they will have<\/span> to maintain.\u00a0 That means either lowering your price or being stuck with a big annual maintenance bill (on top of a big annual property tax bill) that will be rightly enforced by the City in some manner).<\/p>\n

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

Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

38250 Pioneer Blvd:<\/span>\u00a0 There has been a recent change in the development of this space.\u00a0 The Boring area auto repair shop that had its eye on this space has since backed out.\u00a0 Current plans are to develop this space into a place where people can bring their radio controlled cars in and run them on an actual track.\u00a0 This business is a different one than Mad Dogz Hobby Shop, although one would assume that there are some business connections there between this company and Mad Dogz.\u00a0 No word yet from Mr. Tolle about fiber and VOIP phones, although conversations between Brian and SandyNet continue.<\/p>\n

Iris Healing Arts<\/span>:\u00a0 Heather Mich\u00e9t will be moving out of this property\u00a0probably by the end of January. \u00a0Ms. Mich\u00e9t will be transferring the office portion of her business to her home here in Sandy, and is in the process of trying to find a space (again, here in Sandy) to practice her craft.\u00a0 There are a number of local businesses she has been communicating with regarding a practitioner\u2019s space, and I\u2019m fairly certain she will be able to work out something with one of them very soon.\u00a0 More to come\u2026<\/p>\n

Two Brother\u2019s Mexican Restaurant<\/span>:\u00a0 I am beginning to become worried about the viability of this business.\u00a0 I have attempted to eat lunch at this restaurant at least half a dozen times during the last month, but although the sign on the door states that the restaurant is open for business at 11am, the front door was locked on all occasions, whereas my arrival times were anywhere from 11:30am to 1pm.\u00a0 This would seem to be a very bad sign for the continued viability of this business, yet the owner came in to City Hall today (1\/13) and renewed his business license for 2014.\u00a0 No idea what\u2019s going on here.<\/p>\n

I will attempt to make contact with the owner of this business in the next couple of weeks, but I have had communications issues with Angel in the past (his English comprehension is somewhat limited).\u00a0 Councilor Gerberg – If you have any free time in the next couple of weeks, would you mind accompanying me to this restaurant for an appetizer or a cocktail (my treat, of course).\u00a0 I\u2019d like to see if there\u2019s something we can do to help him.\u00a0 If so, I\u2019d like to try.\u00a0 And if he does end up failing\u2026.well, let\u2019s just say that we have some options there as well.\u00a0 More to come\u2026.<\/p>\n

Country Co. Insurance<\/span>:\u00a0 All work on this property is complete and this office officially opened for business on January 3. Have not heard yet whether or not there will be a ribbon-cutting for this business, as they have not joined the Chamber yet\u2026<\/p>\n

Sandy Vacuum property & Great Expectations property<\/span>: \u00a0Carl Jacobs and his wife continue to work on these properties. \u00a0We haven’t heard much from them, although Mrs. Jacobs has applied for a few permits for the former Great Expectations site. \u00a0I will check in with both of them soon to see how things are progressing…<\/p>\n

Bright Beginnings<\/span>:\u00a0 Sadly, this project will not go forward.\u00a0 After doing their due diligence and working with the Building and Planning Departments on an almost daily basis, the owners of Bright Beginnings had a decision to make \u2013 move BB to a new location and make about $20,000 in upgrades for the new space, or sell the business.\u00a0 After much discussion, the decision was made to sell the business to the assistant director of the pre-school instead.\u00a0 That person was not in a financial position to a) buy the business, b) make all of the necessary upgrades to the new building, and c) move all of the operation in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n

Energy Unlimited LLC:<\/span>\u00a0 These folks have finally decided that they no longer need their 5,000 square foot office space, and will close their doors on Pioneer to become a home-based business operating out of the owner\u2019s home in Estacada.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t really come as a huge surprise to the ED office, as they never really used more than a quarter of their office space and the principals of the business were hardly ever there.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that there\u2019s anything that we as a city could have done to prevent this \u2013 rather, this move was probably inevitable at some point.\u00a0 The silver lining to this cloud is that we now have some prime retail space open in the middle of the downtown business district.\u00a0 My guess is that this space will not be vacant for very long\u2026<\/p>\n

Sandy Main Street:\u00a0 <\/strong>We are at a transition point for Sandy Main Street at the moment.\u00a0 All of our events for the year are complete, and we have a couple of months before we have to start planning for First Friday again.\u00a0 Therefore, we are spending our time at SMS reaching out to local businesses and organizing for the future.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what we\u2019re currently working on:<\/p>\n