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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-04-10 ACE MINUTES• • • I. ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCE IN ENGLEWOOD April 10, 2008 CALL TO ORDER The regula r meeting of the Alliance for Commerce in Englew ood (ACE) was called to order at 11 :42 a.m. in the City Council Conference Room of the Englewood Civic Center, Chair Schalk presiding. Present: Schalk, Lonborg, Panetta, McDermott, Guinther Absent: Vasilas, Verbeck, Espinoza (alternate) Also present: Jim Woodward, Mayor Joe Jefferson, Councilman Michael Morton, Executive Director, Chamber of Commerce Staff present: Alan White, Community Development Director Darren Hollin gsworth, Economic Deve lop ment Coordinator The Recording Secretary distributed a copy of ED 701 The Metro Mayor's Caucus to all members of the Board . Mr. Hollingsworth distrib uted a copy of an article entitle "Builde rs look to Englewood for high-end custom h o using" that was in Th e Villager Februa ry 28, 2008, one entitled "No re spo ns e to buy school site" that was in the Engl ewood H erald on April 3, 2008 and th e ne w brochure from Micro Business Development. APPROVAL OF MINUTES February 14, 2008 Chair Schalk stated that the Minutes of Febru ary 14, 2008 were to be considered for approval. It was determined there was a quorum. McDermott moved: Guinther seconded: THE M INUTES OF FE BRUARY 14, 2008 BE APPROVED AS WRITIEN . The motion carried un animously. The Record in g Secretary gave a short presentation on the new Liberty recording system. II. ACE BUSINESS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT-METRO MAYOR'S CAUCUS PRESENTATION Mayor Woodward asked that Staff provide this information to ACE for genera l discussion . H e said the Caucus is made up of 3 7 m ayors from the metro area. Mr. John Cod y, • • • President of the Longmont Area Economic Development Council, presented the information at the Caucus. It describes the role of economic development. Mr. Hollingsworth asked if there were any discussion points the Board would like to make. Mr. Panetta asked how we put it to use or utilize any of the information. Mr. Hollingsworth said one of the reasons it is important is that ACE will gain a broader understanding of the role of economic development in the community. ACE was very instrumental in getting Englewood's first Economic Development Strategy off the ground. Economic development isn't only tax revenues, there 's also a jobs component. As we talk about the investments within the community, whether they are housing or jobs being brought in from a new employer; that enhances the economic vitality of the community. Retail typically follows rooftops and where the jobs are. The higher level of disposable income you have the greater propensity for spending in an area . As an example in Englewood we have a good level of spending now on quick serve restaurants and casual dining. This was more of an educational piece for ACE. Mr. Panetta stated he thought it was very well done and a good summary of economic development. He asked how the Community Development Department can utilize and condense this information and disseminate it to the community. He said he feels it is important the citizens understand the impact to the community. Mr. Hollingsworth said this is a big, broad umbrella of economic development. He reviewed the section ED Basics on page 7 of the handout. Categories discussed were Supporting Existing Employers, Attracting New Employers, Growing New Companies and Educating the Community About Their Importance. Mayor Woodward stated there was a lot of discussion at the Caucus regarding economic development. He said one of the main points made was on page 3, Primary Jobs Drive the Economy. Primary jobs are the economic engine of the local economy. Primary jobs are living wage jobs, which are the type of jobs that bring people into a community and support retail and other businesses within the city and the city itself. Patty Silverstein, a local economist, spoke on the economy of the metro area and state, which was much more positive than the national outlook. One key Mr. Cody pointed out was to have a balance of everything. When you can balance the primary jobs, retail, quality of life and housing then that is success as far as "economic development" goes. Mr. Hollingsworth said there is a role for everyone in the community in terms of economic development. He noted he met with the city's firefighters last fall and talked about their role. They see first hand a business that may be struggling financially or a business that is looking to move into or out of Englewood. ACE members, the Chamber of Commerce and City Council all play a role in economic development. UPDATE TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY Director White said the City's Economic Development Strategy is a few years old. He asked the Board if they would lik e to take a look at it and maybe update it since ACE played a 2 • • • major role in writing the strategy. Chair Schalk said that was a very good idea and he would lik e to see what is not being done and how we can redirect ourselves to get on the right track . Director White asked the Board if they would like to move the update higher up on the City's priority list. Mayor Woodward said the Council has short term goals and he said he believed economic development was at the very top of that list. He would support the update. Ms. McDermott agreed. She said the document is intended to be a long-range document, but things change, the economy changes and everyone 's focus changes. Director White said he would move it up on the priority list and get it on the short-term agenda. Mr. Panetta asked Mayor Woodward if Council went into any greater depth at the meeting? Mayor Woodward said that particular meeting was more of a broad range discussion for the City; two to five years out. There is another meeting that Council wants to have taking from what was said at the first session and start to narrow down and pinpoint the discussion . He asked Mr. Jefferson to address what he sees at priorities. Mr. Jefferson said housing restrictions have been looked at; the need for more dense development to be built. To his knowledge subsidizing businesses directly has not been looked at. Mr. Panetta said from ACE's perspective it is great to hear that Council believes economic development is a top priority. He asked the Board to please go to page 8 of the document "Why Companies Locate ". There is a list of 10 reasons. He said it would be nice if Council would do their own needs assessment in terms of what do and how each of the Council members feel about these various items and what role can City Council play in conjunction with the Chamber, ACE and any other economic development groups . Mr. Jefferson said he believes there is plenty we can do in a lot of these different areas. The one that pops out to him is "Adequate Infrastructure Capacity". With the expansion of RTD 's FasTracks plan and the possible Bates Station this is something Council is working through now to try to, in his opinion, bring the City a Bates Station. That station could provide the spark needed for redevelopment on the northwest side of town . Mayor Woodward said Bates Station is not only what is described as northwest in the studies that have been done, but it flow s all the way down into Broadway. Bates Street could be made very pedestrian friendly. Bates Station certainly is something that Council is strategizing on right now. He agreed with Mr. Panetta in regards to taking parts of the Caucus presentation to Council for discussion. Mr. Jefferson said he believes Englewood generally stacks up pretty well against the competition in some of the issues . Englewood 's problem is attracting the large employers since we don't have large land masses ava i lable for development. Going back to the Bates Station discussion, we are in a situation now with the rising commodity costs it increases the cost of bringing another station into Englewood. He stated Council is meeting with the developer of Bates Station soon , but he feels their response is going to be it is not feasible 3 • • • for them any longer due to the rising costs. He asked if ACE would like to see the City try to attempt to look at subsidizing that deal to make it happen or is it something that shouldn't be pursued at this time. Mr. Schalk said he definitely believes infrastructure is the most important thing that City Council and the City can do. Bates Station should be on top of the City 's list. Mr. Jefferson said unfortunately, he believes, Bates Station is slipping away and that 's why he brought it to ACE 's attention . Ms. McDermott said you have to do the economics. Mr. Jefferson agreed. He was just asking if the general feeling, if feasible , should the City be subsidizing the project. Ms . Lonborg asked what the alternatives were. Mr. Jefferson said the alternative would probably be to not have the Bates Station happen and RTD might provide some additional monies to help the City redevelop the CityCenter area to provide for additional parking. Ms. Lonborg said she didn't mean with respect to just that project. Mr. Jefferson said unfortunately, that is the catalyst that will bring development to that area. Without Bates Station it will remain a Brownfield for a while . Ms. Lonborg said that was the point; there aren't other alternatives that are as lucrative. She believes the City should move forward . Mayor Woodward said there are two different land owners. One is Winslow Crane . They have been in that location a long time and they would be happy to stay there because it is a great location for them. They are happy to stay there, but also see an opportunity. To clarify, Bates Station is a part of FasTracks and in addition to that there are a certain number of parking spaces that are quote "owed to the City of Englewood" separate from FasTracks. RTD provided the City with several choices a few weeks ago. Some were totally unacceptable. There is a handshake type of agreement that the developer will pay one- third , the City will pay one-third and RTD will pay one-third of the cost of Bates Station. RTD did the original estimates, which were less than $3 million and are now at somewhere between $8 and $1 0 million. Maybe it is time to go to RTD and say we need to again discuss that split as there are some new options available to RTD . Mr. Morton asked who the lead entity is in this to pull it off. Letting the station slip away shouldn 't really be an option. Maybe a group could be formed of three or four entities that could move the project forward. Mayor Woodward said he believes Community Development has been doing that and it isn 't as easy as it may seem with the individuals involved. Director White agreed. He said on April 21 st Winslow and his developer will be attending the City Council meeting. Th at area is an urban renewal area and there is the ability to do some financing through the tax increment that is going to happen if development happens. The numbers just need to be run . Mr. Morton asked if lofts or apartments were going to be a part of the development. Mayor Woodward said originally it was going to be for-sale units, but now may be proposed as 4 • high density apartments similar to what is at CityCente r. The window for development is starting to close because Gates is currently under construction . Ms. McDermott said she doesn 't believe the owners want to sell the property. We 've been talking about this project for many years now. How much brain damage does the City of Englewood want? What do we do? What's the bottom line? Why haven't we moved forward? Chair Schalk said he believes the project is too important and the City needs to expend every effort to move the project forward ; the future potential is too great. The concept of RTD ha v ing a parking lot at Bates Station and running a shuttle to CityCenter was discussed . Ms. Lonborg asked what is in it for RTD. Mayor Woodward said what is in it for RTD would be to save the money of doing it. The Board said that seems like a big stumbling block. Ms . Lonborg said it seems the City has the most to gain and the other two don 't care . If we don't think this is ever going to get developed why wouldn't we trade a parking structure at CityCenter for Bates Station. Mayor Woodward said he does not want to do that because CityCenter is under parked and RTD owes the City roughly 430 spaces. Ms. Lonborg said she knows what the City wants , but is worried it is not feasible and is not going to happen especially in this economy. We'll then end up with neither. • Mr. Jefferson noted the voters did vote to pay for one-third of the cost of Bates Station and that is where the funding should go. Mayor Woodward said the one-third share was a hand shake only . The station itself was approved by the voters, not the cost split. Mr. Jefferson said he spoke to RTD and Englewood has the fifth highest ridership of any stop in the entire system; the highest outside of downtown Denver. What we haven 't b een able to capitalize on is the retail. Providing additional parking isn't going to do anything except allow more people to pass through. Chair Schalk said his answer to Mr. Jefferson 's question would be yes , the City should help figure out a way to move forward with the Bates Station project. The City needs to be more aggressive and have the desire to make things happen. Ms. McDermott said if you ha ve land owners that are not willing to negotiate and seem willing to push off the project year after year they aren't hungry. You need to go back to the land owners and come up with a plan that is going to be feasible for everyone. Mr. Jefferson said he hopes those answers will come out of the meeting with the land owners next week . Ms . Lonborg said ACE looks forward to hearing the outcome of that meeting . Mayor Woodward asked ACE , through Community Development, to make a written • recommendation to City Council. 5 • • • Mr. Panetta said he believes the direction from ACE is to try to bring all the members to the table to find out what it is going to take to move Bates Station forward or to find out the economics just won 't work. Otherwise this discussion could go on for many more years. Lonborg moved: Schalk seconded: Motion passed. RECOMMEND TO CITY COUNCIL THAT THE BATES STATION REDEVELOPMENT IS AN IMPORTANT ECONOMIC GENERATOR FOR THE CITY OF E GLEWOOD, SHOULD BE OF HIGH IMPORTANCE AND COUNCIL SHOULD SERIOUSLY LOOK AT IT AND DETERMINE IF IT IS FEASIBLE . Director White said even though it is not a good time to start development right now, an y kind of financing or agreements with the City are going to take a considerable amount of time to assemble. Also, the property's zoning currently does not allow residential development and would need to be changed . Hopefully, by the time all these issues are resolved the economy will be better. Chair Schalk asked Mr. Hollingsworth to draft the letter to City Council . Ms. Lonborg said it might make sense to ask some businesses to do an assessment on the City as well . Businesses that have just moved here and several that have chosen not to so that the City understands what they think our weaknesses are. Mr. Panetta said that was a great idea. Mayor Woodward said he also felt it was a good idea to get that type of feedback. Ms. Guinther said parts of the Caucus presentation would be a great agenda for the visitation program. Chair Schalk said as much as ACE feels that program is important I don 't think we have made any huge strides in getting it implemented. Mr. Hollingsworth asked if ACE would like to have the visitation program on the agenda for the next meeting. Ms. McDermott said, speaking for herself, it was a fabulous idea in the beginning. We spent a lot of time in the past almost three years pulling it together and how it could work, but at this point in time my business has grown to the point where I don 't have time to volunteer for business visitation. She said unless anybody feels different that I do perhaps we should just shelve it for the time being unless Staff knows someone who can run with it. Mayor Woodward suggested , as one of the Board members of the Chamber and now having Mr. Morton and Anne at the Chamber that are active and out in the community, maybe they could incorporate this into their ambassador program, which they instituted three months ago. Mr. Morton said the Chamber would certainly be open to doing so . Ms. McDermott said there is really no current committee. Mr. Hollingsworth said the committee, to his knowledge, is still in existence and Margaret is correct in that the program began several years ago. Mr. Hollingsworth gave a short background on the 6 • • • program . He believes the earliest form of the program which dealt with retail on Broadway led to the formation of the BID. If it wasn 't for the visitation effort brought out by ACE Council would probably not have funded monies for a study to determine the feasibility of developing a Business Improvement District. The current visitation program, as headed by Mark Graham, is for Primary Employers focusing on the jobs side of the equation. There is a formalized business visitation survey, which gives a real assessment of a business . The Chamber does some relationship building, but that is not visitation in this sense . Business visitation is important because we are gathering information about our business community and if someone is looking to leave or grow we can assess the situation . That need is currently not being met. Mr. Hollingsworth stated he did not know the current status of the visitation program. What would ACE like to do? Schalk moved: Lonborg seconded: TO DISCONTINUE THE VISITATION PROGRAM AT THIS TIME Mr. Panetta said what he got from Darren 's comments is that ACE would like the program to continue, but needs to determine what organization and people can actually perform the function . Mr. Hollingsworth stated business retention and expansion through a visitation program is a core area of Economic Development. Staff will continue to meet with the business community on some level. Director White asked if the City received a grant from the State to help with the program. Mr. Hollingsworth said Mr. Graham could provide more clarity on how the program was funded , but the State was going to give the software to the City for free. Mr. Panetta said one of the Chamber 's goals is to increase membership. Couldn 't the Chamber, given Staff limitations, perform some of what Community Development is asking for as well as doing the meet and greet. Mr. Hollingsworth said he wasn 't involved directly with the visitation program , but as he understands it was to set up a visitation with team members such as the Chamber and someone from the business community. It is a deep assessment of the health of the individual businesses. Mr. Morton said he understands the ambassadors would not be able to do the survey, but maybe he or Anne could do it. He suggested the Chamber have a discussion on visitation and report back to ACE at the May meeting. He said what has happened in the past has obviously not worked so maybe a new way of looking at it might work. Ms. McDermott stated the original intention of the visitation was to combine forces with an ACE member, key business leaders in the community and a Chamber representative. She said what she believes is the reason the visitation had trouble putting groups together to call on businesses was that everyone's time on this committee has gotten very busy and it was very hard to get a small group together to actually go out and make the calls. The value 7 • of the v isitation program is still there, but to actually make it work effic iently is the question if we are go in g to keep v isitation a part of ACE. Mr. Morton said he would be happy to meet w ith Mr. Graham and discuss the program and see if there is a way to make it happen and report back at the next meeting. Mr. Hollingsworth asked if ACE wants to continue to look at the 600 plus primary employers. Mr. Morton said they are looking at all sections. The members asked for the motion to be restated. Ms. Guinther and Mr. Panetta still feel the program is valuable and important to the City . Lonborg moved: Panetta Seconded: Table the motion until the next meeting. Motion passed. MICRO BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT -ENGLEWOOD REPORT Mr. Hollingsworth referenced the Micro Business Development Annual Report that was includ ed in the meeting packet. He reviewed the report wi th the committee. • Mr. Panetta asked if all monies had been funded to Micro Business Development (MBD ). • Mr. Hollingsworth stated they have received the total of $218,000 and have not requested any additional funding. Di sc us sion ensued. Mr. Panetta asked at what point does ACE find out what tangible benefit Englewood receives from this program. Mr. Hollingsworth will ask MBD what their measures are and report back. WEBSITE UPDATES ON THE NEW BUSINESS CHECKLIST AND BUSINESS DIRECTORY Mr. Hollingsworth referenced the outline for a new business checklist that was distributed at the beginning of the meeting. MBD was instrumental in putting the checklist together. It should be placed on the web in the near future. Mr. Hollingsworth asked ACE w hat their feelings are about having an on-line business directory. Right now the directory is all voluntary. It would be very time consuming to update. Not every community has a business directory on-line. How important is that to ACE? Currently there are only about 600 businesses on the database; there are about 2300 businesses in Englewood. Ms. McD ermott said it would not be for her business. Chair Schalk said he has mixed feelings about it and trying t o get everyone included would take a lot of effort and doesn't see the val u e in it. Ms . Lon borg asked if the Chamber directory was on-line. Mr. Morton 8 • • • said it was , but you must be a member of the Chamber to be included. Ms. Lonborg asked if people use it. Mr. Morton said yes , from what we hear. Ms. McDermott said if she were looking for a business she would not think to look at a city 's database, I would go to the yellow pages . Ms . Lonborg said she would rather see Staff time spent on other projects. Chair Schalk asked if the licensed people can still be included in the current database. Staff said they could be. Mr. Hollingsworth thanked the committee for their input. Ill. COMMENTS & EVENTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Mr. Morton said he was happy to announce Costco 1n Sheridan has signed up as a Chamber member. The Chamber's main focus has been on economic development by trying to bring together different groups in the City . The first group they worked with was the Business Improvement District. The Chamber has been pushing them to work with the City on several projects such as outdoor seating, a proper mix of shops on Broadway, bike racks and benches on Broadway. Another project they have been working on is Englewood Sale Day. It would help to add to the revenue on Broadway and also attract new businesses. It would be a specific sale day every month. It would not be a sidewalk sale , it would be more upscale. The Chamber would like flags placed on all businesses on Broadway on sale day. The Lions Club has already placed flag holders on about 20 -25 % of the businesses . On Memorial Day and Labor Day they place American flags in the holders. Mr. Morton would like to work with the BID to place flag holders on the remaining businesses and place a BID logo flag out on sale day. Mr. Morton stated he met with the builder's group and is encouraging them to form a group to discuss issues they have regarding building. Then, with the help of the Chamber, we can approach the City and discuss needed changes and help facilitate implementation. Mr. Morton met with the arts council and they are considering joining with the Chamber on several events this year . 2008 i s a transitional year for the Chamber. They are looking at better planning for next year to where they have four to five Chamber events. The Chamber will be taking over Englewood Days this year. The Chamber's idea is that it become a family friendly event. It has been suggested to explore combining the car show and Fun Fest into one event next year and holding it in front of City Hall. We would li ke to have art booths, food booths, a children 's area, music and the car show. This year Englewood Days is being held on September 21 st. Location has yet to be determined. 9 • • • The Chamber golf tournament is July 18 th at Broken Tee. He invited all ACE members to join in. There will be a picnic after the tournament. ACE was invited to attend Business After Hours on Thursday, April 1 7th from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Twin Dragon. He stated the ambassador program is go ing full swing. They have met all of the businesses along Broadway from Hampden to Yale . The industrial area is the next area to be vis ited. When Mr. Morton started work at the Chamber in January the membership was at 115 and we are now up to 140 members . ACE MEMBERS Mr. Panetta said kudos to Community Development for your March report. It was very comprehensive and thorough. He would like to suggest it be an agenda item for next month's meeting. Everyone agreed. Ms. McDermott noted that Chair Schalk 's and her term are expiring this year. The deadline for reapplying is May 9th. She said serving on the Board is one of the best volunteer efforts she does. She asked how the rest of the committee feels about her reapplying. The committee all agreed they would like both to remain on the Boa rd . Applications can be found on-line or in the City Manager's office . BID COMMENTS Mr. Vasilas was not present at the meeting. STAFF COMMENTS Mr. Hollingsworth stated there are 15 new businesses in Englewood this year under the sales tax licenses . Future meeting topics include: • Visitation Update • Project Report -General Iron Works • Economic Development Strategy Update No further business was brought forth for consideration. The meeting was adjourned at 1 :35 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for May 8, 2008. j 10