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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-02-12 ACE MINUTES• • ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCE IN ENGLEWOOD February 12, 2009 I. CALL TO ORDER ~· \ The regular meeting of the Alliance for Commerce in Englewood (ACE ) was called t o order at 11 :42 a.m . in the City Council Conference Room of the Englewood Civic Cent er, Chair Schalk presiding. Present: Schalk, McDermott, Guinther, Panetta, Espinoza Absent: Vasilas , Lonborg Also present: Joe Jefferson, City Council Liaison Jim Woodward, May or Randy Penn , City Council member Staff present: Alan White, Community Development Director Darren Hollingsworth, Economic Development Coordinator Michael Flaherty, Deputy City Manager Bob Leonard , Englewood Parks and Recreation Denise White, Englewood Parks and Recreation The Re c ording Secretary distributed the Englewood Community Development Annual Report 2008, the Englewood Commercial Real Estate Report for Quarter Four 2008 and the Housing Market Update dated February 2009. APPROVAL OF MINUTES January 8, 2009 ~· '. ' Chair Schalk stated that the Minutes of Januar y 81 2009 were to be considered for appro v al. It was determined there was a quorum . Chair Schalk asked if there were an y chang es or adjustments to the Minutes . There were none. McDermott moved : Guinther seconded : THE MINUTES OF JANUARY 8, 2009 BE APPROVED AS WRITIEN . The motion carried unanimously. 11. ACE BUSINESS Chair Schalk welcomed Ms. Espinoza to the Board. She previousl y held the Alternate position. ~ ; ELECTIONS • Mr. Hollingsworth reviewed the By-La w s regarding the election of Officers . 1 • • Ms . McDermott nominated Ms. Guinther for Chair and Ms. Lonborg for Vice Chair. Ms . Guinther declined the nomination . Ms. McDermott nominated Ms. Lonborg for Chair and Ms. Espinoza for Vice Chair . Due to the fact Ms. Lonborg was not in attendance Chair Schalk asked that the election be tabled until the next meeting. All members agreed. Mr. Panetta asked if the Alternate position had been filled . Mayor Woodward stated it had not. RECREATION REWARDS Mr. Hollingsworth said he has been looking at commun1t1es that are doing shop local programs and he is pleased to announce that the shop Englewood program fits with a lot of communities shop locally ideas. Parks and Recreation has done an excellent job of packaging a unique program to help promote Englewood businesses. He introduced Mr. Bob Leonard and Ms. Denise White of the Parks and Recreation Department. Mr. Leonard provided an overview of the program. He referred to the information that was included in the meeting packet. He noted the information has already been placed in the Spring Activity Guide, which is out now. Ms. White said the information was provided to get people interested in the program . Mr. Leonard said the hurdle now is to get businesses on board. Once we have 20 businesses signed up it will be advertised to our clientele and patrons. It will be publicized through the Parks and Recreation facilities, the City website and brochures . He said they will be asking ACE and the Chamber of Commerce to help get the information out to their business constituents to get people signed up . Ms . White said she is working on an active PDF file that businesses will be able to fill in to sign up. Ms . McDermott asked if there were any fees associated with retailers signing up. Ms. White said there is not, their only expense would be their offer. May or Woodward asked if the idea has been presented to the BID. Mr. Hollingsworth said it will be presented to the BID and the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Leonard offered to answer any questions the board may have. Chair Schalk asked what the Parks and Recreation membership size is . Mr. Leonard said the database has about 10,000 active households, but the database is much larger than that. Mr. Schalk asked what the monthly membership fee is. Mr. Leonard said there are several ways in which a person may acquire a card. There is the resident ID card and a pass holder card for non-residents . A resident card is $3 and is valid for three years. Discussion ensued regarding getting the information on the City website and in the Citizen. • Ms. Guinther asked if there would be a visual listing of all the businesses participating. Ms . White stated there would be on the City's website under the Parks and Recreation page. 2 • • • Mr. Leonard said there would also be electronic display boards posting the information at all the recreation facilities by late spring . Each participating business would be provided some type of display board and/or window sticker to advertise the program . BUSINESS GALA !fl] Mr. Penn stated the Gala will be held on March 31 st from 6 :00 pm to 9 pm in the Community Room and will feature a Hawaiian theme . Tickets start at $40 . A table for 10 is $600 . Ther e will be a Hawaiian band and a hula dancer will great all at the door. He distributed an information packet on the Chamber to all present. The award categories were discussed . They are : Employer of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Community Caring Award and the New Business of the Year Award. The packet included a nomination form . Mr. Penn said the Chamber has always taken great nominations from ACE and would trul y like ACE to do that again . He noted a completed form could be faxed to the Chamber . There will b e three finalists in each category . He offered to answer any questions . There were none. Mr. Penn let the members know he had sponsorship forms at the meeting if an y one w ould like to fill one out. 2009 GOALS ~ M s. McDermott stated at last month's meeting ACE did not have time to discuss the Economic Development Strategy memo from Director White . Director White said the document was put together in the fall of 2008 b efor e certain occurrences in the global economic market. As a result, some items may not be at the top of the list of things that are going to be productive for the Department in 2009 . Retailers are not doing anything right now so going out to talk to them probably is not a good idea at this time, however, getting prepared to go out and attract retailers would be time well spent. Staff is looking at shifting some of the priorities on the strategy. Chair Schalk said when times are bad it is time to market and that's what it is right now. Is there anything ACE , the businesses, or economic development and the BID can do in the marketing w orld to try to market oursel v es better ? Mr. Hollingsworth said one thing Staff has talked about with the brokerage community is all the activities that are occurring in Englewood are worth talking about to others . One of the things that create momentum is talking about the ongoing activities underw ay in the community. He said he head that from two new businesses last year. He noted 22 new businesses came to Englewood in 2008. There is a lot of economic activity in Englewood and one of Staff's marketing components has been to tout that through testimonials, through networking with Brokers, and in some cases direct outreach to retailers who might have an interest in expanding in this market. Mr. Panetta asked what Staff has learned and if Staff knew why those businesses came to Englewood . Did we learn anything from that experience that we can utilize in 2009/201 O? Mr. Hollingsworth said he always asks a new business "why this location?". In many cases 3 • • • with the quick serve restaurants the answer is visibility, traffic counts, available space and affordability. Central location and proximity to buyers/supplies is a part of it for the manufacturing side. Our commercial catalyst program worked with 11 businesses in 2008; approximately $91,000 was spent. Connections happen at all levels . He encouraged all ACE members to contact Staff as you see things happening within the community. Chair Schalk said the BID has done a great job of beautifying Broadway. Is there any more funding available? Ms. McDermott asked if more money could be infused into the catalyst program . In this time of recovery people may not be interested in spending big bucks, but may be interested in preserving what they have. In a really busy market you don't have time to paint or think about new signage . Now that it's quiet maybe we offer more in terms of a match for the catalyst program . Chair Schalk said the City has the blades of grass as the portal entrance on the north; there are suppose to be three other portal entrances. The City had money last year to do a parking study, which infuriated me. There is money budgeted to do studies. It would be nice to see if there are more studies planned for this year; that study money could go into actual physical upgrades to the City. Mayor Woodward said , as he recalled, the agreement with Burt Chevrolet when they did their remodel was that they were going to put in artwork as a portal entry on the south side of the City. Kent Place, which because of economic conditions, is somewhat on hold. They will be doing the east entry; what we have left is the west end. He said Chair Schalk is right in that the City tends to do a lot of studies and then they go up on a shelf. One of the things we are looking at in Community Development this year is contracting with a firm that will be assisting us in placing the City in a position so that when the economy does turn we have already positioned ourselves to take advantage of opportuniti es that may come along . As far as other goals, he would like to see the City's Comprehensive Plan , Roadmap 2003, modified. It is a little more than five years old now and it may be tim e to look at where we are now years later and where do we need to modify the plan. He said that would be a goal he would like to propose to ACE. Mr. Panetta asked to go back to the comment Chair Schalk made about marketing. Th e City has to be in a position to know what its resources and assets are so when the reco ve ry does happen we are not behind the curve trying to get ready because all of the other municipalities are presumably doing the same thing. When the economy turns the y'll be able to try to attract businesses and then it's too late to play catch up. We have to be progressive in our thinking and be ahead of the curve as much as possible . How we do that I don't know. Mayor Woodward said he believed some of those discussions are literall y going on now. Several representatives of the City will be attending the International Council of Shopping Centers ' convention in Las Vegas in May to promote the land Englewood Mclellan Reservoir Foundation owns by Mclellan Reservoir and the City itself. Discussion ensued . 4 • • • Chair Schalk said the City has some great assets, but we need to create the demand . We need to beef up what we have to make people want to come to Englewood. Look what the BID has done to South Broadway; money is going in and you're seeing things happen. Mr. Panetta said Mr. Vasilas was the catalyst in getting that done; we need more catalysts. Chair Schalk said he would love to understand better where the taxes the businesses pay go. There should be some set aside to reinvest in those retailers and businesses up and down and through Englewood . If the entry portal projects are being held up by Burt Chevrolet and Kent Place maybe the City needs to act on it with those clients to make those things happen. Maybe we need to work on this extremely important portal to the west as you come into the City. What study monies are there for 2009 that we can actually put to shovel ready? Other projects will then happen . Mr. Jefferson said it sounds like the first goal for ACE is analyzing different possible Catalyst programs and make recommendation to Council. Improvements that have been made to the BID area and South Broadway were discussed. Chair Schalk said he would like to see ACE be able to help get the City behind what has been happening in the BID area. Ms. McDermott said it doesn't cost that much for a piece of entry art. Chair Schalk said we have a ton of traffic coming in from the west; why don't we concentrate on that portal. It's time to work on some of these things that will beautify the area so when the turnaround happens the portals are already in. If we wait till the money is there to install the portals it is too late, the bigger projects won 't happen. It's a chain reaction . Chair Schalk asked Staff what studies are planned for 2009. Mr. Jefferson said he didn't believe they have seen anything recently. Mr. Flaherty said the McClelland Foundation has been doing predevelopment on that property for the past several years. There was a lot that had to be done before we could make those properties available. In the City we talked about the light rail line, both the General Iron Works property and the Oxford sites . If you wanted to do something with those particular sites, other than industrial, you have to go through a rezoning. There's a need to do an area study to determine how that should be zoned so it is flexible enough so you can not only do industrial but also residential and commercial. That is the value in doing a study .... you take a look at the larger context to see what makes an area development ready. That's what was done in the Medical District Small Area Plan . It set the framework so you could make the changes so that when the market turns around the area is basically development ready. Mr. White said a consultant has been hired for the medical area to look at the streetscape improvements on Old Hampden. You have to have those plans put together before you can even start doing engineering to figure out irrigation, how the trees should go in , lighting, electrical, etc. You can 't just go out and dig holes and put trees in; you need to do the background work. Mr. Flaherty said the South Broadway grass probably took a year in planning to select the artist, do the engineering and install. Total cost of the project was $200,000 plus . He said the City Council at the time took a lot of heat from citizens, employees, from everybody for spending that kind of money. There's political ramifications too . You want to do it in a 5 • manner that is sensitive to the political environment, but at the same time does it in a way that is efficient. You don't want to throw money at a project, you want to do it right. Mr. Panetta said the comments that Mr. White and Mr. Flaherty have provided in the last two or three minutes have been probably more informative for me than some of what is in the packet. He said he believes it would be beneficial to ACE , not that we want to be overreaching, but to know what Community Development's budget is and how much discretionary funds might be available ... not for studies but for putting money into actual projects . Mr. Flaherty said the City spent about $90 ,000 for the catalyst program in 2008. He asked Mr. Hollingsworth what was budgeted . He said $100,000. He noted the amount has been increased each year for the past few years. Ms . McDermott said if there is something that Staff would like to carve out of the City's long range plan for 2009 that ACE could help with, I think we would all be very willing to roll up our sleeves and help out. In reading the outdated Economic Development Strategy, perhaps we do need to wait until we understand the reality of what is going on and then be . as helpful as we can be . Certainly consider putting some additional dollars in the catalyst program and marketing that. The Mayor noted the biggest asset of our city is the water rights we own. That can be used in marketing the City; it is something we can provide very cheaply. • Chair Schalk said as far as the goals for ACE go he would like to work on the portals and maybe ACE could help with some funding along with the businesses to beautify the City. ACE is the business community representatives and we could be used better. Mr. Jefferson agreed. He said he would encourage ACE to delve into more specifics such as what can we do about the portals, what type of catalyst program would we generally propose, and the cost for each . When it is then brought to Council and we get four people to agree to it, it becomes a policy of the City. Come up with specific proposals. • Mayor Woodward said he felt it would be helpful for ACE to know what Planning and Zoning is doing and what their goals are. For example they did all the hard, detail work on the Medical Area Small Area Plan. One of the items on the next agenda is that the y are looking at a small area plan for the area bounded by US 285 from Broadway, including Flood Middle School, going west to Santa Fe and south to Kenyon and coming up Navajo. There is opportunity there for mixed-use projects. Ill. COMMENTS & EVENTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ~· Mr. Penn, interim Director, stated the new Chamber website (myenglewoodchamber.com ) is up and running . All information regarding upcoming events is listed on the website. The Chamber will once again be advertising in The Villager twice a month and will feature one or two businesses each time . The Chamber will also begin doing blasts to the public. 6 • • • February 24th at 7:30 am will be the Chamber's second business seminar . It will be in Hampden Hall and feature Patty Silverstein , a well known economist. There is no fee for the presentation and it is open to anyone. On March 24th in the Englewood Public Library Gina Greenwood from Vectra Bank will host a meeting focusing on small businesses . The golf tournament will be held on June 12 th. The Farmer's Market is scheduled to start on Saturday May 2"d and run through October 31 st. Englewood Days will be held on August 29th. Amy Dolezal is the Chamber's new assistant. She will be going out to the businesses to reintroduce the Chamber to the community. Mr. Penn said we have to get the credibility of the Chamber back and that's what we're going to do . The Business After Hours is still being held, we are going to do a seminar once a month and every third month we'll do Women in Business . Mayor Woodward thanked Mr. Penn for stepping up to fill the interim Executive Director position. Mr. Penn has put a lot of hours in and generated a lot of the enthusiasm that has been missing over the last year or two. We're glad things are moving forward in the right direction again and that is thanks to Randy . Mr. Penn thanked Mayor Woodward for h is comments . Mr. Penn stated the business directory on the Chamber website is open to all businesses, not just members of the Chamber. It is a directory for the City of Englewood . Mr. Penn noted he would not be available to attend the March meeting . BID COMMENTS Mr. Vasilas was not present. ACE MEMBERS Mr. Panetta said in one of the reports there was a reference to getting some money for taking over foreclosed properties. He asked for an update on the status of that. Mr. White said Staff does not have an update. That is part of Congress 's authorization from last summer and to his knowledge the State has not determined how they are disbursing those funds. Englewood put in a Letter of Intent requesting $3,000,000 and the y came back with $1 ,000,000. Mr. Panetta asked if the City had a clue as to how much money might be coming their way as part of the stimulus plan. Mr. Flaherty said he did not. 7 • • • Mayor Woodward reported on the energy audit the City has been · conducting. He also noted that through the holiday season the City ended up down one-half of one percent in sales and use tax . That's very positive. Chair Schalk asked for information on the agreements with Burt Chevrolet and Kent Place for the portal art, what studies have been done, the catalyst program and the budget, if possible, be brought to the next ACE meeting. STAFF COMMENTS Staff had no further comments . No further business was brought forth for consideration. The meeting was adjourned at 1 :30 p .m . 8