Loading...
HomeMy Public PortalAbout2017-07-12 Advisory Task Force Agenda Packet$GYLVRU\7DVN)RUFHRQ(FRQRPLF'HYHORSPHQW :HGQHVGD\-XO\ $0 :/RFNSRUW6WUHHW 3ODLQILHOG,/ QG)ORRU&RQIHUHQFH5RRP$ $JHQGD $ &$//7225'(5 % 52//&$// & 38%/,&&200(176 ' %86,1(660((7,1* '$33529$/2)0((7,1*0,187(6 ('7DVN)RUFH0LQXWHVSGI '(&2120,&'(9(/230(17675$7(*,&3/$11,1* ('6WUDWHJLF3ODQQLQJ0HPRGRF '865287(7,)83'$7( ('867,)8SGDWHGRF '5(&RQ6800$5< 5(&RQ6XPPDU\5HSRUWGRF '(9(176 5HVWDXUDQW(YHQWV1HWZRUNLQJ6KRZFDVH(YHQW6PDOO%XVLQHVV6DWXUGD\ '(&2120,&'(9(/230(1783'$7( ( $'-2851 1 Advisory Task Force on Economic Development Meeting Minutes April 12, 2017 Village Hall, 24401 W. Lockport Street Attendees: Steve Preze, Greg Schaefer, Troy Strange, Annette Kenney, Harold Oliver, Cassie Vaughn, Trustee O’Rourke, and one member of the public. Staff: Jon Proulx and Jake Melrose. The meeting was called to order at 7:32AM by Chairman Greg Schaefer. Michael Konrad was absent. Public Comments: None. Business Meeting Approval of the January meeting minutes will be approved at the next task force meeting in July. Mr. Schaefer asked staff to present the incentive policy discussion. Jake Melrose presented the incentive policy again that was previously discussed at the task force meeting in January. One suggestion Mr. Melrose presented was to remove the market target areas of the policy as it is contradictory to the purpose or intent of the policy, which is to allow the village to review projects on a case-by-case basis and not be overly restrictive in its criteria of type of project. Ms. Kennedy agreed that the policy should be broad in nature to allow for the village to be open to various types of developments that may be beneficial to Plainfield. Mr. Oliver also agreed that an incentive policy that is open to multiple possibilities is encouraging to a developer and agreed that the targeted areas should be removed so not to restrict ourselves to one particularly area. Mr. O’Rourke asked if this is something other communities are doing. 2 Mr. Melrose confirmed that this policy is reflective of other community’s guidelines and many communities are going beyond broader guidelines and providing grant programs for business development. Mr. Preze asked if this policy is something that will be advertised to developers and businesses or is a more in house policy. Mr. Melrose stated that there would be a little of both. While we won’t advertise the policy itself, a set policy does provide developers and businesses with the sense that a community is ready to work with someone if the project warrants it. Mr. Proulx added that the other side of it is staff has a set policy and “marching orders” that when we are discussing possible incentives with a business or developer we can structure our conversations in line with the policy the village has created. Mr. Schaefer asked for a consensus of the task force with the removal of the target areas that the incentive policy was good to move forward. The task force agreed. Mr. Schaefer identified the next agenda item, Business Retention Update and asked if we have had any further contacts with other businesses. Mr. Melrose stated that the village had one business retention interview since January with Allways Precision who is also at max capacity in his facility and business is doing quite well. Mr. Preze added that besides the addition of the warehouse the business still seems be doing the same as previous when interviewed last. They did identify a desire to have the 143rd Street extension and a couple past issues with the village that were resolved quickly. Mr. Schaefer asked if the task force would be moving on to larger retailers. Mr. Melrose stated that he had been already out for quick interviews with many of the larger retailers as an effort to touch base with them but also make them aware of our code enforcement program and eventual inspection letters they may receive. The village is trying its best to be as business friendly as possible so staff wanted to make it a point to get out in front of those letters ASAP. Mr. Proulx stated that this effort appears to be working and provides staff with an opportunity to explain why code enforcement is important to our businesses. Mr. Oliver agreed that is important because a business/property owner never likes to receive those letters but if they are aware of it prior to coming and there is a soft touch approach to it there will be a better or quicker resolution to the problem. Mr. Melrose did state that some small business surveys were sent with not much return success. So staff will begin to push this initiative again to try and garner some more returns. Mr. Schaefer presented the next agenda item, RECon – Business & Development Recruitment. 3 Mr. Melrose stated that the village will be sending him to RECon, which is the largest retailer convention in the U.S., and has been prepping for the convention establishing interviews with identified retailers and developers. Mr. Proulx stated that Mr. Melrose has done a gap analysis of the retailers that are not located in the village while finding their nearest location to determine which retailers are more likely to come to the village. Mr. Melrose has also created a new village marketing brochure as our previous one was through Retail Strategies, who is no longer under contract with the village. Mr. O’Rourke stated this event is where ever retailer in America that is actively growing, or even inactive, is there to find new possible locations and it is good to have the village there to be in front of them. Mr. Melrose stated it is also imperative to meet many of the retailers face to face in order to build that relationship. Many brokers represent multiple tenants that the village would like to see come to this community so building that relationship is crucial to keeping the village in a retailer’s vision. Mr. Schaefer stated the next agenda item is events. Mr. Melrose stated that staff is currently working with local businesses to start expanding new business events such as restaurant week, a progressive dinner, a burger cook-off and other ideas like expanding our efforts for Small Business Saturday. All of these events are all inaugural runs so it will take some time to get them off the ground, but we are looking to start drawing more attention to our businesses throughout the year. Mr. Melrose then provided an economic development update of the development progress. The Boulevard is possibly moving forward with a new potential anchor. Staff has been working with them since last summer and is hopeful that within the next month we will know if it is a go or not. The Route 30 TIF district analysis will be reopened this summer and hopeful to move this forward by the end of the year. The village has attracted a large retailer to the 119th & Route 59 site although land negotiations are not moving forward. Staff is also working on a hotel feasibility contacting our larger industries and their needs. Many of our industrial users require a “better stay” with their visitors traveling farther to stay at a better hotel than provided in the area. Ms. Vaughn agreed that our users would need a higher-end stay and will help staff connect with possible developers. Mr. Melrose concluded that the next meeting is in July. Mr. Oliver made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Strange. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 8:45a.m. 4 July 12, 2017 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE VILLAGE OF PLAINFIELD 24401 W. LOCKPORT ST. 2nd FLOOR, CONFERENCE ROOM A SUBJECT: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIC PLANNING SUMMARY The Village Board held strategic planning workshops on June 14th & 15th to review the goals of the strategic plan and the progress of the goals established. Through the process, the economic development goals below have been identified for the Planning Department to implement. Coming out of the workshops, the U.S. Route 30 TIF was identified as one of the primary goals to achieve in 2017-2018. Staff simply asks for the task force’s review and any comments they may have on the below goals. 1. Action Item: Explore the possibility of creating a Tax Increment Finance District for Route 30. Staff has made progress in multiple areas in order to begin the analysis in August. (more detailed update in next agenda item report) 2. Action Item: Create a vision for the Target outlot. Staff has worked with Vequity to create a quality development. Staff has fielded multiple calls regarding the remaining outlot completing due diligence for a fast food user. 3. Action Item: Work with developers on the Meijer outlots. Once Primrose School is built, all outlots will be developed and this goal will be accomplished. 4. Action Items: Update the Business Plan with a new incentive policy. With the assistance of the task force, this policy has been revised and will be forwarded to the Board with a revision of the business plan.5 5. Action Item: Review the current impact fee schedule for single-family residential developments. Staff is assessing the impact fees and the fee in lieu of contribution figures associated with single-family residential development. Staff has researched multiple communities to compare Plainfield’s impact fee structure. 6. Action Item: Work with the developers of Prairie Creek and the Boulevard on unified design visions for both developments. Staff is working with the Prairie Creek and the Boulevard to spur development and bring forward a quality development. 6 July 12, 2017 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE VILLAGE OF PLAINFIELD 24401 W. LOCKPORT ST. 2nd FLOOR, CONFERENCE ROOM A SUBJECT: TIF DISTRICT #2 - U.S. ROUTE 30 SUMMARY As part of the Planning Department’s strategic planning goal, staff continues to try and move forward analysis of the U.S. Route 30 TIF district. In order for SB Friedman to start their reassessment of the proposed area, three due diligence items are necessary to begin: 1. The recording the Boulevard final plat. 2. The annexation of the Drum Farm property. 3. The demolition of structures located on the Boulevard property. Staff has made progress in the past week on all 3 fronts with the goal for each to be completed by mid-August: o The Boulevard final plat needed IDOT’s review before it could be recorded. It has been in IDOT’s hands for over 3 months and we just heard back from them with their review. A discrepancy of ROW was found (probably due to the purchasing of ROW since the survey was initially completed) and this will need to be changed and some other minor changes. Staff is sending this over to Jacob and Hefner to amend and resubmit ---it appears the change may not be too difficult so we’re hopeful this can occur within the next month. o As Standard Bank (the original applicant/signatory of the Drum Farm) was purchased by First Midwest Bank, the annexation agreement needed to be reviewed once again by another legal team. First Midwest sent their legal review to staff last Friday of the annexation agreement. Their attorney had some concerns over some wording but otherwise was ok with the document. Staff reviewed with the Village Attorney and made the appropriate amendments to appease their legal team and we expect this to be ready to go back through the approval process in August. o Staff has had multiple conversations with the Boulevard property owner to complete necessary due diligence on their site so the reassessment can begin. Staff urged that a deadline of August was necessary to have this completed so we can begin our study and the property owner contact was supposed to meet with D Construction this week to set up a date for removal of the buildings. A conversation on 7-5-17 indicated that these buildings would be removed within the week. 7 July 12, 2017 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE VILLAGE OF PLAINFIELD 24401 W. LOCKPORT ST. 2nd FLOOR, CONFERENCE ROOM A SUBJECT: RECon SUMMARY SUMMARY Village staff attended RECon, the largest retailers’ conference in the United States, this past May. Below are the summaries of what staff took away from the show: Retailer Summary The RECon retailer attendees were representative of the overall active marketplace: outlot end users, discount stores (TJX, Family Dollar, Dollar General), fitness centers, and grocery. Staff looked to connect with a multitude of various end users from outlot to big box retailers. Utilizing staff’s retailer void analysis that has been completed and also examining the retailers’ site criteria, staff was able to effectively reach out to end users that have more probability of locating in Plainfield in its current state. While there are those that are desirable end users, i.e. Lyfe Kitchen, Roti Grill, Ann Taylor/Loft, etc., our site analytics and/or developments do not lend to the site criteria for these users at this time. Staff discussed the possibility of lifestyle centers to attract these types of users with developers, which are summarized below. Positive conversations were had with multiple retailers; even those that are not expanding still were encouraged with the demographics of our corridors and the future development possibilities of Plainfield. There is still hesitation in the ground up market place for anything over 15,000 SF and under 50,000 SF unless it is a “sure thing” with upper tier demographics and analytics. Developer Summary As part of RECon, staff set out to create new relationships with developers to introduce the village of Plainfield to them. Staff’s primary focus at RECon when targeting developers was to concentrate on large, national developers that have some or all of the following qualities: 1. Has completed projects of a large magnitude, i.e. mixed use or lifestyle centers 2. Has a diversified development portfolio, i.e. office/industrial/retail/mixed use 8 3. Provides a quality and/or creative approach to retail development 4. Worked in other markets with similar labor costs, i.e. Jersey, California, NY Staff proposed three large development areas to the national groups: the Boulevard, the Village Center, and the Shops at the Polo Club project area. Positively, some developers believed in the possibility of the Boulevard as a viable commercial opportunity even in the “shadow” of the mall. Those that saw the development opportunities as a “higher” purposed opportunity, i.e. lifestyle center, all stated the possible need to incorporate multi-family into the mix in order to provide supplemental populations to a lackluster 1-3 mile radius density and/or to make the large project area(s) economically feasible. Staff has followed up with one development group not looking to move forward in this area while another still has some possible interest. Show Summary RECon seemed well attended with many people stating that more and more are beginning to come back from pre-recession days. While attendance was high, staff also heard many attendees say “not a lot on the floor this year.” As I previously stated, the retailers on the floor were very much representative of our active retail marketplace in Illinois. Discount retailers who were well positioned pre-recession, fitness centers, fast food/fast casuals, and grocery (Kroger) were the only retailers actively seeking opportunities on the floor. Staff did have the opportunity to speak with brokers who represent those not on the RECon floor and provide some insight to different markets. Many retailers are in a “retooling” or “repositioning” mode, or they are very cautious with their leases meaning negotiations are very tight illustrating the overall lack of confidence in the marketplace. Conversations with developers reflected this notion. Developers were looking for LOI’s to be already established in a development area and there is also the expectation of an active land owner and for them to be representing the property; otherwise, this disengagement may give a bad perception that the property is not truly on the market or the property owner isn’t serious about the sale. While it is good for the village or a local government to garner some interest, the village needs to ensure that our property owners are actively engaged in these conversations and carry them to the next level. Staff believes the goals of the show were accomplished – to expose the village of Plainfield to larger developers typically not available at regional shows while also garnering some interest from retailers that are active and may not have otherwise looked in Plainfield. Staff was also able to gain exposure to other retailers that are not currently active in our trade area, but may be in the future. 9