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Home My WebLink About03-12-2007 Council Economic Development Committee AGENDA City of Iowa City City Council Economic Development Committee Monday, March 12,2007 8:00 a.m. City Hall Lobby Conference Room 410 E. Washington St. 1. Call to Order 2. Approval of Minutes from Feb. 20, 2007 Economic Development Committee meeting 3. Due diligence and follow up questions and answers - Staff 4. Discussion of consultant presentations and qualifications for Downtown Market Niche Analysis 5. Selection of consultant 6. Committee time 7. Adjournment MINUTES CITY COUNCIL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE February 20, 2007 LOBBY CONFERENCE ROOM Preliminary Members Present: Regenia Bailey, Connie Champion, Bob Elliott Members Absent: None Staff Present: Wendy Ford Others Present: Nancy Quellhorst, Craig Gustaveson RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: None CALL MEETING TO ORDER Chairperson Regenia Bailey called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - FEB. 9, 2007 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING MOTION: Champion moved to approve the February 09,2007 minutes as submitted. Elliott seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. DISCUSSION OF Consultant Interview Questions Ford share four questions from Karin Franklin who was not able to attend the meeting. Quellhorst expressed a desire to know about projects in similar sized college towns language with similar types of market diversity. Gustaveson added the importance of asking who will actually conduct the study - the person interviewing or someone else. Elliot specified questions "Who is the primary Project Manager?" and "How often are assistants sent in and how often will the Primary Project Manager be interacted with?" . Elliot wanted to ensure staff did good background research on the firms. Champion raised question of how the consultant will address the diversity of consumers in the particular downtown area. Gustaveson wants to explore how the consultants contact people that do not have a vested interest in the downtown based on the realization that surveys by his organization are necessarily biased. Elliot wants to ensure that the survey methods are actually composed of random samples and thus not biased by the expected demographics. For ERA (one of the consuJtants), he also wants to know what percentage of the work their subconsultants will be responsible for. Gustaveson pointed out that there are very few vacant spots in downtown Iowa City and when there is a vacancy the turn around time is very short, so he wants to know what actionable steps we might get from the consultant with regards to the lack of empty storefronts. Champion also commented on how quickly even small spaces are occupied and the concern that new businesses would have to wait some time for space. Ford said the charge for the consultants will be to answer how the we should deal with the implementation of the recommendations. She then posed the question of how a given mix can be achieved in a "tight" downtown. Ford noted that Hieronymus Square will add a considerable amount of business space, changing the dynamics and the mix of open space downtown and that the study should help us market downtown to new business and the residents. Elliot commented that they had been trying unsuccessfully for years to encourage the downtown to move south of Burlington and so would be interested in seeing what the consultants can come up with. Discussion ensued about the importance of uniquely identifying Iowa City from other cities regarding public spaces and the drawing of people to such spaces. Quellhorst wants to capitalize on the cultural district designations and downtown activities such as the Farmer's Market and what effect moving it would have. There was also consensus that the consultants should be asked about failures and what they have learned from a failure they have experienced. Quellhorst wants to make sure to ask what would be required of the city in order to make the recommendations work. Gustaveson indicated that it would be important to know how to "sell" the recommendations to the community and to have community support. Bailey wants to know what the role of the Committee in the process. The committee decided that the consultants should be kept to a 20 minutes presentation that covered the specifics of their experience, their approach, about their team and their fees. Bailey and Elliot suggested staff provide these guidelines of what to present. Following the presentations will be a series of assigned questions which will be compiled from the discussion today. After the assigned questions, there can be a question and answer period. Ford will compose and organize the questions to be distributed among the Committee members at the beginning of the interview meetings. Regarding the contract, Bailey mentioned that she would like to see some language in the contract about who owns the result of the study and the limits to which the contractor will be able to use it in the future. Council Time None Adiournment Elliot moved the meeting be adjourned, Champion seconded. Motion carried. Q) Q) ~ E E o u .... C Q)"C E 0 Q,O o CI> -0:: Q)CI>..... >00 Q)CO CnsN O"g .- CI> E= 0<( c o o W - .- o c ::::s o U = >< M >< >< ....... M ~ ~ >< >< >< M ~ >< ~ >< >< - '" 00 00 00 e.g 0 52 52 ....... N N N ~ c.. 52 52 0 f-< ~ ....... - - - u.l 0 0 0 = 0 ~ os. oS:! e 0; .... ~ = .... .c ~ ~ U 0= riS ~ ~ ~ 0= E ~ .c = <Ii ~ 0 0 Z = U '"0 ~ '" ;:j (.) ~ --~ ~ d d ~ ~ ~ ......0..0 ~<< II II II ~ te ~><OO