Agenda - Economic Development Authority - 03/09/2017

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Mr. Beeman thought maybe The COR could be more diverse and think about features for seniors. He also thought something could be done with the website to make it easier to direct people to what they are looking for. He thought if they could reach out to all of the different kinds of developers that would be ideal. They cannot create demand but they can make people aware and attract the specialty businesses to the area and it should be done in phases. Mr. LaFavre stated the City's best marketing tool is the residents of Ramsey. He thought they should use social media and blast the positive things going on in the City. This will attract more people and small businesses into the area. Mr. LaFavre stated in regards to retail land, more retail will be moving to the internet and he thought The COR had too much retail land at this time. He stated the online market has changed the retail world and is the storefront of the future. He thought that The COR retail area would need to be service oriented. The people that live there are people that will need retail services and those types of businesses will survive in The COR area. He stated right now multi-resident housing is the popular thing but it could change in the future and the City needs to flexible with what the market demands at the time. Mr. Beeman stated many people want mixed use and that seems to be the trend but it only works in certain pockets of the Metro and they have to have the demand. It is very difficult to create without the demand. Chairperson Steffen asked if IAG Commercial were hired by the City what would they do for the City. Mr. LaFavre thought they would first need to sit down with the EDA and see what they want accomplished. From their perspective, what they have learned over the years is that the people who have the best answers as to what should be done are the people that are closest to the problem. They would like to gather the information as quickly as they can in order to form a plan. The COR plan the City has needs to be reviewed and discussed and it would be really nice to create a vision with partners that want to work with the City. They would like to feature the amenities in The COR and work in entertainment features around the water features already there. He would really like to understand the affordable housing feature better. It is nice to have but needs to be managed well. They need to come up with a master plan and define it. He stated they try to maximize what the client gets for their dollar so IAG Commercial would also become the broker of the land. Chairperson Steffen stated the City wants to sell their land and get out of the developer business as quickly as possible so how will IAG Commercial advise them to do that. Mr. LaFavre stated IAG Commercial is a non-profit so they will need to find a compensation plan that gets the City what they want and also gets the benefit of the commission structure and tie the two together a little more. He stated they are only as good at selling the land, as there is demand for the land. IAG Commercial representatives left the meeting. Economic Development Authority/February 9, 2017 Page 9 of 10