Minutes - Council Work Session - 09/26/2017

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Councilmember Riley stated that the EDA had momentum on the sale strategy but noted that there were a lot of changes occurring and therefore it was determined to place that item on hold. He asked for additional input from the group. Mayor Strommen stated that there is a challenge in defining success for specific users. She stated that she tends to think of defining success as the outcomes and not specific users. She agreed that it would be helpful to have input on the eventual outcome to help shape the strategy to reach that outcome. Councilmember LeTourneau asked if the Master Plan for The COR would provide the necessary guidance and mix of users. He was unsure if the strategy should be about changing that and believed that the City should hold true to the plan and instead focus on discussion of the market and what is driving the market. Mayor Strommen stated that she would agree but stated that clearly something is being lost in translation as residents are defining success by bringing specific retail/restaurant users into Ramsey. Councilmember LeTourneau stated that the City does have the guidance in the plan and believes that the City needs to have the courage to stay the course. Councilmember Riley stated that the City has had two strategies to try to reach that outcome but perhaps those are not the best methods to reach that outcome. He stated that there is question as to whether that final picture is still the same. He stated that the City has tried to be the developer in planning for specific parcels, but that did not work and he does not prefer that option. He stated that there was discussion in attempting to find someone that would take the vision of the City and make that happen but then things were picking up in terms of development and therefore that idea was paused. Councilmember Kuzma stated that the EDA interviewed three developers and noted that he would like to hear how that went. He stated that he has not been impressed with the performance of CBRE. Member Hardin stated that the EDA was not necessarily recommending CBRE and did not necessarily want to just stop investigating the new strategy. He explained that the EDA was being told that now is not the time to initiate that strategy. He stated that the only option at that time was to wait six to 12 months to see what happens, as there is a lot of development within The COR right now. Mayor Strommen asked if there were any benchmarks provided on when it would be time to re- evaluate and whether that would be linked to rooftops and traffic counts. Chairperson Steffen stated that there would only be two other strategies, bringing in a developer to buy the land but no one was interested in doing that unless there is a tenant to build for. He stated that the other option would be to pay a consultant to develop a new plan or switch brokers, City Council Work Session/September 26, 2017 Page2of6