Agenda - Economic Development Authority - 11/09/2017

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Economic Development Authority (EDA) Meeting Date: 11/09/2017 Submitted For: Patrick Brama, Administrative Services By: Patrick Brama, Administrative Services Title: Buxton Group, Review Available Services 4. 4. Purpose/Background: As the EDA knows, the City is actively seeking retail/ restaurant users. In order to help achieve that goal, the EDA/Council have been discussing different strategies over the past year (brokers, developers, city, professional services firms, research groups, etc.). Staff was approached by a research group recently (Buxton). Buxton met with staff on 10/11/17, and provided an overview of their service offerings. As the EDA may recall, the City utilized Buxton about 10 years ago for similar work. In summary, Buxton has indicated their processes/ services have been improved/ changed. Not only will the provide all the data they did in the past (detailed demographics, consumer spending reports, and market maps), they now help cities actually make connections with end users (create custom demographic/data packages for specific end users, and set up initial contact with end users), and they allow their data to be displayed in an online dashboard that's available for existing Ramsey businesses. Please see attached for details. The cost for their services is $50K per year. The purpose of this case is to listen to what Buxton has to offer, and to ask questions (informational only). Staff is not expecting/ recommending any direction from the EDA. If the EDA is interested in further exploring this opportunity, staff will bring back a follow up case. Below are questions staff requested Buxton be prepared to answer: (1) Ramsey is being told, by a long list of developers, brokers, and end -users, that we do not have the minimum demographics required to support additional substantial retail development. Ramsey has been specifically told, we must obtain minimum traffic counts ranging from 15K-20K ADT and/or a market of 60,000. If those minimum thresholds are not met, no significant retail development will occur. With that in mind, one could speculate obtaining this information from Buxton may be generally interesting to have --but, it's not going to address this issue (i.e. we already know we don't meet the minimum requirements). Why does Ramsey need this detailed information? (2) Ramsey completed a study with Buxton in the past, and a refresh study. Ramsey invested a significant amount of time/ resources following up with the suggested prospects for several years (via Buxton). Not one project ever came to fruition. Why would the situation be different now? (3) Ramsey wants Buxton to show testimonials of similar cities (e.g. less than 35,000 population, with rural areas surrounding the community), that had more success with their Buxton investment? Any Minnesota cities would be preferable. (4) Please walk through, specifically, what the support from Buxton looks like, after the initial research is completed? How will Buxton help the city get deals going. (5) What credibility does Buxton have with the prospects (retail end -users) they will be making connections with? Ramsey is not interested in a generic email blast or long list of generic contacts. We are not interested in repeating our previous Buxton efforts/ processes for following up with prospects.