Economic Development Committee minutes 3-9-21

Economic Development Committee Minutes March 9, 2021- 4:00 p.m. The Economic Development Committee Meeting was held by video conference on February 9, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. with Mayor Robin R. Christiansen presiding. Committee Members present via video or telephone were Councilman David Anderson, Kim Adams, Dave Hugg-City Planner, Diane Laird, Matt Harline-Assistant City Manager, and Randy Robertson-City Manager. Linda Parkowski and Shannon Heal from Kent Economic Partnership were present. Councilman Roy Sudler and Clayton E. Hammond II were not present. WELCOME At 4:00 pm Mayor Robin R. Christiansen called the Economic Development Meeting to order. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Mayor Christiansen called for a motion to adopt the Agenda. Dave Hugg moved for adoption of agenda, seconded by Diane Liard, unanimously carried. (Councilman Roy Sudler, Clayton E. Hammond II absent). ADOPTION OF MINUTES Mayor Christiansen called for a motion to adopt December 15, 2020 minutes. Dave Hugg moved for adoption of minutes, seconded by Diane Liard, unanimously carried. (Councilman Roy Sudler, Clayton E. Hammond II absent). KENT ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP-LINDA PARKOWSKI AND SHANNON HEAL DEMO KEP/CHOOSE CENTRAL DELAWARE WEBSITE TO DESCRIBE HOT TO COLLECTIVELY RESPOND TO INQUIRIES. Linda Parkowski states Diane Liard, Downtown, Dave Hugg, and the municipalities are all working well together, and it is paying off, all Central Delaware is winning. On site selector website www.choosecentraldelaware.com, under ours services click site selection assistance, then find a site. If someone calls the office, Kent Economic Partnership (KEP) goes to this area on the website and clicks on property search. To keep property, search up to date Shannon Heal goes to all commercial realtors to update any listings they have into the property search area of website. Next, click on location, this can sort by county or city. Will only show industrial and larger commercial properties not residential properties. If an inquiry for building and acres is made, website allows to input those parameters and filters the properties. To save and compare

Economic Development Meeting of February 9, 2021 PAGE 2 properties click on heart, create folder, name folder, then hit add folder. Once back at the list of properties click on heart and click add to folder that was just created. Properties will show everything, property details, aerial photos, google maps, and realtor information. After saved into folder can create a report in a pdf or excel sheet. Website allows sharing properties and to save downloads. Virtual tours are available for some properties. Shannon Heal continues to present the rest of the website. At the top of the screen click on Community Data this tab gets more down to demographics of each municipality for example, population, median age, population of growth, education, brief labor force, blue collar, white collar, how many businesses, median house hold income, how they spend money, owners vs. renters, transportation, and tax information. All can be converted to pdf and shared. Clicking Occupation Data at the top of the screen shows median wages per job category, demographics- age, sex, ethnicity, number of households, and income households. Click Labor force gives number of employees and types of establishments. All can be converted to pdf, excel, and shared. Data is continuously updated if link is sent link it will give up to date data if clicked on a year from sending. Website allows comparison of communities to do this click on Compare communities. This will bring up comparison report for any 2 cities chosen. Tab at the top for Businesses can break down businesses by the naics code and each industry is a different color. Lastly, clicking Talent Report will provide university data including top 5 programs and number of graduates. Linda Parkowski states website is very useful, she had company looking for healthcare expenditures and was able to pull up expenditures for healthcare by city. Diane Laird, asks, DDD has a lot of going on with Office of State Planning coordination for each city, getting DDD district, and value. Part of that is connecting to DPP information and on that site, they have market data. Is it from the same source and will it have exact data? Linda Parkowski responds this is Zoom Prospector. DPP has data for the whole state where we (Zoom Prospector) have it for Kent County, all of Milford and all of Smyrna. They are the same company and pull from same market data. Diane Laird states parking discussion is looking at other towns similar to Dover does it go backward if we do not know the name of City? Linda Parkowski answers, no, we have not found that is does. Current issue with site is making sure commercial and industrial data is up to date. Dave Hugg in the past we have not had access to this data in the past. When people call, they want the data now and not in weeks this site allows that. Secondly is a value that is available to anyone. Most time people looking at Dover or Kent County know more about it then we do, they won’t be baffled by are marketing. They run a lot of analysis being able to know some of the data that they know and being able to talk to them on the same page is important. Dave Hugg states he is really anxious to start doing trend analysis to see what is happening over time to give us an idea of what the next couple of years will look like. Appreciate Linda and Shannon getting this site up and running and coming to present it. Linda Parkowski says Dave is so right most of the bigger companies have done their research, they have data sources, we are talking to a different data source for jobs portion that a site selector recommended to us. Every inquiry KEP gets they use this site, it is very efficient and very fast. Diane Laird, asks they have a couple of sites downtown that are large developmental prospecting opportunities if they are on the site? Diane Laird says the properties are not manufacturing or warehousing they are mixed use, residential, commercial, and retail. Linda Parkowski tells Diane if you send them to Shannon Heal, she can add them in

Economic Development Meeting of February 9, 2021 PAGE 3 there, and asks are they listed by a realtor? Diane Laird, Yes, they are. Okay if you send them to Shannon, she will get them on there. Mayor Christiansen says thank you Linda and Shannon for your presentation. Next, we will move on to Mr. Hugg. Mr. Hugg, in your presentation we have had several inquiries from committee members about diversity of the comprehensive plan on things that it does and does not address. If you could speak on that. CITY OF DOVER PLANNING UPDATE GIVEN BY DAVE HUGG Dave Hugg update on there is a lot going on that I do not always update on. List of what is happening now Us Corrugated final plans and permits have been approved and issued and begun site work. This is a big win for Dover and Kent County. Site plans have been approved for new Dover Middle School. In site planning with Cassidy Commons which is a group of warehousing and small manufacturing buildings on Lafferty Lane. Built 4 or 5 of the initial plans out of 10 now have site plan approval for the balance of that project. Cassidy Commons is a nice incubator site for smaller medium size companies with 1-4 employees. City of Dover has been working with Landing Square where the new State Police Headquarters is being built. Landing Square has an office building in site planning which they have a tenant for. Landing Square were in yesterday for preliminary discussion for a new mixed use multi story building on the front side of that property with office/store front and residential above. This is interesting concept to reintroduce residential to bay road area. Expecting application very soon to some new warehouses and contractor yard on Lafferty Lane. Mr. Parkowski has property he is moving forward on. Received serious inquiries revisiting Stonebrook 1 and 2 off Denny’s Road. Developments that never got started because housing has been slow to recover. Continuing design work with State for Family Court building looking at land acquisition and site design issues. Working with Tommy Carwash, Dupont Plaza, and several other projects around the City. DDP with Diane having high prospects about to jump off downtown. Quick summary of what happened in the last year wasn’t a good year for retailors. Last year City of Dover lost A.C. Moore, Pier 1, 33 West, Macy’s, Where Pigs Fly, Save a Lot, and Rite Aid. Our number in revenue is down from that. 300 business did not renew licenses heavily concentrated in small construction and retail. City of Dover picked up Crab de Jour, Hobby Lobby, Tender Bones, Red Robin, Us Corrugated, Avalon, LIDL, and House of Hope. We look encouraging a lot of closing buildings back filled quickly. 33 West good example closed end of the year and new tenant is about to move in with a new restaurant. Lastly, Dave Hugg shares data, today we work closely with Kent Economic Partnership and Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP) the City relies on them for data and research. John Taylor Research Director at DPP sent information to help understand what is going on in Dover and Kent County. One table is job loss 18 percent in Services 11 percent in Leisure this is State Wide. Kent County numbers chart shows where we took a hit. Important to track what is happening in the county. Unemployment Rate at City of Dover level April, May, June, July peak and recovering not as fast as County and State but still economy is recovering.

Economic Development Meeting of February 9, 2021 PAGE 4 The Comprehensive Plan is primarily land development plan. Shows how we hope future of City will evolve land uses will go, where to put industrial and commercial activities. It has impact on social issues it is not a social development or services plan. It is Economic focus more context where we can grow jobs and employers. Doesn’t mean all those things aren’t important it does talk about blight removal, trying to strengthen down town. Its focus is not specifically on training, job opportunities, and social kinds of issues. I agree with the Mayor Dover is looking pretty good and I think outlook is very good. MAYORS ANNOUNCMENT Mayor Christiansen asks, does anyone have anything to bring before committee? Councilman Anderson, states good report today I hope people will tune in next month to the Park and Recreation Community Enhancement Committee. There will be an item of interest for the members of this committee. Tying Community Development strategy in with Comprehensive plan with Economic Development. Gigi Windley will be a part of that discussion as well. Diane Laird updates the artisanal market prospects have signed the lease. Have a lot of sub vendors. There will be no large stalls it will be one large store. Working on sub agreements with each of the sub vendors. Downtown Dover Partnership will do a press release within the next week. Rebel Cove coming in to 33 West, it was a 3-week turnaround from available sign in the window. Three other potential food concepts to open within 2021. Parking concept is still going on Wednesday at Noon, speaker from Pasanda California, will speak on using parking funds to go back into downtown. A solution regarding parking will be about summertime with implementation after that. Mayor Christiansen states, downtown is taking off like a rocket, 2021 will be the year for downtown. The United State Post Office is really on the move. Take a look at downtown Dover landing cardboard plant, filling empty buildings, despite the pandemic we are continuing to move forward. Thank you to Mr. Hugg, Downtown Partnership, Linda, everyone involved, and members of Council for their continued enthusiasm. Council Anderson asked Diane Laird what the location of the Artisanal Market is. Diane says, Market is at 204 West Loockerman next to Bayard Pharmacy across from Janaids Barber. Only Vacant spot since the building was built. Linda Parkowski, the box plant landed on the name. Delaware Corrugated Packaging. NEXT MEETING DATE March 9, 2021 ADJOURNMANT

Economic Development Meeting of February 9, 2021 PAGE 5 Mayor Robin R. Christiansen called for a motion to adjourn. Councilman Anderson moved for adjournment, seconded by Dave Hugg, unanimously carried. Meeting adjourned 4:50 pm

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