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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcclc.min.0816171 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF AUGUST 16, 2017 Chairperson Bill Guth brought the meeting to order at 8:39 a.m. Commissioners in attendance: Bill Guth, Steve Fante, Erik Klanderud. Absent was Bill Dinsmoor, Terry Butler, Kiki Raj, Amanda Tanaka and Charles Cunniffe. Staff in attendance: Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk; Mitch Osur, Parking Services Director Special Guest: Kathy Strickland Ms. Strickland began by speaking about the Saturday market and said that it had been reported to her that vendors were packing up at 2:00 p.m. on the previous weekend so she sent out an email and said it was much better this past weekend as she made a point to walk around and check on things. She said she appreciates hearing about these issues because she can’t be everywhere at once. She mentioned Dave and Sue Widdlesy, who were on the Aggie team last year and they did not come this year and have called and asked to come just one time. She had the same thing come up with the Colorado chairs and said if they don’t apply for the reserved list in advance, then they can’t get in. Mr. Osur agreed and said that would not be fair at all to allow them in. Ms. Strickland mentioned that she still has 250 market bags in her garage, which the market paid for and said she can’t get the vendors to buy them. Mr. Guth said he had a farmer’s market where he went to college, which had an information booth where they sold bags, t-shirts and hats. He said he would love to see an information booth next year at the Aspen Saturday market where they could sell these items. Mr. Osur asked if they could potentially work with the City of Aspen booth and ask Jane Wilk to sell them for the time being until they can get their own booth next year and Ms. Strickland agreed that it would be a good idea. Mr. Osur suggested that next season they can make a good plan to sell these and make some profit on them and have a pamphlet available with a map which lists all of the vendor’s and their locations. Ms. Strickland said they need to get a new wagon for next year as well and said she wished they had a golf cart. Mr. Osur suggested that she ask Steve Aitken for an old one. She said she also had a couple more things to consider for next year regarding the aggies and artisans. She said she feels CCLC should judge everyone on the same day and not do the aggies later in February like they have done in the past. She feels they should do all of the judging at the same time next year for transparency. Mr. Guth agreed. She said they know what the criteria is and next year they need to be clear on the application about rules and restrictions and have them state what their electrical needs are, etc. Mr. Fante asked if it’s possible to create an artisan group or board like they have for the aggies. He suggested David Powers, who came to the last meeting because of the potential time change, as a potential board member. Mr. Powers was present to represent those who don’t want to close early and the aggies are against it because they want out at 2:00 p.m. He thought maybe there should be a board to represent both sides and then asked if they could have some leave early and some leave late as a 2 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF AUGUST 16, 2017 compromise. Ms. Strickland said no because if you have people coming and going, it doesn’t work mechanically with the way the market is set up. Mr. Osur asked what percentage of the crafts people want to close at 3pm instead of 2pm and Ms. Strickland said they would probably need to do another survey at the end of the season. Mr. Osur suggested that the two of them walk around with an iPad to each booth and ask them to fill out a short survey on the spot to ensure they get a response from everyone. Ms. Strickland mentioned opening a half hour early as another option for the people whose income is solely based on the market. Mr. Osur said closing at 2:30 could also be an option. Ms. Strickland said that those who don’t rely on the market as their sole source of income, want out at 2pm and the others who depend on it more, want to stay open until 3pm, plain and simple. Mr. Guth said he found it hard to believe, based on the numbers, how anyone could make a living here in the valley, based on what they are making at the market. Mr. Osur commented that he and Ms. Strickland walked around and looked at all the electrical issues in the market the previous weekend. He suggested they walk around and get a list of what appliances each booth is using so they can get a better hold on the electrical issues for next year. Ms. Strickland said the issues are mostly fixed for now and said they have the aggies using the telephone poles. She said Vectra bank is being utilized, as well as Mark Hunts building on Hopkins by Happy Hogs because the light poles did not hold up. She suggested that for the next year, the applicants need to tell us exactly what they need as far as electricity on the application and not just before the market starts so that everyone is better prepared. Mr. Osur mentioned that there will be some new transformers put up around town as well. Ms. Strickland said that next year, if Mr. Hunt tears the Hopkins building down, the market will lose that space. She mentioned Little Annie’s as a future agenda item and said they don’t let vendors come out 30 feet, but only 20 ft. on Hyman and that’s it. She said she wants clearer specifics next year so that people aren’t pushing and pulling and said some people aren’t happy about letting Ms. Gottleib in the market, among other issues. She said that just because you rent on Hyman, doesn’t mean you get into the market. There are absolutely no late applications and this has been easier to massage for people this year, but next year if we lose 70 ft., the market is going to hurt. Mr. Hunt will have a 15-ft. right of way and all of the parking in front, will be lost. She mentioned that she checked with the Engineering department and Mr. Murray in the Building department and both confirmed that they will lose that whole frontage. Mr. Osur mentioned that he’s going to talk to Engineering about doing no construction on Saturdays during the market. Mr. Fante asked Ms. Strickland and Mr. Osur what their thoughts were on the artisan and aggie boards. Ms. Strickland said they did have that previously, but then Mr. Dinsmoor and some of the others suggested just having the rules and regulations and hold everyone to that. She had two vendors on the reserve list and now finance has asked them to pay a full business license for a whole year. She said 3 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF AUGUST 16, 2017 she’s not going to have a reserve list if people must pay a whole year and Mr. Osur said he will verify the new numbers. She stated that last year the cost was only 25 dollars if they were in twice and this year it is 150.00. Mr. Osur thinks the cut off is 4 days and more at 150.00. He said the request to raise the price was from the retailers who were unhappy. Mr. Guth said his concern with the artisan subcommittee, is there is there will be too much of the same or too much artistic bias. He felt our group gave a good spectrum of what people will like. Ms. Strickland agreed and said it’s also a conflict if they are in the market and choosing who is going to be in it. She said CCLC did a great job choosing a wide variety of vendors and she’s received a lot of compliments that it’s been the best one so far. Mr. Osur suggested having an artisan board or committee, but still letting CCLC have the final say and that way, they feel they are part of a team. Mr. Fante suggested having them as just a communication source, not necessarily doing any of the choosing. This group would be the liaison and come to us once a month during the market with their two or three reps and communicate any issues or concerns to them. They would either nominate themselves or nominate others and set this up as a board just like the aggies. Mr. Osur advised Ms. Strickland to be thinking about who she would want to see on that board for next year. Ms. Strickland said they would be welcome to come to CCLC during the selection process. Mr. Osur said that David Powers should be on the board most definitely and then from there, determine who else. He suggested they would need a well-rounded group of three people and Ms. Strickland can judge and select the group. Mr. Guth changed the subject, mentioning that he attended an art show at the Ice Garden the previous weekend and said he loved it. He saw more interesting art than he has seen in any gallery around Aspen so far. Mr. Klanderud said he was there and saw so many local business owners in attendance and not so many visitors. He said it was a really neat show. Mr. Guth said he wished some of the local gallery owners would learn something from this show. Mr. Osur said he spent a few days at two different shows and it doesn’t affect local retailers at all. He said it really just brings a lot of money into town and at the hotels, etc. Mr. Guth said they sell really nice art for much less than the Aspen galleries. He noticed prices ranging from $2000-$3000 to $20,000. Most of the local Aspen galleries are $20,000 and up. Mr. Klanderud said that Art Crush raised 2.2 million alone and that he agrees with Mr. Osur, that it’s not hurting anyone. Mr. Guth said Mr. Osur needed to hear something else, that there is so much bureaucracy in this town, that people don’t care anymore about certain things and aren’t interested in the rules anymore because there are so many of them. 4 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF AUGUST 16, 2017 Mr. Osur filled Mr. Guth in on the Christmas market idea and Mr. Klanderud said they went through this process in 2014 and he remembered that this market is 20 some consecutive days and it’s called the Kris Kringle market. He said it’s a group out of Chicago that puts it on and they bring in all these people to sell all kinds of different things. Back in 2014, Council voted no and said they didn’t want to lease the little wooden cubicles because they are outside vendors and not local. Mr. Osur said that another thing CCLC should think about, if the Christmas market idea doesn’t fly, is that they need a united message from the City for the month of December to get people here. There’s already going to be more flights coming into Aspen this winter and we need to offer deals, etc. to get people here like they are doing in Crested Butte. Mr. Guth said this sounds like something ACRA should spearhead in addition to Ski Co., ALA, everything. Mr. Klanderud said this would be a Julia Tyson marketing deal and that they are already offering an early winter ski package. Mr. Guth said the only thing he’s seen out there, is called the “Perfect Storm” and it’s so poorly administered. He said that no one explains what it does and that HOPS was participating in the program at one time and literally one person came in and asked about it. This is not being utilized and it’s not organized at all. Mr. Osur offered that it would be so great to turn December into 20 days with people here Christmas shopping, etc., but it’s got to be everyone involved and it takes a lot of coordination. Mr. Klanderud said the closest thing to a Christmas market in Colorado would be Georgetown and it’s huge as far as Christmas markets go and this is the only ski town which partakes, as far as he knows. He said it starts with the City and suggested that everyone look at the minutes from 2014. He said the issue had to do with Wagner Park being taken over for 20 days in December and that was a huge challenge. He said that snow polo is no longer allowed at Wagner anymore so part of this problem lies just with the City. Mr. Guth asked about having a huge ice sculpture in Wagner Park and said it would be a really cool attraction. Mr. Klanderud said he knows a guy who goes around and builds these things and at one time, (2005), came out to Aspen, but he said there wasn’t enough snow available here. Mr. Guth said he thought they do it out of manufactured ice blocks now, which can be lit up at night and it makes something really special to see. Mr. Osur said he likes the idea and wants to think about it. Mr. Guth added that it is something cool enough that Veuve Clicquot might sponsor the whole thing and it’s just something to consider. Mr. Klanderud mentioned that they had an ice skating rink in Wagner Park at one time and evolving from that idea, they made scaled down rinks and that might be a huge draw in addition to an ice sculpture. Mr. Osur asked Mr. Guth and Mr. Fante how July was for them and Mr. Guth said it was just ok and was the same for Mr. Fante. Mr. Guth said so far, August hasn’t been as good. Mr. Klanderud asked if 5 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF AUGUST 16, 2017 everyone saw the occupancy report that is put out by Bill Tomcich and no one had except Mr. Osur. Mr. Klanderud said he would forward to everyone and mentioned that Mr. Tomcich spoke the other day at city council and early October is looking great. There is a challenge with the occupancy report because we have Sky Hotel offline and the whole gray market with Air Bnb’s, it’s really hard to judge. Mr. Guth announced that Lyft just came to Aspen about a week ago. It’s going to be a long time before Lyft and Uber can really work here as it’s just not the right environment. He said he is a little concerned about the downtowner drivers if they are going to be paid a nice wage and they get tipped so much in addition. Mr. Osur said that the city needed to pay them and that people in west end didn’t want to tip so they wouldn’t use it. Soon, this will take over some of the city bus routes. It’s the goal of making it micro transit so now they pay the drivers and they won’t receive a tip. It’s going to take a while to get the message out and we will turn off the tipping part of the app. Mr. Guth adjourned at 9:55 am. _____________________________ Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk