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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcoa.cclc.min.111809COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 18.2009 Chairperson, Terry Butler called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. Commissioners in attendance: Andrew Kole, Don Sheeley, Fred Ayarza and Bill Dinsmoor. Excused were John Starr and Mark Goodman. Staff: Kathy Strickland, Chief Deputy Clerk 12 days of Aspen - Julia Theisen and Caitlin Page from the Aspen Chamber Resort- passed out the 12 days of Aspen calendar. Julia said there will be a website link. Don Sheeley is getting 5,000 printed. Julia said the calendar should be printed this week. Don suggested adding a little more XMAS color like green. Don said the lodges usually use e-mail for confirmations. Julia said the link will be included with the e-mails. Bill asked about the 12 days of XMAS song. Andrew said it was not incorporated. Bill said he feels the song should be at least referenced. Don suggested adding images on the inside of the brochure for the 12 days of XMAS. Bill suggested adding something about people purchasing gifts. Andrew said the song will be on the website. Rosie Andrews said she is doing live music on the Hyman mall and numerous bands will be on the Hyman mall throughout the season and for New Years Eve. Bill asked about roasted chestnuts. Julia said the fire hearth can't do chestnuts because it is gas. Fred said we have done a great step forward. Terry said she is thrilled about the 12 days of Aspen. 1 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 18, 2009 Fred said we want to set ourselves up on doing something special in Aspen. We want it mostly free and want everyone to enjoy it. Julia said there will be sandwich boards around each event. Saturday Market Expansion Don Lemos said the farmers market is wonderful and it is wonderful what the CCLC does. To expand onto E. Hyman will shut down my business which isn't right at all. Don Lemos said businesses are against the expansion onto E. Hyman What you are proposing is very decisive. Don Lemos entered a letter from Garrett Brandt who represents the owner of the Benton Building, Little Annie's and the parking lot. Ed Dingilian is the owner. The letter lodged serious objection to the expansion onto 500 Block of Hyman Ave. The expansion will disrupt our ongoing business. We had discussed this in January and we were under the assumption that it would not be pursued. Andrew said he is the biggest advocate for expansion. Don Lemos said the parking lot holds 30 spaces. Heather Isberian said Sammy from Polar Revolution said status quo works very well for him. He wants to be open and visible and doesn't want anything parked in front of the two stores. Our concern is once you place someone in front of us they are going to take another foot pattern. Heather said Brian Leach from Wind River gallery suggests tents around the center. Kathy pointed out that the center needs to be open in order for a fire truck to go through in case of an emergency. Heather said we need to self protect our businesses and our town. 2 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 18, 2009 Stephen Isberian said we are in the retail business and times are changing. As a retailer I look at our performance over the years and parking is very important for our store. Mike Otte, attorney representing Ed Dingilian. Ed is very involved with the music school and the family has owned the parking lot over 40 years. They have been here long term. The last two time Little Annie' s restaurant has been sold I brokered the deal and have been exposed to the parties on both sides. The family has done a lot of good things and have taken financial hits with these properties. I love the farmers market and I like to see good things for the town. Mike said we aren't filling up Little Annie's Restaurant right now. If we went out front everything would have to go through the front door because the kitchen is in the back. I would love to have the 7 days a week for alfresco dining but the city wouldn't allow us to do that and it isn't financially viable to do it one day a week. Little Annie's is the longest neighborhood restaurant in town. Don Lemos said he has a contract with everyone. The access from the alley isn't always available due to delivery trucks. Terry pointed out that she is subsidizing her hotel presently. We as a group are looking out for the small business owner and we want on the side of the retailers and we are thinking out of the box and trying to help businesses. The market goes for 1 day a week for 17 weeks. It would take out 5 hours once a week. We want to help the struggling businesses in Aspen. We want to bring activity to the business with the enormous success of the market. People will see activity on Hyman Ave. Andrew said when we expanded crafts we didn't destroy the downtown. Expansion created a different experience. Outside seating in the summer does better than indoor. We are looking at staging seating areas which might be an opportunity for Little Annie's. The parking lot isn't used as much on Saturdays. The only one affected is Boogies. If the city did construction work on the street the parking lot would have to have a different entrance. Don said he spoke to Sammy and he wants more traffic on the street. COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 18.2009 Andrew said visibility is very important but bodies are critical. Your visibility doesn't have to be blocked. With the cheese shop we opened up a space and they put out a sign. The courtyard near Sammy's would be a great place to mingle. No one here wants to hurt you. Our job is to create vitality for the downtown core. The downtown core is everyone. The positive impacts by far out weight the negative impacts. There are solutions and we could try it for a year. It is hard to make stuff work when you are battling all the time. Going down Hopkins is the wrong direction. We have never had so much positive impacts from people who have participated since Kathy took over. Fred said this is a pro business group. I understand the concerns. This group is only looking at the vitality for the downtown. Hopefully we can work it out. We are pro business. Stephen Isberian said he did well in the ACRA booth last year. Terry said you could turn the booth opposite and let the booth face the stores. We could leave open spaces between the booths for the businesses. We are her to bring traffic off the Hyman mall to the Hyman Ave. We want you to capture that traffic. We are trying to put pennies in your bank account. Little Annie's would be the only restaurant to have a hamburger outside. Bill said the city could setup and take down that area. Don said you could potentially have a 1000 people coming in to Little Annie's. Mike Otte explained that Little Annie's has a financial stake. Could Annie's have the exclusive on selling beer? Terry said the CCLC does the review on the mall leases and outside dining. We could give your restaurant outside service on Saturdays. Fred said we don't want to steam roll anyone. If Little Annie's had tables outside Little Annie's business would be on the upside. 4 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 18, 2009 Mike Otte said the deliveries in the alley are all day long. Four restaurants get deliveries all day long. Some vendors have more than one truck coming through the alley. Jeanie said what about closing Galena Street off? Bill said we looked at that before and it is a major thoroughfare to the mountain. Heather said Polar Revolution needs visibility and so does the gallery. Heather asked if she could have a tent on the street and everyone else who has a business on Hyman Ave. Terry said businesses can have a tent in front. Mike Otte said we need to digest a lot of things before making any kind of decisions. MOTION: Terry moved to adjourn; second by Don. All in favor, motion carried. Meetin adjourned at 10:30 am. Kathleen J. Strickland, Chief Deputy Clerk 5 Page 1 of 2 Don Lemos From: "Garret Brandy' <gsbrandt@brandt-law.com> To: <Didengila@aol.com>; "'Don Lemos"' <lemos(dlsopris.net> Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 7:31 PM Subject: Farmers Market Here are my thoughts to be presented at the Meeting. Ed, please feel free to make changes. Dear CCLC Members, On behalf of the Dingilian Family, owners of the comer parking lot, the Benton Building and Little Annies, we must lodge our most serious objection to any proposal to extend the Aspen Saturday Market onto the 500 Block of Hyman Ave. We discussed this issue with you in January of this year, and thought that you agreed not to pursue it. Apparently, you feel that 11 months have brought about such significant changes that we need to review this again. Let me state this very Dearly: Any expansion on to the 500 Block of Hyman will disrupt our on- going businesses and have severe financial consequences to both the owner and operators of the parking lot and Little Annies. Our client needs to protect these businesses, and will take whatever actions are necessary to do so. You do not seem to appreciate the nature of the parking lot business. It is not simply a matter of rearcanging where certain people park. It's more akin to blocking off the front (and only) door of a business, and telling the business owner to install a new door in a brickwall, moving the shelves/cabinets on the other side, for one day a week, then put it all back how it was. It is a cost and a disruption that our business should not have to suffer. Further, we believe the market will adversely affect the business of Little Annies. Screening of the front door, distracting from the streetscape and offering competitive product is just a sample of the very real negatives the Saturday Market will have on our business. We ask that you drop this idea once and for all. Thank you, Garret S. Brandt Attorney Garret S. Brandt BRANDY ~ FEIGENBAUM, P.C. gsbrandtCrDbrandt-law. com 132 Midland Avenue, Suite 4 Basalt, CO 81621 (970) 925-5196 phone (970) 925-4559 fax The information contained in this transmission is attorney privileged and confidential. It is intended for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you aze hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copy of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please 11/17/2009