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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcclc.min.1018171 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF OCTOBER 18, 2017 Chairperson Bill Guth brought the meeting to order at 8:36 a.m. Commissioners in attendance: Bill Guth, Amanda Tanaka, Bill Dinsmoor, Charles Cunniffe. Absent were Terry Butler, Kiki Raj, Steve Fante and Erik Klanderud. Staff in attendance: Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk Mitch Osur, Parking Services Director APPROVAL OF MINUTES: This was forgotten so there will be three sets of minutes to approve on the next agenda: September 6th, September 20th and October 18th. PUBLIC COMMENT: None. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS: None. Mr. Osur gave a short mall update and said that the mall renovation team will be presenting three options to council and the first will feature ADA compatible bricks and simply fixing the infrastructure. The second option will involve moving the utilities to the alleyways and the third would be a major renovation including water features, moving bathrooms, etc. Mr. Osur doesn’t feel that the third option will happen. I mentioned to the commissioners that we were planning to hold the Saturday market discussion with Ms. Strickland on November 1st, but it appears that a few members will be absent so I suggested moving the discussion to November 15th and they agreed. Mr. Guth asked that the aggie board attend as well. Ms. Tanaka reported back on her Vail friends who own businesses there and said they love the Sunday market since it has been changed from Saturday and said it has been really good for their business. Mr. Osur said he had early survey results from questions which Ms. Strickland sent to the vendors of the Saturday market. He said he only received 21 responses and that 13 people want to close at 3:00 p.m. and 8 people want to close at 2:00 p.m. and those were the aggies. Regarding second-tier businesses, 12 people voted yes and 2 no. He said the concern with the respondents lies with the goods being Colorado grown and made. If they don’t match the market, it hurts everyone and they do not want to degrade the market by selling stuff made in China. Mr. Osur said that by judging the second-tier stores, most of them do not qualify due to the Colorado made rule. Mr. Cunniffe pointed out that the board has been tough on people over the past few years to prove they are Colorado made. Mr. Dinsmoor agreed and said they kicked people out in the past because they lied about their products origination. Mr. Guth said he is not ok with second-tier period and that they shouldbe offered the ACRA booth and no more magic carpets. 2 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF OCTOBER 18, 2017 Mr. Osur also mentioned that a few survey respondents said they lost two weekends this year and that they would like to have those two weekends back. Mr. Guth said that was Ms. Strickland’s recommendation due to the inclement weather at the beginning and end of the market. Mr. Osur said that maybe this next year, we put those weekends back in or if we had to make decision about the earlier one in the Spring, don’t do it and keep the later one in the Fall. Last weekend there was a swim meet, soccer tournament, etc. so it would have been great to have the market as well with so many people in town. The board unanimously agreed to bring back the last weekend of the market. Mr. Dinsmoor suggested having a “fall in love with Aspen” event for the retailers so they can go crazy in the streets and maybe combining it with the market on a Saturday, is a good idea. Mr. Osur agreed and said he was thinking of the 3rd Saturday in September to do something like this next year. Mr. Dinsmoor said that by adding second-tier creates more problems. Mr. Cunniffe agreed and said the mission of the market needs to be upheld. Anyone can apply if they have a Colorado made product like anyone else, which the whole board agreed with. Mr. Guth suggested a co-op booth for locals who have homegrown niche products or specialized items to share. Mr. Dinsmoor said they did try to do this in the past, but Ms. Strickland didn’t want to manage it and it sort of fell apart with who was supposed to be filling the booth on any given weekend. Mr. Cunniffe said CCLC should encourage them to fill the time slot and get together with the others to share the booth. They can figure it out and manage it on their own. Mr. Dinsmoor said they should talk about it, but it’s more like amateur hour. Who is responsible for it is the bigger question, Mr. Guth mused and pointed out that people of his generation don’t just do one thing anymore, but do multiple jobs. So what if this guy just grows micro greens for the market on Saturday? That’s’ ok. It may not be his full-time job, but he may be really good at it. He mentioned that CCLC should reach out to the aggie group since it’s an idea that they like and want to encourage and ask if they can manage it. Mr. Cunniffe said they also need to reinforce the full idea that aggies need to stay open until 3:00 p.m. Mr. Osur brought up the second-tier issue again and Mr. Dinsmoor said that the Aspen market is one of the most successful markets in the state and because it’s such an enormous success, we shouldn’t mess with it too much. Mr. Cunniffe asked Mr. Osur if this is all related to parking revenue and he said no, he doesn’t need the parking revenue. What you guys need to discuss is the other businesses in town who are paying rent because this is about the market hurting the other retailers in town. Mr. Cunniffe disagreed and said their business is always off on Saturdays and the market does bring people into town and that was the whole point of the market in the beginning. This isn’t broken so stop trying to fix it. It’s the online, amazon shopping that’s hurting businesses. Mr. Guth asked Ms. Tanaka if her Saturdays are slow in the winter as well and she answered yes. He went on to say that the net benefit to the town is much greater than any hurt and Mr. Osur agreed and said the city loves it too. We’re just trying to find a compromise with the retailers, so do we need to help these businesses diversify? Does CCLC need to 3 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF OCTOBER 18, 2017 make this one of their goals? Mr. Dinsmoor said they absolutely want to help and maybe need to form a retail association to represent everyone. ACRA isn’t a retail association so we need to have the city underwrite this and it would be a beginning, as their sole purpose, to represent these people. Mr. Guth said they have an association downtown in Grand Junction and it was such a great help to him. Mr. Dinsmoor said when this was discussed in the past, ACRA wasn’t willing to accept it. They will tell you they aren’t the chamber and it’s not their mission. Mr. Osur said they are just a marketing arm. Mr. Guth asked Mr. Osur if he could look into how we could go about spawning something like this and passing off. Mr. Guth feels that Mr. Nelson and company are dragging their feet on the mall lighting. Mr. Osur said that he will be at the next meeting and that he did meet with the electric dept. and said he can most likely increase lighting by 30% and can keep it up until mid-March, but don’t quote me, he will come and address it next time. I reminded everyone that he will also be adding four ski racks to the mall. Mr. Dinsmoor moved on to the Christmas market and he said that cost shouldn’t make the difference, it should be about the benefit it’s going to bring. The city spent millions on bringing a bike race that crushed business in town so we can’t look at it from a money standpoint. A European market is culturally mature. The best one is in Chicago and run by the Germans and is still the largest cultural export of Germany and is underwritten by Seamans, and Lufthansa. He spoke with the woman in charge, flew to Chicago and they flew out here and the government of Germany was interested in Aspen over any other city, but our city government squashed it immediately. There was no support and it was a failure and embarrassment. Mr. Guth asked if the special event department would come meet with CCLC and Mr. Osur said he would check with them. Mr. Guth said if not, ACRA needs to help us get these things done. Why do they exist if only for marketing? They are an interlayer of uselessness. Mr. Osur said that Councilman Myrin brought up this exact question and asked why ACRA has to be the middle man in everything, but it’s not our place to decide or question. Mr. Guth said he feels the mechanism is missing. We aren’t set up to take these ideas from zero to a hundred. We are to come up with ideas and make decisions. Someone with the greater good in mind, needs to be proactive about this and bring in the organizations that we can move forward with on our ideas. Mr. Osur said they are to take these ideas to city council and let them know there are three ideas we’ve come up with and once council says I want you to pursue those two things, himself and special events will pursue these things. These ideas need to be brought to council in a work session. Mr. Guth said it feels like it gets pushed back down to us and ends up not going anywhere. Mr. Osur said that’s why we need to say that we need staff support and we need to tell the story to council. He said that no businesses are going to council to say they need help in December and none are saying this to him, but it is a problem that exists. No one has told council that the first three weeks of December suck. 4 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF OCTOBER 18, 2017 Mr. Dinsmoor asked that everyone take a look at the Kris Kringle market and Mr. Osur suggested that it be presented again, but starting off with council from the beginning. Let’s come to the next meeting with more ideas for December. Mr. Guth adjourned at 9:56 a.m. ______________________________ Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk