7.4. EDSR 07-20-2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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July 20,2020 Project Update to EDA,July 20,2020 Page 2 of 3 A Manufacturing & Industry Focus Group took place at 11:00 a.m. The following were key takeaways. • Elk River school district is a huge asset for manufacturing/industrial businesses because it provides a workforce and opens up tech trades as a viable career option. • Finding workforce is still challenging, and there is competition among businesses. Emotional intelligence is also an issue with the younger workforce. • Processes for licensing, permitting, business expansion, etc have been difficult for businesses to navigate. There is a feeling that "it's about who you know" at the City. • The lack of hotels and amenities is difficult for businesses entertaining higher profile clients and for attracting larger events to the City. • The Medical Device industry is established in the City and is most attractive to workforce as well (parents and students). • Many businesses choose to stay in Elk River because of the community, even when incentives offered by other Cities may be more attractive. • There is a need for affordable rental units for workforce • Medical device industry might be saturated (they have a hard time finding and retaining a qualified workforce). Food industry could be an alternative target industry. Peer City Research In consultation with Elk River staff, we've selected the following cities for the Peer City benchmarking research. • Forest Lake. One of the cities Elk River sometimes compares itself with. There are locational similarities in their downtowns. They may have lessons to share from their Highway 61 Corridor study. Finally, they are strong partners with the Washington County CDA. • Chaska. Chaska is a fairly affluent city. It's a river city with a small walkable downtown. It has significant industrial areas. Hazeltine Golf course is a major tourism draw, and contributes to community pride. They have taken innovative actions relative to housing. Staff have been open about talking about Chaska and actions they've taken over time. • Oakdale. Oakdale has made successful use of special area studies and a proactive AUAR (Alternative Urban Areawide Review)to set the stage for business development. They are very experienced at leveraging city contributions to development projects to get developers to meet community objectives. Tartan Crossings is an example of successfully redeveloping a blighted, way underperforming mall with an absentee owner, into a thriving Hy-Vee store and senior facility. Staff are very approachable. Analysis We are in the Analysis phase of the project, which includes business retention and industry cluster analysis. Beyond that, we're trying to preserve bandwidth for a few topics that seem to have risen to the top in the EDA Workshop and focus groups. Those are the following. • Highway 169 impacts, including possible exploration of: o Access &visibility for businesses o Programmatic support for businesses in transition o Image & character of highway/bridge infrastructure (Elk River branding) o Wayfinding to downtown jjgiii \d,epafthf ents\cornmunity develbprhent\economic development\eda\administrative\agenda\eda agenda packets\2020\07-20-2020\7.4 at1 project update to eda 07-20-2020.docx