Gardiner Economic Development Committee
Gardiner City Hall Council Chambers
Tuesday, November 12th, 2002, 8:00 a.m.
Minutes
Attending: Randy Clark, Rebecca Colwell, Norman Gardner, Nelson Gosline, Kim Greenleaf, Glenna Nowell, Geri Robbins-Doyle, Norman Temple, Francis Grey, Chris Paszyc
1) Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting
It was noted that the minutes did not include the terms of the loan under discussion. They should be amended accordingly. It was motioned and seconded to approve the minutes as amended. Motion passed unanimously.
2) Economic Development Director’s Report
Chris said it has been very busy in the past month. Four different grant applications have been submitted or will be soon. Two are for the Northwest Quadrant project with Public Works, Wastewater, and the Water District. Another is a new $400,000 CDBG grant for Downtown Revitalization that will fund a new round of facade grants, underground utilities, and waterfront access. On the housing front, another grant application for $400,000 will be submitted in February. The material the consultant is producing for the housing study is very exciting. There are both positive and negative points about Gardiner housing. Action steps for the study will be firming up very soon. We may see a wide range of projects. Becky asked if the document is on-line. Chris said it is not
yet, but it will be as soon as the Housing Committee is happy with it.
Chris said we have a Waterfront Task Force now comprised of key stakeholders, and they will be having a first meeting soon. Someone asked if there was any recent activity on the Credit Union building. Chris said no, we appear to be in a retrenchment period.
3) Loan Applications
There were no loan applications. It was noted that we are getting to the point where the funds need to be lent. We thought we were going to see some major activity that hasn't materialized yet. However, we have done a lot of projects with this money. Councilor Doiron suggested that we consider requiring a balloon payment in the terms as an incentive for people to pay their loans back sooner to keep the money revolving. The consensus from the committee did not agree with the concept. "If a balloon after X number of years was required, you'd have to have 1% interest." If we had heavy demands on the loan funds, then it might make more sense. The current conditions do not warrant changing s.o.p.
4) Other Business
a) Marketing Plan
Chris said that so far we have been very effective marketing the lots at Libby Hill out of the current operating budget. We sold almost everything to date at the outset, but we haven't sold much in the last 2 years. We are faced with a choice of hiring a realtor or undertaking a creative, holistic marketing program. Chris presented a draft plan and budget for marketing. The first step is to create a marketing task force as an advisory board. They would undertake various activities in support of "branding" Gardiner, including a general awareness campaign, marketing for Libby Hill and for Downtown.
Geri said that realtors know the "players" who might be interested in Libby Hill. Chris said that the large commercial realtors are not interested in Central Maine, and PA Strategies said we'd need to pay them 15% commission. We might get a lot more for our money if we spend it differently. We lose a lot of opportunity just focusing on Libby Hill. This plan allows us to "kill 3 birds with one stone." Kim said a realtor might have someone right now who doesn't know about us.
Chris said that only a small fraction of what we spend should be dedicated to media advertising because a lot of deals really get made at trade shows and targeted visits. EMDC and NMDC have been extremely successful at attracting investment into their areas. KVCOG has acquired $50,000 in Business Attraction Marketing Program (BAMP) for Central Maine. The negative side of doing this ourselves is that Gardiner has very little staff capacity to undertake marketing activities. FirstPark has two full-time hired guns—one just for marketing, and one for administration, as well as support staff. However, even though we are understaffed, we still have to do something.
Having been burned once before by realtors, it's hard to go that route again. However, we could go great guns, spend an advertising budget, and then get nothing for it. The Marketing Task Force may consider if we should hire a marketing person to undertake certain tasks.
Norman Temple said the Committee should give Chris a vote of confidence for the high level of effort he brings to Gardiner.
Chris said that the Town of Madison spends $100,000 per year for the next five years on marketing because of requirements in their TIF agreements that it be spent on economic development activities. The City of Augusta is spending $20,000 per year. Auburn, Portland, and Farmington all have funds devoted to marketing. We currently spend zero. The City of Brewer has Lemforder growing by leaps and bounds, and it happened from the Brewer Economic Development Director getting Brewer's foot in the door on a marketing trade show trip. Gardiner's relationship to Augusta is very similar toBrewer's relationship to Bangor. All of the activities in the marketing plan are important if we are to be successful, but we want to delegate the cost proposal to the Marketing Task Force. The Council can direct the Task Force to come up with a realistic plan. We're up against a wall—we need to do something. Selling lots at Libby Hill is the key objective, but marketing the community broadly may
be the best way to do that.
Randy said that the idea of Gardiner Main Street is that creating a positive image for Gardiner will make it a lot easier to sell lots at Libby Hill. The way it is now, nobody knows about us. Compared to Brunswick, Topsham, Bath, or Lewiston, we're a big secret.
Lack of sufficient parking downtown makes it unattractive to locate a major corporate headquarters. Once the bank project is done, Gardiner will really have something to sell.
Nelson said he wanted to second Norman Temple's earlier motion for a vote of confidence for Chris.
All agreed that the City needs a marketing plan. All the details are not yet decided. That will be the job of the Task Force. Geri motioned, Nelson seconded, that the committee recommend to the City Council the creation of a marketing task force that will develop a dollar range for a the marketing plan's funding. Motion passed unanimously.
The committee voted on the previous motion by Norman Temple, seconded by Nelson, to give a vote of confidence to Chris as a show of support for the high level of effort that he brings every day to Gardiner generally. Motion passed unanimously.
5) Regular Review of RLF Accounts
There was none.
6) Schedule Next Meeting
Scheduled for December 10th at 8 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Paszyc
Director
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