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Business Retention & Development Committee <br />Meeting Minutes <br />April 2, 2012 <br />Page 2 of 4 <br />INTRODUCTION OF AARON DEJONG, NEW ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR <br />City Manager, Malcolm Fleming, did the honors of introducing Aaron DeJong, new Economic <br />Development Director for the City of Louisville and will replace Bonnie Star who is retiring. Malcolm <br />indicated that Aaron received "glowing remarks" from his references. Aaron will be a tremendous asset <br />to the City and a great addition to our team. <br />Aaron summarized that he has been the Assistant Director of Economic Development in Dubuque, Iowa <br />for 6 years. He has worked on incentive packages for the downtown redevelopment project and also <br />indicated that the City of Dubuque is in the middle of an historic renovation. Bonnie Star offered that <br />Aaron will work with economic development with Metro Denver, and Chairperson Sackett welcomed <br />Aaron and said that the BRAD group wants Aaron to be successful. <br />RETENTION MEETING — <br />Cooper Tea — Bonnie Star and Rob Lathrop — the trip to Cooper Tea was a very rewarding retention visit <br />that had been long in the making. Bonnie was excited to finally get a retention visit scheduled and both <br />Bonnie and Rob met with Barry Cooper for a short time and President, Mike Fitzgerald. Cooper Tea <br />currently has 13 employees and has been located in the same building in CTC for 10 years. They are in <br />the last stages of acquiring 3rd Street Chai and they are looking to convert approximately 10,000 square <br />feet of office space to warehouse space to house a wet production line. <br />A couple of issues resulted from the meeting, 1) currently Sierra Nevada leases 2,500 square feet of their <br />offices and the hope is that they can move out of their building into their own space to make room for the <br />expansion planned at Cooper Tea and it was reported in this meeting that Sierra Nevada has just signed <br />a lease for another space at CTC, 2) prairie dogs and trash a problem on adjacent property and no luck <br />contacting the owner to discuss these two issues. Per their request, Bonnie gave them a contact at the <br />Colorado Association of Manufacturing and Technology (CAMT). <br />UPDATE ON INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN (PLANNING) <br />Planning Director, Troy Russ, gave an update. This week, staff will be meeting with the other partners to <br />establish the final goals and the purpose and need statement. One of the hurdles to overcome on the <br />design of the underpass on South Street will be the current depth of 10 feet. There is an option to reduce <br />to an 8 foot depth but need to finalize some things with Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BSNF). Meeting <br />planned in June to go over the details of all the design alternatives. <br />City Manager Fleming asked could artwork be included in the final design of the underpass? Planning <br />Director Russ said they are planning to include public art for the underpass. Director Russ indicated they <br />need to understand BNSF's position before finalizing options for the underpass. <br />ECONOMIC BRIEFING — Bonnie Star <br />• Pearl Izumi will remain in Louisville in the CTC and construct a new building with underground <br />parking that will house their world headquarters. The plan is for them to be in their new building <br />by September 2013. City Manager Fleming gave thanks to the Downtown Business Association <br />for inviting Pearl lzumi to be one of their VIPs at the Street Faire. <br />• Sam's property — activity is picking up. There were two potential users interested in the property, <br />one has walked away and unsure of the status of the other. <br />• Safeway Redevelopment — development denied at last Planning Commission — developer, Jim <br />Loftus, is still figuring out what his plan will be for resubmitting. <br />• ConocoPhillips — received extension on their preliminary PUD <br />