Economic Development Board - Regular Meeting

Around? Yes. They they

they're supposed to be or they get told when

Yeah. They they seriously. If if you guys could think of a way that we can continue to spread the word or make making people aware, would love to tell everyone.

Did Quest Court the log cabin on Quest Court, did they get part in this grant?

I don't think so. No.

It's been within the last year. A ABA therapy child therapy services group went in there, and I know they had to put in

Oh, yeah.

A fire suppression sprinkler system. We

just wanna look at helping to remove an obstacle to to businesses that are coming. It's not really the function of of government to to invest in, you know, private properties. But when we find, as you mentioned, Keller the history goes back quite a ways. And and I remember when Keller was out in the middle of nowhere. But when we can come in and within our abilities and are you gonna talk about March also?

No, babe. Go for it.

Does everybody understand what a March agreement is? We we throw terms around here and it's jargon, so I wanna make sure that we're not getting caught up in jargon. In the local government code under the Texas controller, there's there's two chapters that deal with incentives, a three eighty and a three eighty one. Three eighty ones are basically the same thing at a county level versus a municipal level. And all it does is give us parameters under which we can provide financial incentives to to develop our economy.

And so that's why it's referred to a three eighty agreement. And, really, the form that it takes, we have a lot of latitude within. And that's why this board is important when that that comes about because we will look to the different expertise and perspectives in this board to not only provide input, but ask the questions and ask the tough questions of why should the government be involved in either rebating, you know, some form of tax or fee or providing some form of financial assistance to that business because of what they bring to our community economically. So that's all it means. It just refers to a chapter within the the local government code of where we are authorized to be involved in that type of an activity.

Thanks, Ty. Okay. And last but not least, business expansion. When a business tells you that they need to expand, they run out of space. It's really exciting, and it's also really terrifying because you don't want them to leave Keller.

And so that's something that you wanna be really aware and that's and it's also why business routine business visits are so important. And Melanie and I can only get to so many. So we'd love to, you know, I hope that you consider yourselves an extension of us. And that when you're out and about having coffee, maybe you're having a meeting with a client, maybe you're just out and about, ask those businesses how they're doing because you might find those nuggets where they might tell you, oh, we're at high capacity. We gotta find you a space.

And they might not think to call us. And we need to get on that because we don't want businesses to leave. And a good example of that is Houghton Horns. So Houghton Horns had a smaller facility on the other side kind of more north of Old Town, and they were ready to expand. They're really great business. They sell instruments, musical instruments, and they are well known

Very well known.

All over the country and even in the worldwide. And it was really important that a business like Houghton Horns stays and grows and doesn't go to a neighboring city. And so they received an incentive and they were able to purchase and expand into the former funeral home, and they've made it their retail location in a performance hall. And they have concert series where people are coming to listen to some these musicians from all over. And what's really cool is that when you hear us say, you know, we're looking for experiential businesses.

A lot of times people assume that means like the really flashy things that you're seeing on the news. But for us, it's not just that. Do we want that? The first video. But something like Hot and Horns is so unique and it has such character and it brings so many different people. And you might go to a concert and then you're gonna walk to a restaurant in Old Town. And then maybe you're gonna go to the wine bar down the street at Al Shinto wine. And then maybe before you go to the concert, you're gonna stop at a boutique. So what we want is experience type businesses like this one to grow, expand, and stay so that they can really support all of the businesses. And obviously, we love them and what they're doing and their investment investment into Keller.

So that's that's an example of expansion. So these were very brief examples just kind of like a quick this is what we do, who we are. We are our doors open. And if you wanna have any meetings with us, any one on ones, you have any questions, you talk to a business owner, call us, email us, text us, come see us. We are thrilled to have you helping us. So yeah.

I can interject here a little bit. You're gonna get a green badge that we make for our economic development board that has your name on it. It states the the has the Keller logo on it and also states the board that you're a part of. I've asked all of this board to wear that badge when you go into any business here in Keller. Introduce yourself.

Explain to them that you're a part of the economic development board in Keller. And and I would like us to develop maybe a very short list, maybe only two or three questions that we routinely ask these businesses. It it can be intimidating even of business owners to talk to the local government. I don't know why that exists, but it does exist because I've talked to a lot of people and, like, well, I you know, I don't know that. Don't wanna wanna talk to them.

And but they don't know what we offer or what what our interest is in those four things of expanding their business, of retaining their business here, of attracting new businesses that can be complementary to the businesses that we have here. So introduce yourself, ask how they're doing, but also ask if they're aware. Like right now, this open rewards program, any business here that is in the in the retail arena, dining arena, we are giving 10% back to their customers. That doesn't take any money out of their pocket. And it's a way to help them promote keeping things in Keller, people spending money here in Keller.

Now you don't have to be I don't maybe it was David that was asked. You don't have to be a Keller citizen to open to download open rewards. So tell your friends that live in Roanoke and Southlake and Yeah. Fort Worth that, hey. You know, come shop and tell them.

Because right now, if you get 10% back in cash, and it's a little cumbersome. You'll if those of you that have used it, you can chime in if you want. Because you either have to link a card to it and then use that card at that place, or like most of us, we're scanning in our receipts and then they review it and then that money will come back to your app. And then just like Venmo, if you've used Venmo, you take and then just shove that those funds to whatever bank account you want to use. So right now, that's a perfect question to ask is, hey.

Are you, you know, participating? Are you promoting the open rewards program here? And if they're not and you don't have any material, just get ahold of Anna, get ahold of me or Melanie or Ava, anybody at the city, and we'll make sure that we get by there and talk to them and explain to them how it works and and how benefits them.

Have you also ever thought about the other the flip side from the restaurant ownership side of, you know, maybe a card that has a q QR code on it. It's got a list of specials from local businesses on it, and they can go and upload the new specials every week or whatever they wanna put on there. And people can just scan the QR code for a restaurant, look at restaurants with discounts or stores or whatever. Because I can tell you I've got a number of friends here in Keller. They go to Southlake to Taverner Rose, whatever, because they have a 50% off or buy one get one free pizza, and you end up obviously spending a lot more.

But anything that's interactive that way from the stores that can upload and help offset some of their costs too. And that they can go into that card and and

So keep it in color offers the opportunity. So if while I let you speak on it, you're the expert in keeping it color.

It does offer the opportunity to, like, post any events you have going on, any specials, job opportunities as well. I will say a lot of businesses don't take advantage of the job opportunity page or the specials. More take advantage of the events or if we see it, we'll add it or they may they may, you know, ask us to post it and then we'll also add it on, keep it in color too.

So it might be, another area where we need to promote the keep it in color website some more so that businesses know and promote it and kinda keep it out there. Our social media too, Eva's always looking for content. So she'll see if somebody's having a sale or an event. Our reach is not as big as the city of Keller's Facebook, official Facebook, but we do have keep it in Keller on Facebook and on Instagram. So please follow it, share with your friends, share on your own pages. But yeah.

I will say it's the open rewards, I actually made it, like, fun. I have a 12 year old. So I had her kind of like we started collecting receipts. We actually already we maxed out on it already. So but it was just like, here. Here's a receipt. Like, go ahead and upload me and get get it situated. So she really enjoyed. So everywhere we went, she like reminded me to get a receipt. And it's pretty easy. Like, you literally just claim to redeem and that's when we noticed like if there was someone missing. But one thing to know, restaurants and it's wherever sales tax Yes. Is collected. So restaurants and retail. So that was a learning curve for for me even know with knowing the program.

But going through, like, it's just remembering to collect the receipt for me. But once we got into a flow of it and just click to upload, you wait till they approve it. But like I said, we we, I think, hit the the thousand dollars. Like, now is a great time to do it if you are shopping local during Christmas. And like I had family in town and we went to dinners and so there was like big groups of us. So like that was a easy way for us to kind of participate and do that. And then I had every family member download the app and even while they were in town Yeah. When people were visiting, I was like, hey, whatever we're doing here locally, like, everybody download the app and just upload your receipts. So so yeah. So just encouraging other people.

But once you get into the flow, I think for me, the only, like, curve was just remembering my receipts because I didn't wanna link my my bank card. But it was pretty easy. And I will say too feedback from all the businesses was incredible. I mean, I have a Facebook group group here locally in town and I posted about it and we got about 6,000 reach and like over 60 comments on the particular particular post. Post. And all the businesses were like, if they didn't know about it, they wanted to know about it and were really eager to to learn more. So if you are out and you happen to connect, it's a great like conversation starter to be like, hey, you know, have you heard of open rewards? And like this is what it is. And so I encourage you to download the app because you can easily just show them. And it's just very simple.

And a lot of businesses do I've been seeing the the QR code. I love the marketing guys put together for it because I've seen it in a lot of restaurants and stores that we've gone to too. So so you'll be able to see which ones might already know about it. And if you don't see that little card, then they might not.

Then ask us.

And we can share the I can share the list in the follow-up of all the districts that we dropped in the businesses that we dropped off. That's just so you're you're aware

for it.

Can I also get feedback for the Keepin Killer website? Mhmm. The directory, I would say about 60% of it are closed businesses. In

the Okay.

The the online? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I went through a lot of it because

I was looking

for old town businesses for a project I was working on. And so it's like 60%. So if they can just be deleted because I think that's also like not good if people are going there to reference that directory and then finding out so many art

flows. Mhmm.

Mhmm. Yeah. We try to audit it towards like as peep as we see them like take them off, but we have to manually do it. It's not automated. We've went through

I think

we went through restaurants. We still need to do the biggest categories where we are shop find category. So we'll be going through that and and making sure that they're off. Yeah. Yeah. Did you say that

you started last month? November 22.

And do you have a timeline of how long

Yes. It's gonna be? Goal is so we have 50,000 to go through, and I'll give you a report on where we're at during our next agenda item. But ideally, we hope to run out of the money by February. Okay. Some of the feedback we got from our neighboring cities is to run it for minimum three months. Three months. Yeah. When we did it for just one month, we didn't see any results. And Southlake and NRH told us, you can't do it for a month. You gotta do it longer. So we're trying it a little bit longer. Okay. Yeah.

You that it?

Already yeah. This is it for this. Mhmm. Alright.

Okay. Well, our next agenda item is the economic update.

You can take one and pass it along. Okay. So we had a few businesses that opened or about to open in Keller last month. Sixana Bank at 1680 Keller Parkway opened November 24. Apple Roofing LLC opened at 630 Stone Glen Drive, Suite D. Beyond the Known International, which is a nonprofit opened at 634 Stone Glen Drive, Suite B. Especially Sweet Gourmet Chocolate Boutique that's opening in January. That's at 241 South Main Street. They are gourmet pre made chocolates. They they're going into the Swanky Chic boutique space, which they are in their final sale stages.

So go shop and use open rewards. And then hot hot I can't pronounce that. Monde Beverages LLC at 1103 Killer Parkway, Suite 107. They sell, like, glasses for drinks, metal growlers, that kind of stuff for beverages. And then Wobby House, which opened the December officially at 111 West Vine Street. They have the ribbon cutting today. Thank you for everybody that made it out. Please make sure and go support them. They they did an amazing job with the space, and they are very serious about supporting Keller and making sure they do a really great job. So far through the November, we've had a 121 COs that have been issued.

We will give you an update. We'll have all of our data probably by February to be able to give you a year end review of all of the different categories and some permit applications and coming soon of interest that are coming up. Fire Hibachi is gonna be opening at 801 South Main Street, Suite 107. This is the space next to the former Mama's Pizza. So they're expanding into two suites.

And so we hope that when they're going in there, hopefully, they'll be really successful and then it'll help backfill the mama's pizza space as well with something else. And then the next one everybody's really excited about, Aquario is expanding into a second location. It's gonna be a pizza pasta box, a little bit different from their current concept at 967 Killer Parkway Suite D. That used to be the Maple Street Biscuit company. And so they're in the process, but they're going through it pretty fast.

They're ready. And then just kinda going back to open rewards, I wanted to bring y'all some data. I don't have the exact numbers here, but just so you'll know, the majority of our users are Keller residents, but we do have a lot of Fort Worth which makes sense because we ordered more Fort Worth. So we do have several other cities that are coming into Keller specifically to use open rewards, is really exciting. So as I mentioned, when we ran this in the summer for six weeks, we only had 461 participants and we only distributed $1,700.

With the second launch, we have had it open for three weeks. We're at 974 users and we distributed almost $4,000. I really think that once we hit a thousand, it's gonna go up a lot faster because I think the momentum of the word-of-mouth is gonna really spread and that's what we heard from our neighboring cities as well. I I if you've used it, you know that you can leave comments when you submit a receipt. And so I pulled a couple that I thought were kinda nice and and interesting from users on the app.

So somebody said, love this app. Definitely makes me choose shopping in Keller over other cities when I have things I need to buy. Somebody else said, came to Keller to shop because of this program. And somebody else said, we were considering another restaurant but decided to keep it in Keller. When asked by the app if open rewards influences our the customer's decision to shop local, 71% have said yes so far. This is actually an increase from when I gave this report to counsel two weeks ago. So it's going on. Melanie mentioned this. We do two scavenger hunts throughout the year. One of them centers around small business Saturday, which is as you all know, it's the Saturday after Black Friday.

That just wrapped up. We have 33 active teams. They basically have a week to go around different businesses and complete different missions, and they get really into it and it's really fun. And then there's 30 participating businesses that give out prices and have different missions. So that just wrapped up, and it went great. And then just wanna make y'all aware of something that's important to note. And if you are like, I forgot what you said, email me because this is important, and you're gonna have calendar invites. Mhmm. We recognize that the first board meetings, the first three board meetings of the year conflict with holidays or spring break, and we don't wanna do that to you. So we're gonna push them to the fourth Monday.

So January 26, February 23, March 23. We know that this might not, work for everyone. So just know you are welcome to Zoom in. You just need to let us know so we get IT on it. If you have any conflicts, let us know. Starting April, we'll go back to our normal cadence of third Monday of the month.

Good. Keep in mind, we can't use Zoom to make a quorum.

So Yes. We still need

to yes. So

Melanie will be updating the calendar invites so you don't have to worry about switching those. So thank you, Melanie. And that's all for me. If you have any questions on the update, let me know.

Can we is there any kind of I know you can wear the badges, but do you have cards for us or your cards that we should hand out to people we've come in contact with? Should they have more questions, you know, some point to contact?

Yeah. I'm happy to give you some of my cards. And then I I wonder, do any of the other boards have board cards? Let me ask.

Yeah. Typically, we we don't. It also gets cards.

Happy to hand out your

card. Yeah. That's fine. Hand out your

card. Yeah. It's point of contact.

Yeah. Okay.

That's probably my card too. I have some. Yeah. You

have a

long slip.

I will have cards for for y'all. So My cards.

And, usually, you can direct them to the the website too. I mean, that's the other options. And we have a couple of generic emails, so you can also send them that way. So there's there's a lot of opportunities for how to do that. We'll give you some stats and cards so you can you can hand out and bring in all the businesses that you can bring.

Okay. And on the open rewards, where do we believe that's the status of that program will be? We reach the 50,000. Will it be renewed? Is that the plan? Or we only wanna use 35 or 40,000 of it so they can stay current? What what's the

So it kinda depends. This is a trial because obviously, we wanna be really mindful of the money that we're spending that's, you know, taxpayer dollars. And I think we need to have a really good amount of data that indicates that we did change shopping habits, that we increased the the shopping in color. And, you know, our our city council, when we came back and brought it back to the table, they decided to open it up to more businesses in the first time. Mhmm.

So that included grocery stores. And originally, we had left out some of the big box businesses, retailers. Well, some of the feedback we heard from our neighboring cities was, if you add those in, some people will respond by downloading open rewards to shop there, and then they'll be like, oh, well, I can use it here too at the at the coffee shop. And then maybe I'll go to the restaurant. So it's almost like a secondary benefit to it. So it's a trial. If we see that everyone only use it at Kroger, then it didn't really serve the purpose.

Right. So what defines success but not because too too much success could be a bad thing. Right. As well.

So we we have a dashboard where we are notified of what businesses are getting the most redemptions. And I can tell you right now, that's a pretty even split. So you know Ace Hardware is at the top and then we have a couple of boutiques that are at the top and then a few restaurants. And so it's nice. And you definitely have Kroger, Sam's, and I think Lowe's in there. But everybody else is a small business so far. So we're gonna have to look at a lot of data at the end of it to then present it to counsel and see what they decide.

What in store display or propaganda do we have to give to them to put in there? Because maybe a function some of these stores may wanna advertise it. We Yes. Part of their

We took to we divided up with our board and asked them to visit somewhere between eight and twelve businesses each and take a bag like this is are you gonna talk about these bags too?

I'll just add that. It's just it's for fun. It's thank you for serving Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Welcome. Know? It's a

good time to play golf. Yes.

But yes. So we printed at the direction of council. You know, we wanted to make sure we're not just promoting on social media. We wanna make sure it's like in people's spaces. So we took full page flyers, nice glossy flyers that we recommended. Obviously, can't force anyone, that they put on their windows, their doors. We also printed, some bigger cards that people could put at their registers or wherever they saw fit. And we also printed and gave everybody about 50, like, square cards with QR codes that they can give to customers. We took those cards also to the hotel so they can put them in all of their keys. So a lot of printed materials went out.

And then we also asked we gave them a letter from me saying, you know, this is what it is. Because if we didn't get to see them face to face, they could read it. And if they wanted social media graphics, we would also send those to them.

So, like, the top 10 businesses that are on our road, are they gonna be willing to share, hey, year over year? Did we increase or the business just stay the same? Will they be able to share that data? I mean, that feedback with us like

We have it.

Do we okay.

But it's three months behind. So we'll be able to look at it probably around May, June.

Because I mean Kroger is not gonna I mean, everyone just using the receipts from Kroger because they go to Kroger anyhow.

That is. That's right. And that's defining what is And

that's why I'm upset. I look at the boutiques,

the small businesses. Did it drive them there

rather than go to the other places?

And our our thinking at council was if it helps get our community aware of it, then it was worth it to include them. And that was the feedback that Anna got from some of the other cities. Going forward, we may limit it back to build the local small businesses and and restaurants and retail that we really want to promote. We we don't need to add to Lowe's budget. We don't need to add to Kroger's budget. We don't need to add to any of that. But our our local businesses, we really do wanna promote. So it's gonna be a big factor Mhmm. In in how we proceed, and that's from counsel. I mean, we debated it long and hard

Yeah.

About whether we would include some of these other big boxes. And and that's was the consensus as we we want to make people aware of it so that we can get a good gauge. Did it change some habits?

And is there a limited ticket sizes on some of these, you know, because we've got some, you know, retail, like, trailer folks down

Yes. This model shop. The maximum per transaction that you can get back is $50.

K. So $500 And retail tax.

And then the maximum per person per user over time is a $100. We wanna make sure there's enough for everyone. Yeah.

So I guess the question I I guess where was going with that is when we're doing and he asked us earlier, said going to business and ask him, hey. How are you doing? It should not be an open ended question like that. It should be, hey. How are your sales compared to last

year this time?

Yeah. That's a great question.

Has to be it has to be more in-depth question.

Yes.

And then it's, yeah, they're okay. And then the question should be, well, have you heard are you acquired with open rewards? So

I think those are opportunities for

us to wanna go under go to the businesses. When I go because you haven't gonna be asked when I was a business. This is alright.

Yeah. You

know, it's no I

mean, they're not gonna say, well,

how do you compare to last year

at this time? Mhmm.

Oh, I'm up. Or oh, I'm down about 10%.

They're gonna know.

Yeah.

So I guess question just has to be directed at the own people. Right. Or I mean Or

the GM who knows the numbers and figures, stuff like that. But I

think that goes back to if somebody says, it's down, but

oh,

are you participating in open rewards?

Well and they're opted in. They just need to be aware.

And I guess that's the that's the the door for us to give the information about us. You know, this is working for some other businesses. Maybe we should get you more involved with this.

Yes. Then promoting it more.

And Okay.

That's what

I said.

I just I mean, when I go, it's so easy. Oh, so this is alright. Yeah. I'm gonna when you do that, no, it's not.

How are you year over year with your out of annual Unibond compared to 2024 and 2023?

Mhmm. Well, and I think when you when you put it in the perspective of do you know about open rewards? You're truly asking the question from a place of we're trying to help you, not of we just wanna know your books.

Yeah. I don't know

the books. I wanna make sure, hey,

are we are we being a good partner for you in the city to help you be successful?

Mhmm. Yeah.

So and and just personal example in Griff's Gifts, I I went into there and asked for the who I thought were the owners and didn't even realize the business had been sold, was under new ownership, and the the woman that was in there was the new manager. She was basically overseeing all the operations because the new owner isn't in a day to day operant of it. So you find out a lot of things that is nice for us to know back at the city that things have changed. So by all means, please get specific. And I'd like us to work on, you know, a specific list of questions that don't come across as we're trying to, you know, get a peek behind the veil or that they become suspect.

Why do you want to know? Do you think I'm not submitting my same with our badges on

and show, hey, we're with that kind of development. You might answer a couple of questions. Mhmm. You know, we wanna see how we're doing with as a partner to you as a small

business. Yeah. No. Think that's great. In fact, I have a meeting tomorrow with somebody that Nate spoke with last month.

Good. Good. Yeah.

Well, I've got an assignment for us. So if you can take out your pencil, and, I want an email, sent to let's send it to all three. Send it to Anna and and Melanie and myself. And Anna's email is just aerwin,erwin,@cityofKeller.com. And Melanie's is m boykins.

There you go. Ykins@cityofcolor.com, and mine is just tgreen@cityofcolor.com. And two questions. Want to know something that most people don't know about you personally. And then the second question is something most people don't know about you professionally. And then we're gonna take some examples from this and share that our next week.

Was gonna say, keep in mind, this is open records. So,

yeah, don't don't give them

back. Yes. Yeah. Never been convicted. Yeah. Never been convicted.

Yeah. Convicted? No. Never convicted. Yeah. But yeah. So yeah. Do keep that in mind.

Okay. So something personal and something professional.

Don't share anything with us that, you wouldn't want people to know. That's correct. Yeah. Alright. Any questions? Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for the gifts. And if we don't have any other questions or business, then I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Are we sorry. Sorry.

I'm a talkative person. Yep. You know that.

Yes. I do.

You didn't have to. And I spoke with Anna about it a little bit earlier today. Is is there a way or do we have a understanding of how to go about trying to find businesses that comes maybe from the top down from council for what segments of the city you might be more inclined to approve certain types of businesses or zonings and whatever so that, you know, we spend our time efficiently going after businesses that fit what we feel like council has a chance to listen to more openly than a business that doesn't fit.

So I think that would be a good exercise for our next meeting because we did initiate a a Pier City thing, but I think your your point there is also knowing where we have availability. And gaps. I think that would be a great exercise to go through to have a a visual. Because some some of the places that are open available, we're working on things.

I have some great examples. Yeah. I'd be glad to show you.

Let's do that, and then we can introduce the Pier City to our new members also at our next meeting. Perfect. Thank you. And with that, I'll take the motions in a second. And we're adjourned.