Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Noon. I'm council member Steven Robillard, and we're gonna go ahead and call the economic committee to order. I'm going ahead to go to item number one, which is public comments. And if you can go ahead and play the recording, please.

Public comment is now open for this item. Available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Okay. Seeing that we have no request to speak in chambers, and I don't believe we have any callers online, we're gonna go ahead and move to item number two discussion calendar, and I'm going to ask for council member Sean Mill to go ahead and come and take my seat as we'll be here in a presentation on Magnolia Corridor reinvestments and resilience and revitalization strategy update.

Good afternoon, Chair Committee members. My name is Paige Montoho, senior planner, here to present an update to the Magnolia Corridor reinvestment, resilience and revitalization toolkit. Corridors play a fundamental role in the city's economic well-being. Their ability to link the full breadth of land uses makes corridors key to realizing vibrant, equitable and sustainable communities. The Magnolia Avenue corridor has been a focus of a number of community planning efforts for the past several decades.

In the mid nineties, the council appointed a task force to develop recommendations to establish Magnolia Avenue as the city's premier commercial corridor. A number of themes emerged from this task force that reflect the community's vision for the corridor as well as persistent challenges the area has faced. The Magnolia Avenue specific plan adopted in 2009 establishes policies to address some of these challenges however they continue into present day and as a result stakeholders have called for a fresh look at a broader strategy to reinvigorate Arlington Village and by extension the larger Magnolia Corridor. In early twenty twenty four, staff began to engage with Arlington Village stakeholders to address ongoing challenges in the neighborhood through a three phase approach comprising of community outreach, ground truthing, and recommended strategies. Through stakeholder feedback and evaluation of the existing Arlington Village subdistrict, the study area was defined as shown on the screen with the intersection of Magnolia Avenue and Van Buren Boulevard being the central node generally bound by Jackson Street, the 91 Freeway, Harrison Street and Garfield Street.

While the goals and vision may be specific to Arlington Village, the overall work plan may be implemented across other neighborhoods along Magnolia Corridor or other key corridors within the city. The first phase of the work plan was extensive community outreach engagement. On 11/30/2023, staff held a community workshop at the Arlington Library to promote a small business grant. During this meeting, there was some concern that the Magnolia Avenue specific plan does not align with community priorities and is stifling to land and business development. Others advocated for restoring and enhancing the area's historic status as a downtown for the Central Western portion of the city.

On March 18, staff along with the consultant team conducted a stakeholder meeting at the Bourne's Youth Innovation Center to assess the current state of the neighborhood. Among stakeholders were heads of several city departments, city manager, council office representation for Wards 5 And 6, and the Arlington Business Partnership. Stakeholder feedback included impressions that the neighborhood is unsafe, has too many vacant buildings, has no local serving focus and needs catalytic projects. Existing challenges were identified including a disjointed land use pattern, small lots with varied ownership and high speed cut through travel along Magnolia and Van Buren. On May 29, staff and the consultant team hosted a community wide workshop at the Arlington Library to engage the greater public.

Through a visioning and prioritization exercise, the community was able to confirm some of the stakeholder feedback, express their vision for the future of Arlington Village, and prioritize focused initiatives for the neighborhood. These outreach efforts found that the community wanted a traditional downtown feel to Arlington Village, including public dining uses, pedestrian scale storefronts, and place making like gateway treatments, directional signage, and neighborhood branding. The community also identified barriers to realizing this vision including too many car washes, drive through uses, and single purpose development that do not encourage gathering, recreation, and ultimately community building. The feedback also revealed the top priorities for the community, health and safety related to increased police and security presence and homeless services and resources. Public realm and mobility spoke to investments in public in bicycle infrastructure, improved street frontages and community gathering spaces.

Catalytic projects meant projects to stimulate neighborhood investment and improvements such as food halls, hotels, institutional uses and cultural facilities. Lastly, event programming including community gathering events such as food trucks, festivals, farmers or crafts markets, and interactive public elements like art installations and playgrounds. So how does the community's vision line up with the existing policy for the Magnolia Corridor? Part of the feedback received through the engagement process was the perception that Magnolia Avenue specific plan is out of alignment with the community vision. However, when comparing the plans recommendations and community feedback, you'll find there is alignment and the challenges the neighborhood continues to experience are acknowledged and addressed in the specific plan.

Although the specific plan has set the table for and aligns with the community's vision, actualized development and investment in the neighborhood has not achieved that vision. Here we have a synthesis of the stakeholder feedback into a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. This type of analysis helps us understand where we can capitalize on existing assets, the gaps or weaknesses that need to be addressed, opportunities to realize the community's visions, and threats or roadblocks to overcome. A critical part of this work plan was a walk audit performed by city staff, city leadership, and representatives of the Arlington Business Partnership. The goal was to inventory the immediate needs of the neighborhood and understand where short, mid, and long term strategies can work to achieve those goals.

Issues observed on private property revealed a need for increased education on the requirements of storefronts and outdoor areas as well as care and maintenance for existing buildings. Maintenance needs on public property were also observed including damaged curb and sidewalks, gaps in landscaping, and fixes for light poles and trash receptacles. To properly assess the gaps that challenge existing or early strategies were inventoried. These include deployment of ARPA funds to small businesses, increased presence of police and security, and public improvements. The engagement analysis efforts had led to the development of a toolbox of strategies and actions shown here organized by time frame.

These strategies are meant to serve as a kit of parts that can be adapted, modified or augmented to address specific challenges occurring in Arlington Village, elsewhere along Magnolia Corridor or other key corridors throughout the city. At the direction of the committee, strategies may be added, deleted, modified, expedited or delayed. We have also included a detailed breakdown of each bucket. Immediate strategies include property owner engagement and technical assistance and pilot projects such as art, banners, tactical urbanism and events. Short term strategies include place making efforts such as storefront design guidelines and economic development incentive or support programs for facade improvements and new streetscape, hardscape and landscape improvements.

Heavier lifts which require more time and care include infrastructure and intersection improvements, land assembly, and partnering with surrounding institutions for potential satellite projects. To conclude the presentation, want to go back to this slide which provides an overview of the toolkit. As you can see, there are some check marks. This is to indicate that the items where work has started or is currently underway. This includes revisiting our sign ordinance and a public information session anticipated in March, continued streamlining of desired uses and development for the area and the start of analysis for an adaptive reuse ordinance.

We've also leveraged an opportunity in the area with the proposed purchase of the auto parts store anticipated for council consideration later this month. What we ask of the committee today is discussion and direction to understand the priorities of the strategies and if there is any interest in modifying any of the recommendations for reinvestment resilience and revitalization. This concludes the presentation. We can leave the slides up for discussion and staff is available for any questions.

I'm gonna go ahead then and we will open up to public comment. And then we will come back to the committee. And when we come back, we'll go ahead and have the council member of the ward kick us off. Thank you. Looking at teams and don't think we have any public comment cards in the audience. Do we have anyone on teams? Okay. No callers. So we're gonna jump right into it. Council member Mill, thank you. We we are alternating in on this item. We'd love for you to kick us off.

First of all, thank thank you for the presentation. This has been a, this is a labor of love for me. This is kind of the centerpiece of of, what I wanna accomplish is the revitalization of Arlington. And in basically, like, eleven short months, Time has flown, really. But but we see there's an actual change in in the area. You know, if you haven't been out I mean, when we started, the House Of TVs building was there, it was the eyesore. It's no longer there. We have multiple new businesses, coming. We got the new, the new Dutch brothers coming. We have a new charter school coming.

And so what we're doing is is working, and we're we're getting there slowly but surely. But, you know, eleven months is you know, it'll be four years before we know it. But we are making progress, and we see it every day. Some of the concerns first of all, I wanna say the the actual when we took out when we walked the area, when we walked basically from Harrison to Donald, that's that's probably the most effective tool we have is is the eyes and ears of of all of us going out and seeing what's there. I think that was, I I would love to do that from time to time.

We don't have to have I mean, we we had a lot of people with us that day. But we don't have to but I I I think from time to time, it will be helpful, for, you know, myself, you know, someone from economic development, public, you know, public works, code enforcement to just kinda just walk through the area. Because it's one of those things we we're gonna have to stay on top of it. We're gonna this is thirty plus years of of kind of neglect, not because someone intentionally neglected. I just think it's just there wasn't a lot of focus on on this area for a long time, and we're not gonna cure it overnight.

So I I think I would like to see us continue, you know, whether it's, you know, every other month, just on a Friday morning, just just go for a for a walk through there just to see where we're we're making improvements. Because I think we're gonna see every time we go out there, it's getting a little better. Also, maybe this is something if if there's someone from code here. I like to see us do more of an education. I like to go out there with a with a carrot to get bring these folks into compliance with the signs.

I've had multiple calls this week with with business owners, yelling at me because code enforcement sent letters to them saying you're not complying or your tenant isn't complying. After I had a nice conversation with them, explained to them what we're trying to do, They understand. But I I I think we could bring them into compliance if we kinda just go out and educate them. More so than, you know, they get a citation in the mail that says, in fact, I got a text from a guy, your goons are here again. And that's not these folks are gonna be, play an integral part in the revitalization.

Our business owners are key to anything we're going to do in the area. So I'd like to bring them along and explain to them, you're you're out of compliance according to the letter of the law. I I get it. The response I get is, well, there's homeless in front of our our business. We're dealing with all these things. I and and I again, the conversation went back to just because other people are breaking the law around you isn't okay. But we need these folks if we're going to succeed. We need businesses to stay in Arlington. I had a gentleman say, if this is how we're gonna be treated, while we have to put up with the other problems that are around it, we'll just leave. And that's not what we want.

So, you know, I think when it comes to some of the enforcement, on code issues, if we you know, maybe it's just a just a conversation. I I think most of these people understand that, there are rules, but they look around and they say, no one else is obeying the rules. Why should we? And we just need to explain to them that like And I'll I'll circle back. Almost every person I talked to, they talk they said, you know, no one's cared about this area. You know, they talk about everybody else that's been in office. You know, we've dealt with for years. What's the difference? I I said, you know, I don't wanna revisit the past. It's about moving forward.

So I I definitely would like us to you know, if there's a way we can go out and educate the business owners to bring them into compliance rather than, you know, go out there with a stick. Eventually, you know, sometimes a stick is necessary, but these people are partners in this. The business owners are gonna be our partners in this revitalization. So that would be one suggestion I have is less heavy handed. Again, we've talked about the the streamlining of of of items.

You know, I think we need to look at perhaps rental assistance, try to you know, we we've looked at some properties in the area that, you know, to attract you know, we Mike and I have had a conversation about attracting, an artist artist colony to a certain area where you have just we have whole shopping centers that are completely vacant. Let's let's work with those property owners and see how how can we work together to to you know, it's funny as the artists are always the people who come in. We they're willing to go anywhere. And and, you know, look at Red Hook in in New York. They would never, you know, revitalized, you know, very dilapidated area of New York City if it weren't for the artist.

In Santa Ana, it was the artist that they brought in. So, you know, they're willing to come. I I think they could play a major role in in, you know, kind of revitalizing the area because we have a lot of vacancy out there if we can get some folks in there. So I think, you know, rental assistant programs on our behalf to kind of fill some of these some of these, vacant, storefronts would be be good. And again, I want, you know, adaptive reuse. We we've talked about it for a long time. You know, I know we're working on it. That's something that's gonna be very important. But if you haven't been out there, there's a lot of things going on. The banners.

And a lot of people, you know, they make fun of murals and banners and things. The people who are from Arlington, I hear from people all the time. That's really cool. We have we have these banners. They're talking about Arlington. There's a lot of pride people who are from Arlington. They're not from Riverside. They're from Arlington. They talk you know, the old especially the old timers. They're they're from Arlington. We're instilling a little bit of pride back in them. You know? And it's really important, you know, that that civic pride to get them to buy into it. These banners very, doesn't cost much. And people are driving up and down Magnolia.

They they see those banners. It's important. The whole place making operation we have where we we continually talking about Arlington Village. Again, old timers are so excited because that back at in one time, if you know the history, I mean, Arlington was was the hub of commerce in this area. This is where the folks that lived in you know, that that worked in the Citrus Center. That's where they went and did their shopping. And and it it's kind of their hearkening back there. They they're you you hear it. They're they're kind of they get proud. So I think we're doing a lot of things going in right direction.

I wanna thank thank my my colleagues on the council for for always, being willing to to support, because I know I I am very laser focused on on improving this area. I appreciate you guys for for for supporting, our efforts as well. But I I I just wanted to, you know, we're we're headed in the right direction. I hear it. I'm out there every day, and I hear it from the community.

We're we're headed in the right direction, but we can't I mean, we've made baby steps, and it's taken eleven months for us to get here. Thirty years plus of of of just kind of being out of sight, out of line isn't gonna be fixed overnight. So, to the community, don't get discouraged. We're going to continue. And and to the staff, you know, I it's baby steps. I get it. You gotta you gotta, you know, crawl before you walk and walk before you run. And I think we're just getting up off of our knees and slowly walking, but we're headed in the right direction. So thank you for all you're doing.

Thank you. And I'm gonna play off some of the comments that council member Mill had shared. And thank you for sharing passionately about your vision. And I know this has been, it's always exciting when we locate places in our wards and districts that we are dedicated to transforming. And that we know where there's opportunity. And so I just wanted to speak to, from my experience working on the East Side and University Avenue, which I feel there's a lot of mirrors and where we've had so much success because of some of the items, the strategy approaches that our city teams put together. So I just wanna say thank you for this. This is a beautiful package. I love the breakdown of the SWAT. I love the strategy overview.

And I really appreciate the mid and long term strategies to really let us know where we could hopefully start to that. And I wanted to share from experience that at that progress. You know, we sometimes get criticized about government taking moving too slow and not seeing things fast enough. But some of the things listed here and what we've seen in the East Side with even making small changes like facade improvements for businesses, bringing in murals, trying to figure out how to address safety and speeding issues to slow people down, how to really make those spaces feel that people could actually go out of their space and that you actually want to walk down that street in your neighborhood. It's inviting.

It's friendly. And when you can start to close the gaps in places that people don't feel are safe or people feel sketchy or feel that I don't I wanna walk from point a to b, but in between there's a space that I'm uncomfortable with. And if you could change that space, then you start to see people close those last mile gaps. So for myself, I just wanted to say that I think when I know there's pieces in here, I'm always going to advocate for the arts. But I think the art components that we've had huge success in the East Side, I would really encourage for one of the low levels.

And I think this is where hopefully the arson residency will have artists selected soon for each ward. But this should maybe be one of the areas I think potentially if you want that, I would recommend that we have the artists looked at who's going to cover the ward. Maybe this is one of the sites that a mural is located to put in to be one of the pieces that pools in businesses, pools in residents. So I was just going to say I encourage, I know, I think we're looking for direction from the committee on what are some areas. I would certainly love to hear what a council member would prefer if we're looking to, I think, probably adopt the envelope of this and what to support.

But I would certainly say, I know we always want to go high and have we know that sometimes those are more expensive pieces. But the items I'll just share that I've seen improvements on university when we've looked to do changes have been some of the sign review policy to get people to be compliant or even to support them, knowing that sometimes we have businesses that can't afford to do it, then where could we individually as accounts offices or whether through other grants support ways to get them to either be compliant or maybe we work with them to say if you can't do it now, there's a timeline to where you can. Just knowing everyone's economic backgrounds are different. R is definitely a huge piece. I would say events, and I would also support and love to see how you ignite these spaces to bring different creative events.

And if that means the city supporting, I definitely think those are really great igniters to activate the space and to get the public to see the space differently. And when you really start to change how the space is utilized, I think it opens up a lot of other opportunities. Anything as well, I always am going to promote anything that's going to support more walkability design guidelines that are going to make people feel that this is a space again to come to. I will say that I noticed that a long term goal has listed partnerships with CBU, UCR for potential satellite projects. I would actually argue, could there be something currently that we could try to find some type of connection to ignite, whether it's, again, a temporary pop up farmers market or something else that's intriguing to students or groups that are in that vicinity that would actually want to come out So that we are already starting to ignite the opportunity to create long term events that could really activate the space.

And we've seen great success in that, again, in the East Side when we've attempted to do that. So this is a lot of stuff that I'm passionate about. So I'm really excited for what could come into your space. Also, I really love the place making, the parklet, outdoor dining. Those really great ways to again shift the use. So I would love to see a lot of these come into place and I'll turn over now to see if council member Hemingway has any other comments.

I'll be quick. Yeah, I think this is great. There's a lot of potential in that space and I'm there from time to time. There's great little coffee shop spaces in there. So, I fully support this. Thank you for that work because a tremendous amount has clearly gone into it. I'm just gonna Two quick things. I'm gonna ask a question. Maybe it's a concern but also then a positive thing for how we can duplicate and think about in other spaces. My only question and concern is the mid block crossings.

So, I know that that's been tried in other wards and spaces and there's a concern there. Even with the bump outs of the curb to slow, are we trying to fit a round, you know, peg in a square hole if there's six lane traffic on Van Buren and four lanes on Magnolia? I just wanna make sure that we're not, by doing certain things, causing more problems or congestion with traffic because it's just by a natural flow there. I'm sure you all have thought about it. You're experts in this space.

I just wanted to note it because it popped out. And I know in my word, there were a couple of spaces where potentially mid block crossings were frowned upon. And so I just I'm thinking and and it was a smaller street, and so I'm just making sure that maybe there's other things that we can think of to move folks around and make a great space there, but just without creating more traffic challenges. Because trying to slow something, but then really it's not it it can cause other challenges. So that's just my only question concern. Yeah.

Thank you, council member. Nathan Mustafa, public works. We all remember the Bushnell delineators that were placed out there. I know what you were talking about without directly saying it. This is a little bit different.

So we'd actually like to bring forward a, and we have planned for an upcoming transportation board meeting, a recommended pilot for multiple intersections across the city to do what we're calling curb extensions. They're included in our complete streets ordinance. They don't always have to narrow the adjacent travel lane. And in fact, with what we wanna do by putting these in place in existing locations, that would be a challenge because that then it becomes a major striping project. But what we really wanna do is close to the intersection allow pedestrians to encroach a little closer to a travel lane.

And this works especially where well where there's an existing parking lane. So if you think about Magnolia at Farnham, where we have a pedestrian crossing that's signalized, you you may have a parked car and it is very challenging to see a pedestrian coming up. They may be violating the red curve there. So this designates that space to let them walk out, shorten the crossing distance. You don't necessarily squeeze down the vehicle lanes. Although that can help slow people down, we recognize that these are complete streets that serve vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians.

Oh, it's perfect. See, I knew you all had thought about it. I just wanted to throw it out there as a as a question. And my only other thing is as we're doing this, and I'm maybe there's already a template in place, I would love to think about how we can duplicate it because when I first read this, great to be able to see the process and how it went. I'm thinking of five points, I'm thinking of other spaces that really could lend itself to this exact type of process and maybe outcome. So, those are my few thoughts, thank you.

Yes, if I could add just one, when I looked at this I definitely had thoughts of, as I said, of the ward and what we've been able to do and accomplish with different types of projects and approaches. Two thoughts I wanted to ask staff really quick. So I saw one of the recommendations was potentially limiting the drive throughs, which is what we did in this university specific plan. So is that what we're thinking is trying to have more mixed use, is to try to limit some of the drive through potentials of proposals or to diversify the businesses in here? Or is it also about, I guess, the types of how the flow of traffic is working right now or impacting? I guess I was just curious where that recommendation came.

Well, the recommendation particularly came from the community. Okay. Who indicated there were a lot of drive throughs or they'd like to see other things.

Okay.

From the zoning itself there are a number of parcels that are already zoned mixed use which don't allow drive throughs. But part of it is as we work with economic development is finding the right partner for the right space in the right area. And some of it is not approaching drive throughs for a particular area. Really encouraging it either for housing, artists, commercial, things like that.

Just wanted to flag as a precaution because my predecessor had asked for it. Well, we had a specific plan placed that essentially didn't allow for it's very hard to get a drive through on University Avenue. And then when when Habit came and I really wanted it, it was like we couldn't make it happen. So I just wanna give the forewarning of sometimes you could get someone that comes in and you really wanna make it work, but then your zoning won't allow it and then you kind of landlock yourself.

And now you have a beautiful, you're gonna have a beautiful residential project Exactly.

So good things happen when you wait, but I agree. And the only other thing I wanted to ask and flag because we also have had challenges that I've seen was with I saw the note for lot consolidations over the very small lots. So what are again, guess, we being trying to be creative because battle with this as well, where we're trying to find either see those be sold or, I guess, if we're not going to see them be sold or developed, we know that they're challenging to try to get developed. What could we do to, I guess, repurpose, reuse, again, to make those something of space uncommunity or again, at least be maintained. But I think I would really like to see used, especially if we own it. If you all have any thoughts of what that could look like.

Some of the things that can be explored, we're actually looking at this in Council Member Perry's ward, is engaging the property owners to find out are there temporary uses that might make sense for the space that might activate the area. Maybe it's a small farmer's market like Sam mentioned, maybe it's a pop up food truck time. One of the things you mentioned was encouraging students to come down. So part of it is creating those relationships with the property owner and kind of connecting them with maybe a maker's market or something like that, then that can start to activate those spaces that aren't right for development yet because of its size or something like that until we find the right user for the right space.

Awesome. Great. That's great. I've been able to travel, you know, go to other cities, and I I love to see when they have those types of pop ups and are utilizing spaces to eliminate blight, and then it's activating all the pieces covered in this. So I'll kick it back to the council members to see if they have any funny comments or recommendations.

So one of the things I always say is, this is Arlington Village, but you can't have a village without villagers. So, for me and I and I believe that housing is going to be key in this. So I like mixed use, retail, but and housing. It's along the transportation corridor, so it's ideal to to to see housing. The way we do things, you know, the way commercial and retail works these days, a lot of these properties that are commercial and retail property, they're not gonna go back to what they once were.

So let's maximize what's there. A lot of you know, I look at the two the two corners there. You know, for years, it was there, you know, like, basically a one story building. We need to, you know, maximize the airspace. We need to build up.

You know, the the where the house of TV is building, ideally, you know, we're going to see you know, I I think four stories is the maximum height. I'm not I'm not sure, but four stories, I I would love to see, you know, commercial, and then you have three stories of housing. We have a new housing development coming just down the road, on, the 91 in Bam Buren where, you know, market rate housing there. Those people are gonna feed into this area. But in order for this to really succeed, we're going to have to build a housing in that area.

So, you know, a lot of mixed use. I I don't wanna see a a lot of drive throughs, frankly. You know, I know there are some people out there who who own those properties, and they know that drive throughs are, are an easy, you know, easy get. And they yell at me all the time. Oh, no. No. We need more drive throughs. That's not that's not what I I I envision there. And if you ever have an opportunity to go out there, sidewalks this if there was ever a community that was built for walkability and or an outdoor dining out, it's this area. The sidewalks are really wide.

So we the bones are there. We just have to to utilize it. And, I think we're all all of what we're doing is a is a step in the right direction. But but, again, we're anytime you do something different, people are you you know, change is change is hard. And I truly believe that that we we we keep our head down and and keep moving forward here.

Folks will see that this you know, it's there. I mean, everything is there for this to be successful except for the will. I mean, for far too long, there's been no will to to actually do it because, you know, people want they want instant gratification. The this plan, you know, hopefully, I'm here for for much longer, but this plan to see it come to fruition. Hopefully, I'm still not here as it still continues to grow because it's gonna take a while, but it's gonna take the will of of city leadership to to to to stick to it and and and the staff to, you know, to to to see see through with it.

But for me, housing has to be a a key. It's a key. The only way it's gonna succeed is you know, the only way more restaurants are gonna come and things like that are we're gonna have to have people that are gonna come there. Another thing that, just just maybe put in your mind is, you know, I've been talking with a gentleman about a community kitchen, and and you talked about some of these these vacant lots that are remnant parcels that probably get what about community gardens where we're where we're you know, where where, you know, folks can come and, you know, get get get food? Because, I mean, there's food insecurity in that area.

You know, there's, you know, probably folks that could could use things like that. So if there's there's an opportunity to put in community gardens on on a lot that's not gonna be used, it's a way to keep it maintained. I'd love to see something like that. And to to your point earlier, we are actually are talking about bringing farmers markets out there. The folks at the ABP are they come up with a different idea every day.

Like, how about we do this? So the folks in the community are looking for those things. And I see Jennifer out there. She knows that my my dream, like, of everything after this is to have Cyclovia down Magnolia because Magnolia goes from one side of the city to the other. And like I said, each council member could do their part. There's Steve out in it. Then Jim Jim could run down Magnolia. Yeah. We can and we and we could each join the community, enjoying this wonderful street of ours, but it's gonna take a little work on our hand on our end to to get it cleaned up. So, you know, I I I can't thank you guys enough. Again, I think we're we're headed in the right direction. So thank you.

Do you wanna make a motion, council member, to move forward?

I'd love to share one more thing or two more things, actually. We must have been channeling you when you were talking about education on science because we actually have been scheduling a community meeting to talk about temporary signs, what's allowed, permits are free and some of the tools that businesses can use to promote their business. That'll be on March 20 from 05:30 to 07:30 at the main library. And then specific to Arlington Village, we're happy to partner with ABP to go to one of their meetings to educate the businesses too.

And one more thing because you just said it clicked in my mind about signage. And I think it was back we were at, the Born Center when this actually brought. I would love to see signs saying directing people like Born Center here, you know, because that's, again, an amazing hidden jewel in our city that a lot of folks, don't know about. We need to let them know that, you know, Bourne Center this way you know, when you're just kind of on the on the corner, this signage that shows, you know, Arlington Park. We we have a pickleball complex coming to Arlington Park here shortly.

And, again, that's gonna attract we we can have, you know, pickleball tournaments where you're attracting a lot of people to the area. You know, just just signage like that directing them to to different, you know, landmarks in the area. It just and it's just good place making, I think. Know? Just

one question. I'm just curious, which I know that our teams are great at looking at trying to capture grants or opportunities. Does this fall in a ZIP code that qualifies as, like, low income disadvantaged community or food desert? I believe it does. Okay.

Several census tracks around the intersection do.

Okay.

Not the entire area, but a majority of it. Yes.

Okay. Well yeah.

We actually submitted re request to to our congressman, for, you know, like, the do the crosswalks, the art crosswalks.

Mhmm.

And and I wanna see an archway there in the like like you'd see in yeah, it just says Arlington. Mhmm. Again, you you tell people they're somewhere. Like, oh, you're in Arlington. Oh, I'm in Arlington. Well, what's that? I don't know, but I'm there, and they're excited about

it. Actually, I'm actually said that because I wanted to ask. I was trying to look at a difference from the this the space from CPU to the village. And can we is there a way we can get it actually added on Google Maps? Where it's like it takes you and shows you Arlington Village? Because I tried to pull it up. And when I actually plug in certain neighborhoods, it will take you there, but this one doesn't. So this is that's a great way starting with branding again, people to find the location when they're searching it. Oh, yes. Thank you.

The other thing that I wanted to raise is really everything in column one and column two is being worked on in some fashion. Is there anything out of this list? Some of it will take some funding and we'd love to bring something back to committee or council to say, hey, where do you want us to help with funding? Is there anything on this list that rises to the top? I heard from council member Mill rental assistance, and then some way finding for the area. I just wanna make sure as we're starting to prioritize what goes first, what of those if there's any items that pique your interest that you might wanna see sooner than later.

I mean, ideally, the the the development opportune the larger development opportunities at the corner of Van Buren and Magnolia, because those are huge. When those corners come together, it's going to be the catalyst that that that that kinda lights the fire. We do have, as we we you was mentioned during the presentation, you know, the the Jenkins Building and that those properties, we have something coming to the council on on the twenty fifth, that can could be a starter towards towards moving in the right direction. But that's really the the development. You know, let's try to get with the the owner of the the Northeast Corner, see where where where we're at on on that.

Because, again, one tearing down the building was was great. People in the community were like, yay. We're we're we're moving. But now that that that's worn off, and now people are like, what are you gonna do? It's been torn down. So, you know, we we need to start that conversation about what are we what kind of the development we're gonna see and try to try to help help folks, you know, kinda guide them in in bringing some development to that.

If I could just and then add on, of course, this is council member's district, so respect the main direction of whatever he wants to be focused. I would just say I I would personally support any of the immediate items listed. Just, again, knowing that especially when we wanna draw in and pull in, you know, the new opportunities for development that usually folks are looking to see if some of these pieces are in play, right, what they're seeing. Like, specifically, I'm looking at those pilot projects that help to really change already the environment or perception of the space that could help to bring some immediate changes. So again, we saw success in that, and then that drew really great new developers and folks to bring in market rate housing, mixed use. So I'd hope we could see that same kind of trend follow if we invest in those spaces.

And lastly, we really need to start engaging with with the county and talking about you know, I had a long conversation this afternoon with a business owner. And he said, you know, doesn't matter what we do, they bring people from all over Riverside County, and they hold them for forty eight hours, and then they release them to Arlington. We really need to have a conversation with the county about about that. You know? I know council member Perry deals with number of issues in in his his area as a result of the county, you know, bringing folks here.

And we we need to sit down and, you know, we're we're the dumping ground for for the county. They they bring people in. And when they release them, they release them into Arlington. They are out there in in going into our businesses, and they're just walking that area. And we need to have a a serious, you know, come to Jesus conversation with with the county.

And and, you know, they're not I'm I'm tired of them dumping on on our our community. And, you know, they something we we need to really have a serious conversation about this because it's going doesn't matter how much we clean up our our our, part of town. If they don't clean up what they're doing, it's just gonna spill over onto ours as it does every single day. So, you know, I I it's probably above the pay grade of everyone in this room to to have that conversation, but I I city manager's office, we we need to sit down and have a come to Jesus conversation with our friends over at the county. Yep.

Thank you, council member. I was like, probably another discussion we can carry over to housing homelessness. But thank you all. Appreciate the dialogue. And so any other questions you need from us? Thank you so much. And we did have so to my colleagues, we did have mister Ocampo submit a card on this item. Wanted to speak in support. I'll go ahead and accept it. Did you wanna have a quick comment public comment on this item? Quick. Yeah. Please. Go ahead. You have three minutes.

So I actually came here for another reason. My name is Martina Campo, but hearing this was really educational and it got me really inspired and encouraged. I'm a Ward 7 proud Ward 7 resident, but general lover of Riverside overall. But I'm originally a Bay Area guy. I've been here, like, six, seven years. And I saw some really creative things up north. And one of the things that they've done with lots in San Francisco and Oakland is they've taken lots, and they've converted them to food truck yards certain times. But those weren't always successful. The more successful ones worked when they actually constructed these industrial permanent tents. They had large screen TVs, wine, and beer bars that were open for everyone who brought their food from the trucks to eat from and at.

So they could watch the Super Bowl there. They could watch local high school sports. And being a proud USC and Berkeley grad, you notice that all the big schools have got great bars right next to the school, and it's all always decked out in the colors of that school. CBU needs one. I'm not a CBU alumni, but CBU definitely needs one.

I love seeing CBU coming up to division one. That neighborhood would be perfect for a CBU specific bar. And in regards to the whole concept of updating signage and some people say, hey. Your goons are here about my, you know, updates and signage and and facade work. When I was a young intern at the community development commission in the city Of LA, the city actually took it upon themselves to have the city planners pre negotiate with some of

the

developers, for equipment, for renovation, and for supplies for renovation that the city actually preapproved. And they said these two or these three vendors, these redevelopers are approved by the city of LA. We've prenegotiated prices for materials, for labor, for colors, and it's kind of turnkey. They didn't have to think too much. They didn't have to screen their own vendors. And the goon calls and the noise from the vendors were were squelched. And I thought that was really genius. I don't know who did it. Not my idea, but I thought I would share that with you guys now. But those are some little ideas I had. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Appreciate you sharing those comments. Alright. Well, we are done with this item. Thank you, council member, for subbing in to join us today. I'll welcome back the chair.

Alright. Thank you for keeping it short and not keeping me locked away for too long. I will go ahead and move on to discussion calendar item number three, a discussion proposal by Superlative Group Inc. To establish pouring and vending rights. And Jeff McLaughlin is gonna go ahead and present on this. Thank you. Further up?

Good afternoon, members of the committee, chair. My name is Jeff McLaughlin with the office of the city manager. Happy to be here today to chat about pouring rights. Our presentation up there. For the past five years, the city has studied and pursued the notion of naming rights or the the notion of finding appropriate partners to strategically lend their names to city buildings and facilities for an annual fee.

The city hired in 2023 a superlative group, a nationally acknowledged group to advise and negotiate on on behalf of the city for revenue generating operate opportunities based on naming rights. And that is a program that is ongoing. A prime example of naming rights, obviously, would be something like the convention center. But there is a much broader naming rights canopy out there, which might include parks facilities, public spaces, city buildings like city hall, and citywide events like the fourth of July fireworks. This committee has previously been updated on our naming rights progress and has reviewed an an an initial analysis of potential naming partnerships and valuations for the city.

That would have happened, I believe, in late twenty twenty three. Part of the broader naming rights discussion encompasses pouring rights or the notion that the city would contract with a company to get give a beverage company the right to sell, serve, and market their drinks in a specific setting, such as a park, a municipal building, an air the airport, or other municipal facilities. Pouring rights encompasses everything from basic vending machines, but it also may include bars that serve alcohol in facilities and peripheral items like snacks, etcetera. There are many ways to vend, and pouring rights is a fairly broad concept. How does it work?

Partners would would pour their beverages that they pre negotiate with the city, so the city would have control of what that is. They would restock and maintain equipment. The city would work with the vendor for placement of advertisements related to the pouring rights exclusivity and would negotiate the extent of these placements wherever the city thought it appropriate to have a pouring rights agreement. Specific placements would be pre negotiated, and the vendor in the city would review everything annually to make sure that things are appropriate and the beverages offered essentially would be saleable and successful in their locations. With this discussion, the city manager's office asked Superlative,

as part

of our broader naming rights discussion, to present a little sub proposal to us that overviews pouring rights about what potentially might happen with the city as part of, once again, the broader discussion. Generally, this would include a market analysis of pouring rights. This is kind of untested for the city. It's unknown at this point what we think pouring rights might do for the city. We have a very conservative estimate in the staff report, and I'll get to that in a minute.

But we really needed to look more at what pouring rights might do for us. It's a review of existing contracts. We do have contracts with existing management like the Fox Theater. We need make sure that when we offer pouring rights that we are eligible to do that and that we stick within the parameters of the agreements that are in place. And Superlative would give the city overall guidance in terms of what a pouring rights program might do for the city and where we might take it.

So Prolit would work with city staff to find a nationally known pouring rights partner and negotiate a partnership plan, a product plan, placement, pricing for the city, which would be annual fees and bonuses and things of that nature. It's fairly complex. Service parameters. It would be it would be finding an opportune a partner, an opportunity there for the city, and terms and parameters for pouring rights to take place. The city would have the final say on any agreement and would have the final say in terms of the contours of the of the pouring rights agreement itself.

What would happen? Where it would happen? What would be served? What the advertisement would look like, etcetera. Generally, a very, very conservative estimate would be it would it would bring the city about $50,000 a year for porting rights. That number may go up. Once again, this is an untested market. I know it sounds like a low number, but we want to be realistic coming in the door. I think that number could go up as we explore more. We're a large city.

You know, there are any number of opportunities within the city umbrella to do pouring rights. So, you know, I do wanna give that that number with a fairly large caveat. There are some limitations. And best to know that we don't know what current market data is. We would come back to this committee, added its instruction with updates in terms of what we find and what we think a pouring rights opportunity could look like citywide and what the numbers might look like.

There's no guarantee that every asset can participate. We need to look at existing lease agreements, existing management agreements citywide to make sure that we offer pouring rights. It's within the contours, once again, of the agreements that are currently out there. Some of them are very new, Fox Theater. Some of them are very, very old, but we need to make sure that there's an active agreement that we're operating within the parameters of that.

And existing agreements can change the partnerships that are possible. So just a caveat there. This is a we keep within our strategic plan alignment, 5.4, achieving and maintaining fiscal health by maximizing funding opportunities citywide. Staff is requesting committee direction to begin the process of finding a pouring rights partner with the intent of coming back to this committee with an update in terms of what we find and what we think the parameters will look like for potential pouring rights moving forward. We would obviously make this part of our ongoing work with the superlative group, who is our naming rights partner.

And we would return to this committee as many times as the committee would like us to be there and direct us to do so. That is my presentation. I am open for questions. So kind of a new thing. It is a way to build revenue for the city, and it's a little bit of a little bit of unknown territory. But I'm open for questions, and I thank you very much.

Thank you, Jeff. I'm gonna open up to my colleagues here if you

have any questions. Public comment first.

Okay. Go ahead and do public comment first.

Public comment is now open for this item. Available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Seeing no callers and no comment cards in chambers, we'd go ahead and move on to my colleagues.

Sure. I'll I'll kick us off. What do we know about sparkling ice? No. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It says in here that based on comparable agreements, are we talking compare is this I've never heard of this. So I've heard naming rights just not pouring in vending rights. Is this is this a newer thing, or has it been for a long time in comparative data? So we're thinking looking at other agreements in Southern California, 25 to 50,000. Have others been really successful or less successful or where

So pouring rights have been around for decades.

Okay. You can I'm just behind the eight

ball. You you I've seen pouring rights for coffee, specific. I've seen broad basing pouring rights requests from cities, which is everything, all venues, alcoholic, nonalcoholic, sports beverages, and peripherals. You can just, you know, snacks, stuff like that, vending to to, you know, bartending, etcetera. We when we came up with the fairly conservative number, we were looking at smaller cities and untested markets, frankly, just because we didn't wanna come out the gate with a a broad larger number and find that, you know, potentially, the the the partners weren't out there at that rate. So,

yes. So is this like and and forgive my ignorance, but is this like when folks have exclusive like Coca Cola products or something and that's what they serve in their venues. And this would be though from a municipal standpoint, like a government agency, they would we would utilize it.

Indeed, it would. It it potentially would be as as broad as the city wanted it to be. And Coke can give you everything from alcoholic beverages to to to fizzy drinks to sports drinks because, you know, their their selection is vast. So, I mean, you know, they they would be an interesting partner. It could be vending machines at city hall.

It could be parks and and recs facilities. It could be the the convention center if we could do it. It could be public spaces, you know, and events. So if we had a a a pouring rights partner for an event, we could invite them in. So it is as big or as broad or as narrow as the city would like it to be, but obviously then the fee, you know, would fluctuate appropriately.

And that's what a superlative is gonna help us do is kinda hone in on what's the sweet spot for that. Because I'm guessing if we say Coke, all the people that are like Pepsi, they're out of luck. You don't get to have Pepsi. Right?

I think it would be a competitive it would be a competitive process. That would also be based on what the city wants to have vended, frankly. If you get Coke, you know, it's it's a very, very broad company. It's huge, and they'll give you all the all the beverages you want, frankly. Yeah. It could be a smaller you want something smaller, more regional. You could limit where they are in a way that also limits the beverages that you need them to serve. It could be coffee. It could be iced drinks. Yes. So superlative will help us work through those questions. It's a market analysis, but it's also an analysis of what the city wants potentially out of naming rights and where we think we could take it.

So this is very preliminary, and you all will be doing some work and then come back with some more information. We're just deciding say, do we wanna go down this road? Is that it?

Yes. Indeed. And some initial thoughts maybe from the committee on what you think a pouring rights prospectus might look like for the city. You where know, you think it would be appropriate, you know, what you would like to what we would see we wanna see out of it would be, I think, some some good initial guidance for us to move forward if the committee wishes us to do so.

And and that means, like, limiting scope of where they would be located, parks and airport and city hall, or are you meaning a type of beverage? Because I I think coffee should be everywhere, but that's just me.

I would love to see a barista in all city facilities. One

in here, particularly during

Southeast Asia. Absolutely. Particularly for the long meetings.

Yeah.

Once again, we could throw the doors open and see what we get as a city and see what the appetite in the market would be. And we would say it's all city facilities that we can identify and then see what we you know, and once again, it's kind of like fishing rather, you know, that you would see what who you get in terms of a partner, what they're willing to offer you and what pricing they would be willing to get you. However, this committee might have some places you don't want pouring rights to occur, and you don't want that vending machine there. And it's good to know that coming in the door. So it's a marketing opportunity. And it would be and it is that. So it may not be appropriate in all places.

No. That makes sense. And I I'll probably have to defer to some of the group because I would say, let's see all the options that we have. And, I mean, certainly, if we have certain beverages, you may not want them in a park space or whatever, or you might, you know, want different ones other spaces. So I think for me, the broad net is nice. And if Superlative can help guide us into at least exploring what they think has worked at other spaces, I feel comfortable with that. You certainly know more than I do about it. But happy to continue the conversation with the group here. So thank you. Thank you for this. Yep.

Thank you. I have a first question, which I wanna get clarification on. Because I remember Andy, former councilor Melendrez had worked on, when I was with him, on actually seeing how we could remove the vending machines at our parks that had sodas. And this was again, was part of initiative, which was driven by residents and community to remove, right, the sugary drinks at the parks that, you know, when we're yeah. There you go. Zero sugar. Zero sugar. This one's already taking the lead.

So not a not a soda, but a sports drink at a park as long as it's zero sugar. I mean, these are the kind of the permutations you get into in

terms of where

you think it should happen and what should happen in certain spaces.

And to be frank, even with the water. Right? Like people talk about like Aquafina or like Coke products actually are not pure water that there's, you know, like so I know that I think for me, I would I just didn't know if anyone on parks was listening or could answer the question because I was trying to ask council member. I was under the impression that we actually I don't know if it was just for two, but did when did we not remove vending machines from the parks? Or do they exist right now? I don't know if anyone can answer that. I thought we did have vending machines removed from the parks. Right? I'm seeing head nods yes, but I'm all positive.

My understanding at one point in time is there was a vending machine.

There were vending machines.

There were vending machines and there was a contract in place.

And so maybe it didn't renew.

And that ended in some way

Okay.

That it was unclear about how that ended. It could have been that the council at the time said, no. We're vending machines. We just suspected the contract expired and there wasn't a taste, pardon the pun, to kind of move forward with it and renew.

Yeah. I know for sure in War two, it was intentional to try to get them out. At least at one point there was discussion. So I know that know, when I think about, you know, obviously now we're we're a blue zone, you know, city and when we think about the health initiatives that we are putting in place, my biggest concern, and I would say for myself, I wouldn't feel comfortable or wouldn't want to see or I'd want to know options at the very least. We'd definitely be exploring, if there are going to be anything at parks that it's strictly water or maybe zero sugar or healthy alternatives.

True healthy alternatives, and I think that's where we get into murky waters with a lot of these, we know greenwashing is very real with labels and brands. And I think that's a concern of mine is if we've been able to remove them from these spaces that are healthy spaces and active spaces, putting them back in I think is counterproductive to the work we've done. So I think that would be my only concern with parks. Then another, I guess, concern or thought just I'd want to work through. When we think of our bigger spaces like the Riverside Convention Center, the Fox Performing Arts, I could see where that could potentially be profitable.

Where my concern then comes up is, is this where we'd have an opportunity? We obviously have a lot of local brewers and a lot of local beer owners or different types of alcoholic and alcoholic individuals that are here in the city have businesses. And I would hate for them to be pushed out because a lot of them do, they rely also on that income of selling. I just know, I know a couple of the different owners I've talked to and how excited they are when they say, oh my, so and so is on tap at the performing arts right now or so and so. It's being sold here now.

And they've told me how that helps them to stay and keep their doors open. So I would just hate for us to unintentionally affect our local businesses and push them out if we were to have a sole exclusive right with let's just say Bud Light, like a big company like that, that's going to not want to have it. So would we be in a position where we essentially, let's say Bud Light's on the table for these performing centers could we set the caliber that at minimum you need to have five local brewers on tap or you need to. So I guess I'd be open to the dialogue if it means that we could piece together items like that, that's not going to hurt our local community, our local economic community. But if it could actually further support them and if that marketing means it's helping to really elevate.

And then I get into a space too where I think about, I know non alcoholic is kind of listed in front of us. But even as a city, I guess making a little nervous that if we do get into the pouring rights of alcohol, where are we liable in terms of now we're promoting and pushing alcohol into the community at these spaces where it's already accessible. But I think it's different when we then have the pouring rights and we're selecting the vendor, where's due diligence, where is that line at. So I think at the end of the day, I would be open to learning more. I have some hesitations, mainly when I think about vending machines at the parks.

Because I do think if we've been able to remove them, really wanting to encourage. And the last thing I'll say too is when we look at studies and research, we know that, just going to share kind of like the Cokes of the world, they market to demographics specifically low income, more disadvantaged communities and those are their target audiences. And so to have taken out some of these sweet Target sugary products out of these communities to actually help improve the health and well-being of our communities, that to me is so much more important than us making some money off of vending machines, and really helping to keep our community just to make better choices. And sometimes that means it's not putting the products directly in front of them as well. So that would just be kind of my 2¢ to share with the committee.

But I'm always open to learn more. I think as long as we could steer in gear what we think is right for Riverside, I would be open to see what that looks like.

Fantastic. And there are any number of permutations. And these are great notes. It would we would look at parks and look at what could be done with parks. Obviously, there are the traditional options. You just put a vending machine in. It's whatever, you know, it's whatever you pre negotiate. There could be additional discussions about specific two parks that it'd be healthy options. Maybe if we put vending machines at City Hall, those options are a little broader, frankly. So it could be very place specific.

So those would be things we would work through, I think, when we had more of a vendor in place. We could tell more about what those options were and how we could place them. And alcoholic, non alcoholic, I mean, that would be something we'd probably have to answer before we really got into discussions. It may be that our our our potential partner doesn't do alcoholic beverages, in which case

Mhmm.

We'd have to

go out

and find somebody else. And that may be something we may or may not want to do as a city. But if you have, once again, a Coke or a Pepsi, that could be an offering. The city would have to figure out if it wanted to do that. And coffee would be in the mix as well, because they all have coffee products.

Yes.

Yeah. And the last thing I forgot to mention, just my thought was we sometimes have nonprofits that release out these facilities and centers for different things. And my other thought was what if we have a situation where, let's say, a nonprofit that leases out the Fox and then, you know, what we I don't know right now the what the terms are, but I know that there's some spaces where they are allowed to either pay a fee or a waiver, but they can sometimes have people bring in their own if they pay a certain amount, which is usually much less, right, if they're versus paying someone to serve if they can bring in their own people.

Mhmm.

And I think this obviously would probably eliminate that, which then concerns me of where are we gonna put, you know, guardrails or make it harder for certain groups like nonprofits to hold events at our city venues and that they want to maybe utilize and save costs. Now they have this pouring rights contract that's limiting them to bring in their own drinks or whatnot. So I think having to explore what that would look like for those groups, is there an exemption that they would allow up to certain many groups a year? But I would be concerned about impacting them as well.

There is a fairly new agreement with Live Nation for the Fox Theater and the RMA. We would have to look at that agreement to figure out what latitude we have. Once again, it's a new agreement. We would only offer pouring rights where we were legally eligible to do so. If we've given Live Nation an exclusivity to those two, the Fox, the RMA and the Box, under their management agreement, then it just wouldn't be part of the question. But where we could, and it's a nonprofit use, the question would be would our partner be amenable to having something for a nonprofit partner that would give them some latitude to serve their own beverages. We would have to ask that question.

Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Thank you.

Alright.

Yeah. So the, you know, the the thing, I know that you the the ice cream pulls up and the little the cart guys pull up and they just sell their Bugs Bunny treats and all those sodas and everything else anyways. And and so I would like to is it is it so like for for for vending machines specifically, is is strictly drinks or are the snack vending machines included as part of that pouring?

There are many types of vending machines out there. It could be both. So when we say pouring rights, you can imagine that Coke's gonna have both drinks and snacks. Both could be available. It could just be beverages.

So it's vending rights necessarily,

not

just Yes, pouring

pouring and vending. If the city wishes it to be that.

So

at that point, the number goes up in terms of what Coke would pay the city to have that product availability. The vending machines would be different because you would have multiples at that point. Sure. You have a maybe refrigerated machine for your Coke products, drinks, and then something else for for snacks. And so that gets into it. And then, you know, we'd we'd have to look at each facility. Is there space? Is there power? You know? How is how is your partner gonna get in? Because they have to maintain Sure. These these machines. How are they going to do that? How and, you know, how often, etcetera. So it gets a little bit more complex.

Yeah. So, I mean, I'm I I I kind of agree with Steve Steve on this is that, you know, just to see what we get and kind of narrow it down from there as far as, you know, have a broad net and see what the interest rate. Because I think the market's gonna kinda tell us what's viable or not. I think that she's in the middle of a park is gonna be broken into every single night anyways. So it may not be the a viable thing anyways for a vending machine to be in the park.

But, you know, especially in, like, you know, city hall, you know, sometimes people just want a Diet Coke and just, you know, need a little caffeine boost. I think it'd be interesting to see where this goes and see what opportunities are there. Because, like I said, this is we're very preliminary in this, and we have no idea what opportunities could be there or not. So definitely wanted to just kinda kick it to them and just see what do what do you have for us? What what what does the market tell us that, is a viable solution?

Because I I have a feeling it's gonna be less versus all, that just and the realities of, you know, we can't control it. A lot of the city spaces aren't closed down at night or, you know, they they are open to the public at all times and that can lend to its own challenges. So, just interested to see, what kind of options to present to us. So, I would say just keep it as broad as possible and and narrow it down from there once we get into the details.

Thank you.

Anyone else have anything else? Alright. That was just a right just some direction.

Go forth and conquer.

Yes. Alright.

And maybe pour a beverage afterwards to quench your thirst.

Well, thank you, Jeff, for that. We're gonna go ahead and move on to communications on the calendar, and we're gonna to number four, Farmhouse Collective grand opening announcements.

I think we have Miranda Evans from our community economic development department to kick this off.

Thank you so much. Good afternoon, honorable chair, members of the economic development committee. Happy to be here with you today with an exciting economic development update on the grand opening of the Farmhouse Collective. As we're here talking about the importance of place making, creating community gathering places, and adaptive reuse. We could not be more thrilled to have Farmhouse Collective as a shining beacon of those principles here in Riverside.

We'll be home to 15 different eateries, small retailers, and be an amazing hub for gathering and for the community to come and enjoy, have a beautiful garden component and entertainment component as well. That our one stop shop streamline team has been working very hard on in community and economic development. So just wanna thank the team. And we're joined today by, the general manager of Farmhouse Collective, who will like to share a few remarks with you, and then we also have an introductory video to get things kicked off for an exciting month next month.

Good afternoon, committee. I'm excited to be here. It's my first time being a a part of the committee and really excited to share just about the Farmhouse Collective. And we have a little video I'm sure some of you have seen at the the State of the City conference. And, yeah, we're we're super excited. We we've been working diligently to open up next month. March 29 is gonna be our grand opening. I could tell you we've been putting our heads together, figuring out how we include the community, different parts of the community, artists, music, you know, working with UCR in a lot of different areas of the community and just trying to make sure that, we're making the farmhouse a hub of places a place where people wanna be and especially put people of Riverside.

Please queue the video.

There you go.

We're at

the Farmhouse Hotel. It is a Riverside City historic landmark. We actually have developed it into the Farmhouse Collective.

Since I was a kid, I mean, probably seventh, eighth grade was looking at buildings and thinking of ways to reuse them, especially historic.

It was just so exciting to think that maybe we could preserve something, That maybe we could take something that's part of Riverside's history, something that could live into the future of a legacy.

We were able to buy it from the city as a redevelopment project.

We were so thankful to hear that they liked the idea and the concept for the farmhouse. We're fully leased out of the project. We have 16 small businesses coming.

We'll have 10 different food and beverage locations and six retail locations as well as a beer garden and event space in the back with a stage. That backyard is like unlimited in the possibilities that

we can do with it.

We're gonna be able to do concerts, music performances, movie nights.

Sports, all kinds of things. I really like the farmhouse to be a community hub to create memories, to celebrate our community and our culture here in Riverside.

It was important to us to give back to Riverside. We have a lovely community here.

It's been a labor of love for our family to really put a lot of effort towards the development of this property, the construction.

It takes a lot of heart and vision and creativity, but it's possible.

I think saving these places that have been there for a long time really adds to the history and character of the city.

I think a lot of cities have buildings like this that they could be restored, they could be reused. You can create your future, and that's what we've done here at the farmhouse.

Thank you for that. I'm gonna go ahead and open it up to our my vice chair, Clarissa.

Thank you. This is where we clap.

Right? Yay.

Just so excited. Just wanna say congratulations. I know this there's been so much work happening for several years now. Just really proud to have this coming to war two in the Sea Of Riverside. I look forward to sharing this all, you know, and being able to open up the doors and, welcome the community. So we're just we're thrilled to see you finally being able to open up. What a beautiful way to welcome Spring. So I just wanna thank you for your dedication and investment to the community. This is a beautiful example that I'm sure we will reference for many years when we show people about re adapt, repurpose, reuse, and how to share our history, but make it beautifully unique as you have done. So just thank you so much. I can't wait to be there for your grand opening.

You said March 29. Between now and then, is there anyone that needs to sample food? I mean, you

need folks.

I'm kidding. How can we get the word out? I mean, there can we direct folks to a place, website, flyers? What what's the best way to get the word out to the entire community all the way to the West Side Of Riverside? How do we do that?

Yeah. So, following along with us, on the Instagram is the best way. We have been working with a with a number of different groups to try to make sure that everybody's involved in, getting the word out. There's Riverside influencers that we've been working with to get the word out. So, yeah, following along on the Instagram is the best. Staying close to that. We're keeping that updated every single day and and trying to let everybody you know, exactly what's going on.

Perfect. Well, March 29 can't come fast enough.

Thank you.

Thank you for that presentation, and thank you to the Baileys who invested in this and saw the vision. I know it wasn't easy, and it took a while to get there, but, you know, thank you for sticking it through and really making this a landmark. And I think it's a testament to, you know, I'm trying to do something similar in my ward as well as there's these really cool iconic areas of the city that may not make the most sense from a financial perspective, even how a longer term, look on return on investment, and maybe it's a scene as a labor of love. You know? Riverside families who love the city, who wanna see it thrive, who take a project like this that most developers would just pass on and and not even not even consider investing to the level that this is at.

And this is a really, really high quality class a facility that is very unique to Riverside, and I think is gonna put us on the map and be a shining example to other businesses and other developers that are coming to Riverside and look and see what's possible. And so we wish you all the success, and I know I'll be there on twenty ninth. I'm very, very excited for you guys. Thank you. Thank

you for those kind words. I'm Beverly Bailey. I am one of the founders along with our adult children, Kyler and Alyssa, and owner of the Farmhouse Collective along with my husband. And this has been a labor of love. And the reason why I wanted to be here today, Tanner's done a great job. He's our general manager in communicating our vision. The video, that the chamber got behind and the city did came out really nice. But personally, as I get to stand here before economic development, my family was a product of the military. And my dad was stationed here our family was stationed here actually twice. And the last time, my dad retired at March Air Base, and this was in 1976.

So at this time, the if you looked at the University Corridor, it was thriving. It had restaurants all up and down because of the build up at March and then also Riverside Raceway. Unfortunately, that became a mall and they tore down a significant part of history. And at that time, we had Esops and Elgato Gordo and Love's Restaurant and, Chan's, and my husband and I had our first date at Cask and Cleaver. Well, we started this project right before COVID, and, it has been a labor of love.

And a lot of things have happened, because that big area became so dilapidated, and there were a lot of fires that, occurred all around us. So like at Cascade Cleaver, our first date is gone. Chance, where I worked at in high school, is gone. The Hacienda Motel, which our family stayed at as one of the places while we were waiting for base housing, is gone. But fortunately, our family was able to buy that lot because we knew how important it is to have parking in Riverside.

And so we wanted to make sure that we provided not only an area that the community could feel good and safe to go to, but also have the parking to support it. So my heart, my vision for the future is like everybody here, Riverside's very unique and, you know, we have a vibrant downtown, but we have so many special areas with different histories. And we have that opportunity, think, and hopefully this will be kind of a catalyst, to improve our areas, to make them so people come back in and really see how special our community is. And that's what we're hoping for Farmhouse. Have the university right there, so that's a good thing.

We got the carb facility. Everybody in the community is begging for something like this. And we got a lot of other mid century buildings in city that we could look into. And I just hope that the economic will, as that area has now got some revitalization going on, will continue. Because there's other empty lots there, let's be thoughtful and strategic of what we put in our community, but don't hold it up too much. Right? If we have people with money that wanna come in and invest, let's let them and let's support them. But I thank you for your time, and I look forward to seeing everybody on March 29.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I got a building for you in Brockton Arcade if you ever wanna do Mid Century Water. Love that building. Moving on to item number five, the OMEO grand opening. It's really tough

to follow that act. Another economic development and sustainability win for the city, OMEO, is having their grand opening on March 12. If you are brave enough to, ride in a vehicle without a steering wheel and without a driver, this is for you. They will have three shuttles, doing routes on Airport Drive. The address for the grand opening is 6868 Airport Drive, 10AM.

You can hear the illustrious, mayor Lock Dawson, the chair of the RTA board, Hemingway, and, council member Robillard, speak and, also share, some wonderful fun facts about the impact of Omeo, what it means to our clean tech hub. These are again autonomous vehicles that will be manufactured here in Riverside. They're moving from New Zealand, setting up their international headquarters, their manufacturing facility, their research and development, and they are zero emission. So come one, come all, we have, put out a wide net of invitations and so far have a 125 RSVPs, so it looks like it's gonna be a really fun event. And Omio would, like to be here, but they are literally building shuttles right now.

So I I gave them a pass and said I would fill in, but what an exciting time for Riverside. Thank you. Thank you for that.

They couldn't send just the vehicle by itself to talk? Kidding. This is exciting. Looking forward to being there.

Yes. No. Very, very exciting news. I'm very, very proud that they're gonna be having their home here in Ward 3 next to the airport. And, you know, see, I I drove by their building a couple of times, and I look at the parking lot. It's full of shuttles already. And so it looks like they're ready to get going here really quickly. So very, very excited about that. Moving on to item number six. If I could

add one thing, I I don't take this liberty very often, but I wanna thank team members who've been involved with this. Jennifer Lilly, the director of community economic development, Miranda Evans, deputy director. Nathan Mustafa was here, but I'm sure he is working one of the signals right now or doing something fun out in the field. All have been seminal in helping get this off the ground. Big thanks to the team. It's been a collective effort, so I just wanna catch the team being good. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for that.

Thank you, team. You guys do a fantastic job, and you really we really are making a name for ourselves in this this green tech environment, and really excited to see where this goes. Alright. Any other items from the committee you'd like to bring up? Seeing all of there's a bunch of heads shaking no. I'm gonna go ahead and close the meeting, and thank you all for coming.