Building_development

27:28 to identify what we should be focusing on in terms of non-residential uses for downtown given the city's priorities and provide a toolbox for how we, or a toolkit for how we could impact those uses and further progress the city's initiatives. So we'll be kind of providing a brief overview of the project scope, kind of looking at some key high level findings and initial findings, go a little bit into how the industry targets were identified and then review the recommended city actions and strategies before diving into the, in more detail, the near term recommendations and proposed next steps. So to provide some context for this,

28:24 as envisioned through the recent comprehension, let me restart. As envisioned in the recent comprehensive plan adoption and the economic redevelopment strategy, downtown plays a critical role in absorbing the projected growth both in terms of housing and jobs. So this growth creates a lot of opportunity but also a lot of change from kind of our existing form to a higher density environment. So with that, I think there's a lot of intentionality that needs to be brought to ensure that the ground floor continues to provide essential needs and services, as well as employment opportunities for residents of downtown and Vancouver as a whole. So that is really, we also understand that kind of nationally and regionally,

29:23 trends are changing. So how do we fit into this evolving environment and while still achieving the desired outcomes? So as such, the scope of this study is to review kind of current market conditions, identify national best practices, as well as case studies that we can pull from to kind of guide our approach, and then identify which of these learnings can best be applied in Vancouver and are most relevant to our local context, and then identify a list of recommendations and near-term actions that we can take to further the comprehensive plan and economic development goals. So from kind of an initial study, which we kind of reviewed a bit last time we came to you,

30:22 kind of the initial ground floor trends really are that we found, or that ground floor space needs and kind of demand is shifting. So it's an evolving market. They're kind of the historic approach is not always the best approach or having the same outcomes that it has historically. Additionally, the city really has an emphasis on living wage jobs, which is I think a shift from kind of how economic development has been looked at previously of we're just increasing wages. Like yes, that's important, but we really need to look at kind of what do people need to make to afford to live here and making sure that the wages

31:20 and the cost of living are aligned. And then as well as creating kind of identifying support or which key industries we are looking to grow and supporting the local small business environment. And then finally, the city is already regulating ground floor uses in various ways through the downtown design guidelines and certain overlays in the comprehensive plan. So kind of reviewing those to make sure that they are aligned with our economic goals. With that, I'll hand it off to Matt. - Good to see you all. It's a great background from Jim Choon and I think really talks about why we're doing this work. From my perspective, this work is sort of culminating in two really interesting and important findings. One is what we're calling the target industries.

32:18 What kind of industries in addition to the retail and the restaurants that shape downtown, what other industries exist? What industries are growing that meet some of those other economic development goals? So I'm gonna go through at a high level that the target industries we've created this really sort of extensive matrix with ourselves, a small business consultant who sort of helps businesses locate where they locate and an architect who's helping understand what are the needs of those different businesses as they grow and what can attract them to downtown. So with that, we showed this graphic last time we were here. It was really this, how can we identify industries and sectors and jobs that meet three different core goals? One is strengthening those existing nodes, creating a unique identity in downtown, sort of a sector of downtown. But as Jim Choon laid out, how can we also think about downtown as a way to meet our economic development goals and also capture in that emerging industry and the growth of emerging industries and identify the industries

33:17 that also are in those categories that have living wages that are growing but also fit into downtown. And then lastly, how can downtown continue but also expand the inventory of essential services, needs, you think day cares, places like that that also support a growing population and a more sort of economically diverse downtown. So with that, when you all get the report in the coming days, weeks, you'll see a much more detailed target industry matrix, but this is just kind of a high level of the information that's included in there. I think it ends up being 30, 40 rows of information on key industries that are growing, where they're growing, what kind of businesses they are. And then we go into what kind of needs, what kind of space needs, what kind of utilities do those different companies need? I think when you look at downtown and sort of traditional new development, they may not have certain utilities that say light manufacturing might need, and yet that's an industry that's growing,

34:14 pays living wages, and certainly can fit into a kind of growing urban area. So just at a really sort of high level, some of the industries and groupings of industries that we've highlighted, retail restaurants, that's obviously a critical part of downtown. And I think as Chim Choon alluded to, sort of align with some of the ground floor requirements that the city has laid out in the comprehensive plan, primarily along Main Street around Esther Short Park, where you want that sort of sense of vibrancy. Outside of that, we've identified arts, entertainment, and recreation as concentrated in downtown, but also areas for continued growth. Patrick mentioned some of the performing arts centers and some of the growth and sort of goals for downtown in that sector. I think there's an opportunity for offices and sort of advanced manufacturing to be in the ground floor of some of these buildings. We also found sort of that national trends, and certainly you see that locally here in the Portland Metro, of a very robust,

35:13 small-scale advanced manufacturing, small-scale food beverage manufacturing, and how can those industries fit into downtown, but also what kind of needs do those companies require? Lastly, we see, again, sort of using the case studies and some of the other work background research that we've done, you see other specialty civic uses. You're starting to see public-private partnerships where cities are getting involved in maybe occupying the ground floor. So again, I'm really excited to sort of you all to gain access to this industry matrix.