Minutes from the general meeting held on 5th May 2023
DVTI Meeting
May 5th, 2023
Present: Jared Asch, Rebecca Barrett, George Carter, Alyson Greenlee, Alex Greenwood, Collette Hanna, Joellen Heaney, Derek Knapp, Jags Krishnamurthy, Jags Krishnamurthy, John Matthesen, Michael Nathan, Alejandra Sanchez, Marie Suvansi
Meeting opened at 3:00 pm.
Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes: Motion: John; 2nd: Alyson; Unanimous
Public Comments: None
Presenter: Jared Asch, Walnut Creek Shadelands PBID
About 70 different property owners make up the PBID.
Research:
Researched and compared 17 office parks and PBID’s (CA, FL, TX, GA, MA & UK)
Searched more than 25 sports mall/sports comparison locations and identified 8 to use for research
Conducted interviews with most of the PBID members, several tenants and neighbors in the community
Compared amenities, surrounding locations and identified our strengths and missing gaps
Shared results and discussed key areas including some recommendations
Next week we will approve a plan for branding exercise for the park to create cohesive message for the buildings.
Discuss with the city a 90-day fast track approval process for businesses in the Shadelands
Zoning:
More medical space/flex space
More potential senior care facilities
Height
Sidewalks
Signage
Marketing/Branding
Reaching more customers outside of an 8-minute radius
Central theme to the park – health/wellness/fitness/senior care
Attracting more tenants
Wayfinding
Making multiple stops
Look at an AUP process versus a CUP process
Create a check list for approvals that avoid city committees
Reduce building restrictions
Make it profitable for the city
Strategic Plan:
Elements:
Branding/Marketing
Zoning
Energy Resiliencey/Redundancy
Security
Innovation-Partnership
EV Charging
Broadband
Other
Next Steps:
Convene marketing/events/branding and wayfinding committee to compose the plan
Solicit proposals for a re-brand and joint marketing strategy
Bring together key marketing people for a meeting
Create a budget based on proposals for long-term marketing
Energy Resilience/Redundancy: How do we proceed?
Form a Steering Committee (Kaiser, BASS, UCSF, Sports mall, Viamonte, etc.
The PBID would engage a consultant who has the experience in sizing a system.
Anyone who initially wants to participate would need to share their utility data.
An initial analysis will be done which can demonstrate the size of the system, how much money each company will save and have a preliminary design
Preliminary design and cost savings will be presented to those that shared utility data and as appropriate the PBID group.
Once we have an agreement in place, the smaller users will have the ability to determine if they want in initially.
Security - A shared concept exists:
Discuss this with the budgeting committee
Form a working group interested in this for input
Meet with the WCPD to take in their feedback first
Solicit an RFP
EV Charging:
Meet with Governor’s Office of Business Development to discuss potential grants and opportunities
Develop a Grant Strategy
Develop a plan to look at private companies that come in with advertising
Innovation-Partnership:
Partnership with universities (East Bay State/St. Mary’s/UC Berkeley)
Working group including internal/external partners
Define vision and timeline
Develop two paths:
Pipeline to create jobs for medical space. Want to partner with DVTI on recruiting students in medical technology.
Attract entrepreneurs to start business in key health-science fields (Health Technology, Medical Engineering, Health Innovation, Research) by creating a research hub and innovation lab
Discussion:
John: How do you work with Walnut Creek on the AUP/CUP process? A: They have been a partner meeting with Gobiz on the EV charger. They will have a say in reviewing the RFP. The city brought 8-10 people together to meet on the CUP process. We have a good partnership. Terry Kilgore, who oversees economic development, is in the PBID. The city works with the business community to streamline the process of getting businesses. We want brokers to come to the PBID first, and we get the city and the Chamber together.
Alex: Is there a specific plan process so a potential business comes in, meets design criteria, and the entitlement process is mostly done? A: We want to have that conversation on day one as a group so it’s more of a partnership with us acting as a concierge service to help them get through the process. We work with the city to streamline the process.
Jags: How does office space in San Ramon, Concord compare with Walnut Creek? A: In comparison, the best PBID I’ve found is in downtown San Jose. Regarding residential office parks, we are 3.5 miles off the highway. We can’t compare directly to those. As far as office vacancy rates, downtown Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill have more occupancy in the downtown area vs. right at Bart. People can walk to amenities. Collette: Studies were commissioned on retail, medical and office space. Vacancy in downtown Walnut Creek is in the single digits. Proximity to Bart doesn’t translate to occupancy anymore. The key is proximity to downtown amenities. www.walnutcreekconnected.com
Jared: Medical is doing very well at Shadelands; offices are struggling. One of our targets is to attract businesses that will go to the two cancer offices. Using the CUP vs. AUP should make for an easy transition.
Events: Please register and support.
START Manufacturing Ribbon Cutting: Tesla/Diablo Valley College Tuesday, May 9th, 2-4pm
Contra Costa County and The Inflation Reduction Act Conference: Thursday, May 18th
DVTI Conference 2023:
Subcommittee (we need more members; please email conference@dvti.org).
John Matthesen
Alyson Greenlee / George Carter – DCD CCC
Teddy Swain – Tri Commercial
Key Areas:
Agenda Topics: John would like to include the government process; Michael suggested AI as a topic.
Marketing
Facilities
Speakers
Sponsors
Swag
Alex volunteered to get speakers and would like to have DVC students attend to hear what kind of work is available to them. John will talk to entrepreneurship group.
Michael suggested getting the UC’s involved? Jags will get contact names. John and Michael will discuss UC Berkeley.
Spring Conference:
Date: September 21st
Venue: Diablo Room
Agenda: Start at 9:30-10 / more breaks / 30-minute sessions
Speakers
MarketingSpring Conference:
Date: September 21st
Venue: Diablo Room
Agenda: Start at 9:30-10 / more breaks / 30-minute sessions
Speakers
Marketing
Adjourned 4:02 pm
