FEDRAC MINS 09-20-2004
City of Federal Way
City Council
Finance/Economic Development/Regional Affairs Committee
Tuesday, September 20, 2004
7:00 p.m.
City Hall
Council Chambers
MINUTES
Committee Members in Attendance: Chair Eric Faison, Member Jeanne Burbidge, and Member Jim Ferrell.
City Council Members in Attendance: Mayor Dean McColgan , Deputy Mayor Lin da Koch mar ,
Councilmembers Jack Dovey and Michael Park.
Staff Members in Attendance: Iwen Wang, Management Services Director; David Moseley, City Manager;
Karen Kirkpatrick, Deputy City Attorney; Patrick Doherty, Deputy Director of Community Development; Jason
Suzaka, Management Analyst.
Others in Attendance: Gary Martindale, The Commons at Federal Way.
1. CALL TO ORDER
Chair Eric Faison called the meeting to order at 7:03p.m.
2. PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
3. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
a) Presentations from Potential City Center Lifestyle/Retail Market Analysis Firms
1) Blount Hunter – H. Blount Hunter Retail & Real Estate Research (Norfolk, VA)
(Handout given out by Mr. Hunter)
Mr. Hunter stated that he would be teaming with Greg Stoffel of Gregory Stoffel & Associates on
this project (Mr. Stoffel was unable to be present at this meeting).
He currently sees The Commons as having three main obstacles that keep it from thriving:
• Th e mall is seen as h avin g on ly on e “fash ion an ch or ” (Macy’s). It n eeds mor e var iety.
• It is stuck between powerhouse Southcenter in Tukwila and an upcoming Tacoma.
• No Nordstroms.
That being said, he does say that the redevelopment of The Commons by the new ownership is a
step in the right direction.
Retailers usually do not look at municipal boundaries and associates themselves with a particular
city. They control risk by working with developers (such as leasing costs) and moving en masse.
The challenge with developers is that if they are making money, they may not have an incentive
to do things differently then they already are. They need to have an incentive that will make
th em even mor e mon ey.
A-1
C:\staging\417049F4-20AE-181AB6\in\417049F4-20AE-181AB6.doc A-2
The Commons will face a similar challenge that Redmond Town Center (another project Mr.
Hunter worked on) had: The town center was situated between Bellevue Square and Alderwood
Mall in Lynnwood.
When asked about the amount of civic investment needed, Mr. Hunted stated that the developer
would tell the city if any is needed. Developers are under a lot of pressure from retailers to lower
leases.
Mr. Doherty was asked by the Council to summarize the four firms, with Deputy Mayor Kochmar
suggesting that Mr. Martindale’s comments be incorporated into the summary.
Mr. Moseley suggested contacting former clients of the firms for their thoughts as a sort of
“reference check.”
4. OTHER
None.
5. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
6. NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING
October 12, 2004 at 5:30 p.m. in the Hylebos Conference Room.
7. ADJOURN
Chair Eric Faison adjourned the meeting at 8:20pm.
Recorded by Jason Suzaka