Laserfiche WebLink
1 <br /> <br />MEMORANDUM <br /> <br />TO: Chris Heineman, Little Canada City Administrator <br /> <br />FROM: Gordon Hughes and Cathy Bennett, ULI Minnesota <br />DATE: March 25, 2019 <br />SUBJECT: ULI Minnesota Navigating Your Competitive Future Workshop <br />On behalf of ULI Minnesota, thank you for the opportunity to meet with the City Council, <br />Planning Commission and staff on February 27, 2019. Our ULI MN workshop team enjoyed our <br />dialogue with the City officials and appreciated your hospitality. We also appreciated the time <br />that you spent with us in preparation for this workshop. <br />As a follow up to the workshop, we would like to take a moment to summarize some of the key <br />observations expressed during our panel discussion and dialogue. <br />• Data on demographics, housing and jobs in Little Canada, presented at the <br />workshop, offered a point of reference for trends that will affect the City in coming <br />years. Please feel free to contact us if you have any follow up questions on the data <br />presented at the workshop or any of the materials which we provided. <br />• Little Canada has a number of key strengths and assets to leverage. It has a great <br />location, easy access to key transportation corridors and beautiful natural resources. <br />These assets all contribute to an excellent location for (re)development. <br />• Industrial market is migrating eastward. The industrial market is grouped by <br />submarkets. The northwest market, which has enjoyed significant industrial growth in the <br />past, is migrating easterly. This will begin to drive prospective opportunities to cities like <br />Little Canada which benefit from a close-in location, excellent transportation corridors <br />and access to a labor force. <br />• How can the City play a role in attracting industrial users? <br />o Some industrial users have outdoor storage needs that may be prohibited in some <br />cities. If Little Canada can find a way to tastefully accommodate these needs, it <br />will be a competitive advantage for the city in attracting these industries. <br />o Close in locations like Little Canada are attractive for distribution centers. <br />Flexibility on “drive in” needs, access and frequency of in and out traffic is <br />important to these users. <br />o The hard part is aligning the needs of building owners with the desires of <br />developers. The City can play a role in this. Developer roundtables would help the