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Planning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 • Page 3 1 of his company's growth. Robodyne has grown by 300% and anticipates to double that number 2 again within the next five years. Their number one client is Motorola and they have thirteen 3 national clients. Mr. Warner explained that Mr. Alvite was not able to be present this evening as 4 he is out of the country. 5 Mr. Warner acknowledged that the City would like to keep the property in a retail use but his 6 attempts at securing tenants has failed. He suggested that this site could be rezoned to Light 7 Industrial for a trial period of five years and after that period Robodyne could come back before 8 the Commission to request an extension or adoption. Robodyne would lease the space for$3.50 9 per square foot with a real estate tax of$1.28 per square foot. They would hire their own snow - 10 removal and upkeep of the building. This would result in a gross square foot rate of under$5.00. 11 Chair Bergstrom expressed appreciation for all the work Mr. Warner had done. He noted that the 12 City was reluctant to convert this site to any use other than retail. Whether the City can balance 13 this with keeping a solid highly-technical company in the City is a difficult task. 14 Chair Bergstrom noted that the Planning Commission is interested in locating a nice restaurant in 15 the City. The Commission has asked the Council to consider split liquor in the City. He asked if 16 Mr. Warner had approached any restaurants that served liquor in regard to this site. 0 Mr. Warner stated that Krause/Anderson considers restaurants to be one of the highest risks due 18 to the tremendous turnover and investment required to bring the property on-line. The second 19 issue with this site is that it is 2.24 acres. It would cost$70,000 to demolish the building 20 resulting in a raw land cost of$7 to $12 per acre. A restaurant of this type generally only 21 requires 1 acre of land. It would be very challenging to get an investor to spend that type of 22 money for raw land on a 2.24 acre site. Also this type of user is not appropriate for an end cap 23 location on a shopping center. Mr. Warner stated that cost-wise this would be a very difficult 24 project to achieve for this site. 25 Chair Bergstrom asked what it would take to locate this type of restaurant in this location. 26 Mr. Warner explained it would require a retail facility or a strip center located in the rear of the 27 property with the end cap user switched from 4,000 to 6,000 square feet. 28 Mr. Warner stated he had also heard of the community storm water retention issue and that this 29 area may ultimately be used for placement of a retention pond. He reported he had contacted the 30 City Manager to offer to sell the property for placement of a retention pond but had been 31 informed that unless an area was acquired for placement of three ponds, the ponding would not 32 be effective overall. Chair Bergstrom noted that the City is in the process of requesting proposals for a land use planner to help the City develop a Master Plan for the Apache Plaza area and the south end of the 35 City which includes the St. Anthony Village Shopping Center.