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8.A. - Page 2 of 56
<br />City; determine any barriers to strengthening and increasing retail opportunities in the Downtown; and
<br />develop policy recommendations for addressing those barriers.
<br />The Task Force created the following retail vision for the Downtown that helped guide their discussions
<br />and recommendations:
<br />"Redwood City's Downtown District will be the "heart of the Peninsula"— an active, vibrant and charming
<br />retail destination where a variety of retailers provide a unique, friendly, and convenient shopping
<br />experience for residents, visitors, and workers in a clean, safe, green, and walkable environment."
<br />The Task Force's findings and recommendations were presented to the City Council on January 28, 2019.
<br />(The January 28, 2019 staff report is attached as Attachment D of this report.) The report consisted of a
<br />Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges (SWOC) Analysis and the formulation of retail
<br />guiding principles that proposed specific tasks to be implemented by the City's Economic Development
<br />Manager and policies that, over a period of time, could encourage and strengthen retail in the
<br />Downtown. At the January 28, 2019 City Council meeting, the City Council directed staff to complete
<br />additional research on the implementation tasks and the recommended policies, and conduct
<br />community outreach.
<br />To assist with the research for the policy recommendations, the City retained the services of Christine
<br />Firstenberg who has extensive experience consulting for public agencies, developers and retailers. Ms.
<br />Firstenberg is the Principal of Retail Real Estate Resources which specializes in retail development
<br />consulting and leasing for a wide variety of clients that include real estate investors and Fortune 500
<br />companies. Ms. Firstenberg has over 35 years of retail consulting experience. She has been involved in
<br />pre -construction leasing, ground -up center master planning, merchandising and re -positioning shopping
<br />centers. She has represented national anchor retail chains in the San Francisco Bay Area such as AMC
<br />Theatres, Andronico's Markets, Century Theatres, Costco, Kohl's, Office Depot, Safeway, SteinMart, and
<br />Wal-Mart. Ms. Firstenberg has also provided consulting services to many public agencies, including the
<br />cities of Brentwood, Concord, Dublin, EI Cerrito, Fairfield, Mountain View, Oakland, Richmond and San
<br />Jose and the County of Alameda. Her experience enables her to help public sector clients understand the
<br />location needs of retail developers and tenants and connect public policy with the realities of the retail
<br />market.
<br />The retail consultant and staff spent considerable time surveying the Downtown to determine building
<br />square footage, opportunity sites, traffic patterns, and types of retail currently in the Downtown Specific
<br />Plan Area and its surroundings. The retail consultant also reviewed the assessment of Downtown's
<br />strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges (based on an assessment by two retail brokers who
<br />represent tenants in the Bay Area and the opinions of the Task Force) which were included in the January
<br />29th staff report (Attachment D). The retail consultant is basically in agreement with their findings but
<br />added that including more housing and hotels in the core Downtown area would help create a stronger
<br />customer environment.
<br />In addition, attached to this staff report are two reports by the City's retail consultant, Christine
<br />Firstenberg, that provide context for understanding the retail industry today (Attachment B) and the
<br />importance of store formats for large and smaller shop retail tenants (Attachment C) and how these
<br />formats are changing to meet the needs of retailers competing in the marketplace.
<br />City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.org
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