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 Good afternoon. My name is Marty Rivers, chair of the Economic Development Partnership Board.

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 And I'd like to welcome everybody to the meeting.

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 Today is January 15th and we'll go ahead and get this meeting started at 12.08.

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 We have one agenda item today.

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 EDP 20-001, receive a report, hold a discussion,

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 and give staff direction regarding the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategic Plan

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 being completed by TIPS Strategies.

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 And with that I'll want to turn it over to, actually I want to turn it over to Erica first.

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 Would you mind introducing Charlie?

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 I would love to. Good afternoon. I'd like to introduce Charlie Drombo.

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 He is our interim economic development director.

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 I'll let him tell you a little bit about himself.

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 I would preface that by saying he's been doing economic development in Texas longer than probably anyone else in Texas.

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 I started when I was three.

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 It's good to be with you.

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 I've had a 44-year career in the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development.

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 I started in Jasper and came through a number of places.

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 I've owned Sherman nine years, Abilene 14, Round Rock 9, or 8.

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 So I've spent a fair amount of time all around the state

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 and just finished the interim job as the interim director

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 of the development corporation at Abilene for seven months while they did their search.

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 So it's good to be with you and I look forward to working with you

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 and anything I can do to be a resource for you during my time here.

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 I look forward to it. Thank you very much for having me. Welcome.

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 Thank you, Charlie. I'm glad you're here.

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 Alright, let's kick off our planning session.

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 Alright, well then I'm going to turn it over to Tom Stelman and Jacqueline Lee

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 who will lead us in our discussion.

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 Thank you guys. It's amazing to be back in Denton.

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 For those of you who may not know, we actually did some work in Denton.

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 We did the action plan from 2003, I believe. Worked with the partnership at that time

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 helping make some decisions about where the emphasis in this community

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 ought to be from an economic development standpoint.

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 And this is my first trip back as a consultant.

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 I have been back to Denton before, but I was able to come in yesterday a little bit early.

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 The first thing we did was drive into the downtown

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 and to see the amazing transformation that's occurred there.

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 It was sleepy at the time when we were there.

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 When we were here, we actually also participated,

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 because one of the big recommendations was the downtown strategy.

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 And we participated with Reagan City, California to fund that team

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 to lay out one of the first downtown strategies for the community.

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 So, super excited to be back.

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 So thank you very much for the invitation.

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 And Charlie and I ran into each other this morning at breakfast at the Embassy Suites.

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 And I'm excited to see that Charlie's working on this,

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 because we have actually worked on a number of projects in the past.

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 So, awesome.

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 And I'm going to introduce Jacqueline Lee, our lead consultant on this project.

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 And I'll say a little bit more about her here in a moment.

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 But before we go too far down this path,

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 I would like you guys to introduce yourselves.

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 Quickly, we'll go around the room again.

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 Charlie, you had a chance.

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 And just, if you don't mind, so we know what hat you wear.

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 I know you guys all wear multiple hats.

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 So if you don't mind, tell me your main hat.

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 And if there's another hat you want to say, "Hey, I'm also on the school floor,"

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 or "I'm also here," it would be good for us to know.

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 Nice to meet you, Tom. I'm Erica Pankburn, president of the Denton Chamber of Commerce.

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 We started here April 1st of last year.

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 I'm Steve Edgar. I'm the CEO of Medical City Denton Hospital.

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 I'm Keely Briggs, city council here in Denton.

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 I'm John Baines, CPA and consultant.

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 I've been in business since '86, and I represent the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce,

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 for which I've been in Memphis since 1995.

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 Right, so you know our new president pretty well, then.

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 I'm Marty Rivers. I'm the market president for American National Bank.

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 And I was involved as a committee member in the initial discussion that you guys did in 2002-2003.

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 We formed this partnership, and I'm on my second stint on the board.

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 So this is my 12th year to be on the economic development board.

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 I think I've chaired it for eight of those years.

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 And I'm in the last nine months.

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 Until we make some changes.

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 All that means is I'm old.

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 You also started when you were three.

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 You guys know me. Tom knows me. He has spent a lot of money.

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 My name is Jill Jester, and I'm a shareholder at Miner and Jester, which is a law firm here in town, our oldest law firm.

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 And I'm currently serving as the chair of the board of directors at the Chamber of Commerce.

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 I'm a chamber representative here.

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 And just as a side note, I'm also chair of the board of regents at Texas Women's University currently.

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 So I kind of have a couple of perspectives.

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 This is a side note.

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 Sidebar, yeah.

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 Hi, my name is Tony Clark. I'm regional CEO for Independent Bank, headquartered on McKinney out here.

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 And I was also on the board, chamber board, back in 2003 when you guys were doing all that.

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 So remember that as well.

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 Yeah, I know you guys didn't recognize me because I had hair back then.

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 Chris Davis. I work at Peterbilt Motors here in Denton.

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 And a side note, I sit on the MBA advisory board at Texas Christian University as well.

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 I'm Pamela Padilla. I'm the associate vice president of research at University of North Texas.

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 And I've been a professor there for 17 years.

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 I'm Bob Ames. I've been a lawyer here since how long?

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 A long time.

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 I practice law against Jill's daddy, so that gives you some idea how long I've been here.

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 And still kicking.

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 That's our aviation representation on the board.

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 Right, I was the chair of the airport board for several years in addition to practicing law.

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 The airport board is more fun.

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 Hello, I'm Michael Stan. I'm the vice president of Discover Denton.

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 That's our local destination marketing organization for the Denton Commission of Business and the Bureau.

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 And we're a division of the Chamber of Commerce.

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 Jimmy.

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 Hi, I'm Jimmy McGee. I'm with the ownership group Elastega Me Market here in Denton.

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 And it's a family business, so I guess I've been, you know, for the last 15 years, 20 years now,

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 working with the family and watching it grow and expand.

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 And we're happy to be here in Denton.

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 You said fleet market?

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 Elastega Me Market. It has two locations here in Denton.

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 We started with a little location, about 35, and then continuing to grow and expand and serve in the community.

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 Awesome. Awesome. I'll come see you later.

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 So in terms of our agenda, I'm going to talk a little bit about the project that we've been tasked with helping you with.

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 And then I want to talk about just a couple of national trends that we follow that impact economic development.

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 We've done a little research, really just getting started with the input process.

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 And so we've tried to prepare ourselves for that, and I'll share a little bit with you.

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 And we have some data, but this isn't about a data presentation after that lasagna I just ate.

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 You know, we don't really want to spend a lot of time with data right now.

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 And mostly we want to get some feedback from you guys.

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 So did you guys receive the invitation letter that had some of the questions?

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 So hopefully you've come prepared to talk about some of those questions.

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 But I'll bring them back up here in a minute, so you'll have a chance to see that.

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 And then we'll talk about what's next up for us.

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 But I will step back, just for those of you who didn't work with us in the past, TIP stands for theory into practice.

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 We really see ourselves, the majority of our firm are practitioners.

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 We've worked in the shoes of economic developers, and been on boards, and run organizations.

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 And so we feel like this isn't just another study.

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 And I remember, Marty, when we did the first workshop, this group couldn't say the word strategic plan,

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 because they had an experience where strategic plans had been done in the past and sat on shelves.

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 And they really wanted an action plan, and so that's what we called it.

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 And we identified the major opportunities here, and we built out action plans for that.

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 That's the way we developed that project.

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 So that was very much on the implementation side.

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 We have expanded our business since we were working here in 2003.

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 I now have a partner that's based out of Seattle.

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 Our research director is based out of Boston.

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 Jacqueline is here in Dallas.

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 I have one of our consultants based out of Portland, Oregon.

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 So we really had to embrace the idea that not everybody has to be in my office in Austin.

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 And a number of organizations right now, that's what they're working with.

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 What does it mean to have a remote workforce?

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 What does it mean to have representation, people that aren't necessarily coming into your office,

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 and how do you maintain that culture and that quality of product that you deliver?

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 We have done quite a bit of work in the DFW area since we worked in Denton last.

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 I was listing it off a year and a half ago.

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 We did the city of Fort Worth economic development strategy for the city.

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 We've done Irving, Arlington.

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 We just finished a project to help profile the opportunity zones for the city of Dallas.

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 And I'd be happy to share that with you guys.

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 Actually, Tracy just led that project.

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 And we are now under contract with the city of Dallas to get additional input.

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 They had another group do a strategic plan,

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 and it felt like they didn't really embrace a lot of the community there.

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 And so we're going back into the city of Dallas.

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 And over the next 60 days, Jacqueline is responsible for setting up meetings

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 with all the city council members there to get their input on the city of Dallas's economic development strategic plan.

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 So we are heavily embedded in the region.

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 But I'm going to be the first to say I don't pretend to know the latest and greatest of what every community has done.

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 You guys are probably going to know what they're up to more than I am right now.

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 And so we're going to rely on you guys to help educate us.

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 Even though we're here, we know every community is different.

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 So this is our current team, and John had asked me earlier if Tracy was here.

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 Tracy is our new president for the company.

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 I am the CEO and founder of the firm, but we felt it was important to bring a national level person in.

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 Tracy has led the black chamber for the city of Austin in a previous life.

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 She was the director of tourism for the State Department of Commerce at that time for several years.

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 She then ran our state's economic development division.

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 Then went down to Houston and was the CEO for the Great Houston Partnership.

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 And then kind of lost herself and went up to the state of New Jersey at Chris Christie's behest

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 and ran the state of New Jersey's Choose New Jersey.

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 This was before scandal, which I read in the paper this morning.

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 He's still dealing with Bridgegate.

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 And then she came back and ran Texas, and then she joined our firm this last year.

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 So we're really excited to have her on board.

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 No need to go through a commercial for TIP, but just some of the places that we're working right now,

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 we are leading a plan for Harris County, finishing up with the city of Waxahachie.

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 I just finished a project for the city of Midland and have now been asked to do more for Odessa.

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 And as I mentioned, Dallas, Fort Worth, a number of other places across the country.

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 So our process is a three-phase process.

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 We get on the ground, try to understand what's going on.

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 We get input from you guys.

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 We go back, we digest that.

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 We come back to you and say, hey, this is what we heard from you.

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 This is what we're seeing other groups do.

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 And get that to you guys, and we go through a process of getting your input, saying, okay,

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 where Denton is right now and where you see Denton going,

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 what are the things that we need to pay attention to from an economic development perspective?

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 So I'm not telling you guys anything new here.

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 I just want you guys to know that we have a process that we're going to take you through over the next four months.

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 Our framework, I think, is important.

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 You need to know as we're thinking about economic development, and we're seeing this across the country,

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 there have been some very high-profile projects out there that everybody's talked about for the last two years,

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 Amazon HQ2 being one of them, and very incentive-driven, but behind the scenes,

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 a big part of their decision had nothing to do with incentives.

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 It had everything to do with can we find access to the market that we want to penetrate,

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 and can we track the talent that we need, because we are a technology business.

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 If you look at Amazon's business and you try to understand where they're profitable,

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 it's in the data services component.

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 They still barely make money off of selling you the stuff that you buy off of Amazon.

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 The margins on that have been so thin for so long, and they remain competitive.

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 The biggest growth part of their company is international, and it's on the data side.

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 Their business is a technology business, and that's what's driven it.

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 But what that means is it's less about they love the incentives from wherever they go,

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 but a big part of it is are we going to be able to keep that talent pipeline?

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 That's really what's driving economic development right now.

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 With greater use and partnership, those guys did not make the top 20,

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 and they went back to Amazon and they said, "Hey, what's up?"

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 They said, "You stats don't have the tech talent to support us.

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 You've got medical, you've got Rice University, you've got a lot going on here,

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 but when we look at the skill sets that we need, and the degrees that we need,

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 and the pipeline that we need, you don't have it. It's just not there."

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 Dallas has it, but it's not DC, it's not New York, it's not Boston.

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 How does Denton think of itself in the context of this new data-driven,

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 IT-driven, talent-driven model?

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 I want to get off my soapbox for a moment because really our model,

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 we're looking at talent as being the way you think about economic development.

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 What does it mean for you? What does it mean for the companies that are here?

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 If you're running a hospital, what are your biggest challenges?

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 Probably in doctors, nurses, skill sets.

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 Your relationship with the city is very important, the infrastructure is very important.

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 Depending on whether you're a non-profit or a for-profit, your tax rates are very important,

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 but a big part of your success is being able to deliver that service

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 and compete with Dallas and the medical center there, and compete with Fort Worth,

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 and keeping people here, and on the north side of the DFW area,

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 wanting to get their services here and not go somewhere else.

225
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 And so the talent is driving, and so I want you guys, as you think about going forward here,

226
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 and your vision for Denton, what does it mean for us to be able to keep and attract

227
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 and grow a talent base here?

228
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 And we've got assets that are amazing, UNT, Community College,

229
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 Texas Women's University, and you've got assets here that are enviable

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 throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. So you've got a lot of assets going on.

231
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 Like I said when we came in yesterday, went to the downtown,

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 I was like, okay, you guys have something that you've turned into a huge asset

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 that's authentic, that every developer out there wants to replicate.

234
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 I mean, if you look at the, I did work for Southlake, you look at their town center,

235
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 what were they trying to replicate? They're trying to replicate what you guys have

236
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 in your downtown, you know, that center, you feel like you're in town.

237
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 So I'm getting ahead of myself, talent, innovation, place,

238
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,000
 really the way we think about economic development.

239
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:42,000
 Let's go to this project. Six different components that we've been asked to look at.

240
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 Number one, just a SWOT analysis, giving you guys an idea of what are your strengths and weaknesses.

241
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 Number two, develop a vision and the goals for economic development.

242
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 Identifying the targets and the subsectors and doing targeting right now has changed completely.

243
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 The old model for economic development was you looked at what cluster do we have.

244
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 We have Peterbilt, we have suppliers, you know, that could potentially come in for Peterbilt.

245
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 Do we stop doing that? No. Every economic developer is still trying to support key employers.

246
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 But as you start thinking about the new types of businesses that are growing in the DFW area,

247
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 a lot of them just don't fit neatly into an old economic development model.

248
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:32,000
 You've got to think more creatively.

249
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 Reviewing incentives and economic development tools, and you had mentioned, Jessica,

250
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 that you guys have gone ahead and made the decision about enacting what's the word I'm looking for?

251
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 Our policy expires in two months. We have to re-adopt it before Tom has the ability to make any recommendations.

252
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 So we're required by statute to adopt it every two years. We'll be doing that discussion next meeting.

253
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:08,000
 We'll also be looking at your incentives policy and does that match with the direction that you're going?

254
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:15,000
 Are you incentivizing the right types of projects and measuring the right types of outputs?

255
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:19,000
 And then we'll also look at, you know, are there opportunities for development or redevelopment?

256
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:25,000
 And you guys still have a lot of product. We spent an hour and a half touring the community, went around the loop.

257
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 You have a lot of real estate that's still available versus some of the closer in, some of the building out,

258
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 which I think you're next in line. You're not next in line.

259
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,000
 You're already part of that process in terms of the development that's occurring here.

260
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:50,000
 But you still have something to offer, which for larger projects you could be highly competitive for.

261
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:55,000
 And then, so these first five, you know, your input is going to be critical.

262
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 We'll put all that in. We'll look at what other communities are doing.

263
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:05,000
 We'll make recommendations about the staffing for the city and how this should be structured as part of that.

264
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:11,000
 So these are the major project goals. What are we going to ask you to do?

265
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:17,000
 We're going to ask you to come to these meetings. We're going to ask you to provide input during this process,

266
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 giving us guidance, facilitate information sharing, especially the Chamber, the city.

267
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 You know, we need a lot of information right now.

268
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 And then I think you will help us engage other stakeholders and help build buy-in as we go along.

269
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 You'll be a voice because people will ask, "What are you guys up to?"

270
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 And you are the champions for what comes out of this. You'll be the ones who help communicate that.

271
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 I think I've already really talked about our process.

272
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 I don't think I need to go into too much detail there other than to say we are at sort of project launch.

273
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 And what we are doing today and tomorrow, we met this morning and did a windshield tour,

274
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 went out to the industrial park, went up 380 over to 288, did the loop back around, went to the downtown.

275
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 So that's as far as we've gotten.

276
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 We have a roundtable after this with the invitees from the Chamber of Commerce.

277
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 We've got a tech roundtable, an industry roundtable.

278
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 Are you coming back?

279
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,000
 All right, we're going to get some of you guys busy.

280
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 I know some of you guys are probably sticking around for the next chamber.

281
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 So we appreciate you taking the time up front.

282
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 And then tomorrow morning, education and workforce will bring the universities and school district in.

283
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:56,000
 Development and infrastructure roundtable, and that will be primarily city department heads

284
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 and then economic development staff, and then the city executive leadership is city manager.

285
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 So you guys know what we're up to.

286
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 And if you need a copy of who is going to those meetings, we're happy to share that with you.

287
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,000
 But what are we, 50 or 60?

288
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 We'll be participating over the next 24 hours in the meetings that we'll have, so we'll be drinking from the fire.

289
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 And then the project timeline, our goal is to have the final plan in May.

290
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 We've been asked to have some of our recommendations done a little bit earlier, and so we'll be working on that.

291
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 Let's see.

292
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:54,000
 I think I have, is it the end of the presentation, Jacqueline, where I have the calendar of the next meetings?

293
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:55,000
 Okay, okay.

294
00:22:55,000 --> 00:23:02,000
 So before you leave today, you'll get to see when the next meetings are going to be held.

295
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:07,000
 And then we'll also send out a calendar so that you guys can go ahead and mark your calendars for the next meetings,

296
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:12,000
 because I know your schedules are busy.

297
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:16,000
 Any questions so far?

298
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,000
 We're going to have questions here in a minute, but I just want to make sure we're all trying.

299
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:20,000
 What is your preference, Tom?

300
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:25,000
 Do you want to finish your presentation and then ask questions, or do you want to take them as we go along?

301
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:30,000
 Well, if there are questions about the process, I'm okay taking one now.

302
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:36,000
 If you want to give input on sort of the community itself or the challenges, I'm going to ask those questions in a few minutes.

303
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:42,000
 Can I ask who's involved in those groups who just showed up, like the land development?

304
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,000
 Yeah.

305
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,000
 Was that staff or was that people in the community?

306
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 Development and infrastructure?

307
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,000
 That's staff.

308
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:58,000
 Yeah, typically what we'll do, Marty, is we'll meet with staff first, kind of talk about their programs.

309
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 And then when we come back, we like to bring in the development community or builders or others

310
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 to kind of help understand what is their relationship and how they perceive those services and the delivery of those services,

311
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 if that's where you're headed with that question.

312
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:17,000
 Question, Tom?

313
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:18,000
 Yes, ma'am.

314
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:23,000
 Yeah, and so I guess my question would be, so does that include all the stakeholders?

315
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:28,000
 And is the community in itself part of that stakeholder group?

316
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:36,000
 Or are we just kind of focusing on city staff at this point, and then the developers,

317
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:43,000
 and then just trying to see who all you're looking to speak with, who are the stakeholders?

318
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:51,000
 Yeah, so we will, in this meeting, we ask that certain groups be brought together.

319
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,000
 Normally we would do that in our next meeting, but we're trying to get ahead of it.

320
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 And so the next time we come out, we'll be meeting with council members,

321
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 and then we're also going to hold additional ground tables.

322
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:07,000
 And we're contemplating a broader survey right now.

323
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:15,000
 We wanted to see kind of what feedback we got right here about whether there needed to be a broader questionnaire that goes out.

324
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:21,000
 But the idea is to get as many people as we can to really understand what the community's interested in.

325
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:26,000
 But we're going to rely on the council to really also tell us about your districts.

326
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:30,000
 Sorry, you guys, single member districts.

327
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:31,000
 Both.

328
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:32,000
 Both.

329
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:44,000
 It's to understand your constituents and make sure that we get to hear what those issues are in the particular areas of the community.

330
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,000
 So national trends, do I just escape here?

331
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:59,000
 Take this.

332
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:08,000
 So, don't push play yet, but does this, can you shrink it just a little bit?

333
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:09,000
 Yeah, right there.

334
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:10,000
 That's probably good.

335
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,000
 That way all of that gets on there.

336
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:16,000
 Okay, I'll take it from there.

337
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:18,000
 Well, I'm only going to talk about three trends.

338
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 One is just the overall common.

339
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,000
 One is technology, and then the other is demographics.

340
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,000
 And so I have three or four slides here.

341
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 But I think it's important as we go into this to remind ourselves that we're not just Denton, we're not just Denton County, but we're operating in a national context and a global context.

342
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 And what I'm going to do here is I've got a little graphic that we created that shows job loss and job gain by metro area across the country.

343
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 If it is a blue bubble, it is a metro area that has gained jobs over the last 12 months.

344
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 If it's a red bubble, it has lost jobs over the last 12 months.

345
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:08,000
 And when I first hit play, you're going to see it starts in January of 1999.

346
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 And you guys later today, if you want to go back to your office or at home, you can go to the website and you can actually see this yourself.

347
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:28,000
 But I'm going to hit pause here for a moment and just say that this was essentially representing the dot com bust.

348
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:32,000
 It didn't hit the country evenly because some areas weren't really driven by technology.

349
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,000
 Austin was, so we got hit pretty hard in Austin.

350
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 And when you go to the web, you can actually take your cursor and put it over each of the different metros that are there.

351
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 And so I'm going to push play again.

352
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:58,000
 We're in July of 2001. Things get a little bit worse after that.

353
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:08,000
 September 11th, George Bush says go out and spend money for those of us that were working at that time.

354
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:17,000
 You're going to notice something happens in Louisiana here in the middle of 2005.

355
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:24,000
 Katrina. Yeah, it's really fascinating because you had New Orleans get hit and then Baton Rouge.

356
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,000
 Everybody moved up to Baton Rouge and Houston and these other cities.

357
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:32,000
 And they actually showed this job gain over that same period of time.

358
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,000
 I'm going to hit play again.

359
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:47,000
 And so really in 2006, recession hasn't started, but what's the signal here? Automotive industry.

360
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:57,000
 Detroit starts getting hit and it's really not until the end of 2007 that the recession officially starts.

361
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:06,000
 Housing bubble starts to pop December 2007 and then it's really the market doesn't fall until the fall.

362
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:18,000
 And if you're squeamish, you can close your eyes now.

363
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:29,000
 I'm actually going to fast forward here and I would encourage you guys, if this is something of interest to you,

364
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,000
 just kind of seeing where we are. We keep this up on a quarterly basis.

365
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:36,000
 We do it monthly, but it's a quarter lag time.

366
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:44,000
 But we're always paying attention to what's happening in Minneapolis right now, what's going on there.

367
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,000
 And you expect it in some areas.

368
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:59,000
 Jacqueline is a consultant for a project right now for a group of leading automotive companies in Detroit,

369
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:05,000
 helping them understand because they're trying to look at where can we fill our vacancies right now

370
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:10,000
 with people that are local as opposed to having to attract help from the outside.

371
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:19,000
 It's a fascinating project. And once again, the overall national economy, we have to pay attention to it

372
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:23,000
 because there's been a lot of talk over the last 12 months of when is that next recession going to come?

373
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 And what's that going to mean for development patterns? What's that going to mean for the DFW?

374
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:32,000
 What's that going to mean for dental? So you have to constantly be thinking about the economy.

375
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:41,000
 So the, do I just hit escape or just go here? Here. Here.

376
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:48,000
 So really, the other interesting factor overall for those of us in economic development,

377
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:55,000
 those of us who have defined economic development as attracting manufacturing jobs over the years

378
00:30:55,000 --> 00:31:02,000
 to see what percentage manufacturing jobs have actually taken up as part of the overall economy.

379
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:09,000
 And what's very encouraging since 2010 is that line has kind of flattened,

380
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:15,000
 which means that we're holding our own as a country from the manufacturing standpoint.

381
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:21,000
 Peter built a testament to that, having strong manufacturers in this country.

382
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,000
 It doesn't mean that manufacturing isn't a good target for you.

383
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,000
 It doesn't mean that manufacturing is not going to grow in the DFW area.

384
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:33,000
 It just means that most of the job creation has occurred in other sectors, professional business services,

385
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:40,000
 education, healthcare, IT, there are a number of financial services in other areas that have grown faster.

386
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,000
 So if you're in the economic development business and you're all about chasing jobs,

387
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:48,000
 where are those jobs going to be? It's a big question. Big question.

388
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:59,000
 The other issue that remains with us is we baby boomers are finally starting to reach retirement age.

389
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:09,000
 And as a consequence, as we start leaving the workforce, many of us unwillingly leaving the workforce,

390
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:20,000
 there is still a demographic issue where we're creating jobs and we have people who are retiring at a rate that we're not able to fill a lot of those jobs,

391
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,000
 especially the jobs that are technical skill jobs.

392
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:29,000
 So I don't know if in your businesses you're experiencing that, but across the country right now, that's been the biggest issue.

393
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:37,000
 The last issue for us is just what is technology doing across all the different sectors?

394
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:45,000
 Everything has gone to being based on technology, based on information technology, especially in the area of things.

395
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:51,000
 A lot of our diagnosis, a lot of the things that we wear on our wrists now that are monitoring our health,

396
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,000
 there's so many different things going on it's hard to keep up with,

397
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:59,000
 but it is impacting businesses and business location decisions that are being made.

398
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:11,000
 So the local context for us, you're in the DFW area and I don't have to tell you guys about what's going on in Dallas Fort Worth.

399
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:16,000
 Fastest growing metro region in the country, fourth best economy, 32% workers have cars.

400
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:24,000
 In other words, Dallas Fort Worth is still on the radar screen for every single major business location in the country.

401
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:28,000
 Dallas Fort Worth is at the top of the list for consideration.

402
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:34,000
 So you guys get to benefit from all the assets at our DFW in your location.

403
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:41,000
 This is more of a teaser because we haven't done our homework yet,

404
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:48,000
 but one of the things that we're going to come back and do is look at what are the current development projects that are underway

405
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:54,000
 and where are the next planned developments and what does that mean for the community.

406
00:33:54,000 --> 00:34:04,000
 Right now, one that kind of hit us between the -- this was vacant when we were here last.

407
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:10,000
 And now we are staying at the embassy suite, so we're right in the middle of all that. That's awesome.

408
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:17,000
 Your industrial park with the expansions from Peterbilt and all the other logistics companies and cold storage

409
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,000
 and everything else that's happened out there, phenomenal.

410
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:24,000
 I think the pressure is going to continue on that area to grow.

411
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,000
 And I know there are multiple development projects in the area,

412
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:35,000
 but one that stood out to us that Jessica shared with us was the Coal and Hunter piece that essentially controls --

413
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,000
 how many miles of that? 35, what is it?

414
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:40,000
 Six miles of that.

415
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,000
 35 fromage.

416
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:46,000
 And I don't have to tell you guys this, but I'll just -- it bears repeating.

417
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:51,000
 It's like the number of residents that are going to go into that area and what that's going to mean for this community,

418
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:57,000
 from healthcare, ISD, retail, what that's going to do.

419
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:01,000
 But also the competitiveness nature.

420
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:04,000
 They're probably going to build their own retail along that strip.

421
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:07,000
 So what does that mean for Razor Ranch? What does that mean for the downtown?

422
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,000
 What does it mean for the other things that you have to offer?

423
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,000
 So we are going to be looking at this.

424
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:16,000
 I didn't come prepared today to talk about all of the development developments.

425
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:19,000
 I just wanted you guys to know that this is what we're looking at right now.

426
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,000
 We are going to look at data.

427
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:26,000
 Like I said, I didn't want to make this a data presentation in the middle of the afternoon.

428
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:32,000
 But this is your population growth trend, educational attainment.

429
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:37,000
 You know, with the universities here, you guys are kind of off the charts there in terms of education.

430
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:39,000
 Tom, could you go back to the one on population growth?

431
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:44,000
 Thank you.

432
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:45,000
 Is that good?

433
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:46,000
 Yes.

434
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:47,000
 Thank you.

435
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:48,000
 All right.

436
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:56,000
 And we will work very closely with the city to make sure that any numbers that we share with you officially

437
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:04,000
 know that we're kind of in the same ballpark because there are a number of different population estimates

438
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,000
 and sources that are used out there.

439
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:10,000
 Some are counting the city, some are counting the county or draw a ring around the city.

440
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,000
 We just want to make sure that we're not presenting information that we share with you.

441
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:15,000
 You feel like, okay.

442
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:22,000
 But any time that we do share something and you say, man, it just doesn't smell right, you know, don't stop us.

443
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:25,000
 I mean, do stop us, sorry.

444
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:29,000
 We know better than we're just going to say what it all looks like.

445
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:36,000
 So, but yeah, but we will, you know, we'll look at the city of Denton.

446
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:37,000
 We will look at Denton County.

447
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,000
 We'll compare you guys to others within the region.

448
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:46,000
 You know, if you want to compare yourselves to Frisco or Plano or Power Mound, you know, whatever you guys want to do.

449
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:55,000
 We'll get some feedback from you, kind of take some, you know, snapshot benchmark of what others are up to.

450
00:36:55,000 --> 00:37:03,000
 This is part of our analysis and employment by sector, education, health care and manufacturing.

451
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:07,000
 So you guys are somewhat unique on the manufacturing space, especially in the DFW area

452
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:14,000
 because you have such large, great manufacturing employers that are here.

453
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,000
 Where have you gained?

454
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,000
 Transportation warehousing and manufacturing, right at the top.

455
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:26,000
 So there you go, Tom, that's counter to your national trend right there.

456
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:32,000
 Commuting, we will probably dig into this quite a bit

457
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:36,000
 because for us, understanding what your relationship is to the surrounding communities,

458
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:40,000
 who's coming into this community, who's leaving this community.

459
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:48,000
 But as anticipated, you know, the number of people that are commuting into the city of Denton has remained relatively flat.

460
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,000
 But this is not picking up 2018 or 2019.

461
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:57,000
 And I'm guessing that your numbers with some of your job growth have probably increased.

462
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:03,000
 But the number of people that are, you know, because you're experiencing population growth,

463
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:08,000
 people are moving in to this area but then commuting back to Dallas or commuting back to DFW Airport

464
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,000
 or commuting back to wherever they live.

465
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:16,000
 And we'll actually look at the numbers of where are those concentrations.

466
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:23,000
 And I don't expect you to understand this right now, but we'll look at, you know, where do workers in Denton live?

467
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:30,000
 The majority still live in Denton, but you break people in from Fort Worth, Dallas, Florida, Louisville.

468
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:34,000
 And then we'll do the opposite, where do people in Denton work?

469
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:39,000
 And we can, we have a tool that we'll be able to drill in here,

470
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:44,000
 so you'll be able to see the exact numbers that are coming from particular districts.

471
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:50,000
 And we can actually know what occupations, we can know income levels.

472
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:57,000
 So we'll have a lot of information that we'll bring to bear here to help make decisions.

473
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:02,000
 I'm going to turn the tables here and come back to you guys.

474
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:07,000
 These were the questions that we sent out to you.

475
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,000
 You know, where do you see challenges for the community?

476
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,000
 Where do you see opportunities?

477
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:16,000
 What are the largest successes that you've seen?

478
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:19,000
 What have been some of the losses or setbacks?

479
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:24,000
 Is there something you feel could be a transformative project for the community?

480
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:30,000
 Who do you compete with right now as you think about, you know, either in your business,

481
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:32,000
 if you're the hospital, who do you compete with?

482
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:39,000
 If you're an employer here, who are you competing with for employees?

483
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:43,000
 If you're the city and somebody's locating, you know, who comes to the list?

484
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,000
 Where are they deciding about where they're going to go?

485
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,000
 What other communities could we learn from?

486
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,000
 In other words, is there somebody else out there in the DFW area or somewhere else

487
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,000
 that you feel like we ought to become more like these guys,

488
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:58,000
 or we ought to learn from that particular project?

489
00:39:58,000 --> 00:39:59,000
 And then who else?

490
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:03,000
 And this goes back to your question, Council Member, like who else needs to be involved?

491
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:08,000
 Who else do we need to talk to to make sure that we get this right?

492
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:14,000
 So are you guys -- do you have your mobile phones with you by chance?

493
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:20,000
 Can we use you as a game page real quick, if you don't mind?

494
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:30,000
 And this is more of a test to see how much of this we can include going forward.

495
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:36,000
 But if you can open up your browser and go to minty.com --

496
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:39,000
 how many of you have done this one before?

497
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:41,000
 Anybody?

498
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,000
 Okay.

499
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:52,000
 And then you don't put any spaces in for that code number, you just type 64130.

500
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:57,000
 And let me know if you're having any trouble getting this open.

501
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:02,000
 We'll be happy to help.

502
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:05,000
 Cool.

503
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:17,000
 Wow, no cap.

504
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:29,000
 I can't tell my cat what I'm putting.

505
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:40,000
 Anybody of you guys have been able to input it yet?

506
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:47,000
 That's right, we're going to know what you got put in.

507
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:53,000
 Yeah, so I think most of you guys are liars.

508
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:57,000
 So there we go.

509
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:01,000
 No, I looked up the national statistics recently,

510
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:05,000
 and there actually are more cats as pets than there are dogs.

511
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:09,000
 But I think that's because my wife is a cat lady and has thrown all the numbers out,

512
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:14,000
 so we have a lot of cats.

513
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,000
 All right, yeah, let's go to the next one.

514
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,000
 And we actually have a couple of serious questions coming up here.

515
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:41,000
 You have to choose one.

516
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:49,000
 Just letting you guys know that you're matching our trends in the vacations.

517
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,000
 Usually evenly split on the vacation,

518
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:57,000
 unless we're in the desert, people tend to like going to the beach.

519
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:02,000
 The beach.

520
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:03,000
 Awesome.

521
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:07,000
 Well, let's go ahead and go to the next one.

522
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:20,000
 So rate each one of these just based on what you think.

523
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:36,000
 This is not scientific, this is just more of your gut reaction.

524
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,000
 Does it happen to kids?

525
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:27,000
 Does this surprise anybody?

526
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:28,000
 No.

527
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:29,000
 What is the 3.1 percent?

528
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:31,000
 Is that three votes?

529
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:37,000
 That's the average.

530
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:41,000
 That does surprise me.

531
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:42,000
 Positive or negative?

532
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:49,000
 I thought it would be higher.

533
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:52,000
 An attractive place for young professionals to live and work,

534
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:57,000
 and then has the capacity and resources necessary for economic development.

535
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:00,000
 So these are all above average.

536
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:07,000
 How did you factor in the retirement population?

537
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:12,000
 We probably need to add another question.

538
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:20,000
 The number of questions you can ask is a good place for retirees.

539
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:23,000
 That's exactly right.

540
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,000
 We did a lot of research on demographics

541
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:29,000
 and who was choosing the types of cities that they were going to.

542
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:33,000
 And there was this really interesting sort of mix over the last few years

543
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:39,000
 where you have this young college-educated choosing a college town

544
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:44,000
 that has the amenities that they're interested in and a certain vibe about it.

545
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:48,000
 And then you have this baby boomer, what we call a zoomer,

546
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:52,000
 an educated baby boomer who's looking for a place to retire.

547
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:53,000
 They want the same things.

548
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,000
 They want to be in that university town

549
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,000
 because they want to have access to the restaurant they want to have.

550
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,000
 They want to go back to the university, maybe take a couple of classes,

551
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:04,000
 maybe teach at the university, you know, part-time.

552
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:07,000
 So it's really interesting that.

553
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:13,000
 And you guys have that vibe with that type of community.

554
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:18,000
 So that's a great point there, Joe.

555
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:24,000
 So what communities do you feel like Denton competes with for investment and for talent?

556
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:31,000
 I think on this one you have to actually type in the name of the community.

557
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,000
 Type in more than one.

558
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:37,000
 Is it up to three or zero point three?

559
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:39,000
 It looks like there's three.

560
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:41,000
 Yeah, you can choose up to three.

561
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:44,000
 I don't think you have to choose three.

562
00:46:54,000 --> 00:47:00,000
 [ Background noise ]

563
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,000
 Oh, yeah.

564
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:04,000
 [ Background noise ]

565
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:27,000
 [ Background noise ]

566
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:31,000
 So I assume at Lyatt you feel like you're competing for investment.

567
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:35,000
 Dallas is probably, you know, both.

568
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:38,000
 It's funny that Frisco just passed Dallas.

569
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:46,000
 [ Background noise ]

570
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:51,000
 Although it looks like someone typed in Frisco, Plano, and Fort Worth in one line.

571
00:47:51,000 --> 00:48:04,000
 And so you can distribute that on those others.

572
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:09,000
 I've not seen any surprises about you guys.

573
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:14,000
 We need to ask better questions so there can be surprises.

574
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:15,000
 All right.

575
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:19,000
 Let's go to the last one here.

576
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:26,000
 So what do you feel like would be a sign of success for this process?

577
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:34,000
 [ Background noise ]

578
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:36,000
 All right.

579
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:39,000
 So yeah, this is a tweet.

580
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:41,000
 Hashtag.

581
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:55,000
 [ Background noise ]

582
00:48:55,000 --> 00:49:24,000
 [ Background noise ]

583
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:52,000
 [ Background noise ]

584
00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:59,000
 [ Background noise ]

585
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,000
 Someone's reading my answers.

586
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:30,000
 [ Background noise ]

587
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:54,000
 [ Background noise ]

588
00:50:54,000 --> 00:51:00,000
 Well, it looks to me like a lot of consensus in terms of what you're going to get here.

589
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:06,000
 Clear vision, action-oriented plan, getting everybody on the same page,

590
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:13,000
 having enough detail to where it's not just, you know, do something without the details of how you get it done

591
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:18,000
 and how you structure yourself, you know, the best way to have that happen.

592
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:32,000
 Greater understanding of planning for Newton, unified direction, measurable, aligned, stability.

593
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:41,000
 Anything stick out to you guys?

594
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:44,000
 All right.

595
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:57,000
 Let's move on.

596
00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:03,000
 We have a feel for some of the big assets in the community.

597
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:06,000
 But if you guys don't mind, I know you've done this before.

598
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:14,000
 If we can just get kind of a quick rundown of what you think your biggest assets are from an economic development standpoint.

599
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:20,000
 And we're just going to capture them here in a free form.

600
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:25,000
 What was the code again I lost on my page?

601
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:27,000
 Oh, for this one?

602
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:30,000
 6413-0. Okay.

603
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:38,000
 And what we will do for you guys, just FYI, is after we're done, we're going to give you a copy of the presentation.

604
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:46,000
 And in that presentation, there will actually be a PDF slides of your answers to each one of these.

605
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:51,000
 So you don't have to remember all the things that you put in there.

606
00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:58,000
 That's the cool thing about the particular program, it lets us keep everything and we can share it back with you.

607
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:03,000
 So if you want to share it beyond this, you can.

608
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:15,000
 So Jacqueline is just going to capture, I'll start it off, universities.

609
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:20,000
 And there's probably specific programs within the universities that are assets.

610
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:25,000
 So feel free to throw something out if you think it's worth drawing attention to.

611
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:29,000
 What else?

612
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:35,000
 So, and forgive me if I'm splitting hairs, but Denton's greatest economic assets as far as something like, what is a location?

613
00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:38,000
 Would location be one, or are we talking an actual, okay.

614
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:41,000
 What is currently making an economic development?

615
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:46,000
 If you think of it being an asset or a strength, you can fit both of those in that category.

616
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:47,000
 Thank you.

617
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:53,000
 So location.

618
00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:56,000
 Transportation.

619
00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:58,000
 Viable workforce.

620
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:01,000
 Viable workforce.

621
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:05,000
 Downtown.

622
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:15,000
 Our music and arts culture.

623
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:20,000
 Somebody asked you what's going on in Denton, what are you selling?

624
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:21,000
 What are you talking about?

625
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:22,000
 It's growing.

626
00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:24,000
 It's growing.

627
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:27,000
 Airport.

628
00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:28,000
 Available land.

629
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:44,000
 Available.

630
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:46,000
 I would say investment capital.

631
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:51,000
 The money's out there, our project is there.

632
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:53,000
 You know, safety's good.

633
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:55,000
 There's problems everywhere, but.

634
00:54:55,000 --> 00:55:02,000
 So you feel like it's mostly a safe, safe community?

635
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:06,000
 I like the diversity of things.

636
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:08,000
 And when you say diversity, do you mean?

637
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:09,000
 Yes, I mean that.

638
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:10,000
 Racial diversity?

639
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:13,000
 Okay.

640
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:15,000
 But our universities add to diversity.

641
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:17,000
 We bring people in from all over the world.

642
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:25,000
 They really do.

643
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:26,000
 What else?

644
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:42,000
 One of our health care systems.

645
00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:49,000
 So I'm going to bring on UNT, I mean, we've reached and have been Carnegie One status for several years now.

646
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:59,000
 We have big PhD programs that are going out and nationally recognized.

647
00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:05,000
 We are the largest institution in the nation for, primarily for women, but not.

648
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:06,000
 Not, no, that's awesome.

649
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:09,000
 My mother-in-law was a graduate.

650
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:12,000
 Back when it was called, teachers.

651
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:17,000
 Yeah, it was like CIA, and then it was, yeah, it's had a couple of different names.

652
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:23,000
 And the new Jane Nelson Institute, I think it's going to get some kind of publicity here as well for women.

653
00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:28,000
 Yeah, well, things like that would be good for us to hear about it because.

654
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:31,000
 It may not be the greatest economic asset.

655
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:35,000
 We have community colleges that feed into many places also.

656
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:38,000
 I think those are really important programs.

657
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:45,000
 I think we also, one big thing that I've noticed in this community is how much businesses are involved in community.

658
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:46,000
 Sort of business engagement.

659
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:50,000
 Yeah, the corporate citizenship, the corporate involvement.

660
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:57,000
 They're in the United Ways, they're in the benefit leaves and rotaries, and they're very represented in the community.

661
00:56:57,000 --> 00:56:59,000
 Awesome Chamber?

662
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:00,000
 Oh.

663
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:01,000
 Awesome City.

664
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:03,000
 That's right.

665
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:09,000
 What else?

666
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:10,000
 Unique culture.

667
00:57:10,000 --> 00:57:14,000
 I would say that we are different than what people predominantly.

668
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:21,000
 I think you can kind of imagine Dallas culture, Fort Worth culture, and Denton is, we're teased for that,

669
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:23,000
 but I actually like that we're a little different.

670
00:57:23,000 --> 00:57:27,000
 It's a little different vibe here, I think.

671
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:29,000
 Well, there's a little different.

672
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:30,000
 Where are many Austin?

673
00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:34,000
 That's what I was going to say, there's a city in central Texas that has figured out how to leverage that.

674
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:37,000
 They need to go out and look for gains anywhere and get away with it.

675
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:38,000
 There's no way you can't.

676
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:39,000
 Right?

677
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:41,000
 Whatever you want to call it.

678
00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:42,000
 Right.

679
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:44,000
 We are somewhat green.

680
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:47,000
 I don't know how green we are, but we're greenish.

681
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:49,000
 We are pretty sustainable.

682
00:57:49,000 --> 00:57:56,000
 We're working on, we're a pretty big sustainable community compared to a lot of others.

683
00:57:56,000 --> 00:58:23,000
 I think, you know, you are what you think you are or what you say you are.

684
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:25,000
 You have to be careful about your words.

685
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:28,000
 If I say I'm a loser, then eventually I become a loser.

686
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:32,000
 If I say I'm a winner, you know, then at least it gives me the possibility for going up.

687
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:39,000
 So with this community, I would say that, you know, we have a lot of potential when it comes to high tech.

688
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:44,000
 I wouldn't say we're there, but I see some tech potential.

689
00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:50,000
 I think that's the word I was looking for.

690
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:55,000
 I think we have really good close proximity access to a lot of good state parks.

691
00:58:55,000 --> 00:59:00,000
 We have Lake Texonley and Ray Roberts within 25 miles of us.

692
00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:11,000
 We have hiking and biking trails.

693
00:59:11,000 --> 00:59:22,000
 So this isn't something that is, I don't know, it's not very well-known, but the horse country has $156 million in a year's economic impact.

694
00:59:22,000 --> 00:59:23,000
 Horse country?

695
00:59:23,000 --> 00:59:24,000
 Yeah.

696
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:25,000
 It's not something that we.

697
00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:26,000
 The county.

698
00:59:26,000 --> 00:59:27,000
 Right.

699
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:28,000
 This is part of the county.

700
00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:29,000
 I think that they're here.

701
00:59:29,000 --> 00:59:31,000
 What else on the visitor side?

702
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:38,000
 You know, I think the athletics facilities, it's kind of a good bullet, but with the university

703
00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:43,000
 and the athletes there, it's a new practice facility in the fall stadium.

704
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:45,000
 There's potential to use that.

705
00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:46,000
 Awesome.

706
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:48,000
 And then that's power generation.

707
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:49,000
 Yeah.

708
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:53,000
 And also I have plenty of water for industrial use.

709
00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:58,000
 Yeah, so I was in Desi Land on Monday.

710
00:59:58,000 --> 00:59:59,000
 That's so much water.

711
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:01,000
 At the top of their challenge list.

712
01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:02,000
 Right.

713
01:00:02,000 --> 01:00:03,000
 As opposed to the top of their assets list.

714
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:04,000
 Water.

715
01:00:04,000 --> 01:00:05,000
 Water.

716
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:08,000
 Yeah.

717
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:17,000
 I don't have kids in high school, primary school, but we have a strong and growing public

718
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:19,000
 school system as well, right?

719
01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:20,000
 I would say so.

720
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:26,000
 I think our superintendent speaks on the cutting edge of technology in schools, and so I think

721
01:00:26,000 --> 01:00:31,000
 we have good confidence in our schools and the planning that's going on in anticipation

722
01:00:31,000 --> 01:00:32,000
 of the time.

723
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:37,000
 I would say that Denton ISD feeds into that viable workforce comment over there, too,

724
01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:42,000
 because of the technology, advanced technology center.

725
01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:48,000
 They're actually training students to be in the workforce.

726
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:51,000
 I'm going to say the ISD is one of our assets.

727
01:00:51,000 --> 01:00:57,000
 I'm not sure that that's thought of that way outside of it.

728
01:00:57,000 --> 01:01:03,000
 But as far as from an asset standpoint, if you're having a conversation with folks to

729
01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:10,000
 move a business or to move themselves, and they're in those years, that's one of the

730
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:11,000
 top three.

731
01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:12,000
 Thank you.

732
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:13,000
 Thank you.

733
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:14,000
 After Howell Village.

734
01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:15,000
 After Howell Village.

735
01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:16,000
 Yeah.

736
01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:17,000
 The commencement ceremony.

737
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:18,000
 Howell Village.

738
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:19,000
 Yeah.

739
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:24,000
 Before your doctors lived and your kids go to school.

740
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:27,000
 Yeah.

741
01:01:27,000 --> 01:01:36,000
 And Chris, later this afternoon, we're going to probably drill down a little bit on the

742
01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:37,000
 workforce question.

743
01:01:37,000 --> 01:01:38,000
 I have some questions before that.

744
01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:39,000
 All right.

745
01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:52,000
 Well, this is just a warm-up, because we're going to be doing a lot of roundtables and

746
01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:57,000
 asking questions about what do you perceive from a particular sector?

747
01:01:57,000 --> 01:02:00,000
 What do you perceive as the challenges for this area?

748
01:02:00,000 --> 01:02:04,000
 And where do you see opportunities, and what do you think are the strengths?

749
01:02:04,000 --> 01:02:07,000
 So we'll be going through this throughout the process.

750
01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:12,000
 But this is a good warm-up for us, because sometimes things will come out here that we

751
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:16,000
 had no idea, or maybe it's something that Jessica isn't going to mention to us, because

752
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:18,000
 it's just off the radar screen.

753
01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:22,000
 But we'll go off and do the research around it, and then come back to you and say, yeah,

754
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:23,000
 you said that was an asset.

755
01:02:23,000 --> 01:02:27,000
 I just want to let you know, you know, you may perceive it as an asset, but relative

756
01:02:27,000 --> 01:02:30,000
 to the other things that are going on, it's probably not as big of a deal to be talking

757
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:31,000
 about.

758
01:02:31,000 --> 01:02:33,000
 Or, this is a really big deal.

759
01:02:33,000 --> 01:02:37,000
 I've had that happen, like, in the entrepreneurship community.

760
01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:38,000
 It's an asset.

761
01:02:38,000 --> 01:02:42,000
 But that's just those, you know, guys over there in that little co-working space, and

762
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:43,000
 we don't really know what they're doing.

763
01:02:43,000 --> 01:02:44,000
 It's probably not a big deal.

764
01:02:44,000 --> 01:02:49,000
 And then we'll go in and do interviews, and we'll find out, wow, this company is a supplier

765
01:02:49,000 --> 01:02:53,000
 to Microsoft, and they're about to go big.

766
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:56,000
 You had no idea in your community, because they hadn't talked to you yet.

767
01:02:56,000 --> 01:03:00,000
 So that's the kind of thing that will come out of these little discussions.

768
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:01,000
 And we appreciate it.

769
01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:06,000
 It may be stuff that you do all the time, but we appreciate you willing to be patient

770
01:03:06,000 --> 01:03:09,000
 with us and us knowing about the community.

771
01:03:09,000 --> 01:03:12,000
 So the next question.

772
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:25,000
 So as you think about going forward, what can we do that will take us to the next level?

773
01:03:25,000 --> 01:03:33,000
 In other words, where should we allocate our resources to move this community to the next

774
01:03:33,000 --> 01:03:34,000
 level?

775
01:03:34,000 --> 01:03:35,000
 Tech sector.

776
01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:36,000
 Tech sector?

777
01:03:36,000 --> 01:03:42,000
 When you think of tech sector, what do you?

778
01:03:42,000 --> 01:03:49,000
 Development, programmers, all of the support services for Amazon and Microsoft and Google.

779
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:50,000
 Gotcha.

780
01:03:50,000 --> 01:03:51,000
 Gotcha.

781
01:03:51,000 --> 01:03:52,000
 Thank you.

782
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:53,000
 Make us a cultural center.

783
01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:54,000
 Cultural center.

784
01:03:54,000 --> 01:03:55,000
 Let me elaborate.

785
01:03:55,000 --> 01:04:07,000
 As an inner-city kid growing up in Houston, we were exposed to languages, Japanese, Spanish,

786
01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:15,000
 Latin, German, of which I regret that I didn't take advantage of all of them.

787
01:04:15,000 --> 01:04:17,000
 I'm fluent in Spanish.

788
01:04:17,000 --> 01:04:19,000
 I read, write, speak Spanish.

789
01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:21,000
 Many of my clients are Spanish-speaking.

790
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:31,000
 And then we got exposed to the symphony, the ballet, the high science areas.

791
01:04:31,000 --> 01:04:36,000
 So for a poor kid to be in that environment, I was enriched.

792
01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:43,000
 So I would like to see a lot of the children here exposed to the languages and culture,

793
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:46,000
 you know, where they can raise their level.

794
01:04:46,000 --> 01:04:49,000
 We don't have to go to Plano or to Dallas to become --

795
01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:58,000
 John, is there a specific, like, amenity or thing that would represent that for you?

796
01:04:58,000 --> 01:05:06,000
 That if two years from now or five years from now or ten years from now, you're able to pull it off?

797
01:05:06,000 --> 01:05:13,000
 I think if we could get something to enrich the masses, that's what I'm looking for.

798
01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:22,000
 We've got the resources and the vision to enrich our community so that they become different.

799
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:27,000
 So I will challenge you, John, to be thinking as we go forward.

800
01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:29,000
 Is that in the form of a new museum?

801
01:05:29,000 --> 01:05:35,000
 Is that in the form of a -- you know, what does that look like?

802
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:40,000
 Is it a new program within the school district that's going to reach out to particular communities?

803
01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:41,000
 So be thinking about that.

804
01:05:41,000 --> 01:05:42,000
 Okay.

805
01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:43,000
 All right.

806
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:44,000
 I got you.

807
01:05:44,000 --> 01:05:48,000
 So you can model something like what we have at a common university, which is called Elm Fork.

808
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:54,000
 And so we have about 15,000 kids, K through 8th grade, go through our one building per year.

809
01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:56,000
 Fifteen to 20,000 kids.

810
01:05:56,000 --> 01:06:01,000
 I don't know if any of your kids or grandkids have went through this science program.

811
01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:06,000
 And so all of the students in surrounding areas have field trips there.

812
01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:08,000
 It's a way to engage them in science.

813
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:12,000
 You can do the same sort of thing, but in other culture sort of topics.

814
01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:13,000
 What was it called?

815
01:06:13,000 --> 01:06:14,000
 It was called Elm Fork.

816
01:06:14,000 --> 01:06:18,000
 Elm Fork, yeah.

817
01:06:18,000 --> 01:06:24,000
 It's just a way to do a mass amount of learning.

818
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:26,000
 I'm going to throw out the airport again.

819
01:06:26,000 --> 01:06:29,000
 Just out of our second runway, I think there's a lot of opportunity.

820
01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:34,000
 Loop 288 has been planned for 30 years to go around there.

821
01:06:34,000 --> 01:06:38,000
 And that may be seen alive at the end of the tunnel.

822
01:06:38,000 --> 01:06:43,000
 There's a lot of opportunity for investment.

823
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:50,000
 In light of what you were saying, what's driving a lot of the locations now is workforce.

824
01:06:50,000 --> 01:06:56,000
 Capturing the workforce that's coming out of the local universities is huge.

825
01:06:56,000 --> 01:07:00,000
 Just capturing your graduates, containing your graduates.

826
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:08,000
 I think there's a lot of people who would like to graduate and stay here, but finding the jobs.

827
01:07:08,000 --> 01:07:11,000
 I don't know if we have the jobs for those folks.

828
01:07:11,000 --> 01:07:15,000
 It's a cool enough place to stay and affordable,

829
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:21,000
 going to be speaking to the other parts of the metro class.

830
01:07:21,000 --> 01:07:24,000
 I'm going to throw out partnerships.

831
01:07:24,000 --> 01:07:28,000
 I think that we have a lot of really great stakeholders,

832
01:07:28,000 --> 01:07:31,000
 but if we work together, we can accomplish a little bit more.

833
01:07:31,000 --> 01:07:36,000
 I've heard talks of UNT doing a ton of stuff in Frisco

834
01:07:36,000 --> 01:07:41,000
 when we talk about tech sectors and hiring students and things out there,

835
01:07:41,000 --> 01:07:45,000
 but there's not a lot that we do here within Perseo and certain things.

836
01:07:45,000 --> 01:07:46,000
 I think there's more.

837
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:55,000
 There's opportunities to do with other partners within our community, DMSD, UNT, TWA.

838
01:07:55,000 --> 01:08:00,000
 An economic development fund that's at the ready if incentives are necessary

839
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:09,000
 to get the targeted employer here and a willingness to welcome them.

840
01:08:09,000 --> 01:08:17,000
 Discovery Park is the UNT engineering and research park.

841
01:08:17,000 --> 01:08:20,000
 I think there will be a lot of opportunities there.

842
01:08:20,000 --> 01:08:25,000
 They're doing well right now.

843
01:08:25,000 --> 01:08:31,000
 They started an engineering program from scratch out there.

844
01:08:31,000 --> 01:08:36,000
 It's big now, so we have lots of engineering faculty and students.

845
01:08:36,000 --> 01:08:38,000
 It's one of the fastest growing programs.

846
01:08:38,000 --> 01:08:43,000
 We started new programs in Biomedical Engineering College of Information out there also.

847
01:08:43,000 --> 01:08:46,000
 We just got a $10 million grant for additive manufacturing,

848
01:08:46,000 --> 01:08:49,000
 and that has a workforce component in it.

849
01:08:49,000 --> 01:08:54,000
 So that's a heavy investment in terms of the university really going forward.

850
01:08:54,000 --> 01:09:05,000
 We talked earlier in the year about with a firm that wanted to bring a medical campus to Denton,

851
01:09:05,000 --> 01:09:07,000
 and they were looking for a place to get them.

852
01:09:07,000 --> 01:09:15,000
 This is what you might think of as Las Galinas type stuff.

853
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:22,000
 Being located around Discovery Park is an ideal place just from thinking out loud,

854
01:09:22,000 --> 01:09:26,000
 but a lot of that is zoned for single family.

855
01:09:26,000 --> 01:09:28,000
 When you see what's going on out there,

856
01:09:28,000 --> 01:09:37,000
 it's going to take some thought if we want to bring that kind of growth here.

857
01:09:37,000 --> 01:09:39,000
 They can't go out by the distribution centers.

858
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:41,000
 Where would that go?

859
01:09:41,000 --> 01:09:47,000
 That would be a natural place, but we need to make sure that we can put them out there.

860
01:09:47,000 --> 01:09:55,000
 Right now, you've got the area that is Peter Belt and the other industry that's out there

861
01:09:55,000 --> 01:09:58,000
 that's appropriate for a certain type of user,

862
01:09:58,000 --> 01:10:04,000
 but that more tech, science-driven user, is there a place for them to go right now?

863
01:10:04,000 --> 01:10:12,000
 Discovery Park campus would be the perfect place to put a tech growth for large buildings or downtown,

864
01:10:12,000 --> 01:10:15,000
 and there's land around there that's right on the loop.

865
01:10:15,000 --> 01:10:19,000
 Some of that land is currently zoned residential,

866
01:10:19,000 --> 01:10:21,000
 so do you want to build a bunch of houses around that,

867
01:10:21,000 --> 01:10:29,000
 or do you want to save that space for tech space to let that thing grow up and around there?

868
01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:34,000
 It requires planning.

869
01:10:34,000 --> 01:10:36,000
 What else do you feel like?

870
01:10:36,000 --> 01:10:37,000
 Because now's the time.

871
01:10:37,000 --> 01:10:41,000
 You've got that crazy idea of something that could happen in this community.

872
01:10:41,000 --> 01:10:43,000
 You already laid it out.

873
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:51,000
 Hunter and Cone Ranch is going to transform the southwestern side of Denton significantly.

874
01:10:51,000 --> 01:10:57,000
 I have another thought, Tom.

875
01:10:57,000 --> 01:11:00,000
 When it comes to how we communicate to others about ourselves,

876
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:02,000
 I think we could possibly do a better job.

877
01:11:02,000 --> 01:11:04,000
 Not that I'm criticizing what we've done,

878
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:08,000
 but I feel like we have to be a little more proactive in pushing Denton.

879
01:11:08,000 --> 01:11:14,000
 For example, if I tell you this bread is good for you, that's one presentation.

880
01:11:14,000 --> 01:11:22,000
 Another presentation says it has niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, all these different minerals and additives,

881
01:11:22,000 --> 01:11:28,000
 and it will make you, if you're 68 like me, it will make you feel like you're 40.

882
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:31,000
 You can do this kind of advertising.

883
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:34,000
 To me, it's a little different than to say you're a Denton.

884
01:11:34,000 --> 01:11:43,000
 So I think in the presentation, have you thought about Denton because of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?

885
01:11:43,000 --> 01:11:51,000
 Yeah, I think that's a great opportunity to tell the Denton story better.

886
01:11:51,000 --> 01:11:53,000
 I'll use this as an opportunity.

887
01:11:53,000 --> 01:12:00,000
 How do you feel like Denton is perceived right now by the greater Dallas-Fort Worth region?

888
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:02,000
 Obviously, it depends on who you talk to.

889
01:12:02,000 --> 01:12:07,000
 Generally, is the business community thinking of Denton as they are,

890
01:12:07,000 --> 01:12:09,000
 or what do they think about it right now?

891
01:12:09,000 --> 01:12:10,000
 It's our way.

892
01:12:10,000 --> 01:12:13,000
 Are those impressions based on the current reality,

893
01:12:13,000 --> 01:12:17,000
 or is it based on something they experienced 10 or 15 years ago?

894
01:12:17,000 --> 01:12:19,000
 What's your general impression?

895
01:12:19,000 --> 01:12:24,000
 But a lot of what you hear is, and we've all heard this a million times,

896
01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:29,000
 and I hear it from people outside that believe it's difficult doing business here.

897
01:12:29,000 --> 01:12:32,000
 Difficult doing business, that's what you hear.

898
01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:37,000
 Don't make them bother, it's difficult to get through the processes.

899
01:12:37,000 --> 01:12:40,000
 Okay, I mean that's a permanent process.

900
01:12:40,000 --> 01:12:43,000
 And again, that's not, I'm saying this is a holdover.

901
01:12:43,000 --> 01:12:46,000
 We have a lot of new,

902
01:12:46,000 --> 01:12:49,000
 but I think that that's something that we have fought, at least in the past,

903
01:12:49,000 --> 01:12:53,000
 is that perception that we are a difficult place to do business.

904
01:12:53,000 --> 01:12:56,000
 I mean, yeah, this is not news to anyone here.

905
01:12:56,000 --> 01:12:58,000
 But it's out there.

906
01:12:58,000 --> 01:13:01,000
 Yeah, well, I will say that I have worked in communities,

907
01:13:01,000 --> 01:13:07,000
 but the Frisco's of the world have basically had how many acres that started from scratch,

908
01:13:07,000 --> 01:13:09,000
 and they were in a growth mode.

909
01:13:09,000 --> 01:13:12,000
 So anybody who approached them, yeah, we got the land, here's the incentives,

910
01:13:12,000 --> 01:13:15,000
 here's the package, here's the process, here we go.

911
01:13:15,000 --> 01:13:21,000
 Cities that have been around for a while, it's always more difficult.

912
01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:24,000
 You know, it's always more difficult because you're dealing with a legacy,

913
01:13:24,000 --> 01:13:27,000
 and you're dealing with a state that's having a redevelopment.

914
01:13:27,000 --> 01:13:30,000
 So it's not atypical for there to be a recession.

915
01:13:30,000 --> 01:13:34,000
 I would say something that we could do a better job of selling that aspect,

916
01:13:34,000 --> 01:13:40,000
 versus just come here to visit, eat at the restaurants, or see a concert.

917
01:13:40,000 --> 01:13:43,000
 I don't know that we do as good of a job of selling.

918
01:13:43,000 --> 01:13:45,000
 We're open for business, we're open for business.

919
01:13:45,000 --> 01:13:47,000
 Yeah.

920
01:13:47,000 --> 01:13:50,000
 We'd like to know more business and reputation.

921
01:13:50,000 --> 01:13:52,000
 Gotcha.

922
01:13:52,000 --> 01:13:54,000
 I want to throw out a weird one.

923
01:13:54,000 --> 01:13:55,000
 Oh, gosh.

924
01:13:55,000 --> 01:13:58,000
 More weird than Jill's.

925
01:13:58,000 --> 01:13:59,000
 I know.

926
01:13:59,000 --> 01:14:01,000
 You set the bar pretty high there.

927
01:14:01,000 --> 01:14:05,000
 [Laughter]

928
01:14:05,000 --> 01:14:08,000
 I'm going to say the Golden Triangle Mall.

929
01:14:08,000 --> 01:14:10,000
 Oh, that's a good one.

930
01:14:10,000 --> 01:14:14,000
 As retail and all those kind of things change,

931
01:14:14,000 --> 01:14:21,000
 that is a very valuable, very high-profile tract of land in the city,

932
01:14:21,000 --> 01:14:25,000
 and that could be a tech sector or something.

933
01:14:25,000 --> 01:14:28,000
 That could be transitioned into something easy for me to say,

934
01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:33,000
 oh, how to do something with somebody else's land or buildings or whatever,

935
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:39,000
 but that may be ripe for redevelopment at some point in time.

936
01:14:39,000 --> 01:14:48,000
 Well, I do think you guys are at a point now where you have a lot of really good things happening.

937
01:14:48,000 --> 01:14:51,000
 And as a consequence, it's not that you can rest.

938
01:14:51,000 --> 01:14:57,000
 The pressure on infrastructure and everything else, you're overtaxed in a lot of different areas.

939
01:14:57,000 --> 01:15:00,000
 But this isn't just about the next two years or the next three years.

940
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:03,000
 We really need to be thinking five, 10 years.

941
01:15:03,000 --> 01:15:08,000
 And so that mall is an opportunity over the next 10 years.

942
01:15:08,000 --> 01:15:10,000
 What could it be transformed into?

943
01:15:10,000 --> 01:15:12,000
 And if we're thinking now about it,

944
01:15:12,000 --> 01:15:17,000
 we could take actions that permit it from becoming something we don't want it to become.

945
01:15:17,000 --> 01:15:24,000
 But it's kind of like a point already about the discovery of the University of North Texas.

946
01:15:24,000 --> 01:15:27,000
 It's like, how is it summed around it?

947
01:15:27,000 --> 01:15:31,000
 Is it all going to become single-family or multi-family?

948
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:37,000
 And before you know it, we don't have a spot to put the next kept project that might come here.

949
01:15:37,000 --> 01:15:44,000
 So now is the time to have those discussions so that you can make those decisions.

950
01:15:44,000 --> 01:15:47,000
 It's not weird.

951
01:15:47,000 --> 01:15:50,000
 Yeah, just on that note, though, following through for thinking down,

952
01:15:50,000 --> 01:15:56,000
 because right now that's the only place for retail, I mean for shopping.

953
01:15:56,000 --> 01:16:00,000
 And so if we're talking about getting rid of that, then we need to talk about another,

954
01:16:00,000 --> 01:16:07,000
 making sure another place to shop, you know, Macy's, Dillard's, to have a place to go shop for clothes.

955
01:16:07,000 --> 01:16:09,000
 So it's just kind of an all-in.

956
01:16:09,000 --> 01:16:14,000
 That area over there in the mall and the Dent Crossing is on my list to talk about.

957
01:16:14,000 --> 01:16:18,000
 The south side is my concern.

958
01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:23,000
 Now, I really like that Razor Ranch is there, but it's doing a lot of cannibalization,

959
01:16:23,000 --> 01:16:29,000
 and not just that there's also some retail issues out right now.

960
01:16:29,000 --> 01:16:35,000
 We've lost Motherhood Maternity Dress Barn, Famous Footwear, Golden Corral, and Fudd Ruckers,

961
01:16:35,000 --> 01:16:40,000
 all in Dent Crossing, and that's the one that the incentive just expired on.

962
01:16:40,000 --> 01:16:50,000
 So that's a concern on the south side that we're losing a lot of restaurants and shopping.

963
01:16:50,000 --> 01:16:55,000
 So we're talking about redevelopment, and we need to think about all of it.

964
01:16:55,000 --> 01:17:00,000
 We got excited at one time when the Razor Ranch development was going in

965
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:09,000
 because it was supposed to be a mix, and that word really, you know, having lived in other places,

966
01:17:09,000 --> 01:17:16,000
 you know, when you have a place where you can get a nice meal, you can watch a show, you can shop,

967
01:17:16,000 --> 01:17:21,000
 and you can live in that community, that mix sounds very, very attractive.

968
01:17:21,000 --> 01:17:26,000
 So when I heard it, it really appealed to me, but it's taken us a long time to get there.

969
01:17:26,000 --> 01:17:32,000
 I don't know how many bankruptcies have we had out there at Razor Ranch, you know?

970
01:17:32,000 --> 01:17:34,000
 I mean, and the developers trying to develop that project.

971
01:17:34,000 --> 01:17:39,000
 I think there's been at least two or three, you know, and so we've not gotten there.

972
01:17:39,000 --> 01:17:46,000
 So I'd like to see a similar type of excitement over the transformation from a town

973
01:17:46,000 --> 01:17:54,000
 that used to be known as the sidewalks roll up at 6 o'clock, and we moved here in '83.

974
01:17:54,000 --> 01:17:55,000
 That's what we were told.

975
01:17:55,000 --> 01:18:00,000
 There was no McDonald's, and basically the city shuts down at 5 or 6.

976
01:18:00,000 --> 01:18:05,000
 So dealing with that kind of history, which a lot of people still hold on to, you know,

977
01:18:05,000 --> 01:18:10,000
 we've got to come up with a different moniker when people think of it.

978
01:18:10,000 --> 01:18:18,000
 I do know when I landed at DFW Airport yesterday, and I just pulled out the dent,

979
01:18:18,000 --> 01:18:20,000
 and I thought, well, we're going to eat tonight.

980
01:18:20,000 --> 01:18:23,000
 Of course, I went to the downtown, and I was like, what?

981
01:18:23,000 --> 01:18:28,000
 There's like a dozen places, and they don't close at 6.

982
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:30,000
 And you're out there staying up until 10, 11 o'clock.

983
01:18:30,000 --> 01:18:33,000
 There's a couple of bars, and you're staying up until 2 a.m.

984
01:18:33,000 --> 01:18:37,000
 I was like, okay, things have changed.

985
01:18:37,000 --> 01:18:38,000
 Let's get the word out.

986
01:18:38,000 --> 01:18:46,000
 But I do think your point, going back to Razor Ranch and the history of that type of project

987
01:18:46,000 --> 01:18:49,000
 and what was promised in the beginning, and then there's the recession,

988
01:18:49,000 --> 01:18:51,000
 and there's the bankruptcies.

989
01:18:51,000 --> 01:18:57,000
 I mean, you've got to take that into consideration as you think about the next 20 years

990
01:18:57,000 --> 01:19:01,000
 and the kinds of projects you're going to support and the reality of what might happen

991
01:19:01,000 --> 01:19:04,000
 and the way it might happen.

992
01:19:04,000 --> 01:19:05,000
 What else? Anything else?

993
01:19:05,000 --> 01:19:06,000
 Yeah.

994
01:19:06,000 --> 01:19:08,000
 We're going to close up here over the next five minutes,

995
01:19:08,000 --> 01:19:12,000
 and so if you're not telling me things right now...

996
01:19:12,000 --> 01:19:16,000
 The North Texas Fair and Rodeo, the new plant facility.

997
01:19:16,000 --> 01:19:18,000
 I had no idea.

998
01:19:18,000 --> 01:19:20,000
 Good point.

999
01:19:20,000 --> 01:19:26,000
 That would be, I mean, to me, a huge expo center in North Arena or Rodeo.

1000
01:19:26,000 --> 01:19:27,000
 Is it in Denton?

1001
01:19:27,000 --> 01:19:28,000
 Yeah.

1002
01:19:28,000 --> 01:19:30,000
 Okay, I thought it was in...

1003
01:19:30,000 --> 01:19:32,000
 I looked 28.

1004
01:19:32,000 --> 01:19:36,000
 It's close to signing in between Denton and signing your archipelago office.

1005
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:37,000
 It might not be Denton.

1006
01:19:37,000 --> 01:19:43,000
 It'll bring visitors in.

1007
01:19:43,000 --> 01:19:46,000
 It'll bring events, expos, you'll meet conventioneers.

1008
01:19:46,000 --> 01:19:50,000
 The people who utilize it will stay in Denton and spend their time in Denton.

1009
01:19:50,000 --> 01:19:54,000
 And then, I think it's something cute.

1010
01:19:54,000 --> 01:19:57,000
 I know I said athletic facilities on the university, something like that,

1011
01:19:57,000 --> 01:20:01,000
 but there's an opportunity for an athletic complex for basketball, volleyball,

1012
01:20:01,000 --> 01:20:08,000
 indoor courts, again, to help attract some groups, national, regional groups.

1013
01:20:08,000 --> 01:20:13,000
 It'll help improve the quality of our athletes, the students here.

1014
01:20:13,000 --> 01:20:17,000
 We're at really, you talked about it, we're at a competitive disadvantage.

1015
01:20:17,000 --> 01:20:18,000
 Right.

1016
01:20:18,000 --> 01:20:19,000
 Kids growing up here.

1017
01:20:19,000 --> 01:20:24,000
 We don't have a lot of practice facilities for our youth.

1018
01:20:24,000 --> 01:20:31,000
 Well, anything else, Jimmy, anybody that hasn't spoken up?

1019
01:20:31,000 --> 01:20:34,000
 So, I will let you know that this is the beginning.

1020
01:20:34,000 --> 01:20:39,000
 And so, when we come back out next time, we're going to have another opportunity to hear from you.

1021
01:20:39,000 --> 01:20:42,000
 We're also going to send this presentation out with the questions.

1022
01:20:42,000 --> 01:20:45,000
 And if you've got additional things that come to you,

1023
01:20:45,000 --> 01:20:50,000
 you'll be able to send that back to us and say, "Hey, I forgot to talk about this."

1024
01:20:50,000 --> 01:20:55,000
 But we've got a series of roundtables scheduled for the rest of today and tomorrow,

1025
01:20:55,000 --> 01:20:58,000
 so I'm sure we'll hear a whole lot more.

1026
01:20:58,000 --> 01:21:00,000
 And then when we come back together with you guys next month,

1027
01:21:00,000 --> 01:21:05,000
 we'll share everything that we've heard, you know, all the different concerns,

1028
01:21:05,000 --> 01:21:10,000
 what they think the opportunities are, each of the different roundtables.

1029
01:21:10,000 --> 01:21:13,000
 And then we'll be calling back from you guys for some individual interviews.

1030
01:21:13,000 --> 01:21:16,000
 If there's somebody that wants to have a phone call with us,

1031
01:21:16,000 --> 01:21:20,000
 we're happy to schedule that. If there's something else on your mind,

1032
01:21:20,000 --> 01:21:23,000
 something you want to share, a project, anything else.

1033
01:21:23,000 --> 01:21:27,000
 We really, like I said, we're drinking from a fire hose right now,

1034
01:21:27,000 --> 01:21:30,000
 and that's the way we like it, because this is the discovery of the period.

1035
01:21:30,000 --> 01:21:34,000
 This is when we really want to hear from you.

1036
01:21:34,000 --> 01:21:38,000
 So, can I ask one, actually more so for the group,

1037
01:21:38,000 --> 01:21:45,000
 as someone that's been here three years, what I see is a number of,

1038
01:21:45,000 --> 01:21:49,000
 and if we look at this in the five-year window, not the next year,

1039
01:21:49,000 --> 01:21:55,000
 but in the five-year window, a number of our professionals,

1040
01:21:55,000 --> 01:22:02,000
 physicians, CPAs, attorneys, I look at it from the healthcare side.

1041
01:22:02,000 --> 01:22:09,000
 It is designed several years back where those practices are single practice groups.

1042
01:22:09,000 --> 01:22:17,000
 And as we look at going from an 80,000 to 140,000 population,

1043
01:22:17,000 --> 01:22:20,000
 the ability to recruit into those is difficult,

1044
01:22:20,000 --> 01:22:23,000
 and I don't know about the other professionals as well,

1045
01:22:23,000 --> 01:22:29,000
 but also the ability over the next five years to backfill at the accurate pace,

1046
01:22:29,000 --> 01:22:36,000
 I think is something that the city can look at and engage in as well.

1047
01:22:36,000 --> 01:22:40,000
 And then, secondarily to that, where do these folks live

1048
01:22:40,000 --> 01:22:46,000
 in the type of houses and communities that they want to live in as well?

1049
01:22:46,000 --> 01:22:48,000
 Anything on that?

1050
01:22:48,000 --> 01:22:53,000
 I haven't heard housing from up yet, but that's critical.

1051
01:22:53,000 --> 01:22:55,000
 Housing is an issue.

1052
01:22:55,000 --> 01:22:58,000
 We've heard that from one of the other medical facilities as well,

1053
01:22:58,000 --> 01:23:02,000
 is we can attract the top talent physicians and medical professionals,

1054
01:23:02,000 --> 01:23:04,000
 but they don't live here.

1055
01:23:04,000 --> 01:23:10,000
 We want to live in a tiny, good, good area.

1056
01:23:10,000 --> 01:23:12,000
 Yeah, and the number of communities right now

1057
01:23:12,000 --> 01:23:15,000
 that are addressing what's called workforce housing,

1058
01:23:15,000 --> 01:23:21,000
 you know, having a spot for teachers and for emergency responders and others,

1059
01:23:21,000 --> 01:23:23,000
 that gap in the middle.

1060
01:23:23,000 --> 01:23:26,000
 Low income got covered, some of the high-end income they have covered,

1061
01:23:26,000 --> 01:23:28,000
 but there's a big gap in the middle.

1062
01:23:28,000 --> 01:23:32,000
 And I haven't looked at the numbers here and whether that's an issue for you guys or not.

1063
01:23:32,000 --> 01:23:36,000
 Interesting further conversation would be the slide that you showed

1064
01:23:36,000 --> 01:23:39,000
 where it showed workforce living and working and didn't.

1065
01:23:39,000 --> 01:23:41,000
 It hadn't changed.

1066
01:23:41,000 --> 01:23:43,000
 It didn't seem like the middle column.

1067
01:23:43,000 --> 01:23:44,000
 It didn't change.

1068
01:23:44,000 --> 01:23:45,000
 It hadn't changed hardly any.

1069
01:23:45,000 --> 01:23:48,000
 I think that's what we talked about, being able to keep our talent here

1070
01:23:48,000 --> 01:23:52,000
 and providing the proper, you know, homes and residences

1071
01:23:52,000 --> 01:23:55,000
 so people can buy and live here and work here.

1072
01:23:55,000 --> 01:24:00,000
 No, that's great, and that's the stuff we'll keep digging into.

1073
01:24:00,000 --> 01:24:04,000
 And, you know, thankfully the city has shared with us all the other documents,

1074
01:24:04,000 --> 01:24:07,000
 comp plan, other studies that have been done,

1075
01:24:07,000 --> 01:24:11,000
 so we have a lot of homework to go through that and make sure that, you know,

1076
01:24:11,000 --> 01:24:14,000
 we understand everything else that's going on.

1077
01:24:14,000 --> 01:24:16,000
 But it's moving fast right now.

1078
01:24:16,000 --> 01:24:20,000
 I mean, I get to work in a lot of cities across the state, across the country,

1079
01:24:20,000 --> 01:24:24,000
 and you guys really, there's that sense when you come to this community right now

1080
01:24:24,000 --> 01:24:27,000
 and I'm being told about new high school being built,

1081
01:24:27,000 --> 01:24:31,000
 I'm told about, you know, extension of the runway, I'm told about, you know,

1082
01:24:31,000 --> 01:24:33,000
 of course I'm getting the economic development.

1083
01:24:33,000 --> 01:24:34,000
 Okay, it's part of it.

1084
01:24:34,000 --> 01:24:40,000
 You know, expansion of 288 coming around, the coal and hunter.

1085
01:24:40,000 --> 01:24:42,000
 I mean, how many units?

1086
01:24:42,000 --> 01:24:43,000
 Seven thousand?

1087
01:24:43,000 --> 01:24:48,000
 Seven thousand units, what that's going to do to that corridor.

1088
01:24:48,000 --> 01:24:53,000
 I mean, you just got six miles closer to Fort Worth, you know,

1089
01:24:53,000 --> 01:24:57,000
 with that one development.

1090
01:24:57,000 --> 01:25:01,000
 And you, development is going to happen here.

1091
01:25:01,000 --> 01:25:05,000
 We are in the state of Texas and it is going to happen

1092
01:25:05,000 --> 01:25:08,000
 because we don't necessarily have the same tools that,

1093
01:25:08,000 --> 01:25:12,000
 we don't want the same tools that California or the Pacific Northwest has.

1094
01:25:12,000 --> 01:25:15,000
 So the development is going to happen and it's really about directing it

1095
01:25:15,000 --> 01:25:18,000
 and doing it in a smart way.

1096
01:25:18,000 --> 01:25:22,000
 And that's been our experience and you guys are in that path of growth

1097
01:25:22,000 --> 01:25:27,000
 on this side of town and you've got something that nobody else really has in the DFW area.

1098
01:25:27,000 --> 01:25:32,000
 You've got that authentic sort of downtown and university, college town,

1099
01:25:32,000 --> 01:25:36,000
 quirkiness, weirdness, inclusivity, diversity.

1100
01:25:36,000 --> 01:25:39,000
 You've got some things that people across the country right now

1101
01:25:39,000 --> 01:25:43,000
 are making decisions about where they live based on those factors.

1102
01:25:43,000 --> 01:25:45,000
 And they haven't done that in the past.

1103
01:25:45,000 --> 01:25:49,000
 It was all about where can I get a job and where can I, you know, make the most money.

1104
01:25:49,000 --> 01:25:55,000
 Now it's, you know, I can live in the DFW area and work for a company out of Chicago.

1105
01:25:55,000 --> 01:25:57,000
 You know, all I need is access to that.

1106
01:25:57,000 --> 01:26:03,000
 And if I, do I want to live in, you know, a recently manufactured community?

1107
01:26:03,000 --> 01:26:07,000
 Do I want to go to a place that feels like they're paying attention to redevelopment

1108
01:26:07,000 --> 01:26:10,000
 and they're paying attention to the music scene and the other things?

1109
01:26:10,000 --> 01:26:15,000
 So you guys got it going on and I think that there's a unique point in history right now

1110
01:26:15,000 --> 01:26:20,000
 for you guys to make sure you maintain that sort of sense, place that you have

1111
01:26:20,000 --> 01:26:25,000
 while at the same time taking advantage of a lot of the growth that's going to happen.

1112
01:26:25,000 --> 01:26:27,000
 Tom, I have a question.

1113
01:26:27,000 --> 01:26:34,000
 When Austin makes its pitch to potential companies,

1114
01:26:34,000 --> 01:26:39,000
 do they employ Flugerville and Round Lock and the surrounding areas

1115
01:26:39,000 --> 01:26:42,000
 to help them with their draw?

1116
01:26:42,000 --> 01:26:46,000
 Yeah, because a lot of times for Austin, and Charlie knows this since he was in Round Lock,

1117
01:26:46,000 --> 01:26:49,000
 the best location may not be in the city of Austin.

1118
01:26:49,000 --> 01:26:50,000
 Yeah.

1119
01:26:50,000 --> 01:26:57,000
 [inaudible]

1120
01:26:57,000 --> 01:27:02,000
 Austin's really good about realizing this is not going to fit here,

1121
01:27:02,000 --> 01:27:06,000
 but make sure it stays in the market and not go to school.

1122
01:27:06,000 --> 01:27:16,000
 [inaudible]

1123
01:27:16,000 --> 01:27:23,000
 Are we tapping our neighbors to make sure we have as much leverage as possible?

1124
01:27:23,000 --> 01:27:27,000
 Yeah, he's talking about the expo center.

1125
01:27:27,000 --> 01:27:32,000
 That's a huge influx for them, but you're not having to play for it.

1126
01:27:32,000 --> 01:27:34,000
 I mean, it's going to be covered.

1127
01:27:34,000 --> 01:27:37,000
 Yeah, and I can't remember if it was a commissioner or if it was you, Erica,

1128
01:27:37,000 --> 01:27:40,000
 that talked about the opportunity for collaboration.

1129
01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:41,000
 Or is this getting?

1130
01:27:41,000 --> 01:27:42,000
 [inaudible]

1131
01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:46,000
 Yeah, just knowing what your neighbors are up to.

1132
01:27:46,000 --> 01:27:48,000
 And a lot of times you're going to continue to compete,

1133
01:27:48,000 --> 01:27:53,000
 but just knowing what they're up to and being able to share a little bit of information

1134
01:27:53,000 --> 01:27:58,000
 and saying, "Hey, you guys are further ahead than we are on developing your convention,"

1135
01:27:58,000 --> 01:28:02,000
 or whatever it is, like, "Wow, we need to give that up.

1136
01:28:02,000 --> 01:28:08,000
 Let you guys take that, and we'll take this other asset."

1137
01:28:08,000 --> 01:28:12,000
 So this is a perfect start for us.

1138
01:28:12,000 --> 01:28:15,000
 I know you've got other issues that are probably burning,

1139
01:28:15,000 --> 01:28:22,000
 and we're going to have opportunities to hear everything throughout this process.

1140
01:28:22,000 --> 01:28:25,000
 But I will let you know that this is where I have some of the dates.

1141
01:28:25,000 --> 01:28:29,000
 We are going to be back the 11th through the 13th.

1142
01:28:29,000 --> 01:28:34,000
 And remind me, Jessica, is there a date in there?

1143
01:28:34,000 --> 01:28:37,000
 The 12th is the date.

1144
01:28:37,000 --> 01:28:39,000
 Is that our normal meeting?

1145
01:28:39,000 --> 01:28:41,000
 That's the second Wednesday.

1146
01:28:41,000 --> 01:28:47,000
 Yeah, so we'll send a notice back out to you guys just so that you have this calendar

1147
01:28:47,000 --> 01:28:50,000
 and you can make sure that you've got it.

1148
01:28:50,000 --> 01:28:54,000
 But over that period of time, we're going to do additional focus group meetings and interviews.

1149
01:28:54,000 --> 01:28:58,000
 We'll bring you guys back together, and then we're going to share with you

1150
01:28:58,000 --> 01:29:00,000
 some of the things that we've heard.

1151
01:29:00,000 --> 01:29:04,000
 And we'll do some additional research on some of the projects.

1152
01:29:04,000 --> 01:29:08,000
 And then we'll be back for what we call an opportunity workshop in March.

1153
01:29:08,000 --> 01:29:09,000
 That's what we're saying.

1154
01:29:09,000 --> 01:29:16,000
 Okay, here are the things that make the most sense for you to apply resources to going forward.

1155
01:29:16,000 --> 01:29:22,000
 Let's start thinking about what does that really mean for you to commit to that.

1156
01:29:22,000 --> 01:29:32,000
 And we'll have sort of a prioritization workshop in April and then a final there in May.

1157
01:29:32,000 --> 01:29:33,000
 That's where we are.

1158
01:29:33,000 --> 01:29:35,000
 Thank you guys very much.

1159
01:29:35,000 --> 01:29:40,000
 And we do have another meeting here in about 15 minutes with the Chamber.

1160
01:29:40,000 --> 01:29:43,000
 But we're going to stick around for a few minutes.

1161
01:29:43,000 --> 01:29:47,000
 So if there's something else you wanted to say, feel free to come catch us.

1162
01:29:47,000 --> 01:29:52,000
 We'll send all of this back out to you along with the questions again.

1163
01:29:52,000 --> 01:29:55,000
 Tell us what you're thinking.

1164
01:29:55,000 --> 01:30:01,000
 If you want to get on phone with us at any point, just let Jessica know and we'll arrange that.

1165
01:30:01,000 --> 01:30:06,000
 We'll be back here in about a month.

1166
01:30:06,000 --> 01:30:10,000
 And I will reiterate that when we say we want your honest feedback,

1167
01:30:10,000 --> 01:30:14,000
 we mean it in whatever capacity you want to give it in.

1168
01:30:14,000 --> 01:30:18,000
 If you feel more comfortable providing it in writing or if you want to talk to Tom on the phone,

1169
01:30:18,000 --> 01:30:20,000
 certainly reach out to me.

1170
01:30:20,000 --> 01:30:24,000
 This board is meant to help us guide this plan forward.

1171
01:30:24,000 --> 01:30:26,000
 And so you're serving as the steering committee.

1172
01:30:26,000 --> 01:30:34,000
 So if you are hearing things or you hear from your colleagues or coworkers or fellow professionals in your industries,

1173
01:30:34,000 --> 01:30:38,000
 if you're hearing things, we want to know what they have to say.

1174
01:30:38,000 --> 01:30:40,000
 This is meant to be an open process, a transparent one.

1175
01:30:40,000 --> 01:30:45,000
 This is about this community having a plan to move forward for.

1176
01:30:45,000 --> 01:30:48,000
 So if you have information, please share it.

1177
01:30:48,000 --> 01:30:57,000
 And I sincerely mean that in whatever capacity that you want to share that information.

1178
01:30:57,000 --> 01:30:58,000
 Thank you guys very much.

1179
01:30:58,000 --> 01:30:59,000
 Thank you.