City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Economic Development Commission, 7 Jan 2022

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From YouTube: 1.7.2022 Economic Development Commission

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1.7.2022 Economic Development Commission

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Well, that's juan allen. Wasn't it.

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Members, members.

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Fantastic experiences since the public school, it's also been a fantastic.

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Elementary experience, so that's my um background, live and work in uh smith and happy to be starving.

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My name is jacob lahu. I I grew up in the city, so I've been here for 27 years now. I'm graduating.

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From university of new hampshire, with an economics degree, I always wanted to do this kind of stuff.

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Started getting more involved in the city during the start of the code, academic council, we're.

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Trying to get more cultures in these meetings, this is you know, one account that I really wanted to.

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Sit on because I really have passion for this kind of kind of work that we do so um I'm a software.

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Engineer by trade, but I spent my first three years working in finance over mps. um I now work.

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In my remote office at home downtown, so it was easy to walk here this morning, I'll be.

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In the snow um but yeah I'm really excited to be here and kind of kind of provide. My perspective.

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Guys so uh next would just like to review the minutes from our last meeting of december 3rd 2021.

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Promotion to approve the nets if anyone is sold.

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um Technically, you should be doing roll call, because you've got folks that are.

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Remote for the minutes, I'm not too worried about that, but um we're doing anything.

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We should also introduce.

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Acting deputy city manager suzanne, who has been kind enough to sit in for city manager,.

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Canard, who was not able to be here today and she's? She deserves special thanks because.

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She's been really at the front of our technical issues and probably gotten less sleep than.

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I don't know it's so thank you for everything you're doing on that, and thank you for sitting.

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Next on today's agenda, we have a presentation from the.

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Seacoast region, small business development center from ed miles and.

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Both of you, if you'd like to kick us off here, sure.

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Thank you uh amy. Do you want to share the presentation.

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Let's see, let's see.

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Well, they're doing that for our new members, I'll just let you know that we have a partnership with.

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The small business development center and has had one for several years and I think ed- will.

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Elaborate on that a little bit more, but we do have an in-kind office that we offer here in the cyborg.

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Building for their spdc advisors to meet with local businesses for their for their advising.

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It's been a great partnership and I'm excited to hear what the friends are.

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What they're, seeing through the two-year covet um period that we've been experiencing.

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All right, well uh nancy, thank you for inviting us today uh and, as was said, I'm ed miles, I'm the.

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New seacoast regional director for the small business development center here in new hampshire.

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And amy sterndale is here: she's a business advisor.

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And what I'll do is I'll talk a little bit about the small business? Can you guys hear me? Okay,.

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You guys hear me: okay, yes, okay, I apologize. um What I'll do is just talk a little bit about.

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The small business development center and who we are and then amy's going to.

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Get into some more specifics about impact in portsmouth and the seacoast region, and then.

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Statewide so amy, if you go to the next slide, please.

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So we again with the we're the spdc, the small business development center. Sometimes we get.

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Confused with the sba, but we're actually a cooperative agreement with the sva so and we.

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Are a cooperative extension of the university of new hampshire, so amy and I are unh employees as.

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Employees of the spdc what they offer us is office, space in durham and the front office.

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Administration function of the university system um were funded by the state of new.

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Hampshire, so, and by the sba. So when the governor passes his bi-annual budget back in june, we were.

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Under a line item under the bea office, uh they wrote us in at 390 000, so that was a major source.

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Of funding the small business administration uh matches that dollar for dollars, so 390 000 for.

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22 and for 23, the sba matches that dollar for dollar 390 thousand dollars for 22 and 23 and.

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We also have some private sector funding as well. We are the only sbdc in the state of new hampshire.

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Nationwide, there's about 62 sbdcs, larger population densities such as california, and.

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Texas have two or three spdcs, but in the state of new hampshire, we're the only one. Okay next slide.

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So what do we do? uh I would say the the number one thing we do is offer confidential no-cost business.

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Advising services, in addition to that training, so one-on-one business advising with small businesses.

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uh As categorized uh by the federal government is uh businesses of one to 499 employees.

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And we, we are best known, I think, for helping startups, but that's actually the the lesser.

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Part of what we do so around 23 of what we do is helping uh startups and the majority of what we do.

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Is helping existing businesses so whatever stage of the business might be in whether it's seeking.

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Access to capital, bringing a new product to market, or certainly over the past 20 months, a lot of.

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Assistance with navigating the relief funding and covert relief programs, that was a the majority of.

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What we were doing these past 20 months, but the three main services we provide- are that one-on-one.

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Confidential in-person or online advising services, we do have a lot of e-courses that are available.

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Online and uh webinars uh by the numbers we did over 200 webinars over the past uh 12 or so months,.

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Specifically, many of them related to how to navigate relief, funding. Okay next slide.

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And again, the businesses that we serve are small businesses.

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Some of the numbers by the numbers- uh 3 000 or so existing businesses.

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In 200 communities all across the state of new hampshire at every stage of the business.

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We've seen uh a lot of businesses, uh especially the past six months or so moving into wanting.

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To understand uh attrition planning, whether it be uh generational or exit strategies, uh we've seen.

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More of that recently, uh we are our diversity of the business advisors. We have 10 business.

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Advisors on staff that can uh service any sector so whether it's manufacturing retail technology.

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Construction, we have advisors that are strong in all those areas and then some more statistics I'd.

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Say it's a fairly even split between uh male and female, about 50 50 as far as business ownership.

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Roughly nine percent are veteran, uh six percent are minority about, twelve percent are in the.

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Retail sector- um maybe ten percent uh are so are in the accommodation and food services and once.

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Again, uh 23 of those businesses are startups, but 77 of them are existing businesses. Just looking.

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For guidance in uh overall strategic guidance, access to capital and uh again more recently,.

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Attrition planning, okay, next slide; okay, who so, who are we? uh Many of you know warren daniel.

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He's been with the new hampshire small business development center for.

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21 years now, warren was most recently the seacoast regional director.

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uh Covering the seacoast region, which is shown there in red, uh we call the seacoast sort of from.

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Where you guys are in portsmouth up to around wolfeboro, which is the greater region of.

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Reaches of what we call the seacoast region and myself, uh I'm a business advisor and.

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Again, the new seacoast regional director I took over warren's role. Warren is working at a 50.

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Capacity now so he's working 20 hours a week and then amy sterndale, uh who is a business advisor.

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In the seacoast region, and as nancy mentioned, we have a partnership with the city of portsmouth.

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And with the edc and amy uh will oftentimes be in the portsmouth office um and we're also available.

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On zoom so now I will have amy kind of take over she's gonna present some uh impact numbers for.

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Portsmouth, the seacoast and statewide and then we'll just open it up to questions in the end.

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Thanks ed uh so nice to be here today, um because we're funded by several branches, as ed mentioned,.

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We spend a lot of time making sure that we're tracking data to show our.

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Impact on economic development around the state, so, while our clients are confidential, we can tell.

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You that last year, just in portsmouth alone and clients, included a wide variety of businesses.

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I was looking through the list this morning and just making a couple notes. Restaurants,.

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Construction companies, theaters consultants, title companies, child care, centers, cleaning,.

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Companies, retail brick, mortar, brick and mortar and online uh some breweries medical offices.

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Wellness centers hotels, interior designers, architecture firms and even a few non-profits.

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That we've we've helped through some. You know business related uh challenges, so.

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um Just to sort of paint that picture and his ed said, I'm just going to take three slides to show.

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You that just the numbers on portsmouth the the seacoast region, not including that wolfeboro that.

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We talked about that's tagged into our territory, but but not technically what we call sea coast.

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And then the whole state so for oops done there. It is um so for portsmouth, um just in 2021.

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uh The three of us um with a little bit of help, a couple other advisors, but mostly it was us spent.

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uh 246 hours, helping 77 clients- and this is just zero- three eight zero one. Just specifically that.

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um Zip code, um I think we did have more than four new business starts. We had a lot of people.

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Starting businesses, these are people who actually went from from uh being a startup to actually.

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Starting their business that we've measured, I think there's actually that's a little bit short.

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um But 138 new jobs were either created or retained because of help that they got from us.

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We helped, of course, a large part of our job is normally helping people get access to.

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Capital getting them ready to get in front of a bank or an economic development corporation.

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Or other investors, so we're doing you know we're helping them with business plans and projections.

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um Last year we did help them get almost three million dollars in new capital, and that does.

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Not include the covid uh funding, the ppp and the eidl that we spent a lot of our time last year of.

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Course, um helping people navigate, um in addition, just tracking uh our clients to report their own.

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Sales numbers each year and we saw one point: almost 1.5 million in client sales, growth.

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Those uh 77 clients have 670 employees um that they're reporting and just about 116 million.

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Dollars in total sales, um so we did about 309 sessions last year and I sort of want to take.

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A second on that last note, because, because of kovid, we really weren't in the office last year.

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And since really since march of 2020, my main office is in portsmouth city hall uh in the siebel.

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Building and it's uh it's a phenomenal space and it was great I really enjoyed being in there.

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But as clients wanted to move home and um and with everything, coveted related.

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We found that zoom actually worked really really well for our clients, because they were able to.

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Meet us wherever they were, whether they were home or in their offices, and they didn't have to travel.

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So we were able to, I think, probably meet with more um clients than usual because of the.

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Travel time and we didn't have as many um you know- cancellations, just zooms easy to jump on.

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So, even if you don't see me there in the office, I just want to be clear that.

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Those sessions really happened in last year and uh we have a lot of really great portsmouth clients.

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um And if you go out to the whole seacoast, I um I just drew a little map. This is what we're defining.

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Is of course, there's different definitions of the sea coast, but up to durham over to epping and.

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Down to hampton falls and um and hampton beach and those numbers, oh I made this fancier. Thank you.

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Our look at uh um so that's 963 hours, 232, clients, um uh 10, almost 10, almost 11 million dollars in.

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New client capital um uh over 200 jobs created or retained, and, uh looking at you know, over 200.

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Million dollars in total sales, I was very sad to see we had 999 sessions with those clients, because.

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That just seems unfortunate that we couldn't get one more in, but maybe we're missing some data.

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There, but that gives you a sense of sort of of our impact in the whole sea code. So if you jump back.

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For a second just to portsmouth, you can see that the sales here about are about half of.

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What we saw for the whole sea coast region, but, of course, there's many, many more smaller.

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Businesses when you go outside of portsmouth, so it was 77 clients in portsmouth, but.

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230 232 clients for this whole region. Just give you an idea: the different kinds of clients we're.

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Often, working with um now, if we take that out to the whole state we have uh last year, we advised.

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1750 small businesses across new hampshire there were 71 new business starts that were recorded.

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They reported our clients reported that we helped either create or save 1772 jobs, so.

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You know in a covered year we were pretty proud of that. Obviously part of that comes from ppp.

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um And uh and some from eidl uh 47 million dollars in new client capital, that should actually say new.

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Capital for clients, not new clients, um 22 almost 23 million in client sales growth, just in 2021.

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Which, again, is, I think, impressive, given what we were dealing with with covid.

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And we also, we really shifted last year, as I think ed mentioned, into doing a lot of webinars.

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um Because there were so many people who needed sort of urgent help in in very specific ways.

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Around cares, act funding and we were able to bring some of our advisors um who were.

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Really adept at explaining the the intricacies of those application forms, so we had a lot of.

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Covert related training events and just to address questions, answer questions and make sure that.

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Everyone was moving forward, the way they needed to there's. There was a lot of people who.

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I think would not have been able to get through those applications. We're not we're not for our.

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Help so we're really proud of that as well, when we measure economic impact. Of course, you all know.

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The complexity of how we do that we do this as a five-year average, so we haven't actually looked.

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At 2021 yet, but this is our most recent number and you look at the previous five years um in a.

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Variety of uh metrics and then make a five-year average. So we've we have reported 166 million.

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Of economic impact for um for the state in relative to our support, so that's something.

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We're really proud of as well. um Let me just take a quick look on beyond our client impact.

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We have done. Let me just take here uh just a couple quick highlights, so we we communicate a.

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Lot throughout the year with all of our clients, we send newsletters and of course, you know, individual.

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Advisors are always reaching out and um setting up meetings touching base with everyone, um but.

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uh Some things that happened in 2021 that I think we were particularly proud of um many of you were.

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Familiar with the resiliency survey that started in 2020 um and came in three parts that we got.

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Really, terrific numbers of people too, with a lot of support from chambers. Folks, like you.

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And everyone's just sharing this survey across the state to be able to measure the impact of cobia 19.

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I think that really made a big difference to a lot of our organizations to understand where we needed.

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To support them more and to how to help these businesses recover. uh The second piece was we.

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Based on conversations we were having in 2020, we had created a chambers of.

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Commerce collaborative that um came out of just conversations about needing to have a better a.

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Stronger relationship with our chambers across the state- and I think that was has been very.

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Very successful have someone who's really focused on um doing this work and getting advisors more.

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In touch with and more meetings and chambers, and just so that the chambers can share.

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What we do with their members, we can make sure that um there's no um duplicate efforts.

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And that we're we're available to everyone in in each community. um Finally, the resiliency.

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Academy is something we created with unh extension. um This was a terrific program that.

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um Ed, how many was it four sessions we had four sessions? We had, I think, 235 uh different attendee.

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Businesses represented, and uh it was you know when you, when you do something like uh put on a.

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Program like the resiliency academy, you wonder how many people are gonna attend and I was really.

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Happy with seeing 235 people in the first session, then after that, I think it went down to about 200.

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After the first session, just from scheduling aware, but it was, it was really successful and um yeah. So.

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Resiliency academy was a big win for 2021 for sure absolutely um we did cyber security work. We had.

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A matchmaker with the new hampshire tech alliance that went really well that we did entirely online.

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And talk about a technical um achievement to to I don't know how many hundreds of uh matchmaker.

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One-On-One sort of event dating events we were able to set up between all of these.

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Investors and all of these tech companies in new hampshire, but that was um that was another.

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Success as well, we also, I, I think, spent a lot of time, strengthening our relationships with.

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um Sba unh dea, the banks and credit unions. We've always had strong relationships with.

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They send us clients regularly to help them get ready to come back and ask for capital.

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um And then all the state's economic development corporations, those have.

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Always been strong relationships for us, but with all of the kind of creativity that was.

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Required to get through covid, I think a lot of those relationships really.

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Went to another level in 2021, so that's something we're really proud of as well.

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And I'll just uh I'll add, uh maybe just as a new program that we just launched at the beginning.

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At the very end of 21, in the beginning of 22., we have a program, an assistant program with funds.

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Set aside, where we're giving small businesses up to five hours of work, either on financials.

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With a bookkeeper or cpa, or even a part-time cfo or up to five hours of consulting services,.

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With an outside agency, a marketing agency and that's called the fame program, financial.

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Accelerator marketing expediter the fame program, but when small businesses work with us, we can.

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Pay for the first five hours of those services, uh the invoices come directly to us.

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And it's with a third party, so that's a recent program that we just launched as well. Yeah.

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That's been really really uh exciting for a lot of clients who just need a little help with marketing.

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Or a little help with you know getting their books set up or um some accounting. You know an extra set.

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Of eyes on their on their um their financials, so we've had that. That's been really fun to see.

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Roll out in the last few years, 48, we already have 48 clients taking advantage of the fame program. So.

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That's a new stat, it's a new stat. That's right, and that's it! That's that's all I have thank you. It's.

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So much so nice to be here this morning, thanks for inviting us any questions from anyone at all.

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um So you mentioned the resiliency uh survey and some work you've done on resiliency with uh some.

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Companies, and just wondering um is some of that uh due to uh or some of their work due to the.

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Fact that there are very few employees available, particularly in the in the hospitality sector,.

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And do you see people changing their business models um to compensate for that.

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That's a great question: I think that um it's not the resiliency survey didn't come about because.

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Of the employee challenge, one thing I don't think we mentioned this morning is: we have had a lot of.

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Meetings individually with clients struggling with the employee crisis, but also warren and.

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I have been meeting with, I think the first meeting had 40 different restaurant owners.

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um We met in dover on a monday morning and all of these restaurant owners showed up from around the.

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Seacoast just to talk about this one issue, because of course it's it's a huge crisis for them, so I.

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Would say rather than the survey um addressing it, I think the survey definitely measured that so.

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um We can uh resend or nancy, may have the the full report, um which is out now.

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Showing how uh what state people uh businesses across the state said about these challenges.

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Individually, um so- and I I can certainly attest this- is what we talk about in our weekly meetings.

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All the time and are you know constantly thinking about how what are the creative solutions to help.

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Businesses, um you know, attract and keep uh employees. uh So that's that's something that.

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We are currently, I would say, you know where I used to be talking about ppp all day, long.

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Now I'm talking about employee retention all day long and I think specifically the curriculum for.

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The resiliency academy, when it was created um and when we did the resiliency academy, uh we were in.

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Certainly in the in the beginning stages of what became the employment uh crisis, but uh it wasn't.

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Part of the curriculum, but when people got into the academy it was really a best practices, kind of.

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Environment, we had cohorts and breakout sessions where people would break small businesses would.

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Break out and talk about their current challenges, there was a lot of best practices shared.

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And specifically, uh employment came up uh not just uh so retention and uh and finding new employees.

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But some of it was how do you communicate with your employees during this crisis and.

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And best practices around that as well. So how do you communicate what's going on? How do you.

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Communicate if we're going to close, you know today or be open today or if we have a code event. So.

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There was a lot of good information shared within the resiliency academy uh in those cohort sessions.

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I just wanted to connect the dots here because I don't know, but at our last month's meeting we had.

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Sean mckinley from unh present the resiliency survey data that excellent had purchased just.

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For portsmouth, so I wanted to connect the dots with the edc and you folks, you know you know.

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You're the people on the ground, working with the businesses that are dealing with the issues that.

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We were presented last month and also, I know, probably speaking, for ben van kamp, the president.

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Of the chamber who's here today as well, I know that we participated in a lot of those.

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um 2021 events that you did the resiliency academy and um and at least or a tool for.

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You and sending out the information to our businesses here um when the surveys come up or.

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um I'd like to know a little bit more about the fame program, so that I can.

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Get that information out with my business list and I'll connect with you later on that.

A

Yeah, I I have one quick question. You mentioned that you were working with.

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Businesses on succession planning, I'm wondering if that's part, of a larger um business continuity.

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Initiative that that folks are asking for which could include.

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Employee retention, cyber security in a number of areas that you've touched on individually.

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I'm not sure how to answer that question. I think that those issues each sort of come up.

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Individually in our with our clients, I mean I can we can say that um succession planning is a bigger.

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Issue, I think, for the sbdc than it's ever been simply because of more baby boomers.

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Getting you know, retiring and there's more people at a certain age, getting ready to.

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um Either sell or or move their business down to the next generation. So uh so that's something we.

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Sort of deal with, specifically, I think, separate from uh employee retention. They come up. I think.

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I would say is different, I don't know about you ed, but they come up for me as um as different issues.

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I think that we're getting better at creating more of these programs and promoting them so that we've.

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Done the cyber security you know work last year and we'll do more of it next year, because I think.

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Small businesses- you know just as a quick note on cyber security, really don't appreciate that.

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It's a very big issue for them that they're much more vulnerable than the bigger companies who have.

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You know big-it departments, so we talked a lot about um making sure they're they're.

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You know doing five basic things to protect themselves. um Does that answer your question.

A

Not specifically, maybe I can follow up afterwards. I just think that, looking at it as a whole.

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Is important in the context of business continuity, as opposed to separate programs, I'm interested in.

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How your programs integrate with one another so I'll, follow up afterwards yeah happy to chat more.

F

Any more questions.

B

Just a up to uh my first question, the the um companies who are uh who lack.

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Employees right now, do you see them changing their operations to uh accommodate, for that.

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And maybe going forward using less employees or needing less employees to.

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To run their business and if so, what do you think the long-term impact of that is.

F

And I can uh I'll go first, I'm sure amy has a similar experience, but specifically with uh the.

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Small businesses that I advise, I would say that um I don't know the numbers, but many of them have.

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Adjusted their hours and their days of operation, um I don't know if I'd say some of them have had.

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To learn to be able to operate with less employees just because some employees have have left and not.

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Come back um but, for example, businesses that have decided instead of being open seven days a week.

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They're going to close monday and tuesday, and I can think of more than one example of a small.

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Business sharing with me that they close monday and tuesday and they're more profitable than.

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They were when they were open, seven days a week um because they reduced their overall expenses and.

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So, making adjustments for employees who have not returned and just making adjustments to.

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uh Their hours of operation and days of operation is a trend that I've seen.

G

Yeah I'd agree with that. I would say specifically to the restaurants that um in that first meeting.

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It was really quite shocking that more than half of those owners were saying that they were back on.

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The line they were back working in the kitchen um and- and you know the working you know where.

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They had started out, you know working 60, 70 80 hours. They were back to doing that to cover all.

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Of what they needed and in addition to as ed said and I'm sure, you've all experienced this going out.

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To dinner on a monday or tuesday, most restaurants are now closed on those nights, because it's not.

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Profitable, they don't have enough staff and they need to give the people who are there a break.

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So I think it's going to be an interesting dance, moving forward of who re-expands their hours.

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And who decides um to sort of work more um uh with it with a tighter team and because it's they don't.

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Really have a sense of any confidence that uh they're going it's going to be easier soon to.

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Get more employees um and I think, there's you know right now, there's just there's still a.

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Lot of money flowing a lot of people just aren't looking for work when um they normally would be.

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And I think until we see that this is this is going to be an ongoing challenge for businesses.

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So we do love watching all of the creativity that comes has come with covid. So many interesting.

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Ideas have come out from all of our businesses and how to work more efficiently. How to you know.

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Cut some of the fat how to um rethink what they're doing to really uh get back to their.

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Mission um but uh worse, I think, for that part of it we're still very much in the middle of it.

F

And I'll say I just want to make an additional comment. We have seen. I I'm specifically working.

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With a distribution client that their staff was, I think, 38 employees and now they're 24 employees.

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And they just are focusing on being more efficient, so um it sounds like a dramatic.

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Drop, you know what is that roughly a third of their of their of their staff, but they they've.

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Made adjustments to how they're doing things and and leveraging operational efficiencies to do.

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To do the same job with less people, so I've seen that as well. Does that answer that question.

B

uh Thanks for a great presentation, I'm curious if you're, seeing any um wage pressures.

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Changes in policy or change your perspective amongst these businesses trying to attract.

F

More workers and all of the efficiencies, so it was the question wage wage pressure. I wait. uh You're.

B

Seeing wage pressure for increased wages, sorry about infrastructure. No! That's! Okay! uh I would say.

F

I don't think I've seen that, specifically um some of the guidance that we're giving on.

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Employment is uh on seeking new employees is so I have not seen wage pressure related to retention.

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With new employees- and we actually have a blog on the sbdc website about um the new the new norm for.

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Hiring, uh what we're saying is you we're we're giving guidance that they should take hiring.

F

Away from hr and have marketing do the hiring, but marketing and collaboration with hr, but promoting.

F

Things uh that are beyond the dollar per hour rate, promoting uh experience on the job longevity uh at.

F

The company with uh opportunity to move up within an organization um benefits uh intrinsic and and.

F

Tangible benefits so we've seen what we're giving guidance on is to when you're seeking.

F

New employees don't just put out a dollar per hour, put out other things like com, offering a long-term.

F

Place for somebody to grow um at a company so or at a business so amy, I don't know if you've seen.

F

Wage I haven't seen any real. You know people increasing wages to for retention or hiring.

G

Again, I think I think warren would agree with this. The restaurants are definitely.

G

um Having to increase wages, but also talking a lot more about that both culture and and not, you know.

G

A lot of people get into restaurant work as sort of a job before they start their career.

G

But that bigger push to talk about this could be your career. Getting in you know, uh inviting people.

G

In to to learn and grow within a restaurant, um I think has been a place and and just again helping.

G

People helping businesses to think creativity, creativity, I can't speak this more. I need more.

G

Coffee, sorry um about uh what the incentive is, it might be flexible hours, it might be.

G

uh Wages, it might be culture, it might be um uh on the job training. You don't. You know, making sure.

G

That you're you're matching up with what your your new employees are going to be looking for.

G

Thank you. Anyone else have questions. No, I just have a couple. uh It sounds like all in all. Thanks.

B

To the good high level data that you guys have went through today, that 2021 is a pretty strong.

B

Year, it's maybe not strong, but certainly resilient in the face of everything going on are. There are.

B

There issues that are there aside kind of the ones that touched on that this group would be.

B

Would be helpful for us to be aware of that you're seeing specific enforcement.

B

At this point, that you're hearing is a common theme.

G

You know question I get. A lot is sort of the navigating how to open. um You know.

G

A business downtown understanding what's required, um and, and so that's something.

G

That we often we're sending them to sort of different people within city hall, but.

G

I I think, just as a I hadn't thought a lot about this question beforehand, but I would say: that's.

G

Something that comes up regularly that I wish I knew more of the answers up front like this is.

G

What you need, for um you know your ada bathroom. I learned a lot about 88 bathrooms last year.

G

When I had a rochester client that needed to um to build out before he could get his.

G

uh You know his sign-off from the health inspector and and but that it was so much more complex.

G

Than I had um previously understood, so I think some of those pieces is, as you all think, about.

G

What can you do to make things easier like? Are there short videos that can walk people through.

G

Some of the top 10 questions that you all get or city hall gets um but I'll think more about.

G

That, and if I have some, you know uh concrete um ideas, I'll I'll bring them back to nancy.

F

I think uh you know amy mentioned one very specific thing. You know ada bathroom, but but.

F

What I'll say is uh when small business this will be the little tv commercial for the sbdc, but we.

F

Work with so many diverse uh challenges with small businesses and then we multiply that exponentially.

F

By the 10 business advisors that we have and we get together, weekly and talk as a staff.

F

So the the things that we deal with from ada bathrooms to you know how do I get this certain.

F

Certification or or occupancy, and that type of thing there's such a diverse background that.

F

We have uh and the number of clients I think I work with 200 small businesses right now and then.

F

Again exponentially 10 business advisors, so the types of things we deal with day in and day out.

F

To be able to offer this no charge one-on-one confidential, advising services, we can be the.

F

Curators of information for all of that uh information and wisdom that all the advisors have.

F

So it's I'm relatively new to the sbdc, but I just think it's really a fantastic service.

F

Completely no charge and working with small businesses from one employee I'd say that.

F

Our sweet spot is, probably, I don't have the statistically, but I think it maybe is.

F

uh The one to five employee and then 20 to 50 employees, that's kind of what I've seen.

F

With my clients, but it's up to the 499 so um really a fantastic service.

F

Thank you and then just a second follow my follow-up question, but the second question.

B

In terms of funding, you had talked about new capital, 2 clients. Are you seeing any.

B

Inability to access capital when needed is it generally to facilitate growth or to sort of.

B

Sustain companies just interested to see here, if they're they're having difficulty and is.

B

That, coming generally from banks or more on the investor private side of things, I think, when the.

G

When tpp was flowing and banks were really buried with that paperwork, we had almost no uh loan.

G

Packages going through banks and credit unions, there was just they didn't, have any bandwidth for.

G

It and they didn't have any comfort with looking at that kind of investment and growth. There was.

G

More, I think happening with economic development corporations during that period, since ppp ended.

G

I would say we're I feel like with my clients, I'm kind of back to normal. With um you know, banks you.

G

Know, clients still need to have a few years under their belt. They've got to show um some progress.

G

And then, but I have a number of um really nice bank loans going through this week, that I'm really.

G

Excited about so um so I feel like in that sense. um uh Banks are, you know, most lending institutions.

G

Are excited to get back to business um and are are feeling more. You know more comfortable. I don't.

G

Have a lot of new restaurants opening right now, but um but I do have. uh I have a lot of people who.

G

uh Left their jobs and who are excited to finally follow their dream, and so some of those are.

G

You know some of those are gonna work out very well for them, but that that is definitely part of.

G

The trend we're seeing of you know: where did all those employees go? A lot of them are coming now.

G

To us to start their business and I think again just to to go on what uh amy was saying during.

F

The pandemic uh banks were not loaning any money and, and banks always like that commercial banks.

F

Like to round out their portfolios, so some just straight up would say no to food services and we.

F

Knew the ones that we could go to for that or not go to for that. But I just met with uh chris duffy.

F

Or he just actually came and spoke to our seacoast group last week and we asked him from redc. We said.

F

Is there any uh loans that you're not giving right now, for example, food service? I said specifically.

F

He said no we're doing, there's nobody that we're not loaning money to they just have to have.

F

Everything in place, you know we're not just giving the money, but uh he said we're not saying no to.

F

Food service we're there's no category that we're not lending to. um So I think that um I think that.

F

We're seeing it free up a little bit more, both commercially and then within within edc's, as well.

F

And I just made a comment about new business starts or new businesses. People wanting to start.

F

New businesses, we just went over some statistics uh internally and I think we had roughly.

F

A little over 20 new business starts in 2020, and then we had 71 new business starts in 2021.

F

Which is kind of a staggering number triple the business starts, and what amy said.

F

People who either ended up working from home and saying you know what.

F

I kind of like this, and I've always wanted to do this business, I'm going to come alongside.

F

My day job and get this going then jump into it. I think we saw a lot of that happen in 2021.

F

And I think, beginning 22 we're going to continue to see a trend in new business starts.

F

Tom sure my question actually relates to the new business starts uh and I'm just wondering.

B

How uh how involved do you get in uh helping people determine the viability of their.

B

Of their concept, their new concept of what type of business I I'm gonna answer for both of us.

F

Because I think that uh we get very involved to answer your question and uh amy and I have.

F

Said this before to each other a lot of times. We encourage people to keep their day job.

F

So we, you know, we we get very involved. We want to understand how they want to monetize their idea.

F

You know you can have a great idea, but how do you make money doing it and I actually have two.

F

uh Non-Profits that want to get started so they're they're, looking more to follow a passion than to.

F

Follow you know how they're going to contribute to their household income, but we do get very involved.

F

Strategically, with sometimes encouraging people to uh continue to work in the in the role that is.

F

Currently contributing to their household income, while they put a little bit more effort into their.

F

Idea um amy, I don't know if that does that answer your question? Yes, okay, you're, very involved with.

F

That and sometimes heartbreaking, yeah I've sometimes we're not people's favorite person.

G

Sometimes we don't make people happy. Sometimes we make them really happy, but it's.

G

It's hard, but that's an important part of our job for sure.

F

I wanted to share. uh I was wanting to share this real quickly when we were on the topic.

F

Of the labor market, this was an article that came out in june. um If you can see my screen.

F

Hiring tips in a tight labor market, so this was uh published in june of this past year and it's just.

F

uh Basically, you know what are some new best practices, including wages.

F

And retention bonuses and things that are related to you know monetary aspects, but.

F

um Just some best practices in hiring in a tight labor market. So that's something that.

F

We published in june and um actually contributed to an article this past week that I think the.

F

Fosters is going to publish in the coming weeks on on hiring in the current market.

F

Any more questions.

F

Thank you amy. Thank you for having me thank you so much for watching.

G

Great great work, oh thanks for having us.

E

Chairman, if I could just follow up on some of the things that they raised.

E

Is happening at the regional level with economic development, in collaboration with.

E

The state business and economic affairs office they've established these regional groups of.

E

Communities and providers that are um economic development professionals that.

E

Are working together and we have one here in the seacoast that I've talked about before.

E

But the state has come back and they're using some of their arpa funds to provide grants up to.

E

50 000 to these what they're, calling the regional areas and we have been working on putting together.

E

Knowing that this hiring attraction and retention issue is huge, we're putting together a proposal.

E

To do a series of short videos that employ some of our local businesses that we know are having.

E

Success they're having they have best practices and it gets to some of the marketing your culture.

E

Marketing the perks um and and how these companies are doing this successfully, so we are putting in a.

E

A proposal to do that, one on retention and one on attraction so we're at 9 30. We have a call about.

E

Finding the appropriate consultant to help us do that to do this media piece so um more to.

E

Come on than that, but I'll I'll, let you know if we're successful in that, but we think that.

E

There's been a lot of during covet, it's been hard to get, people to assemble and people have.

E

Zoom fatigue, but people do like to consume information just through the video piece and we.

E

Think that might be helpful if there's some familiar faces that people recognize on that.

E

And these people are willing to maybe have some one-on-one sessions with people that want to dive.

E

A little bit deeper into their their practices, we're hoping that is something that we can do.

A

Thanks nancy, this is caitlin. I really enjoyed the presentation and all the work that spdc is doing.

B

Unfortunately, I need to sign off. Daycare was cancelled, so I have two little ones running.

B

Around so you know how that is thanks for coming be safe. Thank you. Bye, guys.

B

Council appointees joining us at that meeting as well, so hopefully that would be simple and.

B

Beneficial for all to hear that before so next on the internet we've got subcommittee reports.

B

And I think I need to we need to connect with nancy on uh who and how we.

B

Approach unh to help us do that survey. I was hoping to make some connections this week.

B

That was difficult with our issues so yeah, let's talk earlier. Okay, maybe we can catch.

B

Up after the meeting once we do that, we can get going and try and come up with a schedule of.

B

X, amount of businesses, maybe that we contact either per year or month or.

B

Whatever I think, we've got a fairly good handle on that, at least to start, and uh once we start.

B

We'll see how it goes and we can adjust it. You know, as needed, anytime kind of on the fly.

B

So this is kind of a follow-up. I think it was 2000. I think it was 2019 18-19.

B

So it's kind of a continuation. I think there was more involvement with the survey center.

B

There was a lot of in-person and sort of electronic surveying that was done and.

B

A pretty ambitious scale to that. I think at this point we're trying to just look to.

B

Stay in front of people to hear what's going on with their businesses and what they're seeing I.

B

Think over the past two years has been a lot of interaction with folks like the fbc and.

B

Chamber has been, you know, surveying that there's a lot of touch points, but I think we want to make.

B

Sure that we're continuing to do that that's kind of push behind this. The first one was sort.

B

Of a one-off business retention and expansion uh survey- and uh we we just followed their lead.

B

And um it it worked out pretty well, we did survey a lot of businesses, not as many as being.

B

But it was difficult to do like 200 in a year. You know, so our thought is. We can do.

B

Some every year and hopefully really contact every business.

B

So people seem to appreciate it and we did get a lot of good information about why they're here.

E

And what it might take to keep them here and grow profitable and expanding.

E

One of the modifications that we've done for this cycle.

E

Is to create uh that was in the person on paper very long, sometimes repetitive,.

E

Surveying so we learned a lot from that process, so we've streamlined it. The plan is to put it online.

E

So that we can, you know much more regular basis, get as much information.

E

Being asked the questions.

E

I'll send you and uh andy that report. It was also interesting to see how the results of that.

E

Dovetailed with what the advisors were saying today, and what really run true with me is the.

E

Whole idea of succession and what we wanted to do, and maybe we could collaborate further with.

E

Sbdc, um since there is this barrage of people changing transitioning out of their business.

E

There's a need, I think, for assistance and and how to do that. And you probably know more about.

E

It too, from a banking perspective. You probably see that too, but I think I think that would be.

E

Something we could do as an edc to provide. You know some education to those companies that.

E

That or individuals that are in that place.

E

Your one question for the subcommittee: are you guys kind of destroying who you're going after.

E

With profits nonprofits and that kind of business fight here is there or if you guys,.

B

Yet to get to that level, I think that's great, that we're still complaining yeah.

B

This will just look at the businesses as a whole and probably that's a good idea to look at you.

B

Know getting a few from each sector or yeah everyone's like they've, talked about having.

B

Such a variety of sort of issues- and I think that would be good to capture that employment comes.

B

Roaring back from hospitality, 22 23 that right will be good to know if not and if anyone else.

B

2018 it was so attractive about it. It was back when andre karen was.

B

uh Leading this yeah is that we didn't have to do any of the data crunching on that they did it all.

B

So we just do the initial. We just do the collection and.

B

You know, but building off that survey you were involved in that right right, so it was kind.

B

Of cumbersome, you know and long and I think time consuming for the person that was going through it.

B

You know in the business so we're kind of trying to streamline that and make it a little easier for.

B

People and maybe get a little more relevant information, because that was I don't start.

B

A minnesota or something right, a town where you could survey every single business right so anyway,.

B

B

B

Our efforts in the fall was driven by what we thought was.

B

B

Look together other opportunities, including further exploring.

B

Doing something with the city, the public works department on a surface lock.

B

And also, uh I don't know if you're following some news on this, but it's all electric vehicles.

B

Virtually every manufacturer, you know.

B

You know we're gonna, have fully electric pickup trucks on the road.

B

It's coming quick, so I think we'll just try to figure out how we can.

B

Facilitate that, even if it's not a city-owned property but just a company.

B

I know you had mentioned that one of the past kind of report outside being problematic for sort of a.

B

Fast charge is that something that uh that resources, kind of, or is, information on that.

B

Will be available? Are they planning for that? But that's what I'm saying will be.

B

The issue is that the fast charge requires a direct current and the current charging station.

E

Are just traditional alternate current and the city's not wired for a lot of direct current, so.

E

That's the major obstacle: almost the cost of the charging stations is coming down and it's probably.

E

Going to come down as they're, more and more like getting the electricity to the site institution.

E

I just have a new update and I haven't even had a chance.

E

To talk to tom about that this week, but um peter writes, didn't mention he.

E

I'll share with the rest of the edc, the woman from the state that we were.

E

Talking to about the grant funding that it.

E

Is not going to be possible for us to access at this point, but they included portsmouth in a.

E

In a road trip, video that they they're putting out on electrical vehicles, electric vehicles and.

E

You know that portsmouth is a location where you can charge your car not rapidly, but.

E

C

Do you know, is there money in the infrastructure they talk about the money in the infrastructure bill to uh for for charging, do you know, is that.

C

Is there also money to improve the grid and any idea what the timeline on that is.

B

I don't know all I've read is, is news stories that.

B

Briefly describe the fact that the administration is deciding here right now.

B

My administration has decided that it's a priority to get to rural areas and disadvantaged areas and.

B

To make sure that the currents are fully laid out so.

B

They also want to prioritize.

B

um Having these tracking stations available for people who live in their apartments, because.

B

They're not gonna have the ability to charge at home overnight, and, and so it may be, that.

B

Yeah great so one another subcommittee that really hadn't uh met much over the course.

B

Of 2021 was sort of a data subcommittee that started to stand up back in 2020.

B

I have anything to report out, but I do want to volunteer myself to kind of.

B

Leave that charge, at least in the near term as it relates to some of the property tax data that I.

B

Is this the committee where we talked about trying to develop a model of education.

B

You know when we first got started on that almost immediately. There was that.

B

How the development in urban areas, and particularly.

B

Density rolled the values of the property and therefore drove the tax.

B

Maybe the idea is to figure out how we can sort of drive a message around that. Finally, for the city.

E

It might be worthwhile.

E

It was not only interesting, it was super entertaining.

G

I'll send that around find it.

B

So, shifting on to new other business um first item, we've got here: the prioritize modify the ec.

B

2021 retreat action items and discuss our city council engagement, moving.

B

Action priorities that came out of our 2019 in-person retreat, I'm pretty sure I think.

B

One thing that that's not on the 2020 action priorities is sort of our other overarching goal.

B

Or kind of direct engagement with the council.

A

We haven't really talked about a retriever or an action plan for 2022., so this would.

A

Be a good time to kind of revisit that coming out of it or heading into omicron, quite crazy.

A

Momentum on some of the subcommittees, but I wanted to just open it up to the group.

A

On how everyone's feeling about the discussions on last year's action plan.

A

The priority or go back to 2019, think of that as well.

A

um This is sarah. I I shared some feedback directly um with you chair, but I thought.

A

It would be worthwhile to bring up here. I think we need to look for opportunities to.

A

Partner and collaborate with existing or other organizations within the city versus.

A

Trying to spin up working groups or subcommittees independently, I think we can have more impact and.

A

And also broaden our reach if we seek out those partnerships first and then look to.

A

Spin off wholly edc subcommittees as a as a secondary action.

B

Thanks so yeah, I think that is a great suggestion. I think that came out of the great presentation.

B

That then, had made to us a couple months back and just seeing how involved they are.

B

Throughout the city and different realms from the cte program to business communities, various.

B

Business communities, so I think, uh interaction with them. I think sp dc we hear from them.

B

Regularly but hearing this morning about how much it is that they are doing so, I think.

B

It would be great for us to have maybe some more direct interaction with them or.

B

I'm not sure if it's a more frequent report out for this group but nancy does a great.

B

Job interacting with them, but also kind of planning for our our future and succession.

B

Planning with nancy's uh eventual retirement staying plugged in with all those groups.

B

What about the chamber ben was here earlier and we had talked about getting him our chamber.

B

Board member to come to the meetings and sit at the table with us.

B

We have done that for a while with valerie, and then we were gonna also be on their board. Ben has.

E

Indicated that he spoke with his board and they're um amenable to having one of our members sit at on.

E

Their board meetings as a non-voting member and we talked about doing the same return. How do we.

E

Formalize that we just well, I think, vote. I think invitation is there. So if you want to discuss.

E

Who might be interested in doing that or if I can help by getting more information on.

E

Their board meetings, I think they meet on thursday mornings, but I I can find out more about that and.

E

Then maybe if people are have some thoughts on it or questions they can reach out to phil or myself.

E

um And we can, we can sort of yeah. So do we, I'm assuming ben.

B

Would you become an actual member, an ongoing member? I think we need to consult the city.

A

Don't we need to consult the city attorney as far as adding standing members, regardless of.

A

Voting status, I don't think that we can make that decision independently, but would defer to.

A

City staff or council to advise yeah there is a uh candy, although I might be able to look.

D

It up in the next few minutes. um There is a section of our ordinances that defines your.

D

Membership and your powers and duties- and I will take a quick look at that. If you want to keep.

D

Talking um and see if I can pull it up now, um but generally, if you're going to do something in terms.

D

Of the scope of the membership formally, you want it to last um then you'd need an ordinance change.

D

But that doesn't mean you can't informally say: look come sit at the table with us. You're, not a.

D

Member we'll explore that, so you can easily take a first step of you know: a standing invitation to.

D

Participate in the dialogue because that's at the destruction of the chair, so that's easy and we can.

D

Explore that, if I can't give you an answer, you know, I think that's a great first step.

C

Just historically, this goes back a long way to to my first uh involvement with edc is that I.

C

Was the I was the uh the chambers appointee to the edc and I thought I believe I was a full standing.

C

Voting member um that goes back 20 years um so but just yeah just to let you know that at one point.

C

That was that was the agreement um and I think I was a full voting member. So what it's worth.

C

I think uh I think chamber is kind of our most.

C

Natural kind of uh entities that would fit out there, others that people think would be.

B

Helpful to have a sustaining invitation.

B

Maybe it's not quite as formal chamber.

B

And we just invite ben to sit at the table instead of the gallery.

B

What did we do with valerie? Isn't that what we did yeah? We did. We called her up.

B

Well, she didn't sit at the table, but we would call her up whenever.

E

You kind of filled two roles because you were portsmouth resident and also on the chamber board.

E

um And I remember john shannon, I think for a few years had that position as well and then he had to.

E

Step off because um he moved to elliott so it'd be interesting to kind of dig a little more into that.

E

Okay, I did. I did take john shagnan's position. I remember I do remember him moving out of town.

C

But at that point I think I was the chairman of the chamber and I became the appointee to the edc.

C

And but- and I don't remember not being a voting member but again it was 20 years ago.

C

Okay, so we'll get an invitation to ben for the february meeting.

B

As a start and we'll decide to maybe do some historical investigation and confirm.

B

What we've had in the past and formalize that further, if necessary and.

B

That's the wish of the eec.

E

And, conversely, as I said, anybody who's willing to sort of be our liaison to the chamber board.

E

Just that filler myself.

E

E

B

The traditional.

B

I don't think they'll, naturally think of coming to us on those type of things, but I think we ought to.

B

Be involved, if we can that's, maybe where we're we have this one again up against discussions.

B

It seems to be a combination of the possibility that some of the changes that might be made.

B

To the zoning might impact businesses and then secondly, you know how do.

B

We continue to promote or actually actively promote, affordable housing.

B

Big things that we should be involved if we can yeah, so I just think that they make.

B

Sense for you to reach out to them and say you know: we'd love to play a role and that's.

B

How we help you out yeah, absolutely, I think we're hoping to invite them to.

B

The february meeting, and that would be part of the dialogue we'll certainly want to.

B

Try to connect with them ahead of that, I think on not only the affordable housing but physically.

B

High density other things that would certainly have an impact on costs on.

B

And that's kind of where I think some of the data modeling. In addition to what the.

B

Urban three report have kind of tying that back to something more practical. If we have.

B

Existing job we can kind of try to visualize for people as part of.

B

A decision like that yeah, I I think it may be while reaching.

B

This goes back to this commission warning the council, the mayor, to know what we're doing and.

B

Offer our assistance to anything they're doing you know instead of working in a vacuum, so I.

A

I think that has that's been the purpose or the intended purpose for the council, reps on the edc,.

A

uh You know, in addition to us working directly with the council and the mayor to be able to.

A

Channel and shepherd some of that information, my recommendation, uh chair cohen, would be if.

A

uh If the conversations with the mayor haven't happened yet around what services we offer in.

A

How we might be able to best leverage council appointees, we might highlight the areas that.

A

He identified as priorities in the top 100 first 100 days and indicate how we can be.

A

Of assistance or support for that and recommend that the appointees to the edc from the council.

A

Come with an interest or perspective on those areas to allow us to be most effective.

B

Fully agree and we'll be sure to connect with him.

B

Very shortly on that to get that dialogue underway before any appointments are made.

E

Those are going to be made on the 24th, if not earlier,.

D

Yeah they do have an answer to your membership questions, so you're.

D

Under the ordinance, uh the economic development commission shall consist of.

D

Nine qualified, regular members and one alternate member- they should be appointed by the mayor.

D

Subject to capable of the city council for time of four years, the mayor and city manager shall also.

D

Serve as ex-officio members of the d.c, so as a practical matter really, you know the mayor wanted.

D

To have someone from the chamber who was also fortunate president, that you qualify.

D

Sit on this board, you can certainly do so, but that's your that's your general charge, so it.

D

Doesn't speak directly to that intersection? I don't believe that support for the president.

D

But it does reaches a point that we've thought about over.

D

The past few years that we might want to consider at least the next meeting.

D

Is we've not uh filled the alternate seat in quite some time, and you know it might just.

E

Bring me an opportunity to have additional expertise. That may be a good conversation.

E

And this is just something for that's going to be coming before the agency.

E

In in february, most of us are aware that we've been fortunate to have novocure announce the.

E

Location of their national headquarters in the former canada house, building on vaughn wall.

E

And uh staff met with representatives of nova cure this week, um get the lay of the land uh on.

E

Their construction schedule- and, of course you know, they're.

E

They're already up and running on some of that they anticipate a 12 to 15 month, construction.

E

Period occupancy, probably sometime april 2023 they'll, be starting out with a smaller.

E

Level of staffing 100 to 150 level and their ultimate goal is somewhere around 248 to make.

E

That um and then they have a myriad of uh indirect economic development impacts. Aside from just.

E

Having this well paying company in in the downtown, as do some cutting edge medical device, work.

E

But, of course, in the downtown, when you have that many employees, they do have some parking on site.

E

But they they're looking to see them in some kind of agreement with the city for parking.

E

In high hanover parking garage, so we're working with them on that and some of them.

E

Or season numbers on the edc may remember: we've had a group parking discount license.

E

Policy um that would need to be ratified by the towns that the city council, this new city council,.

E

um In the county month, but that policy does indicate that any request would come to the.

E

Edc for recommendations to the city council, so I anticipate that coming to us at the february.

E

Meeting, which was the second thing I just wanted to make you aware of it's, not the first.

E

um Friday of february it's just second february, so that would be february 11.

E

It sounded like um they're having a majority of them there, but they're.

E

They're they do have a flex plan like many companies now, um and it also sounded like.

E

They have they're gonna, have a training facility on their first floor, they'll be.

E

Bringing employees in and out from different areas, and they also have physicians that visit.

E

Signed from their new york office and other offices so again indirect benefits there stay.

E

In our hotel, so it's pretty exciting to have this occur in our city and more on that in february.

C

Nancy, it's it's ever the has the discussion around the discounted parking. Has it not I'm sure, you've.

C

Been just discussing that they would use the new parking garage versus the ian over if we're gonna.

C

Discount, you know a lot of uh a lot of spots for them, so this is suzanne.

D

Our preference is to have probably any agreement referred to the high hanover.

D

Garage, and that is because of the current status of the bonding for those two garages so.

D

Boundary is a bonded project and there are some limitations in terms of what we can do.

D

But that doesn't mean we can't shuffle things around as we may need to, as we.

D

Make improvements over the next three years to high hanover right? That was the other part of.

C

It I knew that you were going to be cutting the capacity of ihana over by half or something so.

D

So there would be some discussion and some ability to like I said to make.

D

Some accommodations and flex here and there but there's a yeah there'll, have to be some.

D

Careful uh thinking in terms of that agreement because of uh the current status of the two.

D

Garages from financial point of view, all right so suzanne since we're talking about this subject.

C

And uh I realize this might be some pending litigation about it, but I thought when we first.

C

uh Talks about the new garage that, with kim rogers group, I thought we had.

C

A signed you know, we'd, given them a lease for 60 spots or something for their new.

C

For their new hotel or what have you that that is a factor right now and uh as you know, there is.

D

Some uh ongoing uh litigation, you know kind of on hold and we would anticipate that there may.

D

Be some renewed discussion to get that resolved, so I guess my question is though, how did we have.

C

Reserve spots for kim rogers group, but we couldn't necessarily do it for nova cure it's. It's not.

D

An all or nothing, there's some some limitations: okay, there's a percentage of what we were able to.

E

Allow for the private industry- and I think we were committing that at that time- yeah got it hopefully.

D

We'll know better where we are by the time you're. Looking at this policy option in february.

D

This is for a little bit down the road.

D

Just before coping.

B

B

2023 before they open it's worth starting to reopen that.

E

We did talk about that option of some type of transport and moral transport and I think.

E

You'll recall that when we were talking about that earlier as an edc, what happened? We had discussions.

E

With the company called via or- and they presented to us um and most of the work that they had done,.

E

Was in cities much larger than portsmouth um with universities, campuses and that type of thing.

E

And and when we did get an estimate of the cost for what we were looking at.

E

It it just wasn't impossible, but again, there's infrastructure money that we.

E

Should really dive into a little bit that might make it possible to kind of revisit that yeah? I.

E

Would think that's something that would be part of the sustainable city's sort of subcommittee.

E

One of the issues was that.

E

Even as we started looking at that and with that person, we were still looking at transportation.

E

Segregated components so, for instance, we have money.

E

In our budget, right now for senior transportation.

E

If that money could be incorporated into an integrated system of moving people around.

E

It doesn't the numbers aren't as big as you think for a new program, so they're, you know.

E

We could do something with coast instead of you know, being they're running their.

E

System somebody else is running this system. I think it's just a matter of looking at it.

E

Sustainability for the.

E

Sustainable slash, marxism.

E

High quality international companies like that, but also.

E

Outgrown that facility they're, keeping it and they're adding to it, so they are going.

E

To bring some employees over to downtown but they're keeping those facilities in.

E

They're growing quite rapidly, as as the clinical trials allow them to continue.

E

So it's not the reason for my question was it's not 248 people, seven million.

B

There's already a presence, I'm not sure how much that's growing.

B

But that's a prime example of retention and expansion.

E

And we've talked to them about taking advantage of the economic revitalization zone, which.

E

Their their new office will be in in a zone that qualifies for.

E

Tax credits for creation of new full-time hires, not relocated, but new, so.

E

Small incentive, but.

B

Did you have any other? Does this bring up no question.

B

Will we get an update on mcintyre next month? We can. I can ask.

D

I'll spare suzanne, I was gonna, say maybe.

B

Like nancy said is going to be the second friday of february, the 11th.

B

That would entertain a motion to adjourn.

B

All the paper all right.