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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION - FEBRUARY 12, 2024 4 Mr. Cattanach felt there weren't a lot of groups making big decisions with their office needs unless they have to. Some groups want to get everyone back in the office, others are waiting for another couple of years. The amount of office space going up today without a name attached to it is very small. Mayor Grant asked if the location of Rice Creek Commons makes it more desirable. Mr. Cattanach replied that access was paramount to bringing people to a site and is a competitive advantage. Mr. Roberts said if they were talking about large office users there wasn't a lot of movement there and he didn't see that changing for quite a while. But he thought that demand for smaller office space as a component of manufacturing, or a small office building will always be there. Their rule of thumb has been to have 20% office and 80% warehouse in that type of building. Over the years, the office percentage has increased up to even 30%. Anything past that would more than likely be torn out for the next tenant. Councilmember Monson wondered if the proportionality of the current TCAAP plan was consistent with the demand they were seeing. Mr. Roberts said in regard to retail, online shopping has predominantly affected stores of 40,000 - 90,000 square feet. Larger stores are more immune to it. Mr. Cattanach added that despite the concern of a big box, smaller tenants want to see a traffic driver. He encouraged them to not restrict binary square footage because they may unintentionally inhibit the success of the retail. Having something like an anchor grocer will be a big attraction for businesses, small shop retailers and residents. Councilmember Monson asked if they should take anything else like that into consideration. Mr. Cattanach noted advancement in building technology specifically precast panels with thin set brick. He felt it gives the efficiency of a tight building envelope while it still looks like stacked brick. He felt requiring 30% traditional office in an office/warehouse was limiting as compared to other places that don't have that requirement. He suggested saying no greater than a certain percent can be warehouse instead of requiring office. Mr. Roberts agreed that the focus should be more on a blend of uses and cars in the parking lot instead of office. Office is expensive to build and for tenants to pay for. Councilmember Holden was concerned that with something like a Costco right off the freeway people wouldn't keep driving farther down to see the smaller businesses. Mr. Cattanach replied that when they lay out the site plan, they have a pretty good idea of the flow of traffic, in a lot of cases they can orient traffic coming out of the box site to go toward the other retailers. He felt there was a way to make them harmonize without being prescriptive about where the big box has to sit. Some of it will come down to the shape of the properties. Mayor Grant thanked Mr. Roberts and Mr. Cattanach for coming and providing information.