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REQUEST FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTAUTHORITY ACTION <br />Date:8/29/2016 <br />Item No.:8.d <br />Department ApprovalExecutive DirectorApproval <br />Item Description: Receive Presentation and Consider Adoptinga Roseville Business Visitation <br />Program <br />1 <br />BACKGROUND <br />2 <br />During the June 21 REDA meeting, the REDA Boardestablished several priorities for the remainder <br />3 <br />of2016 and 2017, one ofwhich was to develop a Business Visitation Program. This goal is very <br />4 <br />much in line with the recommendation offered in the report prepared by the University of <br />5 <br />Minnesota’s Business Retention & Expansion (BR&E)Strategies Program after they had conducted <br />6 <br />interviews with several of Roseville’s businesses. That <br />7 <br />report recommended that Roseville City staff and elected <br />2016–2017 EDA Priorities <br />8 <br />officials do the following to engage and support the business <br />9 <br />Establish a Business Subsidy Policy <br />community: <br />10 <br />Establish an Acquisition Policy <br />Develop and foster relationships withexisting <br />11 <br />Framework <br />businesses <br />12 <br />Engage in a visioning process to <br />Demonstrate that the City is a resource to the <br />13 <br />better understand how to revitalize <br />business community <br />14 <br />SE Roseville <br />Identifybusinessneeds and stumbling blocks <br />15 <br />Devise and implement a Business <br />Build capacity to sustain growth and development <br />16 <br />Visitation Program <br />Since those recommendations were made in 2014, Staff <br />17 <br />worked with the two area chambers to continue to strengthen a monthly educational opportunity <br />18 <br />(Roseville Business Council) and an annual networking event (Roseville Business Exchange). Staff <br />19 <br />also established a partnership with theSt. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce to make quarterly <br />20 <br />educational seminarsavailableto Roseville businesses. In response to the recommendations,the <br />21 <br />City hired an economic development intern, Angela Riffe, a graduate studentatthe University of <br />22 <br />Minnesota’s Humphrey School, to canvas the City and gatherthe names and locations of all <br />23 <br />Roseville’s businesses. Ms. Riffe then built a database to store the information. With this <br />24 <br />information in place, Community Development Department staff has worked with Ms. Riffe to <br />25 <br />develop arobust visitation program. <br />26 <br />27 <br />Review ofState and Local Visitation Programs <br />28 <br />Staff researched the visitation programs in Shoreview, Brooklyn Park, and Oakdale to determine <br />29 <br />who attends business visits (city staff and elected officials), how many businesses each city visits per <br />30 <br />year (on average 10.1/year), and how they prioritize which businesses to visit. The following table <br />31 <br />provides a summary of the information gathered. <br />32 <br />33 <br />Page 1of 4 <br /> <br />