ShawneeDispatch.com

The economy may be slowing down, but Shawnee is doing all it can to increase economic development for the future.

Shawnee City Council members were to get an update Tuesday on economic development efforts at the Public Works & Safety Committee. While many development projects seem to have stalled, some are moving forward, and Jim Martin, executive director of economic development, said city staff members would tell the Council about what the city should do now to prepare for and increase economic development in the future.

The committee was to review the city's economic development goals: aggregating land, creating a "wow" factor, exploring public/private partnerships, developing the city's talent pool, identifying areas for and attracting office parks and taking part in the Animal Health Corridor by attracting more animal health suppliers.

To better reach economic development goals and better communicate with developers, the city formed a team of staff members, including Martin, Carol Gonzales, city manager; Bryan Kidney, finance director; Paul Chaffee, planning director; Doug Wesselschmidt, development services director; and Jessica Huston, SEDC assistant director.

The team has created goals for 2008 and a work plan to meet those goals, such as assisting interested parties in conducting a future land use study and developing a plan for land at the southeast corner of Johnson Drive and Interstate 435.

Special projects coming up include completing the branding project and starting other studies that could help attract new business. Martin said a retail study could determine what Shawnee's true trade area is, looking at demographics and residents' buying patterns, information referred to as psychographics.

"It's the propensity of certain households to buy certain products," he said. "If the information comes back the way we think it will, certain retailers would find a profitable market here."

A visioning study for the I-435 corridor also would help determine what land uses are most appropriate, what the city can support to market that land. Strip mall revitalization research and renovating the SEDC Web site are other projects the city would like to work on.

Council members at the meeting also were to receive updates on progress and challenges in several areas of economic development in the city. For example, there are several redevelopment projects, like marketing empty grocery store buildings, the status of the former Aztec Theater downtown, the proposed retail project on the east side of the 6100 block of Nieman, and the Barton Place condos and retail space.

There's also the Shops at Maurer Place, which the city was told will include a Best Buy. But it seems the deal with Best Buy may not have been finalized before the city approved the development's site plan, so its future is murky.

The developer of the project, Cormac Company of Omaha, Neb., did not return several messages left by the Dispatch.

The Kansas Highway 7 corridor also will be up for discussion. Not much physical activity has been seen on most of the land in one corridor development, the Grey Oaks Commercial Development, but Tom Langhoffer, spokesman for Rodrock Development, said efforts are moving forward.

Langhoffer said while the CVS is up and running and the Wal-Mart closed on its portion of the property in July, no other retailers have been confirmed.

"There's a lot of names being thrown out that definitely have interest in coming in," he said, saying a bank, an upper scale restaurant and a hardware store were among them. "I think the fact that Wal-Mart has closed will get some people off the fence."

The development company will begin work on the road that will loop through the development after the first of 2009, Langhoffer said, and they have to finish the road by April 2010. Wal-Mart's opening date has been a moving target, however; Langhoffer said it has been anywhere from 2009 to 2011, but he didn't expect it to open in 2009.