Our Speaker, Carolyn Hersch, has been the Business Development Manager for Highland Park for 15 years. She is an advocate in all areas of business development in the City. Today, Carolyn focused on the City's response to the the businesses during this pandemic. After conducting a study of the impact of COVID-19 on business, Carolyn and her team assessed the immediate challenges and needs to help them reopen. First, they notified businesses of state and local Executive Orders and any updates and guidelines. Next they encouraged property owners to offer rent relief assistance. Designated reserved parking spaces were created for convenient curbside service to help increase sales. Also, the team provided reopening preparedness assistance to businesses with PPE, resources for cleaning products and best practices for a safe reopening. Outdoor expansion was going to be critical for many of the restaurants and other businesses, so the city established a no fee temporary permit application and then expedited the more than 50 applications within 24 - 48 hours. They also worked with businesses for creative and collaborative ideas to adapt their site plans (tents, igloos, heaters and fire pits). In the Ravinia District, Carolyn and her team helped facilitate socially distanced activities and events on Roger Williams Avenue. For Downtown HP, they created a marketplace - think of it like HP's own Amazon. Other assistance to market local business they created a website, used social media and digital kiosks. You may recall seeing and partaking in: #BYOBlanket, Shop the Block and At Your Service, Business of the Week and National Food and Drink Holidays. Carolyn also established a Financial Assistance for Retailers and Restaurants (FARR) Grant .It has total budget is $25,000 designed to help offset expenses related to creating safe and comfortable environments during the pandemic. They are 50/50 matching grants that provided $5,000 for retailers and $10,000 for restaurants. To be eligible, the primary operation must be retail sale of goods and merchandise and has a net worth of less than $2M and showing less than average of $200,000 in profit per year for two consecutive years after taxes. These businesses must be located in commercial property within CHP. If a business receiving this money move out of the city, there is a claw back provision. FARR Grant eligible(from August 15, 2020 - December 31, 2021) expenses include: sanitizers and dispensers, cleaning equipment, barriers, air purification/filtration systems, tents and outdoor furniture, signage, touchless features and marketing. Other business development activities include the attraction of 53 new businesses and 40 corporate employees to the Ravinia District. The City has begun the first phase of streetscape furniture installation. The City has also amended zoning codes like eliminating Pedestrian Oriented Shopping Overlay restriction requiring retail business in ground floor spaces; allow additional business uses in the Central Business District (CBD) and allowing residential development in certain location within the CBD. Other projects in the hopper, include a comprehensive plan for the Crossroads Subarea, and Briergate cleanup of invasive species. New developments are Albion at Highland Park (1850 Green Bay Road) and Albion at Renaissance Place (1849 Green Bay Road) which are both 5 story multi-family projects; Oakwood Residences at Mulberry Place is a 5 story, 20 unit multi-family project; Atria Senior Housing at Central and Deerfield will a three story assisted living and memory care facility. Ravinia Crossing at 555 Roger Williams is a 4 story, 30 unit residential mixed use project with ground floor commercial space. Post-pandemic, Carolyn plans on an overhaul of the Business District Development Strategic Plan by assessing the business landscape and its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. |