Phoenix Oregon Economic Development Summit, 2023 | Part 1

[Music] so what is economic development um I checked in with my new assistant Jeff gbt and they wrote that economic development is sustained long-term Improvement in the economic well-being of a society it involves increasing the productivity efficiency and competitiveness of the economy as well as improving the standard of living and quality of life of its citizens the point is and I think most of you know this is that Economic Development means a lot more than just dollars and cents and so with that frame of mind we have a wide range of topics to touch on today and after each speaker we will try to allow for questions but we're also going to try our best to stay on track so if we don't get to your question we'll connect you with that speaker so that we can get an answer for you and it's my pleasure to introduce uh Krista Peterson who's the chair for Phoenix urban renewal agency hello and welcome uh I am Christian Peterson I am on the city council I am also the chair of Europe and it's wonderful to see everybody here participating in Phoenix Grove and if you guys have any questions for me I will be here and just look me up thank you very much we also want to thank uh Marta from business Oregon and I'm thrilled to invite Marta up to discuss what business organ is about thank you well and thank you everybody for being here today this is my second time attending this event and I appreciate it um Will's crew and the City of Phoenix bringing a lot of folks together for this conversation last year as well we're the state's Economic Development agency we're funded by tax dollars Lottery dollars we get a lot of federal funding I want to give a shout out the City of Phoenix because without a partnership with City in Phoenix we would not have been able to deploy the resources we have form emergency response as well as infrastructure need funding the City of Phoenix has been a fantastic partner for everything from water conversations to fire recovery conversations that involved FEMA and there are so many amazing Partners in the room today we have so ready we have business Alliance and so many awesome businesses too we do a whole lot of things we have a Broadband office with whom we had meetings and Grants Pass today and my colleague is running behind but he'll be here to talk with you you're in the right oh he's right there Seth Thompson would you please just wait if you have concerns about rural or not rural productivity and Broadband access in the region make sure to give Seth information because we will be hosting a listening session here in Eagle region hopefully in the next month or two to talk about specifically about and he needs to hear from you today to make sure you're on the list for the listening session next time and we'll also ask our partners in achiever to share that information so we do a lot with infrastructure we do like the business support we have a whole bunch of removing loan funds for businesses sometimes we have Brands but very very rarely and I want to give a shout out to the Small Business Development Center we have a special services contract with them and throughout the pandemic episode spdc and the business Oregon team here we put on over 25 or 35 webinars I know we're way into the double digits for businesses and the topics ranged from accessing regular business resources out there through the SBA as well as resources that only become available once in disaster studies I'm excited to be here today there are amazing businesses that are sharing their time at Indian sites with us it's been exciting following the Coalition building that Will's team has been doing here and I reacted with Indigo cream Outfitters and that was definitely one of the best things of my life I come here for board meetings I'm having more than I read Brazilians Collective I come here for great pizza and clients I think Phoenix 4 being such a gem in the wrong Valley I live in Medford and I think of Phoenix as my neighbor community rural distressed counties like Jackson County it's classified as such is a focus for business organ and a lot of other state agencies we have a whole bunch of folks I don't know how many times I can say that in you know my five minutes that are here to support you I can connect businesses and communities to Oda Department of red conservation and development Oregon Housing and Community Services I am your way to connect with maybe agencies that are seen as regulatory but at the end of the day they're here to support you it's a fancy name that's our doing business as registered name for the Oregon Business Development Department that does not well off the tongue easily I've been with the agency for 10 years I've done some Statewide work for my first three years of business Oregon and I chose Southern Oregon as my workplace when an opportunity became available in 2017. I thank you all for being here and I'd like to introduce Marshall Dope From Small Business Development Center so I've been introduced so I'll continue on that we are here to help businesses in a little bit different manner in the way that we work with economic development and we work internally in the business health businesses start to survive and hopefully to thrive helping with the different mechanics mechanics of the businesses whether it is Outreach to clients clients and customers locally regionally nationally throughout the world whether it is preparing to go for funding for Capital helping you prepare yourself as a business person to speak to your Banker so that you have credibility and elevate your opportunity and possibilities for obtaining the funding that you're after so you can expand the net result is that when businesses are solid in a community then wonderfully enough they're great tax paying entities and those taxes go and the donations go to Community Development and building the communities it maintains elevated property values which is security for all of us and so our little part is to help businesses remain alive and kicking and have the processes so that not only they Thrive and provide stable income for citizens of the region but also are able to be transferred on the far end because they have value they retain value they create value and they're attractive targets for purchasing so that when an entrepreneur wants to retire they don't just have to fold up and we start the whole process over again with new people trying to build capital and Equity that these businesses survive and the town remains healthy so I brought a lot of material for you we have Partners throughout this room throughout the throughout the state I can't think of another organization that has actively tried to partner more than the Small Business Development Centers and we are a product of the small business administration the state of Oregon and in our case Southern Oregon University that pays the freight so that we can work one-on-one with businesses in a confidential setting so that problems can be identified and dealt with on an individual basis and so it's customized work and those services are not charged to the business that we're working with they're charged to our patrons and our people that support us so with that um thank you very much for the plug Marta we had a a wonderful response to coven and to the immediate need that was presented us and developed a really Innovative way of dealing with that and I'm really glad to be able to look back on that first of all is that we're not working quite as hard and secondly that there are so many businesses that are alive today that would not have been had we not all been partnering together and working together presenting together and reinforcing each other behind the scenes in order to make things work so with that I will leave you we have all kinds of jet ski in the back and contact information please feel free to give us a call so we're going to start out today's presentation by having you all imagine a lovely little travel spot maybe it has a funky Pizza Joint down the street a cheese shop a cute coffee stand or a family-owned ice cream shop as you're picturing this it sounds like something you'd see in a larger town but this is all As We Know right here in Phoenix our humble little town of 4300 people which we like to call the heart and soul of their own Valley so travel and tourism isn't just something you find in larger cities like Medford OR Ashland or Portland it's just as important right here in Phoenix and our mission here at tribal Phoenix is to strengthen our community by supporting the sustainability of small businesses success in Phoenix Oregon and the immediate surrounding area so we know that tourism is important because it provides a steady stream of potential customers and income to your local businesses that you then provide a service or experience to that keeps them coming back month after month and year after year and next month during May 7th through 13th is actually National tourism and travel week which is when the entire industry celebrates the importance of what it does and as we know travel and tourism fuels many other Industries everything from New Growth and businesses to education to Advanced Manufacturing it keeps our economies moving forward even here in Phoenix so in February the City of Phoenix recognized travel Phoenix Oregon as its own destination marketing organization which we often refer to as a DMO the recognition Builds on travel Phoenix's ability to expand on projects that will benefit businesses residents and visitors to the area so a DMO promotes a location as an attractive travel destination and they primarily exist to provide information to incoming Leisure Travelers travel Phoenix does this by publishing our annual visitors guide and then the articles that we'll refer to earlier these promote awareness about your businesses and the people here so because we want to tell the story about Phoenix to people that might not know what's here whether they're coming from out of state or just down the road but we also want to Define how that's different from the new Chamber of Commerce uh we Define a chamber helps to further the interests of small businesses and their activities range from hosting events to lobbying local Representatives or even spearheading charitable Works to improve the community and our new mission for the new Phoenix Chamber of Commerce is to support small business and community building in and around Phoenix Oregon so basically travel Phoenix is the marketing arm of the town and markets it to local visitors or to locals to visitors and to other people to get them to come here and support your businesses and while travel Phoenix focuses on the marketing the Phoenix Oregon Chamber of Commerce represents the business community Through promotion networking and referral opportunities and being a voice in your local government it's like any DMO travel Phoenix to just uh we're working on discovering and marketing to our target audience at this time we tend to see Phoenix as a day trip destination so this means we know that people from California or Washington aren't real realistically planning trips to meetings but they're coming to Medford and they're coming to Ashland and they'll usually stay multiple days and when that's the case we want to encourage them to set aside an afternoon or even a whole day out of their vacation and come here explore your businesses and get to know you and hopefully have them come back the next time they're in the area and on the flip side we also encourage other people here in southern Oregon to come and visit Phoenix because they often don't even myself before I started working with travel Phoenix Oregon I didn't come to Phoenix I didn't know anything about it honestly but the more work I've done I've gotten to know many of you in this room and your businesses and I've really learned how special the area is so travel Phoenix is working to showcase our local businesses so people come to Phoenix and interact with you your businesses and that helps the local economy grow and as we Market Phoenix some of our goals include encouraging locals up to come and explore the city to promote it to Travelers that are coming to Ashland or Medford to have people visit Phoenix as hard as their overall vacations and then to share stories about Phoenix businesses through the articles that I write so as travel Phoenix is working towards this 2023 goals we want to engage with all of you that's very important to us moving forward because we need your thoughts and ideas on how to engage with travel Phoenix or new projects that we could tackle so I really encourage you all to reach out to will to myself because we want to know what's important for you and what's going to help you and your businesses grow and want to stay here and currently one way that we Market Phoenix is through writing articles and Publishing those about your local businesses so when I do that there are certain things I like to look for in potential articles and I will usually interview you and I'll ask about your background it's both personal and professional obviously what you do the unique services or skills that you offer but the most important thing in my point of view is your why for your business say why do you get up every morning go to your job work with the community help those other help others why do you do what you do that's what people love to know about businesses and the people who are running them so these articles they tend to have numerous benefits obviously they promote your business increase visibility about it and it really Fosters more connection within the overall community and when I'm writing a story there's tenju is a Formula I like to follow so generally I will reach out to you and we'll have an interview over the phone keep things simple keep it casual and we mostly like to get professional photos done of you at your business if possible to accompany the article and then use in other content if that's not feasible usually I'll ask and we'll take from your social media Pages as well and once the article is done it'll go on travel Phoenix's website the social media pages and in the e-newsletter that goes out every month and then from there we like to use the new content in the upcoming visitors guide [Music] and there are a few new things that we're working on one of which is collecting data about our visitors and their Trends to see why they're coming here and then to see if there's any holes in that visitor experience that we could be working to fix if this could even include looking at new tools to help us Define who vegan Phoenix's visitors and target audience are but we need your input too as I said earlier no one knows your customers better than you guys so if you let us know who those people are why they're here in Phoenix what brought them here what they like about it that's all Vital Information for us moving forward and then another new item on the agenda is obviously the creation of the Phoenix Oregon Chamber of Commerce so we are hoping that the combined efforts of travel Phoenix Oregon and the Chamber will help to really boost and Upland all the businesses here and the economy so as I mentioned travel Phoenix Oregon has big plans for 2023 and the years Beyond we hope to accomplish many things just this year including publishing about 20 articles 12 e-newsletters photographing several of your businesses publishing our next visitor's guide and then continuing to collaborate with our local state and Regional partners thank you so yes I'm Daniel with book Stay hop vacation reservation management a little bit about me I've had a 25-year career in Hospitality mostly with Ritz Carlton and I founded books stay hot vacation reservation Management in 2016 here in southern Oregon we pride ourselves on being the top ranked online Travel Agency in the Pacific Northwest and a quick side note about Phoenix and why Phoenix is so important to me 30 years ago today I bought my first home here in Phoenix it was on the corner of church and third that's when 55 000 would get you a home and uh the day after I bought my home my stove went out and my neighbors fed me because I was 25 years old and had no money offend me for months until I was able to afford to buy a stove again so Phoenix will always have a very special place in my heart it's a little bit about us as far as book Stay hop we do think it was like a travel agency so we represent at homes vacation homes and national talent Jacksonville Central Point Gold Hill Grants Pass Cave Junction Fort Clement and the Oregon coast also Boutique Inns and hotels so responsible for reservations for places you've heard of like the Peerless redtail Inn and most recently of course in the news the Jackson Berlin wineries we represent Pascal Winery Relic Winery Bridgeview Winery and hummingbird so a lot of different pieces to our portfolio and the next slide is why this becomes important so wind guests spend on average when guests spend in accommodations and for us about a thousand dollars so if they spend 265 dollars a night plus cleaning fees and taxes about a thousand dollars they'll spend about another two thousand dollars in food beverage shopping excursions Indigo Creek et cetera Etc and so that one thousand dollar booking really becomes three thousand dollars and so it's important in these small local communities to look at that option of welcoming in Boutique motels and boutique Inns and vacation rentals because it can mean quite a bit to the bottom line of tourism in our local areas website so this is just kind of a quick breakdown to show you what I mean by that and I'm using talent because it's probably our our closest representation of that of the 10 million 500 000 that was generated in stays through book Stay hop last year about 7.5 percent of that was in Talent if we do the math on that that equates to about eight hundred thousand dollars that came into talent for people that went to restaurants there and spent money in the farmer's market and uh you know attended Camelot theater this year it's predicted to be 1.2 million and again that's a combination of Boutique Inns and hotels and also vacation rentals next items so this is booking Trends and these are not book stay hot looking Trends this is what we're seeing in uh Southern Oregon right now um our data will sometimes look a little bit different than other people's data the reason is we use what's called scrape data in vacation homes owners often stay in their properties for part of the year and they'll block that property and it shows as a stay and so it kind of skews what people are looking at as far as the overall time that that property is occupied so if somebody were to block their property for six months because they're staying at it it would show us occupied as six months and it would show off the demographics or skew the demographics so we use scrape data which removes that part of it to show what things look like a little bit more truly you can see right now that this year is showing just slightly below but we're in an active year so this line is representative of where reservations are right now but not possibly true as to where the year will end up so but you can see the path pandemic no pandemic and it travels the same course but that being said uh growth is still growth so it continues in vacation rentals to continue to keep growing when we started our company we brought a little over four million dollars into the Rogue Valley it continues every year this year we expect to bring about 12 million dollars into the valley and again that's that combination of not just accommodations but the people that are shopping retail excursions food wine everything else it's definitely a growing segment of the industry it often comes up who are the clients that own vacation homes or own these boutique hotels is it investors it's absolutely investors about a third of our portfolio is mostly from Southern California and they come up here and they buy properties specifically for that reason but that's one third the other third are people that live here locally that have retired or maybe somebody has passed away in their family and they have a guest or they have some other property they want to use for additional income to make ends meet a number of our people that own properties here are retired School teachers nurses we have five retired firefighters that own properties here locally so it's not just people from coming out of the area that are purchasing properties and turning them into vacation rentals I always like to say there's room for all should everything be a vacation rental of course not but there should be a nice mix of everything as well as Boutique ins and hotels the last thing I like to leave everybody with and this is what I usually do at City Council meetings is in the history of our company we've had 40 000 reservations in over seven years two police reports and forty thousand reservations so I always end it with we're not Fort Lauderdale people are not coming for those reasons vacation rentals aren't spoiled they're managed locally and most of our owners move here locally as well and want it to be a positive experience for everybody for neighbors and for themselves and that's a little bit about bookstate hops so thank you all so much for having me here today all right for our next segment we're going to do a business manual panel and it's going to be led by Marta business Oregon with this I'm going to ask Henry to reduce himself and just yeah please pass the mic thank you hi I'm Henry sislow the owner of Leave Your Mark landscape supplies on South Pacific Highway I've been involved involved with the business for 18 years since I was a kid and I recently took over after the fire I'm Melody Picard the owner of the Oregon chest game I am over there along the way uh I've been I've opened my shop for four and a half years now six months ago I moved into a particular location next door still in Phoenix and I sell cheese here hello my name is Courtney dickini my husband Skyler who's in the back and myself on the Farmers Insurance agency that is here right in Phoenix over by Ray's grocery hi uh my name is Chris Brown I work for Umpqua Bank I went to high school here in Phoenix and I've been in banking locally for 27 years working on Burbank for the last nine years our previous location uh burned down in the Alameda fire and so we recently opened our new location on January 23rd my name is Rafael Gonzalez my wife Nai and I owned Clive's Corner over Phoenix industrial Studios we're both born and raised in the Rogue Valley we were gone for 10 years for school and lived in other places traveling they moved back four years ago to open up class corner pipe is our dog by the way and since we have more time I'm going to ask every business to answer the next question that is if you have an answer prepared or else since we have such a diversity in the industries we have Hospitality represented we have the retail slash crucial support industry for building a landscaping Professional Services and financial services represented um would you please share it with our audience and your peers today what is the business climate like for you in 2023 we hear a lot of things in the media we know inflation is a big factor we know other things may be a factor but tell us what it's like when you're in 2023 to be running a business uh so far we are I mean last year this time we obviously had a lot of really nice weather January February March I was very concerned with all the rain this year we're still up about seven percent sales in comparison um so it obviously feels good that people are coming to us I think obviously more people are coming from outside of Phoenix and around so business itself part of me has been overall turning up still yeah uh yeah so being in the financial service industry uh we're kind of in a unique time uh I'm sure everybody's aware uh prime rate is as high as it's been in over 20 years and so that presents a challenge for for me uh because the interest rates in general lending and things are relatively high now um our Focus has kind of been to just work with our customers uh show them kind of Alternatives uh to uh you know maybe some other higher rate debt and things like that it makes it a little more challenging when like I said when when interest rates and inflation are high but we're trying to come up with kind of some unique ways to navigate them through that um in the insurance industry obviously because of inflation cost of construction cost of goods and labor um as well as obviously Oregon continues to have historic rates of wildfires and insurance most carriers are taking historic rate increases for the state so that's obviously not a great conversation to have to have with current clients that also makes us a bit less competitive when we're quoting new business so um it's a it's a very challenging time and we've only owned our business since 2019 so we've gone through the pandemic and the fire and then now very large trade increases so we certainly feel like we'll can make it through anything after all this um so I'm in the retail Food business and um this year is looking a little different because I have a bedroom location so that I am offering more which was what I needed to do when I considered doing that a year ago and um I joked that it was the big or go home but it was a very strong reality especially when I just did my taxes and then inflation started really hitting last spring and the numbers my sales went down I have made less money last year than I did the year before I'm back to the hustle of trying to grab customers wherever I can um I could use more business that I think the main reality right now is that people are broke and they're picking their battles so they always come shopping around for what's cheaper they're not necessarily aware that for what I do um you know pretty affordable and I see a lot of people coming once in a while uh more returning customers in Ace but overall so far it is looking pretty promising so especially with the weather coming in and um just more awareness about Phoenix is very welcome I'm in home improvement uh Supply and building materials and the third and fourth quarter of last year we saw the residential real estate market dropped about 12 percent so if Trends continue it could drop another 12 throughout this year so the beginning of January 2024 could be a 25 decrease from the beginning too so we're just reducing our budget and preparing for not as much business however we haven't even seen one-third of the homes that burned down in the Almeda fire finished their Landscaping so that gives me help that there's still going to be some activity getting the final touches Beyond those homes thank you I really appreciate that a couple of you touched on the future outlook as well so we already are in April and you already have to start thinking about what 2024 may look like um now looking back over the last couple of years and feel free to put a any sort of a touch on it a success story cool collaboration story Mutual Aid story um just looking back would you please tell us what resources or Partnerships helped you the most in the last couple and it could be anything from neighbor lending supplies to somebody helping a business deal happened can you please just share us how you make really cool stuff happen for your business and who helps you I'm really grateful for all my customers they have shown me so much support there would be no way I could revive this business without these great customers [Music] um so um I saw yeah same thing customers local people uh people always asking me well I'm not in Ashland with all the tourists and I'm like people don't have money for cheese because this is perishable and um they can't take it back to the hotel room um the rest of the valley doesn't really shop in Ashland but so here we'll be in the heart and soul of the valley being centrally located that's really helpful try to have more people come in like just local people and uh as far as Business Partnership has been huge collaborating with local businesses um like the ones that buy cheese for their cheese plates in their restaurants or the wineries I don't have a whole lot of Business Partnership but this has literally kept me alive um and then people that go there and then they have that and then there's some like they come by the shop and I did a pairing at the Royal Family Manor and then I had a few folks that just came back like all of this really works out and then travel Phoenix has been very helpful as far as a social media awareness what to do in southern Oregon is a huge partnership for me as well the algorithm of um social media is tricky if you don't pay you don't get seen I don't have a budget to pay I have a pretty decent algorithm but sometimes you have to have the mental fortitude to post um which is not always there but so the everything works it's not one magic thing it's word of mouth it's people like driving by and seeing the sign um but I strive to only work with local like a local print shop and local things so the more we are there for each other the more helpful it is um insurance is a very relational business and usually people want to know like and Trust the person that they are going to use for their insurance especially if they're actually coming to you know an in-person agency versus just trying to get insurance online um so Partnerships that have worked well for us have been at some networking groups that we've been in and the Chamber and that's why we were so excited to jump on board with the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and we saw that coming back to life because those uh relationships and you know I don't even know most of the people in this room so the opportunity to know more people that are right here is just Paramount for us um yeah so my Situation's a little different so obviously our Branch burned down so we haven't had a physical presence in Phoenix for it was over two years um so uh while my I had employees that were kind of farmed out to other branches I was kind of on my own and so I I tried to spend that time uh still keeping a connection to the city um I'll say we've worked closely with the city of Phoenix as we were preparing to build our location um also um a big uh partner of mine internally with Umpqua Bank was our uncle Bank Foundation they were able to provide a pretty good sums of money that we were able to give back to some local nonprofits and for some for some worthwhile causes like rebuilding Blue Heaven Park and things like that so I I kind of this last these last couple of years I just kind of tried to do as much best I could to still keep the Umpqua Bank name kind of relevant in Phoenix and talent since we didn't have a physical presence to do so um and that's you know kind of how we how we did that and then you know and thankfully now we're we're back to where we do have a physical presence um I kind of agree with many what other people say is that customers as well as our staff has really made you know us the best Partnership of people coming in repeat customers um and then we do have amazing staff over at Clyde's corner so that for me has been the best partnership we could have is just really the community there um you know also kind of touching back on the question before of um you know we've had issues with inflation obviously as everyone has Romaine went up 400 over the winter in half a bit sometimes we were throwing out so we swapped over to kale um and did you know kale Caesar salads and whatnot I was worried about kind of blow back on that because people want Romaine Caesar salad whatever but just people's understanding of being opened up hey look this is the situation um so I can say that kind of communication and Clarity with both you know staff and Community has been the best partnership we've uh we've had um and then as well as you know word of mouth and social media social media has been absolutely huge for us um and you know we were with Moxley media Medford for all of our packs and sweatshirts and things like that so it's just those type of Partnerships of giving each other shout outs in other places and whatnot um has been kind of crucial in building our business and awareness of that we are here in the Rogue Valley I'm going to jump on that I just came from a meeting in Grants Pass and my 8 A.M Meeting those little round table sharing moment and I only had one thing to share um and that is that one of the breweries in Grants Pass recently won a bronze medal for one of their brews at the Oregon Beer Fest and I compared that Community to band and I said I'm not saying Ben does everything perfectly but they know how to give each other shout outs into that social media cross promotion whether it's for somebody in your neighborhood maybe somebody not even in your industry but you were there and you know they want usually they want a prize you know they're using more featured in an awesome article by Rebecca Scott posting it it does take mental fortitude it will take five minutes away from maybe some customer face time but that's something Central Oregon does really well and I'm just getting the Grants Pass crew to think that way um as well because a bronze medal in bed they'd be shouting about it from the rooftops right even if it was somebody who's just a runner in the context which is still super valid and I appreciate you following all of y'all's social media I've been doing it for a couple of years now so I'm really glad we're having this conversation some communities that may be bigger are still behind on that emphasis on Cross promotion community and staying relevant even when there are challenges to the physical constraints of our brick and mortar allocations and as we were building now the next question um I have my own biases that's why I kept it as neutral as possible I'm very involved with a rogue reimagined effort here that the long-term Recovery Group is working on so I tried to make the question as neutral as possible but I ask you to bring however much of the story you want to into it would you please share your thoughts on the challenges and successes of the recovery from the 2020 fires knowing the recovery is still ongoing whoever wants to go first I think community and New Beginnings is an amazing success that's come from the fires as horrible as it was and has been we've been there for each other which has built a community far stronger and less divided than before the fire I do remember the morning after the fire taking a break and letting everything kind of sink in for the first time I was out front of our restaurant exhausted by adrenaline and find my adrenaline finally dying down looking around smoldering buildings around us the Phoenix central Studios complex luckily Still Standing I felt fortunate but honestly I remember thinking myself that I get out our restaurant Will Survive that was three weeks after we opened and I remember just looking around well we'll have some construction workers and that's about it probably for the next five years I was completely wrong I think that's because I underestimated people coming together and supporting each other uh the support and friendships that have come from owning a business sorry that I wasn't speaking away from that um in Phoenix has been unreal from customers to neighbors I know I can call Henry from Leisure Mark Alex from biologic crop Solutions Aaron from Ottawa Auto Works Jim from Pete's Transmission Joe and Eli from aeromixer and that's just to name a few that I could that's within a stone's throw uh and that's if I could just need something as simple as you know help moving a fridge in borrowing a forklift whatever we've always been there for each other and that's been really amazing so it's me Community is the biggest success and partnership and how we support each other in our businesses uh yeah I'll kind of piggyback off off of that um I I I've seen the same thing and it's evident like when we had our grand opening we had a huge turnout I thought um when Puck's Donuts reopened they had a huge turnout um and and just um kind of again everybody pulling together I I think part of the the I guess struggle is for me is it does feel like you know it's been you know what two and a half years over two and a half years um in some ways I think we've come a long way in some ways I still it seems like we could be further along um uh and I think it especially in going through the process of us getting our Branch rebuilt and the stuff that we had to go through with that with the trades and construction and things like that it's there's just such a need and a lot of those those trades are really busy right now and so it's we had we had trouble getting we had time frames that we had to push back because we just couldn't get people in there in time to get things completed so um but again that's that's just kind of an interesting have so much building going on but I do think just the community kind of coming together and rallying around and supporting these these businesses as they start to reopen and come back it's huge it's been huge for us um and uh you know I and I in turn same thing try to go support them for when we had when we had our grand opening we spotlighted leave your mark in our Branch DNS Harley had a bike in our Branch um you know we got Puck's Donuts I mean anytime we have an opportunity to do something like that the first thing I always look for is is you know how can we support something here that's here in Phoenix and that's local because you know not not even just necessarily a customer of the bank but just a partner uh within the the community and kind of the rebuild um so our office was not lost but uh we obviously had a very substantial number of clients that lost their homes mostly manufactured properties so and a lot of those were in the 55 and up communities so those people needed obviously a lot of help with their claims um and it was a very busy and hard time for us we actually set our kids away for a whole week so that we could just you know be available a lot more during that time period um it's obviously fantastic to see things rebuilding although of course it's a very you know still a slow process there's obvious to be still a lot coming back um but a lot of those people um have left the area especially in the 55 and up group because there is not housing available at that same price point anymore obviously in this area so that's a big challenge that I see is that a lot of the people who will be living in Phoenix now are not going to be some of those people who lost their homes before um a lot of them have already moved off near other family or just completely out of the area because they can't buy anything in that same range anymore um so um yeah it has definitely been a difficult time for us some of the businesses obviously that didn't lose their locations obviously didn't have um access to a lot of Aid or anything like that since they didn't physically lose anything um but obviously their businesses were very still significantly impacted with plus clients or you know just losing there's just a lot of loss during that time um obviously things are coming back and we're just we're very happy to happy to be a part of that and still be here it helps everyone um so I opened my business before the fire was a year and a half two years and it was always the whole like the opening or what where it was uh Phoenix was very much of a Thrice hotel in 2018 it had just done the low diet so it wasn't the building it was starting to expand and then it got taken out and then so ever since that it's been kind of a work in progress of rebuilding and building four um 2020 mixes the fire but also with the pandemic circumstances that it was a world event that completely shifted our society and ever since then there's been a huge cultural and economical International reprication that has led to what is now seen as insane greed in nation um you can see my homelands being on the fourth week of strike on the edge of their second revolution because [Music] there's um a shift and which is nice because there's a lot of people that are moving to the area and that are comfortable enough to you know spoil themselves or get a piece of cheese get a nice landscape um which is very welcoming I think it's adds to the diversity of the town uh economical diversity but at the same time there's a lot of people a lot of locals who don't live here anymore or can't afford to shop locally and uh so that is a major challenge that addressing what the locals can afford and do uh it leads to a lot of depression and stress so people don't take the time to stop by their neighbor's shops and businesses I know it's hard for me as well um so I would love to see more answers as far as that for the cost of living being more affordable overall but those are like small but also very big questions so those are one of the main challenges of you know helping people um understand and want to shop locally and more often and doing like I'm thinking doing a price comparison get a piece of cheese and bread like from like I get one from Trader Joe's and Fred buyers and you know shopping cart and be like hey look I'm cheaper and trying to promote that because it feels to me that Ashland has been venting itself but it has a really high price tag Medford is continuing in the big box kind of entertainments and food and things and talent in Phoenix are in the middle for the people all the businesses that we're developing here are all independently locally owned by us your neighbors so trying to promote more of that like you know just look just don't assume that the price tag is higher just because it was smaller the best must see the big challenge rebuilding after a natural disaster is a big enough Challenge on its own throwing the pandemic induced Global Supply issues Rising costs and a shortage of Labor it's amazing we actually have made it this far and have gotten so much developed and cleaned up so it's it has been extremely challenging but moving forward it helps to look at the silver lining for my business we lost all of our buildings and all of our equipment and hundreds of pallets of products but we have a chance to reorganize our footprint change how the complex is designed and to be able to better serve the community in the future so it has been really challenging but I am I am very proud of this community for getting so far and with all the other challenges that have risen because of the pandemic thank you so much for sharing all of that I bet there's somebody in the room here who was on the team when we went to Paradise six Southern Oregon recovery of professionals and support people went to Paradise California about a year and a half ago I might be getting my dates wrong but there are certain things and certain aspects of recovery and facets of recovery um According to which areas are way ahead of other Canyons on the west coast that have burned over the last few years and the piece of recovery here by some metrics is astonishing and yet some things in some programs are still being screwed up as one of you mentioned you know two and a half years later so thank you for sharing that that's the impression the long-term recovery Partners also have as well you didn't ask for it I decided to show that anyway um on to the next question and that's informed by the um one that those of you who registered online filled out you mentioned urban renewal you mentioned other things happening here in Talent so to business owners on the panel um the question is here in Phoenix we're seeing that focus on urban renewal on Greenways church at other Vitality projects um what is the best way for the community to engage you what is the best way a community can involve you in something cool that's going on um just how word of mouth is really beneficial and a Google review for a small business is gold so the more you can get out and tell your friends and family how great this business what a good job they did for you that really helps small businesses [Music] I mean anything else I got a bigger shop and some I'm seeing a lot of food businesses that are either expending or shrinking or going away unfortunately that's why we have such a huge bootstrap scene it's more affordable that way to have a restaurant but it's stopping by on semi-regular basis would be great just a piece of cheese and you know like for anyone of um and then leaving a review on whatever your preferred uh internet media is um Word of Mouth um the social media the algorithm does prefer personal posts and business post special if you don't sponsor the post and oh one thing that was huge last year was the episode of all across Oregon on PBS that was awesome for the three of us some Phoenix that were featured um it's a program on Oregon PBS that is produced locally but it also has been picked up nationally so PBS us will be showing the episodes of all across Oregon from now on so that's gonna be quite nice for Oregon especially Southern Oregon because it's supposed to see what the business is so that was very awesome of video to include some of the business for that so yes no it's reaching out to stopping by telling your friends getting a gift certificate for someone else just being physically present and don't take too much assumptions like there's a lot of people like oh Melody's doing fine if she's everybody's talking about it I'm like yeah but not enough people are stopping by so that would be cool um so yeah I know being present like physically best would be fantastic cheese is like vitamin C you eat it every day yes I my comment was just a vote with your dollar to go out of your way to support local businesses and um occasionally there are events that happen in Phoenix like there's going to be one on Earth Day down at the Phoenix industrial Studios and so like we're supporting some of the children's activities that they're doing that day so just getting out and being present and like I said going out of your way to actually use a local business is the very best thing you can do um my situation Stock's a little different I work for a large company um but as far as like engaging Uncle bank and some of these things like the greenway stewardship and things um the biggest thing to me is just people coming in and asking and bringing things up to me um perfect example is I was approached by Sandy wine uh with regard to the blue Hammond Park rebuild I had I had no I didn't know about the project I didn't really know what was going on with it she came to me with an ask you know is there anything you guys can do to help um so I said sure let me look into it and initially I thought we could do some sort of small contribution we ended up being able to contribute five thousand dollars to that so the the bank is big on community involvement and in particular we've really been good on Wildfire recovery involvement too um so uh you know the biggest thing is I I only sometimes you know we all of us probably keep our heads down in in our own lane of working and you know trying to grow our own businesses and things like that where we're maybe not aware of some of these things that are going on in the community and so biggest thing is if there's anything come come see me let me know about it send me an email something and I'll I'll always see what what we can do to help uh as a lot of people touched on Google reviews word of mouth has definitely been key um for our business and it can um just continuing that uh I think you know infrastructure of being able to people walking from Clyde's Corner in special Studios other businesses around to other business we'll be opening um foodery and being able to stop by cheesecake and all these other places in between uh will really be key and success for all the small businesses in Phoenix so I think that's part where I know it is a focus but just having better sidewalks you know lighting for people to be able to walk on and be able to go from you know leave your mark to Clive's corner to the cheesecake to the foodery and kind of walking throughout one that brings so much to all of our businesses thank you we're gonna go off script for one question here Economic Development means supporting existing businesses and it often means also supporting businesses better is better to relocate an area or are considering an area to set up a facility there hopefully employing folks what do you um as a business owner and representative in Phoenix wish businesses outside of the area new about Phoenix in other words one Marta and Terrell was already talked to folks who are considering Phoenix what do you wish we told others to get done to take a chance on Phoenix I think the support of the community because honestly we don't necessarily have a ton of you know restaurants there's some there's not a lot of you know other I mean there's wineries there's a lot of things but nothing that's really that close um walking distance so I think just the the support um in being part of a community that has you know so much potential it's already growing so much in the recovery of the fire um it's really exciting to be a part of it I think that's a draw um is to be a part of something that is developing growing so quickly to me and a lot of really neat ways uh yeah I think a big part of it is just the the growth potential for Phoenix um there's a lot of uh obviously a lot of um building projects and things going on currently um but you know the the growth that's going to be happening along North Phoenix Road over the next number of years they're going to build ultimately 1500 housing units around Centennial Golf Course um really those are you know I would say even closer to Phoenix than they are to a lot of things in Medford and I think that's going to be a big draw for for the city and it'll give the city a chance to kind of um you know set itself apart a little bit because there's going to be a huge influx I think of of new consumers to the area um and so I I think that there's a huge growth potential in Phoenix um and uh it's just you know again getting that getting that word out and and and and changing the philosophy of Phoenix being a drive-through town that you drive through to get to Medford or get to Ashland and actually something that people are going to stop at and and we're going to check out um for us Phoenix being centrally located between Ashland and Medford means that we can very easily service clients from both spaces so um just physically speaking it's a very good place to place your location also in some cases the rent can be more affordable so it can be a great draw and to be able to serve as clients and um yes kind of all of that of uh physically perfectly centrally located between Ashland and Central Point and Jacksonville right off the five um just 21 miles north of the California border it's uh but we are all of our businesses in Phoenix by independent locals comparatively to the other towns we have a lot of what I call Micro businesses not so small businesses micro businesses and we have quite a bit of them and then we're getting more of them um so that makes things kind of Super Hyper local and also uh kind of affordable there's a lot of the workforce that also lives here the working middle class as well is building our school district is growing quite well yeah and doing quite well so that's also going to be a nice attraction for families who want to move here being centrally located in Phoenix here in the valley is one of the main reasons I'm actually located in Phoenix there's contractors who don't want to drive all the way off to Table Rock to get gravel they can just stop here grab some clients on the way back to the job site and it's very convenient not only is it we're essentially located between Ashland and Medford but from Yreka to Grants Pass and so we are able to capture business from quite a range and it is very convenient to for my customers who are in Ashland I don't have to drive all the way out to stuff so a lot of your answers today have touched on you know the corridor the legacy of Paddington and drive through sort of a town so let's look at where Phoenix fits in in the Rhode Valley economy on the future you kind of started talking about it but tell me your vision um just what do you see the role of finishing the economy going forward do you want it to keep being like the um Workforce residential community for the entire Valley or do you want it to be a blend where do you see Phoenix economically in 10 years we're already in very diverse place we share interests of from Medford we share interests for Ashland so it's a diverse place there is lots of buildable land and housing is I would say the most the biggest priority for us is to get some affordable housing and be able to house the workforce um yeah it's continuing on the same path of being focused for the locals I mean it's always nice to get a little touristy and there but this is what not what our Valley is anymore the little Shakespeare Festival for nine months out of the year um we have some really lovely wineries um so there's some beautiful kind of Tourism that happens but more really targeting the local people that can just drive over have a little meal here um you know getting a black bird which is locally owned has an Ace Hardware take that Home Depot whatever and um you know just being able to shop locally like whenever I need something from the hearts and crafts I'm gonna go to Scrappy Crafters right there across the street um you know just trying to think more and targets more like working with Talent which is also a lot in the same vision of Being for the people and by the people something so American right now I would just think that as Phoenix was still being rebuilt I mean we've got some great visuals of things that are have happened or will be happening in Phoenix but there's a chance to kind of do things differently and better and I think that people are taking advantage of that and it will definitely show in the next you know years to come um I think Phoenix has the opportunity to be kind of The Best of Both Worlds so a possibly um slightly less expensive place to live than maybe Ashland or Medford um but then still have things that are a draw to keep people here so when people are you know they may work in Medford and come home to Phoenix and on the weekends there's enough things here locally that that you keep those dollars here locally and enough to attract people from other areas um I again I think the the um part of part of what my um excitement was when we were gonna you know talking about rebuilding our branch and everything like that is um there is going to be really nothing but growth in Phoenix over the next say five to ten years just with all of the housing that's going to be coming back in and get be building back and so when we open as a as a bank you know obviously our goal is always growing our growing the business um and with all that opportunity that's going to be happening here and then in surrounding areas like I said out on North Phoenix Road and some of those projects I think Phoenix really has the opportunity to be um kind of a hub where you know people people will live here because there's a it's a it's a they don't want to you know again you possibly can't afford or maybe don't want to live in Ashland or Medford um so this gives them an alternative to that but then as um we bring in things like you know some of the things that Courtney had mentioned you know the foodery and some of these things that are going to be coming along that that's that's the kind of thing if someone it just happens to be driving through and they see something like that for the first time they're probably going to stop because they've been you know before it was just an empty field and now oh there's these there's this place I can go get food and maybe get a cool beer or something like that um so that's the kind of stuff we need and I think Phoenix is is poised to um to really um kind of take some big steps forward in the next five to ten years um I hope in you know dream of kind of pirate downtown in Phoenix and 5-10 years um and I think it's because of the small businesses like the cheese shop and other ones are you know local small businesses Community oriented I think it's pretty neat being in a spot that is essentially located we have regulars from Jacksonville from the Green Springs from Central Point you know from Ashland from Medford from town from Phoenix obviously but I know people in Ashland that won't go weed out Bedford people Medford that won't be you know go eat in Ashland so we have a really unique situation um that we are in the center and it's kind of a little Switzerland you know come spend your money with us I think to be vibrant that we need a lot of infrastructure in place again going back to the sidewalks uh The Greenway is an absolutely amazing asset um I think that pulling more people you know coming to Phoenix from The Greenway could be really amazing it actually had multiple customers bring up to us pickleball courts um and I think that that's something that would create a lot of traffic from again Medford Ashland Talent you know people coming off the greenway from bikes and walking um coming you know playing a sport hanging out it's a game come Community Based but then going and spending their money in town at the theater clients hopefully at the Cheesecake no other places um well let's go check out Landscaping over leave your mark everything then where people are coming you know kind of starting their day with one thing and then walking from business to business um with that obviously parking's a whole nother issue so there's so much stuff that goes into that but I I think and believe that in five to ten years the Phoenix will be really vibrant downtown that will pull in people from all over Southern Oregon which in case in case we're bringing you know tourism just from Word of Mouth of where people are in Ashland if they're visiting friends or you know Central Point or Medford that it becomes little destination to bring you know visiting friends and family too [Music]