08/15/1988 - City Council SpecialSPECIAL MEETING
EAGAN CITY COUNCIL
MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 1988
7:30 P.M.
I. ROLL CALL
AGENDA
II. REVIEW OF RETAIL /COMMERCIAL
STUDY - LAVENTHOL & HORWATH
III. OTHER BUSINESS
IV. ADJOURNMENT
MEMO TO: HONORABLE MAYOR & CITY COUNCILMENBERS
FROM: CITY ADMINISTRATOR HEDGES
DATE: AUGUST 5, 1988
SUBJECT: SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION
Please be advised that a special City Council meeting is
scheduled for Monday, August 15, 1988, at 7:30 p.m., for the
purpose of reviewing the commercial /retail study that was
prepared by the consulting firm of Laventhol & Horwath.
A copy of the report was distributed last week to each City
Councilmember. If your copy was misplaced, please feel free to
contact this office and a new copy will be made for your review.
The City Planner has prepared an executive summary, a copy is
enclosed for your review.
Please regard the report prepared by Laventhol & Horwath as a
draft copy of the retail study following your discussion and
special City Council meeting direction. A final report will be
prepared and distributed for Council consideration.
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City Administrator
TLH /kf
MEMORANDUM
TO: Tom Hedges, City Administrator
FROM: Dale Runkle, City Planner
DATE: August 12, 1988
SUBJECT: Laventhol and Horwath Retail Market Study
Laventhol and Horwath has recently completed its retail market
analysis for the City of Eagan. The purpose of this study was to
assess the level of retail commercial space supportable in Eagan
by the year 2010.
The technical memorandum containing the results of this study is
a relatively condensed document. As such, rather than summarize
the information contained in the document, some of the questions
raised by its conclusions will be discussed.
The methodology used made certain assumptions regarding location
of Eagan retail nodes, retail trade areas, etc. Conclusions were
drawn based on these assumptions. The question then becomes: if
different assumptions were made, to what extent would the
conclusions be different? For example, Tables 7 through 9
indicate an excess of commercial acreage in Nodes 1, 3 and 4 for
each of the three scenarios. However, does this indicate that
there is excess commercial acreage in the City of Eagan, or that
there is excess commercial acreage in the City of Eagan, but only
at the assumed locations? What effect would relocating these
nodes have on the amount of overall supportable commercial
acreage?
In addition, whether the study takes into account a retailer's
lead time for building its market share is unclear. For example,
if Target comes on line in 1989, but requires a five year lead -
time to capture its share of the market, will this indicate an
excess of supportable retail square footage for that node in the
year 1990?
The Laventhol and Horwath study provides extremely useful
information regarding retail potential for the City of Eagan.
However, in using this document to assist in making future land
use policy decisions, the assumptions, as well as conclusions,
must be considered.