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infrastructure to serve the site, relocation costs, and other costs associated with the reuse <br />process would be paid for, either through public subside, and/or through fees and other <br />charges to the developer. <br />In recruiting new businesses to the locations targeted for enhancement and consolidation. <br />the City may find that there is a need to nurture local entrepreneurial talent in order to <br />cultivate some of the types of businesses that local residents have expressed interest in. <br />such as upscale coffee shops and specialty foods retailers. San Leandro currently does not <br />fit the typical corporate definition of a community that will support upscale retail. On the <br />other hand, there are locations within San Leandro that are beginning to support some of <br />these types of stores, in particular, neighborhood shopping nodes serving the North Area <br />neighborhood. These are not corporate operations, but independent small businesses that <br />have sufficient personal knowledge of the local market to have identified viable market <br />niches. This is a model that the City could nurture and expand upon in order to encourage <br />more of the types of businesses desired by residents. <br />To help find prospective tenants for the locations targeted for enhancement and <br />consolidation. City staff should contact owners of successful businesses in San Leandro or <br />other neighboring jurisdictions who may be looking for expansion opportunities. Staff <br />should also work with successful retailers who are located in marginal centers to determine <br />which ones might be interested in relocating to targeted neighborhood centers or other <br />appropriate locations within the City. In addition. local community colleges and other <br />adult education programs offer courses in developing business plans for people interested <br />in starting nev. businesses. There may be students in any of these classes who are <br />interested in opening a retail business that would be appropriate for San Leandro. but have <br />not vet selected a location. If there appear to be some viable businesses, the City can help <br />facilitate their start-up by assisting with lease negotiations, identifying possible sources of <br />capital. referring the business people to sources of technical assistance. and providing <br />information about the types of assistance available from the City jincluding the Cih's own <br />Design Assistance program. where appropriate). While the City should not necessarily be <br />responsible for capitalizing am small business that wants to locate in San Leandro. this <br />may be a viable way to find appropriate tenants who would not otherwise consider these <br />locations. Successful developers in areas like Fourth Street in Berkeley and the Rockridge <br />Market Hall in Oakland have used similar approaches to tenant their projects. <br />Roles and Responsibilities. City Economic Development staff should take responsibility <br />for the initial steps of surve}ing propem owners and compiling sales data for individual <br />centers to identify centers to target for conversion. Once the City has selected a site to <br />target for conversion. the City could hire outside consultants to conduct market analysis <br />and preliminary feasibilit\ studies. land use plans. and financing strateies. <br />Redevelopment staff would then take the lead in rocessin_ <br />g <br />ecessan, zoning or <br />General Plan changes in Redevelopment Proiect Areas. with Planninganynstaff taking the lead <br />in other areas. Economic Development staff would have primary responsibility for <br />2 64 <br />