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I I I Council Meeting Minutes April 13. 1993 Page 4 Council Business. continued Mr. McComb said Rice Creek Center is a neighborhood shopping center surrounded by a commercial area where the bulk of customers are pulled in by anchor stores, New Market and Snyders. There is an interdependent relationship between the anchors and other tenants. These customers are located in a three mile radius which represents about 90% of the sales generated. This radius is an attractive trade area and the Center could be expected to achieve a 15% market share of the customer base in the area. The Center provides convenience goods which are typically bought close to home. Shopping goods are purchased at larger centers like Rosedale or Northtown. The purchasing power analysis found that competition is disappearing, market potential exists to support stores and businesses, and the Center has a high level of vacancy. Mr. McComb explained the Center is old, unattractive and does not resemble a place where a well-established retailer would locate. It's suffering from malnutrition, not due to the market but because the owner did not maintain the center. Image is connected to sale successfulness, and the best solution is an owner who invests to attract tenants. The Center's problem is not location, but how it has been treated over years. Mr. McComb identified a shopping center as a group of architecturally unified establishments built on a single site which is planned, developed, owned and managed as an operating unit. The key to success is a group of tenants who are interrelated. Locating a church in a shopping center and changing 40,000 sq. ft. into non-retail space alters the Center's nature. The stores would not attract people who have come to shop, but are in the area for a different purpose. The best option is a center owned, managed and operated for the purpose it was built. To change the use and put in a non-retail use like a church reduces the shopping function and creates a different image in the minds of the consumer. Mr. McComb reiterated that even in its less than attractive condition, the Center fulfills its function and draws customers and even the continuation of it's status of neglect is preferable to changing it's use for a church as it relates to the retail area. The best alternative is an owner who will invest to make it into a modern shopping center. The least attractive alternative is to install a non-retail use such as the church which will change the image of the center in the minds of the consumer. Benke asked if other churches located in commercial areas have been successful. Mr. McComb said examples of other churches located in commercial areas are not comparable to the Church Upon the Rock proposal. Benke senses that it is not necessarily the use, but the magnitude of square footage being removed from retail space. Mr. McComb said the proposed Church addition would make it the second largest tenant in the Center, second only to New Market. He noted that a Christian Science reading room is more akin to a religious book store, which is found in malls and serves as a bookstore rather than a church. Mattila noted that the staff report addresses the issues relating to the increase in traffic, school accreditation and the park use issue. Council Business Church Upon the Rock Special Use Permit Report 93-107