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have various sites for people to come to the area to invest. The historical nature of the old building is valued and he wants to maintain that heritage. Ms. Michelotti asked if the building could be constructed so that it could accommodate a wine tasting area, but just not open it until the appropriate time. Mr. Wente said the plans are to have a large open shell with no divisions inside. Interior improvements could be made later. He has a phased plan that shows a variety of additional buildings if the winery became as large as a Concannon or Wente operation. If the potential future user is a small boutique winery, it could do it all in the one building. There is a lot of flexibility. Mr. Campbell asked why Wente is looking for someone else to operate this site? Mr. Wente said they were trying to attract a well-funded business entity in the wine industry to the Livermore Valley. There is strength in numbers and in having a variety of organizations to help support funding of the marketing of the area and to create an atmosphere and amenities that draw people to an area. The wine business is different than the usual consumer product. It is a very image sensitive product. People envision the region where the wine came from. Perfect examples are Napa and Sonoma, which have done excellent jobs of marketing themselves. People who visit the area comment about golf, bike rides, mudbaths, bed and breakfast inns, restaurants, not that they touched grape leaves. There are more acres of grapes in the Salinas Valley than in Napa County, but people don't go to King City or Soledad for lunch. This is about creating a business environment. He felt the Livermore Valley has the natural resources to do a similar thing: wonderful parks and trails, great downtowns, etc. What is needed is to get more wineries and independent vintners. You need the energy from many different people. Wente is very supportive of bringing as much competition as it can. In the long run, it is not competition, it is a group to market the Valley in competition with Napa and Sonoma, etc. Mr. Campbell asked when in the future the winery would be functioning? Mr. Wente could not guess, but hoped it would be in one to five years. It is possible it could be in two or three months. Ms. Ayala said the final map was approved in October and asked what has delayed the construction. Mr. Wente said he had been waiting for Council to resolve this issue and is ready to move forward with construction as soon as there is clarification of what is to be built. He strongly urged Council to approve the building as a shell. If a tasting room is required, it will require developing an entire business plan to support such a request. It sounds simple, but putting together a tasting room is easily a halfa million to a million dollar commitment. Also he has no product to sell out of it. Until an owner/operator or Pleasanton City Council 10 02/06/01 Minutes