Okay, here we go. Everybody ready? All right. Well, good morning everyone. It is May 14th, 2026, 7:30 in the morning. And this is the meeting of the Edina Housing and Redevelopment Authority for this particular date. Uh, and we've got a interesting agenda, not a long agenda, but an interesting agenda in front of us this morning. Uh first of all, uh we're doing these meetings just like we are with city council meetings on a hybrid basis. And so folks may be uh listening in and watching the meeting. Uh and there's your call-in information. There's no public hearing this morning. So there's one only one opportunity to call in if you have a a concern or a comment you want to make. You can call in during uh the community comment portion of the agenda, which comes up fairly fast. uh and uh keep in mind that you cannot comment on something that's otherwise on the agenda or scheduled for a future public hearing in front of the HR. And so uh we'll first uh entertain comments from uh folks in the audience. We got a few with us today. And then we'll call on uh anybody that's tuning in virtually if there is anyone to call on. So having provided that information, I'm going to call the meeting to order. And uh somebody's going to call the role. I guess our executive director is going to call the role. Yes, sir. I will do that. Commissioner Risser >> here. >> Commissioner Jackson >> here. >> Commissioner Pierce >> here. >> Commissioner Agnu >> here. >> Chair Hublin >> here. Yeah, we got a full house this morning, which is uh unusual with everybody's work schedules. It's nice to have everybody here. Uh next is the um pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh next we have had published of course a meeting agenda for the benefit of the public uh so they know what uh kind of work we're engaged in and also for ourselves and is there any change to the meeting agenda by staff or cu commissioners? >> There is not. >> Okay. All right. Uh is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda is published? >> So moved. >> I second. >> Commissioner Jackson moves. Commissioner Agnes seconds the adoption of the meeting agenda. Anything further on that? Any further discussion? All those in favor of adopting the meeting agenda is published say I. >> I. Opposed. Carried. The meeting agenda is adopted. Uh we will now work from that agenda further. Uh we're now at community comment. So if there anyone in the audience wishes to come forward and comment to the H on a matter that's not scheduled uh for a future public hearing or on the agenda, please feel free to come forward. Okay. Okay, seeing no one coming forward. Do we have anybody online? >> We do not have any callers currently, but I do recommend waiting one minute before we proceed. >> We'll wait for you to get back to us. It's been a minute and we still have no callers. >> All right. Thank you. Uh let's move on then and ask our executive director if he had any uh comment from the prior meeting that he needed to cover. There were no questions or comments to address. >> Very good. Let's move on to the consent portion of the agenda. There's two items on the consent agenda. Is there anyone on the HR that wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda? All right. Hearing nothing. Is there a motion to adopt items on the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Commissioner Jackson moves. Commissioner Agnu seconds the adoption of the items on the consent agenda and a single motion. Uh anything further there from a discussion standpoint? All those in favor of adopting the items on the consent agenda on a single motion basis say I. I. >> I. Opposed, carried. Those items are adopted. >> Uh and then we will move on to the kind of the heart of the meeting this morning, which is the reports and recommendations portion of the meeting. And uh I think our our economic development director, Bill Nounorf, wants a little guidance on an issue that he's been working on uh which is potential spark funding uh for 4925 Eden Avenue. And that is where the restaurant Starling is located uh which is owned by Jester Concepts. Now we'll turn now to uh our economic development manager, Bill Nuendorf. Mr. Nuendorf, good morning. Welcome. >> Yes, good morning. That's a great uh overview. Uh so this morning I I have two uh presentations for you. Our first is focusing on a potential use of our spark program to support the job expansion at a local restaurant, the Starling restaurant, uh just across the corner from city hall at 4925 Eden. Um so, as you mentioned, uh this mo this particular topic is just for discussion this morning. Uh no action is required. Uh, but I've been uh in contact with the owner since they were working on their construction plans as they were uh looking to to really revive and add some some zest to that corner. Uh, and we've been chatting on and off over the years uh uh about uh their performance on site, some of the challenges and then some of the recurring challenges that they're seeing. So this morning, we'd really appreciate some guidance on whether or not the HR would be interested in intervening to support some improvements on the site. Um uh this is the um uh this is kind of part one of this proposal. Um in order to address some of their parking concerns, they would need two things. Some funding support and um uh a site plan amendment. So before we go through the planning commission process and submit full engineering drawings and all that type of thing, we wanted to visit with the H first to see if this is something that we're even interested in pursuing. Um, so again, not looking for a final answer, but looking for your direction. Uh, ultimately the the question that the owner and myself have is whether or not this is something we spend time working on or not. So, your your input is critical to that. >> All right. And I would note that uh Mr. Frederick, the owner of Gesture Concepts, is here with us this morning as well to be available for questioning and answering. >> Correct. >> Thanks for being here this morning. Yeah. So, the site uh it's a twoacre site uh just across the corner from city hall. Uh in 2021, the site was purchased. Um uh this is where the Perkins restaurant had been for many, many years. Uh but that site was redeveloped into the Mesa Green Apartments with the uh restaurant on the main floor. That restaurant was inserted um into the overall project plan based on urgings from the planning commission and city council at that time. uh when the uh developer first brought the proposal to the city there was not a retail use but as through the public process through the uh site plan entitlement process the city really urged them to include some type of active commercial use and Mr. Frederick responded by putting his restaurant uh in the building. Um the project is is predominantly occupied by the apartment complex. Um but there is the restaurant on the west side of the building and they do have a small surface parking lot. Um 28 stalls in the lot. It does satisfy our minimum code requirements. Um that's how we got to this point. But what the owner has found over time is that based on the unique customer mix that he's attracting that parking lot can get overwhelmed and filled up very quickly. And while it satisfies our minimum code requirements, it really doesn't meet the market. Um so over the last year and a half that he's been open, uh he's looked into many different options. Um on street parking, valet parking, uh he's been in touch with neighboring property owners to see if he can to see if he can lease space from them. Um but none of those options seem to be viable and thus we're left here this morning to discuss an option where the HA might get involved. Uh and ultimately it's about expanding that on-site parking lot. So I'll show a picture in a second. Try to show a picture. Seems to me that they've had challenges unlike many other businesses in the area too because they've been through two uh one road construction project and now the bridge project. So it's affected people's maybe desire to travel in the area and and then go to a restaurant on top of it. >> Con construction certainly discourages consumers from coming to to those sites. Um so this is the site plan that was approved back in 2022 2023 in that in that time frame. It shows the footprint of the apartment building. There's the circular driveway that that is the main door for the apartments on the right side. Um, uh, Eden Avenue is to the north on the top of the image and then Wilson Road on the right or the east. Um, on the left hand side of this image is Highway 100 and you'll see the gray area is the surface parking lot that that exists today. Um, just beyond the surface parking lot is a landscape buffer. Um, and that landscape buffer was important to the city for two reasons. One, it's a place to put trees and and some landscaping. But through the entitlement process, the city also has an option um to purchase that land uh if we need it for a public road or similar public improvement at some point in the future. Um as we stand here in 2026, there's no imminent need for us to have that road. Um with the new bridge improvement, we think uh this type of road is is a longdistant um future uh uh possibility. Um but we do have the option Um but be you know while the site is not being used by the city uh as the owner and I were chatting we thought well that could be the spot where we put the surface parking. Let's see. >> Yeah, I think this one is dead. So the the restaurant owner had this uh rough sketch prepared to illustrate how additional surface parking could look on the site. Uh, let me note this is very rough. It's wrong. There's details that need to be refined. There's um there's some grade that we didn't realize. There's a the utility post in the wrong way that would be too expensive to move. But for the purposes of our conversation this morning, it's a good place to start. So, the changes to the site plan would be on the westerly edge of the property where that landscaping area is. uh we could we could um uh expand the parking there nearly doubling the on-site parking. Um so it's not just adding four or five stalls, it's nearly doubling it. So it's a game changer for the for the consumers that want to go there. If this were easy, it would have been would have happened already, right? Um I usually bring things to you when they're hard, challenging, difficult, and expensive. Um so this is one of the toughest edges of the property. There's a reason reason that the landscaping was there. Uh there's the large retaining wall that's owned by Mindot. There's a steep slope and there's storm water. So in order to extend the parking, we have to modify the retaining wall, not the one owned by Mandot. Thank you. But the one that supports the uh the rest of the existing parking lot. We have to modify the landscaping uh which gets expensive. And then we have to also modify the storm water system that's on site. Um so altogether it comes in at about $750,000. That's a pretty massive expense for a parking lot. Um but looking at the other alternative options, it's also the least expensive option that's out there. Um so in general, that that's the type of improvement we're we're looking at. Um as Mr. Frederick and I have have looked at this issue um uh over the year or two. Um we we have a possible strategy to consider. Um and we would utilize those spark funds that the city has available for for improvements that create jobs. That's exactly what this is. Other projects we've done, elevators and um exterior improvements and ADA improvements. This is permanent improvements to the site um that would allow the owner to expand his restaurant offerings and create new employment jobs there. Um but as we've we as we've structured this, we've had all parties having a stake in this endeavor. So the business owner would be responsible uh for doing the engineering, hiring the contractor, getting all the permits, going through that entitlement process through planning commission and then as a city council as well. that would be all on their plate and they'd also be um responsible for a portion of the expenses. I've approximated that at about 200,000. The property owner would also have a stake in this. Ultimately, they're the owner that that holds the lease. Technically, they own the property. Uh after many uh months of negotiation, they are willing to get involved um in seeing this happen. So, I I penciled them in at about $200,000. Then I've also looked at what we've done for a few other restaurants in Adina where we've supported them with uh forgivable loans in the range of $200,000 uh to support improvements to the site. So I'm kind of replicating what we've done there. And then I've looked at what we what we can do and what we've done in another case where we can use these spark funds as a traditional loan. So rather than going to a a bank and paying prime prime interest, the the HA can use some of these funds structured as a repayable uh mortgage loan on the property that would be returned to the city over time. Um so we've structured that uh where the loan would be repaid over the remaining term of the lease. Um uh so that that that blends in nicely. Again, I'm approximating that at about 200,000. So all in these are very rough numbers, right? We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of refining. Um we hope we can we can still find some value engineering in those construction costs. Uh there's still work to do on the owner side with with the financing, the property owner, the business owner. But before they get too far along, before they start spending real money and real time to submit engineering plans, we wanted to put this in front of you to see if to see if this something uh that you are interested in. I had mentioned this regulatory step, the entitlement process. Um that is one of the critical steps. I don't want to overlook that. Um uh we haven't looked explored that a whole lot. Um uh for certain we the owner would have to amend the site plan. They would use the city's typical process of public hearings and public meetings, public notices. Uh it would go before city staff for engineering and landscaping. It would go towards the other government agencies for storm water and other types of permits through the planning commission and city council. both the regulatory approvals and the financial approvals are essential. So if if one doesn't pass muster, like if the regulatory aspect doesn't pass muster, financing doesn't matter. They need both to move forward. So um uh I just want to put that on the table this morning. So the you know the planning commission will will get a chance, city council will get a chance. Um, but we thought we'd start here because without a path for funding, frankly, none of that matters. So, uh, in conclusion, you know, I want to put the table or the question back, uh, on you, uh, and and ask whether or not the HR is generally supportive of using Spark in this type of manner, a a two-part loan. One is forgivable and one is a traditional loan to be repaid. Um, looking at your general level of support, concern, suggestions, or opposition. Um, uh, as you mentioned, Mr. Chair, I'm I'm happy to answer any questions. Uh, Mr. Frederick is here this morning. He's happy to answer any question. And I turn it back to you for discussion. >> Yeah. Before we start the discussion there, just a quick reminder, others maybe remember, but on the spark uh, program itself, are those funds that need to be uh, used by the end of this year? >> Correct. Yes. That spark program has a deadline. So, the work must be finished, projects must be paid and delivered by the end of the year. So, we're at we're at the point where we really can't delay much longer. Um, we've spent over a year as Mr. Frederick has tried to negotiate with the neighbors, tried the valet to see if that worked. He's tried lots of options. We're now at a point where we where he needs to make a decision. But, yes, those spark funds are limited and uh the end of this year is our deadline. So it's not a it's not an allocation or a designation of the funds. We actually got to be expended. I mean the projects have to be finished and the money has to be >> correct >> paid out by the end of the year. And so how much is left in that spark fund? And and we know you've been thinking about how to effectively use it. >> Sure. >> Yeah. In the in the appropriate manner. So >> we have a bit over a million dollars available in that fund. >> Okay. and uh and tell us then again remind us what happens with the remaining amounts in that fund uh at the end of the 12-month period here at the end of December 31 unspent monies where do they go >> sure any um well those fund the monies began their life as tax increment so they were property taxes collected in other areas of Adina other commercial areas of Adina um Greater Southdale Pentagon Park and Wooddale Valley View those were the original sources of that. So any unused monies would be returned to those funds. Um most likely the Pentagon uh uh park tiff district and the um now now expired uh Southdale tiff district and um they would live in those funds to pay off any obligations that that remain. Okay. And in the $200,000 loan that we would potentially make, uh, is that coming out of one particular tiff district that that would go back to eventually because that'll be somewhere down the road will that'll be paid off, >> right? We haven't gone that gone that far into the detail, but I would just off the top of my head, I would presume that we would use spark funds that originated from Pentagon Park and then over the next 10 or 12 years uh that's in the lease, uh we would return those payments back to that uh tiff district. >> And have you got any other projects in mind that can be accomplished by the end of the year using smart funds? >> I have a few other small ones. um some of those streamline programs for the small business. Um I have I'm working on a handful of those, but I don't have anything else in the six figure category. Th those smaller grants are in they max out at 24,000. So the only other um uh large project that we have in mind is the uh uh is Enclaves work at the Macy's the former Macy's furniture site. But at this point in time, remember, they have to have the work done and have the contractor paid. Uh, you know, as we stand here in May, um, they're still they haven't begun their demolition. It's it's coming, but they're not there. So, I don't know if that project is is realistic for spark funding in 2026. >> Okay. And then one more reminder, I'm going to go to my colleagues, but did we did some work down at 50th in France with was it Cafe Americana? Is that what it's going to be called? Correct. Little bario. >> Yep. We did something similar to this down there. >> We've done that twice at at 50th. We supported uh that underground kind of speak easyy restaurant. Um >> that's going great. I guess >> provided about 200,000 to them um to add an elevator to actually access that lower level. And then we separate project we provide we will provide about 200,000 to Americana for the same purpose. They're expanding on the second floor. Um to get a one-story elevator into an existing building is is unreasonably expensive. So, we're helping them with that elevator as well. So, those are the other two kind of similar projects. >> Okay. I'm going to turn to Commissioner Agnu. She's been waiting to ask a few. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Um so, when you were talking about how some of the land we today have the rights to use it, but we haven't done that. Um would we you said we would retain the rights so if down the road there's a project that necessitates us having that space we could take it back. Is that correct? >> That is correct. One of my goals for you is to get as many options available to the city that are always available to you. So we've through the whole entitlement process and the the financing project for the Mesa Green we the city has public parking rights to the parking lot that's there. uh in the event where Tupa under two conditions. If Tupa Park needs overflow parking, which they do from time to time, um and if the restaurant is not using the parking lot, so the restaurant is not open 24 hours a day. They focus on primarily lunch and dinner. Um but in the mornings, we do have public access rights to the lot. Um and for the option to build an off-ramp or other public roadway, that's a permanent right that will not extinguish. >> Okay. Thank you. And if you could go back to the drawing, the imagery of that site directly, um, is the new lot a different level or is it one flat lot? >> Uh, to be determined in detail, it would be approximately flat. Um, you would you would enter the lot in a single driveway, drive to the end, and do a U-turn and come back. You so it' be a looping lot. Okay. >> It it's probably going to be sloped a little bit. >> Um uh but it'll you know to the naked eye it probably would appear as flat but it will be sloped to some degree. But we still have to have drive a regular car so it can't have a drop off or anything like that. >> Okay. Thank you. Um what are some of the alternatives? You said that this was the best of the alternatives. Um what else had other than some of the other non construction related activities? What else has been considered like going up, going down? >> Sure. Uh, good question. I think I'll ask Mr. Frederick to answer that. He's the one that's been living this for the year and a half and he's explored probably more options than I'm even aware of. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Good morning, Mr. Frederick. >> Good morning, everyone. Mayor, city council, staff. Thank you for having me. >> Um, I want to make sure I understood your question, but I'm just going to go through maybe like the the whole timeline. Um, we realized pretty quickly that the the type of restaurant that we had, um, we didn't have this enough parking. This is my fault. Um, at being an a diner resident, I had most of our restaurants downtown where valet is just kind of normal. That's just kind of what you do. So, I'm like, "Oh, 30 spots sounds great." Well, on a Friday or Saturday night, we've clocked almost every night that 40% of our restaurant is full when our whole parking lot is full. Like, we are not being able to maximize our our restaurant. I'm super optimistic that if we can get more parking, then we can have more sales, hire more staff, keep more staff. But to your question specifically, um we've tried valet. The residents did not like that. They thought we were too fancy of a restaurant, so we removed the valet portion. Um, tried parking on Wilson and some other streets and then there there was some issues with the neighborhood that they didn't like all the parking over there. Um, also our customers didn't like it because it was too far for them to walk. Um, I don't I think city count city hall is kind of allowed, but we don't advertise that. We don't tell anyone. So, some people do, but even that is a tough walk. Um, and you guys would know if you ever walk over for lunch. It's it's it's not a bad walk, but I think people in in the suburbs and maybe specifically Dino want to be able to park right out in front. That's been uh that's been a big thing we've been hearing. We've also tried to negotiate um some space in the building just south of us. I forget what the name of the building is, but um being able to have that as overflow, create a little walkway up to the parking lot. They have been um extremely difficult to to work with, to negotiate. Um we've tried three or four different times. the broker has basically, you know, stopped talking to us because we keep on trying to negotiate the the amount that they're asking for um is just not feasible, like nowhere in the ballpark of being feasible for our restaurant to afford. And to be specific, it's they want $1,000 per stall per month. And when like we were thinking they have like hundreds of spaces that are open and we're like we'll give you a thousand for like 20. How about that? And they're just like laughing at us and they they've basically discontinued talk. So we have tried. But as far as like if you're asking what are other options on construction here, we've worked with a group called LAS. It's a civil engineer and a contractor to really kind of come up with the best option. Um I I'm not sure of another option because nothing is we don't want to go up, you know, that wouldn't make sense. So this is the best option. There could be a variation. I I I think but it is sloped like uh like Bill is saying, it's already sloped right now. We would just match that slope just kind of right next door to it and it would be more of a you can go down and and circulate or tandem, you know, in front. So, more work to be done. Um, but looking to continue the work basically. So, one of the other options that we did look at very early on was uh to see if we could utilize the indoor parking that's for the resident and uh I know there were several several conversations with the owner and they just felt that was um just not an option. Um >> some security issues I think they cited and and I understand that. So, >> yep. So, those are the options we've looked at so far. >> Thank you. And last question, then I'll hand it over to others. Um, what is the the best case scenario and timeline? >> Well, I think because of the the the spark timing, uh, my contract contractor has said we we need to move fairly fast to get it done this year. Uh, they think they can do it as long as they can start submitting for permit and we start the entitlement process. But, um, I think we'd like to have it done by the end of the year. that that's the goal. >> Okay. And then I'll also look um to Mr. Nuendorf because I know our processes are not always rapid and so if if there's additional meetings, right? It looks like city council other things that they'll to be brought through. Um do you have any concerns even if we started immediately with hitting kind of an endofyear timeline given our spark constraints? >> Yeah. Um, if the site plan approval is secured, uh, and if the contractor works diligently, um, barring anything crazy like great recessions and lack of asphalt or, you know, lack of materials, um, they can definitely get it done. Um, if the, uh, if the entitlement process lags, you know, I think we would expect 60 90 days at the most. um we are structured the city city staff is structured in a way where we can do more than than one thing at a time. So uh we cannot issue the permit before the um entitlement is secured but we can certainly re review the plans and have it go through that internal process to expedite construction. Um but all parties would have to work diligently at this point. Um but it's you know the good news it's May. Uh the construction season will go until November. There's plenty of time. Um, and you know, even getting the restaurant open, Mr. Frederick has expressed has, you know, demonstrated his ability to push his contractor and get things done on his timeline. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Pierce. Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, just a follow up on that question. um if if we allocate the funds and then the project does not close in time by the end of the year, what's the impact of the financing construct that you've shared to the for the city? >> Sure. uh if the project well if the project uh if the funding is approved by the HA um but the contract doesn't finish the owner is at risk right so if they if they don't finish until January 1st >> we cannot provide funding so that I mean so the the owner is at risk for that um at this point I don't have another big project that's queued up that would be you know there's no opportunity cost at At this point, there's we're not holding back from someone else. Uh, but the risk is borne by the by the owner, not by the city. >> Can you put your the financing construct slide back up? >> And I'm just um trying to be like crystal clear. If um so if we don't finish on time, the total dollar amount that the owner is responsible for is how much? Right now we're estimating 750,000 to build it. And if you know if things get delayed and the contractor can't start until 2027, I would expect that the owner would not move forward. Okay. So that's how you're thinking of. You have a sense of how long this will take. You're going to line things up, get permits approved, all of that. But if you run out of if you at some point think you're not going to be able to finish, then we would just scrap the whole thing. >> Project has to be completed to be eligible for the spark funds. >> Correct. Yeah. To be eligible, the the pro the work has to be finished. >> Has to be finished >> and the contractor has to be paid. So the way the state law was written, the monies cannot the spark monies not only have to be pledged and allocated, they need to be out the door to the contractor's uh checking account. >> Yeah. To the commissioner's point, he's he's the adjusters would get $200,000 from the property owner. The rest of it would be on him. >> Correct. And so I think that's important for Mr. Frederickson to understand. Um I think we've done this um a number of times um for restaurants in Edina. Very little risk to us. uh the funds are available, but it's a huge risk for a small uh small business owner given the the timing constraints. Um and I don't know what we can do to accelerate that, but I but I just think it's fair to make sure that that's crystal clear. um especially in this case for sure, but anybody else this year who wants to try to utilize those funds. Uh my other two questions, um I think you talked about um when I looked at this, I actually wasn't thinking about job creation and so that was going to be my second question. How is this creating jobs? Um, and so you alluded to it a little bit, but if you want to speak a little bit more to that. >> So, I think that, you know, we know kind of what our staff level was like right away when everyone's really excited about it. Everyone's coming down, everyone's parking wherever. Um, and I would say we were maybe not not double the sales like the first year before like construction on city hall started and construction on the bridge started, but I'd say we were close to maybe maybe about 60% more um busy and more more full as far as our tables go. And back to the comment on a Friday or Saturday night when the parking lot is full and the Kill School Graange area all those spots are taken up were only about 40% capacity. That can be easily equated with the the the staffing level as well. So if we have another 60 50 to 60% that we can fill that is more that is more staff members as well. So, and more consistency. Um, when when things aren't busy and staff can't make money, they look for other jobs. >> You know, they have a choice. You know, they I don't I don't force them to work for us. They if they're not making money, they go somewhere else. So, it's it's also about keeping the great staff that we have, and we do love our staff. So, >> thank you. And then the last question, um, Mr. Newondorf the public use of the parking lot this expansion can you describe is that how public use will be u kind of defined I guess maybe I'll leave it that way >> sure um whenever we use tax increment financing um access to available parking is something we always push for it just in a suburban location um it just is is one of those public goods we can achieve. So, the city holds a permanent public easement on the parking lot. Um whether there's 28 stalls in it or whether there's 58 stalls in it, we own that. We we hold that with a couple conditions. The property owner through the tenant can determine when they don't need it. They get first priority. Um, but at times, you know, if they're not if they're not open on Sundays or they're don't open till noon, those times that it's free, it's available for public use. Um, and the owner and tenant can also set rules. So, for example, they can say no overnight parking or there's a 4-hour time limit. Um, we don't want to create conditions where someone parks there, goes to the airport, and goes to Florida for a month and a half. Um, so they always have rights to set those rules, but the um, uh, the city does have review. If they make an unreasonable rule, no parking for more than 3 minutes and only on Saturday mornings, we can say that's unreasonable. That's not the intention. Um, so we have that permanent access right with some limitations. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Can I follow up on that real quick? Um, something that Bill and I did talk about was um, we're closed all locations for July 4th. we give this the staff that off. So having the parking lot for any type of staging for the parade or people to park might be a good option too. So >> I was thinking about the parade Commissioner Jackson. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So good morning. >> Morning. >> Um golly, there's so much to think about. Um, I want to hear dig down a little bit more about the neighbor complaints on Wilson Road and and the balance between the neighbor complaints and and then the staff and and diners. How how difficult was it for your enterprise, whether it's customers or your employees to use Wilson Road for parking? >> Yeah. Um, it it was difficult and I want to be fair, but I also want to let you guys know what we went through. We had um staff and customers parking on Wilson on both sides, which was allowed, but I don't think that there was ever a reason to park there. Like, so when we started doing it, it was clear that maybe there's much of a bottleneck. And I think people maybe traveling through didn't like that. Um, I know that our staff um they they were getting parking tickets or there were um their their tabs been expired. They're getting little little little love letters from maybe the uh the local police. But um it it definitely ruffled some feathers that we were new and things were busy and this area that hadn't been busy before was now like very vibrant. So, I think we figured that out. Um, we all know where to park now. I think that part has been kind of passed us. So, we feel good about where we're at right now. Our staff does park on Wilson because the 28 spots are very sacred and and they it does fill up and it'll fill up during a a weekday night, too. It'll fill up on a Sunday brunch. So, it always looks busy, which is great. But the problem is that um our fault. We built a restaurant um not necessarily not for families, but the design, the menu indicates kind of a couple's night out or meet a business lunch or or friends. And so everyone is driving independently and separately. That's really our big issue. When a family of five wants to go out, they're going to drive in one car, you know. So the mathematical equation here is just not working for us. And and I would say that the same is, you know, Hilltop has a problem with parking, too. They've got 40 stalls and their people are busting out on the streets and they have a nextoor neighbor that they can probably work with. We we don't have that right now. So, >> yeah. So, um I guess the point I'm getting to is we're talking about $750,000 because the neighbor is unreasonable and because the neighborhood doesn't like parking on the street. And um me I what I want to do is I you know I as I putting my regulatory hat on right which I'm not supposed to do but pretending I'm thinking about what the city council will do. This is going to be an area especially when we build a municipal campus that's going to have tons of parking and it just seems so inefficient. Um you know we've got that big parking lot to the south. Uh there's street parking there's parking at city hall. there's going to be parking at the municipal campus there. Um, and so we've got this little window of time for a very expensive project >> that's going to be have some environmental problems um just because it's you got to change the dirt and take away trees and handle the water. I mean it's big complicated project and um it just feels inefficient and um I I think you know the bottom line for me is we ask the building owner to put a restaurant in there. You put a restaurant in there, it's wildly successful as far as the reviews go and people go there and they have a great time and they get really good food and so we want you to thrive. Um, but I'm looking at our values that we have to make all our decisions up. Stewardship, sustainability, equity, health in all matters, and um, community input. And, um, it just, uh, I I mean, in the bottom, in the end, I would support this um because it is good use of the spark funds. It's creating new jobs. That's why we have it. But um but it just feels so uh like a lot of pressure on you, a lot of inefficiencies in parking. Um and golly, I wish there was a better way to do this. Um I wish the municipal campus could be we could just put the parking lot in right there and they could walk just from Tupa Park, right? That's a much safer walk than from city hall, but that's not going to happen by the end of the year. So, um so those are my thoughts. Like I said, I think this is a good use of the spark funds to create jobs and something permanent and something that will have public purpose. Um, another thing that I was thinking about is one of the most poignant uh comments against this project when we approved it was that people would come from football games um up to the Perkins and um you know I think uh it's four Fridays a month and if you're looking more for families to come to the restaurant I think that would be really neat for those teenagers to be able to walk up from the football field come at 9:00 when the restaurant's maybe dwindling out at the peak um and and have a treat um after the game and and to join there. Um, so I think there's a definitely a public purpose to doing this. I think it's in line with how we've used the spark funds, but I'm just uh my regulatory hat is very unhappy that we're going to have some inefficiencies uh with parking um due to uh just the site and and um and the time limits. So those are my thoughts. >> Thank you, Commissioner Risser. >> Thank you. And I do appreciate Commissioner Jackson's points. Um, for me, this is a real tough ask, especially when I look at the hours that you're open. And this is not a case where we have a restaurant that's closed on Sundays. Um, Monday through Thursday 11 to 9, Friday 11 to 10, Saturday 10 to 10, Sunday 10 to 10. So, there really isn't much opportunity for the public to use that parking. Um, the other point is, yes, I mean, you could say this is a good use of spark money. Um, but I really think in terms of the overall budget and really thinking about who's benefiting, who's paying, uh, when we're taking these funds, and I know if they're not spent, they're going to go back to the TIFF district from whence they came. However, it would be in my view uh better stewardship to return the remaining 1 million of spark um back to the county to be redistributed. And I say this because we have a backlog of um repair that we need to do maintenance. We also, and this is a project that I really I know I'm never going to see as a um commissioner, get launched and built, but will maybe get launched a little bit. Maybe in 5 10 years, we'll have an actual park building for Lewis Park. And um they've never the building that's there is very inadequate. is located next to affordable housing that is in a um area where heat is a particular problem during the summer. They don't have HVAC. It's very basic. And so I feel for the situation that you're in. Um however, when I look at other projects and I really think about being prudent stewardship, all those things that um Commissioner Jackson just raised, um my regulatory hat is really pinching my head as I read this too. And so I I do not think that I can support this. I was also thinking that, you know, maybe not everybody is so opposed to taking a walk before and after their meal. And if there was some way you could reward people who parked in the Jerry's parking or the municipal ramp next to Jerry's and used that Grand View pedestrian bridge and took a little stroll over to the restaurant before and after. You know, it's a great way to work up that appetite and then also kind of get a little more comfortable before you get into your car. You know, that that was a thought that I had. Um, but you know, I think about what parking was available to the public when Perkins was here. And that was a very different era though because there there were council meetings that were super packed. We've had that a couple times, but not the way we used to in the past, but I parked frequently over in the Perkins lot and came on over. So, um, that particular and and I don't think they got any public money or benefit. Did Perkins get anything from us? >> I'm I'm not aware. >> Okay. And then the other thing is um when I look at the financing strategy, it's approximately 200 and I know this is rough, but it's a firm commitment from the city for and I'm looking at we're talking 400,000, right? Two 200,000. Okay. And but it's approximate for so those numbers might come in lower for the business owner and also for the property owner. and the property owner has benefited tremendously. Um, put in sevenstory a sevenstory um, market rate apartment complex on land that had a u building height limitation of four stories for part of it and two stories for the other part. So they they got that benefit and then it was also a tiff district and I how much what was the value of that tiff district and what is the term I can't remember >> I don't recall the value or I don't know how you define value but it's a 26-year district um how we arrange the revenue from the tax increment >> okay >> uh 65% would pay off the the note to the developer the other remaining balance 35% would go back to the city to pay for the roundabouts and all the road improvements. >> Okay. And sorry to ask that without pro asking it in advance. Um I try not to do that. But so just looking at this and thinking this really to me at this particular juncture where we are and all of the needs and there's also so much concern about the levy and um that has knocked out projects that meant Lewis Park didn't get their new building. So, um, it it is something I feel at this point if we had more money, if we had more financial resources, but it's an opportunity cost that, you know, I can't see making. So, I'm sorry, but thank you. >> You know, keeping your town uh, appealing and economically viable is a balancing act. And I think one of the advantages of Spark is that it gave us a chance to look at little pockets of opportunity that we could we could lend a helping hand to make sure that there was prosperity in that business and it affected the overall prosperity and the desiraability of our town as a place as a destination to come to. Whether it was for shopping for retail or whether it was for restaurant activity, all these things knit together create a new really interesting fabric for now on a on a broader sort of basis. We're the we're the place that people want to come if you're engaged in retail and I think we could be a place that people want to come if they want to dine out at least another really viable option compared to let's say North Loop or some other places. So, and that's what we're trying to build is that economic viability. And it comes in different ways. Uh, and and for me, the the the use of this money uh for this purpose is entirely consistent with what we've done in the past to create opportunities for other businesses. Uh, whether it's an elevator for a nightclub, that's just enormously successful as I understand it. Uh, and what I expect to have happen over at Cafe Americana. Um, and yeah, $750,000 is not an inconsequential amount of money, but what we're talking about is making a $200,000 investment on a forgivable loan basis, retaining our rights of easement and and access. Uh, and then also giving them a loan that we're going to get back and over time. And um, and and to me, the only thing that's kind of hanging out there is as an unknown is is the is the owner in, you know, is the owner in at 200,000? And I'd say that would be a condition that the owner is in too that we'd want to look at. But for me, uh, it it it meets everything that was intended with Spark. It's and it's a job creator. And and the risk the risk for Starling, the risk for Jester to me is it being at 40% of your capacity to operate, you know, continuing on that on that model. You fill your parking lot up with guests that want to be there and you're still only at 40% of capacity. Uh we want them to be as vital as they can be like they were when they started when it was the new the new shiny object, you know. So uh I I think this is a really good use of park funds. The engineering part of things I mean there's some tricky things to deal with from an environmental stand. They're not that tricky. You know we we've all picked up trash over there. You know every year twice a year we're picking up trash walking right by there. You know exactly what the lay of the land is over there. They're going to figure all that out. They're going to figure out the drainage. They're going to figure out the the the levels of parking, whether it's completely level. So, in in the 750, I mean, it is it's like everything else now. It is what it is, you know, in this in this world we're living in now. Uh where we just just spent over $45 million on a fire station and and the county is spending $140 million on a library. You know, numbers that kind of take your breath away, but it is what it is. And so, do we want to make this business uh give them a chance to thrive and with a with a modest investment with funds that were intended for this purpose? I'd say yeah. Yeah, why not? Let's and but let's make sure it gets done to Commissioner Pierce's point. Make sure it gets done by the end of the year. So, thanks for I mean to me, I don't know. I I get a sense that nobody else was maybe quite that affirmative on what that where they wanted to head, but I could hand back to Commissioner Agnu for her thoughts. >> Thank you. Yeah. And I I started with a lot of questions. Um obviously have a lot of thoughts. Um I feel like I probably have a reputation of being maybe not anti-parking. Maybe that's a little strong. Um but I would say at the at the heart of it, I'm I'm about right sizing parking. I don't want us to overpark or have standards that just don't meet the demand. And so, first I want to just like commend you for being willing to come to the table initially years ago and um not overpark for what you thought you needed. Um, and so I acknowledge like now we're in this situation and I my preference would be we could just work something out with the neighbor and I don't know if we have any sway at the city but like $1,000 a stall per month like that's just unreasonable. Um, and so that's maybe just one ask. I don't know if we have any any capability there. Um, assuming that we don't and we couldn't make something like that work. Um, I I am supportive of this. I really truly want you all to be successful and appreciate the investment that you've made into the community. Um, ideally, we wouldn't have to do it, right? And I think others are kind of along those same thoughts, like it would be great if we could just share parking across the the general area. Um, and I I really wish that we could. Um, and so I would say that that's probably just like a disappointment. Um, but I I don't know what our timeline looks like for the civic campus either. Um, and I also hear the concerns with people walking across the street. It's a little bit further than that, but um, so I would say generally I I am supportive of it. Um, and will be a part of the conversation moving forward. So, thank you, >> Mr. Bur. Commissioner Bur. >> Thanks, Mr. Chair. My, um, I agree with everything that's been said. Um, the only thing I'll add to maybe the mayor's comments, I'm not sure how, if this is the intent behind the use of the funds, how we would choose to invest in one project versus the other. Like so that kind of makes me feel a little um uneasy if we were just to pick this one and say, "Well, we're not going to fund this one for um but it's using the funds for the exact same purpose as others that we've done." Um, so I I hadn't thought too deeply about that, but um I don't know how I would answer why did we choose not to support this business versus another. Um, and so I I agree with what the mayor said. It's um that's the purpose of the funds. Um I actually also agree with me. I would have wanted to return all of the funds when we voted back in October, but as a council, we decided not to do that and I'm glad we didn't. And so, here's an opportunity that we can still leverage those funds and I'm I'm happy to um engage in that. The only concern I have is you got to be really sure that you can finish because if you start and we miss the timeline, you're on the hook for it all. Um so that's the only um I just want to make sure from a timeline that you're comfortable um with with how things are progressing. >> And appreciate that. Thank you. Commissioner Risser has already made her view known and Commissioner Jackson. >> Yes. So, I would be in favor of this. Um, you know, my environmentalist hat is is looking at a lot of pavement, you know, where there are trees now. Um, and I I would even say I'd throw in a little bit more money for solar panels for shade for people or uh or some islands for trees. Um uh because like I said that that looks like a lot of pavement as I look at the picture in big um so I'm in favor of this and uh I think it's a good use of spark funds. And I just want to make the point too that had we put it back into the tiff uh things. It may shave six months a year off of when those tiff districts would close. Um it wouldn't build the Lewis Park shelter. It wouldn't build anything else. this is going to create jobs in our community. Um, I love having the restaurant there. I think, you know, having it being a thriving, interesting place to go, is to the benefit, as the mayor said, to our economy, to our city, to the vibrancy of it. Um, and you know, uh, like I said, taking it from 2035 to 2033 at max on a tiff district, um, elsewhere just doesn't have the immediate benefit that this would have. So, I'm in favor of it. Um, and like I said, if you can fit a few islands for trees in there or something, um, I'd be even more in favor of it. So, there you go. >> I think it's a good point on the trees. It's it strikes me that we ought to be able to create a buffer along the the entrance ramp up 100, you know, at whatever level that parking is. >> So, we kind of shift the trees over that we planted. Anyway, yes, Commissioner. >> One last question. I'm not expecting an answer now, but I'd be curious to know what it would cost to have like a couple of like level two charging stations there as well. So maybe something to come back to us with. >> Thank you. >> We can look into that for sure. >> Okay, Mr. I do want to underscore we're in making an investment because people very high level and I know there's all these other factors involved but who are driving separately to your local and so in the context you know I'm thinking back about that heat map that we saw um presented to us at our April meeting and talking about Earth Day and really thinking about how this whole situation is problematic on several levels. And so we are moving forward to fix a problem which will make it possible for people to continue to drive their cars individually to your restaurant. And so I just wanted to get that out there. And I don't know um just if there could be more brainstorming on how to encourage people to get their walking, biking, public transit. You know, I know things have been scaled back quite a bit in terms of public transit, but uh reaching out to other groups too. I know there's a lot of senior residences where they can rent a van and they can go to different places. And I don't know if you've thought about reaching out to those groups, you know, cuz that could be a fun night out. Um, so building business in a way that takes available transportation um, infrastructure and resources into account. Thank you. >> All right. I think you've got some direction here. >> Yes, that's super helpful. Thank you. So, we'll continue on the journey and come back to you in probably a few months and there'll be uh a lot of work that happens between now and then. So, thank you for the direction and we'll keep moving. >> Okay. Thanks for being here, Mr. Frederick. It was helpful to have you here. >> Thank you everyone. Appreciate it >> for the discussion. Yeah, thank you. Um then, Mr. Nundorf, if you want to continue on. >> Yes, thank you. the um the last item this morning is an update on our Centennial Lakes TIFF district. Uh so the um uh recently the city council had conversations about uh using some of the monies in that tiff district um and we're at the point where uh the monies that were available have been committed. Um so I thought it'd be a good time to remind ourselves what we've done with this district. Um, so this was an interesting one. This is one of the earliest tiff districts in Adina. Um, and the city and the HA made intentional decisions to use those funding, the funds that were available strategically, not only to transform the old mining operation into what it is today with the retail and the office and the medical and the park and the residential. Um, but the tiff laws that were in in uh in place at the time gave the city and the H more flexibility then than we have today. And so the city again made intentional and strategic decisions to use those monies in particular purposes. So that tiff district descertified uh more than 12 years ago and so it's been you know fully on the tax roles all those good things. Um, but the laws that were in place allowed the HRA uh an option to either retain the monies that were sitting in that account. Alternative, we could have given them back to the county. Um, we chose to keep them here in Adina to invest in Adina as opposed to some other city or some other county. Um, and in the last dozen years, we've made many, many improvements, most of which we were thinking occurred before you took office. And so we wanted to take a few moments just to remind ourselves what we've accomplished and why we chose those those routes. Um and and we thought this is the good time to do this because with the recent conversation about about the um funding of of the highway and the pedestrian bridges, the monies are are tapped out for now. Um, so a quick background, uh, uh, the we had the 300 acres of mining operations, the old Hedber gravel and sand pit on France Avenue. Um, it was there for decades, right? That's what a dino was. It was prairie and a turkey farm and and gravel pits and a dump. We had the dump as well. Um, a lot has changed over the last 40 years. And again, it wasn't easy. There was hard decisions and hard conversations. the city chose to to use tax increment financing to support the construction of the roads, the park, the trails, the utilities. It was a gravel pit with nothing. Um that tiff district was established in 1988 and it uh descertified 26 years later in 2014. Over that time, we saw the tax base in that area um grow from about $260,000 to more than 3.6 6 million. So a huge growth in the tax base, which is what we use TIFF for here in Adina. By comparison, citywide over that same period of time, the citywide tax base increased by 16%. So again, um, TIFF is used in a targeted strategic manner to really make a transformative improvement to the community. And in 2014 when the tiff district descertified the laws that were in place allowed us to look at the existing balance of 11.5 million and choose do we want to give that to the county and some of it would have come back to the city um uh or do we want to keep it here for the city and make public improvements and that's what we chose to do. So, with tax increment financing, there's always rules, there's regulations, there's limitations, they change um they they get tweaked every year uh at the state legislature and then some are just pretty fundamental. So, with this $1 million balance that we had, uh there was a number of items that were clearly eligible and then there's some that just clearly are not. So, we could have used those monies for public improvements, roads, utilities, sewers, sidewalks, lights, those types of things. Uh, we could use that to acquire land, for demolition, for environmental cleanup, uh, for affordable housing, for a variety of redevelopment studies to push redevelopment and explore that different options, and also for some staff internal administrative expenses. um uh and each of those types of expenditures could be used in a way that the $11 million was available to us without increasing the levy. And I think that was one of the critical talking points back, you know, uh 10 20 years ago. We could make these improvements without raising the levy on the typical taxpayer because these uh tiff districts were creating so much revenue. Um, state law is also very clear that tax increment dollars cannot just be used for regular repairs. We can't just clean the street or put a new window. Uh, we can't use it to buy police squads or fire trucks or that type of equipment. We cannot use it to build a city hall or a fire station. And we can't use it to build a park or a park shelter or things like that. It's just one of those fundamental rules of tiff. I like the way you on that prior slide the way you characterized the use of the word ineligible. I've never seen it in the sort of a with a gap in between n and e. >> Yeah, I don't know if my grammar teacher would have liked that, but that's >> No, I mean it's it kind of makes it more pronounced and uh and understandable in a way, you know, than the conventional spelling. Anyway, so the state statutes not only guide how we can spend the money and how we cannot spend the money, uh it also uh is guided by where we can invest those dollars. Um so this map shows three different um areas, the blue area in the bottom right hand corner um is the Centennial Lakes TIFF boundary. So that includes uh the office park on France Avenue. It includes the retail center, the Hughes Pavilion, and it includes the um uh the building where pinstripes and uh container store and the medical office. The rest of the properties around it were actually in a different tiff district. Those were in Edinburgh tiff district. Um and then over the years, uh again, state law changes from time to time. The city keeps an eye open and and looks at opportunities when they exist. The green line is the boundary, the final boundary um where these tiff dollars can be expended. Initially they could be expended only in the blue area or you know across the street like very close to it. Um but over time we we modified those boundaries to make sure that once we had an asset a pool of assets we could invest them more strategically. So over the last dozen years uh we uh made investments throughout the greater Southdale area on local roads on county roads over state highways. We also made many investments at 50th in France and at Grand View. So each one of these red dots uh signifies uh a project or a combination of projects and where they occurred. Now you'll know most of these improvements happen in commercial areas. That's where we have the frankly the more expensive projects and the ones that are more complicated because you're building it under under pressure of traffic and you've got constrained site limits. Uh we can't always stray onto private property. We only have so much space. Um uh so we that's where we invested it and uh we made well I I some I prepared this presentation breaking it into three categories. So we funded some studies with these monies. Um again rather than raising the levy or drawing from a different budget we use these funds to really look at different uh investment options. Um, we created years ago a tra a district-wide traffic mo model for the greater Southdale area. When we were first seeing lots of of projects back 2014 2015, we noted that, you know, the requirement is to look at traffic at that project site. And the questions that kept coming up was what happens downstream, what happens upstream? It all it all factors in. So, we use these TIFF dollars to have an engineering firm create a traffic model where they can plug that in and and look all throughout the area. Bill, >> yes. >> So, I want to dig down deeper on that because we get that question a lot and I I know of one resident who is always like we have to look at beyond the thing. So when we do a traffic study for or when uh uh Tahar what's the name of our um traffic study firm that >> uh is one of the consultants? Yeah, we use a couple different ones but it's all the same model. >> Okay. Um, and when they do a traffic study, do they dig into this? And is it regularly updated as they because there's, you know, this persistent uh concern that we're only looking at it spot-wise and not district-wise. >> Yeah. Um, yeah, it is updated with each new project. So, I I think the first one we we used it on, if I recall correctly, was the 71 France, the Luns Berley um project. Uh we looked at it when Southdale changed when the Onyx and the Arya and the Millennium went in. Uh uh and each time that something gets added, a project gets finished and complete, we add that to the model. Um, so more recently when we looked at the uh the enclave proposal for the Macy's furniture site, we looked at it with the knowledge that all these other changes had happened as far up as Highway 62 and as far south as 494. So that is something that we use on a regular basis and um that's possible because we have these monies available to create that system. >> Thank you. >> We also conducted two studies looking at the prominade. So um when the tiff district was still active um the construction of and improvements to the prominade were funded with tiff. Um and after the tiff district was descertified we continued to explore different ways to extend that prominade. Uh we l looked at different options going to the north and then more recently we looked at options going to the west. So, a lot of different studies that we could look at to to really make long-term planning decisions for the community. I think most importantly though, we funded a number of public improvements. Um, uh, I decided not to include pictures because you can only look at so many pictures of sewers and sidewalks and curbs before they get boring. Um, and I will go through uh each one of these quickly. Um, but the city council and the HA in place at the time, so some of your predecessors, um, looked at this, uh, uh, uh, funding source as a way to finish projects to go from a B project to an A project um, without raising the levy. And I think that was one of the most critical decisions that was made. So um uh we extended the prominade. We we constructed phase four when the 71 France apartments were built. There was an opportunity the neighbor was doing something big. Um we could build off of that and we made the phase 4 improvement to the to the prominade. Um we also made an improvement to the west prominade. um uh in response to the um 4040 flats uh the senior affordable housing building. The neighbors were concerned. They wanted some separation. They wanted a path. They wanted like a big fence and soundwall. The city didn't have that in our CIP. We didn't have that in our budget, but with these funds, we could deliver that public improvement in response to that project to help that neighborhood. We also um one of the first projects we did was also the pedestrian intersection improvements. So these were the ones back uh I mean gosh 12 14 years ago at this point we made the intersection improvements at 66th at 70th and 76th and we did the we had the audacity to paint crosswalks across an eight-lane road uh and put little buttons for pedestrians. It was a big deal at the time. Um, we also uh use these funds to fill in many patches of of missing sidewalks in that greater Southdale area. Um, many of the sidewalks were would be on one side of France but not on the other or they'd be on one block and then I recall you'd get to the Galleria block and there was no sidewalk. You were just stuck. So, we use these funds to patch in those those missing gaps. Again, not easy projects. you're working under traffic with constrained sight lines and you've got utilities to work around and having these funds allowed us to get that work done without impacting the property tax levy. Uh, also in response to a lot of the work at the Luns and Berleys at 70 um at at Hazelton and 72nd, we completely rebuilt Hazelton Road. Um, added the roundabouts rather than hard intersections, added sidewalks, connected to the prominade. Um, the neighbors and and the county had concern about that France A or about the London Ber leaves and uh access onto 72nd Street. So, we wanted to keep access for the neighbors. So, we use these funds to construct that dedicated left turn lane. Um, again, not glamorous and sexy, but if you live in that neighborhood, it's nice to be able to turn left to get into your neighborhood at 66th in York, so the uh the other side of the mall. Um, back in the day, it was the old Best Buy on that corner. Um, and over time, we worked with three different developers. We negotiated that they would each rebuild their their respective corners of that intersection, but then you have the fourth corner that wasn't being redeveloped. So, we used these monies so we could finish that intersection. And again, we did did those did those audacious things about adding crosswalks and sidewalks where none existed before. They were parking lots. We also constructed a monument sign at that intersection to recognize a D that you were in a dino limits. Um and then a few big projects were down at 50th in France. Um uh we acquired property two properties at 50th in France. We had heard again going to back to our earlier earlier conversation a lot of demand that there's not enough parking at 50th and it's not convenient enough and the building's old and there's no elevator. So when there was strategic opportunities, when a business closed, when an owner was retiring, the city stepped in and purchased that land, we could do that because we had funds available. We did not have to raise the levy. Um, we demolished the old buildings. Unfortunately, we found much more dry cleaning fluid in the soil than we ever expected, and we had funds to cover that and to pay for it and keep moving forward without raising the levy. And then we built the north parking garage. That was a $12 million project. We used tiff for part of it and then we had other um we sold some land for the rest, but we could build that with zero increase to the tax tax levy. Um and we made some other improvements at the south parking garage, some major structural improvements to get to really extend the life and we added some bike lanes elsewhere as well. Um, so a lot of projects, um, uh, my point of this though is we could do that because we had these assets available. We strategically decided not to give them back to the county who was not going to fund any of these projects. Um, and we kept the monies here for for our own uh, communitywide improvements. More recently, we're we have three projects underway that we expect to use the balance of these funds. So, right now we're doing a very small study looking at opportunities to create uh entryway signage uh right by city hall by the highway. We've the bridge is almost finished. It's a great opportunity to have a a monument sign that lets people know, hey, you're in a dinina. Um so that we're doing a little study to see what that might look like and what those costs might look like. But I think more fundamentally, we're we finished um the large bridge over France and Vernon. uh that turned out to be more expensive than we were anticipating. We could tap into the Centennial Lakes fund and we transferred a million half dollars. Rather than increasing the levy more, we could use those funds. And it looks like we're going to do the same thing with the pedestrian bridge over Rosland Park um to get the bridge that that is desirable there. We can tap into these remaining funds to to get us over the line and satisfy our budget constraints again without having to raise the levy more. On that latter issue, uh I think manager Neil mentioned to me the other day that we are in the process of getting some additional funding from Mandot for the pedestrian bridge. >> Yeah, I don't I don't know if if Bill if was in that loop or not, but I did talk to Director Milner about that and he said they're getting pretty close to having that finalized. >> We know the range of potential additional. >> It was in the range of 200,000 something like that. Okay, >> that all helps. If it were easy, it would have been done decades ago, right? All these big projects are so difficult. Um um so as as the city moved forward with a lot of these public improvements, one of the things we heard from your predecessors was how valuable it was to have this pool of funds available. when when unexpected situations arise, it's nice to be able to have a savings bank, so to speak, to draw from from rather than than just always relying on a levy increase. And so, we had an eye towards replenishing this fund. Um, now the TIF district is over, right? We're not collecting TIFF uh from this district. But when we use these funds for three of the projects, we structured them as internal intrafund loans, which means that over time there's a good chance that we will pay ourselves back. So when we built the parking garage at 50th in France, we pulled about 6 million from the Centennial Lakes TIFF and we uh structured 4.1 million of that as an intraund loan. So, as that tiff district at 50th continues to grow and meet what it's what it's was expected to do, we can repay ourselves. And so, at some point, um, and this is 10, 15 years down the road, so don't get your hopes up for next year, but over time, we hope to replenish those accounts slowly so that a future city council for a f future generation will have another pool of funds to use. uh the the way the laws were written back in the day for these funds give us a lot of flexibility, right? Any type of public improvement is basically eligible. Um so we we structured the 50th in France loan that way, the million half dollars for the bridge um right by city hall here, we structured that as an interfer loan going to the Eden Wilson to the Mesa Green project. So, we expect to be able to pay off the tiff note to that developer for the Mesa Green well very early. I mean, that's generating a huge tax bump. Um, they went from paying a h 100,000 a year to over a million a year in property taxes. So, that we'll repay their note pretty quickly. And we think we can then use some of the some of those tax increment dollars to pay ourselves back again to replenish this pool for a different generation. And we did the same thing but to a smaller degree in Grand View when we expanded those roads on in on Eden when we redid the intersection when we built the pedestrian bridge. Um we can repay part of that back as well. So we're we're we're looking at the present. We're looking at at opportunities and situations where we can create public improvement but also with an eye to the future so that there's this opportunity for funding again. Um and and and of course with every expenditure we bring um in the future we'll bring it back to the city council at the time we'll have very similar conversations to what we're having this morning. Should we keep it? Should we spend it? Should we give it away? Um that's a conversation for a future day. So in conclusion, um the decisions we made with this particular TIFF district fund were intended to be a strategic use of TIFF to really make improvements in Adina as opposed to out of Adina. Um uh we took advantage of the flexibility that was available to us in state law. Um and we did that to the degree that we are currently out of funds. So, I just want to make that point very, very clear because we've always used this as a buffer in case something happens. That buffer is now expended for the next 10 plus years until we replenish it. So, I just wanted to give you the update. Um, staff has been keeping an eye on this for years. Um, some of you who've been on the council longer have been aware of it, but a lot of this happened before you were seating were seated. So, I just wanted to let you know how we use this and why we used it in that manner. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> And that's what I have this morning. >> Yeah. Thanks for that report. Some folks may have some comments or some questions for you. I had one, you know, the you talked about the increase in tax capacity in the Centennial Lakes Tiff District going from approximately 270,000 to 3,600,000. Those are approximate numbers. Do we do you know what the market value of the property changes were over that period of time, too? >> Uh, not off the top of my head, but they they were similar. I mean, again, it >> I'm sure it was a dramatic increase. It'd be kind of nice. I'd like to know that at some point in time. No, no hurry. >> I can pull that up. I think it was in the I believe I did that in the H year review one or two years ago. I had a slide from an old presentation. I'll dig that up for you. >> Okay. Thanks. Uh questions, comments from commissioners, Commissioner Jackson. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, this is an ambitious ask. So, if you say no, it's okay. But as you were talking about at the beginning about Centennial Lakes, I remember when we did that presentation about how Centennial Lakes was developed. And I remember be I don't think this was part of the public discussion, but the look of just despair on these gentlemen's faces when they talked about what happened to the real estate market in the early 90s. And so here they are going gang busters. They're doing this great thing. And suddenly, boom, the bottom fell out of the real estate market. and there had to be some really uh quick dancing to complete the project. I would be interested to see a chart. So often in financial charts you'll see a gray area where there's a recession, right? So going back to when Centennial Lakes TIF was created, a chart that showed um dollars spent, maybe bars of dollars spent for on tiff in our city, a line chart of interest rates. So, you know, are they zero? Are they 7%? and then the gray areas where there's a recession because to me um I'm just kind of thinking okay we've depleted this we've done all these great things but a lot of this really stemmed from the great recession in 2008 and we're f you know it just everything stopped and then slowly it picked back up but interest rates were close to zero for a very long time to try and stimulate things. Now we're in a period where interest rates are very high and that is a different need for monies. But I'd kind of like to see our spending in tiff and maybe even not even for projects but for public improvements um using the Centennial Lakes but maybe other TIFF funding compared to those sort of external factors because I I would that would help me in the future make decisions about this. So like I said it's ambitious. If you can't do it, if finance doesn't want to spend their time because they're busy ta hand handling taxpayer issues, I understand that. But for me, that would be helpful in future decisions. >> I'll look into it and see what's available. To be honest, a lot of the detail from 1988 is no longer available, but we'll see what's available and get back to you on that. >> Great. Thank you, >> Commissioner Russer. >> Thank you for the presentation. I would um really like to see just a complete chart with all of the expenses that have come out of the Centennial Lakes District. Is that readily available including you know because I know that was what finance studies for the tunnel and all of that? So just from its inception and then when it started um develop even ones that weren't road infrastructure there >> uh that is not readily available. Um, we could probably within, you know, we could probably look at spending for the last 12 years since we descertified. Um, that's probably with enough digging and maybe an intern, we can get that that. But to go back to the beginning to 1988, um, that's a level of forensic accounting, uh, I I don't know if that's even available yet, let alone readily available. Thank you. I might start digging around on edina gov. Thank you. >> Yeah, just a comment for me too. I think you know what state law made possible here uh and that being the ability to make public investments uh with these retained tiff funds without having to have a tax levy to make all of these improvements is just a pretty remarkable situation and it's really you can you can see the benefit of it over time and you can talk about tax capacity but I think it's also nice to look at the level of investment that businesses were willing to make uh because of the public improvements that preceded the the private development that occurred around those public improvements which is you know always a sort of a fundamental strategy that build it and they'll they'll come which we've seen particularly around Centennial Lakes itself I think and in that district. So thank thanks for that information. Anybody else? Okay, good. We're right at the magic hour here of nine o'clock. we should switch over to our executive director to see if he has any comments. >> Uh, thank you. Uh, Mr. Chair, just a quick one. I think may have seen the news last night that there seems to be a a tax bill deal uh with the legislature and we don't know really mostly around HCMC funding. Um, we're trying to get a better picture about whether sales tax the various sales tax proposals, not just ours but in other cities are part of an overall tax deal. Uh we'll certainly know that by uh early next week, but uh we could know it later this week, too. So, I'm keeping an eye on that. I'll share it with the news with you when I know it. >> Right. Very good. Thanks. That's all. Anybody else have anything for the good of the order? >> There a motion to adjurnn. >> Uh so moved. >> Second. >> Got a motion by Commissioner Jackson, second by Commissioner Agnu. They've been our big movers today that that tandem that duo uh to adjourn the meeting of the housing redevelopment authority for the city of Adina this Thursday May 14th 2026 at 8:59 a.m. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adjournment say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Carried. We stand adjourned.