We're not just handing out free money right so in this particular case um I met with the owner and the Landlord on a handful of occasions early in the project in the process where they thought they were running they thought they'd have their doors open already and then they ran into hurdles and challenges and more costs unexpected changes that uh were not nowhere on the radar screen that threaten to kill the project um uh there has to be a demonstrated need that without these monies the project cannot move forward and that's you know fundamental to any of our programs.

I created my business because I am passionate about crepes and they're delicious and I think everyone should have them um I when I found this opportunity here in Edina I thought this was going to be a perfect spot for me I love actually the look of the building it really reminds me of home it's an older building and I just really like how none of the space inside is conformed to you know even the angles are all different it's very difficult to build in it but it's really fun to have that charm.

So um two questions one is the reimbursement in these agreements uh is we are reimbursing the business for the cost that they've already incurred right so I I think I misread this when I was reading through it in preparation but that's how that works correct.

So southeast of Dina um to many people we when we refer to Southeast of Dina you look at that Southeastern quadrant um east of 100 South of the cross town in the HRA nomenclature there's the southeast of Redevelopment project area and that's a different Geographic boundary than we often refer to so the South Southeast Adina uh Redevelopment project area has boundaries that include um it stretches all the way west to Cahill includes the 7th and kahill District um meanders up to Grand View gets all the Grand View District goes over to Northeast Adina 50th in France 44th in France 54th in France so the language in in the official documents is not what you might look at at a traditional map.

Many of you know the building and um you know if you probably don't notice um but uh there is a a step um required fired to the backs of almost all the businesses and um you know it's it's a challenge for those who um are need um or challenge people with steps so um when uh of course the building's whole grandfathered in uh but when Bill told me about this unique opportunity to fix the problem uh for all the businesses then I started looking into it and figured out a way to make it work.

The landlord is willing at this time um uh it can't fall into the tenant budget but the landlord is willing to do it go in and repave and regrade that entire parking lot so it's not just Paving for Paving sake but it's getting rid of that 8 in Step again how hard can that be it's not hard it's just expensive and there's no rent increase there's no Revenue increase but with this program we really hope to improve the access to this entire building um focusing on this tenant space because this is where the new jobs are.

My vision for this had been affordable ownership opportunities and having 50% of them priced at market rate you know what we've seen across the street from this site um over on henerson are $ 1.2 million Town Homes $900,000 town homes that is not what I had in mind at all for this and to have 50% of them at looking at million dooll homes is way outside of what my expectations were.

I don't see anything looking even remotely like that getting through the Planning Commission um we talk about um mixed use and it's okay to have horizontal mixed use but having that big bulky building in the middle says this is not mixed use we are putting a barrier up so in the previous plan it had that feeling of you know Confluence was able to go from the park down across even into the housing a sense of green and continuity having those buildings block things off in the middle you don't feel that this is a campus this is not unified it's there's this big wall.

If you give them too many layouts to work off of they might feel constrained so I I'd look and I don't remember what we did on 49 and a Half street in terms of that RFP because we had about a half a dozen responders I remember um and all of them just dealt with that one piece of property on the north side of the street it was these other guys that came along with this idea on the left field that we really Embrace so keep that in mind I will say from having this experience over the last couple years with our Council here I don't even know if we're headed in the right direction anymore because we've got two projects stalled out on France Avenue that are housing related.

So to me there's things that we could probably think about doing again as we kind of reset what to do with this property and if uh we took two you know two-thirds of it or half of it and incorporate Adjusters in a in a brew pub or a micro brewery as part of a city project on our own land um that takes us in a totally different direction so uh but maybe the maybe the smart thing to do is go with your RFP that you work so hard on keep in mind not limiting the creativity of people uh or development companies that come along let them think about the affordability mix and then let's see if we like any of it but keep in the back of our minds that we may want to go a totally different direction.

I um I am also okay with Market um but I'm coming at it from a different perspective um I actually agree with commissioner jackon that we wouldn't want million dooll homes there right um but when I think about Market um I'm thinking median price and so if that is our median home value is 660 I I'm thinking of it that way and so I think when you described it you talked about amenities finishes to kind of manage that cost that's the way I think of it.

I think we need a balance of being more prescriptive of generalities of what we want to see and some specifics like we want ownership um we need to be clear about how we Define that so that we don't get million doll home but we get something that hits the missing middle but then I also think we should um I don't know how to do this but because I think our Paradigm is going to have to shift I'd almost be I'd be happy if um developers said well all right this meets their RFP however here's an idea of something that you might want to consider that um is marketable that maybe hits I don't know 60% or some percent of the things that we're looking for but may be totally different from any other renderings that that you have.

I I for the most part like the the spread of the numbers here um I like having market rate housing as a part of this project whether it be within the town homes and or within whatever might be at a higher scale um and I I also asking for a lot here think it would be good even if we think about the town homes to have one or two depending on the total number that is even below that um so I don't know if 50% or 60% Ami like the right phrasing but you know something that we're building and then selling at cost and Really Trying to minimize that cost um because I I like creating not just 100% affordable housing and really bringing people together um and creating that type of environment where where we have all of those levels.

I do because the second you start thinking about a community Gathering location on this site again mayor I I do get really excited um I know that it's been a really long journey but I just want to say thank you for saying that and I absolutely would be excited about potentially onethird being town homes and then rekindling some of that that idea of community Gathering um and we don't need to pack the site with with just density um if we can get some of these other things that we want.

If we ask them to give us creative ideas to build a community activity space their response would be to ask us for bonding for funding and for operating costs for that space is that what you're asking me to ask for.

That's a hard no for me we've got two fire stations to build and we don't want to I don't want to push the debt capacity um beyond what we've already got planned and we've got Brar clubhouse that needs to be updated we have a pool that needs to be updated so absolutely not I would be against bonding and operating and I I liked when we um brought in a private partner um inest your Concepts um and I'm not willing to take on more bonding for this PR.

Our City attorney reminds us that the city's business subsidy policy uh was written in 2011 and it made great sense in 2011 When It Was Written times have changed laws have changed and it's time to update that so we are in that process um so far the projects we've supported financially have all met exceptions to that policy so that's why we've been able to postpone this update um but do look for an update in the near future.

When we when you're putting this together I know you'll do this but I have to say it anyways make sure to put in definitions of what is a business subsidy and those those different levels and and what triggers it the other thing is is if we can have a list of suggested public purposes so it's not you know uh in uh all encompassing but to give people an idea of what we're talking about and we say public purposes I think that would be very helpful as well.

We extend that timeline for the developments to start and be finished uh and just to put this in context this year a is one of 11 different cities Statewide that is asking for changes like this it's not unusual a lot of other projects are in this boat we wish we weren't but we are but it looks like we might have um flexibility to extend.

The chamber board uh has been talking about how to restructure uh to provide more opportunities more income streams for the Innovation lab from the private sector and one of the strategies is to reform The Innovation lab as a bcorp as a benefit private benefit Corporation so there's some discussion going on about that at the chamber board it looks like it's going to move forward in that regard.

They've made one payment I think the payments are around 45,000 there's a loan forgiveness element to it they qualify I think presently for maybe a $90,000 reduction on the on the loan payback because of the time frame involved.