[Music] it is 5:45 I will start the up Joint City Council Housing and Redevelopment Authority and Planning Commission work session of April 15 2024 um order I will pass this off to the urban assistant community development director no you standing at the podum yes yes okay yes I am I am on this is a stretch so this is a fun meeting first part of the meeting um because we get to talk about money that we're receiving so very exciting we're here to talk about local affordable housing aid um this is the new Metro sales tax on affordable housing a portion of which is being distributed to cities including Rich Guild so I'm going to talk a little bit about laa itself and we'll talk about some of our existing programs some future possibilities that we might be able to use this money for um talk about sort of what we think a good plan is moving forward and then we'll ask for your feedback so laa um uh back in 2023 the state legislature approved a25 % metro area sales tax to be used for affordable housing and there um is a direct allocation a portion of that which comes to Metro counties and cities metro cities with more than 10,000 people collections began back in October of 2023 Richfield is expecting to uh receive about $453,000 annually that clearly is going to be varying depending on consumer Behavior how much you all spend out there in the community uh the formula itself is based on the number of cost burden households that a city has compared to other cities and that clearly can change as well um back in 2022 the number of cost burdened households in Richfield was 4,4 43 households so originally the timeline for distribution was July and December um which is when we get our LGA payments uh local government Aid payments we have been told by the league of inota City that the Department of Revenue has put forward a technical Amendment to the legislature asking that instead it be distributed in October we would find out in September how much the funds would be and we would just get one payment a year we expect that's going to pass um there's no reason why they wouldn't I think this to the Department of res Revenue I I do want to point out that there is a another portion of the sales tax funding that is anticipated for what's called bring it home min OTA and that will be a local or State uh level rent assistance program and because we are a local administrator of the federal Section 8 program we expect that we will receive some funds um we also think it'll be one to two years before we get more details about that program but I don't want you to forget about that that money is coming because I think one of the things we'll think about is we want to not just assist home ownership with the money but also we want to help our renters but know that this money is coming so that's going to maybe affect how we think about laa we focus on with laa um some deadlines we are going to have about four years to spend the money so the first round we should have till the end of 2028 there is an option in the legislation that talks about you can just transfer it to your trust fund I think originally we thought okay we'll just put it in the trust fund and we won't have any deadlines to worry about I think it's pretty clear that's not the case what we're going to have to do if we had money left at the end of the four years is that we'll have to ask Minnesota housing and ask for special um exceptions that we tried really really hard to spend this money and um so so I think our goal will be to spend it within four years and I don't think we'll have um trouble doing that so um anyway and you should know that there's just a lot of rules yet that aren't it's not entirely clear how things are going to work out and so we are making some guesses and we'll do our best um to do that I think it's going to be easy for us as a community to spend it in ways that are consistent with the intent of the legislation as well as the the very specifics uh laid out in the legislation um in terms of the timing uh we also will have to report beginning in 2025 by December 1st which obviously staff will be on top of that the timing in terms of receiving funds in October not finding out how much until September isn't ideal with our budget process but our plan would be which we start next month um uh our plan would be to make some estimates and and go ahead and budget some money so we can get started and then likely we'll be um dealing with it in a revised budget next year when we know more specifically how much we're going to get um some of the eligible uses this is just language straight from the um legislation uh we could use it for emergency rent assistance we could provide money to nonprofit affordable housing providers and we could use it construction acquisition rehab demo construction financing permanent financing interest rate reduction refinancing and or Gap financing all for affordable housing uh in terms of income restrictions who we um should be targeting the funds for the legislation actually allows up to 115% of the area median income for home ownership programs or projects and for rental up to 80% of the area median income there's also some kind of vague language in the uh statute that says things like projects are prioritized that provide affordable housing to households at lower levels 80% 50% some language about must be affordable to the local Workforce so again we're still waiting for some clarification on what that all means I don't see us have any problems meeting those in uh the intent of of those priorities because that's what our programs already do focus on we focus on those lower levels and even lower than than that um to us in Richfield 80% of Ami is market rate and above so so I just don't see us having to worry about spending money on that kind of a program and woring if we're meeting the legislator's intent they also have some language in there about priority may be given to these projects that that do these various things and I think if you read these these are all things that we already have as priorities here in the community so I feel like we're just a really good fit for receiving this money and spending it in in in good ways so then um we'll just talk a little bit about how we might use laa and Richfield we're going to talk about our existing programs we'll talk about some new program ideas that have been floating around for us and that we've kind of heard um about needs for and then we'll talk about what we're thinking our plan um for the funding is um some of the things that we need to think about is that um capacity there is no administrative money um in this um funding it's all clearly to be used um for direct um service um so so we have to figure out how we we pay for administering um new programs or how how do we do that how do we find Partners if we find Partners we need to pay them so so we'll have to figure out how to do that um so um and I I think what you'll hear from us too in in terms of our our plan what we're thinking immediately is to focus that first money on some of our existing programs we have a lot of successful programs some of which are running short of money we have some funding needs and so we focus initially on that and then coming up this year we have several things that are going to be happening that may lead us to either continue on that trajectory or maybe it'll lead us to shift our focus and and spend the money elsewhere going forward so um I'm to start here so so the money is going to come to the city and it will be administered by the Housing and Redevelopment Authority and the The Economic Development Authority that's our typical way we do things is like for example the housing uh trust fund runs that way so this is a chart that we sometimes like to put out um to show our programs and how they cross um the spectrum of income levels they both address both ownership as well as rental housing um and they all help us to meet goals of preserving and maintaining our housing stock increasing the amount of housing stock available creating housing opportunities for all both from an income perspective as well as life cycle housing perspective and then also promoting housing stability so uh these programs are currently funded from a variety of sources including our HRA and Eva levies Federal Community Development block grant money um Federal uh hat money or Section 8 money uh pool tax increment loan repayments some grants and the affordable housing trust fund and the trust fund most recently has been funded with sales proceeds uh as well as some cool tax increment that we are allowed to transfer through special legislation so all those funding sources have very uh unique rules and timelines that affect funding decisions and so it's going to be a a a fun puzzle to figure out you what programs we fund with what when and how and where so so that's just to give you sort of the lay of the land of what we currently are able to do with resources so uh in terms of our existing programs that have some needs where we see sort of an immediate way to spend the funds um first of all our very successful first-time home buyer program down payment assistance we originally funded this with Federal cdbg money um it became more popular than we have um enough we don't have enough cdbg to meet the need and so we switched and have been using the trust fund and some sales proceeds that we uh were able to earn from our Redevelopment project those funds are nearly done they will be finished this year so in order to sustain this program at this level we would like to put some of this alaha money in here to keep that program going we do know that there are some new programs popping up for uh firsttime home buyers for down payment assistance for first generation home buyers so similar Focus to our program which is to um address um some of our home ownership disparities in terms of um who who gets to benefit and who has gotten to benefit from home ownership so so we're in the process also of taking a look at those programs and figuring that out but it's going to be a while I think before that shakes out so again I think our immediate Focus we'd like to continue to keep our program running using some of these funds um the second program is what's called our fixup fund and that's actually a state's Loan program for Home Improvements what we do is write that interest rate down for homeowners who ear up to 100% of the area median income so well that's a little higher than that 80% that we typically focus on I think if you're trying to do a bathroom or a kitchen or something more than just basic maintenance it's still it's not easy to do on an income of it's around $105,000 so um that's been a very successful um program incent izing improvements to the housing stock um it's a cheap program for us we're just paying for that interest rate right down it comes out of our H Levy um we're already that programs already have out of money this year ran out in February so we would like to um be able to beat that up a little bit so this is a possible source to do that um the other um item you see at the end is a newer program for the Eda we have an apartment remodeling program we also have over 700 single family um and duplex rentals in the community and a lot of them could use some help and so we tried to focus some money on that it's just a limited source of funds and so maybe this is an opportunity to expand that and to to do more work in that Raa so not for sure yet on those I think for sure we're we're going to want to use it on the first one and we're still giving some thought to those other two programs of what's the best source for funding so some of our new program ideas that have been floating out there um just um the first one code enforcement or emergency rehab program we've been floating this idea around in fact our code enforcement person came to me just this afternoon came to Hillary and me to say well I've got someone who needs to paint their house they can't afford to do it um our one source of funding for rehabing homes for people who have limited income comes is our deferred Loan program there's about a three-year waiting list for that program so it's just way over capacity we fund that with cdbg so get more pressure on that kind of money um so we've been toying with the idea of that kind of a program we are know there's some Partners out there that are doing some of this work and so we need to explore that we're not ready to come up with a program or find Partnerships yet but that's something on our list of things to do and laa may be a future Source um to do that that to expand that um the middle one rehab loans for property owners who accept rental assistance um the Section 8 program has some new rules for um housing inspections and they may cost folks money especially of our single duplex um property owners and they may choose not to rent to a Section 8 tenant because of those extra restrictions and so maybe we need to have some incentives for those folks um to take care of some of those those new um requirements so that's another potential program um on the far end the family affordable housing program with the Metro H Metro H uh is an possible opportunity we currently have um our Metro has 10 units in the community 10 scattered site units where um families with their program receive a rent subsidy in order to live in those units um so they provide large You Know Rich has not a lot of large bedroom apartments so single family homes can provide some larger rental opportunities so Metro operates that program in those 10 units an option we could explore if we wanted to see more um units with subsidies attached is that we could work with Metro H where we would use our funds to purchase properties and then they would manage and do the ongoing subsidy so something we've been toying with and thinking about um that we could work on emergency rental assistance put up there because um while we've been using arpa funds the federal Rel act money I can never remember what it stands for exactly um we've been uh vep has been providing that service for uh the community and we've been giving them arpa money to do it that that money is going to run out at some point are we going to see the need for rental assistance continue um we don't know yet so but again want to keep it on our radar as something for the future because this would be a possible source of for that uh and then there may be other opportunities ideas as we get to the feedback um page um for you to offer and and then we also um when I get to the next slide we'll talk about what um I will just go to the next SL what what we want to do in the next coming year to two years to um think about our existing programs to to talk and find out what the needs are in the community what are we missing what are the gaps so the idea is for the 2025 budget that we would fund existing programs for sure down payment potentially those two other programs that I mentioned but beginning um just recently we've started just at least thinking about and this is part of our strategic plan is to evaluate all of our Housing Programs starting with our down payment assistance program but really expanding it to all of what we do to see our we meeting our needs again what are the gaps do we need to make adjustments in the case of the down pay assistance program are there other new offerings out there that maybe our program needs to focus in a certain area or maybe it's not going to be needed in a few years we don't know so that's going to be part of our program uh evaluation we'd also like to do some engagement in the community as part of that work we want to survey our down payment assistance folks and see you know what worked and what didn't work so well for them what are the barriers um we want to talk to our service providers like V and Community Senior Services you know to what are the needs out in the community that maybe aren't being met and where we might be able to fill in so we want to do some engagement um and then again to to figure out what are the needs what are the gaps look at our existing funding sources right we have quite a few variety and and compare the needs and then also always thinking about our capacity on a staff level what can we do with internally where can we find Partners do Partners have capacity um that's also an issue um if we have a great partnership with the land trust but they can only do so much you know are there other partners we need to find if we want to do more of this work and then also part of the Strategic plan is to develop a housing affordability strategy and so I think that all that evaluation and thinking about how we fund things and what we fund and what the needs are will all be part of that affordability strategy so all that will come together with the hope that the 2026 budget will be based on that um the results of that so with that I think I have said all that I want to say so that I can hear from you all if you have questions if you have thoughts if you ideas objections um have um when I hear all the different areas that this can go like some of the things um there something what code Code Enforcement stuff like helping people with code enforcement it feels like some of those things could be solved without funds like so for example in that in that case what was the specific case of that was it Section 8 housing need to be things being brought up to code to support Section 8 hous that was a different one no my example for that was the gentleman who needs to paint his house and he can't afford to paint his house right what was the reason that we need to paint house just it's peeling paint no no he doesn't meet our standards right so he gets a ticket from us that says you have to paint your house to be in compliance with our standards and our expectations as a community he doesn't have any funds to do that sure and to be clear your house needs to be painted so that it protects the material underneath so that it stays weatherized and your your sighting doesn't rot and cause problems within the house it's not it's not solely an appearance sure no for sure yeah and I think I don't know some so like things like with giving money to landlords to increase you or to be able to support sectionary housing it's like could could we write stricter requirements that all landlords have to be keep properties in a certain level of appearance that all so it wouldn't be a matter of like can I support section A or not it's just all apartments can support section A housing because they all meet the same requirements I'm just trying to think of like creative ways of like getting this money directly to people who are buying houses or need rental assistance rather than other systematic things that will down the line support that later does that make sense if I think of am I going to give $100,000 to a a landlord so they can so they can bring their property up Cod to support section in housing or if I could give that money to people for down payment assistance or something to get them into their first house or support i' would rather see the money go to that group yeah okay any El com I will put in a plug though for the fix up funds because there's a lot of seniors with um limited incomes and they want to keep staying their own home but they don't have the money to do the maintenance in the help so I think that's an important thing as well yeah and to be clear I mean I I get that I wasn't I wasn't more so just saying if you're not living in council member L um I'm also quite curious about the loan programs so the fix up fund you said is limited to 100% Ami is that right um in theory I mean we probably shouldn't increase the limit to start with because we already have too many people at the current level so let's figure that out first but in theory could we go up to 125% Ami based on the details of Blaha the fixup fund itself if you get a a regular fixup fund which now is like at 5 and a half or six% interest I think it does go up to a higher level we've chosen as a community we're only going to write it down to that lower level to focus there is a little flexibility in there if we decided we want to that okay so I guess and I would say my thought is is totally open to persuasion because I know you've have a lot more experience with these loan programs but if it were me I would almost like not have the transformation Loan program and just have a more more broad fix up fund program especially given the current interest rate climate and probably for the next decade getting people down to 3% interest seems as important as getting a small forgivable loan in there um and it also seems like potentially less subsidy per homeowner for a similar level of incentivizing new investment in the homes so and there you know the transformation Loan program has been around since the early 90s when really our our Focus was about um stemming the tide of families getting certains certain leaving our community how can we diversify our housing staff encourage Lars yeah I think that's part of why we want to do an evaluation of our programs is to look at is that still a need here in the community um is that something we still want to support we've made some adjustments you know that program to encourage Energy Efficiency and um accessibility and other things maybe we want to even go even farther But but so I think program evaluation would be the way to get at that are we still wanting to support that program yeah and I would just say broadly the fix up Loan program is great I number one we should you know make sure the people who are currently eligible can get it and we have the funds for that but if we do well in future years I would love to maybe see consolidating those or have that available to slightly higher income levels just to keep incentivizing Simple small projects well that's the other thing we've talked about with transformation is there's currently no income restriction we could add one and one thing I was wondering I don't expect you to have an answer on the spot but like with you know like with Tiff we have like a but four standard that the project couldn't happen without it do we have any sense of like if those kids models wouldn't happen if we didn't give them money not always sometimes it seems clear they could do it without us other times no but that's a good point for us to think about I know we can get at that when we EV valuate our program or not but it's an interesting thing to um I I don't disagree with um a lot I think there's a lot of good ideas in terms of uh maintaining and maintaining the housing stock we have opening up opportunities um it seemed striking to me that none of the ideas we've talked about yet are creating new housing um and I particularly uh knowing that we have this now ongoing dedicated funding source um and that we have seen our I mean both projects that were going to be deeply affordable housing get denied and not happen um I think those were larger the the tax credit amounts they would have gotten are larger than a whole Year's worth of this money but I I do wonder about um could this amount of money uh whether it's Gap financing um or um more creative ideas like could this create new housing in some of these empty lots that the H has been sitting on for a long time um and the uh the very out there idea that I want to put in front of all of you folks um I had passed this on to staff but let them know it's not urgent and don't expect that you've looked into it yet but there are there are two counties I don't know if there are cities doing this there are two counties in Minnesota Olstead and Washington that have started they basically had scenarios where they couldn't get either on the private Market or through tax credits and such the kinds of housing that their Community needed and so they just built it um they own and operate the housing themselves it's a mix of income levels so that it's not concentrating poverty that the market rate units in it which an agree with what Julie had said that 80% is market rate like those units end up subsidizing the other ones it becomes financially sustainable long term and there's um a county in uh Maryland that's been doing this for like 20 years and with a relatively small like revolving fund is able to keep adding projects and is up to like 9,000 units the theyve built over 20 years and so um very out there is very different I think one of the major questions would be the administrative side of it um that you then need to either hire or contract with like property managers and things but I I guess I I want to throw out some uh that as maybe the biggest most radical idea but also even if it is just saving I don't know 100 or 200,000 of the 400 some that can go toward Gap financing to try and incentivize new new affordable housing as well as the maintenance and fix up stuff so um part of why we haven't sort of thought about using it towards some of that more Capital funds is because we do have pool tax increment that through special legislation allows us to um transfer that to our trust fund it was what around $5 million Melissa we actually put it in because there was another category and um created that we call the spending plan and that's a little more flexible that has a time frame on it we could do and support Capital costs through that money if we don't get it spent by the timeline that money can go into the test fund will'll be there for so we'll have several million that way and I mean we're going to be hearing soon um about a new development and he's going to need funds right he's going to going to be part of the ask and and we just think that there are other ways to fund some of that kind of stuff rather than this smaller pot of money that would have to grow over time and we've got a fouryear dead you know so you know it doesn't it doesn't add up to the same amount of money this there limits and as you say you know capacity you know's of us and so much that do so we have to sort think about when can we take stuff on ourselves or when do we did you well I was just going to say that you know Richfield as a as a community versus a county is a very different scenario I I can't see a scenario where we would be able to um and manage our own public housing I I just uh with the funding that we will have available through laa through our Levy through those things and unless we want to divert all of the staff that we are able to afford at a community level from all of these other things and transfer it to running our own housing and even then it's probably not that much that we could do I can't I can't see that happening in a community of 37 38,000 on a county level it's it's a different conversation sure yeah count is getting a significant amount of laa themselves asking us how they just just a couple a couple of thoughts um I don't I don't think I disagree with anything that anybody's saying I think the the priority of unlocking the other state and federal benefits housing you know those the the down payment assistance unlocks a lot of other not just money but rights um you ownership rights that people have so I think there's a there's like a force multiplier to that um also similarly what Sean mentioned about about the interest rates being low for for vots if there was a way to tailor the program so it was less like I'd like to kchen remodels and the foundation is cracking and we want so if there's a way to as we're imagining focusing it on the the the essential parts of our housing stock and not and not just the the bells and whistles I think that would be um uh helpful and then I just want to say a word in support of uh emergency assistance which doesn't fix structural problems but in terms of you know like the the bang for your buck when somebody's struggling with housing because they've lost a job or they're in between jobs and they're about to be homeless or about to be evicted to and and part of this is like we don't actually pay for those Services the county does and so it's like how much are we saving money for the count County maybe but just practically for our community uh to to be able to stand in that Gap and keep people from sliding into houselessness is money really well I think that's where we partner with who knows where to go for the funds first Andover the gaps in front of the couny that's just a broad question like when these programs come up like what is the metric of like thinking about how to decide so funds for one program versus another like as we were talking about this like there's lots of things that can affect a lot of people in a relatively minimal way and then there's things that like we could put the money to helping a smaller number of people in a much larger kind of way like I think of like things like painting the house like yes that's something that needs to be done and it's very difficult to do but like I'd rather see you know a smaller number of people have a large impact like become first generation homeowners or stay in their houses you know in emergency situations rather than some of these things that like yes it's it's it's all needed and so it's like really hard to like start deciding but I'd rather focus more on like the criticalness rather than the broad sweeping number of people that can be affected well and I think that that's you know where the HRA job is um I mean it starts with the comprehensive plan we have goals and priorities in there we lay out what we want to do but this is my we're already looking to the next one I mean we're already um so so it's not like that the only thing we do right we take a pulse and about what's in the community but it's ultimately nature but I think that's where we come back to this chart where we we do a variety across different some are more immediate needs and some are longer term but yep you're right and part of program evaluation can look at yeah how much are we spending on one household more so certainly something that we need to continue to I want to keep us on time so I'll do one last call for de questions you are welcome to send me an email if you have I think this is often really abstract some of some of these discussions but I was just just today I have a student who they can't they have their landlord is selling their house from under them um and they have to they're scrambling to come up with the money for deposit rental deposit to move and so like there's been a definite really upsurge in Behavior with this student that's and then when we learned that that was what was going on like there's a direct correlation so it's not it all seems very abstract sometimes but like that a small amount of money would give that family stability and would help this kid in school I mean it just Cascades out and the parent works two jobs like it's I don't know so I think anything anything we can do even small amounts make a big difference for certain people so you should refer them to V and see if there's something can to help that all right on to item number two which is a presentation by Johnny aara um we want to set it up a little bit first right okay did you want to set it me to set it up um doesn't matter I was planning that you were but I can't arm wrestle for it Melissa has been at a conference for three days rain is she um yeah she's I I had family in my house all weekend so my bread not necessarily the freshest all right so we are here tonight all of you to talk about um H owned property at 6501 pen Avenue South we bought it back in 2018 and um I'll just give a little history it was in the staff report but um back in 2020 we had a development for an all affordable um project they went for tax credit financing and did not receive a reward and I think the pandemic also um threw some wrenches in things for them and so that project died but we still have this property uh and the meantime the um building was um placarded by our building official um and we realized we needed to tear those buildings down so they have since been torn down so we have a significant investment into that property next to it is 6525 pen Avenue which we tried unsuccessfully for 5 years to get through and to find that owner and to to talk to him about what are his plans here's our plans we have almost a shared driveway we need to work together and we weren't successful he quit paying his property taxes and that finally went through tax forfeiture and we have the opportunity to purchase that the H is going to be talking about that later today but so we have these two Parcels right on pen Avenue Key site we believe uh in the corridor a corridor which um we've wanted to see improvements and have seen some improvements over the years but for for a long time Gordon has worked on that quarter for a long long time so we are excited tonight to hear from the latest person who called us up Johnny opara uh is here this evening and he is a developer a newer developer but has two um successful projects underway and another another one under way I'll let him explain all that I'm probably getting the numbers wrong but so we're excited to have um had conversations with Johnny and he is here and um going to tell you what he'd like to see happen so Johnny I'll turn it over to you thank you thank you [Applause] much how's the doing do I just click the mouse maybe on the bottom thing just roll it awesome well good evening everyone thank you J for let show and thank you m Bell my compliments to the mayor and council members as well City staff my name is Johnny oart as Julie mentioned and um I'm the president CEO go companies um started the company back in 2009 but in 2017 uh changed careers basically after 17 years in P America but changed directions mainly because of my father um so even though we're a for-profit we wanted to make sure that uh we focused on making sure that we can deliver high quality housing that's sustainable it's going to be around for a long time but my my father's experience as someone that lived in affordable housing was the main driver this a because uh he had a medical event in the early 1990s and um for me seeing my father since 1993 uh to present or to 2018 was something that really um made me think about what do I want to do to make him happy but also improve situation and as a son I felt that um we building him something making a promise was you know something that could do impact his living situation so we were able to start our first project called the Hol which I'll talk about in a little bit with my dad and uh unfortunately my father you know grew up that transition uh passed away in 2018 but he was the fulcrum he was the reason why I'm also standing here today but also most importantly making sure that every project we're we're attached to we want to make sure that we deliver the highest quality hous and that's that's affordable also too ja companies since 2021 has closed on 43 million in new construction financing again the hollows are Nal project with St Paul of course wings that Commons is Curr under construction of Brooklyn Center and uh since uh 2017 we've been working a number different cities here in the Twin Cities um wor our pipeline valued at 200 million we have um dor construction part of Doran companies in Bloomington they built the hollows and they designed it as well as the AR we also joining us today uh the principal Christina S who's in the back uh who have known since 2019 uh they are they're The Architects for wings of the comets and Brook Center and then of course houseon Blazer group uh they've managed um roughly five to 6,000 units in the TN cities and they're also the manager for the hollows and the forest Commons then of course we're working with mahomi development services we have Andrew Hugh in the back we on the hollows W Comas of course our latest uh initiative in St Paul called The Heights so this is the hollows this is effectively a project in St Paul on the east side uh the total development cost of this project was around $18.4 million it was on a vacant parcel at 520 pay Avenue in St Paul um this site has been vacant since 1996 I met with council member J PR was still uh in office in 2018 and she had a vis we had a vision that align and that was to deliver a four-story building that was geared towards working professionals um as you see this this this building effectively uh changed the entire area it's a about 60,000 foot building providing 62 homes for individuals and families primarily working professionals every minute you can think of we have a fitness center views of downtown St Paul right here you st a studio that rendering but teally right now we are 98% occupied F Construction in 22 December and um we've been stabilized since September of last year which is fantastic uh of course our partners the city of St Paul US Bank Red Stone and lender New York City Ramy County Department of deed contaminated s so Minnesota ground Fields played a major role uh in delivering critical tools resources for us to really turn this set around uh to make sure that it's lievable for individual families um it's on Transit and of course it's minutes away from C Field downtown St Paul course to St Paul Airport this project took me four years to complete now I I started this project with my dad actually in 2018 when I got into development but obviously of course um you know after this passing it was a big blow to me and my family but we wanted to make sure that we finish what we started to make sure that families individuals folks in similar situations with limited incomes could also still have access to high quality hous wash drivers in every unit making sure folks have access to underground parking um side doors again community room things that you typically would see in Market but not in the for now this is the hollows in the summer time of last year and you'll see many individuals and residents that decorated the balconies those balconies that you're looking at um we actually came to a critical juncture where we're almost going to lose those balconies due to contamination but Ramy County provided another $214,000 that played a major role in our ability to make sure that we can keep our pris community by delivering these BS which obviously of course Chang the entire aesthetic of um that building in our latest project today wng comment is currently under construction right now in Brooklyn Center uh delivering 54 homes for individuals and families I work with the city of Brooklyn Center uh since 2019 of of course pop Design Group was the architect uh on this project I work with him since 2019 I'll be closing Luc financing in October of 2020 fore uh right now we are 3 to four weeks ahead of schedule La construction is the uh construction La construction is the GC um that we're working with right now of course on this project we also have fitness center community room kids room um it's a Jason from wad Park one of the reasons why we named it w com because it is a Jason from W Park so it's just a hoping skare for families and individuals to walk across the street to a public park the total development cost of this project was about $24 million then Minnesota housing they provided almost 18 million tax credits um this project tax credit investor on this is US Bank also we have henen County of course that's Minnesota housing and of course great Minnesota housing fund permanent debt on this project there's supp Port of housing in this project as well uh we are having one two three four bedrooms on this project in the city Book Center there is a uh lack of three bedrooms and four bedrooms and effectively two beds primarily ones in studios a lot of the product that was built in Brooklyn Cent Brooklyn Park are very similar AG nor properties but primarily ones and twos so geared towards all the generation of families work professionals individuals and folks that are looking for a newer building that of course the house and Blazer cre imagine that asset as well uh we're supposed to be f with construction in December 2024 and of course our latest project the Heights in St Paul on the greater East Side delivering 1,46 homes uh to the city of St Paul of course and this is a monster project uh we had a press conference last uh April at the Port Authority in St Paul and um our company jail companies is delivering two phases 199 homes which will be a multi family building comprises of Studios one two and three bedrooms that's parcel B uh the furthest one with the red all red and of course the phase two would be our Workforce housing mixed income development that's adjacent small box with that's allover with delivering 8090 home 8090 homes one two it's a nonl tech project hope close constru and financing on the first one in 2025 if we get our funding approved um we have a hug as with the state of Minnesota for 73 million and then of course the second one which will be CL m Financing in 2026 we a to get that as well so this is a uh really big project we have Exel energy we have Sherman Associates we have Twin Cities of humanity and of course we have our company as well so this is a huge Pro in the cityall and these are some representative projects that P Design Group has been a part of and this is the FL at Malcolm yards what's interesting about these products they don't look like affordable hous they look like market rate product that's the vision that we're trying to create the N we're trying to create that everyone deserves access to something that's that's beautiful now this is our proposal for the site that Julie talked about and um I thought a cool name would be like Pen Station because we the corridor like pen and um we're looking at six-story buildings so effectively one will be underground five sticks so effectively five above ground 9% tax credit deal um this includes both 6501 and 6525 on pin um this would be 42 homes of affordable housing geared towards families we got Studios actually ones twos threes and four bedroom units about 12 units will be support hous 9% deal so we do have to include people with disabilities and high priority homeless we have of course one underground parking we have 48 stalls in total um we have an active ground floor so we have onsite Property Management amenities residencies for residents we also have onset Property Management on this it's on Transit and of course obviously the humidities it's not too far from Southdale down to uh Minneapolis St PA airport M America nothing import like Best Buy but um effectively this is our really our vision to make sure that we can deliver um a high quality building um that is effectively will to revitalize that site and make sure that folks in that Community are can list where they can be proud of so this project right here is very similar in terms of that site in Richfield um in terms of the Acres uh this is 0.97 Acres I believe the site in Richfield about 0.87 so it's very similar makeup in terms of the size so we feel that the hollows is a direct representative of that project people were to receive funding this is a site right here combining both parts so 651 and 6525 that's the arrow view right there of course obviously you know we we take pride in partnering with communities through engagement process we want to make sure that uh we partner with the city of Whitfield uh and partner the communities in terms of delivering Vision um for this S as well and this is our process now obviously of course we're here at the work session um we would doing an initial neighborhood Outreach um go through the image process by you know submitting application in July uh normally like every other developer would um this year uh and then of course it successfully awarded tax credits are typically awarded in December end of the year and we start financing uh sometime uh fall of 2025 but this is the process before it's going through entitlements and work with the city council uh City staff and so forth in terms of uh uh making sure this project questions any have any questions comments well thank you for this proposal by that L's so much opportunity I love that it's also pable I was like in Richfield have you considered mix your development like having some commercial space on the first levels experience so that's a great question so it would be a lcome housing tax credit deal and typically investors um they're not oppose to that but if they were to include some kind of retail component um two things you can condle out that portion that's geared towards commercial or uh that portion would need to be with a anchor that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange so we need we need to reduce our uncertainty to the point where investors feel confident that if they were to include a Starbucks or a carable coffee or it was you know going to be cattled out to maybe a nonprofit that that that portion of that building is already taken care of or to an extent we turn we've signed a 10 to 15 year lease agreement on that portion yes well I want to kind of follow up on and actually your comment and question um there about this project I really love I love the um you know the Deep affordability that it offers the community I love the the multi-bedroom units that it offers because we're really lacking that in our city um but that's the one the one shortcoming I do see is the lack of say commercial at street level um I've been kind of observing this Corridor for quite a few years and I've served on some task forces in the past the most recent one which is not recent was was called the pen Avenue 66 Street task force which was probably about 20 years ago and I know that uh and they did a lot City with Consultants did a lot of visioning for the Avenue and one question they did ask the community is is would you like to see this particular Corridor uh remain commercial or would you like to see a transition to residential and at that time and it's hard to say whether the public sentiment would still be the same today cuz that was 20 years ago but at that time the sentiment was that they they people really did want to see it this you know stretch from like cross town down to about 68th Street have a commercial presence to it um and so I love the project and to me the ideal world would be a mixed use development but uh but I know that that could offer some complexities so um definitely not opposed to it just my my observations I think that's a good note definitely not oppos to it but it's it's really tough to work with an investor or a syndicator to make that work there's a lot of uncertainty and trying to combine those financing structures however definitely not opposed to it definitely not oppos to it at the end of the day you want to activate that first floor so um yeah I'm just going to say I agree with the existing the existing comments like the the last two comments about the mixed use component that is my preference I would say if that is not viable with your project other ways to activate the first floor would be of interest to me I'm particularly concerned if you can go back to your like approximate site plan about the idea of a of a surface parking lot that's not even ACC great the dimensions of raining wall in our packet um so I'm assuming that's either below or above the grade of pin Avenue so I'm a little bit concerned about either a blank wall or a gap as you're walking past on pen so yeah so I mean we we do have the appropriate number of stalls for individual and families that would be living here so it's a fivestory building obviously of course underground parking with surface parking you get that 10% discount because because um there's Transit um so maybe uh Christine if you want to if you if you have any comments on that question yeah no I I appreciate the question and um the good thing and the bad thing about this site is it's um the opportunity or it's it's a very simple and narrow site so um yeah so we certainly are starting with the building first and getting that on the have that and I think there would be opportunity know I see what you're saying we would you know we really want to incorporate that pedestrian on the future plan so just understanding how the grades work we're in such an early phase right now that it's almost like we have to make sure all the fit and then once they fit we can massage the designate so I guess I would say that the essential part of my thing is I would prefer mixed use if that is not going to happen I want it to be excellent Urban Design and feel like the the entirely residential component is bringing pedestrians to the sidewalk things like the principal entrance should face pen Avenue residents should have a reason to walk out on the sidewalk on pen Avenue and not just go to the parking lot and go to the parking garage and leave through the back um and I think this this precedent thing is is pretty promising but I would say we we've had a number of first floor unit things it's a understandably there's not always a demand for another use for the first floor so I think it's okay but I don't think apartments in a first are really inactive use people leave their blind shut 24/7 they put a beware of dog sign up it's not it's not the effect you necessarily want compared to like something like a coffee shop so it can be all residential in my personal book but it needs to compensate for that an excellent design you that's one of the reason why we brought Pope Design Group Ian they have done some really phenomenal quads with Forest wings of Commons um and these are some of the representive projects they've been a part of so I have the utmost confidence that Pope Design Group can deliver what you just asked I mean they've been doing this for quite some time and of course I've been St since 2019 when I met her so I I do believe have a lot of confidence their oration um I as a contrary voice I I don't necessarily see the need for there to be mixed use and I I'm not opposed to it but I I think what I'm hearing you say and I guess I would appreciate Insight from our staff as well as much as you feel like you can speak to it I know you're not the ones who apply but having seen multiple rounds of funding get denied and nothing get built um I am very very interested in something getting approved um and not to the level of like we'll take anything but like there's a bunch in this proposal as it exists that is exactly what we've been asking for for deeper affordability higher bedroom counts and if um yeah I guess I'll just ask the question like how much does it impact the likelihood of getting the financing if we are expecting them to have a commercial piece of it you know I can um answer that question just real quick so I mean that's good point so I know that many developers have came and applied for L and tax credits and I've gone through that process with Minnesota house would say that um you know depending on the business model this is representative of wanks of Commons wanks of Commons we had to take about 29% of our population and gear that towards um Supportive Housing and the remaining geared towards your general your general population so families individuals multigenerational families so in the qap you know we have a model on a self scoring worksheet that we can basically you know dictate you know if we were to do X Y and Z what the potential score could be potentially and based on the score that we came up with we're within the realm that we were when we applied for L hous and tax CR for wanks the commons now mind you wster cumins received the largest uh tax credit Warth for 9% tax credits uh last year in 2023 so with the score that we came up with we feel pretty confident and that's probably one of the reasons why we're here today that if we were to go down this road we still have to do a lot more detail but a key component in getting M Tax with Minnesota housing would be support housing and I want to kind of give your thoughts on you know making sure that we have aable unit for folks that are exiting homelessness and folks that are uh dealing with you know people disabilities that's one and the two four the sustainability factor and then the third one would be the support from the city R Field any resources tools that will allow us to be able to increase our score would then give us the likelihood that potentially we could get this project that the first year but maybe the second year um awarded Lo tax credit for Min housing um I I just wanted to add in terms of mixed use I I am very much supportive of a great mixed use project with a thriving active commercial use in the bottom and residential above um it is difficult especially in the climate right now for market rate uh projects to get mixed use to pencil out for for them to get that to finance um basically they have to completely write off the commercial space at this point and count it as just a liability on their uh proforma um so making it work with this project see seems unlikely to me um I'll also just mention the work that was done on pen Corridor now it it is older work but the results of the market study that was done in that area said that there actually there wasn't enough housing to support the amount of commercial that was there so I think that in order for us to build up this great commercial space bringing in units is is helpful to that it's going to help those businesses there Thrive and invest and um I think more units will help that so just two two things I wanted to throw in there thank you and if I could just very quickly I know we're running short on time but I think given all of that Financial picture um I think if even if mixed use got built given all of the existing much more affordable uh retail commercial spaces in the corridor I find it very unlikely that would turn into something other than a chain and I feel like most of the time when we've had conversations about the kinds of uh like things we would like to see in Richfield particularly I know local restaurants or coffee shops get talked about a lot I don't see a scenario where that would actually that they could afford to move there and wouldn't just move into another space on Avenue um yeah I I just want to add to I think both um and Sean made very good points putting them together here that yeah what I love to see ground for retail sure but if not the affordab the affordability aspect of this project the idea that have some really excellent uh Urban Design those two together I think really um could make this a really a really good project even without that ground floor retail which we we may all like and if there's a good location to have well-designed affordable housing this is an excellent area in our city to have that at a very major node near transit in a very uh good location in our city so I think most things could play off each other to really make this an excellent project if uh if designed well and done and done correctly yeah I I love the project I love the four bedroom three-bedroom the the higher bedroom is so needed um as someone who lives kind of around the corner from here I would love to see retailing that ground floor but I think it's unrealistic to what we would actually want to have in that Corridor and so I would much rather see that first floor be activated with the community room with your workout room that feels open and and um activated to the street because it is a very walkable area um to lots of great things that already exist there that I would rather build housing and activate that first level versus trying to get mixed use which feels unplausible and really tough um is the surface level parking is that um is that without that do you not meet the minimum parking requirements yes so we would need to do surface sure perfect yes I mean at the end of the day it's going to be a big dve in terms of leing the building so you want to make sure that you have I think it's uh think you came at uh 55 52 53 4 STS well no after the 10% discount yeah 10% so we're at 48 stalls now so but effectively you would need those amount of stalls in order to make sure that you can actually have residents feel confident that they can they mo yeah I'm just thinking of like what you were saying just about the walkability but like some sort of like small Plaza or something if we could find three or four stalls somewhere else to like make that more of like a public space would increase walkability and like also provide another amenity to the to the space you know we are definitely open if uh you and um City staff and council members mayor feel that this is a project that uh uh could move forward to work with our design uh to see what we can do to activate uh parts of that building that's going to um make it uh feel uh not only exciting but that uh you know there's something uh happening um not only just effective rest that will be living there but um it's just something that's cool something vibrant that's going to take us you know these bills will be here for 30 4050 years so you want to make sure done thank you I I just want to Echo people's comments one that this is a really good presentation and if you've been doing this relatively fewer years you've done an incredible job of articulating our pain points and where I think we want to go and it's really really appreciate that um also um I I think preserving in in lanine kind as a commercial Corridor is I would put I would put the category of critical it's critical for for the health of that um that Corridor one way into this conversation also and I would I would tend to be I'm going to maybe see the other side I would tend to be more patient and say I'd wait another five years to get the right kind of development as much as be next to it I don't think that that's great however what I think of the commercial corrid the the commercial spaces that's underused right now I think we have a really strong argument to say we actually need more people and more homes in that Corridor so that we can actually justify more investment in in the commercial stock that's there right now we have commercial of commercial property there is really cheap and I think if we had more homes it might increase that so I just want to share that as another way into the conversation of thinking what do we do to energize and drive healthy commercial development um maybe the um couple comments on there maybe just in general about the site not just this proposal um the staff report mentions there was another proposal that staff had received that they were not going to bring forward or or have not yet um for a mixed income project I guess just to comment on the thing personally I did not see it as essential that it be that it not include any um market rate units and if that project is at all financially viable I would like to hear more about it just to understand what we're what we're giving up if we go forward with this my other comment is in the past staff have expressed a lot of concerns about the challenges of a standard lot depth versus a double depth full lot we do have land an Oliver that's designated for higher density than it currently has are you at all concerned that if we cement this off that that will make it harder to build something one day on Oliver in the remaining death um do you w to so the other development um I just heard from them a week and a half ago so it was we don't think it's a fair way to bring two forward and make them there's a huge gap still um they were seeking up uh some sort of financing that would allow more mixed so they had a lot of 80% units as well as the market rate well 80% really is our Market um rate 70 so it wasn't super viable it would require tax increment I don't know if they would generate 3 million in increment um we may be able to provide assistance to Johnny without making this a tax District um so we weighed those things there is the novo and the lands speed projects there that are full market rate no affordability so we felt like this was more important and I think the other thing that also really finds appealing is that 42 unit count is a nice kind of a middle mixture kind of a building that it would be a fun fit on this Corridor that size as opposed to 80 some units I I know not as many units but it just seemed like it would be a nice fit for the corridor um so those were that was kind of our thinking as well as the timing um of things and frankly if Johnny doesn't get some mean he needs to he's going to invest a lot of money in preparing a tax credit uh proposal application which may not get funded this year they they have to go through multiple um years so so we felt like we needed to commit to him or otherwise it's not going to happen and so so we struggled a little bit I like what do we you but again because we are so wanting to see some of those 30% Ami units and those accessible units okay thanks for that I didn't understand quite the timing context yeah it's a challenge to meet the timing so and then in terms of the zoning um the half block depth is absolutely a challenge you know part of what we're doing on the planning side is looking at those MR2 MR3 standards we just made the changes to our single family districts so I think we're making some changes that will not preclude something happening on the back side of that block is it exactly what we would have envisioned if it was developed to full depth no is that a bad thing probably not um maybe it just provides a more gradual transition so um no I I don't think that um based on where we're heading with the general zoning code that that this is uh problematic okay future and I just 10 second I mean that's a great Point um so due to the site and its you size you know the max that we can do and I I think we can go to eight stories here um on that site but with a tax CR deal the max you can probably build five stories so that's one of the reasons that we're Limited in terms of our ability to um get that many and of course obviously from a scoring standpoint from the qap we do need to include two threes and four voms so that's obviously of course figer spaces that limits our ability to you know go more unit so we 42 Max in terms of providing the type of housing that I know so many families and individuals need here City RV so I don't know how many other apartment buildings have four bedrooms and three bedrooms no you oh there's maybe 10 three bedrooms all right we are I'll just close with um what to to look for so later toight the H will be looking at the acquisition of 6525 pen which is part of this deal plan commission next week you will be asked to consider the consistency of that purchase is it consistent with the comp plan um purchasing and then also selling it turning around and selling it for something like multif family so that's what you have to look forward to and then um H in June we would have to come before you with sort of we need to ask you for a preliminary commitment to reserve the property for Johnny so we don't go you know shopping around while he's waiting for his financing and then also a preliminary commitment of some financial assistance he he needed to have some preliminary feedback from you all before he was going to invest in some of that financial review and which is would be the next step is that we'll look at the sorry thank you thank you very much I appreciate it we will standed