Thanks, Chair Johnson. I I want to say that I really first of all appreciate the time and attention that all of us have taken with this matter. Grateful to the county and particularly to HRA Chair Johnson for the attention and the time that we've taken over the last week. Um, something that's really important to me is that as we make this decision about an a million dollars going towards economic development rather than to affordable housing that we have a good sense and feel good about where those dollars are going. Um, and I feel a lot more confident after the discussion that we had over the last week that not just staff, but also policy makers will be able to weigh into that and and help guide those decisions. So, um, grateful for the time and happy to support version two.

I think one of the things that's really important as well, and I appreciated the clarification from our attorney's office, too, is that right? Not only are we opting in, but we're opting in for 5 years. And I think being able to clarify that, you know, in this vote in this piece and what that means is just because by state statute we actually will be able to to um revisit this conversation 5 years from now. But just so people are clear of why that maybe was important to take another time pause and also to make sure that folks are on the same page because this is a million dollars for economic development, potentially roughly around there, um within the city of St. Paul, but it also is a is something that has not been done before and something that we'll be doing for the next uh four consecutive years after this. And so just something that I think is really important about the significance of this item for people who are looking in and wondering like what exactly this is and what it means.

I I'll start, and then Commissioner Xiong, if you want to uh, jump in, I'll just say from the staff perspective, you know, we have really been kind of trying to build out our small business programming um, through the recommendations [clears throat] initially from our Economic Competitive Competitiveness and Inclusion Plan, of which I believe some of you were part of that endeavor. It called out a whole kind of suite of small business offerings that, to be frankly, we just haven't had the flexibility of funding sources to be able to, you know, provide investment into those areas in a really meaningful way. And so, through this opportunity of expanded HRA eligibility, uh we can carve out some of those funds to be able to do more with the programs available to us.

I just share that to say that the input that we receive are definitely from community members. And in addition to that, it's also from you all, in which, uh, our commissioners also have deep relationships with our local electeds, including, um, this body as well. And, uh, I just also want to give an example of of building stronger together when we laid out, um, our big, bold investments. That signaled to our communities about where those dollars were where we wanted to invest.

I personally just want to share that uh one of the reasons why we wanted to bring this forward um in this process as well is because I think one of the things that's going to be really important moving forward is the partnership that exists between our um current planning and economic development director and our now if this is is approved our now executive director um the of the HRA at the city and we've shared a lot of different comments over the course of the last couple of weeks. So, I won't belabor the point and just simply say we look forward to being able to work with you and what the road looks like ahead especially for the HRA and the HRA budget process and the work plan that we have been able to share and we look forward to being able to support your leadership in that role.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm I'm curious in part because we are I think using this as a case study from our previous um the information we gleaned earlier this morning. Um, I'm wondering how we determined that this would be the project area um and if you can say a little bit more about what the implications of the project area are.

So, being that this is an existing in an existing TIF district, that TIF district is in an existing project area. Um, although project areas can overlap, TIF districts cannot. Um, and our approach has been to if if the property is in a project area, we just default to using that same project area. The project area is where you can expend the tax increments under your pooling if you're not doing qualifying affordable housing, which can be citywide. So, if if we were going to do other public improvements outside of the TIF district boundary, they would need to be within the project area.

The units within Galtier Plaza will not be income restricted, but the initial proposed rents will be affordable to households with incomes from 60% to 100% of AMI. The rents are shown here by a unit type, and they range from $1,125 for a studio to $2,800 for a two-bedroom unit.

Ehlers concluded that the project needs the TIF in order to happen.

Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson, and thank you so much, Jonathan, um for this presentation. I do have a couple questions, but before that, I just wanted to just say I um really am happy to see that there's some level of action being taken on this site. Um when I think about living in this neighborhood for majority of my life and just seeing some of the safety issues and it just really remaining vacant and um not having much of um any uh opportunity or reimagination. Um so, I definitely am happy that there's um some attempt.

The building that we're looking to acquire on 259 is is not vacant. It's occupied um or it has been historically occupied. I don't know if it's currently occupied as it's been on the market. Um but that building is over 100 years old. I'm not sure the age on the two buildings on 253 and 255, but they are both registered category two vacant um which means that they are unusable and condemned, I believe, is the the phrasing that DSI puts on that.

I think as we continue to talk about um just, you know, HRA properties and ward by ward, it sounds like there's interest from ward one to see movement here on this on this project. And as we think about just what we're investing as well with any jury owned properties and our line items for our own development and what the opportunities are that present themselves across the city, um you know, I I wonder how many of our HRA properties that we've owned for 20 years and think about what we can do to really get them off the ground running. And so, we'd definitely welcome, especially as the process moves along, um you know, if we continue I'm assuming I'm presuming a little that if we get through the acquisition and also the designations of funding the demolitions that we would actually be able to see this project come forward. If that's, you know, um for other future redevelopment opportunities later on, especially because we've held on to some of the neighboring properties for so long.

Thank you so much as well for just, um, the update, but also it's really exciting to see and I'll just share that, um, you know, the progress over time has been really, uh, good to see the folks were also following through on what they shared they would do. So, I think it's an a testament to also following through and performing well to the word that you gave, um, and the team gave, right, um, to making sure that this happened and that we went vertical and we continue to go forward and see progress on the site. So, this is all really really exciting.

Want to acknowledge, yes, the the significant loss that is involved with losing Mr. Weidner, um, to that to not only the project, but to the team, to the family, to, you know, those that are really close to him as well and I, um, it's great to see that there's progress being still made on the apartment part of this, but also just wanting to acknowledge that as well, um, and just sharing that like that can be always challenging whenever, um, you know, in a team project to lose a team member as significant as that as Mr. Weidner was.