[Music] call tonight's uh economic development agenda authority meeting to order. Abby, could we get a roll call, please? Sure. Can. Um, Commissioner Roberts, here. Commissioner Langnes, present. Commissioner Lorge, here. Commissioner Hoy, here. I'll note for the record, Commissioner Gindall and uh Commissioner Wright are absent. Chairman President Ericson here. Invite you all to rise and say the pledge of 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. All right, we have an agenda before us. Uh, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? Are we any adjustments? Motion to approve. Second. First and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. All right, we got an agenda. We got open forum on the agenda this evening. If this opportunity for any citizens to express any requests or concerns, is there anybody online? Is it online at present, right? We no longer have all online participation option in our meetings. All right. Excellent. Thank you. All right. We do have a consent agenda item approving the minutes from the regular meeting on February 10th, 2025. Undertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion to approve. There second. I'll second it. All those in favor? Some by saying I. I. Post. All right. Regular agenda item. So, we've got a GLG Forest Lake Properties LLC purchase in pre-development agreement first amendment. And Abby, are you walking us through that or Okay, great. Thank you. Um, in August, the EDA approved an enclosed purchase and pre-development agreement with GLG properties, uh, GLG Forest Lake Properties. As a reminder, this was an agreement to sell the 280 Broadway Avenue West property for future expansion of the Spike and Hool site. Um, as part of their due diligence, GLG determined that um, they were able they found a telephone line that wasn't disclosed across the property. Um, it wasn't something that we were aware of and it took quite a bit of time to figure out whose line it was and if it was servicing anybody before the line could end up being disbanded. The prospective purchaser was just concerned that that could have become an impediment to the development if it was a line that was actively servicing any of the users, particularly most notably US Bank. He didn't really necessarily want to shut off the um connection to them. Um so, uh what tonight before you is an extension just to finalize the sale. Um, as a reminder, there's several different uh goals that um the goals and objectives of the city that this sale would help fulfill. Included those in your packet. They've agreed to enter into the amendment um to develop the properties as discussed and agreed to with the city by 123127. Um once this is approved, the sales finalist, they are making application for the site plan review. you would probably see um work occurring on the site this year. They will be well in advance of that 12 3127. Um and then as a reminder, if they don't actually fulfill those obligations, the property would revert back to the city. So staff does recommend that the EDA discuss and after discussion move to enter into the enclosed first amendment to real property purchase and pre-development agreement with GLG Forest Lake Properties LLC with minor modifications as needed by the city attorney. Any questions? Any questions for Abby? I'm just curious, what do they find out about that telephone line? Um it doesn't doesn't appear that it's servicing anyone. The challenging part is just just um we had no record. Uh we think that it probably maybe went in during the Broadway Avenue reconstruction project, but there was no city record of it going in. Um there the pedestal for the telephone pole was right next to the light pole. And so it just kind of looks like it might have been a little bit of a renegade service. Um it was most likely serving the elevator before the current landowner purchased the property and had been expanded quite a while. Any other questions? Then I'll make a a motion that we enter into the enclosed first amendment to real property purchase and pre-development agreement with GLG Forest Lake Properties LLC with minor modifications by the city attorney. There a second. I'll second it. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion sign by saying I I opposed. And the motion carries. All right. So Abby, I think you're taking on the next one as well. The uh it's the I'm I'm your host for the road show tonight. Awesome. In November, uh staff presented the EDA with challenges associated with the EDA's current commercial improvement incentive program. Um, some of the constraints that I noted at that time is that um, I noted that the the programs just not being used and that I attributed that to what I could assume was a couple different things. One, lack of marketing, just plain and simple. The city has this just buried on the in the EDA. The city has this buried on the invest in Forest Lake website. Um the second was there was a limited number of properties eligible for this really broadways along Highway 61 and Broadway downtown. Um but when people don't know it and don't know they're eligible um no program use then when you actually kind of take a look and the processes and procedures for the administration of the program it was really cumbersome like let's say you weren't an EDA member and you wanted to participate you had a number of different interactions with the city um that really for 10% deferral of your pro project cost might not be worth it. Um what I'm finding in our line of work and been finding for years is property owners, applicants really only want one interaction with the city, maybe two. And so what I've done is um worked with the city attorney to modified not only modify the or to modify the program, not only to streamline those processes and procedures, but also to make the program eligible to all non-residential or commercial industrial properties in the city. Essentially, if you produce a tax base on an commercial industrial property, you you're eligible for this. Also, as you might remember, um worked with the chamber and the county ed to expand some marketing materials for businesses and this is now being highlighted in that um brochure. Just finding different ways to help market the program after a amendment is something that we're we're working towards. So, um, if the EDA is favorable tonight, I'm requesting you move to approve the amendments. After that, I will update our application forms, update our websites, um, and really start kind of doing a little bit casting a wider net essentially of marketing to try to see if we can't maybe put some dollars back out in the community. So, I recommend you review and discuss and after all discussion, I would recommend you move to approve the commercial incentive improvement program updates. Any questions? Have you thought about direct mail city? Um, have not, but that's certainly something that we can look into to see what those costs would be. The EDA does because I'm running a business. Unless somebody, you know, physically comes and tells me, I'm probably not going to the city website for unless there's a problem. And that's the thing that I've been finding is there's lots of projects that have been eligible, but we're catching them too late. We have to catch them before the project starts. And so that's where I do think um I certainly can look into that as an option for sure. I just you know, you get the letter and it says city of Forest Lake on you're going to open that up because you're probably thinking there's a problem. Why would you Why would you? I've gotten those letters out. We've used the program, I think, twice. We did it at 59 North Lake Street and we did it at what 407 for Golden Ash and Nothing But and it was it worked out great, you know, but you have to spend 50 to get 10. You have to get five because it's a 10% program. So, we, you know, we were the old chalet. Remember it looked like a Swiss Miss Chalet. We took that whole facade off. I mean, well, that's the only way to describe that. It was kind of an icon in town. I felt bad tearing it down, but I think direct mail might be a little to the, you know, owner of record. Yeah. Might get you a little more action with that. What I might be able to do, um, we might be able to do some target mailings, too. I can pull assessors data for commercial industrial properties, and we can actually probably look to see whose valuations are being decreased and maybe trying to some incentive um might be something. But I'll look into what we could kind of some options for that and bring that back to see if you have any preference for where those mailings go. I think a mass mailing right now might be too much, but yes, certainly can. Is there any u interest on the EDA's part to increase that incentivize them to do more or a higher, you know, more of a match? I guess not match but a reimbursement yeah kind of along that line I was just going to ask how does our program as it sits today from a reimbursement standpoint match up against other maybe other communities of same or similar size any programs they have there isn't I mean I'm not aware of as many communities that do this I haven't done the research to know but I would say it's probably low especially when we have a a max of $5,000 you know I think increasing that if you increased it to 20 thou 20% where somebody's getting 10,000 back um that's pretty substantial cost. Um but that also then limits the program each year you only have about $50,000. So if you did max out, you know, you'd get five projects. But that does incentivize, you know, some significant dollar investments in those projects. I mean, historically, have we even come close to five projects a year since we've started this? No. Um, but I also there just has not been the marketing and that's where I have had people reach out. Um, so one land owner with two properties that were not eligible, my intent is to go first to them. Um, to, you know, my hope is that we catch them before the work occurs, right? And then we're able to kind of streamline that system that way. My recommendation would be let's see what happens this year and then I think take a look at whether or not in 26 we'd want to increase that amount. Um but that would be 10 projects. Do we think we have 10 projects this year? I don't I don't know. Personally, I'd rather see it higher and incentivize people. I mean we're already in the first quarter, you know. I mean, it's I think that we probably have the bandwidth to if we had five projects going this year, that would be a pretty significant win. I think so. Personally, I I agree bumping it up to something higher. I was going to just make the Excuse me. Um I was going to make the note a little bit later that I'm included in the day tonight for your reference is a 2024 EDA annual report. It's kind of I think the first time you might see something. Sorry, it's not on glassy paper, but it's a first stab. In 2024, we only had 15 projects that exceeded that $250,000 level. Um, so, you know, we might have a lot more projects that have a smaller investment level, but there aren't that many projects annually that are kind of putting big money in. Granted, this program wouldn't, you know, we we can cap it at that at 20. Right now, it's 10% 5,000. So, if we increase the 20, we'd need to determine if then we're going to that 100,000 mark. That make sense? That would have to be Is my math doing right? I didn't follow your math, but if I could interject, Mr. Uh just from my own experience, um when I got to Centerville, uh you know, they were just starting up an EDA, they wanted to look at a facade grant program. I stole White Bear Legs as cities always do. We steal from each other. That's the best way to do it. And theirs was a 3:1 uh so, you know, 25% match and we rolled with that for a little while. Didn't get any takers. Uh went down to a two to one match. Didn't get any takers. So we went to one to one match and got a couple of off the ground. I'm not suggesting you go to from 10% to one to one. Um, but I think, you know, it's certainly within the realm of, you know, you're asking are we higher or lower than most. I would say we're quite a bit lower than most of these programs. And I think quite frankly, it it does just come down to whether or not people are I think the appetite for people um on paperwork to get money. Um I mean, you saw during the pandemic, people wouldn't even fill out a onepage thing to get I mean, it's people's appetite to do some paperwork to get a little bit of money is really, really low. That threshold is like, I don't know, you got to give them a fair amount and you got to keep the paperwork to a minimum. Um, that's been my experience. But, have we ever considered a different category? Since we're looking at facades and dressing up our downtown, there's certain shop owners that don't have enough money for a $50,000 refacing. What if we were more interested in funding like a one to one a $5,000 paint job and some light fixtures or some, you know, cleaning up of landscaping in front, not a major project, but something less and paying a bigger proportion of it to make our city look better. I don't think a lot of business owners have the capital right now to invest in during a major Commissioner Lurge, members of the commission, the exterior facade improvements does include siding, painting, lighting, windows, doors, and gutters. So long as the improvements are visible from a public street, sidewalk, or lakeside Memorial Park, but it's still we're only paying a small portion of that. Correct. Talking about maybe we should be paying a bigger portion of a smaller project. Oh, I see what you're saying. So still capping maybe the project total cost like they invest 50 we give them 10 back or something. I'm thinking a smaller smaller even thinking if somebody's got 5,000 in the bank we match them 5,000 like bear did and they're much more able to handle that then rather than a major project 50,000. Yeah. I didn't pull the numbers. I certainly can look. A lot of those projects would never require building permits. We don't know what those investments are, but I would say that there's probably far more of those smaller dollar investments than larger dollar investments. And then for those of you that know more about construction and costs, could a small shop owner in town for $10,000, could they do a major from the street uh major cleanup and paint job for$10,000 where the city? Is that a reasonable amount or is that not reasonable? I think you know depending on the size of the building you could paint and couple fixtures you could do that for under for that dollar. I guess it's not a massive building. I think we should look at that. That's just my input. I think you definitely need to raise it. So, I think yeah, I hearing that you want to raise the reimbursement. Nobody's going to come out and spend 40 if they don't have to. You know, if they're sitting on the fence and they've got $40,000 on hand, me $5,000 is not enough incentive for them to take the plunge and do it to I better take advant before they quit it. 10 15 I mean that's just trying to think when we did ours we we exceeded it. We were able to get the maximum amount which would have been $5,000 on a $50,000 project. So I'm hearing you many of you say you want to increase it 25%. And then is there merit in trying to keep that project cost low and you know a project $100,000 or less. It captures some bigger investors but it also makes it eligible for smaller investments or a scale of let's say 25% for projects up to 50,000 50% up to projects 20,000. I I think if I were to suggest and we're going to do a a scaled thing like that where there's a higher percentage for a lower amount instead of incentivizing them to cap their total cost say that the first 100,000 is at x% and above that is at x%. Does that make sense? Yep. And then you're not disincentive $100,000 project would burn through everything we have budgeted this year. So, I think we'd want to figure out what that top cap would be to know that we're not necessarily um one project is When's the last time it was used? I'd have to look. It in my time here has not been used. It's almost three years. Yeah. Would you like me to explore a couple different options and bring something back for you next month to kind of look at, you know, maybe what industry standard is or even go through some permit records to see what some past investment is or do you kind of I mean is is a goal to just use the money doesn't matter if it's one project or it's 10 or is the goal to maybe try to get it into you many hands. Well, I think that's a great question and it's really kind of us deciding what does a win look like? Is it making sure that the money is spent or is it making sure that we have x number of you know or or you know designing it so x number of projects happen? Um so I guess from that perspective what would what would feel like more of a win from an EDA perspective? Isn't our goal to beautify the downtown area? So I I think that is part of it, but now that it's expanding, I think if you the more properties you can touch, that's more of a win, I think, than than just doing one major project, which is, you know, we're willing to do that, but if we can touch more and do more, in this case, beautifification or enhancements of exteriors. I think that's more to win than just one building in town that use up the whole budget potentially in one year. So I don't know how you could craft that for that outcome if that's the desire of the rest. What? Well, from that perspective, I would think that having a higher like closer to one to one on a smaller like say a $10,000 project or or 5,000 whatever. I mean that would move us more in that direction from my point of view where if you if we go from 10 to 25% but we also raise the the you know the top end of the funding you know you see you had to spend 100,000 to get 25 you know that's probably not going to get us to that end. That's just my thought is just more touching more properties than less. But maybe I don't know if that's Are there opinions about what win what a win looks like on this project? I think I think anything is going to be a win over where we've been at for the last few years. So if if that meant one project, I would say that that is a win, but my preference would be to touch multiple projects if possible. So, if we can incentivize smaller amounts or at least the first portion of a an amount at a higher rate, I think that is a good direction to go. I also like um the idea of doing some direct mail um and maybe promoting the program. Get the word out easier, faster. And in that mailing, you could put down if we agreed that we could go one to one on smaller projects, you could get that word out there then, you know, If you're not looking for a major remodel, how about taking your front? It would be nice if you can get like one side of the street all harmonious in their plantings, you know, and then that could be part of it, you know, to match them up and so when people are coming and walking along, there's um there's continuity in the look. And we had talked about a look for downtown back when we're doing the major downtown project. Maybe that's when we bring in um the the new kind of street signs or business signs, something like that. Anyway, that should I think that should go in the letter, too, after we decide we're going to do that. Member Hoy, any opinion on what a win looks like. Um it'd be great to touch as many people as possible, but if somebody shows up with a refacing plan, that's going to take all the money. So, we have first come Well, I think this has been really helpful and important discussion. Now, we do have a draft update in front of us that expands the boundaries of this thing. Um, I guess could I put out for a suggestion that we maybe move forward with expanding this to the broader boundaries of Forest Lake and then have have staff come back with some ideas based on the communities of, you know, hearing our feedback what, you know, might make sense for our next EDA meeting. I have one question. Is this in a certain geographic area, you know, no or is it used to be? It used to be when we did it, that's where it was, but now it's cityide. That's what this motion or if somebody makes a motion we can get there. That was the discussion in November was trying to expand it citywide that any commercial or industrial property would be eligible. Um and so I think it's you know do we still want to expand it to all commercial industrial and then I think that's maybe that first you know lot that's the question tonight. And then I think really more than anything what I would need to do is probably tweak the parameters a little bit more to try to what I'm hearing a majority of you kind of saying is we want to touch more and we want to hit some of those smaller projects that can have a big impact. Frankly, if somebody's got $100,000 in the bank, 10% of that's really not that it's still a lot of money. $10,000 is still a lot of money. Um this isn't I don't think who the program was intended for. It was really trying to get some of those smaller projects and encourage them Then I what I think if what I would do is maybe the ask the EDA then to table consideration of this and I can bring back a couple different you know maybe it's three scenarios if this then that if we implemented 25% for projects up to this amount this is about how many we might be able to meet or something like that and then you can kind of figure out which one we want to go with. I also heard uh Commissioner Lord bring up landscaping which is not currently in here. So, I think we'd want to maybe just touch on whether or not we'd want to include some of that permanent if permanent landscaping would be an eligible expense. Did I hear you correct, Addie? You said you'd prefer this be tabled rather than have what's passed. I would prefer at the moment we table it. Um, just so that we I can retool the program and we're not necessarily updating peace mill that we update the whole thing all at once. If somebody came in right now and wanted reimbursement on the 10%, I think I would start that process with them. Um, but I think if we're going to expand it to a 25% or a 50/50 for lower costs, I'd really want to make sure that all those updates are all packaged together at one fell swoop. Do we need a motion to table then? Yeah, it would be a motion to table. A motion to table until staff has prepared further to bring back to us at a future meeting. I'll second it. We have a first and a second on tableabling. All those in favor signal by saying I. I. I. Any further discussion? Oops, I should have done that first. Anybody opposed? All right, we'll table it. All right, so next on the agenda then is a conversation about a joint workshop with city council. We got a few dates in front of us and I know I personally had a few conflicts. So I got to pull my calendar up. So um included in your packet was a few dates trying to schedule a joint workshop between the EDA and the council. The predominant amount uh um the predominant item on the agenda is headarters 123. The EDA's work plan talks about kind of really analyzing the Headarters 123 and trying to figure out uh where we're kind of going in 25 and beyond with headwaters 123. But since um we've I've had discussions with the EDA and briefly with different members of the council, there's just in general some kind of consensus building between the EDA and the council that's being sought as well as just kind of retouching on that next few years work plan. So, I threw out a few dates. Monday, April 7th, Tuesday, April 8th, Thursday the 10th, Tuesday the 11th, Thursday the 17th. This would be an evening, maybe a six o'clock meeting or something. Couple hours, hour and a half, couple hours. Whole idea bring these two bodies together to kind of workshop a few different items so that we it helps really update the EDA's work plan, but also provide some direction to staff on a few pretty big ticket items that we need to start working on. Are there dates that just don't work for folks? And you you're talking about Tuesday the 15th, right? Uh it looks Yes. Yes. Yes. We're not going to have it on a Friday the 11th. And what time? Um in the evening, probably a six o'clock, 6:30. Okay. Where's your comfort? The only three that are options for me are the seventh, 10th, or 15th. And since J can't do the 10th, so the seventh or 15th. The seventh or the 15th? Seventh. Sooner the better. I think on this great Sure. I'll talk with the council tonight as well. Um the idea being I want to get the most of you present, right? Uh I know we have two members not here tonight. Um but the ideally I want a majority of both bodies. So I'm hearing the 7th or the 15th. I would prefer sooner than later as well, but um selfishly if we had a another week then it gives me a little bit more time to prepare. So I believe all the dates work for me. Okay. Thank you. Um I'll keep you posted. You should see some uh correspondence by the end of the week with setting that on everyone's calendar. So after I talk with the council this evening. Perfect. Thank you. All right. So then uh updates start with start with Abby. Um the only thing uh for those who haven't met uh Mark Stats, our new administrator is here. He probably I think he went around and met everyone. Um a couple other business related items. You should have received an email from me about the April chamber mixer that's being hosted by the county and Forest Lake Area Schools Career Launch Program. If you're able to attend 3 o'clock on April, the first Thursday in April, let me know. I'll sign you up. Um, I know Commissioner Lurge and I will both be there and so there'll be presence from the EDA, but just extending that invitation. And then also on the day tonight is kind of our first attempt at making a little bit of an EDA annual report. It's a part development summary part these are the activities of the EDA but really trying to start summarizing the kind of community and economic growth of Forest Lake. um trying to elevate us a little bit in kind of showing off some of the things that we are doing because there's been quite a bit and this is I just really tried to snapshot 24 and I really tried hard in the development world not to say oh all these things have been approved 25 you're going to see you know the apartment unit down by apartment building down by the YMCA come into this and so this will be updated annually um for you folks if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me but it'll be published online eventually as well. Excellent. Thank you, Mark. Anything you want to add? I don't think so. No. Okay. It looks like we don't have Chris here from Washington County. And then Nette was not able to make it from the chamber. She and Abby asked me to speak to that as a member of the board. So, coming up on March 29th is the Forest Lake um the expo, Lakes Area Expo, which highlights community businesses and it's a home show. There's a lot of stuff going on that day. Uh it is from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. up in uh Marinatha Church just just north of us here. Um there'll be food trucks there, vendors, uh be a great event. So I've got tickets for you all if you always want to make sure to be there on that Saturday and see what's going on. Any other updates from the EDA members? All right, then we get to move into a close session. Does anybody want to make a motion to make that happen? I'll move to close the meeting pursuant to Minnesota statutes 13D.05 05 subdivision 3C3 to develop or consider offers or counter offers for the purchase or sale of real or personal property identified as lot one block two deonte first edition and lot one block one deonte third edition Washington County Minnesota session will be held in the forest lake conference room and will commence immediately once the close session is completed the EDA will reconvene the open meeting portion in council chambers Once back in session, the EDA will adjourn the regularly scheduled EDA meeting. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second it. First and second. All those in favor by saying I. I. Opposed. And we moved into close session. [Music]