Call green for parks, Wimpy.

Here.

Any items to be removed from the consent agenda.

Make a motion to appraise consent agenda.

Second.

Item five is public hearings, appeals, presentations, recognitions, and awards.

58 presentation by the City Tourism and Economic Development Department for the second quarter of a calendar year 2026.

Travis Stevens.

Good evening, Madam Chair Wimpy, Beta Trustees, City Manager Spurgeon, happy to be here.

Travis Stevens with the Tourism and Economic Development Department.

Honored to be here to give you a quick update on recent activity that's happening within the city and what the TED team's up to.

So as you know, we're charged with growing retail and tourism activity in the city.

Do you have a clicker?

Oh yeah.

I'm going forth all night.

We were here back in March to give an update, and we really focused on the large retail centers and what was going on with those.

So tonight we want to do a quick spotlight on the smaller businesses and the tourism activity.

But I do just want to address some of the things happening at those large power centers.

If you guys have driven by either one of those, Adams Creek, you've you've probably noticed that five below and books a million is open for business.

And if you've driven out by Hackberry Market, you'll notice the Home Depot and TJ Maxx and Hobby Lobby is really taking shape.

So all of those are expected to be open for business prior to Thanksgiving of this year.

So just want to give a quick update on that.

The beautiful TED team.

Oh, thank you very much, whoever did that.

Wanted to just uh bring your attention in the bottom right corner.

That is Lisa Smith, the newest addition to our team.

She's our new administrative assistant and is doing a fantastic job of keeping us organized and in line and on task.

Um so we really appreciate her efforts.

She she joined us back in February.

So wanted to make sure you got uh got to see what she looks like.

And then next slide, I want to just share what a couple macro data points.

This is not really anything you guys don't already know.

Uh this is the growth, uh, population growth over the past several decades.

Uh Kenny Schwab had a fantastic quote uh in the Kobe U class last week, and he said that broken arrow has been growing since the 40s, uh, which is absolutely true.

You can see this.

We just went back to 1980.

Um, you'll notice the I would just point out that the number of people uh that are adding to the population is I would say is relatively consistent over the years.

Uh you just get a larger base, so the percentages are going down.

Um, but just wanted to kind of make sure.

I mean, you guys know this, but it is an impressive graph, so I want to share that.

The next slide, something that's very closely related to the population growth is the housing starts.

Um there's an organization new new orders weekly.

They put this together for all the Tulsa Metro communities, and obviously what stands out is broken arrow in the last three plus years.

Uh we haven't quite doubled Tulsa's housing rate, but it's more than a time and a half, double that at big speed, four times that of a WASO.

Um, why is this important?

It's because retail follows rooftops.

And I use these two graphs, the one before previous to this, um, to show my audience, which is commercial developers, retail chains, retailers, small even small businesses.

This graph was a a real attention grabber at ICSC a few weeks back.

Um, and I saw a lot of eyebrows raised when I present this data in front of them because everybody thinks of Tulsa and you know just the Tulsa region.

A lot of people aren't aware of what's happening in Broken Arrow, and so these graphs really tell that story.

So quickly want to hit on uh some things happening in the Rose District.

Unfortunately, it's not always Rosie in the Rose District, the the ebbs and flows of businesses, small businesses.

So since January 1st, uh we've lost three businesses where the spaces are still sitting empty.

Uh that first picture records studio.

Um that was a solo print solo preneur, one man operation.

Um, sometimes lifestyles changes, things happen, and and so he unfortunately had to stop uh operating.

The middle picture there is the Rose Rock Creamy Creamery.

Another kind of sudden change that it was not due to lack of business, it was a thriving business.

The owner just decided to do something different.

I would have sold the business, but he chose not to, and instead um closed it.

We have had a lot of activity activity around that building, and we expect that space to fill very quickly.

And then the third picture, um, unfortunately, a car jumped the curb and slammed into it, so they're dealing with some insurance issues.

Uh but we hope to get that one back online very soon.

Also, since January 1st, I'm sorry the slide's a little wonky.

Uh we've had three brand new businesses go in, funky Brems, and you guys have seen these Killwinds is has made a huge impression on the Rose District.

They have a huge following, and then a great use of second floor space, the collective, which is a co-working collaborative space.

Um happy to have that as well.

Next slide.

We have a lot of businesses coming into the Rose District.

So what this is really exciting.

So uh a couple uh the bottom left, top right, both of those are going into the ground floor of the Brio.

Uh the realty company in the top right, I know they're going into a space that's never been occupied before, so that's great to see.

Um the vegan head spa.

I know everybody's really excited about that.

I I I think I joke.

Um not sure what that is.

Uh, but hey, happy to have it.

It's a thriving business.

So and then we've got another boutique going in where the former 46 trading company was.

That was a success story.

They actually outgrew their space, had to go to a bigger, bigger location.

Unfortunately, they couldn't stay in the Rose District, but another boutique is filled back filling out.

And they're staying in broken air, great point, Councilor Ford.

Um, and uh crepe shop coming in at the the middle upper picture.

There is the old farmers, farmers bank, former first national bank ATM spot.

What's that?

It's pink gonna be peak.

It's pink, it's painted.

It was perfect for the wedding.

What is it?

It's a crepe.

It'll be crepes and sandwiches in that little building.

And then their their goal will be the next little one will be like coffee, and then maybe like maybe lemonade, and then maybe a little beer garden in the next building, and then a food truck board at some point he's gonna add on to it.

Pretty cool.

That's the old drive in.

Is that and isn't it?

Do you know that I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but bank related.

Yeah, so it's ledgers, yeah.

Uh it'll be all like food court, I believe, is what it's called.

Yeah.

Um, they're still in the development phase uh as well.

And then um, lastly, before I hand off to Michaela to do the tourism update, just wanted to highlight New Orleans Square.

Um, one of the great success stories where public and investment resulted in significant private business growth to follow.

Um I did a windshield tour last week, and uh the four quadrants, the retail on all four corners.

Uh I I counted one for lease sign.

Um the pizza place went out, but I understand there's already another one coming to backfill that.

So um New Orleans Square is is thriving and doing really well as well.

So um and I'm gonna hand off to Michaela, and then I'll stay for questions.

Thank you for this presentation because I'm a visual person, and I I love how you presented this to us.

Yeah, I mean, I it helps.

Happy to do it.

Thank you.

So thank you, sir.

Good evening, everybody.

Michaela Barton, the tourism manager.

I was told I have two and a half minutes, so quick up.

Okay.

Um so I just want to start by saying tourism is very important, and then not a lot of people get that concept.

But I like to just say that for every dollar that a visitor spends is a dollar less that our citizens have to spend because money that it comes in from visitors is new money that our community wouldn't have otherwise, and it alleviates some of the um the money that our citizens would have to spend on permanent infrastructure and things like that.

So for me, it's just net positive dollars.

So I like to start with that.

Um, this is a little bit of an awkward time to come in and do a report because we're not quite done with the fiscal year.

So I'm just kind of going with what we have so far.

So some of the key performance indicators that I present every month to our VBA board are is our hotel data.

And so every month I get an update on how our hotels are doing, and every month when we open the emails, we're like, did we do great?

You know, we had a a uh strong few months of fiscal year, and so it's been good so far.

But so these numbers right here are from July of 2025 through April.

That's the most recent data that we have.

Um, and so far all the numbers are green.

Again, the slide is a little bit wonky, but um hotel, motel lodging tax is up 2.8% over last year.

Our average occupancy is up 2.9% over last year.

Our ADR, which is average daily rate, that's how much a hotel charges per night average is up 101 dollars and 70 cents is the average that our hotels charge per night.

Um that's really high for the state.

Um, we're we are higher than average, which is good.

And then RevPAR is revenue per available room, so that's whether the room is occupied or not.

It's kind of the average is $58, and that's up 4.1%.

So all numbers are green.

Um, you know, some months.

Well, if you go to the next slide, it'll show am I 2.5 minutes yet.

Um the next slide just shows that some months are down, but mostly the months um the collections are up for this fiscal year, which is great.

Um, the lodging tax collection is up again 2.8%, and then the hotel sales tax is up 5.1%.

And then um we kind of measure success by four things.

It is the lodging tax dollars, the hotel tax or the sales tax dollars that the hotels collect, and then sales tax that visitors spend.

We like to to kind of make that a separate number.

You know, you guys look at total sales tax generated, but we like to there's a way that we can look at people that come and visit that live 50 miles or more away, and how much they spend.

So I've got in June, I hope to come back and present a little bit longer to you guys after not in June, but after this fiscal year is over.

Um, last year visitors that were from 50 miles away or more spent 140 million dollars in Broken Arrow, and that equates to 4.9 million dollars in sales tax, which equals 6.7% of the total sales tax that the city of Broken Arrow gets and uses.

So my goal at the end of the year is always hoping that that number goes up because that means we're doing something right or helping some something to go right.

So um you can go to the next.

So, real quick, um, I just wanted to mention these are some of the results of the pilot program for the film incentive, and um we as you guys know, we did a pilot program that was 100,000.

This first year we so far have awarded 85,000.

Um, and I we have one more, so we're gonna be right at spending 100,000 for that for the first year, which is crazy.

Um it ended that these did not transfer right, but um it equaled about 500,000 in direct spending, and um over a thousand hotel room nights were here just in these film projects.

Um, and then the next slide talks a little bit about um thank you for approving the budget because in that was um kind of the renewal of our film incentives, so we're gonna have a fresh um 100,000 out of the VBA budget to use, um, which are lodging tax dollars, and we've already got two applications in for um starting July 1st.

So the the words definitely getting out, um, and I have a feeling that it won't last all year.

Um, but coming up, these are already um, these are already things that we have in application wise.

So um it's really exciting.

We're doing a lot of of cool things.

Um the incentive renewal that should say fiscal year 27.

Um we are working on our film festival as you guys know, which is October 2nd, 3rd, and then just doing a lot of recruitment for the production, so we're really proud of that.

And then just to recap, um, we've got a lot of conferences.

Um we have a lot of interest in Broken Arrow for our conference space and also just tournaments.

We've had a couple big golf tournaments recently.

The American Junior Golf Association came down to Indian Springs for the first time.

Um, and women's all pro tour came, and those both only came because or heard about Broken Arrow because of our rebate.

Um they we weren't really on their radar.

Um, Aaron actually reached out to American Junior Golf Association, they're coming in August, and it's teenagers.

Um, and then those are just some of the other conferences that we've worked with this year or upcoming.

And um, just some highlights from the year for the year.

Uh, we recently won the Merit Award for the best marketing campaign, large budget.

We got to move up to the large budget.

Um, and we've had really successful quarterly hotel year meetings, and obviously all the work that we're trying to do in the film and in the film industry as well.

And then lastly, um, we are really excited for this fiscal year.

We have our strategic plan done.

Uh, we just recently hired a national marketing agency.

Um, I'm so excited.

We're like playing with the big kids now, and um we've got a destination marketer, and um, I just we're gonna do some great things.

So I'm over my two and a half minutes, but we are excited for next year.

So hopefully um once once we get final numbers for the fiscal year, I'd like to just come back to council and hopefully present and share that information.

So wonderful.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

The visit BA board too, just um approved letters that you can get your picture in front of, like you can get in the middle of the picture for you know how you see people when they go to other destinations, you can get your picture taken, so it'll be really cool.

Yeah, there's six foot letters for like you know, conferences and selfies at our events and Christmas and super cool.

Yeah, I'll tell you you and Aaron do a great job because they have so many balls juggling in the air, and they do such a great job.

I don't know if you all watch their social media or not, if it shows up in your feeds or not, but there's so many different things that they're doing.

Um they're very active and they do a lot of good things, and I appreciate I appreciate that, and you you're doing a good job.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, ma'am.

Great, all right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Raven.

All right, item six is general authority business six A, consideration discussion and possible approval of the proposed fiscal year 2027 financial.

Cindy is a repeat four city council early tonight approved resolution 1755 adopting the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget for the city.

Um the fiscal year 2027 financial plan for broken air economic development authority was included in the budget document.

Staff is um asking for the approval for the fiscal approve the fiscal year 2027 broken arrow um economic development authority financial plan discussion.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second thank you.

Thank you.

Uh remarks by governing body members.

I think we have mentioned it before, but I I didn't mention it earlier.

But um councillor Ford is the president of the wimmage, which is women in municipal government for National League of Cities, and so being the president, we get to have the summer conference in our city, which is amazing, and they've never come to Broken Air before.

So we have some great things planned for um a week from now.

So hundreds of ladies will be coming from across the nation, which is pretty cool.

Um I have a really cool committee.

Cindy's actually on it.

We may have some other people on Lori's not here anymore, but um, we have a great committee within the city, so I've not done it by myself for sure.

You're on the committee as well.

Um, and so it is gonna be a lot of fun.

What's really neat is the first three days will be Oklahoma municipal league, yeah, women and municipal government.

They call it Wim G.

We try to get them to change it, they would not.

Um, but they've like they're all doing their own, I mean, like they do their own planning.

So that's been a lot of relief off of us, and then ours will start Wednesday night and then go through Friday.

And so it is gonna be it's gonna be a lot of fun.

We'll really get to show off our city, so yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

And we encourage many of them to stay over Friday night so they can come out to the block party and so and there are a lot of them staying for the block party, and then there's a lot of them staying over to go to different churches in our area, like it's they're bringing the whole family and everything because they want to go to different churches.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

I did just find out that Pastor Mike's not gonna be at transformation.

Oh no, they may be disappointed.

He takes us about a culture in the summer, so I'm like, don't say anything.

Yeah, I'm gonna understand.

All right, city manager, none, ma'am.

None, okay, no executive session.

Make a motion to adjourn.

Second or not.

Motion clear the room for executive session.

Second roll call.

Hang on to a second.

Mr.

Green, we need your vote.

Okay, so now we're adjourned from beta.

It is not my slides.

So we had a motion to enter into executive session, clear the room.

Who made that motion?

Ford Ford.

Okay, okay.

Yeah.

Justin actually made it and then uh okay.

We're all in agreement.

Yeah, we all agree.

You pick.

Okay.

So we're ready to enter executive session then.

We're not checking it out.

You can just decide so.