Um meeting has been properly advertised.

Yes, sir.

And we do have five members here.

We do have a quorum, so we can uh do business today.

Uh first order business is the approval of the November 17th minutes.

Those were sent to you.

Chair would now retain a motion for discussion.

Move to be approved.

Motion and second and discussion.

All in favor of approving the minutes is a as presented, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, like sign, seeing none.

Do we have any uh persons who would like to address the board before we start?

I'd like to just um comment first about the prevention.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh Janice Vidden.

Just thank you, Janet.

Um I know that this first came into play during COVID, uh, but there is still a need, and I appreciate the fact that funding is gonna continue.

So I am in support of that.

Okay, and just for your information, I think what they're gonna do is present some information on that today.

So you'll appreciate you being here and speaking up.

Anyone else wish to address the board?

Okay.

Uh the first item is a TEFRA hearing.

Um it's a resolution of the Health Education Housing Facilities Board of the City of Chattanooga, Tennessee relating to the issuance of multifamily housing revenue bonds, an amount not exceeding 12 million to provide financing to one west side phase 3B for the acquisition, construction, and equipping of a multifamily housing facility for low and moderate income citizens to location to be located at 1300 Boynton Drive, Chenga, Tennessee.

Now I'd ask City Attorney just to brief us quickly again on what a TEPRA hearing is and what our process for this meeting is today.

This is an opportunity for the public to be aware of what is going on with this particular project on here, and uh TAPRA hearing is required by the federal government any time that there is a uh issuance of multifamily revenue housing bonds that are involved.

In this case, it's uh up to 12 million dollars here for the one west side phase.

Uh I do know there is a minor change, I think with the number, they're gonna actually be 104 instead of 102 units.

Is that correct?

104 units on here, and they will have this opportunity to be able to present what this uh multifamily housing uh unit will be like here at Westfield West Side Phase 3B LP.

See, it's harder to say than you think it is, sir.

And this is only for low and moderate income citizens.

Anyone will speak on this?

I can give a quick overview first off.

I'm Jim Growley from Columbia Residential, and we are the partners with the Chattanooga Housing Authority in the West Side Redevelopment, the one West Side Redevelopment.

Um also here is our um our our council um and first I want to thank you because you have been instrumental in prior phases in allowing this project to get started to get underway, and we're well underway, and there's a lot of momentum.

But as you recall, perhaps it it there's a lot of phases and they come fairly fast.

So we are usually here requesting an inducement a little more than a year ahead of when we actually would plan to start construction, but the inducement we are requesting will allow us to apply to the Tennessee Housing Development Authority for taxes and bonds, um, which will also provide low-income housing tax credits to allow the 104 units to get built.

Is this aren't there like five?

I do help me if my memory, five or six units or phases in this.

There's a total uh contemplated with the choice neighborhoods grant that uh Chattanooga received from HUD.

There's a total of seven phases.

Okay, and so we're we're about to embark on the third.

That's what I thought.

We have two that are being done if I'm not mistaken, correct?

Yes, one is under construction on West 12th Street.

You can see it, and you can see it from highway 27.

The second, we are we we actually closed the bonds late last year, and we're working towards closing in a couple weeks.

Um, and it's up on the hill on Boynton Drive.

And this is the third phase, and this is the first phase that will occur on the footprint of the College Hill courts after folks have moved out, moved into new housing, or moved where they choose to move.

After folks have moved out, moved into new housing or moved where they choose to move.

We will uh work with the housing authority, demo the northern portion of College Hill courts, and that's where this is going to be constructed.

It's a little confusing because of the A's and the B's.

The reason is we're using a pretty unique structure that really is pioneered in Tennessee called twinning, which actually has an A component and a B component, so we can develop larger phases at once, and that's why there's an A and a B.

The B is the is a portion that uses the taxes and bonds.

One thing you'll note is the amount of bonds is a lot less than it was in the prior phases.

That is as a result of the federal legislation that passed in 2025 that changed the calculation of the amount of tax exempt bonds that an issuer had to do relative to the project size, and it has to do with what was called the 50% test and eligible basis and making sure that the bonds paid at least 50% of the total project costs.

The federal legislation changed that to be 25%, so therefore those bonds go a lot further.

We're asking for less.