Good morning.

Um, Jeremy, do you want to call roll, please?

Debbie Spriggs.

Here.

Tyler Lucas.

Jason Gonzalez.

Here.

Brett Johnson.

Here.

Alan Kinlin.

Kathy Elliott.

Here.

Paul Cordova.

Raymond Mondragon.

Bryce Jimenez.

Here.

Do we have a quorum?

Yes, sir.

Thanks everybody for attending this morning.

Wanna go over the approval of the minutes?

Move to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve.

All in favor, say aye.

All right.

Justin, you want to give us a financial report this time?

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, members of the board.

The economic development fund currently has $8.9 million in the fund itself.

That is broken down between $7.8 million in investments and about a little bit over a million dollars cash in bank.

Our year-to-date revenues have been 1.3 million dollars.

Let's see here.

This month we brought in 21,000 in expenditures on the month.

It's our GRT fee of $3,800, and our year-to-date expenditures are $154, almost $155,000.

Anybody have any questions?

Okay.

Thank you for the financial report.

Updates on CED projects.

Tina.

Good morning, Mr.

Chairman, members of the board.

For update, I'm just doing the last month since I gave an update last month for the previous two months.

We were off.

We had that special meeting for SHU department Encore.

So for the projects we're working on right now, I told y'all last month that Project Byte wants to have another meeting in April, and they're expected to start moving forward this year.

And they asked to provide uh maps of locations for water lines and fiber trunk lines for a large project.

So I've responded to all of that, and I'm waiting to hear back.

They also had questions about our airport.

Um I've received the list of leads from the MDM trade show in Anaheim that I attend.

We have 10 leads for potential expansions that I'm following up on now.

And I did uh find out that those leads are comparable to what we would expect.

There was one um economic development organization out of New Mexico that attended that event.

And when I asked them how many leads they normally walk away with, they said between seven or eight.

So that would have been right on average.

We had the meeting last month for um EIB to approve the Shoe Department Encore's leader retail or lead up for retail application, and so that was approved by the city commission, and we will be moving forward with those reimbursements as soon as I get all the costs back from Leanne.

On our business incubator update, we have finished our switchyard accelerator program, which has been one of the most fun things that we did in partnership with Main Street and Darren Heider and also um Hatchform out of Santa Fe.

Um we're gonna continue working with those businesses so we can help them grow and find space.

Um Sutton's building has already been leased, and we have two of the businesses that are looking for space now, so that's all really exciting.

Um we passed our mid-year incubator report, and we'll be receiving another 50,000 from state economic development.

We've reached the end of the funding for what was available to us as an incubator that was coming back into compliance.

So we will be working with other incubators going into the next legislative session to ask for some funding.

Um but yesterday we were awarded another $15,000 grant from the McCumbe Foundation, also for the incubator.

On the Clovis Sound studio, we are, I would say 90% complete.

It's really exciting.

We're almost to the end.

Um all we have left are the acoustic treatments on the walls, the camera system, and then we can start installing all of the equipment and go to work on tech time.

So we are hoping to see that open in April.

Um some of the events in the last month.

I attended the first meeting as a new board member for the New Mexico partnership.

Um Lisa Spear with Main Street, her and I sat on a panel in Albuquerque for New Mexico Main Street to talk about how we can partner on projects.

And then last Thursday facilitated a course on the basics of opportunity recognition for the boots to business class on Canyon Air Force Base.

In the last month, we've had two PROs, one was for a large data center that needed to be within five to thirty miles of a major metro area, and they were also going to be using four million gallons of water per day, which I know we we don't qualify for.

And they were also going to be using four million gallons of water per day, which I think which I know we we don't qualify for.

And then we had another company that develops adaptive intelligence software for autonomous systems.

And this is the first one that we didn't qualify for because they required varied terrain with natural topography and trees.

So that was the first requirement I've ever seen for not having flat land.

Some of the meetings that we've been having, again, always attend all of the chamber meetings, continue to have meetings on our business incubator.

And we are doing planning meetings right now for the celebration of the racetrack and casino that's coming March 27th from four to seven out at the fairgrounds.

That'll be at the indoor pavilion.

On April 8th, I will be a guest lecturer at ENMU for the sustainable agriculture class.

On April 9th, I will be attending a regional housing forum in Rio Doso April 10th and 11th.

I'll let Ernie Coss tell you about that.

That's our music festival.

And then in May, we're going to start the meetings in Albuquerque with the commercial brokers.

And these meetings are the ones that are being facilitated by the site location partnership.

And Ernie, did you want to come promote the music festival?

Good morning.

Club is Music Festivals right around the corner.

So well to be honest, we're gonna rock the whole month of April, but I'm gonna tell you about the music festival.

So it's April 10th and 11th at the Citizens Bank of Clovis Event Center.

And on Friday, the lineup is Seth Ward.

This is our country night.

Headliner is Ty Stalk.

So we're getting lots of great buzz about a local country music artist that's moving up quickly in the in the um charts.

So that's ties.

Delk.

And then Saturday it's more like a whole rock fest.

It's gonna the door's gonna open at 1.30.

The first band that goes on at three is Straysons, four, small tight small town Titans, five touching voodoo, six, no resolve, seven o'clock, mischief soul, eight o'clock Texi Hippie Coalition, and the headliner at 9 30 is Drowning Pool.

So that's a whole weekend of of music and celebrating the music history in Clovis is the what we do with Clovis Music Festival.

So let me just outline real quick April.

So of course the first weekend's Easter, and you're gonna have Easter egg hunting, so um, and then the music festival, and then there's several events on the following weekend.

Um the big one for the community is supporting the Canon Spousin's auction on that next weekend, and then the last weekend in April is Clovis Community College Cultural Arts series, and they will be having the legends of classic rock, and I think those that's gonna be really good as well.

And so we're we don't have an exact date of the official opening of the um Clover Sound Studio and actually the renovated uh club is rock and roll museum, but it will be in April, and we'll let you know as we get closer.

Thank you.

So be late.

Thank you, Ernie.

There was one other thing I forgot about today from four to seven in the county commission chambers, the public regulation commission will be meeting.

So I'm planning to attend that also to provide public comment on some of the power issues that we have for our area and how that's affecting economic development.

And I will stand for any questions.

I do have a couple questions.

Um because I'm new here, I'm just going to ask all the things that I have question marks on.

Okay.

And that way I can be caught up.

Um your report was um thorough, but I need to understand when you went to the Indian trade show and you expect they told you typically they have X number of leads.

What type of leads are those that you would expect?

So that was for MD at Anaheim.

And we recently contracted with a company that's doing recruitment for us, very similar to what um Retail Strategy does for the city for retail.

So this is recruiting manufacturers, and those leads are any companies that say they may have an interest in expanding, and those are the leads that they pass on to us.

And when would you know those results?

Well, I have those names now.

You do, alright.

Yes.

Okay.

And was it the number that you expected?

Um yes, and what I was saying is um if you're familiar with Mesilla Valley Economic Development Organization, they're the only other EDO I found that attends that event.

They've been doing it for several years.

They've had a booth there for the last three to four.

They send three people to that event.

They have uh some work the floor while they work the booth, and they average about seven to eight leads when they come out.

Okay.

Um curious who which of those incubator businesses least sudden?

I can't that's not my information to share.

They'll make an announcement.

I see okay.

What does PRO stand for?

Public um oh that's a good question because always forget it.

Potential recruitment opportunities.

Potential recruitment opportunities, okay.

And through the New Mexico Partnership that you talked about.

How do you how does that take place to partner with Clovis?

So the New Mexico Partnership attends trade shows and they also so they are the recruitment arm for state economic development.

And whenever companies are looking at New Mexico that's who they contact is the New Mexico Partnership or they go through EDD and they connect them and then they start working all those leads.

So right now the New Mexico Partnership is actively actively working about 72 leads for the state and so when they get something in they will send it out to all of the EDO organiz or organizations or for cities that don't have an EDO that have their own in house economic development director they send it directly to them.

Okay thank you.

Thank you Cathy Any other questions for Tina thank you Tina for your presentation new business request approval recommendation Claire Good morning Mr Chairman members of the economic incentive board uh welcome member Elliott yes and just for your information if you'll bear with me just for a second so I can help Kathy you should have received or will certainly get you a copy of the economic development plan that the Economic Incentive board recommended for approval to the Commission back in 2022.

Mayor Morris when he became mayor wanted to make sure that we had a solid economic development plan for the community and so we hired a company called Tip Strategies from Austin, Texas who put a great plan together for us and CD and Clovis Main Street, the Chamber etc working in partnership with with the city to implement that plan.

Of course working together is is pivotal in any economic development project.

So the theater the theater um we all love the theater I keep thinking about white Christmas this morning probably like that song.

Anyway we will remember the first time we went to the movies we all or at least I do remember the first movie that I saw the Aristocats in Layston in a very small theater in a very small town in in the in the UK and how it the theater transports you to another place and and and gets you to think about other things and uh improves your quality of life and the quality of life for the community.

I was also thinking this morning about uh Zaylet Smith who uh was one of the key people in uh bringing the uh Main Street program back to life again and who I'm sure a lot of you uh remember dearly and she always used to say that the downtown was the locus for gathering places for the for the community and uh and the Lyceum Theater is a a project that the city of Clovis uh like with the Hotel Clovis and the uh and the Levines building has uh come into ownership with and with regard to Levine's course we managed to move it on but we uh we currently own and um the state because we received a state economic development leader funds for the facility we're required to continue to own that building um you have in front of you background summary regarding the request this morning um the city of Clovis has um we got the building in 1982 uh we um we leased the building out to a private nonprofit who um ran it for several years and then we worked uh later on with the main street program who were located out of the facility for a while and they did uh um some renovation work a lot of renovation work in the facility and we're very grateful to them for the capital outlay funding and the partnership that they have had with the city in uh in supporting this effort to to reopen the theater um for the last three or four years now the city manager and and myself and others have been working on the revitalization of the of the Lyceum theater uh we have received a lot of support at the federal level um we received uh saving america's treasures federal grant through the National Park Service for five hundred thousand dollars which uh was to be matched uh one to one so the mayor and I went and um work with a main street program here locally and at the state level and they gave us another five hundred thousand dollars to match that

uh later on with the main street program who were located out of the facility for a while and they did uh um some renovation work a lot of renovation work in the facility and we're very grateful to them for the capital outlay funding and the partnership that they have had with the city in uh in supporting this effort to to reopen the theatre um for the last three or four years now the city manager and and myself and others have been working on the revitalization of the of the Lyceum Theatre uh we have received a lot of support at the federal level um we received a Saving America's Treasures federal grant through the National Park Service for 500,000 dollars which was to be matched uh one to one so the mayor and I went and um work with a main street program here locally and at the state level and they gave us another 500 thousand dollars to match that so that together with the 100,000 that we previously received in leader state funding for the project brought us to about 1.1 million or so we have hired a firm of architects who've been working for the last couple of years or so on the on the work that it needs to be done to the facility to get it reopened.

And we've also been working and the commission approved last year an agreement with WWRC a contracting company here in town who I'm sure you're familiar with who are going to conduct the work at the facility we received the first and the commission approved the first phase of this what was actually going to be like the third or fourth phase of this whole restoration project.

It was about six hundred thousand dollars so we were feeling comfortable at the time and then we went for the next part of it because you want to get it open the remit from the commission is to get this building open to the public so it can be a a good economic contributor to the downtown area and improve the quality of life for the people that reside here or tourists that come and visit here.

When we receive the second piece which is the interior work that first piece that I was talking about is the exterior work which is for to replace the roof to plaster and lathe and paint the exterior it's to re renovate the marquee and of course we have to meet the standards that the State Historic Preservation Office has of us as well as the National Park Service.

So there's we have some pretty tight restrictions that we have to adhere to which of course increases potentially the the the cost of the work that we're doing and then of course as you all know the rising cost of any kind of construction project now is just it just keeps changing and it's moving constantly so we are we're trying to accommodate that as we move forward.

So anyway we received the second quote um for the second phase of the building which of course includes the interior electrical work that needs to be done it has um all of the projection equipment and just to help you understand what we're looking at doing um all together is we're going to have a projections or a screen at the back and the screen at the back can be used if you're doing playing if you've you're going to have a we're going to run second run movies so we don't want to compete with Allen theatre because they're in the private sector so this would be second run movies.

And then if uh if we are going to do a play um you can use that projection at the back to change the scenes of the play whereas usually you would come in if you're working with Christie Mendoza for the cultural arts series you know they would change the the scenes this can all be done on this screen at the back.

And then of course it will all have a sound system and the rooms associated with that it will have a concession stand the facility will uh we've we have had in the budget and we have the job descriptions for um and manager for the theatre for an IT technician for the theatre and then for a concession stand people to work the concession stand.

So that would uh that would be another part of it.

So that's that's part of what well that is what we're going to do with this next piece.

There are some challenges and the cost of this the second piece came in sorry I was going to get there what does it cost what it's cost?

It was one point 1.2 million or thereabouts 1.388 actually and that did not um include the fire rated doors and frames or any structural upgrades that may be required for installation of the new equipment and any additional costs for scaffolding work after the final engineering of of the scaffolds and for bracing of the auditorium floor for scaffolding.

So we're gonna have to get up into those lights and I'd be very happy more than happy um not after this because I've got another meeting at nine o'clock but uh later on today to uh to show you the building and show you what it is that uh that the that we're proposing to do for the city of Clovis um to get the building open for the public.

With regards to uh well first of all I'll take you to the tip strategies um quality of place page 14 and we talked about um one of your strategies that you approved was quality of place and section uh 3.2 of that is in front of you and 3.2 point two uh was to identify potential catalyst projects in the downtown area and prioritize based on feasibility desirability and impact and projects to consider include the Lyceum Theater and the Fred Harvey House.

So this of course is the the Lyceum Theatre that that we are bringing to you today for consideration and as you know in the the allowable uses for LEDA in the city code that was adopted by the Clovis City Commission allows for cultural facilities as an allowable use if you uh if you look under the definitions and then later on again of course in section 3.28040 economic development goals strategies and priorities identifies uh to continue to improve enhance and develop historical and cultural facilities within the historic downtown district downtown metropolitan development area and the Clovis Main Street district and of course the Lyceum Theatre falls into the metropolitan redevelopment area it's in the historic downtown district and the Clovis Main Street district um I guess I can pause there if you have any I could talk for a very long time and I know you don't want to Mr Chairman I have to particularly doesn't want me to are you ready for some questions we we are and I brought some I brought my the city attorney with us today and uh the whole team and Mr Chairman one thing I would add uh to to the points that Ms.

Burroughs brought up so eloquently uh is that the City of Clovis has recently sold uh the old uh milk plant that's located on Norse Street um and so we did uh are clearing 200,000 dollars on that potential or on that cell and so that's money that we would be willing to put towards this project to reduce the amount of funding that's coming out of the economic development fund.

And so that would actually bring the request down to eight hundred thousand dollars.

And the other thing that I want to point out is that since uh fiscal year twenty uh the city of Clovis in interest alone has earned eight hundred thousand dollars on our investments and so the request today isn't touching basically any of the tax dollars that have come in uh as part of that quarter that GRT that was put in place back in 2000.

And so like I said what the request for is basically to be utilizing that interest earned on those funds that have come into it.

So just wanted to to provide that for your information as well thank you.

Thank you.

Jason Yeah th thank you for that information that was it's exciting to see what what you guys are planning to do there.

My question is is is the million dollars is that the the complete the the funds need to complete the project or are there additional phases that that come after that.

Thank you Mr Chairman Mr Gonzalez so this the million dollars will go to the million point one that we have to hopefully get the building to a position where it can be opened.

I have no doubt that with any like any facility that the city of Clovis owns and operates that there will be needed improvements going forward.

There are always needed renovations to a facility there are some like the green room downstairs won't be improved as part of this.

Our objective is to get the building open so that the public can enjoy it.

One of the things that we have done over the last five or six years is to abate the building from all the asbestos so we haven't got to deal with anything to do with that.

We improve the upstairs area actually there are about three or four rooms upstairs that were all next to each other and we took the walls out of two of those rooms so that we could open that area up with the permission of the State Historic Preservation Office and we put a kitchen in there and there's a nice open area too so if uh Mr Johnston would like to celebrate his 55th birthday party there he could rent the facility and um and have a party up there and invite Ernie and all his chums and they could and they could have you could you could rent it for parties and and that kind of thing too.

But this so there's always the opportunity, as with any building to make further improvements and additions.

So it's like the library, we're about to try and get funding for a library plan and that would allow us to maybe make changes to this beautiful facility that the city took on a lot of years ago, which we have enjoyed.

And member Chairman, this is the large chunk that's needed to get the building open, as Ms.

Burroughs said.

Uh once we're in there, well obviously we don't have scaffolding in the building right now to get up to where the stage curtains are, we have to shore from the basement to the stage itself, uh in order to be able to put equipment on top of the stage to be able to lift somebody up there uh inherently we don't to hang additional stage lighting.

Uh we will be removing the curtains that are there now, except for the front screen that comes down.

And so from a load standpoint, from a structural standpoint, we anticipate that the structure that's above the stage will be able to handle all of the new uh stage lighting that we're proposing to put in there.

Uh but as Ms.

Bros mentioned earlier, until we get in there and investigate that and are able to actually get somebody physically up there.

Uh that is an unknown.

Um but but uh this does take care of the large portion of the renovations itself.

Okay.

If I may.

I don't know what protocol.

Do I raise my hand?

What do I suppose to do?

You can do that.

That works.

Ms.

Bros, thank you for the information.

Um if this were to be um decided upon today, what is the ETA?

So let me help you again with the economic incentive board.

The economic incentive board, like all city boards and committees are pro are our recommendation and they make a recommendation to the commission.

It's the commission's final decision making ability to decide how they like to do.

Um if you guys would have based on your recommendation today, say let's say you approve it, then we would take it to the commission next week, and then we will move forward with the project.

Uh we'll you know let the state and the feds know what our changes are in the budget so that we can accommodate that within the grants that they have, because you have line items for all these various things.

So we'll take care of that.

We will work with WWLC on their timeline because we have to accomplish these uh this work within the grant period.

Which I think we have until the end of this year to I think we have we know we added another six months to it because of the to the federal grant um for various reasons.

So I would anticipate having this I keep saying what I think the timeline is, and I just sort of hate to say it actually.

It's the end of this year.

It is the end of this year.

It's supposed to be by the end of this year.

And I would hope that it would be.

Thank you.

Was there another question in there?

I can't remember.

If these funds aren't awarded, what's the city's plan to to complete this project?

Um that uh Mr.

Chairman, uh Mr.

Kinlan, that is an excellent question.

Um presumably then the city would have to or the commission uh would need to but if you don't approve it, it would still go to the commission uh for action and it's their final decision.

Um we would have to come up with some other suggestions, of course.

Um Mr.

Holtz suggested that 200,000, but that will not um allow for the other 800,000 that's needed.

Um it's extremely unfortunate in my opinion that we have seen the increase in the cost of construction over the last several years, which is just blown out the whole thing out of proportion with so many projects that the City of Clobus is working on.

Um and as are people throughout the through you know, companies and municipalities throughout the nation.

So uh that would be a conversation for the city commission uh with their with their city manager.

Okay.

One more question, if I may.

I'm asking about phasing for this.

Um is there an opportunity to I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

Is there an opportunity to do some phasing on these projects?

Um perhaps not with the the large screen that could be a backdrop for other activities, but have something available that could open the facility and then perhaps generate income.

Do you feel like this project in time will actually be in the black.

And thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um Ms.

Elliot, that's a great another great question.

Um so as with all projects, we could phase it, but if I don't see anything that we don't already have in there that we would remove in order to phase it.

We need to have the projection equipment in there.

We need to have the stage at a position where it can be utilized for to have these second-run movies and then potentially for plays, et cetera.

With regard to running in the black, I ran a budget probably about three or four years ago that I would and it, you know, we showed that it could cash flow.

Um but given the current situation with the challenges for you know how much everything because I could run it again, I would be happy to share it with you.

It's something we've been tracking.

And it's anticipated that it would make money.

Mr.

Chairman Member Elliott, and from removing, say that screen out of there, the companies already have to bring scaffolding in in order to get the ceiling to put the house lights in.

They're already having to do those things.

And so if you say you remove that screen, now you're gonna have to pay twice for that scaffolding to go in there.

So you're better off doing it all at one time when you have all of the equipment in the facility that you need.

Um so could it be phased?

Yes.

Are you going to pay for more for it in the future?

Yes.

Yes.

Understood.

Thank you.

Yeah, mobilization is a big part of this cost too.

And I'd be happy to send any of you a copy of the of the estimates if you'd like to see them after the meeting.

So Mr.

Mondragon sent me some stuff.

He's uh on an airplane, or he'd be joining us on the phone.

He wanted me to read three parts that he's pulled out of uh our ordinance that uh cultural facilities, meaning a facility that is owned by a political subdivision of the state that serves the public through preserving, educating, and promoting the arts and cultures of a particular locale, including theaters, museum, libraries, galleries, cultural compounds, educational organizations, performing arts venues, and organizations, fine arts organization and his historical and cultural properties.

And then he wanted me to read that, and I don't know where this is addressed exactly.

He said economic based jobs, jobs, base jobs or primary jobs mean employment created by businesses or qualifying entities that manufactures or symbols or processes goods products, retail business that meet the city of Clovis Gap analysis or business that exports a minimum of 50 percent or more of their service or goods outside in the State of New Mexico.

And then that's being removed.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry it fell away.

There we go.

And then this one was uh a city project.

So a qualifying entity, a city project utilizing funds from the City of Clovis Economic Development Tax Fund must be an economic development project and cannot be for the city's direct benefit.

How does those play against what we're doing here?

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Yeah.

And so actually this project falls in the the section of the code that Mr.

Mondrigan is referring to as far as qualifying entity, there's two sections in there that uh this project could potentially fall under.

Uh one of them is cultural facility.

And so you read the definition of a cultural facility, so this project falls underneath that category of a qualifying entity.

In regards to the other section uh about a city project utilizing funds, uh we've reviewed that with the city attorney and uh and looked up what the city's direct benefit is, and this is not a direct benefit by definition uh as far as is uh an economic development project is concerned.

And so it this project does qualify um under both of those uh situations.

Okay.

Thank you.

Since we have said city attorney, what does fall under uh I mean if this doesn't fall under community benefit, what would?

Not community benefits direct direct benefit.

Direct benefits, yes.

Like a police benefit.

Yeah.

So it it just has to fit under one, so it's obviously a cultural facility, so kind of a non-issue, but if we had to squeeze it in under A, it's not the city's direct benefit because under LEDA that would be something like City Hall renovations, renovations to police or fire stations, um, sprucing up Claire's office, something like that, something that the public wouldn't be able to use.

That's what it means by direct benefit to the city.

So for example, when the um City of Clovis gave uh leader funds to put a new roof on the Business Enterprise Center, that wasn't seen as a as a direct benefit.

And I'll speak from for some of the members that I've I've met with this fund being for economic development, although these things that you mentioned are covered in it, it gives some of the committee members hesitancy on spending money for stuff that's not creating jobs.

And I I know that that has been expressed with uh just in some private conversations.

Do you how many jobs what what are we I mean in the best case scenario, what are we looking at?

Two or three people working it?

I mean, what's the what's this look like?

So thank you, Mr.

Chairman, members of the economic incentive board.

Um the three jobs that I named, which was the manager's position, um, the IT tech position, and then I'm sure that the concession stand person, that there will be probably people part-time folk that will come in and out with that one.

Um as you know, cultural arts theaters are an economic driver in the downtown, and they contribute to the economic development of local communities by providing direct and indirect employment opportunities, support job creation, they boost tourism and they foster the environment that attracts businesses and investments to the downtown area.

Cultural arts play a vital role in enhancing economic resilience while preserving cultural heritage.

They support job creation and economic opportunities, they create support and support industries and small businesses and provide economic empowerment for marginalized communities.

So while I could not I I cannot give you, I cannot quantify what the economic impact will be indirectly.

If it question is directly, then I've named you earlier on the the uh the positions that would be created, but what the indirect benefit would be, uh that I cannot say, only what uh what the economists say about supporting uh projects like this in the downtown area and the wider impact that they will have.

So one one of the things you mentioned was second run movies, I believe.

Yes.

Um is uh how popular is that?

I've always thought that would be a good use of our downtown theaters to do that, but I don't know.

I've never seen that done out.

I mean, is that how profitable is that or what's the well there again we'll we will know once we get open and have been open for a while, we can speculate.

Um how I envisage it and may I might have a different idea about what it is going to look like.

I mean we could do like Cowboy Week or Murder Mystery Month and you know, depending on the time I mean we'll have different themes for different times of the year.

And then as I also said, um if Mr.

Cannon wants to have his birthday party up there, um we can we can also we can also do that and accommodate that.

So it's another venue for people to utilize.

I mean, if the commission uh decided they wanted to allow alcohol in the facility, that could change things too.

I mean, there are all kinds of opportunities, and we will certainly explore every single one to make sure that this is as successful as could possibly be.

Mr.

Chairman, I think.

I I very much support uh what you guys are doing in the downtown.

I think what what we see happening on Main Street with the City of Clovis and the things you are putting in place, Clovis Main Street and the efforts they are putting in to dress up downtown, um, I I am very much in favor from from my perspective, while you know, a couple of jobs at at the theater itself might not seem as attractive as an industrial project or some something happening on Print Street with a new restaurant or some of those things.

When I look at uh what happens in our downtown area, those businesses are usually local business owners.

The profits that are made in those businesses typically stay in our community.

When you look at these other industrial projects or ret uh chain restaurants, those profits leave Clovis.

Yes, we're getting employees, but in this type of a project, it seems that maybe it picks up a a couple of jobs in the theater itself.

Maybe you're gonna make some money with with the uh uh movies or whatever the venues are.

For me, it's more about incentivizing other businesses to open up in our downtown downtown area and leverage uh that area of our community to make it a better place for for the people of Clovis.

So I for one support support that.

And Mr.

Chairman, um members of the EIB, Mr.

Gonzalez, I know you have a lot of experience in economic development and the work that you do through the work that you do with Plateau, you're exactly correct.

I mean, from what I was saying from the research that we have done from our conversations with Main Street and the support of the state full theaters uh through LEDA funding uh for the you know through the State of New Mexico, they see it as as an economic driver and and and a pivotal part of of downtown revitalization.

I have a question.

Uh Justin, you you said the 200,000.

So are you pulling the request down to 800,000 or are you just gonna add that to the 200,000 to the million?

Yeah, Mr.

Chairman, uh, we would pull the request down to 800,000.

Okay.

And that's why I mentioned the interest earned is that basically that 800,000 request now is the interest earned since 2000.

Or fiscal year 20.

I'm sorry, not 2,000.

It's when the tax was actually created.

Mr.

Chairman.

Yes.

I just wanted to get in the queue if you had more questions.

Okay, go ahead.

Oh, okay, thank you.

Uh so Mr.

Chairman and members of the committee, uh, I just wanted to give a little bit of perspective and and thank you for the healthy debate.

Uh as you know, you're gonna make a recommendation or not, uh perhaps uh depending on what you decide to do to the City Commission.

What I can tell you is that uh, you know, the City Commission, I think a lot of them are probably like me, they would they would they would prefer you know a private business redo uh a Lyceum Theater and make it a just an amazing location in the center of our downtown and and all of that, but that's just not our that's not the circumstance, right?

The City of Clovis owns it.

And so the angst that we feel as the elected uh with this would-be tremendous asset in our downtown area at I don't know what percentage of completion, but let's just say 90 percent of completion, not available for public use.

No one gets to benefit from it, no one gets to use it.

We have the clock ticking on grant dollars that we've received.

You know, there's there's just uh an appetite to finish it, right?

And and put it into service so that the public can begin to benefit from it.

And then Mr.

Gonzalez, your comments, I share those same thoughts.

I think that there's not a uh it it is tough to to to compare it to you know how we would traditionally think about using our economic development funds to create X number of jobs and all of that.

But what it would do for the downtown area, uh, the environment, the climate, if you will, in downtown and and for the the businesses, I think is is gonna be incredibly positive.

And so, you know, I just wanted to thank the city manager, assistant city manager for for bringing forth a plan.

Look, and that's the other thing.

Is that as mayor, I want to see projects presented, you know, and and and you know, I'd like to see such a volume of of economic development projects presented that you're saying no to more than you're saying yes to.

You know, let's let's let's deploy some of this capital that the people of Clovis have invested all of these years uh in that fund and and get some some goodness out of it, right?

And and so you've you've presented an idea uh using a very small percentage of the funds.

It's allowable.

It's part of our tip strategy plan, which we all collaborated on and and and developed.

And so, you know, I I appreciate you bringing it and and then I just appreciate the healthy debate.

Uh and I wanted to be here to hear it firsthand so that I could relay it to the commission when they're when they're talking about this, because I I identify with and share your concerns about, you know, we we we have this idea that that that money is saved for the next Southwest Southwest cheese, right?

I mean, we we've got eight million dollars there.

We need that to do a massive economic base employer project.

But without one in the queue, at some point we're we're we're sort of sitting on capital that could be put to use.

And in this case, it's uh it's not just willy-nilly, it's a thought-out plan, it's part of our planning.

And so I appreciate your consideration on it and appreciate city management coming up with this strategy uh to to put it to work.

So thank you uh for for allowing me to chime in and thank you for your your service here and and and the healthy debate on this this item.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Oh motion to approve the request.

We have a motion to approve the request, 800,000.

Second.

Okay, we have a second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same side.

Aye.

Aye.

So should we do why don't you do a roll call?

Is that proper?

Because I I couldn't tell Google was where Debbie Sprigs.

Yes.

Tyler Lucas.

Jason Gonzalez.

Yes.

Brett Johnson.

Yes.

Alan Kinlan?

No.

Kathy Elliott.

Yes.

Bryce Jimenez.

No.

Okay.

Motion passes.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you, Claire.

Okay.

We have Tina.

Tina needs 100,000.

Thank you, Mr.

Brother Lee.

Yes.

I I brought my engineer mind with me because he he is the brain of the engineering part of the industrial park and a wealth of information.

So on the last page of your packet, you'll see a map of the industrial park.

And we are asking for 100,000 to move forward with the design of the expansion of the rail on the southern end of the park.

We could have come forward and started asking for that money sooner for infrastructure, but the reason we waited is we knew the two companies we were working with were still a little ways out.

So I've been trying to get capital outlay.

We did not get that this last session, so it's time for us to start moving forward.

And so I will let Lee explain a little more.

Great.

Thank you, Tina.

Mr.

Chair members.

So if you think about dividing the park in uh half, north and south, we have the entire north end of the park optioned already.

And um their um option payments are current and all indications are they uh plan to make Clovis a home um for a future business.

So we're left with the south end of the park for development.

We have um one business that tells us uh more than likely they're gonna make a determination in April that they want to locate and they do need rail access.

Um currently the only rail access um that we have is the uh line that is on our property that orders the west side of the property.

However, that all falls within the option.

So currently uh I've been working with a um uh a feed supplier, and they are currently working with BNSF, and we have agreement from um uh from the folks that optioned the property to allow us to use that siding as long as they're not here.

If and when they choose to come, that will have to be abandoned.

So they have expressed uh interest in uh future development that would include um rail access.

So what we'd propose to do, we've got two businesses down there in the south, Kansas City Feeds and Quality Liquid Feeds.

There is a switch already and the beginning of the spur coming off of that to service all these southern lots.

So what we're asking for is money for the design and surveying to further uh I guess advance this opportunity for uh the rail spur for those lots down south in a nutshell.

Mr.

Chairman, if I may.

Yes, please.

This map.

This map.

This is east and west, correct.

Uh I think you have it.

BNSF railroad runs east and west, correct?

No, it runs uh north and south.

That's the Carl's bad line.

It's the Carl's Bad Line.

Yeah, you're south of Clovis at the industrial park.

Okay.

I'm just trying to reference the BNSF will be on your left, running north and south.

Um, if you look at lots of lots uh one and ten, those are currently occupied, one by Kansas City Feeds and ten by quality liquid feeds.

And so um what we need is uh across the bottom of your page, the future rail.

Not the upper rail.

All of that upper side is is optioned already, and so we wouldn't uh work to do anything until we understand what their needs are going to be.

Kathy.

Uh-huh.

Different map.

Okay.

Thank you.

And so you're looking at engineering design.

Correct.

Money for the future rail that is the this lower level red line here.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Great.

Question.

Certainly.

How how will that go all the way to the road?

Uh well, that that would be our determination on how far we build it, but yes, he would take it uh near the road.

Obviously, you wouldn't take it quite to the road, I wouldn't think.

Yeah, you'd want to get it down there where it's serviceable.

And I know there are certain radiuses that the track has to comply with the cars on and off.

So what I would expect is that we would do that spur coming across, and then individual companies would be responsible for a switch off of that and um line into their property.

Okay.

So this report will we'll be ready to go if we get some when we get some interest in these lots for rail, we will have the design in place.

We'll just we'll have a plan to go out and s and ask for bids.

I mean, we'll be ready to ready to fire on that.

And that should save us six months of time, I would bet.

I would think so, and you know, help quantify what the cost is and and help us identify sources for that money.

Okay.

Something?

Sure.

Mr.

Chairman, I would just like to add last year um CED participated in the site readiness study with uh state economic development.

And so our industrial park is now on state EDD's map that any any um buddy that goes on there and looks for location, all they're going to see is industrial parks.

So we expect to be seeing a lot more activity.

There are a lot more PROs coming in now.

And so the further we are on site readiness, uh the easier it is to land one of these.

Yeah.

Thank you, Dana.

Uh same question I asked the last presenter.

If we don't fund this, how how would you guys potentially fund this besides us?

Uh that remains to be seen.

We've asked for capital outlay for uh the uh preceding years have not been successful, and and um obviously that's a disappointment, but uh you know I think this is an appropriate use for the money in preparation for future um industrial jobs.

What community would we be most comparable to that's already built something similar to this?

I don't know.

Oh gosh.

Um I don't know which community would be exactly like ours.

I know that there are rail-served parks around the state.

Um and the state of New Mexico has less than one percent of industrial space left, so it's really in high demand.

Um so having this available for those companies looking to expand here would definitely just better our chances of bringing a company in.

Do we figure any of the leasing I making an investment like this?

I understand that it makes us you know back to your point.

There's a higher demand.

Is there do we quantify a return on investment for something like this in terms of you know, would we lease these spaces at a different price that are that that touch you say we only got one of these rails built in?

I mean, would would would those spots then lease for a different number than than other spots inside of the complex?

Or how I mean what does that look like?

So um, Mr.

Holwall, correct me if I'm wrong, but um these lots would be sold to future businesses.

We wouldn't retain ownership in them.

There might be a cycle of circum special circumstance where where we might, but uh typically we don't retain ownership in them.

Uh obviously the property becomes uh much more valuable to a business.

Um not only that, if they have to have rail service and we can't offer it, it precludes them from maybe looking at Clovis.

So, you know, whether you are talking about a company that has 20, 30, 40, 50 uh jobs, um, you know, for example, the uh the company that has the north um end of the park optioned, they're talking hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment if it were to come to pass.

So if you can't offer it, you don't know what your opportunity is, I suppose.

Mr.

Chairman, if I may.

Yes, please, Kathy.

Who owns the Spurs?

So the Spurs um there's you know to be certain, um what you see there uh for the most part doesn't exist.

So the east and west future rails don't exist.

So you have the siding that runs uh north and south along the list left edge of the park, that belongs to the city of Clovis.

The entire park belongs to the City of Clovis and we just manage it.

If the rails were to be built, who owns them?

The city.

I guess Mr.

Chairman, uh my assumption would be once the engineering is completed and and you have the design of what that would look like, that would be included in uh packages that go out to prospects saying, hey, if you want these lots, this is already designed, ready to go.

That would be included in uh packages that go out to prospects saying, hey, if you want these lots, this is already designed, ready to go.

Would this help incentivize those prospects to come to Clovis?

Sure, you know, oftentimes the question is how fast can we get um rail access?

If we can't uh if we can't even um acknowledge the fact that we don't even have the design work done, you know, obviously I think that would send a signal that we're not open for business.

I don't know.

But uh but you are correct.

You know, um I I would think our plan would be once we have the uh design engineering and surveying work done, uh then we can um solicit you know opportunities uh for construction and so we can quantify exactly what we need and hopefully identify those sources for it.

You know, whether we do it uh piecemeal and we service um the lots only as required.

But as we you know learned in other projects, uh construction costs just continue to rise.

So you you you would think once you had somebody here you'd want to you'd want to get um get it all done.

Mr.

Chairman, uh my question, I guess, is for the city attorney.

Uh I would assume that these this type of a project, this request is in compliance with uh the ordinances that we have.

You are you talking about the Lita ordinances?

Yes, for the funding requests that we have before us.

Correct, yes, sir.

Okay.

Any further questions?

I'll stand for take a motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve and a second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Passes.

Thank you.

If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, members of the board.

Okay, for the good of the order, if anybody got anything.

I just have one more, but uh Claire left, so it makes me feel bad.

Um we talked about, you know, Brett's 55 birth 55th birthday party, and I just want you know everybody to know that would be closer to when the Lyceum was built than uh when it was completed.

So Mr.

Chairman, the only other thing that I may have under the good of the order is that uh Tina mentioned the site readiness and then working to uh have the industrial park as a site ready area.

Uh we're also working on the airport and going through the application process to have that as a designated uh site ready area as well right now.

Okay.

Okay, next meeting, 8:30 Wednesday, June 10th.

Move to adjourn.

Anything else?

Move to adjourn?

I have a motion to adjourn and a second.

All in favor stand up, I think.