Good evening.

I'd like to begin the meeting of the Metropolitan Economic Development Committee.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Derek Cahill, District 23.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair Briandalini, District 2.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, Jesse Brown, District 13.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair Nick Roberts, district four.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Ron Gibson, district eight.

Thank you, Chairman O'Sully, Andy Nielsen, District 14.

Thank you, Chairman Osley, Kristen Jones, District 18.

Thank you, Chairman Osley Leeroy Robinson, District 1.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, Maggie Lewis, District 5.

All right, very good.

Let's begin this evening with proposal number one two four, which approves an additional appropriation of 42,000 dollars in the 2026 budget of the Marion County Recorders Office, the County Recorders Perpetuation Fund to be used for property fraud and veterans honors advertisement.

We'll begin.

Good evening, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon, or good evening, uh, council members.

My name is J.R.

Ryder, the uh Chief Deputy Recorder, Marion County, sitting in proxy today for uh recorder, Faith Kimbrough.

So as you alluded to, last November, November 17th, 2025, we uh there was an ordinance that was adopted so that we would be able to invest a portion of our cash perpetuation fund into an interest-bearing trust indiano account um in partnership with the Marion County Treasurer's office.

That money, 100% of that interest money will be used or is being used for uh advertisements such as billboards, indigo bus ads, radio and TV, promoting the uh property fraud and also the veterans' honors.

So today we just uh we're seeking an additional appropriation to increase our 2026 budget by the 42,000 just so we can have physical access to those funds.

Any questions?

Any questions from members of the committee?

Councillor Gibson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, and uh thank you deputy for being here, and I really appreciate that you guys are doing something to honor veterans as a former veteran.

I as I should say as a veteran.

I appreciate you doing that, and uh look forward to supporting the proposal.

Thank you.

Very good.

Any additional questions from members of the committee?

Yes, Councilor Brown.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Uh thank you, sir.

So am I correct to understand that this is basically a one-time fee to get you up and running?

And then the goal at least, we never know how interesting council do, but the goal would be that's uh it takes care of itself moving forward.

Great question.

So the interest, which is about 3,500 a month, equates to 42,000 for the entire year.

So we have that money already.

So we have to have an additional appropriation to the budget.

Does that appropriate meeting is moving the money for you to access it?

Yes, got it.

So this is an additional taxpayer expense at all.

Got it.

Very good.

Any additional questions from members of the committee?

Seeing none.

Is there anyone in the audience with an interest in proposal number one two four?

All right, seeing no one, I'll entertain a motion.

All right, so properly moved and seconded.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Any opposed, nay?

And the motion carries.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thanks.

The next item on our agenda is proposal number one two seven, uh, which directs the city county council to accept for the record the 2026 submission for the 2025 calendar year of the tax increment finance district financial report, pursuant to IC 36-7-15.1-36.3.

Is there anyone who will be able to speak to this?

Good evening.

My name is Jake McVay with the Office of Finance and Management.

With me is one of our budget manager managers, Jenny Carter.

I am using the technology to pull up our presentation.

So if you bear with us, we'll get started in a second.

Good evening, counselors.

As uh Jake noted, I'm Jenny Carter, uh budget manager with the Office of Finance and Management.

I'm here today to present the TIFF district financial report for the 2025 calendar year, a copy of which is included in tonight's packet.

Before we discuss the annual report, I'd like to briefly provide an overview of what tax increment finance or TIFF is and how it generates revenue.

TIFF is an economic development tool that may be used to remove redevelopment obstacles that are not likely to be overcome via normal operations of private enterprise.

Examples of these obstacles include a lack of public infrastructure, environmental contamination, and rehabilitation of existing structures.

TIFF uses increased assessed value or increment generated by redevelopment to pay the cost of removing these obstacles.

This slide shows the life cycle of a TIFF with the gold color triangle represent the increment generated from the increase in assessed value due to redevelopment.

The city receives this increment to pay debt service costs and other expenses related to economic development projects within the TIFF area.

Units are required to file a report annually with the mayor, the units fiscal body, and the Department of Local Government Finance or DLGF by April 15th.

This report includes financial activity associated with each TIFF along with other pertinent information as required by Indiana Code 36-7-15.1-36-point three.

Tonight I'm here to formally enter this report into the council record.

This report includes statistics and summarizes the revenues, expenses, and fund balances of each TIFF in 2025.

Statistics in this report include the establishment and expiration dates of each TIFF, their outstanding debt, and the number of parcels assessed and assessed value associated with each TIFF.

In total, 51 TIFFs were active in Indianapolis in 2025.

These TIFFs saw revenues of 157 million dollars and expenses of 217 million dollars for a net position change of 60 million dollars.

All expenditures, whether debt service payments or one-time transactions, are approved by the Metropolitan Development Commission.

This information is also available at the DLGF's Indiana Gateway TIFF Viewer website.

The URL to the viewer is included in today's PowerPoint presentation, which is also included in today's meeting packet.

Are there any questions?

Council Brown.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just a quick question about the reporting of this.

Um I know you have to submit it to the Department of Local Government Finance by April 15th.

Uh is there normally this kind of is this the normal cadence for when you submit that?

I had a couple really uh ardent constituents who were looking for it to be presented to the council much earlier than this.

Uh to answer your question, uh yes, this is the uh normal normal cadence in terms of our submission.

Uh historically uh we would present uh to the Metropolitan Development Commission in uh in the fall on the full report um and a breakdown of the uh of the expenses and TIFF uh TIFF allocation areas.

Um this is the uh first time in which we're presenting in uh to this committee this report.

Okay, thank you.

One more brief question knowing we have a packed agenda.

Um so I noticed looking through that some of the fund balances were negative, it seemed like, and some were zero.

So could you briefly talk about like when a TIFF drops off the list that's reported and what those negative amounts mean, like how that's taken care of?

Um the negative amounts, those are specifically uh developer-backed bond TIFFs.

And part of the agreement, um, part of that is a timing issue.

We reserve the um subsequent debt service payments, but we do not report expected revenue, so there's a little bit of a timing issue there.

Um secondly, in if there is uh not sufficient increment in those bond uh TIFFs.

Um, our agreement with those developers is that they pay the uh variance.

Um as far as there being uh zero balances in some.

There are some TIFFs that are newly created.

It takes a couple years for increment to be uh generated.

Um, others um we did have a few uh TIFFs that are expired have expired recently as well.

Thanks very much.

Very good.

Any additional questions uh from members of the committee?

I'd see none.

Is there anyone in the audience with an interest in proposal number one two seven?

It's seeing none.

Um Madam uh Council.

Our actions on this needs to be what.

We just need to accept the report.

All right, it's been moved.

Is there a second?

All right, uh, all those in favor?

Any opposed, nay.

All right, very good.

Um, this uh is um it's very quick.

Um this next item on our agenda is proposal number one six four, which approves the statement of benefits uh for Zima International Inc.

and applicant for tax abatement for property located in economic revitalization area defined by IC 36-7-15.1-26.

Is there someone here to speak to this proposal?

Thank you.

Oh, please.

Um, the project no nationals here to present information regarding the proposed project located at 6900 English Avenue.

The project is at the Irvington Brookville Road allocation in accordance with the MDC policy.

The city county county council must adopt a resolution approving the statement of benefits from the MDC.

Uh excuse me on the requested seven-year tax abatement.

The statement of benefits reflects an anticipated investment of 42.8 million in personal property and will create 350 new jobs by end of year 2033 at an above average wage.

The project is in District 20, Warren Township, and is supported by Council Hart.

We're here to request approval of the SB1.

And at this time, uh we I would like to turn this over to Zima representatives to provide more information regarding the project.

Thank you.

Good to meet you, Mr.

Chair, Councilman.

Uh my name is Tom Tate.

Um we'll go through the quick presentation real quick, go to the next slide.

Um, we are ZeeMa International, we do business as dandy.

So you'll hear me talk about dandy.

Um, it's more of a legal entity structure.

Um, we are a full service dental lab.

So if you've been to the dentist and then you need something made, the dental lab is the company that sits behind it and does the making manufacturing.

So they're crowns, bridges, aligners, um, dentures, pole dentures, partial ventures, clearliners, implant systems, et cetera.

We're the manufacturer who supports the dentists and delivering the satisfaction to the patient.

Um my name is Tom Tate.

I am the global head of manufacturing, quality, and training.

Um I've been with the company about four years.

Company's about six and a half years old.

Um I'm also a native son, I'm laughing because I think I watched Moot Court be debated in this room.

I'm a North Central alumni.

So either yay or I'm sorry, depending on who you are.

And I'm glad to be here.

I'm also here with Jacob.

He is the global head of real estate for us, whether it's building a mega factory in Indianapolis or finding new office space for our sales team in London.

Jacob leads the real estate efforts globally, and then as well as Amy from Cushman and Vincent from Left as well to present our proposal.

Dandy, as I said, is about six and a half years old.

We currently work with about 9,000 and growing dentists all over the world.

We average about way less than 1% of churn for those practices on an annual basis.

In the six and a half years, we've delivered uh two and a half million or two million smiles.

I prefer that than getting into the individual products, which nobody cares about, and including about 100,000 uh digital dentures for uh patients who need quick dentures for uh emergent reasons.

We are um uh in the first three years of our business, we were a network of labs.

So we would partner with local manufacturing and network or in country to try to find um ways to quickly get the products to the patient.

We learned that those labs couldn't grow with us as fast as we need to or deliver the quality that we needed.

So then we started insourcing manufacturing.

Uh we built two facilities in Utah and then another one in Carrollton, Texas, uh, to kind of prove out the in-source manufacturing and vertical integration.

Um, it has proven out, but it's not um we're kind of full.

Um, and so the plan is to invest in what we're calling our gigasite here in Indianapolis as we drive towards massive automation and global scale, delivering from Indianapolis all over the world, wherever our dentists would need us.

So, as Top mentioned, this will be our first fully automated manufacturing facility in our network.

Um, it's actually in a park that uh that we are working in in partnership with LOLF to build the facility out in.

What this facility will position us to do is improve the quality of our product and the time that it takes to actually manufacture and get that product to dentists.

We're launching operations, we'll have our TCO hopefully early July and hoping to launch operations this fall.

So really speeding towards a finish line there with construction.

Next slide.

We're not only expanding in Indy, we're expanding globally.

So our manufacturing is all domestic, but we're launching in markets on a global scale.

So just this year, we've launched in the UK, France, Spain, and Australia.

Even since this deck was made, we've added Germany and Italy to our network as well.

So looking to expand quite a bit globally, and that will be supported by our domestic manufacturing and the technology that will build out in our facility in India, Indianapolis, and Ireland as of this morning.

And I oh well.

Ireland as of this morning.

Uh Amy, go ahead.

Good evening.

So as Tony has said, we're here to request your support with approval of the SB1 that we submitted.

Um our building is in a TIFF allocation district.

Um we are in Councilman Hart's um district.

We've had some great conversations with him, and in a minute we'll talk about the 5% and where we agreed to allocate that to, but we are in district number 20 in the Warren Township.

Just a quick note on the address.

You know, this is part of the Greater Loth development.

So the now that the building is coming online, it does have its own address at 429 FinTail Drive here in Indy.

So just a summary of what is on that SB1.

So we are uh investing 42.8 million dollars worth of machinery and IT equipment into that facility.

Over the next several years, we'll be adding 350 net new jobs.

This is a net new facility for the company, so we'll be staffing from scratch.

And the average wage for those positions is just shy of 25 an hour.

Um we're hoping and we are planning for most of the positions to be filled by Marion County residents.

So over half should be local folks that will be staffed in this facility.

Like I mentioned, this is just a little bit more detail about our ramp.

So we won't have 350 folks in the building this year.

We'll start with 50, but uh over the next seven years, we will scale up to uh 350, adding about 75 heads a year over the next several years.

I will not reiterate what Tom said.

We are a uh a dental lab.

Uh as you know, the three things that I want to touch on our are uh we're headquartered in New York City.

We have our headquarters downtown at the World Trade Center.

This will be our first manufacturing facility and office space in Indianapolis and the cornerstone of our automated manufacturing uh initiatives.

The company currently has four full-time employees in Indianapolis with an average salary of about 160K, and we only hope to add to that number moving forward.

Quick summary of the development details.

Like I mentioned, Loth is the general contractor that we're working with to build the facility out.

In the next three weeks, we'll wrap construction, and we're hoping for that TCO on Monday, July 6th, and then we'll scale and launch our operations over the following months, hoping to have sellable products coming out the door by October of this year.

All right, so bear with me as we go through these.

I know I wouldn't be able to read it that far.

So when we look at the estimated tax savings over that seven-year period, we are at about 1.85 million.

The taxes paid during that period would be about 1.35 million.

And then the year after the tax abatement expires, we estimate those tax liabilities to be 367,724.

And again, this is just on the personal property itself.

Um five percent of that tax savings is 92,628.

And the conversation we've had with Councillor Hart is that the first 10,000 of that 92,000 will go to the Cumberland CDC, which will help fund a study on what to do with the asset.

The remaining 82,000 will go towards funding improvements and things needed for the Pennsee Trail.

So why Indianapolis?

Um, not because I'm from here.

Um it's because uh we did a detailed search uh nationwide.

It ended up it being Tennessee, uh Louisville, or Indianapolis, and ended up here one because of the incredible uh shipping networks that you guys have, access to both UPS and FedEx uh in close proximity, which is very important to us as we try to offer uh right now five-day crowns, but soon to be three day and potentially even overnight.

Uh we also have great relationships with uh the business partners of Employee Indy to try to find um key members and also the high density of talent for medical device manufacturers and engineers in the city was were some of the big reasons that brought us here is just a high density of talent in the industries for automation that uh that we need to support uh facility at this level.

Uh and so the ask or the need, I'll read this one um for Batam is we respectfully request uh your approval for a statement of benefits and SB1 and the amount of 42,800,000 in accordance with Indiana Code 6-1, 1-2, 1-2, subsection K.

Uh, it is submitted in conjunction with a 2026 uh year real and personal tax abatement resolution for the Metropolitan Development Commission to project development and TIFF allocation area.

With that, uh, here's Jacob's context and mine as well.

And if you have any questions, we'll open it up.

Very good.

Um, questions from counselors.

Councilman Nielsen.

Thank you, Chairman Osley.

Uh thank you all for presenting this.

Um, very familiar with uh the site as uh the Brookville um Ermington TIFF actually uh allocation area sits in District 14, and actually 97% of the residents who live a half mile radius of your property live in District $14, so very familiar with the site.

So I'm gonna be honest, I'm a little confused why we're giving ten thousand dollars to the Cumberland CDC, given that's like four miles from the the location that you were building your facility or the facilities being built.

Um, and I guess in line with that, I'd love to see how the rest of the eighty-two thousand six hundred and twenty-eight is being used for improvements in and around the site or for the neighbors who are nearby.

Do you want to make that part?

So counselor, thank you for the question.

I'm sorry, thank you for the question.

Um as far as the 82,000, it has been sliding.

We've been working with DPW, specifically adding waterfalls, signage for the trail, and then also the maintenance and upkeep of the actual trail itself.

So that 82,000 go goes towards that.

The 10,000 was a request from Counselor Hart to essentially do a study for uh the blighted area in that area to see what we can do to what can be done to help in that in that area.

Did you have any other information?

No, that that was it.

I just want to point out it was it the counselor's request, and since we assumed he knew what was best needed, that's what we were in agreement.

No, and I understand that, Mr.

Chairman.

If I can follow up, yeah, I can understand that.

I can just say that there are like three CDCs that are physically closer to um the area in question who have been doing some really important work for revitalization on the southeast side of Indianapolis on the east side, the Irvington Community Development Corporation, Southeast Neighborhood Development Corporation, who are isolated in this area, and um nothing against excluded cities, but Cumberland's gonna be an excluded city next year, too.

Um so I would think strategically they would want to use that money for development of the city of Cumberland as an excluded city and not as development for um Marion County.

So I appreciate you sharing a little bit more.

I'd love to hear more on where the money, the balance of the money is being spent so that you know these these inclusivity payments um are actually in the allocation area or they're nearby uh to benefit uh the residents who would be near this development.

I think this is a great development, but I do have concerns with the abatement.

So thank you for answering the questions.

Thank you, Chairman.

Very good.

Council Gibson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

So this is uh a personal uh property abatement, correct?

Correct.

Is there currently a real and that's totally with MDC?

Or would it come back to this body as well?

I'm sorry.

Is that before MDC or would it come this before this?

I think they're fully improved.

Okay.

Sorry, Vincent Ash, uh Law Development Group.

Um, we're located at 10 West Carmel Drive, Carmel, Indiana.

We're a developer for this property.

Uh for those who uh MEDC uh members who were on the commission last year, we actually approached uh and uh got approved for a uh eight-year uh property tax abatement for the entire site to potentially start building out um well to start building out uh spec buildings um on the site.

So um underneath that approval um our goal was to invest about a hundred and ten million dollars into four different buildings, this being the first one, and we committed to 200 jobs overall.

Um hearing from Danny themselves, I mean they already are overcommitting on that with 350 themselves, and we still have uh two to three more buildings uh to build.

So um from a jobs perspective, um, the development is far succeeding um expectations of what we we thought initially and overall when you count um other companies that are already on the site like Monarch Beverage uh as well as ABF Freight, uh, who are is not receiving ABF is not receiving any tax abatements.

Uh one of properties fully built out, we'll probably expect over about fifteen hundred jobs total.

Good.

Uh Mr.

Ash, correct?

Yes.

Uh now on the on the real property abatement, is there any exclusivity there as well?

There is an exclusivity of pavement, that's about $300,000.

Uh so we work with counselor Hart uh one to support uh a number of different things.

So um one we're supporting uh the Walker Career Center um and um for talent pipelines and workforce development.

Um there's about three hundred thousand dollars that's going towards our forest preservation fund, uh, and there's about fifty thousand dollars that's actually going towards the study of Washington Square Mall.

Um I don't know the details of uh what was being discussed with Councilor Hart, but I can imagine um to uh counselor Nielsen's question, the $10,000 that he's looking at to redevel uh for blight and redevelopment project is probably along the same lines of the Washington Square Mall, which this Cumberland CDC is the fiscal agent for.

Very good.

One more question, Mr.

Chairman.

If I could uh the construction is almost done for this site.

Uh my my question to you is did you have any MBEs and involved in that construction or any union labor?

Um I don't know.

I don't know that off the top of my head.

I have to give my construction team to give you more details, but I'm happy to uh make sure that uh administration can follow up with that.

Um I would assume we don't perform any of our work, we always uh we sub it out, so I could I could get all those details and get those to you, but I don't know that off the top of my head.

Sorry.

I would appreciate if we can get update on it, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Very good.

Any additional questions?

Councilor Brown.

Thank you very much.

Uh thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Uh along the same lines as my colleague.

I wanted to ask for uh these new jobs, uh average wage looks great.

Do you have like a minimum wage of any of these new people and what is your company's stance towards unions?

Minimum wage, do you know, Amy?

So I don't remember off the top of my head, but I know when we were preparing the deck, it asked how many were under 18, and none of ours are under eighteen.

So I don't I don't want to speak out of turn.

They're over eighteen.

That's correct, yeah.

What was the second part of the question?

Union labels.

Sorry, yeah.

Uh do you uh support the formation of unions within a workforce?

Within our workforce.

Um we don't have any now.

Uh I'm not sure if it's a topic that's come up, but happy to, if it does, we'll entertain it.

Okay, good.

Any additional questions from members of the committee?

Seeing none.

Is anyone in the audience with an interest in proposal number 164?

Seeing none, members of the committee.

All right.

Motion's been promptly moved and seconded.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Any opposed nay?

No.

All right, hands up with the name.

One, two, three, four, five.

What is our tally?

What is the tally?

Let's do this again.

Uh Nate's with our hands up, please.

That's fine.

Um counselor Osley.

Um, Counselor Osley.

Oh, yes.

Counselor.

Yes.

Councilor Brown.

Counselor Cahill.

Okay.

Counselor Delaney.

Aye.

Counselor Jones, nay.

Counselor Evans.

Oh, he's not here.

Counselor Gibson.

Yes.

Councilor Lewis.

Lewis, nay.

Counselor Nilsen.

Nielsen, no.

Counselor Roberts.

Aye.

Counselor Robinson.

Nay.

We have five nays and um five years.

Madam Council.

That does not pass.

Need a majority to pass.

All right, very good.

Um, recommendation then.

It doesn't pass.

You can move it forward to the full council within do not pass or tie vote recommendation to have the full council vote.

Very good.

Thank you.

Um, want to say thank you and um we'll make that determination.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, on the next, I'm going to ask from members of the committee.

Uh, as we did at our May meeting, I will ask the DMD staff to read all the proposals at one time.

Um, and if there are any that any member wishes to call out, that member call it out for additional questioning at the completion of that.

Members of the committee.

Do I have consent?

All right, very good.

So DMD staff, we could begin.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, members of the committee.

My name is Ashley Miller, and I serve as the principal program manager for community development at the Department of Metropolitan Development and oversee the payment and low of taxes or pilot program.

I'm joined tonight by my colleague Beth Neville, who is administrator of the community community investments division in which our pilot program is housed.

Additionally, developer teams for each project were asked to attend this evening, so they stand at the ready to answer any project-specific questions that you may have.

Tonight we will review updates we've made to the pilot program effective with the 2026 application cycle.

We'll then walk through an overview of the 2026 pilot projects and discuss what's next for these prospective projects should they receive council support.

In your packets, you should have a summary spreadsheet detailing all of the projects under consideration, along with a copy of the proposed pilot ordinance for each project and a copy of the template pilot agreement and community benefits agreement.

We would finalize should these projects receive council approval and low-income housing tax credits.

First, a review of the process.

Pilot applications were due on March 31st.

We evaluated the applications in April to determine if the projects would meet threshold requirements as well as any policy priorities that would warrant a higher application score.

The higher the score, the greater the proposed pilot discount and property tax savings.

Based on the assessment, DMD calculated pilot discounts for 21 projects.

After receiving the support of each project's district counselor, those projects are now before you today.

Before we dive into this year's crop of pilot proposals, I wanted to take a moment to talk through what stage of development these projects are in.

It's important to remember that the projects before you now are still prospective.

They have not yet been awarded tax credits.

Previously, you would have seen these types of projects later in the development cycle after they received a LITEC award and were prepared to close on their financing.

DMD is bringing these pilot proposals to council for consideration now in advance of the state's summer LITECH application window closing at the end of July.

Council approval would allow DMD to issue a pilot commitment letter that helps the project score additional points on the state's tax credit application.

However, not all of these projects will ultimately receive a LITECH award.

DMD will negotiate terms of pilot agreements only with those projects that are awarded low-income housing tax credits by the state and which received council approval.

And depending on the type of tax credit deal, the LITEC application can be extremely competitive.

To the left of the dotted line on this chart, you'll see the number of LITEC awards for Indianapolis projects based on the deal type over the last few years.

On the other side of the dotted line, you'll see the breakdown of the proposed projects that are seeking pilot support this year.

Nine percent projects, shown here in red, and which offer more tax credit equity are usually the most competitive.

Over the past several years, there have been two to three 9% projects awarded in Indianapolis.

This year, 11 of the projects seeking pilot support are pursuing 9% credits.

In 2022, the state created its own tax credit to assist with affordable housing development.

Since they began awarding these types of credits, Indianapolis has seen between one and two projects awarded.

The gray bar is on the chart.

This year there are three projects pursuing the 4% state tax credit.

Finally, while 4% bond projects are not awarded competitively, projects must score a minimum number of points on the state's tax credit application.

In the past, we've seen between three and four projects successfully scored the points necessary to earn a 4% bond award, shown here in Navy.

This year, there are seven projects applying through this round.

As you know, the state awards LITEC to projects all over Indiana.

A pilot commitment from the city helps projects score points, strengthening the LITEC applications of Indianapolis-based projects, which is why we are here before you this evening.

With that context in mind, we'll shift to reviewing the proposed projects currently under consideration for a pilot ordinance.

There are 21 projects in this round from eight different council districts, as you can see on this map.

They're broken down by the type of deal that they are pursuing.

And as I mentioned before, if you have any questions about a specific project, a representative from each development team should be here to answer your question.

As a reminder, all projects under consideration are affordable housing projects that committed to meeting the following requirements.

They will be instituting low barrier tenant screening policies.

This includes things like not screening out applicants based on misdemeanors or felonies older than five years, with a few exceptions for violent crimes and sex offenses, as well as not screening out applicants for evictions older than 12 months.

They must have an eviction prevention plan that demonstrates the steps that they will take to utilize eviction only as a last resort.

Developers must provide housing stabilization services.

These would be services targeted to help people stay housed, offering education on lease requirements on a regular basis, offering education on maintaining a rental unit, referring to community partners when folks need help.

This is really the operationalization of their eviction prevention plan.

They also must provide services specific to a special needs population, as defined by state statute, if that's applicable to their project, and we require they identify a service partner with expertise in serving that population.

Developers must offer to report only positive rent payments to at least one credit bureau to help tenants build credit.

Tenants do not have to participate, but developers must offer this service.

Developers must have property management who have dedicated on-site presence during key hours during the week and on the weekend.

And developers must be willing to accept applicants with a voucher or other housing subsidy.

All projects must receive design review approval from our city architect, and the developer must be in compliance with any community benefits or project agreements they may have with the city.

Should a proposed project receive council approval and receive tax credits, they must submit documentation 90 days before they would like to close on their pilot agreement, demonstrating compliance with these eligibility requirements.

This is a screenshot of the spreadsheet in your packets and which you previously received electronically.

As we share takeaways from this application cycle, I thought it might be helpful to orient you to the spreadsheet with which contains more granular data about each project.

Columns A, B, and C are repeated on every page, so you can identify data associated with each project as you make your way across the columns.

Columns A through K provide the basic details for each project, the developer name and contact information, a description of the type of project, whether it's a rehab or new construction, the deal type or which tax credit round they're applying in, the proposed pilot discount, which would be the maximum tax savings they would receive if approved, the total development cost, and the number of units proposed for rehab or new construction.

Beginning with column L, or the percent of units dedicated to permanent supportive housing, all the remaining columns represent our scored policy priorities, which informed the pilot discount amount.

All the proposed projects are multifamily rental developments.

As opposed to TIFF or tax abatement housing projects, these projects are all affordable housing.

And every project, the average area median income across all units would not exceed 60% AMI.

As you can see on your spreadsheet in column G.

While the majority of the projects would use their tax credits for new construction of affordable housing, there are seven proposed rehabs of existing buildings.

Also of note, four of the projects are proposing to rehabilitate former Indianapolis housing agency properties.

Those are marked with an asterisk on your spreadsheet.

The projects range in size from 30 units the smallest to 321 units, the largest, with an average of 116 units per project.

Based on the review of the pilot application, each project received a proposed pilot discount, which are listed in column I.

Projects with 100% PSH units were eligible for a 90% discount.

That's the highest.

The three projects that scored in this category had to demonstrate that they were enrolled in the Indiana Supportive Housing Institute, which provides rigorous training for development teams intending to provide permanent supportive housing for households exiting homelessness.

PSH projects provide intensive case management and wraparound supports, and so DMD feels it makes sense to offer them the highest level of operational support through the pilot term.

In column M, we have the average AMI across all units of a project.

DMD prioritizes projects that offer deeper affordability than would otherwise be required for a LITEC development.

The average AMI across all units of a given LITTECH project is no more than 60% of the area median income.

DMD awarded points for projects that had an average AMI less than that amount, or projects that offer deeper affordability.

For the 13 projects that scored points in this category, the average AMI across all units was 50%, meaning that on average, the units would be accessible to households earning no more than 50% of the area median income, a full 10% points lower than what would otherwise be required for a LITECH project.

For a family of four, this would equate to an income of no more than $55,150 a year.

Next up, column N, DMD prioritize projects that set aside at least 20% of the units for special needs populations, which are defined in state statute and include individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, the elderly, among a few other identified populations.

In addition to the three 100% PSH projects we discussed, there were six projects that committed to setting aside 100% of their units for senior citizens, and one project that plans to set aside 25% of their units for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Column O contains the percentage of units with three or more bedrooms.

DMD prioritized projects that included more of these types of units, which can better accommodate families in need of affordable housing.

Forty-eight percent incorporated three or more bedroom units.

On average, these projects proposed over a third of the units in their development would have three or more bedrooms.

Column P notes our preservation category.

DMD awarded points to projects where the property's income restrictions were expiring or had expired within the last 12 months.

One applicant fit this criteria.

Columns Q and R contain the staffing data.

In addition to the threshold requirement to have limited staffing on site during certain key hours.

DMD also prioritized projects so it would have more robust on-site staffing.

All projects committed to having on-site property management at least 20 hours per week.

And over 71% of the projects also committed to employing on-site staff dedicated to resident services coordination.

On the resident services front, projects could opt into five different resident service outcome categories.

The more categories opted into, the higher the points scored.

These are reflected in columns S through W.

All proposed projects committed to providing services to improve residents' economic mobility and financial stability.

All but one proposed project also committed to dedicating services to promote community health and wellness.

76% of projects, or 16, committed to helping improve food access for the residents of their property, 38% of projects committed to providing youth enrichment services, and 29% of projects committed to investing in amount equal to 1% of their projects' total hard costs to a community investment, such as public infrastructure, sidewalks, trails, bus stops, or to a non-affiliated community-facing organization.

Regardless of the category of services the project opted into providing, they will be expected to provide a minimum of two on-site services per month throughout the term of their pilot agreement.

By reviewing each application's scored criteria, we were able to recommend a not to exceed pilot discount for each project, which are listed on the spreadsheet and captured in each project's respective ordinance.

Based on this committee's recommendation, projects would next be considered by the full council at the meeting in July.

If approved, DMD would then provide pilot commitment letters conditioned on the project receiving LITECH and fulfilling the obligations to which it committed in the pilot application.

Projects would then have those letters to include with their LITEC applications before the state's application round closes at the end of July.

LITEC awards are generally announced by the state no later than November.

DMD staff will provide updates to this committee on projects that were awarded tax credits each time we bring new prospective projects to you for consideration, provided announcements have been made by the state.

And as it so happens, the next LITTEC application round opens in November and closes at the end of the year.

If we receive any pilot applications for that round, we would be bringing those to you for consideration in November, following much the same process we have here tonight.

Should a proposed project receive tax credits, they must submit documentation to DMD 90 days before they would like to close on their pilot agreement, demonstrating compliance with the eligibility requirements, including the project's low barrier tenant screening policies and its eviction prevention and housing stabilization services plan.

We will also be looking for documentation supporting the scored priorities they opted into.

To that end, we will be reviewing the final projects unit and AMI mix, staffing plan, service partners dedicated to any special needs populations if that's applicable to their project, and their resident services plan.

Projects will have two years from passage of the ordinance to execute pilot agreements or the ordinance sunsets without additional council action.

With that, I thank you for your time and consideration of support for these potential affordable housing projects, and we'd be happy to answer any questions.

Very good.

Questions from members of the committee?

Uh Councilor Cahill.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, two projects uh with a question, I guess, an opportunity for uh on this on proposal one eighty-three, Washington and State Center line.

The is the one of those come through recently, and we it I appreciate in a lot of cases where the spreadsheet has distilled some of the community benefits, but specific to that one, do we have information on is there I know residents can choose their services provider, but is there a similar partnership with one of the service providers to come on site or how does how does the intellectual disability uh developmental disability community get served in that specific one?

I think we have someone from our door here to speak to that.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Brian Kahn with our door housing corporation.

Um so we have a partner, Village of Marichi.

They operate uh an IDD property for us out at the Fort Ben, and they would do the services at this property for us.

Okay, perfect, thank you.

And uh one more if I may.

Uh I would like to give because I think this compressed format when there's somebody with a unique history.

We have had pilots, I guess get into the media before that I'm I'm sorry, I'm we're all I'm almost out on your project.

Okay, and the uh the specific to, so uh Hannah Commons phase one was a project that had a significant, uh they they had a ton of IMPD call outs.

It is a challenging population to work with when we take uh homeless people, put them into permanent supportive housing, and I think that is the right, obviously, solution.

We've we've looked at a lot of transitional housing, but a lot of people need permanent supportive housing, but they also it has to be done a specific way because they otherwise result in a lot of police calls.

So I we I while this is in Councilor Muscary's district, the nearest it's basically across the street from University Heights that's in my district.

And I wanted to give more for the media benefit that they came in and did a really good presentation explaining what's going to be different in phase two, what went wrong in phase one, why they they do have it under control now.

It was not under control in the beginning, but why phase two is going to be different so that they have that opportunity to share that with everybody?

So if they would if there's somebody here from them.

Good evening, I'm Michelle Straw Salinas and I work for the developer.

I'm here with um Kelly Mergot, the president of Southeast Neighborhood Development, who is also a co-owner and co-developer.

Um so your question was how are we going to approach this project differently?

Um lessons learned from Hannah Commons are obviously going to be a big part of that answer.

Um they're creating a plan right now, so it's not something I can hand you, but um I know that Jennifer Disbro, the vice president of Adult and Child, who is the service provider, she sat with um the police department and went through all of those reports and said, you know, what specifically happened?

Was it um well checks?

Which there was a lot of well checks.

Um people coming off the streets are sick.

Um, so how can case uh managers be better prepared to address those type of issues?

Um, like I said, that's part of the plan that they're working on right now.

Another piece of it was um just like arguments and little things like they're playing their music too loud, so how can we better address those issues with maybe overnight security or staff that are extended hours?

And so that's what we did with Hannah Commons.

We brought in security, we had staff with um alternating schedules, and it just really took care of it.

Excellent, thank you.

And I will say University Heights was completely satisfied with with that answer.

I think it's a lesson to be learned as we continue to build more permanent supportive housing out to how to learn from what didn't go well the first time, but that I think you have it under control now.

And so I think from that perspective, phase two, I think we'll be a better uh better start than phase one did, and everyone was satisfied with your presentation.

So thanks for coming tonight and thank you for repeating.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Council Roberts.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And I don't really have a question, more of us a general comment.

I am so blown away by the amount of projects we have here.

I mean, this is as much in one meeting as we typically have, and maybe even the two and a half years that I've been on the council and some other people have been on too.

And we all agree that, or most of us probably agree, our city is at a massive housing shortage, and we need to be aggressively building to meet the demand that we have.

So I just really can't applaud enough for all this.

So kudos to DMD and the team there.

Obviously, there are probably specific minutiaes of each project we could dig into, but just as a general theme.

Because this is all over the city.

There's a lot of again diverse projects here, and this is really gonna be huge.

Again, we have to be growing as a city, and over the last you know, however many years we've not been growing to the rate of our suburbs, but if we had this every month, we'd definitely be growing to the rate of our suburbs.

So I give credit to the whole team for making this happen.

Thank you.

Additional comments from from yes, Council Nielsen.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman.

Um, just real quick, and maybe you said this DMD and in the presentation.

So for the PSH supported units, do and I don't need to call up any of the specific developers.

Are they do they already have their their rent subsidy or otherwise the the support to pay for the ongoing rent rental expense, whether it be a voucher or rental based assistance?

Um yes, so the projects that are currently the permanent supportive housing projects, those 100% permanent supportive housing projects, the three that Ashley had mentioned, those will be receiving project-based vouchers from IHCDA.

So those rent subsidies will come as part of that.

One follow-up.

So if they if the projects are not awarded the state incentive, what will happen then to the right?

They've secured the a huge hurdle, right?

They've secured the voucher, they've secured the rental assistance.

What happens if, okay, that project doesn't isn't seen favorably by the by the state.

Could you walk us through that?

What would happen to the actually securing those vouchers?

Yeah, I think that's a really great point to highlight.

So even those permanent supportive housing projects that went through the institute, um, which is kind of like the preeminent permanent supportive housing development pipeline within our community, um, they still have to compete at the state to get those tax credits.

If they do not receive them, they are eligible to apply again in the future.

Um, and those project-based vouchers IHCDA is able to repivot into the wherever they kind of see the priority within the state, and um that may or may not be within Indianapolis if they don't secure those tax credits, if that helps kind of clarify very good, Council Delaney.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um we have State Senator Jackson here, and I was just wondering which project she's here to support, and just wanted to thank her for coming and acknowledge her her presence here.

Okay, good.

Thank you, Councilwoman Delaney, um, Mr.

Chairman, President Lewis, and all council members.

I'm here supporting um proposal 179.

It's actually my um Senate district, Councilwoman Allen's district is supported by uh Congressman Count uh Carson.

He helped get 1.6 million dollars in appropriations for this project.

And thank you, DMD for listening for our project.

I do have uh our co-developers here, Flarity and Collins, Julie, Alexis, with us today, and Ethan, and so um it's gonna support senior affordable housing 55 and older.

As you know, the most unhoused population by 2030-2030 will be seniors, and so that's what we're doing.

It's a 52-unit uh project, and so we're asking for um $13,000 a year for 15 years for the project, is what we're asking for.

Thank you for the opportunity, Ms.

Gas.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council Brown.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh thank you.

Uh I wanted to second everything.

The Council Roberts said, totally agree, and and thank you for your help in getting the affordable housing crisis addressed as much as we can uh while trying to get the limited funding available through the state and federal government.

Uh you've you've described this before, but partially for I guess audience listening at home and partially just to remind me of the specifics.

I know some of the kind of like annual check-ins to make sure that some of these uh requirements of the pilot agreement as I understand it, it's basically if something's not working, if if residents aren't showing up to some of the offered services, then the developer has a chance to, or the operator has a chance to pivot and find different services in conjunction with the MD and with the residents.

Is that correct?

Or could you just very briefly describe how that process works?

Yeah, that's correct.

They would be submitting um annual reports.

I believe they're mostly due in early February, and then uh they're reviewed for compliance with the agreements if if they're finding that residents are not participating in something we're going to be incorporating going forward, is um having them submit the results of a resident survey to try to make sure that developers understand and are aware of the needs and interests and wants of the residents so that if they need to pivot and offer different services that maybe are of more interest or you know, helpful more helpful to residents, they do, and we would encourage that so that the services being provided are really what residents are looking for.

Awesome.

That's how I remembered it, and just wanted to say thank you on the record for that.

I think any efforts to increase kind of resident democracy and tenant associations is great.

So thank you for doing your part.

Council Gibson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh thank you, uh DMD, and thank you to the city.

Uh, this uh outstanding that you're really focused on affordable housing, and I believe that uh your efforts will help, especially when we think about how market rate is increasing so much, and I believe your efforts will help with more affordable housing to help levy level that uh that rate in terms of uh making housing come down a little bit, uh if you will, from the market standpoint.

But I am very uh pleased that uh seven of these proposals are in council district eight, and of that seven, uh four are rehabilitation and three are new construction sites.

And I'm really excited about all of them for that matter of fact, but uh one that will stand out to me most is um your efforts to improve uh units formerly owned by the Indianapolis Housing Authority, uh primarily Twins Hills, Blackburn, and Beachwood Gardens, uh Hawthorne Place and even 16 Park.

Is as is Vida Vitus is that right?

Vitus is are they here?

Yes, VIDAS is here tonight.

I have a question for them.

Um, on the on the rehabilitation units.

I I know I'm very pleased by the Malay units, but I imagine most of those units are vacant now or not occupied.

And you will kind of explain how much of an improvement the rehabilitation would be in terms of those public housing projects.

Hello everyone, thank you.

My name is Brooke Kim.

I'm here with VITIS.

Uh it's a great question.

So right now, across the seven properties, they are approximately 50% occupied.

Um we purchased the properties uh January 15th, so we've owned them for about six months, not quite.

Um, and we have been working on kind of sifting out what is there, who are real residents who don't have leases, and kind of just getting a handle on all of the files.

Um, so there will be a full rebuild of a rehabilitation on all um thousand plus units, but before we do the tax credit rehab, two for two of these properties, so or three of the properties, um Beechwood, uh, 16 Park, and Hawthorne will most likely be a little bit later on in our timeline.

So we want to make sure that we're fixing up the existing units.

There, you know, a lot of them are in squalor, um, need trash outs and things like that.

So, in the meantime, we have done full trash outs on all of the units.

Um, we have done roughly three million dollars in immediate needs.

We've got about three three million more dollars to do.

We are trying to turn, just got my notes right here, about 300 units before uh August 30th, so that we can get units rented up so that we have new residents in there, um, so that even those uh properties that won't be closing until maybe spring 2027 still are getting residents that need housing in the door.

Um, not sure that totally answered your question, but very much, and I thank you uh for your time and your efforts, and I and I really believe that what you're doing is is significant in terms of improving housing and uh again, my hat's off to DMD in the city.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

All right, very good.

Before I ask or before I open up the floor to the um to the audience.

I would ask Madam Clerk, uh, for the record, if you would please read out uh the digest or some abbreviation of the digest of the proposals that we will be voting on.

Let's get started.

Yes, or an abbreviated version of it.

Okay.

Proposal number one sixty-six approves payment of lieu of taxes as provided for in IC 36-3-2-12 for an affordable housing project being financed in part with low-income housing tax credits pursuant to section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code in of 1986 as amended, known as the Laurel Wood apartments and roey terrace, consisting of approximately 231 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 3340 Takewood Drive, 1455, South Ben Croft Street and 1327 Riley Place, District 19.

Madam Kirk, did you start at proposal number 165?

Yes.

Proposal number one sixty-five approves a payment of in lieu of taxes provided for in IC 36-3-2-12.

This one.

Okay.

Proposal number one sixty-seven approves a payment in lieu of taxes as provided for in IC 36-3-2-12.

Approximately 40 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 2880 East Hannah Avenue, District 19.

Proposal number 175 approves the payment in loss of taxes.

The Drake apartments consisting of approximately 30 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 3060 North Meridian Street, District 8.

Um proposal 176 approves the payment in lieu of taxes.

Yeah.

Um 42 of the international code.

Known as Beechwood Gardens Hearthwood Place, consisting of approximately 321 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 2915 North Graham Avenue at 5244 East 32nd Street District 9.

Proposal number 177 approves the payment in lieu of taxes known as Cornerstone Apartments, consisting of approximately 186 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 3802 and 3810 North Franklin Road, District 9.

Proposal 179 approves the payment in lieu of taxes, known as Grassy Creek Commons, consisting of approximately 42 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 3601 North Middle Four Road, District 15.

Proposal number 180 approves a payment in lieu of taxes.

Proposal number 181 approves the payment of Lewin taxes, known as Bakery Living, consisting of approximately 116 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 1331 East Washington Street, District 18.

Proposal 182 approves the payment of Louis and Taxes.

Known as Sherman Lofts, consisting of approximately 51 affordable housing units for low-income residents, located at 3737 East Washington Street, District 18.

Proposal number 183, approves of payment Lue and taxes, known as Washington and State, consisting of approximately 56 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 1702 and 1726 East Washington Street, 12, 16 and 20 North Walcott Street, and 15th North Senate Avenue, District 13.

Proposal number 184, approves of payment in lieu of taxes, known as M22 South, consisting of approximately 48 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 17 West 22nd Street, District 12.

Proposal number 185 approves the payment in lieu of taxes, known as 16 Park Apartments, consisting of approximately 155 affordable housing units for low-income residents, located at 1621 North Park Avenue and 1061 and 1064 Broadway Street and 546 East 17th Street, District 13.

Proposal number 186 approves a payment of Lewin taxes, known as Damien Center PHS PSH, consisting of approximately 40 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 1438 East Washington Street, District 13.

Proposal number 18.

168.

Approves the payment in lieu of taxes.

Known as the Holcomb, consisting of approximately 204 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 1545 Van Burn Street, District 19.

Proposal 169.

Approves a payment in lieu of taxes known as the Emerson Place apartments, consisting of approximately 92 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 2110 Emerson Knowle Place District 8.

Proposal 170 approves payment lieu of taxes, known as the Hope Side Senior Housing, consisting of approximately seven affordable 70 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at nine 1915 and 2005 East 25th Street District 8.

Proposal 171 approves of payment in lieu of taxes known as Twin Hills and Blackburn Terrance, consisting of approximately 303, 307 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 2210 East 36th Street, 3091 Baltimore Avenue, and 3038 Hillside Avenue, District 8.

Proposal number 172 approves a payment in lieu of taxes, known as the Judea Senior Village, consisting of approximately 32 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 3969 Meadows Drive District 8.

Proposal number 173 approves the payment in lieu of taxes known as Life Village, consisting of approximately 32 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 3219 Orchard Avenue and 1927 1946 and 1950 East 32nd Street District 8.

Proposal 174 approves a payment in lieu of taxes, known as the Ritz on Illinois, consisting of approximately 100 affordable housing units for low-income residents located at 3404, 3432, 3434, 3438, and 344, North Illinois Street, District 8.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Does anyone in the audience wish to speak on any of the proposals just read?

Those are proposals 165 through 177, 179 through 186.

I see no one.

Any opposed, nay.

That motion certainly carries.

And to all of those out here who are supporting affordable housing.

Is there anything else that you would like to say this evening?

Thank you.

All right.

All right.

Thank you.

Is there a motion for adjournment?

All in favor?

Alright, thank you.