Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority Meeting - February 11, 2025: Property Sale and Subordination Approved
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Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority Meeting - February 11, 2025
The Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority (LURA) held its regular meeting on February 11, 2025, at 6:00 PM. The board approved two resolutions: one for the sale of city-owned property at 760 W Baseline Road to 4Corners LLC for a barbershop and training academy, and another subordinating a deed of trust for 801 S Public Road to facilitate refinancing for a Greek restaurant project. The meeting also provided updates on the Downtown Development Authority, streetscape design, and demolition progress.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the minutes of the January 14, 2025 meeting unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public provided input; the Zoom line had no attendees.
Discussion Items
- Resolution 2025-01: Property Sale to 4Corners LLC – Staff presented the proposed sale of 760 W Baseline Road to Jamal, a Lafayette resident and business owner. The conceptual plan includes a 2,501-square-foot, one-story building with a barbershop/salon and a workforce training academy. Jamal emphasized community engagement, youth mentorship, and workforce development. Key terms include a purchase price of $98,000, with potential reduction to $0 if utility connection costs exceed that amount, and a reverter clause allowing LURA to repurchase the property if a certificate of occupancy is not obtained within three years of final site plan approval. Community feedback through Lafayette Listens showed strong alignment with guiding principles, with concerns about parking and pedestrian safety to be addressed during city review. The board discussed parking constraints, financing (SBA loan or conventional), and the timeline (targeting late summer 2026).
- Resolution 2025-02: Subordination of Deed of Trust – Staff explained that 801 S Public Road (former Jack's Pet Place) is being redeveloped as Khalida Grill, a Greek restaurant. LURA previously provided a $300,000+ economic development loan (forgiving after 10 years if obligations met). The owner needs to refinance their construction loan, requiring LURA to subordinate its deed of trust to the new lender up to $678,100. Staff confirmed sufficient equity in the property to cover LURA's interest. The board approved the subordination without questions.
- Updates – Staff reported on the Lafayette Downtown Development Authority (DDA): interviews for board positions were completed with 11 applicants, council will vote on the plan on February 18, and the first DDA meeting is expected in April. The 700-800 block of S Public Road streetscape project has reached 60% design; construction may begin summer 2025 or spring 2026. Demolition of 701 S Public Road is delayed pending Xcel Energy utility disconnect, expected in March. The historic Coca-Cola sign may be moved indoors for preservation; a new landmark mural is being considered for the site.
Key Outcomes
- Resolution 2025-01 was approved unanimously. The next steps include a 14-day public notice period, notification to city council, and execution of the purchase and sale agreement. Jamal will then submit site plan and PUD applications for city review.
- Resolution 2025-02 was approved unanimously. Staff is authorized to execute the subordination agreement with Tate Holding LLC through the city attorney's office.
- Future LURA meetings may shift to an as-needed basis; proper notice will be provided.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, we would go forward. So we can get started. Yeah. Okay. And are we being joined by just go for it then? Yeah. Okay. All right. Um give me a sec. If that works for you, John. Okay. All right. Um welcome to the February 11th 2025 meeting of the Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority. Um Director Keating could be a roll call. Commissioner Arrington. Here. Commissioner Martin. Here. Commissioner Rogers? Here. Commissioner Williams. Vice Chair Cutler. Chair Muller. Here. We will move on to public input. Let me see if we have anyone on the Zoom call. Does not look like we do. So we will close public input and move on to our third item, which is the approval of the January 14th, 2025 minutes. Oh second. All those in favor. It is adopted. It's unanimous. And we move on to our first agenda item, which is resolution 2025 dash zero one, approving the agreement of purchase and sale of real property to four corners LLC for 760 West Baseline Road. So if there's anything within this presentation that we want to take time to ask questions, feel free to do so. Then we'll turn it back over to me to look at the community engagement overview. Some trapped resolution language and then open up for discussion and questions. So we kicked off this project for disposing of the property in 2022, so it's been a long road to get here. Um, but we did some due diligence working with our planning and building public works and looking at our comprehensive plan for what sort of um what sort of project would be appropriate here. We then put together some um background information and some guiding principles and did stakeholder engagement to develop those. And the intent of that was to um show what success may look like without being too prescriptive as far as this is this is the exact project that we wanted to see, and um we drafted a request for proposals. So with this, um we assembled an evaluation subcommittee, which was with myself, uh Commissioner Arrington, Commissioner Williams, um Philip Kleisler from um our planning and building department, and we had an ohm nervous rep in a broker as well, and we released that um RFP back in 2023 and got proposals. And um, if you remember, it took a while to get proposals for this because the site is so tricky due to its size. And so when we um got three, we reviewed those with the subcommittee and ended up shortlisting um Jamal's proposal. And so um we uh did interviews with three, and I went over those in our last meeting. Um, and moving forward with the four corners proposal, we did uh feedback with Lafayette lessons. And so tonight where we're at is we're gonna um have Jamal be able to do his presentation tonight, look at that feedback, and then vote if we want to move forward with the actual disposition process, which I'll go through, which ultimately will lead to notifying to the council. So I'll just introduce the proposal and then I'm gonna pull up Jamal's to go through it. But um, as you remember, the concept is a 2500 one square foot one-story building with two retail retail spaces, and that really is the barber shop with the hair styling salon and also a train space. And we um did scoring for all of the proposals with criteria, and this proposal scored highest because of its concepts, alignment with the guiding principles, it's an existing business that's in Boulder, and it had a complete proposal with a financial plan in Proforma. And um just expanding on that, Jamal's been in business since 2017.
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