On Wednesday, July 22nd, call this committee of finance to order.

Note this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.

City Council Committee meetings can be viewed on the City and New Beverford's homepage under quick links, then meetings in attendance tonight.

We have Council of Lodge Ian Abre, Council of Ward II, Scott Pempton, Council of Ward 1, Leo Shoket, Counselor at Lodge and First Vice President Shane Burgo.

Counselor at Lodge and Second Vice President Naomi Carney and Council of Ward 3, Sean Oliver.

And myself, Joseph Lopes, Counselor Ward 5.

And Chairman of Finance.

We have one we have letters to be written to the record.

We do.

We have two letters to read into the record.

This one's from Councillor Gomes.

I'm waiting to inform you that I expect to be late for tonight's committee meeting as I will be attending the traffic committee meeting at this time.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues in the public aware of the reason for my delayed abs delayed arrival.

This one's from Councillor Pereira.

I'm waiting to inform you that I would be delayed in arriving.

The committee on financing on Wednesday, July 22nd at 7 p.m.

due to attending a community meeting.

I asked that you read this letter into the record to make my colleagues, those in attendance and the public aware of the reason for my delay.

I get a motion to receive and place on file, made by Council Carney, second by Council April, all those in favor.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Item number one is a communication mimage city council submitting a proposed housing development incentive program.

Tax increment exemption agreement and resolution approving a tax increment exemption tie for the redevelopment of the vacant holy family elementary school located at 91 Summer Street into 44 condominiums.

It was referred here on June 11, 2026.

One A is the housing development incentive program, and one B is the resolution.

Made by Council Abrew, second by Council Burger, all those in favor or opposed, the ayes have it.

Mr.

Amarall, would you like to give us a brief synopsis on the project?

Good evening.

As you know, the state has the housing development incentive program, HDIP.

It's a state tax credit program to subsidize housing development in Gateway Cities.

Uh one of the key requirements to accessing that those funds is that the municipality show support for the project and basically matching support financially for the project typically by way of a tax increment exemption agreement.

So within the confines of what the law prescribes, uh the municipality grants some tax relief on only the improvement value of the building.

So the city receives more tax revenue than it ever had before.

But the developer gets a little bit of a break to help make the numbers work on the overall project.

They're up to three million dollars currently, which can really make or break a project like this one.

They're experienced with adaptive reuse projects, historic buildings, uh comparable projects to this, so have a track record that speaks for itself.

Most recently you may remember that as the Holy Family Holy Name elementary school for a very long time.

Uh that's sensitive to the neighbors that adds parking that isn't there now to try to accommodate both the new residents and the neighborhood in general.

Um what we have put forward with him and has been endorsed by the TIFF board is a 10-year agreement which graduates the uh basically the the tax hit on the new valuation of the building.

Uh in uh year one, uh eighty percent of that new value would be exempt, and then it decreases ten percent a year through year ten.

Um so at the end of the agreement it would be uh 10 percent.

What is different about this development uh from other HTTP projects that we've brought before you is that it is proposed as a condominium project.

Uh so each unit will be owned.

The tax benefits are not particularly the developers, they will actually be to the benefit of the residents who purchase these units and live in them as condominiums.

Um so we have some estimated values on this, but they shouldn't be taken to mean that Vanco Studio is uh going to have less tax obligation, it's going to be the 44 owners of the condos that will have less tax obligation.

Uh Vanco Studio will simply finance the construction of the development and then sell those units.

Uh we calculate the overall uh improvements to the building between five and six million, and the exemption over the ten years would total two hundred and thirty thousand dollars.

Uh during that time we estimate that the city would receive three hundred and eighty-nine thousand dollars more than it otherwise would have.

Um it's actually much more than what the city otherwise would have because until recently this property has been tax exempt for the last you know a hundred years or so.

So uh we think it's a good deal for the city.

Most importantly, um it helps address our critical need for more housing in the city uh and in particular more housing that's um helping folks build equity through homeownership or in this case condo ownership.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

I know Mr.

Vanco is here as well uh and is happy to speak to the project.

Counselor Abraham, you're first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, good evening, Josh.

Good to see you.

Um you could have mentioned this during your open, but I didn't hear it in the and if you have to repeat yourself, I apologize.

But these 44 units, um, do you know how we're talking?