To order.

Roll call, please.

Here.

Make your here.

Joest.

Here.

Coleman.

Kim.

Yang.

Here.

Chair Johnson.

Here.

There are one to five present.

One excuse at being Commissioner Coleman.

Item number one, staff report SR 25-258 introduction to tentative developer status extension request districts two, four, five, eight, wards one, six, and seven.

All right, so we have a staff report on this item today that'll come before us in December 3rd.

Um, there are several awards and parts of several projects, but we looped it into one presentation, so you'll see if you have any tentative developer status extension requests coming.

This is the presentation for that.

So I'll hand it over to uh Director McBann.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

Yes.

How's the inter Sarah Zorn will be coming up to give the presentation on this?

And thanks for noting, yes.

It is one presentation on several of the items, but on the December 3rd HRA meeting, each item will be voted on individually, just noting that, but for efficiency and ease, going through them all now and ability to ask questions, either after each individual's um or at the end.

Thank you, Ms.

Zorn.

All right.

Well, thanks for the intro.

I'm not even gonna do mine.

We'll just jump right in.

Welcome, Ms.

Sorne.

Thanks.

So as a reminder, the HRA disposition policy allows the HRA to award tentative developer status following an RFP process or a submission of a development proposal.

The status prevents the HRA from contracting with other entities and allows the developer time to complete due diligence or conditions required for development and prior to closing.

These could include completion of design drawings, market studies and utility plans, environmental investigation and remediation plans, securing and finalizing financing, and because affordable housing projects can take years, as we all know, from planning to funding applications and finalizing the deal structure.

The TDS is typically awarded for two years, and with the HRA authorization, the designation can be administratively extended for six months by the executive director.

So the four projects that we're talking about are those listed here: the Hams Project, Gloryville, face-to-face, and 1036 Marshall.

And these are the ones that currently have outstanding tentative developer awards.

Sorry, marketplace.

During the TDS period, the developer has successfully pursued over four million dollars in funding from the Met Council in Ramsey County.

And earlier this month, the site was designated as a local historic district.

They've held community engagement sessions, worked through schematic design, undergone environmental testing, and rezoned the site to T3.

In addition, the developers submitted an application through MHFA's consolidated RFP process for funding, the results of which we should know next month.

If the project is awarded funding, then JB Bang will finalize their financing, complete the site plan review process, and following HRA board approval, enter into a development agreement, and then go forth and obtain building permits.

And all of this and getting to closing, especially working with MHFA can take several months, which is part of the reason for the extension request at this time.

The next project is Gloryville.

Following an RFP process, the TDS was awarded in May of 23.

That status expired in June of 25 and again was administratively extended to the end of the year.

The project will result in the construction of 87 units of affordable housing along with a grocery space and retail space.

And during this TDS period, the developers successfully pursued approximately 4.9 million dollars in funding from Met Council, Ramsey County, and LISC.

They've secured nine Section 811 rental subsidies as well as nine housing supports.

They've engaged with community stakeholders and begun site surveys, geotechnical and structural analyses.

They've completed a commercial marketplace study and identified commercial management partners.

The developer has also submitted an application through MHFA's consolidated RFP process, and again, we'll know the those results next month.

If that project receives funding, Gloryville will finalize their financing, complete the site plan review process, and following HRA board approval, enter into a development agreement, and obtain building permits.

The next project is face to face at 1170 arcade.

This project was awarded TDS in June of 23 following an RFP process.

The status expired in June and was administratively extended until the end of the year.

And the project will result in the construction of 24 supportive housing units and 6,000 square feet of office space for face-to-face.

During the TDS period, the developer has successfully pursued almost $675,000 in funding from Met Council and Ramsey County.

And they were recently recommended for an additional award of 1.25 million.

They've launched a capital campaign to raise funding for the project and continue to pursue funding for the project, including a current application to Ramsey County's Critical Corridors program.

In addition, they've secured 24 housing supports and completed phase one and phase two environmental analyses.

This developers also submitted an application through MHFA's consolidated RFP process.

Again, we'll know the results next month.

If they're funded, face to face will finalize their financing, complete the site plan review and zoning processes, and following HRA board approval, we'll enter into a development agreement and obtain building permits.

The last project is Rondo Community Land Trust project at 1036 Marshall.

They were awarded TDS in April of 2023.

That status expired in March and was administratively extended until the end of October.

I recognize we're off a little bit with the timing here.

It just made some sense to consolidate all of these requests versus trying to come to the board and then come back again.

So we understand it's technically expired.

The project will result in construction of six ownership units for households at or below 80% of area median income.

During the TDS period, the developer has successfully pursued almost $2 million in funding from the Met Council and Ramsey County and was awarded up to 1.2 million dollars in affordability gap for those end buyers who are going to be purchasing the units.

In addition, the environmental review has been completed, they're working on architectural drawings and have begun the site plan review process.

Activities that still need to be completed include securing bank financing and finalizing the development budget, completing the site plan review process and obtaining any required zoning approvals, and following HRA approval, entering into a development agreement and obtaining building permits.

The developers indicated an ability to complete these items and close in the coming months.

Therefore, the action that will come before you on December 3rd will extend tentative developer designations as shown on the slide here, 18 months for Hams, Gloryville, and face-to-face, and 12 months for 1036 Marshall.

And I'm happy to take any questions if there's anything I'm unable to answer.

We have project managers and representatives from each development project team here to answer any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Zorn.

Excuse me.

Do any commissioners have any questions?

Commissioner Naker.

Thanks, Chair Johnson.

Thank you so much for this informative update.

I think it's worthy of noting just how hard it is to build in our city and in our country right now.

It's taking takes two years just to get to these important milestones, which are a lot of work, and we're still not done.

And that's not the fault of anyone in this room, but that just it's it is a huge process.

I guess I'm I'm curious, and I support the extensions of all of these.

But what are the um what are the checkpoints along the way that our staff puts in place to make sure that we are seeing these projects make significant progress over time and that we are lessening the likelihood that we're back here in 2027 potentially extending again?

And I'm particularly wondering if we up the ante on those check-ins or those those checkpoints after we've already extended once.

Um Chair Johnson, Commissioner Naker, that's an excellent question.

I think the biggest barrier to moving forward is funding.

Um and as I mentioned, the three the first three projects I talked about, Hams, Gloryville, and face to face, all need significant amounts of deferred funding from MHFA.

Um that's the only organization that has that kind of dollars available, and in order to complete the capital stacks on these projects, they really need to get those awards.

And as we all know, the funding climate is increasingly competitive, and many of these projects have been uh submitting applications for the last two to three years and not being awarded for various reasons.

And so um I'll just say that that's sort of the first obstacle.

When we do award tentative developer status, outlined in the board report is a set of benchmarks or a set of expectations that the developer needs to work toward, and if we can look at that list and see that the developer is making significant project progress toward those benchmarks, um then that's when we're sort of willing to support extensions.

So we see that you're working toward this, we see that you've pulled a lot of funding together, we see that you are on track, but for a small handful of items, um, and that's where we're inclined to work with them to do extensions.

Thank you.

I appreciate that additional context as well, uh, Commissioner Neaker on this.

I um I guess a quick question from my end is more so around um you mentioned the MHFA funding, and I know that this has been a cycle uh of several projects coming in um multiple years to try to get funding.

I know last year overall it seemed like the city of St.

Paul's uh success for MHF MHFA funding was um quite challenging.

What exactly are we seeing or kind of hearing?

I guess were there any inclinations that there might be um a little bit of a different outcome than what we had from the previous year, or that some projects uh maybe moving forward, or is there anything that uh community members or commissioners could do at this time to assist with the projects themselves?

Uh Chair Johnson, that's an excellent question.

I would love to defer to MHFA on that.

Um I'm sure.

Um I think what we're seeing overall is that a lot of our projects are scoring really well.

Um they're great projects.

There's a lot of um support behind them.

There's a lot of um interest in getting them moving forward, uh, but that's also the case across the state.

Um so there's a lot of folks out there who have really great projects and who are serving, you know, various needs, and they check all of the MHFA boxes, and there's just too many projects to fund.

So I think you're right, we were unsuccessful last year.

I am hopeful that that's not the case this year.

Um, however, we have been extremely successful with the Metropolitan Council and Ramsey County in terms of securing grants for a lot of these projects.

So there is a lot of support overall that's that's evident.

Thank you.

Okay, see no other questions on the item.

We appreciate you, Miss Zorn.

And and uh thank you to all of the project developers I see.

Uh I think I believe everyone uh represented it.

And so if we do have additional questions, I'm sure they'd be willing to share with them.

But I'm sure that for the you know, for a lot of us we've been familiar with your projects because of the long-term uh endeavors that you've taken on to really, you know, in my ward is transform historic uh landmarks um and and across the city invest in affordable housing that we've seen come back and restore properties that truly either are vacant right now or need to be need some tender love and care.

So I appreciate that, and these items will come back before us, not next week because next week we don't have a meeting, but the week after that on the third.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um actually I'm gonna take the the suspension item out of order, uh, Laura not to throw your curve, Paul, but I will we'll take uh take a motion from council uh from Commissioner Bowie to suspend the rules.

All those in favor?

I all opposed.

I take a vote for it or no, we just did.

Okay.

Item number three is suspension item SR25-257, promise that grant presentation from neighborhood development center.

All right, and I just wanted to take this one in.

And we actually have NDC here again to be able to provide a little bit of an impact and update because right now their round two grant cycle is opened.

And I think commissioners are aware of that.

But if you weren't, uh last year we heard about the round one numbers, and they've been able to come back with some additional data as they're preparing for round two.

The cycle is open currently with I believe a deadline of December 14th.

That is correct.

Wonderful.

So and uh and just so I can get your first and last name.

Shahira Ahmed.

I'm Ed.

Ahmed.

Yes.

Okay, Ms.

Chairman, thank you so much for being here today.

And uh being able to answer the call that we had, I think it's important for us to be following just overall what opportunities are available to uh businesses, to nonprofit organizations to in our ward and actually being able to see, especially for those that are along the eligible corridor, getting some updates from a state program that we hope to see continue to be successful in both cities, Minneapolis and St.

Paul.

So I guess Director Premier, did you have anything further to say about that?

No, nothing.

Um the only thing I'll add is that I know there's a lot of entities in the community that are really excited to hear this information and get the updates and to reach out to um ensure that uh BRZ Business Review Council knows about this, and so that they can go online and find the materials and watch the video as well and asking them to sort of spread the word.

So all of the good information that we'll hear today, we can spread throughout the community as well.

Wonderful.

And thank you so much, Mr.

Ahmed from Neighborhood Develop Uh Development Center for being here.

It means a lot to us.

We know that uh Mita wasn't able to make it just for this day, but they did send a report in as well.

And if folks have additional questions for both respective um organizations after this, we'll we're happy to help connect you and follow up.

And thank you to the economic development staff team that uh worked to get you all here today.

Welcome.

Thank you, um, council uh member um Johnson and members of the council.

My name again is Shahir Ahmed with NDC Neighborhood Development Center.

We are a 30 plus year old organization uh headquartered at um Dell and University, 625 Dell University in St.

Paul.

Uh we work in several different uh areas throughout the twin cities.

Um and we uh part of our role as an organization is to assist entrepreneurs who are either low or extreme low income to really live out their dream through entrepreneurship.

We provide trainings, we provide access to capital as well as business services and real estate development opportunities for those entrepreneurs to uh start and grow their businesses.

Um council members, you may be familiar with one of our flagship uh incubator spaces, midtown global market in Minneapolis, um, which serves as uh beacon of light for those entrepreneurs.

We have about 30 different entrepreneurs there who have uh the opportunity to grow their business.

And so that's a a little bit of uh who we are as an organization.

Um in 2023, the state of Minnesota had um etched in law the Promise Act Grant program.

Uh our organization was appointed to administer the grant portion as Councilman Member Johnson mentioned.

MEDA is administering the loan component of the of the grant uh loan component of the law program.

Uh and so any uh loan related questions, uh I would ask that uh MEDA be um those quests be directed to Mita.

Um today I've pro we've provided a slide deck to walk you through uh our first uh round of distributing the grants uh for this program.

Uh the program began or launched in June of 2023.

Um we in the big picture what we are able to accomplish in 2023 for that first round, uh we were able to get 9.5 million dollars uh into the hands of entrepreneurs who applied for the grant.

Uh there was over 650 different entrepreneurs who received uh these funds.

The average grant size was about 14 million, uh 14,000.

Um, and this the makeup of those businesses was uh 83% of them were BIPOC entrepreneurs.

Um we also I believe it was mentioned that we have an impact report on our website.

Please uh if you have a time to take a look and download that impact report.

It will um showcase more of these details uh of the first round.

Just to kind of pick a little bit at the data that we were able to um uncover uh for this first round of the uh promise act grant program, um we had over 6,000 6200 applicants come to our doors uh last June.

So you could imagine um N DC again.

We've uh 30 plus years uh we're not a technology company, and so it was a new embarking for us to develop an application portal that the the uh applicants could um take advantage of this opportunity.

So we we weren't really prepared for 6,000 applications, but we uh the technology did withstand that volume.

Um as you can imagine, uh 6,000 applications were the not all of those were uh eligible, and so we had to work through uh the eligibility criteria that is it is uh outlined and illustrated within the law uh to ensure that we were um really taking time and working with the applicants who were eligible.

And so if you see in the uh side uh the right side of the slide here, um, as we did our first pass of eligibility check with these applications, about half of them became were able to move on in the process.

And for St.

Paul, there was over 800 uh applicants who were eligible to move forward.

Commissioner Bowie has a question.

Yeah, we periodically stop, Mr.

Ahmed, if there's a hand of one of the commissioners.

I certainly want to.

Commissioner Bowie, go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

Um, thank you so much, um Shagira.

I just have a really uh uh curious question.

What worked really well in South Minneapolis, because it's it's uh really apparent that they have tons of applicants and have the majority of um those who are eligible.

Can you speak to just like what what was a good model for them?

Yeah, I think the makeup, yes, member um Bowie.

Um the makeup of the businesses, I believe, in South Minneapolis in the density of those businesses along the Lake Street Corridor, for example, um, allowed for many of those folks to um get into the application portal right away, and so you see those numbers are higher versus in North Minneapolis uh businesses along the West Broadway corridor, um, there's you know not the density is not in as concentrated as it is on Lake Street or University Avenue, for example.

So we feel that that what we we've learned that that has been what has contributed to in part uh the high higher um application numbers for South Minneapolis versus North Minneapolis.

Thank you.

Continue on thank you.

Um so when you look at the numbers for Saint St.

Paul, um of the uh of the if you well, backing up a moment, the thirty three hundred uh eligible applications that were going through the portal, and we awarded 652.

That's about 20 percent of the applicants that who were awarded.

Um so it was it was very competitive, a very competitive process to get a grant.

Uh some of the ineligible um uh criteria we were uh able to learn uh from the portal, as you can see in the graph.

Um some of it was due to revenue.

The the state law had a threshold of 750,000 uh or below was the the criteria, the threshold for uh entering into the program.

Um and then as you see here, many of those um applicants uh were outside of the of that threshold as well as the geography.

Um the law did have specific areas uh that the uh grant uh applications could be eligible from.

So for instance, um all of North Minneapolis, for example, parts of St.

Paul, um, including uh Eastside St.

Paul, uh West part parts of West St.

Paul, uh Frogtown, for example, and then parts of South Minneapolis, which would include um the Lake Street Corridor, the riverside area.

So some of these were the target areas that were etched out in the law that applicants had to be a part of, or their business needed to be placed and operating in those geographies.

Thank you.

Excuse me, Commissioner Neaker.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

Uh, just a question about that.

So the there was a lot of confusion and consternation among my business owners on the West side about whether or not they were in eligible in the geography originally or not.

Can you I didn't hear them mention just now?

Is is the West Side part of the geography or not?

I believe that there is a corner of the way I do not have the map with me as of right now.

I didn't prepare the map, but I believe that parts of the West Side may be um eligible for the grant, yes.

Okay.

And I can we can get that information for you.

Yeah, I know I there was a question, and then I think um we clarified that the West Side was eligible, and then we had business owners reach out and be told they still weren't eligible by geography.

So I would really appreciate the clarification on exactly where those borders are.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

And on our website, um an applicant could enter in their address and it will take them to it would um the Google map would pinpoint exactly where the territories are, the boundaries are.

Right.

I just want to be able to tell constituents to apply or not to apply.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Commissioner Yay.

Thank you, uh, Chair Johnson.

Is this a data on the slide here for both cities?

This also can you expand on what flagged and eligible but not randomly selected means?

Yeah, absolutely.

So this is a makeup of the entire all three cities or both cities.

And then when you see Elliot to answer your second question, eligible but not random.

What was important for us, one of our guiding principles was to uh do this in an equity have an equitable distribution.

And so we randomized the applications as they came through.

So an application would get a uh a number, and then we would randomize those batches so that we could provide an equitable process.

And so what you see there is 1,500 applications that were eligible but were not selected due to the randomization to preserve equitable distribution.

Yes, okay, thank you.

Oh, and then I was also curious what flagged meant.

Um the flagged part here, like what does what does that mean?

Like did they have something on their application that they needed to fix?

Yeah, it was something that we couldn't um uh identify or verify uh the burden, the way that Deed, we're in partnership with Deed to administer the program, and the way the guidance that we've received from Deed is is that the burden of proof is on the applicant, and we were unable to dig into the applicant was not able to demonstrate um the uh uh uh that they met the criteria, and so these were that percentage represents uh applications we could not determine.

Um we they were not eligible, but we couldn't go further deeper within uh why.

Okay, and my last follow-up is I was just wondering for the for the applicants that were eligible but not randomly selected.

Do you have a process to get them to apply for your second round here?

Because I know your second round's opening up.

Great question.

Um the we the first round lasted from June until about um June 2024 until about um uh I will say September oh July of this year.

Um and in June of this year, uh when the legislators closed session, they did make changes to the law, which it made it incumbent upon applicants to reapply if they applied in the first round.

So and what we were able to do were was to um build a um self-check uh on the on our website.

So you as an applicant, you could go to the website and do a self-verification check to see if you met the new criteria based on the law changes.

And if you did, then you would be encouraged to continue to apply.

Um so if you were in round one, you there was no guarantee you would be eligible for round two.

Thank you.

Due to the law changes, round one, uh getting back to round one and really digging in a little bit to what we've discovered for Saint Paul, um, 3.3 million dollars were distributed to over uh 198 um applicants, which is again a none uh if you take a composite of the larger scale of the total the total program of 9.5 million, zooming into Saint St.

St.

Paul, and the 3.3 million is 20 percent again uh of those applicants were able to receive grants, so very competitive process.

The grant average grant size in St.

Paul was a just over or just under 17,000.

Some of the grant usages um for uh this program uh was working capital is as it was illustrated in the law.

Um, and you can see the highest usage of the grants were for um for equipment or payroll, which is really um getting uh help allowing those entrepreneurs to build their capacity and be more efficient.

Some stories you can we have over two dozen stories to date on our website.

Um we've got a QR code there, um, many different um various various types of businesses and many different success stories.

Um one in particular, Udles Grocery, um uh there on uh I believe it's um Snelling Avenue uh next to Hamlin University.

Um this was an opportunity for that individual, that entrepreneur to use these grant dollars to get more equipment and fixtures in his grocery store.

Some of our community partners that were alongside us in round one.

Um it was very important for us uh N DC to do this in partnership.

We had when we first began the this process in uh early or late 2023, we had over 60 different community organizations throughout the Twin Cities come uh to our doors and really have uh an opportunity to talk about and imagine what this program could do for all of our community.

Um and so you could see here um some of the organizations that were in partnership with us and contract uh to help distribute the uh grant program uh was uh AEDS, for example, um among uh American Partnership or HAP uh as well as LEDC, uh the Latino Economic Development Center.

In uh some of the support that we were able to provide to the applicants was uh a term that we use in the in our in our uh industry called technical assistance.

We were able to provide over 80 uh 80 excuse me, 80 percent of the applicants needed technical assistance, which means um they needed support with either the technology and um uh uh signing on to the app the portal.

Um they may have needed uh help with navigating the portal.

Um they also needed help with um some of some language support so we were able to translate all of the documents and the application in the requested uh language that they needed.

Um other supports were uh just general application questions as well as the financial uh documents that were required for the program, uh getting that one-on-one technical support from ourselves or our community partners was was invaluable to those applicants.

Some of the key findings in round one were that uh there is a digital design divide that that exists that we've been able to identify.

Many of those applicants were had a very difficult time being able to uh uh have their documents ready for uploading into the portal, which was a requirement for us to verify their documents.

Um and so when you think about how to uh ensure that applicants can move forward and have this take the opportunity to uh improve their operations, it's important that these type the type of technical assistance in this type of program uh addresses their um inability at times to use their phone to upload uh uh required tax documents, for example.

So that technical assistance really helps them slow down and say, how do I best get my operate business operations in order so that I can take advantage of this type of opportunity?

Commissioner Bowie.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

Um, thank you so much.

I just wanted to touch on this point because I definitely saw this when we were doing our info sessions the first round.

Um, can you speak to, I'm just out of curiosity, because I know NDC is right across the street from Rondal Community Library.

Um, was there a partnership?

Was that like a former partnership?

Because I do know there was some um utilization of the the computer lab um to help people with getting some of their documents.

Yeah, yes, yes.

We were able to um have it wasn't a contract, but it was an MOU with the library to ensure that um applicants could you we could use their their computer lab.

The however um due to uh um circumstances out of our control, the library um that that relationship that opportunity had to end because of the redevelopment that the library is going under.

Um for this year.

For this year, correct.

Um we had if you if you look into the um the PowerPoint there, we had over 15 different um uh lab opportunities where uh entrepreneurs could come to a computer lab and get the support one-on-one, similar to the library.

Okay, internally at NDC in internally at NDC and at our community partner organizations as well.

They open their doors and allow the applicants to come in.

Okay, thank you.

So uh I if there are there any other if there are no other questions regarding round one, I will transition to round two.

And just a quick time check for you, Mr.

Ahmed.

We'll spend about five more minutes here, I think.

Okay, um we have a usually we try to stop and transition and leave some time at the end for council.

And we have one more presentation that I do want to allocate some time to.

Absolutely.

So I'd say in about five minutes or so, we'll wrap up here.

Absolutely, yes, Chair.

Yes, Chair.

Uh Chair Johnson.

Um, so for round two, um uh in round one, it we were we were very um focused on and aware of potential fraud uh due to this type of opportunity and program.

Um we put in measures of training with our staff.

Um our technology also uh has um uh checks and balances which will allow uh for uh an uh very um deep investigation of the applications that we have.

We were able to review applications multiple times to ensure that these applicants were that the applications were um who they say they were.

Uh we also use technology software to do identification check of those individuals using such uh platforms like PLAD.

Uh so it was important for us to ensure that um we had mitigation for fraud.

Um some of the learnings uh and and that we've been able to enhance from uh round one were uh streamlined application process.

So we we were we were able to reduce the number of questions in the application to help uh with efficiency.

We've also um provide or have um instituted more um one-on-one uh application labs and in various uh locations throughout the geographies, and we've also done uh are starting to do and dig deeper into more data uh so that we can, for example, have a better understanding of the uh not only the geographies that the applicants are coming from, but then also what are some of their pain points beyond this opportunity so that we can leverage this information to be able to uh better serve these entrepreneurs uh ongoing uh in round two.

We have committed partners as we did in round one.

Some of the new partners we have for round two uh include uh Rondo Land Trust, Cluez, as well as Women's Venture.

And some of the just thinking about digging uh digging a little bit deeper into some of the numbers right now.

Um we have in St.

Paul over 292 eligible applications that are in our portal today.

Um those applications are going through we have three stages that the applications go through.

Those applications are moving uh diligently through that process.

Uh and to date we have awarded 23 applications or have 23 grantees for round two, which uh equals about 420,000 dollars.

Some of the eligibility and ineligible reasons for applications include um uh certain documentation that applicants would need to the burden on them to uh upload or prove would be home-based business deduction, for example.

Um those that that was another instance of new law change.

Um, and so that is a new reason that applicants are not eligible.

Um another high uh percentage of ineligible applications are taxes.

Uh applicants not having their 2024 taxes complete.

Um and for the interest of time, uh what we would what the way that applicants can connect with us is in uh coming to uh in-person uh application lab.

They do not need an appointment, they can walk up uh if they if they choose.

Um obviously, if they are due take an appointment, they can uh uh register for an appointment through our website, as well as we have a phone number that applicants can access us.

Um and my our call to action is uh getting the support to uh for this body is to help us uh to continue continue to encourage applicants to apply for this opportunity.

And that's my presentation.

Um something I will just say as initial.

I'm wondering back, I'm seeing the ineligible applications number climb up a little bit.

I think from round one's like numbers, you know, there were some folks that were eligible, but they weren't weren't selected, but I'm seeing the the ineligible number get a little high, and I'm just wondering um if you could pick it from the short amount of time, I guess that we have left on this.

What do you think of some of the reasons for like our driving vectors?

Is that just because more people are finding out about it and maybe they haven't been through the initial betting or like I guess what kind of communication gets to them and is it immediate, like you're not eligible, or they're waiting still not knowing eligible.

Absolutely, sorry, Chair.

Yes, um, Chair Johnson.

We um we've been learning that many of the um applicants from round one due to the law changes, have have it's been very difficult for them to not only get their financial documents in order, but if their taxes are not done, then that's another issue for them to uh be eligible to apply.

Um when you think about that increase, we have been um doing outreach and communications uh in our communities to and really encourage the applicants to come to a uh application lab so that they can learn um what are the criteria, eligible criteria.

Um and we also, as I mentioned at the top, we've uh instituted a eligibility check so that they can on their own see if they're eligible before taking the time to apply.

There's about 30 questions on the application, and as you can imagine, our entrepreneurs are very busy.

Uh, so we want to make sure that um they have the opportunity to really learn about the opportunity through an information session or from our outreach efforts before they invest the time to apply if they're not eligible.

Um so hopefully that answered your question, uh, Chair Johnson.

Yep, no, I did.

Thank you so much.

Um, one thing that I think is a follow-up, uh, what would be really helpful is from the numbers.

Um, I know that we have different eligibility criteria, like different eligibility geographic geographies in the city.

It'd be really helpful.

So my ward, I represent uh the east side of St.

Paul, so some of the greater east side eligibility criteria lies in my ward as well, so as Councilman Yang's in Ward 6.

Um, and uh Councilman Rabuy, I believe, and then if we have a little sliver of the West Side and some of the pieces of just where folks are eligible and which corridors they can apply on, it would be really helpful just to see the numbers.

I'm curious I'm out of sheer curiosity.

I'm just curious about like the breakdowns of east side businesses and uh businesses that are in the along university, like just kind of which one, you know, where are we seeing a lot of uh the communication?

And I think that just helps when it comes to also encouraging my businesses or um folks that are in the criteria and in the area to at least look at it.

Um and so I'm just I would love to see the numbers as if we however specific we can get um just on the follow-ups of just like where they're coming from.

I don't know if you guys track that, but on the back end, but it would be cool to see that just by um those the blocks that are on the eligibility map.

Absolutely, Chair Johnson.

We can do that.

Uh we can do it by district if you'd like, or by uh area neighborhood.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Great.

Well, we commissioner, go ahead.

Thank you so much.

First, I just want to say thank you, Chair, for um bringing this back.

I know last year it was like really um great for all of us to have this opportunity to promote in our neighborhoods, and um, you know, I'm really excited to also have a strong like St.

Paul delegations and state representatives that really you know strongly advocated for these funds.

Um I do want to um as a follow-up, be able to talk um with um you and your team, um, because I do know, especially with the Ronald Community Library being a strong anchor, and that um is going to be um temporary closed, there is a relocation um to Halley Q Brown, um, and I would love to help facilitate um um information so you're aware of those services that still exist at Halley Q Brown and also discuss where there are other um community hubs and spaces, uh, just because like we all understand you know how important these public spaces are for people to get access to to internet and um um and all the different tools for them to be able to submit these applications.

So I just want to follow up with you about that.

Absolutely.

I look forward to that.

Yeah, thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you.

Okay, item number two, staff report SR 25-258 2026 HRA proposal introduction.

Hi, Randy.

As you guys know, we we're in the midst of wrapping up the budget season for this year.

Um, prior to the December 3rd vote and the levy um vote.

We basically wanted to be able to present to you some of the things that none of these should be new to you.

Um we did have a chance to to just kind of walk through each office and talk to all the commissioners about it.

But this is the budget review and the HRA recommendations and and uh transparent form, just so folks are all on the same page.

Uh usually this would be given by uh Deputy Director Green or CFO, uh, but due to an emergency at home, she is not able to be here.

And so we are wishing her well, and then we have uh director McMahon here to give her um her report.

Uh Deputy Director Green was heavily involved in a lot of the crafting.

So if you do have specific questions as follow-ups and Director McMahon doesn't know, we have Kamut here who is also taking uh notes on our behalf as well, and we'll get those two us as early as possible.

But we want to give that time and um ability for her to uh handle what's happening at home.

So uh with that, Director McMahon.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

As you noted, I'm I'm filling in the large budget shoes of our CFO, Deputy Director Nicole Green.

And so I know there are other folks here available to help support and answer questions if there are some detailed questions, but as well, um more than happy to follow up with anybody and to work with you, Chair Johnson and any follow-up from your colleagues and commissioners of additional information that we can prevent to be present to be helpful.

So just noting here, you know, um, Deputy Director Green has started with some PD engagement action and responsibility, just noting that we're really working to ensure consistency within our department to be able to provide information like year to date actual spending and things like that.

A lot of that budget, that sort of daily budget grind, if you will, that we're working through continuously throughout the year to be in a physician now to be able to provide information for you as you consider the budget and budget changes, as well as for HRA, I know reviewing budget proposals, evaluating programs, um, and proposing and then passing the HRA budget at the end of this year as we are essentially at and nearly approaching.

Noting that this is set up by source.

So when you look at the top of the slide, you'll see the source, and then it will also note what those 2026 proposed investments are.

Um, also noting that first column is at 2026 budget proposal that was made this summer.

You then have the recommended change from this body, it'll show that total fund allocation, and then it also notes sort of within within the city where that allocation fund ultimately lies, just knowing that sometimes it is in a different department or a different area due to the nature of what program it might be.

Um, instead of just reading line by line through each one of these for you, because you you have it and you can read it and any follow-up questions, but just noting again the ones with the parenthetical are a reduction from that particular source.

And as you go through this again, noting that sometimes sources change.

So perhaps for a line item, a source such as LaHA perhaps is reduced, but housing trust fund may be increased so that the total at the end of the day might remain, for example, five million in downtown office to housing conversions, but LaHa itself is less of a source into that particular fund, and housing trust fund as you'll see later, maybe an increase source.

So just noting the layout of this as you go through and you look at it.

But there's a downtown office to housing conversions, again, reduction of the Laha as the source, noting in there for that.

Um emergency rental assistance, an increase from LA.

You have um the supportive housing contract, which is actually with Ramsey County there, and then small sale, small scale development increase from LA, and then the carryover for the familiar families pilot, which is an OFE.

Any questions before I move on to the next slide?

I'll just keep going and I'll look up in between for questions.

Sorry.

Commissioner Bowie.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

I do have a question about the familiar families pilot.

So this is a carrying over, but also uh a transfer to a different department or because the office of financial empowerment is um for my understanding that it was uh ONS that was that that was the or the city attorney's office was a department.

So would this be a carry over in a transfer of departments that's managing this?

So I can actually answer that one.

No.

So familiar families and familiar faces, uh-huh.

Two different programs.

Yep.

So familiar faces is housed in the office of neighborhood safety.

Um right now, the familiar families pilot allocation is a housing trust fund allocation.

Um, if it were to be carried over through LAHA funding, the placement for that within the city would be within OFE.

Two separate programs, two separate, completely different kind of things.

But also, I was just talking to our city attorney as well.

We are working on um addressing the housing trust fund allocation this year.

So this might actually not be a carryover into the new year.

Um, but it could be.

And if it is, the suggestion or the recommendation from HRA is the is to use Laha resources to be able to make that a city uh city led um pilot as well, and to not reallocate money to from the housing trust fund here.

So neither a transfer from ONS, and it's not it is not actually addressing familiar faces as a department at all.

Okay, so this is not funded by Laha.

This is funded through the housing trust fund or for 2025.

Okay, yes.

Okay, which historically has been funded by no, it was a first year pilot that's only been funded once through the housing trust fund.

Got it, thank you.

Yes, but now on to the housing trust fund, noting that as the source on the top.

Um, and also noting those numbered items are technical changes when we're looking at the source and what is coming from, just because as you're all more than familiar, different sources have different compliance requirements, have other different obligations that come with them.

And so sometimes the program itself might remain at the same funding level or have changes in the source in order to be more effective with that program and with the reporting requirements and other additional things that come with that.

So again, I noted the downtown um office of housing conversions and the change in the Laha source from it, reduction of the Laha source.

This then shows an increase in the housing trust fund as a source to that.

You have the small-scale development, ADUs, familiar families, and those are all in there.

And just a quick note here for clarification, and just so folks can catch it.

So the downtown uh housing and office housing conversions, that 300 that $3 million allocation and the laha allocation combined is the where the five million is made up from.

And then simultaneously on this slide, you'll see the carryover that I mentioned from familiar families um pilot no longer being recommended as an allocation fund from here.

I do want to take the time to just uh shout out uh Yasmin and the team that was working on the accessible drolling units acquiring just to provide context behind this recommendation.

One of the charges that we've given our planning economic development team has been to be realistic about their planning, be realistic about what they feel like they can accomplish in year one, and um, or you know, in 2026, and that came out of multiple discussions with them, and this is a reflection of that request from this body um by being able to share that they have every intention of finishing their planning process for 2026, the actual subsidies they intend to acquire in 2027.

So I just wanted to say I'm I was personally um really uh grateful to see just that transparent communication ahead of time um when it comes to just being able to steward dollars elsewhere.

So yeah, thank you.

I appreciate that, and I appreciate you noting that because that's maybe uh a preview even to the year after's budget and 2027 budget in looking exactly at that in 2026 that it does make more sense to be looking at those pre-approved plans and to use that opportunity to look and dig even deeper into into the funding requirements if we're looking at something like subsidies and exactly how many units, what type of units, etc.

You can provide so that that budget proposal or budget request that's likely to come next year for 2027 will again to the point and to your encouragement of actual spending, be really realistic and have more of sort of the data behind it to show exactly some of the questions that you've all been asking.

Thank you, Commissioner Bowie.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

I just have a question around just like the city department, and this is this one of the things that is um um, you know, I'm not to be nitpicky, but when it says the department housing economic development, one of them says economic development, and then it's planning housing, and why understand OFF OFE excuse me, but can you is this uh still PED or if you could talk about what's planning and what's housing and how that's different from the actual like housing economic development department?

Yes, sure.

Chair Johnson, Commissioner Bowie, sorry.

It's um in here it's noting either which division in PED it's in, or if it's in a separate city department.

So sorry about that.

Maybe lack of clarity here.

So for the all those top level ones, those are all in PED, it's just noting which division.

So it'd be in the housing and economic development division, right?

And then all of it goes down to OFB.

Yeah, I think I cut off a little at the end with the parenthetical there, too.

So in just so I can have more clarification.

So the planning division is is that just the staff for it, and then the housing division is that the actual subsidies that go into the the development, Chair Johnson, Commissioner Bowie, it is the staff that would administer those.

So within PED would be that housing division that would be administering those subsidies.

Okay, thank you.

And similarly, think of it as the team, like which team you're gonna be talking to.

If it says housing, it's jewels planning account like planning team.

You know, then you're probably talking to to yeah, as many economic development, you're talking to Director Lloyd, those things.

Thank you.

All right, looking at the PD operations and CDBG, you'll see the district council noting here of a reduction.

It is not a reduction, just noting in overall district council funding.

Again, this goes to what we were discussing earlier in terms of source.

Um, and just again noting that our sources come with different obligations, different reporting requirements, etc.

And I know we want to ensure, particularly for community partners, etc., that we can provide the funding without making it so onerous that they're not able to use it as fully as they would otherwise be able to, that they can really focus on those great things that they're doing as community partners that we really want to encourage them to continue to do as much as possible.

And so this is an effort to really try and streamline things to make things equitable across the district councils and to allow that opportunity for even more focus on the good work that they're doing.

The loan enterprise fund.

Looking at again commercial corridors, and you'll see the district council noting additional um funding there out of the loan enterprise fund and the business retention and expansion.

Commissioner Nier.

Thanks, Chair Johnson.

I'm I most likely most likely we'll have follow-ups after this.

Um so I'll reach out to you and both the chair about it.

But I just wanted to understand the business retention and and expansion.

Is that the same thing as the business assistance fund?

Like I didn't see anything about the BAF on here.

Um I I can I can just simply say that so no, sure.

In short, it's not the same.

The business assistance fund is actually a technical change piece that I believe when we when we send the actual presentation still had the slides that were included for the technical change slides.

Those I don't think are in what's posted up here.

Okay.

We make sure that we have slides for the technical changes.

Yeah.

Some technical changes that PAD are proposing are carryovers, whereas the business assistance fund carryover is codified there.

And so these are just HRA or like um HRA related changes, proposals based off of the chair's budget.

But the um blanking, but the actual technical changes it's captured there.

The 230,000 for business assistance is there.

Okay, yeah, I just want to make sure we still had money in the business assistance fund.

Um it's been really helpful whenever we've had crises come up for our business corridors.

But yes, it'd be helpful to get like you know the full the full spreadsheet.

If this is helpful in the snapshot, sure, and chair Johnson Commissioners if it'd be helpful.

I can send those separate um noted technical changes to you all after, and then we can follow up again with any questions you have after looking at those as well.

Yeah, that would be great.

I think if they could get the I've seen the document like the full presentation, so I think just being able to get the full presentation with the the PED technical changes included will be helpful.

For sure, thank you.

We will do that.

I know wanting to also focus on the budget here and not conflate the two as well was part of the goal and and time trying to be respectful of time.

Sure.

All right, general fund, HRA general fund 2026 investments, um, smaller dollar amounts, obviously, everything's important.

So you've got St.

Paul Children's Collaborative, the transfer, critical software upgrades, and audit committee there, and then the parking fund, and so the transfer to river center reduction, the transfer to the city general fund for parking meters, the parking meter transfer reduction.

And I know that there's this this body's had a lot of discussion about transfers out, etc.

And I think you'll see the HRA recommendation regarding that reflected in this slide here.

The Helly Q Brown library lease, um, contracted security, cyber security, and again, here's where you see the district councils as I noted earlier, a reduction in the CDBG, but an increase from the HRA parking fund again, having to do with just some of the constriction, you know, constraints of the CDBG as the source for district councils.

I saw a hand from Commissioner Jose.

Um, thank you, uh Chair Johnson and Director Grant.

I just um I apologize that I didn't catch this before, but I think the for the Halle Q Brown library lease and the library contracted security.

I think the amount that these add up to the 19010,000 is correct, but I think that the Halley Q Brown library lease is 100 and the library contracted security is 90.

If we could double check those, um I just sorry I didn't catch that earlier, but just wanted to flag that.

No, I um yeah, these are a couple, there are a couple changes here that I noted just from uh error, I think a scripture script error, but we'll be able to make sure that those numbers are correct just so it's transferred over the way that it is.

So, yes, the intentions there are to fully cover both.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

I was double checking our other documents.

Okay, thanks.

Yeah, no problem.

And then I think um one thing that I so yes, the transfers that are here.

If you're interested, the the three transfers that we are proposing, um, the two of them or the river center and the general fund for parking meters, as you see, those have been there zeroed out here.

And actually, that brings us to the end.

I appreciate noting that distinction.

Um, and feel free, like I said, if you if there's anything like like that for libraries related, et cetera, that you all caught, please make sure obviously to Chair Johnson, myself, let us know, and we will be double checking that with the actual spreadsheets instead of just presentation and transferring.

Um, and yeah, happy to answer what I can now and happy to follow up as well with more details.

Okay, and then one note that I want to make before we transition.

I saw Commissioner Naker's hand as well.

Um, regarding the downtown housing and the office to housing conversion dollars, as I had mentioned, kind of I think briefly to you.

I believe that that includes the one million dollar over the one million dollar carryover for office to housing conversions from this year, and I just want to make sure that that is checked in on and just clarified because I would hate to um have discussions about what else could happen with that money if the intentions were here to capture for the 2026 budget, just kind of becomes a mute point.

Um, but uh that's one thing, and then I'll hand it over to Commissioner Naker.

Thanks, Chair Johnson.

I I just wanted to, I know we got super in the weeds, and I think it's funny how we always apologize for getting in the weeds, which is literally our job.

Um especially when it comes to budget.

But I I do want to just step back and thank you so much for your leadership on this.

You have taken such a close and careful look at this budget and proposed something that I think when you when you do step back, what we're seeing here is a budget that solves for so many of the things that we want to see.

Um, I want to particularly highlight um your partnership on making sure that we have the five million dollars for downtown and your support in um proposing a really specific program for using those dollars and getting those dollars out the door so that they don't just sit.

Um also moving the district council funding out of CDBG.

I don't think we can say loudly enough how much of a difference that is gonna make for our district councils.

The only reason that all of our district councils are, I would say held hostage to all of these requirements is because some of them have this requirement of federal funding, and by moving that out and also making sure we're fully funding the request, um, they're getting more money and they don't have the strings attached.

So uh it's just it's huge.

It's gonna make all the difference in the world.

And then finally, um shouting out to getting all the money for our commercial corridors um organizational assistance program, which we still need a new name for.

I can't stand the CO app, whatever.

But I love the program, and those dollars have flown out the door, they've made a huge difference to our community.

And with this budget, we're also making sure we keep that at the 1.4 million that we had last year.

So I just I I love everything that's happening here.

I think that there's a lot of shifting around and a lot of uh it's kind of hard to see it when you just look at the um the PowerPoint, but really a great budget.

Um thank you so much, uh Commissioner Naker.

I really appreciate that, and I've appreciated the just the um partnership too of our teams, um, being able to kind of walk through multiple iterations.

I always say that I think one of the most the two real key valuable um folks, this budget cycle and the folks that have been really everybody has been wonderful, like all of our team has been really amazing.

But we have Jules and Jims and uh Deputy Director Green and uh Chief Budget Officer Kamud Verma, which we just do, and I think that that goes without saying, and then in the communication with uh Director McMahon on just being able to be like here we're here's what we're doing, you know, both of like both of us being able to maneuver this as myself as chair this this year go around and then also um as intro director this year around, and we're both working to figure that out.

But for sure we have like hidden gems in our in our um in our finance swanks in uh deputy director green and community for sure and helping us find some of these locations, but your help and your clarity as well, commissioners have been really helpful to identify like clear priorities that we carry as a body.

So that has been really helpful to um just knowing where to go.

Commissioner Kim.

Yeah, I also would like to glob on to the thanks today.

Um, a because uh having also managed a budget process um with Chair Yang, I just really want to commend you.

I felt like my priorities and specific asks were represented well and carried through.

Um, and just an incredible like amount of detail.

Like I learned so much about the HR budget this year, HRA budget this year, um, and kudos to you on it.

And then lastly, um, as the very interim budget chair and in partnership with Chair Yang, which will start December 3rd, actually.

I think officially we'll be back from attorney leave.

Um, there were some budget solves that we didn't have in our budget, and you stepped in as the HRA chair to be like, I think we can we can make these happen.

So the teamwork to ensure that all the council's priorities were um not only identified but also funded.

Um was just a great team effort, but a huge kudos to you for stepping in and say, I think we can find money here for this.

So I just really appreciate that partnership a ton.

So thank you so much.

Oh, that's nice.

I'll just sorry, I'll add on to that.

Um you know, serving with you as the vice chair this year for the first time.

I also learned a lot and really appreciated all the work that you put into the budget and just the creativity um and effort that you brought to find those sources from all the different funds.

Um I'll just highlight, I mean, a lot of really great stuff in here, but I really particularly appreciate the funding for the district councils.

I know last year that was something that um a priority that you and I talked about.

I know that our council shared um and we didn't get in the budget last year, but we got some money in this budget this year, and then even more because of um of the work that you've done with our with our with our budget, and so really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Um we uh we do have a few minutes, and I um I've committed to trying to make sure that we don't go past 315 for pieces, but thank you, uh, Director McMahon.

I want to transition a little bit, and but it's related to talk about the downtown vitality fund, uh, Commissioner Neaker, in part because all of our commissioners have heard about this five million dollar investment in downtown uh through multiple conversations with Commissioner Naker, but also I know Commissioner Naker has been doing a lot of work within her own uh board as well to hear a little bit more about this downtime investment.

And so you should have an additional handout with you about the about the fund.

And I just asked Commissioner Naker to come uh prepare to talk a little bit more about it, share some key things that she wanted, and I know that this has been shared with you all and is now available for public record.

If you have questions about it, this is something that we are also considering as an additional uh one thing I heard last year's feedback whenever uh commissioners would like to see maybe something not necessarily different, but as an addition to uh budget item, especially as it relates to the HRA.

Uh it's it's transformative and important for staff to know exactly where they're coming from so they can adjust to it and also simultaneously I anticipate over the next couple of weeks first have to be included in that process.

But for sure, like when we're looking at what the you know what our options are and where we go from here, I wanted to be able to give some time to Commissioner Nicker to talk about this and and an opportunity for us to ask any questions we had.

Thank you, Chair Johnson, and thanks for your partnership on this.

I uh um I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk briefly about this, and then really this is um an initial conversation and look forward to your feedback.

But the goal here is to propose a very specific program for the five million dollars that is already being budgeted.

So this is not a new fund or new money, um, but this is the five million dollars that the mayor proposed that we're currently projecting to fund in this upcoming HRA budget.

But as we all know, it's not enough just to put money into something and uh give it a headline.

What we really need to do is give it a program and to be as clear as possible about how that money will go out the door so that it does go out the door.

Unfortunately, we saw last year we did allocate a million dollars for downtown permit waivers, none of those were used.

Um, and so we really want to make sure that we do things differently this year and get um very concrete about the program early on, not once we've adopted the budget, take a few months to figure out the program, but figure out the program along with the budget so that those dollars are ready to go out the door on day one.

Um so I've developed this in conversation with uh Chair Johnson with the downtown alliance and downtown development corporation as well as some downtown developers.

Um, and and really the purpose is to make downtown more inviting, walkable, and safe by catalyzing both residential and retail development.

Um, those are both critically important because they tend to be self-reinforcing, right?

If you have a lot of people living downtown, they can support retail, and so you tend to see retail follow.

But in order to get people to want to live or work downtown, you need to see retail because that's what makes the streets vibrant, and that's what makes them feel safe.

And that's what gives people the opportunity to buy things that they need for their jobs and their lives.

Um so the goal here is to catalyze both of those: three million dollars for new housing development and two million dollars for street level retail, focusing on primarily the streets that are in the downtown investment strategy that are prioritized for development.

Um the idea is to make the funds easy to use.

So while sometimes we are used to putting a lot of different requirements on our funding, um, and of course, our normal requirements any time we put dollars into a project, um 88 per failing wage, etc.

will apply.

But rather than adding more and more requirements, um, the goal here is to really keep it very simple.

So, as you'll see for the new housing development, the idea is to just sort of blanket, say, 10,000 dollars per permitted housing unit to be issued with the building permit or potentially with the certificate of occupancy.

And Director McMahon and I are still in conversation about what's the right point.

But sort of once the building has been built, uh these dollars will be will be yours on a first come first served basis.

Um they can also be used, you know, to to compensate for any development expense, acquisition, pre-development, so um making it as flexible as possible, and there's no requirement for affordability.

Again, this is just we want housing built downtown.

Um, and we are going to um incentivize that.

The second pool is for street level retail, um, and it can be used by a new tenant or an existing tenant for build-out, for tenant improvements, for facade improvements, anywhere in downtown, but again with priority along those key streets, which are Kellogg, Fifth, Robert, and Wadisha.

Um the goal would also be to prioritize projects that aren't receiving other city dollars, so that we are not um supplementing our city dollars, but we are we are supplanting them, and then we have more of our dollars available to use elsewhere on other projects.

Um the proposal here is for this fund to be managed by the downtown alliance, uh, mostly for streamlining and simplicity.

The downtown alliance is able to get dollars out the door more quickly than we are, and we know that our city staff are uh have a lot on their plates already, so trying not to give them yet another thing to do.

Um, I'm grateful that the HRA budget actually adds staffing for example our commercial corridors program and other projects, but we don't want to create a whole new program that overburden staff that have to administer.

Um, and then we would ask that the downtown alliance would report back to us twice per year on what disbursements they've made and anybody who's applied and not been funded, just so we're able to keep that oversight.

Um and the proposal finally is for this to for the street level retail to be structured as a forgivable loan.

So essentially, three years after you've been in the space, um the loan is forgiven.

So there's a bit of a incentive, a carrot to um not just open downtown but to stay downtown.

Um and then finally, and this is important right now.

There's a three million and two million dollar sort of split between the five million.

Um however, it was it was um very apparent to me in my conversations with the downtown alliance in particular that it might be much easier to move the retail than to move the housing, just because it's easier to expand an existing business or move a business in than it is to convert an entire office building into housing.

Um, and so the the asterisk there is to say that if the um if either one of these is exhausted first that that don't those dollars can be used for that use.

So if we have three million dollars for new housing and there's more housing coming and not retail coming, then we can use um the additional two million for housing.

If retail is going crazy and we're not seeing a lot of demand for housing and we've exhausted the two million for retail, then we can use um some of the housing allocation for retail.

So kind of whichever one is um most in demand, we're not gonna hold the other pool um constant because again, the goal is to get the dollars out the door, whichever one is moving more quickly.

Um, I will say there's some limitation in that we can't um we can't use our laha dollars for retail, we can only use our housing trust fund dollars, so the max that we could put into street level retail would be 3.25 million.

Um, but we can go, you know, 1.25 above the 2 million if that were moving faster than housing.

So I think I will pause there.

That was a lot of talking.

Um I would welcome questions, welcome comments, and again, this is really in pencil.

It's for your um for your feedback.

Um, but my goal would be to get your feedback to revise this and to have something ready to officially launch at the same time as we adopt our budget on the third.

A couple a couple things um for note just because I had a chance to kind of go a little bit further in a review.

Um, with Laha being the funding source for the three million and the housing, I do think 1.75 million would be restricted to the affordability constrictions of Laha funding.

So that might just be a mental note of like um, whereas 1.25 million of that three million would not be, uh, there still would be an affordable housing restriction on 1.75 million of it.

Thank you.

That is a good point.

Um, just uh because of the state statute and uh this and I think separately to the the questionslash I don't expect really a response, but I think it would be really helpful to um to make sure too that the two million dollars for street level retail while it's an allocation to downtown alliance does touch base with um our economic development team as well, just to make sure that they're um included in the process itself.

So those are my two nods of just like where um how that changes because I don't know if retail was in the original proposal at all.

Um I think it was mostly just for housing and office housing conversions with the um piece there, but I think it just might be helpful to close that loop.

And I'm actually supportive of uh, you know, I think especially with so much of the things that we have heard from our downtown community.

I want to see this five million dollar investment, and I've shared that with you too, like move out the door in 2026.

And so um, you know, if this is a means to do that and to make sure the investments actually, because I anticipate further investment in future years um uh for downtown, and overall know that like this is a multi-year project, and so any time we are putting money somewhere and it's staying in our budget, it's just feels like it's kind of defeating its original purpose.

So those are my two nods.

Like I'd love to see to know kind of the economic development standpoint from their division from Director Lloyd and staff, and then the uh the housing piece I just wanted to note for your awareness.

Thank you, Chair.

And you're right, I think Laha dollars are restricted to 80% area median income.

Um shouldn't just close to market right now.

Yeah, yeah, I was like, shouldn't impede certain things.

Yep.

And I know that we discussed that, but there's a little restriction now for any of the housing trust fund dollars, that's not the case.

Yep.

No, thank you.

And your point about coordination with PD is well taken, and absolutely I will add that in.

I think, especially given that we want to prioritize projects that haven't gotten other funding from the HRA or the city, then we would need the downtown alliance to be talking to staff to coordinate that and I will say that we increase the staffing for the corridor funding to a full-time person with the anticipation that they could help if that was needed to so commissioner Joe Vice Chair Joe, and then I think Commissioner Yang, I saw your hand, and then we'll end with Commissioner Bowie.

Y'all are just gonna have to lower me to the council meeting out.

I'm sorry.

Um, but yeah, Vice Chair Joe's go ahead.

We all know where I work.

Yeah, I would appreciate.

I didn't know if we had time for questions.

Really quick comment.

Um, I uh the only comment I had about the the three million housing and the two million for street level um is like I know some of these housing projects take longer to kind of come to fruition and to get their funding, but I think my understanding, and maybe the downtown alliance can provide this this feedback, um, is knowing the commitment is there is kind of what keeps developers at the table.

Um is like I know some of these housing projects take longer to kind of come to fruition and to get their funding, but I think my understanding, and maybe the downtown alliance can provide this this feedback, um, is is knowing the commitment is there is kind of what keeps developers at the table.

Um and so I I think it would still take longer for you know that money to go out the door.

I'd like to see it would have been nice for five million to go out the door next year, but I know that can be challenging.

And so I just would want to make sure that we will still get, I think based on some of the requirements between Laha and the Housing Trust Fund money, like we'll still get there, but I I do want to make sure like we do still get those housing projects and developers know that like we do want to still do this here, even though we're kind of breaking it out that way.

Yeah, thank you, Ms.

Justin.

Absolutely.

I think that's a lot of that will be about um I think we are messaging that, and we will continue to message that.

The the only reason I actually considered adding in the retail was from the feedback from the downtown alliance that just said they actually said we could use the entire five million on retail in 26, no question, and that would actually spur housing.

Um but I know that this body feels strongly about the housing, so it's um so yes, okay.

Yes to both.

Thank you.

Yeah.

It sounds like a really great planet.

I was just wanting more clarification.

Is this proposal um something that already has the support from the downtown alliance and also from PED too?

Uh thank you, Ms.

Yang.

It has the support of the downtown alliance.

Um PED.

So it's also like those conversations will be had.

Right.

Oh, okay.

Okay, great.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can just chime in.

So we I we just got this.

So I'm still looking at it.

I uh sent um I sent Commissioner Naker a bunch of questions so we can follow up and communicate on that how it would work.

Great, thank you.

Commissioner Bowie, we'll end with you.

Yeah, no questions because I think we want to give us some times, but I do want to just be able to highlight that I do appreciate I'm just seeing this, this pilot, this model um of like uh retail activation, and you are aware of just like some of the challenges, particularly in the midway, and how you know we're always looking at ways that we can utilize our policies and processes to just you know help activate and get tenants inside of our vacancy vacant buildings.

So I'm super excited to see how this unfolds in the next year, particularly um, just making sure we're bringing downtown to life and getting some some incredible businesses there.

So I uh I look forward to connecting with you, but I just wanted to share, you know, kudos to the PED team because you know we're always trying to figure out how we can you know increase our our retail.

So thank you, Ms.

Bowie.

Absolutely.

I think that um I agree with Commissioner Bowie on the sense that uh, you know, in so many places across the city a vitality fund is helpful.

And so just being able to see and learn from the first year, I think that's why it's gonna be so imperative that this um that we have resources to look from with this initial investment.

And I think it's always been a little bit of a pilot in the sense of right, this is an investment that we're taking um to see move.

So that's amazing, and I really appreciate Commissioner Nicker for taking the time to put this together.

I think it's really helpful and transparent.

And if folks have questions about this um particular, or when you sit with it, I know that was my experience.

I sat with it a little bit longer, and I'm like, okay, I have a little bit more questions.

Um feel free to reach out to uh Commissioner slash council president Naker with their addition questions, and I think just to the point of being able to hear back from PED and from the economic development team because we don't have another meeting before the third, maybe that update would be really beneficial to us.

All right, okay, so I'll give you guys pack some time without where adjourned.