So we're going to go through the middle of the little books that we've done.

So I don't think we've got to go to the record, but we'll several people over the report for the number of the public, but those reports are the reports, and then the record, though.

Jost.

Kim.

Here.

Here.

Yang.

Here.

Chair Johnson.

Here.

Seven present, zero absent.

And item number one is approval of the minutes.

M IN twenty six-eighteen.

Approval of the May HRA meeting minutes.

Our reading, I trust that everyone had a chance to to review these.

I'll take a motion from Vice Chair Joseph approve all those in favor.

I all those opposed.

Seven in favors, you're opposed.

The minutes are adopted.

Item number two is discussion item REST-six-eight eight nine.

Resolution of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority, HRA of the City of St.

Paul exercising the HRA's authority to opt in to and support the Ramsey County Economic Development Authority, EDA.

All right, so there it was several uh several different communication and discussion points last week.

We laid this over, so it's back in front of us.

Um I'm just going to look through my colleagues if there's any discussion on the item.

Council President.

I'm sorry, Commissioner Naker.

Thanks, Chair Johnson.

Um I I want to say that I really um first of all appreciate the time and attention that all of us have taken with this matter.

Um, grateful to the county and uh particularly to HRA Chair Zhang for the attention and the time that we've taken over the last week.

Um, something that's really important to me is that as we make this decision about a million dollars going towards economic development rather than to affordable housing, that we have a good sense and feel good about where those dollars are going.

Um, and I feel a lot more confident after the discussion that we had over the last week that um not just staff but also policymakers will be able to weigh into that and and help um guide those decisions.

So um grateful for the time and happy to support version two.

Thank you, Commissioner Naker.

I also just want to echo this and the appreciation for the extra time that was given, especially when there's questions or things that are uh arise last minute.

It's important for us to be able to take those concerns into consideration and also to be able to have a meeting to talk about that.

And so we were able to do that.

I think one of the things that's really important as well, and I appreciated the clarification from our attorney's office, too, is that right, not only are we opting in, but we're opting in for five years.

And I think being able to clarify that, you know, in this vote and this piece and what that means is just because by state statute, we actually will be able to to um revisit this conversation five years from now.

But just so people are clear on why that maybe was important to take another time pause and also to make sure that folks are on the same page because this is a million dollars for economic development, potentially roughly around there, um, within the city of St.

Paul, but it also is something that has not been done before and something that we would be doing for the next uh four consecutive years after this.

And so just something that I think is really important about the significance of this item for people who are looking and wondering, like what exactly this is and what it means.

Um, with that, we do have a version two in place, which is kind of talked about last week.

The discussion really primarily stemmed from the beat resolve clause that has now been removed in the version two.

So, with that, I will move the motion forward for version two of this item.

Uh, any further discussion or any questions?

Commissioner Bowie.

Chair Johnson, I just want to say I really applause how you know how transparent you have been about just the changes and also um the responsiveness in terms of making sure no um you know both parties are in agreement.

I just have a question particularly around understanding that we are removing that clause.

What does uh continue conversation around the spending plan and how the dollars are used and how the dollars will be allocated, um, which I think understanding these are two separate bodies, right?

The HRA, Ramsey County, and St.

Paul, you know, would we know is there understanding that they're they're invested in that collaboration, but I'm just wondering um what does that look like operationally?

Yeah, I think um I really appreciate the question, Commissioner Bowie, and I do see um deputy county manager Collins and County Commissioner Shong here as well.

And I think it's important for the county to be able to answer that with us too.

So I'm gonna invite them up at this time, um, because this was also something that we talked about.

As I mentioned during the discussion, one of the requests that we had was at the time was around maybe mutually beneficial language.

The resolve on the language front was that there wasn't necessarily a willingness to have different language in it.

Um it was really just an ask to remove the clause altogether.

But we did talk about some of that partnership pieces, but I think it's important for the county to reiterate to this body how you envision working directly with us with us as policymakers, and I think we even talked about in the meeting the difference between how the county runs and this body and why that was even put in in the first place, and also for my uh commissioner's awareness.

Um, we did also send this to send just the updates and the rationale behind the edits to Commissioner Ortega, Moran, Zhang, and McMurtry.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Um, and HRA commissioners.

Carrie Collins, Deputy County Manager for the Economic Growth Community Investment Service Team at Ramsey County.

Um, great question.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, not just today to speak on that, but for the conversations in the past weeks and months about this endeavor.

Um, I'll start and then Commissioner Zhang, if you want to uh jump in.

I'll just say from the staff perspective, you know, we have really been kind of trying to build out our small business programming um through the recommendations initially from our economic competitive competitiveness and inclusion plan, of which I believe some of you were part of that endeavor.

It called out a whole kind of suite of small business offerings that, to be frankly, we just haven't had the flexibility of funding sources to be able to, you know, provide investment into those areas in a really meaningful way.

And so through this opportunity of expanded HRA eligibility, we can carve out some of those funds to be able to do more with the programs available to us.

And so, you know, whether it be the programs that we offer now, such as our emerging and diverse developer program, open to business, CEO next, all of those programs were built on a healthy amount of community engagement and partnership with our city partners through one forum being economic development summits.

We host those quarterly, and uh staff from the in every corner of the county participate, community development directors, etc.

Um, city staff from the city of St.

Paul have historically participated.

Uh but we want to ensure, you know, as previously mentioned that we extend an offer to all of your legislative uh aids uh assistance to be a part of that going forward as well.

Uh, that's we use that body as a sounding board for programming to ensure that we're not creating programs that aren't going to work with our communities, that are duplicative, but are truly complementary to the programs that municipalities are providing as well.

And you know, as of now, we've got this big spreadsheet that will be at our next economic development summit coming up here in July that demonstrates, you know, checkpoints where all of the municipalities are offering a range of services.

The state offers a range of services, small business support organizations, small business development centers, and exploring where those gaps are, and we'll want to take in feedback for the program refinement aspect of this endeavor.

So it doesn't stop today with your consideration of opting in.

It continues to be refined as we go through the remainder of the year, and it continues to be refined year after year to ensure that the programs that we're delivering are meaningful, that are uh being well received by community, and that's going to take a lot of evaluation and partnership with all of you and your communities.

And so, with that, I'll I'll let Commissioner Zhang take it away.

Um, thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, commissioners, I might Chang Zhang, I represent um District 6.

Um, I'm also the chair of the county's HRA.

Um, again, thank you for the opportunity to have many conversations with you all about this in terms of the spending and the input point.

Um County Manager Becker followed up with an email that uh lays out uh some of the spending areas and those buckets that were named um five core areas.

Um, and I I just also want to say that you know, this is a moment where um uh many of our community members have also been asking um uh of us in a time where all of our budgets are uh being stretched, and we all have to be able to respond to you know the dismantling of our social safety nets.

Um more than ever, we are going to going to need uh to build up our uh economic resilience and resiliency in our communities, and um we see that as the the affordable housing and economic development is on the same side of the coin, right?

Um on both sides of the coins, and um I just share that to say that the input that we receive are definitely from community members, and in addition to that, it's also from you all, in which uh our commissioners also have deep relationships with our local electeds, including this body as well.

And uh I just also want to give an example of uh building stronger together when we laid out um our big bold investments that signal to our communities about where those dollars were where we wanted to invest, and so partners such as the City of St.

Paul public works department was able to reach out to us and say, hey, we have this uh deadline due to to leverage and get um uh federal funds.

Can you be can you send in a support letter?

And that took a weekend of work for the county manager's office to say we we've I signaled this to community, we can move dollars from here to go directly here.

So that's just an example where it came back to the policymaker.

So I I just share that as an example of to say that this is how policymakers provide the input and uh the approval, and we are um that says with uh our relationship with the other HRAs are definitely where um anytime we see that come uh come across our table, like those are the questions we are asking about where our partners are at and who's asking for that support.

Uh council uh sorry I keep doing that.

Commissioner Naker.

Thanks, madam chair, and just to your question also, Commissioner Bowie.

Um, I think the as Chair Zhang mentioned, one of the pieces of information we now have from County Manager Becker is not just the buckets but also the amount allocated to each of those buckets, which is a level of specificity that we didn't have before.

So again, this is all work that has um really under the chair's leadership happened over the course of the last week.

That makes me feel a lot more certain about exactly where these dollars are going to go.

And I think just kind of following through, and I'll share with our colleagues my intentions and what I shared on the call was that we would be able to also make sure that um commissioners here have a pathway to ensuring that our county commissioners know at least where some of our interest lies from the buckets that are given and from the how.

Cause I think one of the biggest things about this conversation has been where and how we orchestrate city feedback, council feedback into uh the county process trigger boarding, um, but also just being able to have a formal channel for that.

I think it's gonna be really important.

So we will most likely follow up with just an input and I encourage uh count uh council members to send their legislative aids as a part of that discussion because that was something that came out of it.

I know I'll be planning to talk to mine when she returns.

Um, so seeing no other questions, I'll take a motion then from Commissioner Naker to Well, I already made the motion.

So uh all those in favor?

I all opposed.

Thank you.

Seven and zero opposed.

Resolution is adopted as version two.

Item number three is resolution 26-792.

Resolution appointing Melanie McMahon as the executive director of the housing and redevelopment authority of the city of St.

Paul, Minnesota.

Alrighty, I um also move the version two for this one as well to approve.

I will take some time and take a pause for comments from my colleagues and or any questions that may come up.

Okay, seeing none.

Um I personally just want to share that one of the reasons why we wanted to bring this forward um in this process as well, is because I think one of the things that's going to be really important moving forward is the partnership that exists between our um current planning economic development director and our now uh if this is approved, our now executive director um of the HRA at the city, and we've shared a lot of different comments over the course of the last couple of weeks, so I won't belabor the point and just simply say we look forward to being able to work with you and what the road looks like ahead, especially for the HRA and the HRE budget process and the work plan that we have been able to share, and we look forward to being able to support your leadership in that role.

Um, so all in favor?

I made the motion.

I did.

And it was to approve a version two.

Got it.

No problem, Kelly.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

Seven in favor, zero opposed.

Resolution is adopted as version two.

Item number four is a staff report SR 26-111.

Introduction to Gulchier Plaza TIF, District 17, Ward 2.

You all may see a display um familiar face coming up to the podium as we had an extensive conversation both with CDBG and TIFF this morning.

Uh, you know what, Ms.

Wolf, we've been able to spend a lot of time together today.

So welcome back to the seventh foot of the HRA in regards to TIFF.

I'll hand it over to Director McMahon and thank you so much for being here again.

Yep, just thankful for Ms.

Wolf being here and presenting again.

This is introduction of the items so action would be before you in two weeks.

Yeah, one week.

One week, isn't it?

One week at the next HRA meeting.

Um, and I know Ms.

Wolf had reached out previously, but again, if there's any follow-up between this week and next, we're happy to answer any questions as well if you think of them after today's presentation.

Thank you.

Um good afternoon, Chair Johnson and Commissioners.

Um, I guess I just want to know how much time I have.

The presentation does kind of give background of TIFF and I kind of skipping over some of that and just focusing on this request.

Okay.

Yeah, I think because we were so close with the TIFF presentations, I feel like you are more than welcome to skip directly to what the project is.

Alright, sounds good.

Thank you.

Um, so this project proposed uh project located at 175 5th Street East across Sibley Street from Mears Park, includes the conversion of the Gultier Plaza office floors into 166 units of market rate housing, and that will include 29 studios, 82 one-bedrooms, and 55 two-bedroom units.

The initial rents are deemed affordable to households with incomes from 60 percent to 100% of AMI, and Gultier Plaza is on the National Register of Historic Places and will need to follow the Secretary of the Interior standards during the renovation.

Improvements will be made to the Skyway level and other public areas at the street level, including sidewalk improvements.

And by way of comparison, here is a photo of the current office area, which has been vacant for many years.

Bigo Skulltier LLC purchased the office structure in 2019 with the intention of converting the office space to rental apartments.

However, development plans stalled due to COVID.

Bigo Skulltier LLC applied to the HRA requesting tax increment financing to advance the redevelopment to produce market rate rental units.

An initial step in this process is to ensure the statutory requirements to create a redevelopment TIFF district can be met.

Um therefore the HRA retain the services of LHB to complete a study and their professional with their professional experience, and they've determined the building does qualify with significant code deficiencies and it qualifies under the statute as a substandard building.

This shows a map of the proposed TIFF district, and it's in within the existing seventh place project area downtown.

It includes the office tower and just the Skyway portion of the Y, the old Y parcel, which parcel was uh purchased by Bigos in 2021.

The parcels um comprising the proposed TIFF district are currently within the Minnesota Event TIF district, and they will need to be removed as part of the uh requested action.

The developer and owner of the property is Bigos.

Gultier LC.

I'm sorry, we have a quick question from Commissioner Naker.

May not be quick, just gonna answer.

Um, thank you, Chair Johnson.

I'm I'm curious in part because we are I think using this as a case study from our previous um the information we gleaned earlier this morning.

Um I'm wondering how we determined that this would be the project area, and if you can say a little bit more about what the implications of the project area are.

Chair Johnson, um Commissioner Naker, so being that this is an existing in an existing TIFF district, that TIFF district is in an existing project area.

Although project areas can overlap, TIFF districts cannot, and our approach has been to if if the property is in a project area, we just default to using that same project area.

The project area is where you can expend the tax increments under your pooling if you're not doing qualifying affordable housing, which can be citywide.

So if if we were gonna do other public improvements outside of the TIFF district boundary, they would need to be within the project area.

But this new TIFF district within the existing project area will mean that more dollars are available to be spent in this project area coming from this district.

That is correct.

Thanks.

Sorry.

Um the developer and owner of the property is Bigo Skulltier LLC, and Bigos is the managing member.

Bigos is a real estate development and property management company in operation since 1984.

They own over 50 multifamily projects with 10,000 units throughout the metro area, and they own and operate 1,500 units downtown, including Kellogg Square, Gultier Towers, Mears Park Place, Lowertown Lofts, and the Cosmopolitan.

They operate the former Y MCA under the name SkyRec as an amenity for existing residents, and the space would be available for the new residents in Gultier Plaza.

The units within Gultier Plaza will not be income restricted, but the initial proposed rents will be affordable to households with incomes from 60% to 100% of AMI.

The rents are shown here by a unit type, and they range from $1,125 for a studio to $2,800 for a two-bedroom unit.

And for reference, we've included the income levels as most recently published by HUD, showing $55,150 is a one-person household income in a one-person household at 60% AMI.

So that's the you know household qualifying for one of the studio apartments.

And then a two-person household at 70% AMI is $73,640.

And then lastly, a two-person household at 100% AMI would be 105,200.

And the table in this slide shows kind of where the unit types are and the income.

And this shows that 37% of the units have the proposed initial rents affordable to households at 60% AMI.

But again, the units will not be income restricted, which would be what is required for affordable housing.

This shows the project sources and uses.

So the total development cost is just over $56 million, and it includes the two HRA sources, the TIFF pays you go note, $4,560,000, and then a TIFF spending plan forgivable loan of $650,000.

And then the other sources include the private loan and equity of the developer as well as equity generated from the historic tax credits, and that's both state and federal historic tax credits.

So the proposed HRA assistance includes the pay as you go TIFF note, and we would pledge 65% of the collected tax increments to maximize the pooling within the district, and up to $650,000 in spending plan TIF to reimburse the developer for their city permit fees and the cost of public improvements, including the Skyway level.

The spending plan TIFF loan will be forgiven upon project completion.

I'll just give a little background on the spending plan TIFF.

So last December, the HRA approved an amended and restated spending plan that included interest earnings on our transferred tax increments.

That is the source for this, 650,000.

The current expected total interest that we have available is about a million.

So that does leave dollars available for other projects.

The required projects will need to commence construction this year, and we have to disperse the dollars this year, and the project has to include new construction or substantial rehab.

So that's the same as what was qualified required under the spending plan law.

So I'm going to gloss over the background on TIFF.

I'll just reiterate that I shared this by chart earlier, but this is the proposed distribution of taxes for the Gultier Plaza TIFF district.

And then now I'm on to slide 15 here with the Minnesota event TIFF District Amendment.

So because the parcels proposed to be in the new TIF district are in an existing TIFF district, the HRA board will have to adopt an amended plan that will remove those parcels.

So they'll take them out of the district, and the resulting Minnesota Events TIFF district will be you know smaller by the amount taken out.

The impact is minimal to the Minnesota Event TIF District.

It currently generates these parcels currently generate $14,532 of HRA collected increments.

So the Minnesota Events TIFF district does collect increment, and then we have to pay the county's share back to them.

So this represents the amount that is retained by the HRA under the amended Minnesota Event TIF District Plan, which is to provide capital improvements to the River Center arena and adjacent areas.

The Gultier Plaza TIFF plan was prepared by PED with input from Ramsey County.

The expected taxable value is 28,552,000.

This is 172,000 a unit.

This results in an increased market value of 26,754.

The HRA will elect to first receive tax increment in pay 2029, and that our final collection would then be in 2054, which is 26 total years.

The projected annual increment collected upon completion is 484,930 per year, which results in a total tax increment collected of 12,609, and at least 25% of the tax increment will be pooled for qualifying affordable housing projects, and that's estimated at 3,750, and then up to 10% for admin, and then this is the budget that is included in the TIFF plan.

Aside from the tax increments collected from the property is interest earnings.

So that brings the total spending budget to $13,109, and then the last item listed is the interest.

So that's the interest that is due under the pay as you go TIFF note to reimburse the developer for their eligible costs in the principal amount of $4,560.

As discussed other times, we did engage Ellers as our municipal advisor to evaluate the developers' performa, their costs of the project and how they would operate the project to make sure that they need the TIFF.

Ellers provided a memo to us, and I'll just say that one of the changes that we have done is their memo is now an exhibit to our TIFF plan, and our TIFF plan is available now for public because we did publish the notice.

If anybody wants a copy of that, otherwise it'll be attached to the action next week.

So the memo from Ellers is included in that TIFF plan, as is the LHB full report.

So that is something that's been a change in our practice.

And let's see.

So Ellers concluded that the project needs the TIFF in order to happen.

For the TIFF development agreement, so we will the development agreement will authorize the HRA to issue a TIFF note up to the maximum principal amount of $4,560.

The note would be issued upon completion of the project.

So the developer has to, you know, secure the funds to build the project.

And then we will issue the TIFF note.

Um would be up to the maximum of $650, and again that'll be determined based on the actual eligible costs.

And then the development agreement will also have a look back provision, which will allow us to make sure that all the estimated projections for the cost of the project and the operations of the project are actually what is are occurring, and that the developer is not being over-enriched.

The look back will have uh will be done at the time the project is completed to validate all of the costs, and then when the project is stabilized its operations to validate the operating revenues and expenses, and then lastly, if the project is sold.

And then just real quick: the compliance tax increment financing of this amount triggers all of our compliance areas, prevailing wages, affirmative action, vendor outreach, living wage, project labor agreement, sustainable building ordinance, and HRA2Bid policy.

And lastly, we will be looking to have action on this item next week, June 10th.

Again, the action will include the amendment to the Minnesota event TIFF plan and then the establishment of the new TIFF district adoption of a TIFF plan and execution of a development agreement.

Adam Newman from Bigos is here if there are questions of the developer about the project.

Otherwise I'm done with my material.

Thank you, Ms.

Wolf.

Are there any questions that folks have or any comments that they'd like to share around the item?

Commissioner.

Thanks, Madam Chair.

I I don't have any questions.

Thanks so much for the helpful presentation.

And I'm going to save the bulk of my comments for after the public hearing next week but I do want to recognize and thank Mr.

Newman for being here today.

Wonderful thank you and and likewise just more so for the interest of time for today but I genuinely appreciate any time that we have our developers in the room as well and so if we have a couple more updates today I won't invite I won't invite um Mr Newman to the front but if we do have additional questions and we want to hear from him at the next meeting I'm happy to do that.

Petting into the next item as well but appreciate you miss wolf.

Item number five staff report sr 26-112 introduction to the acquisition of 259 University Avenue Westrict 7 ward 1.

Director McMahon yes thank you this is an introduction to the item there will be action for consideration next week we have Jonathan Reaster here to provide the update.

Welcome welcome we're getting it put up on the slides that's probably fine anyway right.

Jonathan if you press control L at the same time it should be expanding.

Thank you Chair Johnson Commissioners again I'm Jonathan Reaster Principal Project Manager on the economic development team and today I'll be talking about I'll be introducing the resolution approving the acquisition of 259 University Avenue West.

Also as stated 259 University Avenue West is in ward one district 7.

It is near the corner of University Avenue and Gultier Street about halfway between the green line stops of Capitol Rice Street and Western Avenue it is surrounded by six HRA owned parcels that are known collectively as the Saxon Ford site as there was a Ford dealership under that name previously these HRA owned parcels were acquired between 2006 and 2009.

The Sherburn Avenue parcels used to be single family or duplex sites.

All three Sherburn Avenue parcels are now currently vacant lots structures on them were demolished either before the HRA acquired them or just after the University Avenue parcels were commercial sites.

This is where the Saxon Ford dealership operated.

All three are vacant as well, but 253 and 255 each have buildings on them that are registered with the city as category two vacant.

And 263 is paved and a vacant lot as well.

Among the funding sources used to acquire these six parcels was a LAAND loan land, which stands for land acquisition for affordable new development, which requires that 20% of new housing units developed on the site would be made available at 60% AMI.

So the site will carry affordable affordable requirements when it is developed.

So why do we want to acquire 259?

Quite simply to create a more contiguous redevelopment site that allows for higher density development along the green line, which the T2 zoning district will allow for.

So if this item passes next week, the purchase agreement will become effective.

City Council would then need to approve the spending of CDBG.

That would hopefully be on the June 10th City Council meeting agenda as well, and then closing could be as early as June 11th.

Next steps include an environmental site investigation, which is a requirement of our CDBG usage, demolishing the building at 259 as well as the buildings on 253 and 255, and then assembling the site as one contiguous site and soliciting it for redevelopment.

Are there any questions?

All right, Commissioner Bowie.

Thank you, Chair Johnson, and thank you so much, Jonathan, for this presentation.

I do have a couple questions, but before that, I just want to just say I really am happy to see that there's some level of action being taken on this site when I think about living in this neighborhood for majority of my life and just seeing some of the safety issues and just really remaining vacant and um not having much of uh any uh opportunity or reimagination.

Um so I definitely am happy that there's um some attempt.

Um I also want to just ask, particularly just for the purpose for community education.

What is the current state of the building condition and like the the vacancy level?

Understanding that this is a very unique HRA property.

Um, majority of our HRA lots are just vacant lots.

Um, this is only uh I believe in Ward 1, aside from the Lexington Library that actually has a structure on the lot, but can you speak to the condition of that of the building?

Chair Johnson, Commissioner Bowie.

Um, do you mean the the 250 the building on 259 university or the buildings that are on 253 and 255?

All above.

All of the buildings, yeah.

The building that we're looking to acquire on 259 is is not vacant, it's occupied, or it has been historically occupied.

I don't know if it's currently occupied as it's been on the market, but that building is over 100 years old.

I'm not sure the age on the two buildings on 253 and 255, but they are both registered category two vacant, which means that they are unusable and condemned, I believe is the phrasing that DSI puts on that.

That's what I know about their status.

Thank you.

I do see a question as well from Commissioner Yang.

Thanks, Chair Johnson.

I appreciate their presentation here.

I was just wondering, can you clarify who the purchase agreement would be between?

Yes, I believe the entity is an LLC.

It's it's um 259 University Avenue LLC is the name of the um entity.

Um that purchase agreement will be attached to next week's uh action item as well.

Thank you.

Can you just also clarify as well regarding the CDBG funding, like where is that for the full acquisition amount and where are those funds coming from within CDPG?

Chair Johnson, that's a good question.

Um, I'm not sure exactly what bucket of CDBG these came from.

Um I don't know if we have someone that could answer that more in detail right now or if we'd have to get back to you on that.

Um yeah, I think it would be helpful as a follow-up.

We did have a presentation as well today on CDBG funding, and we kind of saw the full the full outline as well.

Um earlier during the budget and come uh the council budget committee meeting, but it would really be helpful.

I think to pinpoint where those dollars were coming from through these funds, just really just kind of thinking about the acquisition and what bucket it falls under, and in the space of operating clear with clarity and transparency.

I think it's just important for this body to know how those are designated and when we have projects that come up that fit or in alignment with them, how we're designating that for federal use, federal funding here.

So that should be really helpful.

Chair Johnson understood, and I'll look at the board report as well and see if that information is in there, and if it's not, see if there's time to update that board report with that information.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bowie.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

Um, and also on Jonathan, I have a question particularly around just procedurally.

Um, you know, I I believe I saw on the slides, I don't have it before we hear, but the next steps, like I understand this item is only pertaining to the acquisition, but they're also the acquisition with the um intent on um demolishing those buildings.

Can you speak to procedurally?

Um, or maybe Director McMahon, in terms of what are the additional actions with prompting this uh acquisition, does that automatically um requires us to do the demolition and then what is that procedurally in terms of the timeline?

Like if that's gonna be coming before us within the month of June, or what is the timeline in between the acquisition and sure.

I can speak to the first portion of it, um, Chair Johnson, um, Commissioner Bowie.

The uh there will it will take some time to do the environmental site investigation and and get ready to demolish the building.

So I don't think there would be anything in the next one or two months happening, um, but throughout the summer, we'd be looking to get moving on those those two items.

Um, as you know, probably historically we've we've had interest in this site before.

It's been a difficult site to to look at redevelopment options because of the one parcel that has been privately owned, so this does uh enable us to uh look at a wider variety of redevelopment uh plans and options for the site, which is uh exciting.

And um again, as you said, this is also just for the acquisition today and and next week for the action.

Um we will be working on the next phase, and we can be in partnership with you on on that as well.

And just to add to your point, Mr.

Reaster, is that we would be moving forward towards them demolition next.

There won't be like a year or gap of time between those steps, so it would be acquisition and then moving towards demolition.

Okay, yeah, I um I guess uh one of the things that just for clarification too um looking at the the amount of time I think we've owned the rest of the parcels.

Is it right that we've owned the rest some of the other parcels since 2009?

On the slide, I think that's what it's it was acquired by uh in 2009.

Yep, the neighboring parcels, and then the earlier parcels were acquired when all six were acquired between two thousand six and two thousand nine.

Okay.

I think as we continue to talk about um just you know HRA properties and ward by ward, it sounds like there's interest from ward one to see movement here on this on this project, and as we think about just what we're investing as well within HRA owned properties and our line items for our own development and what the opportunities are that present themselves across the city.

Um, you know, I I wonder how many of our HRE properties that we've owned for 20 years and think about what we can do to really get them off the ground running.

And so, but definitely welcome, especially as the process moves along.

Um, you know, if we continue, I'm assuming, presuming a little, that if we get through the acquisition and also the designations of funding, the demolitions that we would actually be able to see this project come forward.

If that's you know, um, for other like future redevelopment opportunities later on, especially because we've held on to some of the neighboring properties for so long.

And so I think the investment itself will be really important, and it'll be helpful to know with certain projects, especially those that we've owned for our 20 years plus, like what we think could get those moving, um, especially just because we don't want to acquire another building just to sit on it for a while.

Commissioner Bowie.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

I I also agree as well, we want to just see some level of movement, but we also want to make sure you know there's the education and there's like you know, the community input and engagement um part of it as well.

I don't uh I have a question, particularly around just like the financing.

It's really clear in terms of how much we're um um allocating to acquire the property.

But do we have the numbers in terms of how much we're gonna allocate to do the demolition?

And is that coming from the same source of the CDBG funds?

Chair Johnson, Commissioner Bowie.

Yeah, the reservation of funding from CDBG funds was for 700,000.

So there is an additional 100,000 that is available to use for demolition of these buildings.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Snarl.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Item number six is staff report SR26-113, the Highland Bridge update.

All right, so as a reminder to this body, we do ask um for updates to come to us from the Highland Bridge site every year.

And I look forward to being able to hear this one as well.

And so welcome and thank you for being here in person as always to deliver um this update.

Because we have an ending time, usually around three.

I'm gonna ask that we hold some of our also important questions, but to get through the presentation and then be able to to either ask the questions here or also be able to maybe compile them and ask them in a follow-up.

So depending on how much time is done, I don't want you to feel like you have to be rushed.

It's super important.

I want you to just be able to have a chance to go through that knowing the time constraints that we have ahead of time.

But welcome, thank you.

Thank you very much, Commissioner Johnson, uh Chair Johnson and uh commissioners, sorry.

Um uh most of you know me.

Uh, for those who don't know uh Sean Ryan, I'm a developer with Ryan Companies.

I'm uh overseeing uh portions of the Highland or the Highland Bridge uh development.

Um so I'm excited to be here again uh talking to you about uh the Albert, which is what we are calling the apartment building, formerly the gateway apartments.

Uh Outlaw B, which is Civic Square, uh the Southern Rohome uh land, and an update on block 11.

So I will start with the Elbert.

Um so um just to orient uh where we are on site, um this is uh really at the corner of Ford uh Parkway in Cretan.

Um this is a 97 unit residential market rate uh apartment building um with about 24,000 square feet of retail along Ford Parkway.

Uh we also have a second block with 13 uh thousand square feet of retail uh that Tier and Cantada will uh take over later this month.

Um and just to give a little um uh uh nod to to the name and why we chose it.

So Albert Kahn was the architect of the old Ford plant um and uh coined the con facade.

Uh so we are throwing an homage to him because we ended up putting uh parts of the old facade on our building facing Civic Square.

Um so since we last met in the fall, um this project has um uh carried through the winter and spring just uh very smoothly.

Um currently, we are uh undergoing unit finishes uh on all floors now, with owner punchless kind of progressing and complete on the fourth floor and working down.

Our first floor lobby and amenity spaces are ongoing.

Uh leasing begun last month.

I'm happy to say we have a uh number of leases, although we're still early, so uh time will tell.

Um, site walls, sidewalks, landscaping's ongoing.

So if you've been around the site, you're seeing probably most of our activity is on the exterior now.

Like I mentioned, the con facade is complete and up, and then we are tracking for an August turnover and first move-ins, which is ahead of schedule, which is uh great to see.

Um, so a couple quick, I'll kind of go through the photos quickly.

But um, picture on the left is a picture out of uh one of our third floor apartment buildings, so featuring you know the civic uh or the central water feature.

Uh picture on the right is our club room in uh fairly early state.

Um this is a fourth floor corridor, so as you can see, um, you know, we are through finishes on the fourth floor, and we have a finished unit kitchen here.

Um here's a rendering I like to show obviously this this uh an important aspect of this entire development is the shared space between the residential building and the uh daycare, and then through to the Marbella properties.

So that is the rendering.

This is a more grainy photo that I would like to see, but you can see that we still held that same that same view and um pedestrian pathway to the buildings.

Um so I'll jump into the retail on this block.

Um the retail shells are about 90% complete.

Uh site work, sidewalks and adjacent uh right-away work is ongoing, um, as well as landscaping and final grading.

Um as I mentioned, we'll turn over to Tier and Cantata at the end of this month, and they'll be beginning their build-out with the intent of opening uh directly uh at the end of their build-out.

Um and then a leasing update.

Um, while I would love to tell you uh more names, um, we're working with sign uh four assigned LOIs right now at various states and just working through the leasing um documents with those.

So um it is uh going very well on the leasing front, and you know, I'm hoping in the next two, three weeks we're able to share some of those uh tenants with you.

And then as you can see here, this is a uh a picture of the uh con facade that is now up on the building.

A couple more photos of the retail.

This is along Ford Parkway.

I know during you know, our zoning and entitlement phase uh there was a lot of discussion about um kind of meeting the street, Ford Parkway and the sidewalks, and our stepping down because of the severe grade uh change.

So as you can see, you know, each building slowly steps down uh to uh meet that 16 feet of grade change over the course of uh the two blocks.

And then a few uh photos of Tier and Cantata and the interior shell of that building.

Uh Civic Square, I'll op B.

So right on the corner of Civic uh, sorry, Ford Parkway and Cretan.

Um we have uh Civic Square.

Uh this will be a park owned by the Master Association and will be privately uh operated uh by that group as well.

Um I think um the biggest change from the last time I was in front of this group is we have decided on the central sculpture element, and we have two large freezes that came off the building that we are gonna showcase in in kind of the centerpiece there, and we really think that just you know connects what we did with the con facade on the building, the history of the site, um, and then bringing it to the park as well.

Um but the the park will have bench seating, you know, sidewalks and landscaping throughout, outdoor dining opportunities for the adjacent retail at the Albert, and then um again we're preserving that uh angled pedestrian connection down uh into Civic Plaza.

There's a further back picture of uh a rendering of the Civic Square, and that uh started construction uh this week, actually.

Um new to this update, but I wanted to share this because it's it's gonna be happening fairly very quickly, is the MI row uh MI Homes Row Home.

Uh this group is gonna be taking over the second phase of the row home product that Poulti started a few years ago.

Um they're looking for their first takedown of property uh at the end of this month or early next with starting construction, hopefully in July.

Um, but just will be, you know, a continuation of just this success that really you know was re-sparked on this site uh based on the actions of the city council last May, so um or two Mays from now, now that we're in June.

So exciting to see these um uh come to life.

So very similar product to the Pulti Row uh Row homes.

Um these will be three-story, three bedroom, two and a half baths, uh handful of of different models.

Um and like I said, uh construction hopeful to start in the next two months.

And then finally, uh Widener Apartment Homes, which would be on top of that.

Um so uh as many of you know or have heard, um Dean Weiner passed a few months ago.

Uh Dean was the owner and um and and really the leader of a Widener partner homes uh for the entirety of his life.

Um and he was a very active day-to-day manager um seeing all of the developments in the country.

Um so while you know the passing was it was a big um jolt and hit for Widener apartment homes.

Um we had been forecasting that this project was uh potentially gonna push about a year.

Um I'm happy to say that right now uh we are currently forecasting to bring that back and start at September one of this year.

Um so um uh still in the works, but we you know we had our um uh I think we're going in for permitting soon, and so all signs right now are are pointing towards a September one, which is just you know really important for the site overall just to continue seeing starts at Highland Bridge.

So that was a lot and kind of fast.

So any questions, thank you so much as well for just um the update, but also it's really exciting to see, and I'll just share that um you know the progress over time has been really um good to see the folks were also following through on what they shared that they would do.

So I think it's an attestement to also following through and performing well to the word that you gave um the team gave, right?

Um to making sure that this happened and that we went vertical and we continue to go forward and see progress on the site.

So this is all really, really exciting.

Also, it's very hard to even tell that um some of your renderings are renderings and not the actuals in the sense that there being a lot of accuracy within the renderings, especially just kind of from site to site.

So it's been cool to see someone who doesn't always, you know.

I represent the east side, so I don't always get out there um every single, you know.

They it's not my that's not on my commute at home, but it's definitely something that everyone is watching through and just wanting to see progress through it.

So really do appreciate you taking the time here.

Want to acknowledge, yes, the the significant loss that is involved with losing Mr.

Widener um to that to not only the project but to the team, to the family, to you know, those that are really close to him as well.

And I um it's great to see that there's progress being still made on the apartment part of this, but also just wanting to acknowledge that as well, um, and just sharing that like that.

It can be always challenging whenever um, you know, in a team project lose a team member as significant as that as Mr.

Widener was.

So thank you so much for you know still making the time to come out, and I know that that's part of why we wanted to push back this uh update a little bit as well to give some give some time and acknowledgement to that too.

But overall, really great to see.

Commissioners, are there any questions that you have uh for Mr.

Ryan?

Vice Chair Joe's.

Thank you, Chair Johnson.

Just a comment.

Um, I want to thank you for being here.

I really appreciate seeing the update.

And I um spend a lot of time nearby Highland Bridge or you know, running through the the site or the park, and so I um have been really excited to see everything that's moving forward.

I I'll be excited to find out who the tenants are gonna be in the new um are we calling the whole thing the Elbert now, or is it a little TBD, but no, it's the Albert.

I know names tend to change often until things are complete.

So um really excited to see that um and just appreciate you coming here, especially as Chair Johnson mentioned the circumstances with with Widener and my condolences to them.

I know that they're the times that I have met with them, they're all very close, and it's like a big family business, and so um, so I really will be thinking of them during this time.

But um, and just very much appreciate that things still seem to be on track.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

We appreciate it so much, Mr.

Ryan.

Thank you for coming in and for being here and for sitting through our uh robust meeting to be able to provide this important update that we all looked forward to.

Of course, commissioners, thank you.

That brings us to the end of our meeting.

We are adjourned.