Is watching on our YouTube channel as he is traveling today.

Good morning.

We're gonna start with the meeting of Board of Directors of the Syracuse Local Development Corporation.

We'll start with a roll call.

I'm Kathy Murphy.

So we'll not be present today.

Mike Cole.

The floor is yours.

There's really no changes since last week.

As you recall, SLBC.

Audit was extremely well, clean audit opinion.

As you know, you're kind of a winding down operations, and you notice in the past.

We're sitting at about 6753 of cash, which is just leftover cash.

It's just sitting there.

You're paying out a few bills, insurance, and you have a little bit of interest income.

That's entirely activity for the vocal year.

Internal control reports in there, really limited internal controls because everything's looked at is a campbowl of transactions and your uh investment reports of clean call and modified.

Everything's gonna be well.

Great.

Easy.

Thank you.

Questions?

Comments?

Concerns.

I'll just note that you know, as Mike indicated, we had no activity in the SLDC world this past year.

But there was a discussion at the joint finance and audit committee meeting about going forward, and we have determined that we will hold the SLDC open for now and consider possibly working with staff on what potential future project.

SLDC could be a participant.

If here there are no questions, concerns or comments.

Is there a motion to approve the audit as presented?

Motion made by Ken.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second, Steve.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed abstention.

Motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Michael, thank you.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

The SLDC.

Make a motion.

Motion made by Steve, second by Ricky.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

We are adjourned.

Thank you all very much.

I can go immediately.

Is that right, Eric?

I don't have to pause.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

I'm now calling the board of directors of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency.

March board meeting to order.

We'll start with a roll call of the board.

I'm Kathy Murphy.

Steve Thompson.

Ricky Brown.

McKinsey.

Good morning.

Dirk Sonenborn is traveling and not able to join us today in person.

He is watching, however.

Proof of notice was properly served.

I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of our last board meeting held December 16th, 2025, included in your packet.

Make a motion.

Motion made by Ricky.

Second, Ken.

Any comments, changes, concerns on the minutes?

If not, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Abstentions, motion carries.

Next item on the agenda is the committee report by Kathy Murphy.

We held a meeting of the joint finance and audit committee of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency.

At that meeting, the draft audit for audited financials for 2025 were presented and discussed.

I believe that there were no comments or changes to be made or concerns voiced.

There was a positive recommendation made by that committee for board approval.

Anything else for that?

No.

Okay.

Next first item on our agenda is Mike again from Grossman Sand and Amore presenting the audited financials for the IDA.

Michael, good morning.

Morning again.

More activity for uh the industrial development agency in your packages is the PowerPoint presentation we went through last week.

I'm just gonna jump just a couple quick slides, just so a big picture, but clean audit opinion unmodified, as you recall, uh no issues or concerns, internal controls and processes.

So that's a clean uh report too.

We jumped to basically slide eight, uh the kind of activity recall.

Uh we had about uh 2.8 million dollars of financing fees, primarily the two largest from Wilbur Avenue to North Side Genesee.

So it's a primary driver of your revenue source.

Um your biggest professional fees are contracts, uh biggest one was downtown committee for 309,000 is recall provides security, public space maintenance, and other items under contract with CIDA followed up by the Syracuse Tech Garden, uh which is going through center state for you know that contract of 250,000 uh work on the surgeuse housing strategy for the C Z B contract 127.

So your top five like payments out the door contract were about 80 percent of your expenses for the past year.

Overall cash increase 1.3 million dollars.

You're sitting at about 5.5 million dollars in cash.

Overall, excellent year.

Um no concerns or issues from the audit.

Um team went extremely well, everything went great.

Um Jack did a nice job.

As you recall, we did transition the accounting software to uh QuickBooks, and we were starting to leverage that as of the end of the year.

So that was a huge step forward for everybody to start using that.

We did audit the new QuickBooks by 123125.

Huge accomplishment.

That is congratulations, and thank you, Jackie and Eck for all that hard work and Eric.

Always Eric.

Um any comments, questions, concerns on the financials.

How good?

Oh, good.

Okay, that's great.

If there are no comments or concerns, I would entertain a motion to approve the audited financials for 2025 as presented.

Make a motion.

So moved by Ricky.

Is there second?

Second.

Second, Steve.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed abstention, motion carries.

And Mike, thank you very much.

Appreciate all your hard work and support all year long.

Careful walking home.

Yes, right.

Yep.

Um, next item on the agenda is a request by Gateway Syracuse.

GW Syracuse LLC.

So morning, everyone.

Uh, as Kathy alluded to, this is a request that came in from GW Syracuse to extend their agency agreement for one year.

Um this applicant originally um submitted in or around June of 2025.

They are looking to build at 706-08 East Genesee Street.

It's five parcels for over, I think 263 units or 283 residential units.

Um, they have been working diligently with New York State DEC in order to prepare the land and get it ready for the Brownfield uh cleanup program, which will inure a benefit to the project both by cleaning up and remediating the land, but investing tax credits into the project.

So, in doing that, um they need some additional time to finalize that and put their entire capital stack together.

So they're asking for an additional year under their agency agreement, which allows them more time before they close with us on their benefits.

So the extension would be through um, I believe July 29th of 2027.

Thanks, Sue.

You're welcome.

They're not seeking any new benefits or different benefits, they're just asking for more time to close.

Question?

Comment just a reminder, it's on a the former gas station on Amond Street.

So the Brownfield cleanup would be a great benefit for that project.

There is a modification to the unit change, and I think the project had gone through some revisions in the scope of work.

So I think the unit change has been there.

The unit count has been updated on the project.

I think it was slightly reduced due to some of the changes around the number of parcels involved in the project.

Although not a significant number of units there if it's fine, recollection.

Yeah, I don't have the exact unit count in front of me, I think.

But the 283 number, I think that the number of units has been scaled up.

It's not a significant.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yes.

Motion made by Ken.

Thank you.

Second Ricky.

Last call for comments.

Hearing none.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed abstention.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Next item on the agenda.

Um, you want to do CODA after EPA?

It's up to you, however, we want to understand the agenda.

Okay, next item on the agenda.

Is a uh discussion regarding the EPA grant, which we were awarded in the past year to year and a half.

Eric.

Yes, so good morning, everyone.

So uh as we have discussed uh with the board in the past, uh, the agency was successful in receiving a grant uh award from the EPA from the Environmental Protection Agency from a program called the Multipurpose Grant.

Uh and so the purpose of that is that CIDA owns the land at 341 Pete Street.

Uh looking at developing more of a formal strategy around assessing environmental contamination suspected and and and real.

And so uh over the last uh two months or so, uh the IDA issued an RFP, has gone through a process of identifying a uh qualified environmental professional or QEP is the acronym that the EPA uses that would basically be our consultant and and helping us develop a plan for the land that the IDA owns and then adjacent parcels where there may be opportunities for redevelopment.

Um I'm joined by members of the business development team, including Kevin Race and Patrick Forhees and Bree Hill, and then Cole King, who have been a part of this process.

Um, and so one of the things was as part of the RFP process, we convened a committee uh comprised of members of the neighborhood and business development staff, including myself.

We had um Kathy Murphy as chair, and then we also had uh Sue Katz office council.

So it's part of that process.

We did undergo uh an extensive review.

We received a total of five submissions, and as part of that, um ultimately the committee has made a formal recommendation uh, and and our recommendation before you today would be to move forward with Clough Harbor Associates or CHA.

Um, that being one of the five applicants, uh, we're really impressed with the information that they provided, their extensive experience doing projects in New York State and beyond, um, and really developed what we thought was um, I think the the strongest approach for for this particular site and for the agency.

Um I'm joined by members of the team that certainly can help answer any specific questions uh from the board if needed.

Um but what this would allow us to do is move forward and take the next steps on working with this consulting team, uh, doing a combination of uh greater site analysis and assessment, uh, really looking at uh market dynamics and where there could be uh what are the strongest opportunities for redevelopment and where the IDA own land fits in with the adjacent parcels, and uh this will be something we'll continue to share updates and and would work with the board on going forward.

So can I may I just add a little bit for the benefit of anyone who did not participate?

Um as Eric alluded to, there were five responses.

All five responses were highly qualified.

Four were selected for interview, one was not because there was a technical deficiency with that applicant, but the committee interviewed all four applicants, and all four attended and presented um to the board.

The board convened or the committee convened and discussed each one individually to the extent we felt we needed it.

We went back and asked additional follow-up questions.

So um you had a great pool of candidates to choose from.

But as Eric alluded to, this the recommended CHA just seemed to have the best fit for what uh we thought the board was looking for to accomplish the um goals of the grant.

Thank you.

Who from the business development team would like to come up and speak to us?

Kevin, Patrick, Brady.

Kevin.

Hello.

Name, please.

Uh Kevin Race with the business development team.

Morning, Kevin.

Good morning.

Do you want to add any additional information?

Is that for the board?

Yeah, I think Sue kind of um elaborated, but we had four out of the five, I would say, you know, five probably were all technically capable, but four of them really had um complete proposals, I would say, and then um interviewing them all.

Um it was clear that they're all you know capable of managing this project.

But we thought that CHA just kind of went above and beyond in doing their research.

They really spent a lot of time on their proposal investigating the four sites that are subject to the EPA grant.

Um it's pretty complex project, just with all the different varying levels of remediation and testing and cleanup that has been done.

We have 341 Pete Street, which has undergone you know, partial remediation, and then the other Winkleman parcels, which need a lot of work.

So it did require a decent uh bit of investigation and research.

And I thought that, you know, we all kind of thought that their proposal was the best, and also they have just a lot of capacity.

Um, and we really just like their materials and everything like that.

So I know that uh this was a competitive process.

I'm familiar with um at least two, if not three of the firms.

Were these all regionally based?

Are they all local?

Yep, they all have uh local presences, local offices, and CHA actually has an office right below uh the city over at one park place.

Could you also just talk a little bit about the BOA process, particularly uh with the Erie Boulevard focus that does include the parcels that we're talking about, including Pete Street, um, and just you know that the fact that that process is very much ongoing, the fact we have a consulting team already equipped that's working with the city side of it, but a lot that could complement this process with uh with with this funding from the EPA.

Yep.

Um so we're uh working through two um New York State planning grants from Department of State through their Brownfield Opportunity Area or BOA program.

Um so these are planning grants to get these two BOA plans designated one's for um you know the East Adams down to Colvin over to South Av side of town this other one is stretching from basically Krauss all the way to Thompson uh Burnett Ave all the way down to like East Fayette.

So this whole area is going to be designated a New York State brownfield opportunity area.

And basically you know it's we chose this area because there's a high concentration of brown fields contaminated properties or properties with sus suspected contamination vacant properties, vacant buildings along these stretches um and what this will do once we create this plan which we're in the process of right now we submit it for designation to New York State probably at the end of the year.

And then that unlocks pools of funding for New York State designated BOAs that can we can apply to year after year for thing pre-development activities things like phase one phase two environmental site assessments if we're trying to investigate contamination or engineering surveys um asbestos surveys architectural drawings and other what other types of studies market studies housing studies so it's really just like unlocking pools of funding that we can leverage year after year to try and advance uh redevelopment of certain parcels or just the area in general so this is going to be like a key site in that plan um and we can also leverage that uh grant to use all for all of our like community engagement and public engagement that's required through the EPA grant we can do that all through um our current planning process which is nice will these funds all be expended by the end of the I know that you're anticipating the end of the year for will they all be expended by then?

So um end of the year for the New York State grant we have until September 2028 to spend down the EPA grant and that's eight hundred thousand dollars.

So we expect to be able to spend them all before then because we don't we think the cost of cleanup for this Winkleman site is going to be more than that so um well that we don't see that as being a issue.

Correct.

Yeah and the the team we have in the room with us have really been the ones leading the charge Kevin and others um the BOA process is being led by the city itself the city was the awardee in this particular conversation around the EPA funding site uh the I the agency was the applicant and recipient but one of the things too is just we're all working very closely together um to make sure that those things are moving on parallel tracks.

Is this a one-time grant or are you able to reapply in future brand it's it's a one-time grant but we're going to leverage this QEP that we select to write us other EPA grant applications.

We actually aren't eligible SIDA is not eligible to apply for an EPA grant because we have an existing one that we haven't spent enough of so as soon as we start spending down this then we can apply for ideally like a cleanup grant.

Yeah and at the state level too the DEC and the department of state have programs so once you are designated a BOA as Kevin was talking about that opens up additional opportunity.

So that's the end of the year you're looking at for submission right submission to the state yeah and that'll just enhance state grant applications a lot of state grant programs questions they ask like are you in a state designated Brownfield opportunity area or a DRI area if you answer yes then your application gets like five points added to its score for the lawyer um what with with those sites parcels um you may have said this in the past are we does the city put liens against them or anything against the different Winkleman, Olin Murphy's if they okay they sit in place right you have to be able to collect them.

Yeah but yes to answer your question yes they have tax liens there's other yes that's just a reminder that this particular the EPA uh planning grant in particular was awarded primarily because we are the neighbor property to the Winkleman property.

So we own 341 P which we entered into a cleanup with DEC you may recall I don't know five years ago roughly I think and so that has been completed.

We've completed that phase with DEC on 341 P and then we were able to qualify as the neighbor to the Winkleman property for this EPA planning grant which hopefully will give us as Kevin and Eric said you know the goal obviously is I think it's 13 acres Kevin am I right?

I'm not gonna say shovel ready, but that we'll be in a position to present a conversation and a mark marketing opportunity, hopefully, for development.

Um that is the actually the primary goal, I hope, or one of the primary goals I should say, of the EPA planning grant.

Um we'll certainly have CHA present to this board when it's the timing is right after they've done some of the soil sampling, etc.

etc.

And they have an idea of how extensive or not, hopefully, uh the work is gonna be to get the site ready.

And um one thing that makes it so valuable to do this is neither the city nor SIDA can take advantage of a Brownfield tax credit program uh because you are a not-for-profit, so it doesn't mean anything to you, but those credits are incredibly valuable to a developer, and so to do this preliminary work and determine where it is and what level of remediation is required, positions the property to be put into the program, and just before you put it in the program, if you have a developer who's interested, you can transfer it, they get into the program, they get the credits, and then the development happens.

So it's a preliminary step to set the stage for that type of development and marketing.

We this is a site we have talked about for quite some time, but there are still key pieces of information that we really need to be fully investigated, and then that information will really help us determine next steps.

I think that what we are really determining is based on we had a number of different qualified applicants.

We think CHA best positions the agency to really get that information and then work together as a team on what the next steps are.

Thanks, Kevin.

Thank you.

Um questions, comments, concerns.

I are we doing a resolution selecting CHA?

Yes.

If there are no further questions or comments, I would entertain a motion to select CHA as the consultant for the EPA.

Thank you, Ricky.

Second, Steve.

Opposed abstention, motion carries.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you, team.

Gonna be fun.

Uh next item on the agenda is coda, a request from CODA.

This is really um an FYI for the board, so you remember may remember that the TLSP CODA project, which is up on uh Fayette Street, it's a big apartment complex.

Um they closed with us back in 2023 as part of their uh financial assistance package that was approved.

They received a mortgage recording tax exemption from the agency.

When they originally closed, they did not use it.

We granted them approximately 523,500 in exemption dollars.

Subsequent to closing about a year after they entered into a small gap mortgage on the property, at which time we provided them with about 127,000 of their approved mortgage recording tax exemption.

They are now in a position where they're converting their financing to permanent, and they have asked if they can use um an additional $75,000 of the original MRTE.

They have not exceeded what they were awarded.

It was just the timing at which they closed.

Um and during the course of that, we would have either the chair or the executive director per our normal process sign any mortgage documents that are required.

So this is really just an FYI to the board to let you know this is happening.

No new benefits are being given, it's just moving forward with the refi.

Nothing, nothing that's just a question pursue on the refinancing at COTA.

All good, thank you very much, Sue.

Welcome.

Any other items for consideration by the board?

Eric?

Oh good this morning, yeah.

Motion to I will tell you, no, no, this is a positive thing.

We closed on 366 uh West Onondaga, which is the I call it a castle, but it's a mansion.

Yeah, so the weed in house and the green mansion right now.

Is it the greenhouse?

Green mansion is the new new marketing name they have for it.

Onondaga and West, right?

West region, yeah.

Chevy Play, yeah, yes.

And we are slated to close on the Swanson's Gannant project um in two between two and three weeks from now.

So things are moving.

That's the Franklin Square.

Um you can see it from 81, the red brick coming north to south coming into the city.

I can't remember.

Sort of behind one group and 311 Ganet is the address for the site.

Yeah, yeah.

Near the power plate.

Where the power plane is forward.

So I just wanted you to know.

Nothing to do, I just wanted to let you know it was all moving forward.

Yeah.

Yeah, that'll be a great project.

Hearing no other business, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion made by Ken.

Second.

Second by Ricky.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed abstention.

Motion carries.

Thank you all very much.

Happy St.

Patrick's Day.

Thank you for the treat.

Oh wow.