That's what we have to like.

You have handouts for I do.

I'll pass them down for the face of the phone.

Okay.

It's just a one-page year.

House Marshall.

The budget hearing for the Kraus Marshall Special Assessment District.

Is it no one?

Okay.

Again, I'm joined by Councillor Earnright, Counselor Moore, Councilor Nave, President Paniagua, America, and Jerry.

America, I will let you take it away.

Sure, thank you.

So Krauss Marshall Business Improvement District.

This is its own organization.

It has its own special assessment budget in the City of Syracuse budget.

It is overseen by a board separate board of directors.

Four are elected positions representing property owners and businesses.

And then 11 are appointed positions from City of Syracuse, Syracuse University, and Krauss Health.

I have Jerry Dallas here today, who is our board president, and also Tara Venditti with who is our vice president of our board of directors and immediate past treasurer of the organization.

Currently Brianca Hill is our board treasurer with the Krauss Marshall District.

So we started in 2001.

We piggyback with the downtown committee.

Primarily our budget takes care of security.

That's the majority of the budget.

Maintaining our area, replacing bricks, stuff like that.

Yeah, so we um downtown committee started um managing the Krauss Marshall District.

Uh I think we're in our fourth fourth year by now.

Time goes by.

Yeah.

Uh managing the district um budget and operations, and it helps with some um staff ish efficiencies as well.

So um well Dave did it for a long time.

And then when Dave Manko was retired, um we were a natural choice.

So um as Jerry mentioned, our kind of primary areas of focus are like the public realm.

So we uh have an environmental maintenance staff member uh who works up there.

It's about a nine-block area that we provide services to.

There are about 40 uh different properties within it.

Um our environmental maintenance staff does uh litter litter patrol, uh graffiti removal up there.

Um again, sidewalk snow plowing assistance, we do power washing uh throughout the year.

There are um flower planters that are up in the district to help um beautify the area.

Uh and then again, any kind of um fund, just like downtown committee, the Krauss Marshall has a cost sharing agreement, which is a separate line item with the city of Syracuse for streetscape repairs, so we split the cost of uh kiosk refurbishment or banners or brick repair or street trees, um street tree pits, uh that type of activity.

Um we the Kraus Marshalls district primary source of revenue is the special assessment, although there is a small amount of funding that is secured through uh sponsorship of the 22 flower planters that we have throughout the district.

Uh we also employ a security officer, again, retired law enforcement.

Um currently Officer Vinch is our security officer that is stationed up on the hill.

He works 35 hours a week when the students are in session and 20 hours a week when the students are not in session.

Uh he uh responds to immediate calls.

He is a um present face up on the district.

If there's uh individuals in need of support, he works with Amar security director uh and others to make sure that we're identifying you know potential users of uh behavioral health support services, and then also acts as a liaison with the Syracuse University Department of Public Safety.

Um on page two, uh in addition to the security and the environmental maintenance.

We also have a marketing function up on the hill.

So uh there are uh banners and kiosks with specific branding to identify that you're up on the University Hill area.

Uh but then we also have a website, Krauss Marshall.com, which is currently um being refreshed, and so by the end of the year, we'll be able to roll out a refreshed website that provides information about the district as well as a business directory.

And then uh both uh the downtown committee and Krauss Marshall uh utilize a tool called Placer AI, and this is pedestrian counting um software, it's all based on uh data collected from your phone, and that has been a really valuable tool to help us understand foot traffic, uh where when and where uh people are coming from, what type part of the day is most busy, and we can use that for identifying uh areas we should target for marketing, but also um helping to inform businesses if there's certain big events that are happening, there's all this potential for foot traffic uh to attract through your front door.

Um last year and continuing to this year, we added an economic development function, and this was based on a survey of the district of some of the needs and opportunities.

So what we learned is that there is a broader uh there's a desire for broader variety of businesses in the area.

There's a desire to improve building facades and storefront and sidewalk appearances, as well as address some of the parking congestion.

And so, you know, we want to encourage more businesses to cooperate and work together.

We uh when it's summertime, it's foot traffic's a little bit slower up there, so what opportunities might exist to encourage more foot traffic up on the hill during the summer months, and then um the uh JMA wireless dome has been huge at drawing uh foot traffic in.

So, how can businesses uh take advantage of some of that foot traffic?

Um so being able to work on some of these opportunities required um some staff time that creviously Krauss Marshall had not um was not part of their program lineup.

So um now there is an economic development line uh within the Krauss Marshall budget, and I'd be happy to take any questions.

What is uh if you had to locate all the businesses in this area, collegiate hotel, the stores, Phoebe's cafe.

What you estimate the yearly income that the city receives, you know, in in revenue and taxes, how much it brings in every year.

Um that's not something we have available that we've looked at right now, but we can look further into it.

Um Phoebe is and like all those hotels are actually outside of this district.

Um this district is pretty much centered on uh Marshall Street, which is where the businesses are, and Krauss where you have um like varsity, uh Dunkin' Donuts, Fagan.

So it's we bring in a lot of revenue into the city.

The people, you know, shop.

It's a big tax revenue.

Yeah, we can get at the uh the foot traffic numbers, um, the people that are coming in for the concerts for the sports events, um, and also the students.

So that's information uh that we uh do have available to us.

Is that called the Clegian Hotel or something?

Yeah, yep.

All right, thank you.

As soon as you um head uh north past Adams Street.

Got it.

Yeah, so yeah, it's a very small um like nine nine block fronts.

You know, I could also say that um parking has always been an issue up there, especially with the expansion of other buildings taking a lot of the parking.

But what has happened is with these additions of new dorms and stuff like that, there's a lot more foot traffic.

And so I've encourage businesses to understand that it's difficult to bring people from outside the area to park.

It's basically the majority of our businesses are from businesses and dorms and stuff like that that are already in the area.

We thought about spread, I don't know how active the regions still are further down the hill, but have we thought about expanding to try to bring in where Marty was talking about Syracuse Stage, that whole area, and maybe combine for I don't know if the regions are as active as they once were, but they are uh the East Genesee Regents Association recently went through a strategic planning process, and uh we've had some conversations with them about those types of opportunities because especially with the Interstate 81 Viaduct coming down, an opportunity to um finally connect the downtown and university hill area.

So um, there have been a series of kind of different um conversations about that type of possibility.

Yeah, we've talked about that.

And then it would be a complete it would be a complete you know organization type thing.

I mean it's I I would argue it's probably that's that's kind of one ecosystem there, right?

Yeah.

So I have a couple of questions.

Um just for clarification.

None of the businesses that are in this district pay into essentially the association.

Um there is a property, the properties themselves are the entity that pay the special assessment.

I do not know.

Some probably do pass it on uh to their tenants, like through the form of rent.

It's not like a membership, it's not a membership.

Okay, no, yeah.

Um, a number of the buildings are not fully ADA compliant.

Has there been any progress on adding components as the buildings are?

Some of the buildings, you know, are old houses and stuff like that, and most of them are grandfathered in.

Um I think if somebody came along to redo something substantially, permit-wise, they would have to become compliant.

And it sounds like the SMTC is doing the integrated transit study, so that integrated transit into the business district is something that is a priority.

Yes.

Wonderful.

Could you tell me a little bit more about Placer AI?

Um, so we have a contract with them and or you have a contract with them.

Is it data that people opt into?

Is it data that is anonymized in some way?

Yeah, so we cannot tell, um, like we would not be able to tell it is you um, for example, like walking throughout um if you saw my bubble tea receipts, you would be able to tell that.

Yeah, so um it is uh based on just different apps on your phone, and so uh it Placer is a tool that is kind of the standard for what a lot of um business improvement districts or like tourism organizations use to try and get at that foot traffic information and those numbers, and so um it is just based totally on cell phone data, and they have different formulas for how much of the population it captures, and knowing it doesn't capture 100% of the population, how it makes um uh changes to be able to account for uh the numbers of people that they don't necessarily capture.

And then one more if you all be so gracious.

So this business district serves students and it serves residents, and it's wonderful and it's lovely.

It also serves two of the largest non-tax paying employers in the city of Syracuse.

So what are Upstate and Krauss and Syracuse University doing to support this main street district?

A lot of those, like Syracuse University, for instance, may purchase properties, but the businesses have been staying.

So I don't think they become uh they still have to pay taxes.

I I don't think they come off the tax rule if there are businesses operating in them.

I mean the businesses pay sales tax, right?

We have a lawsuit currently.

Oops, we left uh lawsuit currently about um commun um school owned property in terms of the taxes that they would pay back to the city of Syracuse.

Yeah.

I think though the commercial buildings or the buildings that SU is bought on Marshall Street, um aren't they still assessed?

Yeah, yeah.

As long as there's commercial business.

Right.

And they're currently paying in some formula.

So none of this is included in our essentially our contract agreement with Syracuse University right now.

The if the university owns the building, then they probably control the lease with the tenant.

Um, and they have to pay their tax.

I don't know what the tax is.

Topic for a different budget hearing.

Yeah, yeah.

Just just thank you.

I appreciate it.

I just want some clarification because I believe that this area and the work that you are doing substantively improve the quality of life for a tremendous number of students and staff within these institutions.

Right.

And again, we don't run on air, you don't run on air.

What we do run on is tax revenue and people who pay into the system of arts and business development in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you both.

Thank you.

Nice to see you both.

Okay.

Thank you.

Motion to adjourn.

So move.

Second.