EDA 1994 06 23CHANHASSEN HOUSING AND
REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
REGULAR MEETING
JUNE 2.3, 1994
Chairman Bohn called the meeting to order at 7:40 pan.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Don Chmiel, Mike Mason, Jim Bohn
MEMBERS ABSENT: Charlle Robbins and Gary Boyle
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Geflmrdt, Assr Executive'Director
APPROVAL OF ]b~NUTES: Chmiel moved, Mason seconded to spprove the Minutes of
the Housing and Redtwelopruent Authority meeting dauxl May 19, 1994 as presented. All
voted in favor and the motion carrie&
VISITOR PRESENTATION:
(Taping of the meeting began at this point.)
Clay~n lohnson: ...basi~y got HRA, well Planning Commi~sion, Council approval in
October. It took us from October until lanuary to get the place platt~ and I think some_ of
you were involved because we actually came crawling on your doorsteps at midnight,
~ber 31st to get the place plattecL We've had a number of building code issues and
structural issues that have finally been resolved and we have gone, we are out for bids right
now on the rest of it. Our tenan~ have been very patient. Stuck with us through this whole
thing. So that's not an issue but the next thing is making sure that, we've got financing in
place but the next issue is whether or not the construction numbers will come in within
budget and we can proceed. Then the other thing, I've aslaxi Bob Klein, representing
National Lod~ng, our hotel partners, to stop and give you a little update on what's going on
the hotel. Bob.
Bob Klein: Thank you. As Clayton said, I'm with National Lodging and with respect to the
motel, we have had a number of conversations with financing sources. The current situation
is that the mortgage lender on the ~ in existence right now, Eureko, is not real anxious
to put another loan. They really want to get out of the motel lending business and the hotel
lending business. We have prepared a package and we're going to present that next week to
several financing sources on a two stage basis. What we're going to need is to get a group
loan for the addition and then to link that with the permanent loan, the take out loan towards
the first of year and pay off the existing finance note. And the reason the first of the year is
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
a critical date is because there are large pre-pa~t penalties if it's paid up before. That's
our plan and we're prepared to...
Bohn: Thank you.
~t: The second person that requested to speak to you tonight is Brad Johnson of Lotus
Realty. Brad asked...w update you on their efforts at redeveloping both the bowling alley and
what we're calling thc city building and the back side of the Frontier Building, the lumber
yard area. Brad has been working diligently over the last 6 months and has hired an architect
to do some renderings and they asked to give a formal twesentation to the HRA tonight
showing their concept of how this area might be redeveloped. At this time I'd introduce
Brad.
Brad Johnson: Thank you very much Todd. Members of the HRA and Mr. Cha/rma~ This
evening we'd like to present to you some working drawings and things that we have come up
with over the last 6 months in working with the various owners of the properties and
businesses and tm~mts in what we're calling the city bnilding, as Todd has explained it.
We're not expecting much of a...reaction but we realize all we're really requesting is that we
get a reaction and go into the negotiations with the staff to figure out how to get done what
we have to get done. We're presenting it to you prior to the Planning Cowmission and City
Council simply because it is strictly a redevelopment issue. And we would anticipate that if
this were to go forward as planned by us, it would mean the creation of a new tax increment
district over in that parficuhr area. But this probably qualifies as a redevelopment, two
redevelopment areas. And we believe, based upon our consultants, that it can work out. The
parties that are working on this and have all financially invested in it are Pauly's. Russ Pauly
is here. Bloomberg Componies. Dan Dahlin who represents the bowling alley and Copeland-
Mithune who represents the movie theater group this eyeing. And then ourselves. We feel
that, have felt that among those partners we can achieve most of what we need as far as the
financial necessities to create something on the inside, What we're going to be requesting
you to review is what it looks like on the outside. So that's a critical issue. I'd like to show
a little slide show for you and I think you'll get the idea of what we're trying to do. By
doing that and peri~~y I'm going to ask Tim Howell, who's the architect, to kind of
chime in and get you a little motivated. Our presentation on the slide show is primarily,
initially to show some typical ~ of architecture that we're trying to deal with in creating,
which we felt say community, whether it may not be one fight now. And what type of
architecture Tim are we trying to accorr~, lish here?
Tim Howell: This is somebody's back yard here but basically we're talking about a l~riod
from the turn of the century to about 1930 building, in that area. And I think you'll find that
in most of thc downtown, smaller town areas around the country. And preserving some of
Housing and Redevel~t Authority - Sune 23, 1994
the finer things that are in those areas. And for example, in this pm~dcular slide, you see the
windows projecting out in a showcase type of thing. The replication on this corner of the
building. The balconies. There's an arch back in the back on the right hand side between the
brick. So these are some qualities that give a rather human feel to... Here alpiin is another
type of consU'uction that is remin~t of that period.
Brad Johnson: We're showing just different images to give you an idea of where we're
coming from. What era is this in?
Tim Howell: Well this could literally be before the 1900's in m-ms of the kinds of materials
that you see depicted here. Here again...and the stone work and the trees on the top, those
are all remini.w.~-nt of classical kinds of architecttn-e but were used quite heavily in the
vocabulary of architects around the turn of the century. Sust a comer, construction comer
showing how some of the things were done. Here's one...and yet from the street side it
comes out quite nicely.
Brad Johnson: A couple different kinds of window treatments.
Tim Howell: This happens to be a movie theater with sort of the...fancy kind Of environme~nt
that is inside. I think you'll find most theaters do that kind of thing. They give you a
feeling of something a little extraordinary. This is a very...a lot of color. A lot of interest in
shades and forms with the balconies and this kind of thing.
Brad Johnson: And those often are the things that will go through is that...vision 2002 has
selected this to be an enterlainment section of town, we're trying to make it as close to like
something that's probably an enterlaining and a place you'd like to go. And maybe go to a
movie and go to a restaurant or whatever. This is sort of reality. This is what we have today.
Obviously there's very little restoration we can do here as far as archilecum-~ is comem~
This is the back alley, way behind the Dinner Theater and if I recall correctly, the original
HRA was established to ~y redevelop this particular area. Since that time we've kind
of gone all the way around it and never quite figured out how to do this part. Our proposal
would deal with how to deal with this primarily in a private way. One of the further
additions to the back area there was the bank building, which has some of the architectural
qualities and dealing with more on a conmnporary basis but has a couple of things ~ that.
And these are just things to remind you of what we have cmrenfly. Where we are and by the
way, this is the first redeveloprrm~t project, if you recall, when we did the bowling alley.
This was considered redevelopm~t at the time and when I first moved here, I think thi~_ was
the newest building downWwn. And it also points out how things can change. If you recall,
when they did this, this was all new. They re. surfaced the siding and painted it and that type
of thing... You've heard a little bit about the hotel, and the hotel of course is right smack
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
adjacent to this and so there's a poten~sl_.:kind of an area we're trying to deal with. We also
presun~ that when we try to deal with this. We also presume that when we try to deal with
this, we're...bec, ause it's being used as a band theater. That will be termin_s___h~ as of I think
this falL.. As I said, this is the newest portion. I think this has been redeveloped twice since
1970. That was a brand new building when, 19737 '74? Now what we're going to deal
with now is some changes that were made to more classical buildings at this time. These are
all restorations that you may or may not recognize. This is the International Dedgn Center
which has probably the late 1800's.
Tim Howell: This is the...that is probably around the 1890's.
Brad Johnson: The next one is the Whitney Hotel area. One of the things that people have
brought up in the 2002, is that they'd like to have people have a place to sit and talk and
walk and stuff like that. As part of the overall picture, we don't really have that kind of
space here in thc community where you can kind of go gather and have...I guess that's all
outdoors. Here's another bnilding that's been done. What we're trying to point through here
is that downtown is actually collected. In other words, there's no real one period of
architecture that you can see. These are all photographs that are over in the seven corners
area around the University. There's quite a bit of architecture there. You'll probably
recognize this. Some of it's on Washington Avenue. So you can kind of get an idea of how
people have improved buildings but if you look from one building to the next, this would be
typical of downtown Owatonna or downwwn New Ulm_ Any small Wwn which you've
probably ever been raised in, a lot of buildings have been burned down. They've been
replaceA. They all started out as wood. And these are the buildings that have remained and
have been preserved in downtown areas.
Tim Howell: This is a very common one you'll see in a lot of communities in Minnesota and
Wisconsin. Again, probably having been restored, but it's adjacent to the next one is it gives
you sort of a texture or tapestry of something rather than being all coni~mparary or all one
type.
Brad Johnson: I threw this in only because it's near-by. A lot of people here eat there. It's
a little more contemporary but it's an example of outdoor eating and how it's been
incorporated into a localized building and a fairly successful business. Thi~ is around over in
the Cedar Riverside area where they just basically decorated up some older buildings and
from a retail point of view...Midwest Mountaineering is very successful You know we've
got our own City Hall type of stuff but this is an architecv, ual type that's there. These are
probably earlier, about 1880..Jmd then this is an example of a street that's been redone and
you can see that there's different architecture in each building and then they've added
streetscaping and that type of things in trees to make it pedestrian friendly. Which is another
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - ,lune 23, 1994
key element of the vision_ Probably as you look around the city, and you probably reco~oni,~
this. Even though the mass of development that's within this has not been real successful is
the St. Anthony on the Main and Riverside. The buildings and the busine~es that have
stayed on the street and weren't inumufl, have done fairly well For example, Pmcna on the
Main has been there and probably this portrays the...when I was going to school they were
just starting to redevelop this area and we were involved in parts of this at a certain time.
But that would be the typicaL_main street that you know we can all see. There's lrees. It's
pedestrian you can see down the street. There's a place to fish: There's plac~ for people to
sort of park themselves and...because it faces the same direction as the bowling does. It faces
south where we have sun. And it's nice for part of the year and for about 3 months of the
year, it's really hot over there and you have 1~ deal with uees but if we were to go down
here, I'd suggest you'd do thi~ with main street is...I don't know 15-20 years la~, but the
trees have grown to the point that it's very comfortable. As a matl~:r of fact Ladd Conrad,
you're looking at Ladd Conrad's of~ce and he's worked... Again, you see how the
architecture is collected. Is anybody from a small town, remember the kind of Wabasha or
Winnoa or someplace like that along the river. Any of those communities have this type of
_thing and just...and it was all put together. Obviously the city of Minneapolis participal~d in
the improving of this. That's very much like some of the big, any architecture that we've
showed you. You can look in the back where they have a seating and then there see the
movie theater has been inlm'twined into the project. And as I said, this is kind of a very good
example of you know, it's kind of hard to say what the redevel~t's going to look liice. I
think we're learning that the next day. You know we say where are the frees? We just
approved all these trees and everything but it tak~ 5, 10, 15 years for everything to mature
when you talk about landscaping. And this area has done that. The buildings were done a
long time ago. Now this is an example of the decking area here and on this area I don't
happen to have some pictures...and really a lot of the ideas that we're using are going to be
coming from the Canal Park area which is probably the most successfld of all areas currently
in the redevel~t business, where they've actually put an entertainment complex together
and you literally don't have enough plac~ to park because everybody wants to go there and I
think this is what we're trying to create. Trying to create a community where people in the
community want to go yet people from outside the community will come. The vendors and
the marketing people that are definitely inside the business are successful And you're
competing with other places... Again there's different ways of Riverside. Ouldoor eating
again. The weather's been terrific...and that's, if you remember what we have. And so it's
really hard and what we've asked Tim to do is to take that and he's brought to us the co~
that we've just approved. And we're going to now tmnsla~ this building into something that
probably could look more like thi~. Now that's what I call true redevelopment. If you're
going to go from here to here. And our goal is that one of the prope~i~...who are
participating in this would jointly do this and we've attracted two major tenants. Russ Pauly
who has committed to relocating and sort of redefining his business in a way, right? I mean
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
it's a major enterprise and invest a lot of private Cal~tal in and then a movie thea~ which we
feel as being a draw and preserve the balance. So I'll igl yon what I'll do, I'll turn this off
and then Tim is, you can always remember what it looks like.., never go back The most
comments that we get is what Chanha~en looks like from Highway :5. And one thing we'd
~ to change. We're not saying we've got all the answers. Our objective was to tak~ this
non-conforming asset, an asset that is basically losing money for everybody that owns it. It's
a nightmare for Dahlin. I mean he Illin-ally has been worrying 24 hours a day about that
~. Not so much trying or anything from economic conseqlleoces, bllt owning it luld
didn't want to own it and it's never been .really well defined and then the Bloombergs are
supporting, basically a use that's...because this is what this is. Thc right hand side_ is
primarily warehouse. And then we have the Frontier Building which has a lot of square
footage and potential and all of this is sort of a part of that building. Tim: do you want to
kind of go into this? Do you have any questions? ...presentation.
Tim Howell: The first thing, excuse me. I'm Truman Howell I've been here before and I
recognize your faces. I'm sure you probably do mine. The first thing we did was to look at
the parking and to see ff in fact it's even close to what we might have for a need. And thi~
is the area that we're going to be dealing with primarily. The bowling alley, the reslaurant
area here and I'll show you later where the other pieces fit in. And we're developing a
slreetscape along the front of these buildings. As you may have noticed on the photographs,
the actual floor level of this building is 4 feet above the driving area. And so what we've
created is a raised area in that location that will become a streetsca~ that will bring into use
things like eating places, places to sit, trees, all kinds of landscaping, and with access for, not
only the general public but handicap accessible. That kind of use. And we've finished first
the parking around here to satisfy what the requirements would be for the retail area, the
bowling alley, the restaurant and the theater. We developed 660 new parking spaces in this
study and the requirement that we have at this point is 659 based on the code that we have
here in Chanhassen. Therefore we would throw in one space, but we're close, In a lilfle
further detail, we've blown up the slreetscape and identified the areas that will be within the
framework of that building. The bowling alley where it is presently located. The restaurant
in this location. Retail areas towards the center. Theater over in what's I guess called the
city building at this point. The retail space and force some retail space in the present Frontier
building. We developed this raised platform all the way around the building. Around here
would be at grade. The passageway between the buildings would encourage walking areas
down from above into the area here. Obviously with this number of parking, there will be a
lot of people coming from right on the site, We have three ramps, handicap ramps to the
streetscape. One here, one here at the theater entrance and one over here. You also would
have a site for not only sidewalks but stairways that have similar locations. We enclosed the
dock and lrash areas so they're not noticeable. We blend them into the consmlction. We
have street lights. We have textured walkways and floors. Landscaping throughout. Benches
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
here and tables. Over on this side we have dining facih'ties for outside dining and that is
acceptable with the weather. And we've lried to keep it so that it can be used. It's an
interesting place to be. We have a clock tower. We've indicated here so that it would be a
place that would be of some interest to not only the shoppers and din_~rs and theater goers.
Now this will give you an idea of the kinds of buildings that we'd be putting there. The front
that we'd be putting there and I say front in a sense that we would not be tearing down the
existing buildings but we would be adding to the face of that building with the construction.
Down on the, it'd be the far western side, would be a restaurant. And the restaurant would
have, actually the restaurant portion would be over here but because we have some flexibility
we can make two buildings out of this. Come down to the entrance to the bowling area. The
bowling alley would have it's major entrance at this point. The retail area would be in these
individual facility spaces. And then it would be ~ced off on thc eastern end by the theater
that is planned to be a 6 unit complex. Now the signs would be a similar flavor here, here
and on the Frontier buikiing as well It would be of a character of a city. A downtown city.
Obviously a lot of the landscaping that I show here is left out here so you can see the
buildings but it is indicated and of course would have all kinds of activities. Probably places
to, people can come down and walk. Just amble around the area and be a part of what would
be a nice downtown feeling. The different types of buildings, we've done everything from
what we would consider a 1890's building to things that are more traditional in the 30's to
the turrets and...things to add interesL And corn?a_ring this appearance with the
present...you'd have to say that going down Highway 5, people would probably mm in just to
be there. It would certainly be a place to be. Are there any questions that I can answer for
you?
Brad $ohnson: Do you have any questions or any feelings? Our proposal of our fumn~
concerns I suggest you create a new district down there to leave the captured increment that's
already there and within your current district so we would not be using any of the cturent
increment that is being generamt which is about $60,000.00. And we would probably
inamse the tax base in that particular area from about $80,000.00 to $180,000.00. And our
proposal would be that that increment would be used in the new dislrict to help finance
basically the sod and the streetscape and the parking lots and improvements that are
necessary. As I said, this also maintains the parking lots. All the parking that is needed for
the transfer of facilities, It makes it possible over time, just because of the usage. We have
far too many parking spots but because of city code we have to be able to show. There's
only about 2 hours, 4 hours a day per week that all this parking would be used, and that's
Friday and Saturday nights between the hours of 7:00 and 9:00. That's when the movie
thealer and the bowling alley and the restatuants and all that peak...December 28th when we
actually need all this parking. There's been some talk of light rail uansit. Having a depot or
something down in that area. All of which, becall~ of uses we're using the parking
complimentary to what we're doing. I think our key element here is that we feel that the
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
exl~or of the building should be improved. This is not a real, even though it looks rather
exlravagant, it's not a real expensive thing to do. Much of the costs of the i .mprovements that
we're doing are actually in the parking lots and roadways and things like that. About half of
it would be the ex~ior improvements. The parties that are involved in this project are
committed to invest of their own funds, somewh~ between a million and a half and 2
million dollars inw this particular project And it wonlel be, probably depe~_ding upon how
we did it, maybe no need for bo,_ding or anything like that. It's just how we struotured the
transaction to accomplish thi.s. It's our feeling that this is really the key area of the
community. We have to do something different down there. Blow it up and start over again,
we started with a $3 million demolition problem and go from there. So the current land
values in Chanhassen, which are high, they'll have to reach $10.00, $15.00, $20.00 a square
foot before it would probably be viable to do on a private basis redevelop this area, which
could be as late as, you know the year 2015. Somewhere in that area we may see some
changes in the Dinner Theatre conm, lex because it will make sense. We have an handout you
can review that kind of sunmmfizes everything that we're at~mpting to do. Our basic request
is to pfinmfily to start this process through the city to see how we could do it. We have, as I
said, a fairly significant commitment lmm the private side towards this project. We're not
asking to build movie theaters and that type of thing. One of the things that we did do in
scan'lng various tenants is to make sure they had the money to invest in their own inside and
that was one of our concerns. So Pauly's will be investing in the neighborhood of
$500,000.00 to $?00,000.00 to improve Filly's. That will be on a private basis an additional
$200,000.00 to $250,000.00 in the bowling alley and the movie theater on a private basis will
be financed to the tune of about $800,000.00 to $900,000.00. I mean that will be the private
side investment into this. And they're all viable that way. The thing that is not viable, and
that's why you have downtown redevelopment, is to change the exterior to the tune of, we
thin~..so it becomes something of an attraction. There has been some interest in having
some what we call ancillary buildings. You know people or whatever you would liire. That
would be possible but we'd really mask out parking so somebody would have to come to the
conclusion as they did in Waconia and as they have in Chaska and Excelsior, that to preserve
the downtown, parking can be in different places. The new theam' in Chaska has how many
parking spots?
Tim Howell: 60 or so.
Brad Johnson: And how many seats? 500? So they somehow figured out how to do the
same with Waconia. There's not si~ificant parking but what happens is people walk to those
events. They're...block or whatever and it seems to work. So that is Our proposal. We'd
Or if we're going out in the wrong direction, we'd like to know that.
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
Bohn: I have a question. I think the building's the scene shop and I forget what they call
the other one. Thc outside of those be changed?
Brad Johnson: I can have, fight now they're leased to other parties. You know we could
have phase 1, phase 2, phase 3. Each of those have an economic, investors that could invest
this anticipate they would purchase the Frontier Building potentially and put all fl~se, they
resliTe_, that these buildings in many cases are in 3 or 4 different ownerships so we have the
ability, because of the people we're dealing with, to assemble that all in one ownership. Anr~
we have some problems because as you get farther away from this, there are s~reem~ts in
place between the Bloomberg Companies and the theater relative to purchase and leases and
things like that. And then there's also the economics of again blowing away a building. If
you go in and take a building and tear it down, and it's a term for using $20,000.00 to
$30,000.00 of income to create a parking lot. That somebody has to be compensated for that.
So we have not pushed into that, unless as we go through that process, this becomes a good
idea. And that's generally where we're at. And that's possible. It's just a matter of looking
at it all. So we've gone through, as we would see it, the one or two or three phases. And
the first phase would be to basically do what you see here. Along with the Frontier Building.
Whatever we do we have to come up with a long term use for the Frontier Building because
we're affecting this parking and right now, as you know, it's basically a warehouse. You
know if you go inside, and Bloornberg's proposal along with this is to create a retail
environmental down there of 120 feet so that would be somewhere between 8 and 12 stores.
What's nice about most of this is it can be renmt reasonably. Reaso~ly being $8.00 to
$12.00 a square foot. New stuff that we're developing in town now has to be rented up in
the $14.00 a square foot category in the retail side makes sense because of land values. So I
don't know if that answered that question. I know if somebody said let's do it and we have
to figure out how to do it. We originally started out just in this building but it seem_ s obvious
that it would probably be a good idea to do the Frontier Building in ~ also.
Bohn: Thank you.
Brad Johnson: And the numbers seem to work. Have you got any comments? Is it too
much to believe or?
Chmicl: Well thc introduction of another kind of building within the city and you're saying
from a traditional aspect. Some of that, is there a gothic aspect to what that one building is
Bohn: Which one7
Chmiel: Down towards the theal~r.
Housing and Redevelopment Authadty - Sune 23, 1994
Tim Howell: Oh, well it's not gothic per se, no. But I understand what your point is. Is
that, all I'm saying is as we saw on the slides in the existing town, they tend to be, theam~
tend to be the...
Brad Johnson: I think the architecture, we've heard in the last 3 or 4 presentations that...as a
city that we should not be all the same. Should not have alL.should not be all glass and not
all gables. This is very traditional. It points out, and if you look at, and if you have any
questions, just §o down to main street on St. Anthony Main on a nice day and it's very
pleasant there. This is a different face. We want to make it attractive. If this is, obviously
the archil~x.~u_re here is not hard to change, right? I mean not change once it's done but I
mean in a concept it'd be very, to whatever architectm~ we want to do. But the idea is
collected, right?
Chmiel: What heights are we talking in corapadson to some s~?
Tim Howell: It'd be about the same, except for.
Chmiel: Some of the additional facades put on.
Tim Howell: Right in here but obviously this is higher but yeah. And then it drops down
here towards the end.
Brad Johnson: You're dealing with fairly high b~ildings so anything you put in there has to
look sort of like 2 stories... That's just what it is.
Tim Howell: I would say it would stick up maybe 4 to 5 feet in general. But we need to do
that to attach it properly. And some of these front doors are not real doors obviously.
Brad Johnson: There are mamials now that are used to make things look like the past that
are not as extensive as recreating the past. So that's why we're, the facade itself has some
flexibility. And many of the new homes that are being built are being built out of the same
kind of stuff. And that's I guess what we'll be doing is starting a process through and
perceive that this is a HRA project, not a Planning Commission project initinlly and not a
City Council project initiaLly only because we have to deal with the financing side and the
economic feasibility before we progress too far. '["nen wopld come deign.
Mason: My only issue with that, I underslm~ where you're coming from Brad. My only
issue with that is then Planning Commission and City Council is going to say that liRA blind
sided them. And that's an issue we're constantly trying to wozk out and that in itself ~
it ~t. So I don't think you can just come before HRA and say well, HRA said it's
10
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
great. What's the matter with you people. Not that I'm implying that you do that but things
like that have happened in the past and you know as well I do, there are Council memlxrs
that are saying, you know come on. How come HRA is beh_ ina this. We're supposed to be
leaders of the city. Now obviously I'm on both of those so I think I can maybe take a few
more liberties but I don't think this is, something this big is not just an HRA issue and I
don't think it should start out as just an HRA issue.
Brad $ohn~n: I agree with you but the practical process, legally, here is that we have to stm't
with you.
Mason: Well
Brad Johnson: You tell us what to do. You can say we approve it. It looks good. Take it
on. Bring it back if the city agrees. But until we have the economics done, we can't go
anywhere with it.
Chnfiel: We can't take any action on this this evening anyway.
Brad Johnson: We're not asking you to do that.
Chmiel: No. But even the concept approval, we can't give.
Brad Johnson: We understand that I just said that, all I'm saying is I agree and you said the
process is this. It looks okay. You don't have to say it looks okay physically. You see that
to me is the Planning Commission's requirements. Alright But you can say from an HRA
point it fulfills your needs for the redevelopment of that area. I've been involved in 5
projects down there. We've spent between you and my ~y and Bloomberg, well over
$150,000.00 with ideas and none of them have come to fruition because we never got the
financing done. And so my.
Chmiel: That's thc number one issue, right there. Was the finandng. It didn't have
anything to do with HRA. Until you have the financing in place, you can't move on it until
that's done.
Brad Johnson: That involves the HRA. And I'm not saying you can't mn it up the flagpole
and bring it down but we can't go much fmxi~r than this because we don't know what the
financing, the district, the feeling from the community. Do you want to leave it like it is?
We don't hear that fi'om anybody. And we tried commnnity center. We uied a lot of
different types of things that never really worked over there and we've ammded all the Vision
2002 meetings just to see if we're on the right uack. We've adjusted a lot of things in here
11
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
to adjust in there because that seems to be the place for community input. And we are
concerned about Planning Commission and City Council but I think what has to happen,
because the HRA is the one that's in power to assist in thc fimmcing of something ~
is that you can say you know whatever you want but, you don't have to approve it. You
have to say, we are in, have feelings, we agree that this, a district could be created and then
we have to go through the whole city process which obviously is much more than this. With
all the drawings that are necessary but this is not a PUD. It's just a redevelopment
It's a zone issue. I mean you can go in. It's zoned to do this. And almost technically, if we
didn't increase changing the use, we could do this without petmi~ All you have to do is
pull a permit on it do a facade. We're not ~g with any changes. We're de-~llng with
change of use for a movie theater but the community has said that this should be an
ente~ainment area. It should not be a warehouse and how we handle the process, you know
you guys can tell us on that. We're more than happy to meet with more on a work session
with the Planning Commission and maybe a work se~on with the Council to explain what
we're thinking about doing. Each will have their own interest. So I have yet to go to any
meeting in the community, I think heard at any level and people say, we've got to do
something with this. And what we're saying right now is we have a way of doing that. But
we haven't thought the whole thing out.
Geflm, dt: Mr. Chairman, Brad. If I hear the liRA correctly on this, and ~ me if I'm fight
or wrong, but do I hear that you would like to see a presentation similar like this given to
both the Planning Commission and City Council and bring that feedback to you to see if this
is a project that you'd like to proceed with and look at creating a new disuicc Brad, am I
asking too much of your group to do that Idnel of thing? And get feedback as a concept type
of review from those two bodies and use that information gathered at those meetings for the
HRA to make a decision and move ahead or not.
Chmiel: I think that's, at least that's what I'm coming f:wm. As well as I think what
Michael is going to speak.
Mason: Yeah. I'll be real honest, I mean just speaking for myself. Yeah, let's do it. But
I'm just one person and this.
Brad Johnson: We have been caught in that situation before. We don't want to be caught in
it.
Mason: Right, exactly. I don't want any of us to get caught in.
Brad Johnson: As a matl~ of fact, within the presentation we came to this place first but this
is, in my mind, the proper place. Somebody here has to lr. ll us, go do this and we'll do it.
12
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
Mason: Todd I think, I really agree with Don. I think you really hit on the head. I think
that's an excellent idea.
Chmiel.' Yeah, and I give you credit for corning in with something here to show something
other than what's here and I like that idea. But I think where we've got to go with it is to
just exactly as what was said.
Brad Johnson: I'll quote somebody's famous words here. Would you please bring us
something for the south side. If you feel you can do it, we'll act on it and I don't know who
said that but somebody in this room, the brochure said that about it 2 or 3 years ago. It just
said bring us something that you thinir you can do and what happened is that there's been no
city money invested in these ideas. That was the othc~ rule we adopted a long time ago. We
said let us come now to the city and say this is what we think we can do and we brought
together people that have a need. It's not a district. It's not...what it looks like, we think
we're onto it. I mean I just, we all had this meeting down at St. Anthony Main on a ~
warm aftra'noon and said gosh, this is a nice place. But you know, it's just we could have
started out with all gables and made it look like, I mean the street, the scape could look just
like downtown Chanhassem We could repeat the downtown. We just don't think that's very
interesting and after what we went through with the Bdina Realty tafilding, people telling us
please bring us some different binds of architecture. Let's not mai~c the whole town gray
with gables. We're here guys. We're going to try to change that and it is a part of the
projects that I would say had been designed by the commi~ in the town because we just
go listen. And we mink we're close. We think with the pedestrian are~ Jun, you're one of
the people that are always loobing for places to wsllr to and sit down and all of that can be in
here. If you visit Canal Park or you visit St. Anthony on the Main, both are very, very
pedestrian friendly. And that's what the committee was looking for. That little, even the
little concert you had going out on here, they could be down in the pafldng lot down there
some, you know there could be a lot of things going om It could be bind of fun. We threw
some retail to break it up. We've got two major users to help us pay for the darn thing and
the community's always been loobing for a movie theater. And we have big spaces to fill.
Without a doubt, see the movie theater is taking what, 10,000, 20,000 square feet. We've got
almost 60,000 square fcec That's an equivalent of almost the size of the, that's without the
restaurant and a lot of the other stuff that's already done. That whole complex is 100,000
square feet and it's not easy to redo.
Chmiel: I guess what I'm saying, is showing what's there, shows me the old town of
Excelsior kind of buildings. Up and down main street. Whether that's acceptable to a lot of
people, you know as far as an older structure theme there, that's something ~ got stuck
with. Something that they have. And they've utilized it quite well because they put their
parking in back of it which is the main street and parking is out there. We can't do that
13
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
unfommately. But are those structures, the right sm~ctm~ or the facade change that you're
going to make, is that the right kind of blending as to what you're showing there or should it
be sorn~ing else? I don't know.
Tim Howell: There are probably 150 different options. There really are and we could be
talking this thing 100 ways. The point was to bring a.
Chmlel: Something.
Tim Howell: No, I hope it's a little more than just something.
Chmiek Well, not just the word something.
Tim Howell: But something that's exciting, vibrant. A place you'd like to be and the
qualities that you find, that the guys who are redeveloping these downtowns are making a
fortune at is taking thc buildings that are intrresting buildings because they're interesting
buildings. It's not just bexause they were there. And turning them into money making
operations and all we're doing is saying, we can do that insty. We're just going to pour
water on it and it will grow like that. And all of a sudden we have developed a viable
working, money producing part of town that before was the rear end.
Brad $ohn~on: We've had a number of people come up with_..and said wouldn't it be nice if
we had a downtown Excelaior in here. You know they've come to me and ~ why can't
we, why do we have to do it thia way. Why do we have Byerly's? Why do we have
Festival? Couldn't we have done it this way? I know it's obvious why we can't but this is
somewhere inbetweem I think that's really where we're at. The process is, you know if we
can go on an informal basis, up the flagpole and then come back and talk about it, that's safe.
ff you have to go up formally, you may never returm And that's what we're won/ed about.
So we'd like to just take this, as Truman has said, we can change some of the architecture.
We started out, this was only gables and stuff and we said wait a minute. That's too much of
downtown already. Now if you like, you can pick a town like Baltimore. Do you like, it
could be any town and that's what this will look like. And it's not expensive. I mean if
anything compares to it, no more than you guys stamped, I just figured out, the $1,200.00 per
running foot to remodel Kenny's. On the exterior. Pretty close to that. And we're probably
well within that so it is...
Chmiel: I think direction's been given.
Mason: Yeah, I think.
14
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
Brad Johnson: Maybe Todd if you could just tell us how we do this. If there's auyflfing we
can improve on our dog and pony show. We didn't get into numbem... We ~ar this. This is
what we hear.
Mason: Yeah, I think all you people are, this is, it's a real good smrC I mean it's nice to see
something.
Brad Johnson: Now we're going to end up desi~t~nin§ each of these fronts see. But that will
Mason: I like that.
Brad Johnson: The comer stones will be identified with each person on the Council and the
HRA.
Tim Howell: Oh I think we could definitely possibly put a walk af the stars.
Mason: This is getting better all the time. Yeah, yeah. Let's go.
Brad Johnson: Well thank you very much. We tried. This has been going on for about 5
months. I'm really doing it because Mr. Ashworth asked me to get together with Mr. Dahlen
because it wasn't going anywhere so we made a fairly good relationship with him and he is
really looking forward to seeing ~ing happen here.
Bohn: It would be nice to see the sign Bowling off that building.
Brad Johnson: One photograph of that and put it down in your lobby along with everything
else.
Mason: Yeah I think the Chan archives would be a good place for that one.
Brad 1ohnson: Thank you very much. Do you have anything to say Russ? I mean he's one
of the guys we have to figure out what to do with.
Russ Pauly: Well I just, you know when Brad mentioned it to me, obviously we're going
through some big changes at Pauly's and this looks a very good deal for both the city and for
myself from my point of view. I think it's going to offer something new for that area. We
need to do something with that cun~t building that's there. That's pretty obvious to
everybody so I'm happy about it. I'm excited about the project and I just hope we can work
with the city and get something accomplished.
15
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
Bohn: It'd be nice for Pauly's to move over to Pauly Drive.
Russ Pauly: You know I never thought about that...You know that's the only dead end slzeet
Brad Johnson: Thank you very much. I think Tntman has done a real good job and it's been
really kind of fun to, we did this in about ? meetings.
REOUEST FOR SPECIAL ASSESSMI~.~ AS$1h~TAN_t~_, FOR OUTLOT A AND LOT
MARKET SQUARE~ BLOOMBI~RG COMPANW. S.
Gerhardt: Mr. Chairman, HRA mere_hers. At our last HRA meeting, Bloomberg Compan~
and Lotus Realty had made a request of the liRA for ~ as~,~ment assistance on Ouflot
A and Lot 4. As you're aware, you have approved the archil~'tmal style of both of those lots
for development of the Wendy's and a 10,000 square foot office retail building. The amount
of the specials against these two lots total $111,467.94. The HRA also asked stuff to review
their request and from this we've always had the policy that we treat each new business as
they come into the community with our program and so we wok that as our basis to review
this development. And from that, using your 2 1/2 yem's...special assessment protection
program, we were able to calculate that with the $80,000.00 in incentives to market the
~ as per the repurchase agreement, you were able to calcnlA~ OUt your development
would create approximately $196,000.00 a year in new taxes based on 2 1/2 years of
percentages. And leaving a remaining of $4,957.00 left over in writing down those speciah
and the $80,000.00 in land write down. It's staff's opinion that we do have-a right to provide
assistance to thia ~ and that you direct staff to prepare a private redevelopment
agreement Not with Bloomberg Companies I've been told but with Lotus Realty as the
signature name on the conuacc As to the trandmmers, from meetings with Vemelle and
Brad, I'm going to leave that up to them to make that request We kind of went back and
forth on it. Staff is neutral on providin§ any type of recommendation because we didn't
know if they were going to request was formal or not so I'll leave that up to Brad.
Brad Johnson: I think Todd has pretty well expressed our feelings. I think last time he
mentioned that we felt from the very beginning, if you read the redevelopment agreement it
says that at the time we had a 3 year increment wtal and one of the things that we negotiated
away from what we're doing is, we couldn't ask in the ouflots for things that we, other than
assessments so the $80,000.00 land write down was pan of a repurchase agreement and I
think it's a way of handling that on a financial basis for the city. So as we perceive it, we
are receiving the same, a little bit less. No, actually the same as we understood, we were not
to receive anything other than the assessment write downs on the lots 2, 3, 4 and Ouflot A.
Similar to what you're probably dealing with in the case of the other Perk'/n~. All the types
16
I _
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
of products that are in the redevelopment are all basically going to be the same. That's fairly
standard. As far as the uansfem are concerned, I think as pan of our discussion with the City
staff is that even though we feel there's a certain amount of inequality there, we have not
figured out how to handle this. If you go over and look at that comer, and given what we
had to go through just to get our bniltling Rpproved, which it add 8 $100,000.00 in the
architecture you have, not you have but somehow we have stacked in that comer how they, 6
transl--, you know boxes that are not, incl~g the one in front of the bank, that are not
necessnrily attrnctive. And they're on the major corner of our community. How we handle
that long term is just the problem. Whether the developer should be required to relocate
those. Our opinion is that it's, mnybe it's a 50/50 de, al but it's certainly not somefl~g we
really want to do. Staff is saying, let's get this thing done and that's where we're at. Our
redevelopment does require us to relocate one of those ~ansformers, But it's just something
thnt I don't know if we want to deal with it nt this level or not. The inkling I've goRell fi'om
the mee~ngs that we've had is that it's a very tough thing. We're not requesting that here
but I think we should all think about it because it doesn't look very goocL Forget this corner.
Just go ncro~ the street and look at the main corner. And that's just I think something that
everybody has to agree with. You know think about long term. And maybe not have
everybody in accordance with it so we're okay with this reque~ We've talked it over with
staff. I think they have juggled everything around to fit the,.~y questions?
Bohn: Thank you.
Chn~el.' I have a question, and maybe I didn't hear your properly but I think you mentioned
the fact that this is a request that's coming through Bloornberg Companies, which I have no
problem with. The question that I have is, ff this is to be contracted between Lotus rather
than Bloomber§s, why would that be? In other words, what I'm asking, you mentioned
something to the fact that if thc private redevelopment agreement is put wgether, who's that
going to be with?
Gerhardt: Bloornberg Companies and Lotus have.
Chmieh Who owns tha~?
Gerhardt: I guess I would rather have.
Chmieh Yeah, let me ask the question. Who owns the property?
Clayton Johnson: The city.
Brad Johnson: The city.
17
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
Chmiel: That's right.
Clayton $ohn~n: With the option.
Chmiel: We have the option. We're selling it back to Bloombergs. How do we get Lotus
involved in this?
Brad Johnson: We're the developer. In other words it's our, we are the ones that have
proposed Wendy's and we are the ones that have proposed the...
Clayton Johnson: ...I agree, it's not Bloom_berg, it's Lores. I wasn't sure if it was just
unintentional. The development agree~neot, all of the development agreements, everything
that's gone through the city, Lotus is the developer.
Gerhardt: Brad can explain. You don't own the property?
Brad Johnson: We act as the developer so it will come through us. We'll put some
financing together and form a parmership to own it and we'll own the other property to
Wendy's. The money just, it's just thc way we go about doing things.
Clayton Johnson: But that's where the confusion comes about because Bloomberg owns the
option to purchase the land.
Chxniel: That's correct.
Clayton Johnson: And yet that is just incidental
Chmiel: I don't understand that. Did you check this with Roger~
Gerhardt: No. I ~ it's, these agreements have typically been with the ~ owner.
But I will verify that.
Chmiel: Yeah, I want clarification on that.
~t: ...before an agreement is signed. Xf we can do it with the developer.
Brad Johnson: Actually in thc case of Maflcct Square, it was signed with Market Square
Associates, which was the developer. That was us. We put that group together. They have
different nan~.
18
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
Gerhardt: But they owned the building.
Brad Johnson: No. Bloomberg owned the property.
Claywn Johnson: In order to present, in arder to come before the Council and the Planning
Commission, you have to have an interest in the ~. In this case, that's Lotus and
Lotus' interest in the property is the purchase agreement they have with Bloomberg who have
an option agreement with the city. $o I mean everything at this point has been, I think the
confusion is that Todd drafted this memo dealt with the fact that we happen to hold the
option but it should be Lotus.
Chmiel: I would like to get c~on on that.
Bohn: So do we need a motion on this7
Chmiel: Well they're looldng for a recommendation. My position would be that that
recommendation would be moved with the clarification of checking with our attorney and
making sure that that's a legal issue, or a legal kind of d~ument can basically be done. If
he's in agreement with that, then I guess I wouldn't have any concern. But I do want that
done.
Gerhardt: I'H make sure I make that clear over to the attorney what the roles are and who's
going to own and if we're following the legalese of this proces~
Mason: You made a motion, right?
Chmiel: I would, yeah.
Mason: Okay. I'll second that contingent on what was just said.
Chmicl: And when will we be notified as to what thc legal options are on that?
Gerhardt: I'd say at our next meeting I can have a memo in the s_dministrative section
clarifying that. I don't see this as a big issue. Either you can do it or you can't.
Chmiel moved, Mason ~econded that the HRA direct staff to draft a Private
Redevelopment Agreement with Lores Realty and their request for $191,467.94 in special
assessment and land write down assistance, with the dariflc~on from the City Attorney
as to the legnlity of the agreement. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
19
Homing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
UPDATE ON THE HANUS FACILITY ROOF.
Gerhardt: This item was one our last agemda where the HRA rejected bids for the Hanus
remodeling project Staff had an opportunity to meet with both Pred Hoisington and Tan
Slgfan on the redevelopment of this building. What staff is proposing to do now is play
general contractor and break out each part of the package as ind_ividual bid pack~ge~s. On~
being for the sign package and canopies. Two, for painting the building and then three is
irinti of a bid alternative. Once the pedestrian bridge is completed, we would then r~hew if
the facade mansard portion of the roof should be completed or not. I think one of the big
reasons in putting that mansard on was to screen HVAC systems and the rooftop units up
there. So the best way to judge that is to wait for the pedesUian bridge to be cor~.leted and
we feel that once that bridge is complel~xi later this fall, you can still move ahead and rne~
the deadlines on the repurchase with Mr. Kim With that staff also feels that we should return
the $50,000.00 Mr. Kirt has given us and complied with your action from 2 months ago.
And until such time that we should have to reroof the bnilding. We have ctaxected all the
leaks over in the facih'ty. I met with the tenants here ~y. They are vea-y happy with
the rccons~cfion of the parking lot. I don't know if you've been back there but things are
shaping up fairly nicely. We expect pavement to be down in the next 2 weeks. We've got
caught with some additional change orde~ on that to bring back to you in our July-August
meeting. Just things that you mn into with the project. They're not big itetn~ We corrected
some things based on the plan that just did not assist with the overall operations and the
parking lot. There was a fairly big pork chop that sat in the front of the auto body's door.
They could barely get a car in and so we think that, that's what enginee~ call it.
Mason: What's a pork chop?
~t: ...JLrn's kind of ~ back the~ ingpe.~q~§ it and it's pretty obvious. If you just
look at it.
Bohn: ff they just made a narrow one where a car could drive along and back in and up.
Right now they back right into it. h doesn't have to be there.
(~-rhardt: So we are making some minor adjustments.
Bohn: And the car backs out of here and they could just make it like that and you'd have
plenty of room. I don't know why it was done that way.
Gerhardt: With that, I think I'm asking for a moti~ It's just put on as an update to look at
the process we're going to go through. If you're in ~t with that, staff will go ahead
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
and start putting together some signage and painting of the facility. And it's not that mu~h
work for any general contractor.
Bohn: What's the...
Gerhardt: There was some masonry work that needs to be done to the sides of the building.
Bohn: No, this is back there where the...Is that a retaining wall, is that what it is?
Gerhardt: Yeah. We had that installed. If you remember as part of thc plan it showed
retaining walls and we tried to kind of put some berms back there to landscape it as we drove
on the roadway. And the retaining wall provides us to get more parking in there and then
also retain the berming in the area. And then you also have to have that clear area behind the
curb becau~ if you bump into the cars and stuff. It would knock out paving and part of the
plant mata'ials that we're going to put in there. So that's what the retaining walh are for.
Bohn: I looked at one that was where the lot where they stared the cars after they towed, it
was one going in there.
~t: Yes. I think they're done now. You can go back and look.
Bohn: You can't even see from the top of that hill they've put in there now, the top of the, I
haven't been up there because the bulldozem were working when I was over there last. Two
days ago. If you can see on top of the roof of thc Hanus building.
Gerhardt: I was just checking the grades so I haven't even looked at where... I was looking
the other direction.
Bohn: Are they going to have to raise themselves 3 more feet then?
Cerhardl: I didn't even check. I'll have to go out there.
Bohn: Yeah that :3, you're going to have to raise that :3 more feec That hill.
~t: I don't think so. Mike was going, I called and talked to him today where we're
turning, you had to truck in dirt to raise the north elevation to mawh the south elevation so
the last lIRA meeting we approved the change order to haul those ma~ in and I've asked
Mike to get a survey out there to verify those heights so they malch up so we don't have to
bring Iruc~ in on top of uees and things like that. We're thin~ng ahead.
21
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
Chmiel: I like the idea that you're doing this yourself and I think you'll save us some
money. Mason: Are you out there with the shovel too or just?
Gerhardt: Well the guys wanted me to help put the retaining wall in. He wanted to know if
he should move this concrete block and I said you're asking the wrong guy on ~ one. I
brought MichaeL.and Charles, they're... I can run a Bobcat They should see me on a
Bobcat
Mason: Well it ali sounds good to me.
Bohr,: Sounds good to me.
Chmiel: We'll get a package back to us indicating what those bids will come in at?
Gerhardt~ Yeah. You would have to approve the bids on that. I would expect August
probably would be the time.
Bohn: We'll go onto new busines~
CQNSmER A RFOUEST FROM MAI~I~.T SOUARF. PARTNF. RSHIP RF. GARDIN{~
A~$ISTANCE FOR EXPANSION, FESTIVAL FOODS.
Gerhardt: I don't know if you had an oppommity to read Don's memo but I think at ~he last
meeting Don was, made a verbal update on Festival's request for assistance and from that, we
have done some things in that area alre~y and assisted in that developnm~t to take place and
we have asked HRA's attorney to review what..~t be available to continue that assis~
to make everything on an equal playing ground with Byerly's. Staff feels that something will
be worked out and we just wanted to reaffirm that it's the lIRA intent to pwvide that
Bohn: Mike, questions?
Mason: No. I feel like I've been here before on this one. And no, I don't have any trouble
with this at all. I certainly I guess with other people, anticipated it. And thi~ has nothing to
do with this request but philosophically I think we need to, at some point con,id_er at what
point does HRA say you know the city's going along pretty well Thia mi~t be a program
that we need to really rethink.
Bohn: I thought we went tluough that once before.
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
Mason: Well, I guess I think this is a different case too. I mean no, I don't have any ~rouble
with this at all But I do think with this one coming in now, and whatever may be with the
future with the south side, I guess I kind of see that as perhaps a done deal too but I think at
some point the HRA does need to give that some thought. But no this, I don't have any
trouble with this.
Gerhardt: Well just to remind everybody that your program now is one where you get an
equal share of any increment and I just wanted to highlight that if Festival should go in this
year, it's based on 2 1/2 years and if they decided to wait until next year, then it's 2 years.
And it progressively goes down every half year. We may want to discuss that one again at
another meeting and on that policy if you think it's beneficial to you. la this what we want
to continue to do? Are we seeing enough development'/ Quality development. Or do you
want to maybe provide more. So you can go either way on that. I will bring that out as a
related discussion with the...you've got other dries that are doing more but. So it's, I don't
think you need to give them more but I don't know, I think you need to be-selective.
Brad Johnson: Can I ask one thing7
Chmiel: No.
Brad Johnson: lust a philosophical thing.
Chmiel: No, no.
Brad Johnson: I just want to point out, one of the things that we did with downtown, this is
where this all came frorm..is that the city put in a lot of public i ,mwovements and they hoped
that the developnm~t that was to come there would pay for it versus the city having to pay
for it. So the incentive has been, we'll do the public in~ovements but we'd bettt~ encourage
somebody to buy the land. That's all
Mason: Oh I agree.
Chmiel: Sure.
Brad Johnson: And none of us objected to the public hnpwvements because we felt that we
would sooner or later build something and it's an encouragement for us to do this. In a
couple ways you've ended up owning thc property, that was not the plan but that was to help
something else but I think that's the philosophy behind that in the downWwn and it's been the
philosophy in the industrial paxk. Is that we've got to get these ~vements in but we sure
as hell don't want to have nothing happen there because then you do pay for it.
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
Chmiel: Yeah, and as we look at this, this will eventually work itself out where I think
Mike's concern is, after the next what, 5 years, there won't be any incentives within this
particular district in itself.
Gerhardt: Well in Brad's case, he is correct There's no question. You could ~ another
redevelopment district over there behind the Dinner Theater so you could get another 2~ year
district and maybe a little bit longer. I haven't check~ on that one but crea~d over there.
There is enough identification of blight and there's railroad tracks there and things lilm that.
Chmiel: Yeah, I hope I never see another 25 year one within any district, as far as I'm
concerned.
Gerhardt: Well you can close them out at any time. It's just the mechanism that fits for that.
If you're going to work with commercial, that's your only option is the redevelopment
district. Economic development districts don't allow you providing incentives to gomm~rc~l
like movie theatre's, restaurants and things like that. Redevelopment, you're physically doing
what the law calls for. You're redeveloping an old center and making it retrofit of that area
with something that's appropriate.
Chmiel: Okay. Do you need an action on this one as well?
Gerhardt: No. What we will be doing is working with the Festival Food groups and with
John Dean and getting that financial tool and package together and that should be back on for
your ~uly, if that meets, I think that's Festival's schedule. To try to be...
Brad $ohnson: Yeah, but on their behalf they're going through this mega merger right now.
Chmiel: Before Byerly's opens.
Brad $ohnson: It's sort of like having an election.
CONSIDER VOIDING THE CONTRACT Wrl'U ~ MEDICAL ARTS
PARTNERSHIP REGARDING SECOND PHASE OF THE MEDICAL ARTS
PROJECT.
Gerhardt: This item I think is just the lIRA at our last meeting had asked me to review this
item and I think it was also one to kind of stir up the pot and I think you did that. I got a
few phone calls over it. And I think, I don't think it was the I-IRA's intent to look to a
different developer on this. I think you were looking for what the, how the agreement laid
out and the terms of that agreement and I think the resolution attached laid that out. Staff
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - lune 23, 1994
had an opportunity to meet with and talk about this with the cummt developer. Medical Arts
Phase 11 Partnership I think is the ~ And from that staff is, we'd like the next 30 days to
meet with that group and start discussions about rene§otiafing that private redevelopment
agreement. To bring it into wday's mark~-t. To set some new time tables on when they
might start construction on it. Discuss you know some of the specials on the site and the
purchase price and things like that. ~ that,, from my discussions with the psrmership and
it's members, they felt very comfortable with sitting down and talking about this. Staff
would look to the HRA wnight to direct staff to renegotiate that contract with the pa~mership
and try to come to terms within the next 30 days. If we don't seem to be working that way,
then we'll have to look at other avenues and we will provide those at our next meeting. But I
feel very confident that we can work this out in the next 30 days with the parmership.
Bohn: Who owns that property?
Gerhardt: We do. We have an agreement with the parmership to reconvey that. I think
there's been concessions on both sides. There were times when Bernie was on the site and
they were getting prepared to develop it and it's tough to do that when you have a business
operating there and telling people well, there could be this tmilding... So it's dii:Hcult from
their avenue to do that and then we were also supposed to build a parking lot to serve thek
needs and put the driveway access in but we were reluctant to do that because to put in a
driveway access and build a bnildin§ and then just tear it all up anyway. So from that we
both agreed that we'd like to have 30 days to sit down and discuss this and see what
alternatives we can come up with and then present those back to you at our next meeting.
That's my thoughts of what my conversations were with Brad, Ken Talley and Bob Copeland.
Brad and Bob Copeland are here and I'd like to open it up to them if they feel like they
would like to talk about it...
Brad Johnson: I always like to say something but I am kind of excited. We've been working
with, we've always thought of this as the place when you live in the community, for the
clinic to be, and for them to expand and stay in downtown Chanhasse~ One of the
problems in the medical world, so we just kind of reserved the site for them. They have
reached the point that they do need to expand and we made a proposal a year ago. They
move that slowly. You can check with Mr. Danvers but we met with them and just by
happenstance we had a meeting with them y~y that was scheduled for the last 3 weeks
to review their needs for space. And what we've been uying to do, they're an excellent
tenant. It's an excellent use for over in that area and we were comfortable...to neetting, 10,
15, 20,000 square feet there, h's just that the medical community is not making any clear
decisions, believe me.
Chmiel: I know why.
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - June 23, 1994
Brad Johnson: And so we did have a meeting with them. Mr. Talley was with me. I think
he walked away feeling comfortable for the first time that we would probably be moving
ahead. The good news is it's been a very success~ building financially and we can finally
finance a second phase without having to have it 100% leased as we did; or 90~ as we did in
the past. Because the bank feeh that that's a very...with Market Square and that's why we're
not quick to move ahead with the Edina buikting...which is to say we all put together
something that worked. So we're kind of excited about that and that part of our discussions,
Todd...I think it's appropriate what you have asked and I think it will be fin~
Bohn: Thank you. Do you need a motion on this?
Crerhardc ...if you were to make one, it would be one to direct staff to renegotiate the current
privam redevelopment contract with the Medical Arts Parmership and bring those back within
the next 30 days for you to consider it.
Chmiel.' I'd so move that Mr. Chairman.
Mason: Second.
Chmiel: One other thing. When are we going to, I'd like to give us the 7 days to clean up
that contractors yard there. We talked about it and then nothing's happened. 7 days.
Mason: It's pretty unsightly.
Brad lohnson: Our parking lot? Somebody actually said to us, well no wonder they're going
to go for a redevelopment agreement. The place looks like a mess.
Chrniel: Something's got to be done with it.
Brad Johnson: This guy didn't have a blue shirt on either.
Chmiel moved, Mason seconded that the HRA direct staff to renegofia~ the current
private redevdopment contract with the Medical Arts Partnership for Phase H and
bring it back at the next HRA meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
APPROVAL OF BH,I,S.
Chmiel: You know, every time I see these Todd I get a little excited over item 55264 and
again 55138. When are we going to consummate getting these kinds of bilh from these
Housing and Redevelo~t Authority - ~une 23, 1994
consultant. I don't know, to me I almost hate to say it but I think it's a bleeding kind of
heart and somewhere I think that bleeain§'s going to have to stop.
Gerhardt: There's no question that the vision process has probably extended more than what
we thought but we think.
Chn~h Well I may have contributed to that.
~t~ ...and people are really taking a big interest in this. I mean we could almost create
another vision commission if you wanted but I'm not Paul Krauss and I don't need to make a
meeting...and I'll send Paul a copy of these minutes.
Mason: Do that will you.
Geflim~t: And they do really have...and I see this thing wrapping up here with the survey
and the...goin§ out to public. The one good thing is you've got a lot of documen~on to go
back to. Citizens had the oppcl~unity her~ The process..,rcal positive. When you look at
these dollar amounts...public relations, and,..and he applied for that. The newspaper writes
something almost weekly on I would say almost a thank you to that in that you've asked the
citizens to be involved.
Mason: That's true.
Geflmrdt: It's a positive and money well spent and you're asking for...You know that and the
Council does so thc number of public hearings that you...
Bohn: Can I have a motion on the approval of bills?
Mason moved, Cbmlel seconded to appFove the nccmmts payable for the ~ as
presented. AH voted in favor and the motion carried.
lIRA PRESENTATIONS:
Bolm: I have one question. The sidew~lir going across the railroad tracks and the Highway 5
part of the upgrading, when is that going to be done along the double lanes coming down by
the new bank and down by Brown's? That's part of thc Highway 5 consuuction.
~t: I guess I can't answer that I don't know...
Housing and Redevelopment Authority - Sune 23, 1994
Bohn: The sidewalks going across the tracks plus the road being nazrowed to one lane...
Gerhardt: To answer the sidewalks are to be, they should be put in within the next 2 to 3
weeks. I mean the...has been done. The installation has been done. They've staked it.
You'll notice the sidewalks...
(Taping of the meeting ended at this point in the discussion.)
Chmiel moved, Mason seconded to adjourn the ~ AH voted in hvor and the
motion carried. The meeting was adj(mrnetL
Submiti~d by Don Ashworth
Executive Director
28
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