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HRAM 05/04/2017 CITY OF FRIDLEY HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MEETING May 4, 2017 ______________________________________________________________________________ Chairperson Pro Tem Gabel called the Housing and Redevelopment Authority Meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: William Holm Pat Gabel Stephen Eggert Gordon Backlund Kyle Mulrooney OTHERS PRESENT: Paul Bolin, HRA Assistant Executive Director Wally Wysopal, City Manager Jim Casserly, Development Consultant Action Items 1. Approval of Expenditures. MOTION by Commissioner Eggert approving the expenditures. Seconded by Commissioner Holm. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON PRO TEM GABEL DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 2. Approval of the April 6, 2017, Meeting Minutes. MOTION by Commission Holm approving the minutes. Seconded by Commissioner Eggert. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON PRO TEM GABEL DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 3. Public Hearing & Approval of Lot Sale – 5875 Second Street. MOTION by Commissioner Holm to open the public hearing. Seconded by Commissioner Eggert. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON PRO TEM GABEL DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS OPENED AT 7:09 P.M. Housing and Redevelopment Authority Meeting of May 4, 2017 2 Paul Bolin , HRA Assistant Executive Director, stated Mark Grotewold of Grotewold Homes submitted a lot reservation agreement to purchase the property at 5875 Second Street for $35,000. This was a property that the Authority purchased and demolished the existing home back in 2014. The lot is 85 feet wide, 130 feet deep, has some tree coverage on it, and sits right across from Skyline Park. Mr. Bolin stated Mr. Grotewold is working with his architect right now to come up with a home plan that fits on the site and also meets the criteria for the Housing Replacement Program. As the HRA has done in the past with some of these, because they need the HRA’s approval and there is the 60-day timeframe with the lot reservation agreement, staff sometimes asks the HRA to approve these things before they have the plans. However, if they do not get plans that meet the requirements of the Program, they simply do not close on the property. That is how this is before the Commission tonight as well. They are still working on the plans. Mr. Bolin stated staff recommends approval of the Resolution authorizing the sale to Grotewold Homes & Remodeling upon submittal of home plans meeting the Housing Replacement Program criteria. Chairperson Pro Tem Gabel stated this is pretty straightforward. They have done this several times before. Commissioner Eggert asked Mr. Bolin do they have many lots like this left to sell? Mr. Bolin replied they have sold all of them except for one, 650 Ely Street, and that one is a 50-foot wide lot, but it is in the flood fringe zone so it needs to be built to FEMA standards; therefore, it is not an easy lot to build on. Commissioner Holm stated that is a beautiful lot that is being sold. It is a very nice lot. There is a lot of tree coverage. MOTION by Commissioner Backlund to close the public hearing. Seconded by Commissioner Eggert. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON PRO TEM GABEL DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS CLOSED AT 7:12 P.M. MOTION by Commissioner Holm adopting the HRA Resolution Authorizing the Sale of Residential Property by Housing and Redevelopment Authority for the Lot at 5875 Second Street NE. Seconded by Commissioner Mulrooney. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON PRO TEM GABEL DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. Housing and Redevelopment Authority Meeting of May 4, 2017 3 4. Approval of Contract for Exclusive Negotiations – Locke Park Pointe Mr. Bolin stated after a lengthy request for qualifications process, the HRA selected last month to work with the Flaherty & Collins/Landform Group to lead the private development to build housing around the new city hall. Last month the HRA also approved the HRA staff and attorney to start working on the agreements necessary to move the project forward. There are a number of tasks they need the developer to complete before continuing on with the project and before they can come up with an all-inclusive redevelopment agreement. The developer still needs to conduct some market studies. There is quite a bit of design work to be done yet, engineering, and then of course the financial analysis which is a very important piece for the Authority. Mr. Bolin stated in order to protect the HRA and the developer, staff has put together a Contract for Exclusive Negotiations that will provide the time needed for the developer to get all of those tasks taken care of. The HRA has seen these contracts before. They have used these with the Hyde Project and did one like this with the Cielo Project as well. Attorney Jim Casserly is present as well. He took the lead role in putting together the Agreement. Staff recommends approval of that Contract. Commissioner Holm stated this Contract goes for approximately six months, until November 1. He asked whether at that point in time they need to make a decision whether they proceed with that particular developer? Jim Casserly, HRA Attorney, replied, that is correct. They would hope to know well before November 1. They simply put in that date as a default date. They actually plan on negotiating an agreement during the summer and hopefully have it to the HRA no later than the September meeting. They should know an awful lot more in the next 60 days. Attorney Casserly stated after staff prepared this, the developer contacted them and told them the Secretary of State would not let them use this specific name for some reason. He needed to change the name on the Agreement and on the Resolution. Instead of having Lock Pointe Fridley, LLC, it needs to be Locke Park Pointe, LLC. He has already made the changes in a master agreement. He asked that it be added into the motion, and then he will make sure it is right. He has their actual corporation papers so he knows this is correct. Chairperson Pro Tem Gabel asked attorney Casserly whether this is pretty standard as far as he is concerned? Is there anything unusual the Commission needs to be aware of? Attorney Casserly replied, for this one there really is not. What the redeveloper really wants is to be protected when they are actually out spending money, doing analyses and site plan, doing a bunch of work. During this period of time they really want to know the HRA is not going to be dealing with anybody else. They were selected as the master developer, but they have no agreement other than they like you folks, please come do work. This starts to formalize their relationship, and they also identify in this Contract a number of the issues they need to address in a redevelopment contract. They also make it clear that any of the civil work and other kinds of Housing and Redevelopment Authority Meeting of May 4, 2017 4 work that they do, that if they cannot reach an agreement, the HRA has a right to any of those documents that they prepare as long as they are not a proprietary business type of document. Chairperson Pro Tem Gabel stated, and they have done this before. Attorney Casserly replied, this is the fourth time for sure the HRA has done an agreement like this. Any major project that takes a while to put together, the developer normally wants to have some level of comfort that, if they do all of this investment into the site, that the HRA will be working with them. MOTION by Commissioner Backlund approving the Contract for Exclusive Negotiations – Locke Park Pointe with name being amended to be Locke Park Pointe, LLC. Seconded by Commissioner Holm. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON PRO TEM GABEL DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. Informational items 1. Fridley Job Fair Update Mr. Bolin stated as staff has been out meeting with businesses over the last few years, they have heard from a number of them stating they have been having trouble filling positions. As the HRA did in 2016, they held another job fair in partnership with the Anoka County Workforce Center and the State Department of Employment and Economic Development. Mr. Bolin stated they held this at the Fridley Community Center on April 18. They had about 20 employers there, and they had about 100 job seekers come through. The businesses that were all there were very happy with both the quantity and the quality of the folks who came in to meet with them. It was just a three-hour long job fair. Last year they ran it for about six hours, and the feedback from employers was that it was too long. This year they scaled it back and everybody was happy and thought three hours was adequate. Chairperson Pro Tem Gabel asked Mr. Bolin if he knew if there were any successful connections out of that with people receiving employment? Mr. Bolin replied, he has not heard back yet on this year’s job fair, but last year there were quite a few people hired because of the job fair. 2. Housing Program Update Mr. Bolin stated there was 1 loan closed in April, giving them 1 for year to date. CE has a new marketing person and in the next couple of weeks they should see a postcard coming out to their homes promoting both the loan program as well as the Remodeling Advisor visit program. She will also be doing the targeted marketing mailing to the mobile home park. If they recall last Housing and Redevelopment Authority Meeting of May 4, 2017 5 year they approved a mobile home loan. They will try and get those loan numbers up. As to Remodeling Advisor visits they were surprising because typically the Home and Garden Show generates quite a few Home Remodeling Advisor visits right after that. However, the new marketing person for CE seems fairly energetic and wants to help the HRA get their numbers up. She has been in contact with the City’s communications person. There are a number of tweets and Facebook postings she was sending over for the City to retweet to help get the word out there on these programs. Mr. Bolin stated the Home Energy Squad did 3 visits in April, and they have 23 for the year to date. Chairperson Pro Tem Gabel asked whether they have not had anyone show any interest in their commercial loans? Mr. Bolin replied if she will recall with the HRA’s program, they are really kind of closing that last little gap. The HRA’s funds are typically going to be second or third in line. They have partnered with the Central Minnesota Development Corporation on that program and. Over the past two years since the HRA approved the program, staff has talked with a number of businesses; but nobody has actually needed to take advantage of the HRA’s actual loan dollars yet. ADJOURN : MOTION by Commissioner Eggert to adjourn. Seconded by Commissioner Backlund. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON PRO TEM GABEL DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:24 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Denise M. Johnson Recording Secretary