all right it is 7 pm I'll call to order the regular Housing and Redevelopment Authority meeting of the city of Richfield of February 18th 2025 um we will start with the open Forum if there's anyone here to speak at the open Forum seeing no hesitation or move here
um you can also refer to the H agenda and minutes web page for additional ways to submit comments um okay so that takes us then to the approval of the minutes of the regular Housing and Redevelopment Authority meeting of January 21st 2025 is there a motion for approval so
moved second it's been moved and seconded um any comments questions changes concerns seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed the minutes have been approved taking us to item number one approval of the agenda is
there a motion to approve the agenda uh so I move to approve the agenda second it's been moved and seconded any changes at all seeing none all those in favor to approve the agenda say I I I opposed the agenda has been
approved that takes us to item number two the consent calendar executive director palman Thank You Cher ree Daniels members of the board the consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the H and one motion once the consent calendar has been approved the individual items and
recommended actions have also been approved however any HRA commissioner May request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and placed on the regular uh agenda for HRA discussion and action item a on your consent calendar tonight is consideration of the approval of a Second Amendment to the preliminary
development agreement with pen stations lllp for the development of 40 units of affordable housing at 6501 1 and 6525 Penn Avenue South Item B is consideration of a resolution authorizing the acceptance of environmental remediation funding
through the Minnesota brownfields program by Jo companies LLC for 6501 and 6525 pen Avenue South and I will mention uh the H did receive a revised resolution uh for that item the only
change is the name of the um fund funding group or the name of the grant program correct it was the name of the grant program and hennipen County requested that we make that change in the preliminary agreement I submit these items for your uh approval thank you all
right is there a motion to approve the consent calendar I make a motion to approve the consent calendar second it has been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I opposed the consent calendar hasn't approved thank you um
item number four I'll pass it back to executive director pman thank you and I will ask assistant director Julie Urban to present the staff report thank you chair of re Daniels members of the H uh some of this will sound familiar
we've heard it before I'll try to keep it a little bit briefer um than some of the past meetings but as you know hemple real estate is proposing to purchase three affordable Richfield apartment complexes New Orleans Court Richland Court and winon house containing a total
of 236 units in in order to retain the affordability of the properties and to undertake moderate Rehabilitation activities the developer is seeking financial assistance from the Housing and Redevelopment Authority in exchange for limiting rents and capping resident income levels which would enable the
properties to qualify for 40 tax status under the proposed contract for private development private Redevelopment the HRA would provide the developer with a $1.57 million 15-year deferred loan funded from the city's affordable housing trust fund the developer would
also apply for $200,000 from the economic development Authority's apartment remodeling Loan program toward those remodeling activities a declaration of restrictive covenants would be filed against the properties requiring that rent and income limits in all one and two bedroom units be
restricted to 60% of the area median income and in all three bedroom units at 70% of the Ami the Declaration would also require the properties to accept Section 8 kids at home and other forms of rent Al assistance operated by the H to agree to meetings between property
management and City staff and to regularly seek feedback from residents filing the Declaration will qualify the properties for 4D tax status thereby reducing the taxes paid by the properties the city council approved the use of the 4D tax status on January 28th
of this year and I would like to point out that they are still in the process of finalizing their principal lender the HR will end up being in third position behind the principal lender and the Noah impact fund and the documents that you see attached to your uh packet were
labeled draft because I can guarantee that the lenders will all have suggestions for changes uh if those changes are minor the executive director and the H attorney will approve those changes if they're a little more substantive we will likely bring these back to you in March um one thing that
we do anticipate May likely happen is we may have to divide the loan into three um one for each property so those are some details that happen with closings closer to the end and um that's just the timing of things so um if you have any
questions I'm happy to answer those um otherwise that concludes my report anybody have any questions just to clarify um has anything else changed other than the city council has approved the 40 tax
status since our last conversation or is everything primarily the same so we did did add some language um at a a request just to encourage uh um that the developer would seek feedback from residents on an ongoing basis and so we did um added that I also um because we
have we are anticipating uh a new state rent assistance program called bring it home Minnesota so rather than being very specific about our programs I added some more General language because I would hope that they might also be open to accepting folks who would receive this new rent assistance program which the RFP just came out today actually so
we're in the process of developing that program um and so I just wanted to anticipate that uh as well uh and then since that time they also got back um some of their preliminary numbers on rehab work and it is it is
not last it's quite a bit more than anticipated we don't expect to provide more money but they do ask for that full um full amount thank you yes I was just going to say I was really pleased to see those
changes I think it's good to have that flexibility on the the state rental program but also to get the feedback from the tenants so that they can be have some agency in in in their where they're living and have have a
voice all right if there's no other question is there a motion anybody like to make a motion I'll move to adopt a resolution approving the execution and delivery of a contract for private Redevelopment and Declaration of restrictive covenants
with hemple real estate doing business as hemple Holdings LLC or a subsidiary thereof is there a second second all right it has been moved and seconded uh any comments questions concerns yes go ahead um I
have had a hard time getting to yes on this resolution but I've gotten there and the reason I had a hard time is I I talked before about the increase in proper taxes that some people that we that may occur and that troubled me quite a bit but I've gotten to yes for
two reasons two primary reasons I think I watched the city council meeting and mayor Supple you were very eloquent talking about tradeoffs and that this is a tradeoff worth making and I'm come around to that opinion that this is definitely a trade-off that we ought to make and also that 477 people almost 500
people would be affected if we didn't do this and it breaks my heart to think about how they would have to go find similar housing and how difficult that would be and some of the stories were heard about the concierge Apartments uh really moved me so I'm I'm
a yes on this I support it um and that's it thank you thanks anyone else yeah I I appreciate all the discussion around this I think we don't take these things lightly and I appreciate how staff interacts with conversations and questions that how the city council has and the H and you know
if this moves forward with the Eda as well and so um so I wanted to make sure we were clear about the changes from last time as well because it isn't always an ongoing uh conversation so thank you all right if there's nothing go ahead I did have one question so the next steps would be um after the due
diligence period and we do this would then hemple would close on it or what are the next steps their hope is to close by the end of March there is a deadline for the 4D tax status of March 31st so that is their goal um there's a lot to accomplish between now and then
um but that's that's their business that they're in right there's a lot of details that have to be worked out to get to closing um we wanted to get this agreement before you even though we knew the documents weren't quite where we wanted them to be just because they they need to have that decision because they
have to go hard with their earnest money in early March and so you know they are continuing to move forward um finishing their due diligence they'll have to put down real money um and then yeah working out details with lenders and um so and
then to closing okay and then after closing our ordinance would kick in about the notice to tenants and those types of things yep there's a three-month tenant protection period um they will have to give notice to tenants and um agree not to raise rents or change um terms of people living there
for those that three-month period uh it's my understanding from just talking to them in their regular practice they don't like to change a lot of those things for the first year they really want to get um to know what's going on in their properties um so that's sort of their typical way to operate thank you thanks
all right there is a motion um and it has been seconded all those in favor say I I I opposed that means the motion has been approved thank you um item number five H discussion
items are there any HRA discussion items seeing none we'll move on to item number six executive director's report thank you I do not have a report tonight all righty item number seven claims uh is there a motion to approve
claims uh so moved second it's been moved and seconded any comments questions concerns all right seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed claims have been approved and that takes us to adjournment thank you everyone roll right into the Eda if
nobody needs a break after seven minutes okay checking minutes right all right so then we'll call to um order the hang on let me get to the top uh
Economic Development Authority meeting of the city of Richfield of February 18th 2025 um we'll have we'll start with the open Forum um if there's anyone here for the open Forum you can also refer to the Eda agenda and minutes web page for additional ways to comments so seeing
that there is no one here we'll move right on to approval of the minutes of the regular Economic Development Authority from all the way back in December 16 2024 is there a motion to approve the minutes uh motion to approve second it's
been moved and seconded any changes comments seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed the minutes have been approved taking us to item number one approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda agenda so moved is
there a second second it has been moved and seconded any changes made to the agenda seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed the agenda has been approved
this takes us to item number two executive director pman thank you and I will ask assistant director Urban to present this staff report as well thank you chair re Daniel members president re Daniels members of
the Eda hample real estate is acquiring uh three Rich Richfield apartment communities New Orleans Court Richland Court and wion house and they are planning to preserve the affordability and to undertake moderate Rehabilitation the developer requested
$1 1.77 million in financial assistance from the HRA to assist in the purchase and preservation the HRA approved a contract for private Redevelopment with the redeveloper authorizing $1.57 million from the city's affordable housing trust fund and $200,000 in
apartment remodeling loans contingent upon this action by the Eda the guidelines for the Eda apartment remodeling program typically limit the number of apartment loans to one per property all three of the properties being acquired by the developer have received Rehabilitation loans in the
past so the Eda is being asked to authorize additional loans one per property the loans will be funded primarily through repayments of the past loans by the current owner upon the sale of the properties an exception to the program guidelines is warranted in this
case because of the benefit to the residents in the community with the preservation and Rehabilitation of the affordable rental housing units and also because funds are able to be recycled upon the sale of the properties the proposed improvements will need to meet
all remaining program guidelines with that if you have any questions I'm happy to answer anybody have any questions yes go ahead so you said earlier during the HRA meeting that they probably will use the full 200,000 is that accurate
yes they certainly will yeah okay so and they'll be used for just fixing up safety and that types of those types of things yep we'll see what there were there's a long list that was identified um through the initial inspections um roofs and furnaces and windows and we'll
certainly talk about what's the simplest way to deal with this it was was just this was a way because we're getting $190 some thousand back in repayments it seemed like a great way to reduce the demand on the trust fund to use those repayments and so we'll talk with them about what's the simplest way to to make
that work um they could do one per property or I suppose they could split it between two if if that was easier um okay thank you that was helpful because I mean that was what the fund was designed for to begin with so exactly the exact purpose exactly yep
am I reading this correct that the because it's being sold the repayment is due of 191k so really the initial investment that we made is like you said almost fully being repaid because it is being sold one that's EXA exactly um New
Orleans court has a loan that's actually 14 years with a 15year maturity but I'm not feeling terribly bad because we'll get to recycle those funds and they were actually originally Metropolitan Council funds and so it's important that we reuse it at a similar
purpose um the other two buildings I I believe the loans are about eight years old um in winon house paid for um I think replaced some flooring and some paint and did some um parking lot work and then Richland Court did some roof
work um so those were things that these buildings need a lot of work right from there the um given their ages so it's it's exciting that we have somebody who's willing to invest into the physical properties that's great thank
you anybody in is there a motion to approve I'll move to adopt a resolution authorizing hle Holdings LLC to apply for one additional apartment remodeling loan per property for New Orleans Court Richland Court and winon house up to a
total amount of $200,000 is there a second second it has been moved in seconded any comments questions concerns additional right seeing none all those in favor say I I I
opposed and the amendment has been approved motion there you go um item number three Eda discussion items are there any Eda discussion items seeing none uh item number four executive director's report I do not
have any report tonight thank you that takes us to claims is there a motion to approve claims I'll make a motion to approve claims uh second it's been moved and seconded any comments questions concerns on the motion seeing none all those in favor
say I I I opposed claims have been approved that takes us to adjournment thank you