like to call this meeting of the Richfield Housing and Redevelopment Authority of March 16, 2026 to order. Uh first item of business tonight is we have the pleasure of welcoming a new member of the uh HA U Brett Stersa. So
will you be administering it both Well, welcome Brett. It's going to be a be a pleasure to be working with you in the in the coming uh coming years. >> And I I want to say congratulations as well.
Our uh next item of order of business is the election of officers for the Richfield Housing and Redevelopment Authority. Uh tonight we'll be electing the chair, the vice chair, and the secretary.
Um with that, I guess I will open the floor for nominations for chair. >> I would nominate Gordon Hansen for chair. >> Second. >> All right. Uh are there any other nominations? I guess hearing none. All in favor of uh
Gordon Hansen for chair say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. I'll open the floor for nominations for vice chair. >> I'll nominate Sean Hayford Deliri.
>> I'll second that. >> Okay. Are there any other nominations? All in favor of uh Sean Hayford Olri for vice chair say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And I'll open the floor for nominations for secretary.
>> I'll nominate John Young. >> Second. >> All right. Are there any other nominations? Okay. All in favor of uh John Young for secretary say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. We have our uh we have our
slate of officers. Um roll call. I can finish the roll call. Commissioner Young >> here. >> Commissioner uh Mayor Supple >> here. >> Commissioner Hansen uh
>> here. >> Commissioner Hayford here. >> And Commissioner Stersza here. >> Thank you. All right, that uh brings us to our open forum. Uh participants can share their comments in person, by voicemail or email and may also request to
participate uh virtually. Uh for more information on submitting comments, refer to the housing redevelopment authority agenda and minutes page on the city's website. Um is there anyone here tonight uh speak for the open forum?
>> Okay. Did anyone contact us through uh any other means? No, we received no emails or phone calls. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, approval of the agenda. I'll uh accept a motion for approval.
>> I move approval of the agenda. >> I'll second that motion. >> Okay. All in favor of approving the agenda say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Uh, approval of the minutes. And we'll we're looking for approval of the minutes of the joint
housing redevelopment authority and city council work session of February 17, 2026 and the regular housing and redevelopment authority meeting of February 17, 2026. >> I move approval of the minutes. >> Okay. Is there a second?
>> Second. >> Okay. All in favor of approving the minutes say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. We don't have any presentations tonight. Uh and we'll move on to the consent calendar and I will uh turn over for uh
staff. Thank you, Chair Hansen, members of the HA. The consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the HR in one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved and no further
HRA action on these items is necessary. Any HR commissioner may however request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and placed on the regular agenda for discussion and action. The items on the consent calendar tonight include consideration of an amendment to
the professional service agreement with VEP to provide an additional $50,000 in local affordable housing aid funding for emergency rental assistance and related navigation and servicing of the program. Consideration of an amended and restated local housing incentive account subgrant
agreements with HomeSource Incorporated and Woodlon Terrace Cooperative. adjusting the funding amounts, outcomes, and deadline for the creation of new affordable housing opportunities in Woodlon Terrace. Consider the adoption of a resolution amending the bylaws of
the Housing and Redevelopment Authority to adjust the order of operations and consideration of resolutions designating official depositories for the Housing and Redevelopment Authority for 2026, including the approval of collateral. All items listed on the consent calendar
are recommended for approval. I'll move um approval of the items on the consent calendar. >> Second. >> Okay. A motion has been made and seconded. Uh all in favor of approving the consent calendar say I. >> I. >> Any opposed?
>> All right. We uh we don't have any public hearings or resolutions tonight. Uh so with that, I will uh turn over for the executive director's report. >> Thank you, Chair Hansen. Members of the HR, the two things I wanted to mention, one is that the Astro Commons
development proposed at 66 in Portland is officially dead. They have decided not to pursue that development anymore. Um, not having received tax credits for the fourth year. They decided that it's just not a workable project. So, that is
unfortunate and we will be looking to figure out what's next for that property. Uh, we have also begun the process of updating our TIFF management plan. That is a document we had our financial consultant put together back in 2022 and we'll be updating that document and
that will be coming before you sometime this fall. Uh we will have some decisions to make this fall regarding uh spending plan dollars and our affordable housing trust fund and that document will help guide those decisions. So look for that sometime this fall. And that's
uh the conclusion of my report. All right. >> If you if you recall off hand um with Astro Commons, what was the result of like the land use changes at the time? Did that get redesated in the comprehensive plan or what what is the current status of the parcel as it sits? >> It did get redesated to high density
multif family. It had been medium density. Yes. So that designation will continue. Right. I think though the small size of the parcel will govern how how dense any project can be. Right? If you remember that was a 38 unit project and that was
>> that was probably close to capacity given um the need for parking. >> It's about half an acre, right? >> It's half an acre. Yes, correct. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh any other comments or questions? All right. We'll uh move on to H
discussion items. Commissioner Sele. >> Um I just was wanting to um comment on something that was on the consent agenda. I'm really happy to see that we're moving forward with all of the Woodlon Terrace work and it's been great
to see how that has come along and had welcomed more members to the community and provided more affordable housing. So thank you to staff and everybody who worked on that. I appreciate it. And also thank you for everybody that worked with VEP to provide the rental assistance.
Any other uh discussion items? Okay, seeing none, we will uh um move on to approval of the claims. >> I move approval of claims. >> Second. >> All right, a motion has been made and
seconded for approval of claims. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? And that concludes our business for the H tonight. The meeting stands adjourned. All right. I'd like to uh call to order the Richfield Economic and Development
Authority meeting of March 16, 2026. Our uh first item of business tonight is to welcome uh new member Brett Stersa and I believe you'll be uh administering the oath of office Welcome and we welcome you to the uh
economic development authority. >> Thank you. >> All right. Our next item of business is election of officers for the uh Richfield Economic and Development Authority. Uh tonight we'll be electing the the president, the vice president,
and the secretary. Um, so I will open uh nominations for president. >> I'll um nominate Gordon Hansen for president. >> Second. >> Are there any other nominations?
Okay. All in favor of uh Gordon Hansen for president say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. I will open nominations for vice president. I'll nominate Sean Hayford for vice president. >> Second.
All right. Any other uh nominations? >> All right. Um all in favor of Sean Hayford Olyri for vice president say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And I will open nominations for secretary. >> I'll nominate Michelle Friedrich.
>> Second. Okay. Any other nominations? I All in favor of Michelle Friedrich for secretary say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed?
>> All right. >> And uh also treasure. I will open nominations for treasure. >> I'll nominate John Young. >> Second. Uh, any other nominations? All in favor of John Young for treasure,
say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. And uh, nominations for uh, assistant treasurer. >> I'll nominate Mary Boie. >> Second. >> Any other nominations?
All in favor of Mary Boi for treasure assistant treasure say I >> I >> I any opposed. Okay. Well, that uh completes our slate
I believe of officers. Okay. Uh we will um roll call. I would note attendance or Okay. Moves us on to the open forum. Participants can share their comments in
person, by voicemail or email, and may also request to participate virtually. Uh, is there anyone here tonight that would like to address the economic development authority? Did anyone contact us by any other means?
>> We received no other communication. >> Okay. Thank you. That moves on to approval of tonight's agenda. Is there a motion? I move approval of the agenda. >> Second. >> All right. A motion has been made and seconded to approve tonight's agenda.
All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? >> And that next will be approval of the minutes. Approval of the minutes of the regular economic development authority meeting of February 17, 2026. Uh is
there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the minutes. Uh all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Uh we have a presentation tonight for the overview of
the uh Elevate Henipin initiative. I'll turn it over to uh staff report >> and I'm going to ask economic development manager Jan Youngquist to introduce our presenter. >> Good evening. Thank you, President
Hansen and EDA members. Um the city of Richfield, we've enjoyed um a strong partnership with Henipin County for the last five years on the Elevate Henipin initiative. Um since we do have a new EDA commissioner and Henman County has
released information for 2025, we thought it would be great uh to invite Henman County here to do a presentation on Elevate Henipin. So um I'd like to welcome Lillly Shaw. She is the economic development manager for Henipin County and she'll be providing an overview of
Elevate Henipin. Thank you, Jan. President, commissioners, congratulations, commissioner. Uh, my name is Lily Shaw. I'm the economic development manager at Henipin County, and I look forward to sharing with you sort of the journey of Elevate Henipin and what it offers to
your small businesses. So the first thing I have to mention is that it is hard to underestimate the importance of small businesses in our community. They are the lifeblood of our community, of our economic development.
In Henipin County alone, we have over 40,000 unique establishments. of those establishments 90% of them have under a 100red employees and 70% of them have under 10 employees
and because of that is the birth of Elevate Henipin. Elevate Henipin was uh first started in 2020. It birthed out of the pandemic and out of civil unrest and we were really fortunate enough that our board convened a diverse group of
business owners to really look at what was needed by our businesses at that time and ongoing. This was a volunteer board and we were so lucky to have them and they they came together and they had a resounding voice and said that there
were three things that was needed more than anything. Businesses needed one place to be able to go for resources. They needed one advising and consulting and they needed peer-to-peer gathering and learning. And then they went on to
say, "And they need it with no barriers to entry and they need it at no cost." And through an investment from our board and through other county partners, we have been able to deliver that and more. We not only have offered those three
things, which I'm going to talk to you about tonight, but we've also listened more and found that businesses needed somebody to help get down to what they actually needed. Business navigators to clear through the clutter and businesses
also needed financial support. So, what I'm going to share with you today is that we couldn't do this alone. We needed not only our board to invest in that, but also city partners. I am pleased that we have 19 city partners
including Richfield and I have the pleasure of working with Jan quite often on delivering some of these programs that I'm going to tell you about tonight. We uh greatly thank you for your valued partnership.
So the first thing that I mentioned that we needed was a cur curated hub in developing our signature brand of Elevate Henipin and the website you see pictured here. We wanted a vibrant and welcoming location to get information
quick and resources and support and stories out there. We listened to our business leaders who told us that they needed that single online source for resources instead of wasting valuable time searching or using Google. Our online resource directory, the button
right up there that says resource directory, you can take you to over 140 vetted resources that you can filter by by area of support, by interest, or by language or by stage. There are no user
accounts needed. You don't have to create a password. Uh there's no long intakes to get the support you need. And in parallel with creating this website, we also created a newsletter that goes out twice a month. It now has almost
11,000 followers and a 45% open rate to stories, applications, and information that business owners might need immediately. Our primary program is called one-on-one
advising. We contract with up to 30 advisors to help us deliver our advising and consulting support. Business owners can access up to 25 hours per advisor for no cost in over 10 areas of support.
We created intake forms located on the website that take only three to five minutes to complete and they notify an advisor of their interest. Then within two business days, an adviser reaches out and starts discussing the project or
the scope of work that this business owner needs. Easy, minimal time, and no barriers to entry. Our advisors are local, diverse, and experts in the area they support. Each advisor works uniquely with the business owner to
create the scope of work to support that entrepreneur with seamless tactics and challenges to get them to their next step. Our 10 areas of support are access to capital. So working through those challenging paperworks to get your grant
or your or your loan, accounting, business strategy, certification, financial management, human resources, idea stage, legal support, marketing and technology. Various advisors under each
of those areas. For example, under marketing I have 11 different advisors and under business strategy I have 12. We know that's a lot to remember to sift through all of those 140 resources to sift through all those advisors and
that's why we provide Henipin County staff. This is Ashell McKini and Maya Yang my two business navigators that will actually meet with businesses. All you have to do is schedule a quick uh time on the calendar, 15 to 20 minutes,
Monday through Friday, 9 to 3, and they will help you sift through the advisors, give you recommendations, listen to what your pain point is, and get you to your next step. We have done over 1,900 business navigation sessions since we
started business navigation in 2023. Now, I'd like to move forward and share information about our cohorts or peer-to-peer learning, which was another request that we heard businesses need. Over the past several years, we have
created a suite of programs that entrepreneurs at varying stages can participate in at no cost. We work with the strongest curriculum we can find and train local facilitators to move participants forward. Our programs go
from two days to eight months and depending on the type of program serves anywhere from 14 to 24 businesses per cohort. We go from idea stage in boot camp all the way up to second stage in our CEO next helping businesses that
just have an idea all the way up to businesses with over 10 employees and up to five million dollars. These um cohorts are again at no cost to a business owner, only their time and investment in learning and they can walk out with a three to five year strategy
or plan or a three-year plan for uh for retention and attraction to improve in to build their businesses and bring on new employees. In addition to our suite of programs, we continue to listen to our business
owners needs and have added the following offerings. We have an online membership with a coven, which I hear you're getting a new coven here in your location. So, this is the digital library of entrepreneurial curriculum and network connectivity for no cost. In
addition, we have started our own digital library of short um a fast growing list of short topical videos from our expert advisors. We have a monthly virtual 90minute get started program for people with just an
idea that they want to test out. And we also have 90inute master classes with a certified access academy that focuses on certification best steps and next steps. And we also have our small business
capital fund that we launched last year with our selected advisor next stage. This is to distribute small business loans and commercial ownership loans with $4.22 million investment from Henipin County. This is with a specific
focus and emphasis on low barrier financing for startups and established businesses. And most recently, our board also approved a $2 million recovery fund for Henipin County businesses affected by Operation Metro Surge. And that
application actually opens up this coming Wednesday and runs for one week. Through all the items I have shared, from one-on-one advising to cohort programs and everything in between, I'd like to report that these strategies are
working and we see real impacts in the business community. To date, Elevate Henipin has served over 4,600 unique businesses, over 3,900 in one-on-one advising alone, with over 61,000 hours of support. and our cohorts
led by our excellent facilitators have graduated over 480 businesses. With the expertise of our adviserss, we have facilitated the financing of $53 million, adding an estimated 1,582
jobs. In addition, we have supported the launch of over 340 businesses. In order to understand who we are serving, we review our demographics to make sure there is access for all and growth in how businesses are moving
through our programs. And now to bring it a little more local, our newly created dashboard allows us to share with city partners the exact reach in their area and a list of businesses supported. A few you've actually already
seen in the PowerPoint. From h happy jolly llamas to open hairspace located here in Richfield. Elevate Henipin advisers have supported here in Richfield over 110 businesses and over with over 1,800
hours of service and our facilitators have generate graduated over 11 businesses from our cohort programs. In addition, advisers have facilitated the financing of over 500,000 to Richfield businesses, resulting in an
estimated 71 jobs and the launch of 11 businesses. Local demographics also help us understand the communities we are reaching and the results that we are having here in your local community. We have also reached out to our business
owners that we serve to make sure that the data isn't the only telling us how we're doing. We do two surveys per year and to ensure that our advisors are actually supplying useful and critical help to our small businesses. In our
2025 survey, we received 95% that said that they would recommend Elevate Henipin to other entrepreneurs and 93% actually felt more confident in their business to move forward. We hear every day from our small
businesses the impact that Elv Henipin is having on the local community and we try to go beyond the numbers and tell the stories to ensure they continue to thrive and grow. I want to encourage you to explore elevatehip.org or sign up for our Elevate Henipin
newsletter or read some of the stories about some of the businesses we have touched such as Happy Dolly Llamas or Sicadon with open hairspace. Thank you so much for your time today and I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Commissioner,
>> first of all, thank you. This is a very exciting um program that you have. I've I've really enjoyed hearing about it. Um, can you tell us more about the impact fund you said was opening Wednesday and how people would go about accessing that money or applying? >> Yes. Yes. So, we have uh last Tuesday
was approved $2 million to support businesses that have been affected by Operation Metro Surge. That application will be open this coming Wednesday the 18th at 4 PM and will remain open until the 25th at 4 pm. The application is
online at elevatehenipin um.org and also at henipin county uh economic development programs. I'll be sure to share that with Jan so that she can share it on. Um that is for it is specifically focused towards um
businesses that have a location uh and have had income uh prior to December 1st, 2025. All of the eligibility is currently posted on our website along with um the amounts that they can get. So it's anywhere in between 3,000 and
$10,000 predominantly used for rent. >> So you don't have to have been associated with Elevate Henipin before. It's open for anyone. >> No, it's open to um the entire Henipin County uh predominantly brick andmortar uh organiz um organizations. You don't
have to own it. Uh, you can also lease the brick and mortar. >> Thank you. I think that'll be well appreciated. >> Good. >> All right. Any other uh comments or questions? >> Well, I guess you know, I would say that
this is exciting what you're doing. I I agree with you. I small business is the lifeblood of kind of like driving our economic vitality. And I just can't help but think there's probably a lot of budding entrepreneurs out there where they've got an idea, but there's just like that certain level of
expertise and, you know, in the many different areas of running a business that's kind of holding them back. So, I think this program just kind of fills those gaps, and I think you're serving a a really, really vital need. >> Thank you very much.
>> All right. Any final thoughts? Well, great. Well, thank you for your presentation today. >> Thank you so much for your time. Well, that moves us to, uh, the consent calendar tonight. Um, and for that, I will turn it over to
our staff for the report. >> Thank you, uh, President Hansen and members of the EDA. Tonight's consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the EDA in one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been
approved. and no further EDA action on these items is necessary. However, any EDA commissioner may request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and placed on the regular agenda for discussion and action. Tonight's consent calendar includes two
items. One, consideration of the adoption of a resolution amending the bylaws of the EDA to adjust the order of operations. and two, consideration of resolutions designating official depositories for the economic development authority for 2026,
including the approval of collateral. All items listed on the consent calendar are recommended for approval. >> All right. Uh, is there a motion for approval of the consent calendar? >> I'll move approval of the consent calendar.
>> Is there a second? >> Second. Okay, motion has been made and seconded for approval of tonight's consent calendar. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> We uh we don't have any public hearings
or resolutions tonight uh for the meeting, but we do have an item under other business uh consider the creation of a small business uh resiliency program. And for that, I will uh ask for the staff report. and I will ask economic development manager Jan
Youngquist to present this staff report. >> Thank you, President Hansen and EDA members. The recent federal immigration enforcement actions as part of Operation Metro Surge have resulted in serious economic impacts on local small
businesses, including workforce shortages, reduced foot traffic, and significant revenue loss. The impacts are particularly severe for businesses that provide goods and services to the public and are owned by or that employ
immigrants or people of color. The economic disruption has ripple effects that could threaten jobs, commercial vacancy rates, and the livelihood of business owners and community members. In response, staff is proposing that the EDA establish the Small Business
Resiliency Program, an emergency business assistance program to support eligible businesses that have experienced economic disruptions related to the recent federal immigration enforcement actions. The program is proposed to be funded with $150,000 from the EDA and would
provide onetime forgivable loans equal to two months commercial rent or mortgage payments up to $10,000. Eligible businesses must have 50 or fewer FTE employees, annual revenue of 4 million or less, operate in a brick
andmortar location that makes direct sales or provide services to the public, and demonstrate significant revenue loss from December 1st of 2025 to March 30th, 2026. The EDA would partner with Next Stage, a local nonprofit community-based lender
to administer the program. Next Stage has experience with direct lending to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Provides business advisor and technical assistance services to Richfield businesses through the Elevate Henipin initiative and administers funding programs for the state of Minnesota,
Henipin County, Scott County, and the city of Bloomington. Upon approval of the program, staff will work with Next Stage to develop program materials and agreements and work with the EDA attorney to prepare the forgivable loan agreement with the intent of launching
the program quickly. Uh, with that, I would take any questions you may have. >> All right. Uh, any questions? Commissioner, >> uh, is the loan forgiven as soon as everything is verified or is there a time period they have to remain open after receiving it?
>> Uh, the intent is to make this easy and quick. Um, we will prepare a form that a business owner would need to complete um in order for the loan to be forgiven. >> Okay. But it's expected that would be relatively promptly. >> Correct. Yep.
>> Uh, any additional questions or comments? Uh, Commissioner Oh, excuse me. Um, one question I have if um do you see the program is being administered on kind of like a first come first serve basis or if there are
more applications then the money uh could be distributed to would it be a go through an evaluation process? >> Thank you for the question. Um so there will be an application form that a business um would fill out. Um that
would be an initial look at eligibility and then within five business days they would need to um provide next stage with additional detailed financial information. And so um it's really going to be um awarded based on how quickly
people get their information in. Um and so it will be um uh kind of first come first served a as they have submitted the um the needed information. We thought we would assess to see how
this works and um uh you know potentially come back to you with requests for more funds depending on what we see um as responses for the program. >> Okay. Thank you
commissioner. That was what my other question was is would there be a chance if we found a greater need than the 150,000 that we could come back for more funds. >> Uh there there are funds in the EDA budget and so um if that's something
that uh the EDA would like to do, we could come back um and request additional funding. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh any other commissioner, >> how will you will be advertising the program. How will you be letting local
businesses know that this is available? >> Thank you. Um so we will be uh uh sharing information through the Richfield business bulletin which is our e newswsletter for businesses. Um we will be doing um kind of boots on the
ground um handing out of information going to businesses um uh to to share the information. um the mayor and um uh the community development director, myself have been meeting with local businesses who have
been impacted and um they seem to have a good network um with other business owners in the community. So, we're going to take a number of different um tactics to spread the word. >> Okay. Commissioner, >> as a followup to that, um when we're
spreading the word about our program, are we also going to mention the Elevate Henipin program? is kind of happening at the same time. >> Yes. Um I I was thinking of uh publicizing Henman County's program and I thought I'd wait until uh after
tonight's meeting so I can uh send out a blast on on both. It'll take us a little bit of time to get agreements and documents in place, but I can let folks know about both programs and then for them to uh stay tuned for when ours
launches. >> Okay. Any additional questions? Okay, I guess hearing none, uh, is there a motion? >> I'll move to approve the establishment of the small business resiliency program
with an allocation of $150,000 in economic development authority funds and authorize the execution of related agreements and program documents with Next Stage for the administration of the program. >> Second. All right. Um, any final final
comments? >> I did also want to um thank staff for launching this so quickly and also thank it. It looks like they're going to do some proono staff time which I really appreciate. >> Any additional comments?
>> Commissioner Young, >> thank you for putting this together. I think our community is really in need after shopping at many of the local establishments and seeing very few customers over the last couple months. You know, a lot of people are hurting. So, I think this is going to be a great program.
>> Well, I just wanted to say that, you know, thank you as well for putting this together. It's, you know, what we've gone through in the past few months has really been unprecedented and it's been a lot of lot of hurt posed on our small businesses in the community. And I a comment I heard someone make recently was saying that something like this is
even really more than just altruistic. It's it's really a community benefit because if our if our small businesses struggle and if they don't make it then we have open storefronts that of course reflects upon our image as a community. Uh eventually it could maybe even lower
the the tax base of some of our commercial properties which then places a greater burden on on residential homes for property taxes. So, um, has many implications which are really important and vital to do and so I'm really
pleased to see this moving forward. >> All right. Um, motion has been made and seconded. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. And that uh Okay. So then next we have our executive
director's report. >> Thank you, President Hansen. I do not have a report this evening. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh EDA discussion items. Any uh any items to discuss? Commissioner Supple. >> Um I wanted to thank Senator Wickland
and Representative Howard for meeting with our small business group. And I also want to thank Eltehaban who hosted the the meeting and all of the business um owners that came to to meet with us. It was a great conversation and was a really good way to share that
information with our legislators. Thank you. >> Okay. Any other discussion items? >> I guess seeing none, we will move for a motion for approval of claims. >> So moved.
Second. >> Okay, a motion has been made and second for approval of the claims. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> And that does complete tonight's business. And so we'll call the meeting ajourned.