Authority to order. Roll call, please. Bui? Joest? Here. Kim? Here. Naker? Here. Yang? Here. Chair Johnson? Here. There are five present, one absent being Commissioner Buoy. Item number one is Resolution 20 five-four 31. Resolution approving the partial loan forgiveness of up to $1,255,384 and combined principal and interest on three Housing and Redevelopment Authority loans to the Commerce Building Phase I and Commerce Building Phase II projects,
10 Fourth Street East, District 17, Ward 2. Alrighty. We had a presentation on this, last week, for our HRA meeting. And I did not necessarily hear any questions or concerns prior to that, but I'll hand it over to Director Newton just in case there's anything else. No. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Commissioners, that's correct. This is an item you received a presentation on last week, and it's just back for your action today. And staff recommends approval of the item. Alrighty. Any discussion or questions for commissioners? Commissioner Nager. Thanks, Chair Johnson. I just want to thank staff for the hard work on this.
Really appreciative to Commonbond and to PAC Properties for, their partnership and keeping this property affordable. And, I would move approval. Alrighty. So I'll take a motion from Ms. Sneaker to approve. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Five in favor, zero opposed. The resolution is adopted. Item number two is resolution twenty five-four seventeen, a resolution approving and authorizing the execution of a master legal service agreement with Kutek Rock LLP, Citywide. Alrighty. Director Newton, any further clarifications?
No. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Commissioners, this is just a, we have master legal services agreements with various firms for various bond counsel and public finance, work if the HRA and the city. So this item just approves that master legal services agreement with CooTek Rock for this year with an optional one year renewal period. You'll have a similar item at city council and staff recommends approval of the item. Thank you, Director Newton. Any further questions for commissioners? All right. Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Ms. Jost to approve. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed?
Five in favor, zero opposed. The resolution is adopted. Item number three is Resolution 20 five-four 23, a resolution amending the affordability requirement for buyers of owner occupied duplexes in the Inspiring Communities program, citywide. Okay. So this item here, as discussed, I think it's really important to just draw to it, and I'll hand it over to Director Newton. I do see a couple of folks related to this item in the audience today. So wanted to hand it over to you for some further further context briefly of just the item as a reminder. Sure. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Commissioners,
in July of twenty twenty two, this body approved the terms, the guidelines for inspiring communities RFP seven. In that RFP, every time we put an RFP or we have a group of lots or we make an effort to kind of get some of our property developed, we try to do a lot of things, right? And in this case, we try to create homeownership opportunities where someone could purchase a duplex and rent out one side as a community wealth building opportunity. Those were the boxes we were trying to check. However, when we approved those guidelines, we set the income limit of the buyers for that owner occupied duplexes at 80%
of AMI. And for various reasons, interest rates, market values, even with down payment assistance, the buyers at that income level can't qualify. These duplexes are built and ready to sell and they can't qualify. There's there's no one like, if they can't qualify for the for the payment even with the with the rent that you would receive and even with down payment assistance. So Minnesota Housing Finance has a impact fund guidelines on homeownership, and they allow up to a 15% of AMI for owner occupied duplexes, which is what we're asking to change that to for these specific properties,
owner occupied duplexes through the inspiring communities program. It's very specific, but they're built and they're ready to go and we're unable to get them sold because of this very like narrow band of affordability that we required. So just looking for that ability to bump that up to that level up up to that level if necessary to get those sold. Thank you, Director Newton. And can you just clarify, as well for the HRA, what action we'd be taking on this item? Yes. Chair Johnson, commissioners, you're just approving the ability to raise the the,
income limit of the buyers to, a 15% of area median income rather than 80. And thank you, director Newton, for that. I think this is an area where once we are able to see something that we can address by simply amending, something that we currently have in place to adjust to the need, I think that that makes sense. And for me, I'm supportive of that. Are there questions that commissioners have as it relates to this item or for further clarification? Commissioner Buoy? No questions. Just cheers to this change,
especially when it comes to our other home buying assistance programs, like our down payment assistance. I know I hear from constituents often about the AMIs being so low, especially in this, you know, in this economy, in this time where people who, you know, are of a certain income may perceive as higher, but they have, a family household or they have, you know, in with due to inflation, things cost more. So I am happy that we are making this change and making it more accessible for people to get into homeownership. Thanks, Commissioner Buoy.
Any other commissioners also have any questions or comments? Okay. With that, I'll take a motion from Council Member Buoy to approve. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Six in favor, zero opposed. The resolution is adopted. Item number four is Resolution 20 five-four 30, Resolution Approving the Emergency Rental Assistance Eviction Prevention Program, ERA, guidelines citywide. All righty. So if you all remember, we had a presentation on the Emergency Rental Assistance Program and the guidelines and the introductions. I think this is a really important step forward when it comes to being able
to take advantage of our, local affordable housing and aid dollars that have come to the city. And one of the areas that we talked about was emergency rental assistance being an eligible fund in that category. Being able to have a chance to work with the planning and economic development team, specifically with, Director Antagna and, Director Newton on this has been really a great experience. And I appreciate your willingness to just kind of dive in with us, Director Deputy Director Greene as well, just kind of going through the the nuances to ensure that this is, this is able to get out of the door very quickly and be a resource
to families that truly are within that gap in time that, want to avoid, have an emergency situation, but want to avoid an eviction on the record because we know that whether or not it's upheld, in the court, it's still the fact that there's an eviction filed will continue to be, on a tenant's housing record and potentially, be a hindrance to future opportunities. So I do see our areas and opportunities for us to be in in that side of prevention and to kind of come along with that partnership, you know, representing one of the wards where we have 55106 and 55117 in the city of
Saint Paul that have, some of the highest eviction rates in our city and in the county. And I think that this is really important, for a step in the direction and even had a wonderful conversation today, with Saint Paul Minnesota Foundation, who, is interested in in communicating and talking a little bit about this program. So, Director Newton, is there anything that you wanted to add just kind of to clarify and bring it over to you? Yes. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Commissioners, as mentioned, we did bring a presentation on the guidelines at the previous meeting. And so today, we're back just for your approval of the guidelines. I will flag that this is a new program.
So we're still setting up the infrastructure for accepting the applications, processing them quickly, paying landlords electronically, tracking our work in a database. So we're not quite ready to launch. I think we'll be ready solidly to launch within thirty days. I'm looking at my housing team. Yeah. They're all like nodding. So that's our goal. But this would get the guidelines finalized so that we can finish building that infrastructure out for this program. Correct. And I thought that it was important to still bring the guidelines in front of the spotty too when we're all here. And we actually can have some questions and or any final thoughts about that.
Is there any discussion or questions around this item for commissioners? Commissioner Naker? Thanks, George Johnson. No questions, but I just wanted to thank you so much for your leadership on this. This is something that you have had as a vision that you have been steering towards since, I think, day one. And, it's just really exciting to have watched you champion this, get it to this point and now we will have this emergency rental assistance fund that we've never had before because of your leadership. So thank you for everything you've done for it. Thank you. Any other commissioners as well? Thank you so much, Council President, Commissioner Naker, on those comments as well.
It's been fun to be able to be a part of this. But I think in reality, so many things, Just a primary example of how so many pieces have to, fall into place to provide the opportunity to try something, maybe even return an old concept or bring it back new and make it work, for our time now. So all right. Any other commissioners have comments or questions one last time? Okay. Seeing none, I'll take a motion from, council member or Commissioner Kim to approve. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? There's six in favor,
zero opposed. The resolution is adopted. Yay. Yay. Thank you for for entertaining my yay. As we head into the final item of the agenda, I am really excited about this. This is another program that the spotty has really led and been vocal about the need for. Council continues to really prioritize, along with the HRA, the investment in our commercial corridors. And I know that during the last budget cycle and even just in the previous years, that was unanimously supported when it comes to our views and ability to invest in
our commercial corridors. And so here's another example of a newer program that's coming in place that we have had phenomenal staff working tirelessly on trying to provide some guidelines that create a program that can get resources out the door and that can ultimately support Saint Paulides and, businesses all across the city. So I will hand it over to director Newton. Thank you, chair Johnson. Commissioners, as you mentioned, we've been working for a few months with you and council president, commissioner Naker, and all of you really to design a new another new program to support our commercial corridors. Principal project manager, Daniela Lorenz,
is here today. She's also a supervisor on our team, with a presentation on the framework we've put together with all of your input. We're hoping to to get the final input from you today before we bring back the guidelines like we did on the emergency room assistance today and prepare to launch that program. So this is for your listening and giving any last bit of final input and then we'll finalize those guidelines. And I'll turn it over to Daniella. Excellent. Thank you, Director Newton. Thank you, chair, commissioners. As director Newton said, I'm Daniella Lorenz. I work on our economic development team, and I am talking to you today about the introduction to our commercial corridor organization
assistance program, CCOPE, name pending. If you've got comments on that, give them to me. I also wanna thank the people on my team that have been helping with all this. Jimmy and Annie have been really instrumental as with I think everybody has seen this program so far. Nothing gets done, without a huge list from everybody, and I don't want that to to go without being said either. Alright. So a little bit of background, Chair. You already mentioned this in 2024. You all as the city council reserved $1,400,000 in economic development star to stand up a program dedicated to, assisting organizations along our commercial corridors in the city,
what we're calling now, c cope. Just a little bit of background on economic development star funds. They're a little bit different than neighborhood star, cultural star, and year round star, which is what you all are probably most familiar with. They're a little bit more flexible. They don't need to be used only for capital expenses. They don't need to go through a separate board the way that neighborhood star, year round star, and cultural star need to per star law, which makes it the perfect kind of fund, a flexible fund to do something different with, to think about how we're doing things a little bit differently. So with that, what we're thinking about here, the goal of a program is to provide dollars to organizations in as simple and
streamlined of a way as we can to advance economic development projects and programs on those key corridors in Saint Paul. I tried really hard to get at least one picture of each corridor in the presentation. Let me know if I'm missing anybody as we go. Alright. So what we did wanna do before we started making an entire program is we wanted to hear from businesses and organizations about what they need along these corridors. So in 2024, as you all probably remember, we did have a public comment period that we got a lot of great information from organizations. And, of course, staff is constantly hearing from businesses,
organizations, nonprofits who are doing lots of work in the community that helped us inform, where we're at today with our guidelines. I did wanna raise up a few of the things that we did here. This is not an exhaustive list, but but I would say these are the ones that we kind of continuously have been hearing as we're talking to organizations and businesses. One of the things is funding for beautification efforts, sort of place making along these corridors to make them feel different, unique. What do you feel when you go to the West Side and you're driving on a certain corridor and how is that different than maybe a Grand Avenue? Funding for administrative cost is the one that's come up again and again and again.
So we do account for that in this program. That's just to literally give these organizations who have really tight budgets the ability to use use some of these dollars to run their programs and their projects. Funding for planning before implementation, so this was an interesting one. What you're really looking at here is what organizations need to do to basically put infrastructure in place to be able to run additional programming. Whether this means hiring consultants, literally putting together a plan, whatever that looks like, that's what this bucket of funding would look like. And then in general, just flexible resources to support businesses. We've got a great program in Star.
Problem with it is it is only for capital expenses. Businesses don't just need help with capital expenses, what we've kind of heard. So that's what that bucket represents. So the program structure, we are trying to make this look as similar to the district council program structure as we can, which I'm considering kind of like a direct contracting program. This is not a competitive solicitation or application. What we're doing is we're identifying organizations that have a history of working along the identified quarters, which we will talk about next. Each quarter will receive an allocation. Right now, there's 17 quarters, so it's about $82,000 per corridor.
Funds must be spent within one year of receiving our allocation. Projects or programs funded through this will not be eligible to receive additional city or HRA dollars with the exact same scope. I think where you'd probably see this most show up is if there's an organization that's maybe doing a sub granting program through Neighborhood Star. They can't do the exact same program with these dollars too. So that's just gonna take some staff time as we're running these applications, but I think we'll get there. We talk to each other. These are the proposed geographies. Again, these are just drafts. I have we've been having different conversations with each of you. I'm happy to sit down. If we haven't gotten to talk yet,
to talk through some of the geographies of 17 corridors here. Generally, they follow along district council lines and ward lines in the city. And then, again, eligible organizations. So this program will only be open to identified organizations. Those organizations will include district councils, business support orgs, that have a history of supporting economic development along those corridors. We are allowing for organizations to apply as partnerships as well. So certainly, if there's smaller organizations or if there's organizations that wanna work together, we are really encouraging them to work together to execute these different programs.
None of this funding will be and I think it's important to just make sure we keep saying this because it is a little bit different than STAR is going directly to businesses. It would have to flow through these organizations. Alright. Potential eligible activities. And again, we are open to narrowing these, expanding these. I am happy to hear that, feedback from you all today, but I can run through them very quickly here. Again, quarter wide beautification efforts, public art installations, development of plans, quarter marketing campaigns, execution of community events, business sub grants. And again, up to 10% of funds at least right now,
that's we what we put the number in at, can be used for indirect cost or administrative style costs for these programs. You'll notice that some of these have maximums. Before we, just move forward, I wanna give, Commissioner Joce a chance to ask her question. I almost missed her hand too, so don't even worry about it. You're doing fabulous. Commissioner Joce. Thank you, Chair Johnson. I just have a question for the eligible organizations. So it's only open to identified organizations. So does that mean that there's there's kind of an inventory or a list of who those organizations are? And then it it sounds like if you're not there,
you just have to be in partnership with them. Is that correct? Yeah. Chair Johnson, commissioner Joe. That's exactly right. So what we did, we did send out to you all kind of who we've already identified along the corridors. We aren't necessarily even exhaustive in that list. So if there are other groups that you want us to work with, we are certainly open to that. But, yes, if you're not on the list as an organization, they are certainly welcome to partner with those other organizations. I think what we're really focused on, especially this is like a brand new program, I'm thinking it a lot like a pilot. Mhmm. If somebody that can get it done in a year and see where we can
get, and then the next year we can think about who else we could include. Okay. If it's funded again, of course. Thanks. Commissioner Baker? Thanks, Ger. Yeah. And I to miss Joe's question, I had a similar question when we talked about this during my briefing. And I think one of the nice things about the way that you structured this is that because I also brought up if an organization that we don't know about comes forward forward and wants to apply, we should encourage that. I think having this partnership model ensures that even if it's a new organization, they're doing this work with the blessing of the existing district council or business support
organization because we we wouldn't want to have happen is have one of those organizations come forward sort of go rogue, then receive a request from the business association or district council and suddenly be in the position of having not being able to grant twice to one area. So I think this is a nice marriage of the two goals. The question I had had to do with the, I think you're about to talk about this maybe Ms. Laurens, but the maximum amount for project and why we are setting maximum amounts for certain types of work? Sure. Chair Johnson, Commissioner Naker, great question. I will say we don't necessarily maximum might even be a misnomer here.
I think we are willing to go over and above that. $25,000 is where most of our compliance starts to kick in. So we are just gonna have to be really clear in our guidelines, particularly as it relates to, like, prevailing wage, which can alter the cost of a project, that they're being upfront about it. And, again, we're mostly probably gonna be working with orgs that have seen and done this before, so it should just be, like, a reeducating for them. But it's a good reminder for us too. It's just anything with construction, dollars 25,000 or over is gonna have some additional work they're gonna have to do on the
compliance side. And just for clarity as a follow-up, just so I can get clear to you, is it 20 like, is it $24.09 $899 that is, like because I think that also makes a difference, or is it right at '25 is when the compliance gets set to? Sure. Jonathan, great question. It's 24999 is is where it's at. Again, not not saying somebody couldn't go over this. The project couldn't get larger than that. I think we just wanna be really straightforward. It would also impact the way that we're able to disperse funds as well, particularly for construction projects.
I will say this this limit is only for construction projects. We have other compliance things that we have to do, but prevailing wage always seems to be the one that trips people up because it can have the most impact on a project in the long term. Commissioner Baker? Thanks, Joe Johnson. I would recommend then that since we're trying to make this easy to use and really give as much flexibility as possible to the applicants to use the money as they see fit, to not have a maximum set, but then to your point to be very clear about the level at which compliance sits in and what the implications of that would be for the project.
Yes. Thanks. All righty. Yes, Commissioner Meeker? I'm sorry. Commissioner Yang. Okay. I'd be sorry. I had her I must have had her face in my head or something. Commissioner Yang, that is great. I have a question about the business subgrants. Can you give examples of what that money could be used for? Sure. Chair Johnson, Commissioner Yang, good question. It's a little vague right now, hence your question. So I think certainly facade, fix up programs, different kind of work that maybe they wanna install a parklet in front of their space. Something like that could certainly be used.
I think there's other room. It's open enough that I I wanna hear from the organizations about what they're be would be willing and able to fund within that year of receiving that too. So if there are things that we definitely want in there or things we definitely don't want, I think we should understand that before we finalize the program, but it's intentionally vague right now for that reason. Yeah. Yep. That's helpful to know. I I'm wondering if and I'll just give an example just so that I have, you all have context to one of the conversations or actually,
like, the the, ask that's been brought up by the district councils in my area and business associations, especially with the been taught happening on Arcade Street is is, really getting new financial aid to businesses that are going to be impacted. And so there's definitely going to be loss of revenue for businesses. And so the question has been, like, can there be any sort of flex dollars that businesses can apply for so that in the case of loss of revenue, they can use that to pay for rent for their business? Or I'm not sure,
like, the even the the conversation on, you know, payment for workers, that hasn't come up yet, but that's something I'm even thinking about. So is it is it flexible to the point where the money could be used for those sort of things? And if you don't have an answer, we can definitely talk more about it too. Chair Johnson, Commissioner Ng, if I I'm gonna take that one just because there's sort of some broader conversation around that, like, specific situation where we there's a whole lot of construction that's gonna be coming up. And some of it's MENAOT, some of it's MET Council, and some of it's us. And, and there's there's not a universe of enough money to,
to make it painless for every business. And so if if you start to go down that slope, you get to where you're kind of potentially picking favorites. It's a little bit challenging. So I would caution against that specific identification of use for that. Well, it's not a whole lot of money that we have for each quarter anyway, but I would say with the subgrant program, if they're looking to subgrant to businesses for some sort of operating expenses, okay. But if it's specifically tied to, like, we're doing this because it's compensation for, you know, transportation construction, then it starts to get kind of a little stickier.
Does that make sense? So we just I I just flagged that trying to like, naming that makes it a a big kind of a a big situation that you start to be looking at picking favorites. And so we can talk about it more, but I just wanna throw that bit of caution out. Okay. Yeah. I get what you're saying. I think trying to just figure out what sort of language we can create around that so then there's clearly that would be really important because I know that that will be something brought up by our Eastside Entrepreneurs and the people who've been asking about that.
Understood. I agree. Commissioner Yang, thank you for bringing that up too. We've been in a lot of those discussions related to mitigation type funding for, some of the construction projects that are happening in our area. So I think that clarity would be really helpful so folks do know that. And also not to, like, provide different opinions, but also just coming into the standpoint of the $24,000 the $25,000 maximum. Could you just clarify again? So each district quarter is getting $82,000. The one thing I would not, like, offer, but also, like, offer not even related to,
like, the expenses of the businesses costing more, but there being an ability to serve more than one business this year with or even the corridors would be like that would be the one thing I would see from keeping the the maximum amounts as is, would be that that would kinda force some of the trusted identified organizations to also put resources in multiple places throughout the quarter versus just the one. Mhmm. But, that's just my I'm thinking out loud today, and that was just my real face. But I saw, commissioner Caitlin's hand.
Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate seeing the potential eligible active activities. I looked at the, recommended, partner organizations in the North End. We don't have that many, to be honest. And so, you know, we've got, our really great Rice Lovener Alliance, that's been doing really incredible work. And then our our district council had to just become its own, like, CDC. There's no one that was doing that sort of development. It's not to bash the business association, but it, hasn't really held legs since the pandemic.
And so it's just to say some of these, eligible activities are really appealing because the right street corner needs a lot of investment, and vitality, but also, like, kind of the same, like, neighborhood identity. We talk a lot about, neighborhood identities in the city, and it feels like the North End is the one that people never know where it is. You drive right through. You have no idea. So some of these I see just, like, having really, really meaningful impact. And, also, I appreciate the parameters around, you know, finalizing the plans and implementing those plans within a certain time frame because, for other programs that we've worked with, when I was helping Nino and on the North End development team,
you know, some of the, organizations that get funded, they don't always have the same capacity and agility to, like, navigate STAR and and understand, like, how to submit receipts and things like that. And so having that kind of trusted and reliable and experienced, partner organization is incredibly important because then, sometimes, some of the orgs will leave kind of money on the table then because they're not able to sort of, like, navigate and fulfill sort of the checked boxes that we require. So looking at this, you know, I really appreciate the conversations that we had, and I see my feedback being included.
So I really appreciate that a lot. Chair Johnson and Commissioner Kim, just to add on to that. I think this is a pilot that we've you know, it's a new thing. But I guess we to your point, we have, you know, 82,000 per corridor or whatever. But if this is successful and and you all find that this is actually the better way to support corridors, then, you know, next year when we do budget, we should talk about, like, is there more? Should we pivot away from something else and go towards this? So it'll be a learning experience, and and I promise it'll be bumpy because it is, you know, when we start something new. But we'll work with you. And so I just say that for this year,
this is where we are, but it'll be a good learning experience. And if that's a better path for the quarters, then we should talk about what we do with it going forward and from like a funding perspective and tweaking guidelines as needed just to make it even better. So thank you for that input. Thank you for that, Director Newnani. All right. Commissioner, did you have a follow-up? I wasn't sure if I saw your hand or not. K. We can continue, Danielle. Thank you. Alright. I wanted to talk a little bit about the funding process, so I will caution here. April 1 is just a placeholder date. I don't know that we'll quite be ready by then,
but our intention is to get this out the door relatively quickly because we know organizations are anticipating this, and we also wanna get to work, at the staff level. But what we're anticipating is releasing, it's not really like releasing an RFP. It's essentially sending something out to the eligible organizations, giving them a deadline to apply. What we are anticipating within that is, let's say, it did open on April 1 that it would close on June 1. We'll accept application or proposals on a rolling basis. And then as soon as we get them in, work with those organizations to get them under contract to make sure that they can
start getting their money and get to work. So I anticipate kind of end to end. It would probably take an organization about three months from, like, application, working with staff to scope something, getting under contract, and then doing and getting money will sort of depend on what they're actually doing, for, their proposed project or timeline. And then the other thing that we're planning to do is quarterly, check ins with these organizations. Again, a lot of these organizations we're already meeting with regularly, so it's probably just gonna be formalizing conversations we're probably already having with them. But we're gonna specifically be asking them to come to the table with,
different outcomes, progress, and where they're at with their programs and projects, problems that they're having, and ways that we can kind of solve these together. Because what we really really do need to see with economic development star is economic development outcomes. That's a really big broad category, but this is one of those good ways that we can track that. And then we're also going to anticipate I'm kinda skipping skipping one slide ahead. That at the end of the year, the organization should be sending to us an annual report of some sort so we can have data that we're tracking over time. And, Chair Johnson and commissioners, I wanna flag, right,
as we're going back to that timeline, You know, ideally, this is a calendar year like the district council contracts and the budget goes. So while while we're saying one year, like, in my head, it would actually probably make more sense for this year to be, like, through the end of this calendar year and you've got, you know, not not a whole year to do it this year, or somehow at some point, we we do some some way to get on the calendar year, especially because some of them are district councils and they're doing their annual contract anyway. So think about that and what would make the most sense. It may be that this year we just wanna say,
you know, you've got till the end of the year or, I don't know. If and if we feel, like, we're committed to having it in the budget for next year, then towards the end of this year, they could start working on their scope for, you know, 2026. So be thinking about that. It's going to, again, be a little bit harder the first year because it's a new program. But ideally, that's the cadence I think would make better sense. I'm just flagging that for you. Commissioner Naker? Thanks, Chair Johnson. Yes, I'm glad that you mentioned that, Director Newton, because I was thinking the same thing. And I know that I think all of us spoke about the fact that this is an ongoing need and not something that we saw as one time even though
it is funded with one time dollars. I think there's a general appetite for this to be ongoing. So, I do think it would be great for there to be a sequence here where organizations are able to apply for the next year's round of funding without there having to be a huge gap, between the end of one project and the beginning of the next. Obviously, this time we're kicking it off, we had to have a gap, but, I would strongly endorse having some sort of system like that where we're starting a few months before the end of the year so that they can start even on January 1 with the next year's funding. I had a follow-up question for you, Director Noonan,
and Daniela just about how potentially some of the findings, if at all, would be looped in or even taken to account with our economic development strategy? That's a great question, Chair Johnson and commissioners. The economic development strategy will focus on corridors, of course, but it's it will focus on really big citywide economic development issues. We have, you know, like housing lack of housing production is an economic development issue. Property tax base and the fact that we have, you know, so many properties that don't produce property tax revenue, that's an economic development issue.
Retail leakage is an economic development issue. So there's a lot. It we will look at these outcomes and talk about I think that's kind of a little bit more micro and we're we really need to look at macroeconomics for this city and what our challenges are. So it'll fold in, but it's I I wanna keep socializing that that what we need to look at as a city that we haven't done in the past really is really, like, what are the biggest economic development issues facing this city? And that involves a lot of things. And it's and it's bigger and maybe things that shifts are they're harder to turn,
but we need to identify them. So but definitely, these are these are pieces of that. Okay. Thank you, Director Newton. And then I think just as a piggyback off of Commissioner Nikhors too, I think, comments previously, as you near like the end of I kind of see this as like an open grant year. As we're ending towards the end of it, I think that there's a means to an ability to kind of both queue in what's happening in the first year into what potentially could happen in future years with a simple, execution of a reporting or feedback realm, even if the full,
like, contract period is a little bit longer or a little bit, further than maybe a harsh December 31 end of year deadline. And it sounds like there's some appetite from commissioners to just at least be a little lenient, but also then if it's queued into some of our budget discussions or budget conversations, if there is a, book report back piece of that, for those that are awarded this first year, it could be really helpful just to get them in the understanding that this is usually how it would launch if it was starting. And I think that really plays into play if the timeline starts to get closer
to June 1, on the spectrum, you have April 1 to June 1 window, and that's like two months. But that can make a really big difference in the world of, you know, especially if summer is short and winter comes early. Like, there's a lot of things when it comes to contracting depending on the project or what you're trying to do. Weather could be a factor. And so I think that it would be really great to just like have somewhere in the timeline and penciled in, you know, regardless of when it starts, how it starts, there would be like an expectation to report back out at least for this first year that's communicated to the partners that we've been working with. Indeed. And I'll let Daniella add on to this too.
But, Chair Johnson and commissioners, one of the things that we have had struggles with with Neighborhood Star is, like, we need to at some point, there has to be a line in the sand that says if you don't get your contract, your work done or get under contract, then like we have to put the money back in the pot, right, and start over and you can apply again. But you can't just hold on to it forever. So there's that balance between being flexible and being equitable and having like a line in the sand. So that's one thing. And the other thing I'll say is we hope with these quarterly meetings that we have with them that we have stories to tell. And and so you'll be hearing about over time as the quarterly like,
we're just we don't wanna just have checkboxes. We wanna say, send us pictures of what you did so we can amplify those. Like, that kind of energy, is what we wanna keep building on. So we'll be reporting back with you all. We'll be sharing social media posts. And, so you'll hear about outcomes all the time, not just at the end of the year when we have, like, a a report to share. Okay. Wonderful. Yep. As I turned over my paper to the next slide, I realized that Danielle was Danielle was gonna get right into what I was asking you about. So sorry. That's how it goes. You're on track. Alright. So next steps, finalizing guidelines,
again, based on y'all's feedback. And please, if you want a more in-depth briefing or to sit down with us, we are happy to continue to talk about that, to make sure that we're using these dollars, as you all are hearing from your wards, consistently as well. And then once we receive our final approval, which will actually go back to the city council, I believe. Not this board necessarily, but, of course, we will keep you all updated. And then we're hoping to open the program again. We don't have a solid date yet, but I don't want it to get too far out. Summer is always the busiest season for everybody,
as it relates to running these programs. So we don't wanna miss that window to give them also the opportunity to get something done by the end of the year. Yep. That's a good flag, chair. And commissioners, that it is STAR. So it's technically city funding. So we're while we're doing this, briefing here, we need to think through, like, does it, you know, where does it all does it need to get approved and where does it live? But for the purposes of this discussion, we're having the discussion about it here, but it's technically city funding. Commissioner Anna Baker. Thanks, Trent Johnson. I'm always worried about what the city council It's a mystery. Glad you brought that up.
I just wanted to flag. This looks great, and I'm I'm really, really grateful to you, Danielle, and your entire team for making this happen so quickly. And I know we can make April 1 happen. I know June 1. June first is, like, forever. I love April 1 is You can just see that we're gonna make it. But I did just wanna say I I'm I'm hopeful that we have all 17 areas apply off the bat. I could see there may be being some that lag behind and, especially given that we're dividing a certain amount of money money up among 17 and the dollars that anybody doesn't claim are just sitting there and not being used,
really want to make sure you're in contact with us as to when there isn't an application coming from an area in our ward so that we can help make sure that that does come forward. That's great. No. I think that that's a great flag, as well and would be happy to kinda join in on that of, like, I look forward even with it being city resources. I feel like all of our money is green. And I think one of the things that we really can do, as a as an, like, partnership is really just getting this out the door to community members who are in need of it. I saw Commissioner Yang, and I saw Commissioner Kim, and then I saw Commissioner Buoy. So Yeah.
Thanks, Chair Johnson. I I just wanted to make some overall comments. I am very supportive of what you presented today. I think what's really good is that in each ward, like, there there seems to be a good balance between, like, the business corridors being spread out and in each ward. So I'm always looking at that in terms of wanting to make sure money is spread equitably in our city. The other I do have a couple of questions. I know that one of the questions we asked at the very beginning, like the very first presentation about the fund here was whether the program would be
or the grant program would be a reimbursement based. And so can you touch a bit on that? And then also if it isn't, then how how do we ensure that the, the funds are being used the way that it's being applied for? So just a bit about accountability on that as well. Yeah. Chair Johnson, Commissioner Yang, that's a really good question. We're still working through that from the legal side. I think if we can find a way to disperse some funds upfront, that is also something we heard from organizations pretty consistently through this processes that it's hard to start some of these things without some money in the first place.
I think it's gonna depend on what exactly they're applying for. It gets kinda sticky with construction projects. Again, going back to, like, some of the compliance things that they'll need to do. But I think if we can figure out how much compliance they can apply for upfront and just do right away, that either means maybe as soon percentage of funds. Cultural Star does reimburse or not they disperse upfront, 80%. So I'm kind of looking at that model to see, like, what they do and how it can be applied to this program. It's kind of a legal question that we do need to get some clarity. So good question.
You're a little ahead of where we're at. Chair Thompson, Commissioner Ng, I'm going to add on to that because I think, like, with the district councils, they've like, they have a budget. Right? They they turn in a a program, and they say, this is what we're gonna do, and we give them the money, and they do it. And that would be my preference. It's gonna take a lot more work if we have to a lot more work if we have to track and reimburse. So my preference would be that when they get under contract, they have program that they've committed to doing, and we give them the money, and they do it, and they report back. And so I'm I'm looking at Sam, but that's, you know, that's that's the that would be the ideal situation is not to micromanage it and
to trust these organizations that this is the program you said you would do and here's the funding and go do that. And for this year, given it's, you know, dollars 80,000, I mean, we should look at the risk benefit of that and the amount of time that we have to spend administering it and think about, are we really concerned that, like, the work won't get done or not, you know. So I'm just adding that. And the team is they're used to like, they're trying to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, right? So the nature is to, like, is to eke it out but the, you know, there's also an efficiency piece and a,
you know, common sense kind of piece that we need to be able to give them the comfort, like, do this and we've got your back and then, you know, we're gonna we're gonna put some trust in our organizations and and this is how we're gonna do it. So we can talk that through more, but those are the perspectives that we've been thinking of, and we'd love to have yours. Great. Yeah. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about that. I, I would love to be able to see, like, for example, a year end report on the the projects, like, which ones are completed, what's the progression for some of the projects. And I I just say that because even when I think about year round start
money that I grant out to Ward six businesses and organizations, sometimes sometimes I don't hear back on, hey. Here's how our project is going. And then sometimes they, end up not using the money at all. And then the money, it it is just there, and I could regrant it already. But I don't I don't there isn't, like, any sort of it seems like closure at all for the project. So I would love that information and just, being able to hear that, whether it's a year end report or something, like, you know, just something to come back to the board here would be great. And then, also, I I you know, when when you did meet,
the our staff did meet with me for, my input, I mentioned I suggested, like, you know, a few spots in my ward, like, Maryland Avenue. Like, there's a lot of businesses along it. And I was wondering, does that qualify as a business quarter? But I would say that, even though right now it isn't, I don't see it marked as a business quarter. I think what's really good is that air businesses outside of these marked business quarters, they can still apply for for Neighborhood Star, for example. So I think that's a good backup, and I'm very supportive of the business quarters that we do have on here right
now. And then I will suggest a few organizations in my ward to you all about, that may be able to be the one handling, like, the money as well. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner Yang. Commissioner Kim. Thank you. Again, just a props to staff because I see again, see some of the things that I had in conversation reflected here. One of the things that I offered up was talking about how we're prioritizing vacant spaces as a way to turn on tax base and some of the greatest opportunities. And I'll speak for word file alone. Right along, Rice Street,
we have more it feels it feels this might not be the truth, but I drive Rice Street multiple times a day. And it feels like there are more opportunities to fill spaces than there are filled. And so it's just to say, I think the one of the greatest opportunities is opening businesses that neighborhoods, get to use and patron and walk to, and you start to build a sense of community. But also it's turning on a tax base and building infrastructure within buildings that, like, no one's rented yet. So they may not even have a hood for a kitchen yet. And so some of these dollars are even building on future businesses that could come into the corridor.
But also with that, then it's sort of thinking, you know, strategically. And I know, Chair Johnson and I share this a lot around talking about equity across the city and we're investing. And I really appreciate, the thoughtfulness to this approach. And as we continue for future conversations, it does feel like, how are we both maintaining and prioritizing the expansion of our tax base with these dollars. So really, really appreciative. I will also echo, as the other side of Maryland, person echo that Maryland Avenue has a lot of as well. So for future quarter considerations, we'd love to see,
Maryland Avenue and on that. Not one that I brought up in our conversation, but for future topics, for sure. And, yeah, just really grateful for the staff work on it. Thank you. And I know, Commissioner Buie also has a question, on that vein. I just wanted to highlight the, Lower Afton and McKnight, Somali strip that is strip mall that is down that has several local businesses. And Ward 7 often has potential add on to, suburban and Old Hudson solely because, like, the Southeast Community Organization is one of the listed partners in my ward.
It is a place that they are, representing and being a part of in partnership, but it's it's often missed because, unless you're in our corner of, like, between, Battle Creek and Highwood Hills, you miss that intersection, and they often don't qualify for programs as a result of it. That's kind of what happened with the Promise Act, and we had to go back, and just kinda let folks know that they were there. And I know, we had a visit earlier and last year with, the same some of the some of the businesses about that. And so there was just, like, one specific place that could fit within the corridor of that,
of suburbans in Old Hudson and especially in the future just because it's kind of a stand alone, but it's there and it's often sometimes missed. But I know that some of the businesses primarily are BIPOC owned all throughout the strip. And so it just felt pretty strongly that that should be considered, and it's off of Lower Aft and at McKnight, and appreciate the the the Maryland nod. You're not at Eastside or if you're not driving on some of these streets. And so you're getting some of the places. I'm sure that there is room to talk about that. If not with the creation of a new quarter, for sure, inclusion of the one that is preexisting because some of those are already covered by
some of our East Side entities and, local organizations as well. Commissioner Burleigh? Thank you, chair Johnson. And thank you so much, Daniel, for the hard work and your team. I'm so excited. I was really excited for this commercial corridor. I mean, I'm excited for all HR meetings, but this one had a specialty, just because there's, there's so much, excitement and anticipation, particularly, for my ward, as, you know, you're aware of. Like, there's so many studies. I see this as an opportunity to really incorporate the revitalization, Selby study that, has been, what, ten years ago,
fifteen years ago. And, speaking with, in conversation with many of the stakeholders, business owners up and down Selby who have shared with me, in my office, around some of the unfulfilled plans that came out of the study, and the opportune how this gives opportunities to, actually explore, implementing some of those recommendations that are already, like, one of those eligibilities. Another thing I wanted to, discuss, and I and I know me and you are gonna have, a a briefing on this, and I, plan to talk about it more in-depth. But, other words,
my experiences of similar to council member Kim, that there's, really high turnover and, just really a lack of business associations and capacity. I know particularly for Ward 1, there's two organizations that was identified, Midway Chamber of Commerce and Rondo Community Land Trust, where Chamber of Commerce is, like a entity that provides business support, membership based, advocacy. But many of the businesses along the corridor, which are small businesses, don't have the capacity or really the means to,
stay updated or become members. And then even with the Ronald Community Land Trust, they are really new early in their in their, expansion of commercial corridors. So that was something that, just kind of oversight and looking at, opportunities for our district councils that share a lot of that bandwidth of of our local businesses to be part of that stakeholders. I also wanna just suggest to, like, NDC is a, you know, CDFI that's on the Corridor University. They have a wide span support,
provide technical assistance and have that relationship. I see that as a as a, as a asset to to this process. And then, also, I'm looking forward, to how all of our other studies are gonna be in partnership. I'm excited to see how, you know, the cultural corridor studies and, like, there's a couple of Rondo neighborhood studies. And, you know, this, the seed of funding can actually help complement a lot of those, implementations and also complement, really our festivals. You know, this,
Ward 1 and Ward 4, I mean, really, all of our awards, have a in the summertime is really is when we start seeing that, visibility and that vitality, in our neighborhood. So I'm excited for it. I know I'm gonna be looking to have, more engagement, in in my ward, so people are aware of this and, businesses have the opportunity to get access to it. Thank you. Awesome. Commissioner Yang, is that a hand? Yes. Okay. Yep. Commissioner Yang. Yeah. Thanks, chair Johnson. I just have one thing, that I would like to discuss with you more about,
and I would say just a one on one conversation would be good. It is, basically, the commercial corridors. Like, earlier I mentioned, I think it's good that we have corridors all throughout our our different boards. But what I did notice here is that for, the Payne Arcade Seventh Street business corridors, it's all lumped together. And so I I would say that for, our community in the East Side and even for me as an East Side too, I see those Separate corridors, and maybe you grouped it together because we pretty much have the same district councils,
in that area, business associations that are working together to bring more investments to those three separate corridors. And so where I see, some where I see inequity would probably be if we were to lump up a lot of business corridors together, then it could mean less money going into a certain area where they typically don't get funding. And so and just bringing up an example here, like Snelling, it's broken up into three separate business corridors here. You have Snelling and Grand,
Snelling and Southeast, Snelling Ford and Cleveland. So I would like to revisit separation between some of these corridors here. Chair Johnson and commissioner, you may have the same question, but that's completely fine. And it just makes a little bit less money for each corridor, but then you've got, you know, again, like, the same so that's that's why we're asking about, like, what do you how do you feel about the geographies? Where would the split make sense? Who would be the prime, you know, organization in in each of those corridors, and we can certainly talk through it. But if if all of the colleagues are comfortable with,
like, finding, like if that if we need to make some tweaks in that, we just need to recognize that that'll impact the amount of money, which is not gonna be a huge deal either way. And maybe we can land on you know, at some point, we need to land on what's the final the final map and the final number of corridors. But so we can work through that. This is this is what we propose, but appreciating what you're what you're saying. So Yeah. Thank you. And that that would be something that I encourage all of my colleagues to think about too because we, you know, are the ones who know Exactly.
The engagement between organizations and our communities and pretty much, you know, where the corridors in our area is too. So, I'm just sharing that based on my own observation of the the Ward 6 quarters and which also intersects into, 7 and maybe even a bit of Ward 2 too. That's exactly what you've been chair and commissioner, that's exactly what we're looking for in the feedback space. Like, these are your wards. You may look at this map and and feel like there's there's, you know, some we can and we can give you the specific, sort of cross streets that we're thinking.
You're you're looking at a map, but if we want if you want us to give you, like, a spreadsheet that has, like, this is where it starts, this is where it ends, we we do need your final kind of, input on that as quickly as possible. But that's exactly the kind of input we're looking for from you because we've got to put out a guide guidelines that have those geographies. And so we really need to finalize what those are. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I have thoughts about that, but I think I also and I think it's mostly from a lens of, hearing commissioner Yang, but also knowing how, ESNDC and ISAVA may also be helpful, especially on the East Side when it comes to the input of how they're viewing
the corridors. Like the mitigation fund, for example, request that's going to the state government is for those three streets. And so I didn't personally flag for me, and my ward is, like, a issue, but I also won't stand in the way of, like, having a real conversation about whether they are the same or different corridor speaks. So could be a good follow-up to have. Alright. I think we were at the question the question slide, so there's no further material. But are there other questions? I love that this is, like, continuing to have, interest and engagement. Like, I'm like, oh, this is a happy presentation,
but questions from everyone. Commissioner Kim, do you have any questions? Or does any other commissioner have any, last thoughts? Alright. Commissioner Kim. Just, a continuation of my deep gratitude is something that came out of our council priorities and to see this at the table as we just passed our last recruit, but have it come to fruition. I think demonstrates both the leadership of the, past and present chairs of the HRA and the strong partnership that we have with staff and with the administration. So I'm just really appreciative. It's really it's just been really wonderful to see this go from an idea to actualizing and, making sure that every war gets a shot at the money and to make sure
that we are investing equally across the city. So I just really appreciate the leadership. I, second that as well, Commissioner Kim, like, when we're going through the process and the procedure, I think this has been really great to see both the, this past program as well as this one, like, come into fruition and really just be met with that curiosity and how do we get it done. So this has been really cool to see and witness and have it brought to this body to at least just temp check. And I think just being able to encourage commissioners to if there's questions you have, like, I'm sure, Daniella and, the VAD team that's working directly on this is open to them.
So thank you so much for your work, and thanks for presenting in front of us today. You look beautiful. I've been listening. I love the curls. I've been staring at them the whole time. 03:00. But I do appreciate this presentation and the details. Please feel free to reach out to us. We're happy to talk through more of these things. These questions are what we need answered before we can start the program. Alrighty. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that brings us to the end of our agenda. Just just plugging that I think we will not have a meeting next week. I'm out. You're out. We don't have any items. So I wanted to just confirm that with you and let your colleagues know if
that's the case and that we'll all see each other in two weeks. That is a great flag. I would also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that commissioner Yang just celebrated a birthday. Oh, happy birthday. I'm 30 now. And, yes, we will not meet next week on Wednesday. I just signed the cancellation notice. So, we won't be having a meeting next week, but we will all be back again on the twenty sixth. Indeed. K. But that happy birthday, Christian Annie. Thank you. Thanks. You all are welcome to stop in my office.