United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act pursuant to public laws
1975 chapter 231. This agenda is complete to the extent known and was sent to the Trend Times and Trentonia newspapers. Posted on the first floor Balden Board and City Hall, filed in the city clerk's office and posted on the city of Trenton website. Formal action will be taken. Roll call.
Vice President Edwards present. Councilwoman Feliciano did communicate that she was unable to attend this meeting. She is excused for this evening. Councilwoman Figuero Edenberg present. Councilwoman Frisbee
present. Councilman Harrison present. Councilwoman Williams present. You presente Council President Gonzalez. Presente. Thank you for the record. Councilwoman uh Council President Gonzalez is present virtually.
myself, Brandon Garcia, municipal clerk, present. Legislative council, Mr. Edward Colloji. And in for West Bridges is Mr. Palmel Richardson. Thank you. And Madam President, at this
time, if you'd like, I will read the invocation. Sorry. Certainly. Almighty God, who holds the fate of man and nation, we most humbly beseech thee to bless this our city, these deliberations, and these thy servants, that they may act with wisdom and
understanding for the good of our community and thy greater glory. Amen. Amen. So, Madam President, I'll go right ahead. No, go ahead. Uh, Madame President, Madame Vice President, uh, we have presentations
this evening. the uh for the hotel if you'd like to introduce those or if you would like me to um you council president vice president may ask uh if this is possible uh since we only have one resolution tonight uh
would it be possible to hear that and vote on that so we could free up the police director in case he has any other duties? Uh sure. Um, I'll ask for a motion to move up the resolution 25-320
to before the presentations to allow um, Director Wilson. Some moved. Second. Thank you. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee,
yes. Councilman Harrison, yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. The agenda is now adjusted and we can move to resolution
25-320. Resolution authorizing the city of Trenton, New Jersey to enter into a law enforcement training agreement with Ocean County Police Academy. Councilwoman Williams, did you have any questions on the resolution? Yeah, actually I do. Um, I wanted to ask
if the police director could highlight for us uh if this were to pass what that for our training and particularly in the numbers of recruits we may be able to train in the coming year. [Music]
Steve Wilson, police director. Um, can you repeat that? Um, if this resolution were to pass tonight, sir, uh, what would this do for our training over the course of this year or so? And then also, what would that do for our numbers of recruits? Oh, if you could highlight that.
Okay. So, um, after meeting with Ocean County um, police academy, they are going to provide us seats in their September class, their November class. They also decided to give us more seats in their January class. And then he
increased our seats in a Trenton only police class in April to 30. And uh that will give us the ability to um hire most if not all of our vacancies.
And then the good thing with this setting for three years then you have your financial number as we go through this. It's for rebuild the department. Yes. And um as as we have retirements coming up, which uh if we can catch up
with our manpower now within the next year, which seems like a highly possibility now, um we can we can then just send um our replacements for retirements as we won't be in dire straits for manpower.
Does anyone else have council vice president? Oh, Madame President. Um, yes. My question was going to be why are we um still sending our police academy or training in in Ocean County as opposed to Mercer County?
Um, well, one of the biggest thing is is uh what I just talked about class availability and our need to hire. um including the class that just graduated Friday between um now and next year they will offer us five academy classes which
is not offered by Mercer. Um how how many does Mercer offer like or how often? They only they only do two a year and that doesn't keep up with two a year and they don't offer as many seats. So that doesn't keep up with our vacancies at
the moment. And one more question is is the cost is the cost the same between the two? No, the cost for ocean is a bit higher. Um uh but based on our need to hire I mean
it's not that much 1350 a day to a tune of a total of 100 uh I'm sorry um 1,500 per student for uh 21 weeks of training. And do we provide transportation for those cadetses in in the you know
traveling to the Ocean County who are in the academy? Yes. If they don't have transportation, we provide it. Yeah, we sure do. Thanks, Madame Vice President. Just uh Council Frisbee, thank you. Just one question. Is there a
minimum amount of cadetses that are required for any class for us to start have a class? So we offer two per year. Is there a minimum of individuals that we have to have in the class? The uh this the space in the police
academy is set by the police academy not by us. Um Ocean County is very accommodating for our needs. Um, Mercer County wasn't able to provide it. Like the class that we just graduated had 23. Um, we actually got 28 seats, but you
know, five people didn't make it through. Um, Mercer only offered us eight seats. So, had I chose Mercer for this class, there would only be have been eight people that graduated as opposed to 23. And you know, as you
know, I I you all have helped me with uh our recruitment efforts by changing our um from going from the civil service entry level to the um um application entry um last year that you passed,
which gives me the ability to hire um and do the hiring process uh much faster than waiting for civil service. So, thank you. So, I thank you all for that. You know, you're you're helping me rebuild the police department.
Councilwoman Figero, thank you. Um, should it I mean, in the past, wasn't wasn't the police academy um held in Seagar in that area previously in years past? Yeah, there is academy in Seagar, but
that was New Jersey State Police, AG's office, and DCJ. Um we we haven't ever sent anybody there. Um years past when I was a young officer, Trent Police Department actually had its own police academy. Um and then from there I went
to Mercer County. Okay. And and this academy um in Ocean County is in conjunction with whom? Which which othermies? Like who is it in conjunction with? What other policemies or would be Well, they they operate independent.
It's the Ocean County Police Academy. Um, so, so, uh, they hire, you know, I guess Ocean County agencies or they train Ocean County agencies, but I mean Trenton recruits would be in the same academy with some Ocean County recruits and Yes.
Is is there any different uh differential to the curriculum that you know Trenton used to offer? No. Um, police training is universal um uh under the police uh training commission. Thank you. Yeah.
Um, good evening, director. Yes. You you mentioned that 28 people signed up for the recent academy that just graduated. Uh, 23. How many of those were retained that are going to become police Trenton police
officers out of the 23? All 23. All 23. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. I double checked. In fact, when I met with them and I'm like, we have no agencies doing backgrounds on any of our new guys. Not one.
Awesome. Thank you. And how many um officers are you expecting to retire by the end of the year? You mentioned um I'd have to get back to you to give you a genuine number, but we we have uh some people that are close to retirement or can retirement and I could I could shoot that to you.
Okay. Thank you. Does anyone else have any questions? All right. Thank you, Director Wesson. Thank you. Wait, no, no, one more. One more. One more question. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. Is there any way we could eventually like what is the reason why we don't
host one in Trenton anymore? Just just curious. I'm sorry, I missed that. Why don't we host our own uh police academy anymore? Like is there a specific reason why people do under a different mayor and a different
director? The city of Trenton lost their accreditation for the police academy and that was on a level way higher than me. and most um uh agencies and policemies then fell
under a county um police academy. Oh, okay. Okay. I'm just curious to think if you would be interested in bringing it back sometime in the near future. Yeah. Well, that would that would be
quite a lift uh for the for the city of Trenton to provide its own police academy because one, you got to have the grounds to do it. Um meaning the actual space to to do everything that a police academy um needs to uh train a police
officer and uh we don't have that capacity anymore. Okay. I was just curious. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Harrison. director, when we have a full um uh staff of police officers,
are we are going to in the future work on that member of the traffic unit for because we have a problem with speeding in the city? Yes, that's that's my intention once we get our manpower up. That's the first thing I'm going to create is a traffic unit
just for that reason. Um all the all the uh community meetings I go to, traffic is one of the big ones. certainly is. No further questions. Thank you. Um
I guess that's it, Mr. Garcia. We can vote on that and move on to the presentations. We have a motion. And Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion then to approve. Yes. Do we have a motion? Resolution. Approve resolution 25-320. So approve.
Second. Second. Okay, that was I'm sorry. That was moved by. Thank you. And the second Harrison. Thank you very much. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Figuero Edenberg. Yes.
Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilman Harrison, yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, no. Noted. Thank you. That motion carries. Motion carried. And madam vice
president, if you'd like to move on with the agenda at this time. Yes. Um, can we have the representatives from MacArthur and Wilton Properties LLC with your presentation, please? Please press the button.
Mr. Garcia. As big as loud as I talk. Huh. Uh, good evening. Uh, I'd like to thank you for allowing us to present this afternoon. Uh I am here on uh behalf of Macan Wilson Properties LLC
uh with the collaboration of OTM Holdings LLC to share our proposal for the Lafayette Street Hotel and surrounding neighborhood revitalization. I will present nine key points to stress
that our vision is simple but powerful to restore one of the one of Trenton's most visible properties and to pair that with housing redevelopment that strengthens nearby communities. We have and will always put Trenton first.
Uh as you know uh since the Lafayette Hotel closed, Trenton has had a downtown hotel. has not had a downtown hotel. Visitors stay in Hamilton, Yuing, or Princeton, which means their dollars for lodging, meals, and entertainment
are leaving Trenton. The vacant hotel is a daily reminder of disinvestment, but it can also be the centerpiece of renewal. Combined with reinvestments in housing,
this is a chance to bring people back to restore confidence and to generate meaningful revenue for this city. Our second point is is our po proposal stands apart from others because it is
comprehensive. We're not only bringing the Lafayette Hotel back to life, we are pairing it with a neighborhood housing strategy that extends the benefits beyond downtown into the surrounding communities. We understand community support and this
approach directly supports the city's master plan goals of more jobs, stronger neighborhoods, and a broader tax base. And importantly, our team combines experienced hotel operators
with local housing partners who have done this work before right here in New Jersey. We will restore the Lafayette Street property into 197 room boutique hotel
with a rooftop l rooftop lounge, a cafe, and modern meeting spaces. We will bring weekend activities to this facility that that will entice others to to frequent downtown venues.
And the hotel will directly serve legislators, business travelers, event planners, churches, fraternities, sororities, and countless others who generally bypass Trenton. The economic impact is significant.
Over the first five years, we project more than more than $25 million in visitor spending, more than a 100 permanent hospitality jobs, and over $1 million annually to local taxes that today are going to other municip
municipalities. We don't stop there. We will acquire and restore vacant and distressed homes in neighborhoods connecting downtown to Urine, Lawrenceville, Hamilton. These will become a mix of affordable rentals,
lease to own properties, and market rate housing. This strategy fights blight, increases public safety, and create opportunities for both existing residents and new families who want to
live close to the suburbs while enjoying Trenton's connectivity. [Music] You ask yourself, what does this mean for Trenton residents? We will enhance our mission of putting
Trenton first by providing good construction jobs and long-term hospital hospitality jobs, new customers for local restaurants and small businesses, a stronger tax base to support city
services, and maybe more importantly, turning a vacant building into a point of pride. This is about more than bricks and mortar. It's about restoring confidence and
showing residents the trend is investing in itself. We know that financial strength matters. Uh the acquisition has already been supported by a $4 million grant from uh New Jersey uh EDA. We will bring private investment,
developer equity, and additional financing. What we ask of the city is a partnership, a pilot agreement to keep the project competitive, supporting expediting permits, and helping promoting trend as a visitor
designation. We believe in share that shared risk and shared reward. by by the we know that the city is is preparing to celebrate the 250th anniversary in 2026.
Just imagine Lafayette Street being the shining light that it once was. As we move into the the third century of Trenton's existence, the hotel will be a revenue generator. The housing stock will be stronger and
downtown Trenton will be back on the map as a place to visit, to live, and to invest. In closing, we respectively ask the council to designate us, McMartha
and Wilson Properties LLC, as your preferred development partner for the Lafayette Street Hotel request for proposal. Together, we can turn a failed property into a lasting success. One that creates
jobs, grows the tax base, strengthens neighborhoods, and restores pride in the capital city. When history is written, this council can be inscribed as a force to put together the plan that
revitalized the capital city. I want to thank you for your time and I'll be glad to entertain any questions you have of it. Thank you so much. Um, does any of the council have any questions? Uh, madam vice president.
Councilwoman Frisbee. So, one, I want to thank you for your presentation. Uh, thank you for coming prepared and being thorough in it as well. Um, I wanted to say um I like um several of the things you you put in here. Putting Trenton first, putting a
tax having a tax base support pride in restoring from abandoned um place. One question um one of the questions that I do have, you said that um of the units, the 197 units that you're going to um keep them as is. Um, and looking at your
brochure here, um, five rooms, um, as executive suites, would you be, uh, would you consider having some of those instead of all them being 197 suites, having some of them as long-term um, facilities as opposed to all 97
being um, converted back to what they are presently? Well, our first excuse me, our first goal was to keep them as they are. Uh because Trenton does need it doesn't have other hotel rooms or facilities and
if we convert them during the times of of distress, uh they still won't have access if we take those off the market. But our goal is why is more comprehensive plan to take us not just from being a hotel but being a community
partner so we can address some of the housing needs uh in this city itself. If members serves me correctly uh Trenton is now a thousand housing units short just to meet the supply that is resident citizenship needs. We think we can
address help address that issue also. And one of the way ways we do that is we don't use warehousing as part of our vocabulary. We won't take houses off the market. We'll put houses back on the market and we'll develop neighborhoods,
not a house. So that some of the issues that makes a hotel need to address four or five different capacities will take will not be part of how we operate. We want to address each one of those capacities. Well,
thank you. Um and I also see here that you said that um on your plan to hire that you have you built a training program. Can you expound on that a little bit? Well, yes. I mean, one of the things about uh putting Trenton first is to
incorporate the community because this has to be a community uh venture. It has to be invested. We we're we're not going to be a fly by night organization that comes in uh puts the hotel back online and leave. Our issue is to stay in the Trinity community to
develop the employees that we need and give them the the skills they need to be not only uh serve the hotel well, but they can use those services, take them out into the community to help make this a stronger, more viable community. Uh we
believe because we're working with Mercy County College now, we believe that Trenton has the talent uh to do. We just want to give them an opportunity opportunity to do uh the the micro home uh project that's going on at Mercer
County College was designed by Trenton students. So we know that there's a resource that most people don't look at nor do they tap and most of our greatest talent has to leave the community uh to survive and live. We think we can address that issue. So, I thank you for
that because that's that's important that we if the community is not equipped that you come in and you are willing to equip them so that they can have these sustainable jobs um to help put food on the table. I'm going to reserve any my other com comments um as I continue to
go through your brochure. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Welcome, Councilwoman Williams. Thank you, Council Vice President. Uh good evening, sir, and welcome. Glad to have you here and your team. So, I have some questions. Uh the first one is I I I just want to make a
comment. Your presentation you sent to us uh was very thorough. I was very glad to see it particularly uh offering so much financial information which is always important and you know looking at a project and trying to decide between one and another. So all your hard work is well appreciated I'm sure by
everybody. Thank you. So I did um was my first question. I saw that uh your proposal says that it would cost about $8 million for renovation and then on top of that it would take six months from closing date to opening
date. Um most of the presentations we've had had substantially longer for uh renovations for reopening and also the cost amounts were higher too. So, how do you how did you look at this? Uh, how
did you come to the idea that it would only take $8 million in six months? We've we've we've looked at at the the hotel itself. We're not building the hotel. We're renovating the hotel. Um, we've brought engineers in. We've had
three visits through the hotel. We've tested it structurally. Uh, it is it was I'll use the term that the engineer said, it's a 300year hotel. So the structure of the building is still sound. Uh we know we'll have to replace uh the internal functions whether or not
it's electrical or whether or not is is uh uh the copper wiring and all. We know that part. We've gotten estimates. We've got two estimates on doing just that. But the most important part, we've partnered with uh OTM Holdings that has
direct access to to manufacturers and vendors to to alleviate the supply chain issues that a lot of vendors go through. So we know we can we can take take that project to another another level. We can expedite the project itself and we can
get it up and running. And in doing so, we'll hire as many local people we can with the skill set to do the work. So it's not as if we have to worry about training, importing, housing, and all that. We'll be using a lot of local vendors.
Okay. And then uh my second question has to do with I did look in your appendix and the involvement of Mr. Gordy. Mhm. Um, so being that, you know, he is a celebrity, I'm sure, he's demand in demand on both coast and everywhere else, uh, how much could you count on
him being a part of the hotel or appearing at the hotel or as his business interest may lie? Uh, will he always be a strong, you know, component of this going forward? I'll answer the the second part first. Yes, he'll always be a strong component.
uh the the reason why we can rely on him because the hotels that OTM has been developing has we also create a relationship uh that we can get that level of entertainment consistently because one of the weaknesses of the three predecessors who have owned the
hotel is they they gave away the weekend. They gave away the ability that when a worker got off at 5:00 that they could stop at the hotel to either have a beverage or even even even suck at the
restaurant. So, we would move from a five-day hotel to a 247 hotel. And we can do that by giving them something that they'd want to be there for. Uh we want to be the anchor for downtown. We want to give uh that our product will
bring people in and give them a chance to look at all the other things that that trend has to offer. Okay. And uh with that when the hotel was originally around it was doing well. It had entertainment on weekends. Um no big names necessarily but uh it was a
big community hub for us. However, also at that time there weren't many suburban hotels as of yet your Hampton ins and so forth. Now there are. So, how would you see, you know, having 197 rooms be able
to compete in an environment where, like, for example, if there are things going on at the state house, uh, people may be just as likely to stay in Hamilton Townshiping near the airport as they would in downtown Trenton as they would have done 20 years ago. The uniqueness of the of
the Lafayette and I was there opening day day in 2002. The uniqueness is that it has the grand ball ballroom and these other micro hotels don't. It can handle capacity. Now everybody is I guess for lack of a
better term they split the pie up to hold events. The largest facility in trend right now is Cooper, but Cooper is limited in space as to what how that you know size of venue it can hold. Um to
open up the Lafayette with the capacity that it has would make it the first option for a lot of organizations who wants to keep all of that people under one roof. Uh we have we have major corporations in the trend trend mercy area that could utilize this one
facility. There's six business offices in the facility at present. So you don't have to go to three or four different hotels to accomplish that mission. So it is truly a unique hotel for this area.
It is truly was designed to accommodate this area. um we don't think it took it to the next level so that that it would include the development and and we call it the connectivity to the community so that people would if they wanted a night out
they could go to the Lafayette versus going to another uh municipality. Okay. And then thank you for that. I appreciate that. Um my last question has to do with phase two u which was mentioned which um didn't actually
intentionally you didn't provide a lot of information because you want to get to that point but as someone looking to make a dec helping to make a decision um I would like to know more about phase two because phase two seems to me to be the dayto-day operations and what as a
tranonian I'm going to see I'm going to feel if I go there for a meal I go there to visit that somebody I have family come in town tell them go book at the Lafayette or whatever entity is there versus you know the Hyatt on route one which they're used to doing at this
point. So, can you provide any more information um regarding that because we have a lot of business women, we have a lot of businessmen that come to town. But one of the things that's uh an Achilles heel for us is New Jersey being such a small state. A lot of the legislators and their staffs, they can
go home at night, whereas other states which are bigger, it's a three four-hour drive. They'll just stay at the state capital. So, can you provide any more information on phase two for us? Well, well, we looked we looked at that in great detail.
The vendors that frequent the capital don't go home at night. Uh we would we would offset the time lost in commuting from other municipalities to get to Trenton to make a presentation at the state house. we
would uh the the corporations that oper that operate in trend wouldn't have to book their people outside the trend losing productivity hours. They could have working lunches as a lot of us do do. Uh what it does it it it it gives
them back time which is one of those immeasurable items that we don't pay attention to until we lose it. Uh we've we've we've looked at that. We know that historically that the business community carried the the hotel itself uh but it
couldn't carry for 7 days cuz when they left town on Friday the hotel itself rolled up the roll the carpet up. What we plan to do is to supplement what they do because we have it's already designed to accommodate business people. What we we're doing now is how do we accommodate
the community itself. So when you say you want to go to to the Lafayette or tell your family to visit the Lafayette, we want them to leave there thrilled, not disappointed. So this this
will be a four and a half, five-star hotel. We know what the the measure of quality and presentation was in 2002 and our goal is to meet or exceed that. So when we know that Trend is a historic
city, but people have an inversion to it and we may may as well address it now. People think that Trend is not safe to be at night. We're we look for cooperation with the city to resolve that because if we help
develop the downtown area, then we could give you the confidence to walk the street in the downtown area. uh whether or not uh there's police presence or whether or not there's uh we fix whatever lighting presentation you
look for, but we will be a shining star on Lafayette Street, but we'll also radiate through the rest uh the Warren Street area so that people will feel comfortable being there. The other component is is like no one addresses
the fact that there's a hotel, I'm sorry, there's a parking garage that's directly connected to the hotel itself. Uh we do believe we can make an agreement there so people can come to the hotel and feel safe that they can
park their car, do what they need to do, and yet and still feel safe that they go back to their car. So, we think that we can work through the previous history, rebrand that history and give, and I do believe this with all my heart and soul,
give the downtown Trinidon area its reputation back. Okay. Thank you. And just as a small followup because I did want to also ask this. I saw that uh for your proposal, you would be asking for 50 parking spots. One of the things I've always, you know,
thought of as being a middle class consumer who goes to hotels, a lot of times you stay in an urban area, you know, you see parking available and then you find out it costs $35, $50 a day, etc. How much would it be helpful to, you know, trying to attract a middle
class clientele additionally for weddings events to offer free parking for every single room in a hotel if that's financially feasible by the city? It it it it adds to the cost, but it's not cost prohibitive. I it's I I'm the
type of person if I ordered ham a hamburger and it has fries, I don't want to pay you $10 for the hamburger, then pay you another five for the fries. Charge me $12 and I say nothing. But the minute you you you do alakart, I get it
confuses me. Now I start to find ways not to do business with you. And I think that if we we can pass on whatever the parking authority gives us to the the customer without being exorbitant or worried about and upcharged it makes it prohibitive.
Okay. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Does anyone else have any questions? Council President, do you have any questions? Well, I have um No, I have a question. Oh, did she? No.
Okay. So, um, you mentioned, uh, and I'm piggyback off of Councilwoman Frisbee here, your your proposal is significantly less in cost in construction compared to some of the other proposals that we have seen. So,
in the event during the construction, let's say hypothetically you're approved and you purchase this property and you begin construction, um do you have a contingency plan in place to access more funding in the event that there there's a determination that there's more
repairs required than you originally assessed? Great question. when we ask that question where we join with OTM holdings is that when we put that million dollar figure in the
proposal it says a minimal minimum of we will continue to put money into that facility till till we get it to the quality that we expect it to be not we won't stop at midstream because our goal is not just to complete the hotel our
goal is to move from the hotel to touch the quality of life in the community itself. So, we're here for the long run. So, I would say the answer is yes. You have Thank you. And um you mentioned OTM. Yes.
Okay. So, you have a a credible source of funding that you absolutely have approval, some type of approval or pre-approval for. Yes. Right. As a matter of fact, I have an agent here with me tonight if if you any questions for him also. Um, I don't
think that's necessary at this point in the process, but I do appreciate the offer and your thoroughess in this process. Uh, um, I wanted to touch on some of the other things that you mentioned earlier. So, I saw in a separate correspondence
from you all that the the project entails um 100 rooms. So, you're reducing essentially from 197 rooms to 100 rooms. uh but not limited to extended stays, retail options, and
market rate residences. And then you said you guys will be reserving space on the first floor for commercial spaces such as bars and restaurants. Um can you elaborate more on the extended stays and the market rate residences and other amenities you plan to include? Well, one
of the things that we did when we gave you the financial and I I think the council woman uh brought up is that we went as to the worst case scenario to to where we could afford to develop this hotel and still know that we would
be profitable enough to to do long-term planning for it. And we used the 100 room as a threshold for it. Our goal is I mean in every hotel in the area would want to be is 100% occupied. We were not naive enough to do that. Our goal was to
uh start out with a benchmark of 50% of the rooms themselves and build by delivering superior service build by branding at the product itself so that we become the first choice to stay in trend versus an option because nothing
else is there. So yes, we would love to have 187 rooms filled at all times, but we we we know that that in the hotel industry that's not feasible, but we know we we could still be profitable and still be around for the long haul. The
second part of the question as to uh developing the downtown retail areas, is there certain amenities that every quality hotel has that you may want to shop? You may want to you may like the soap that's in your room. you may want
to take home. So Trenton is a historic town. You may want to take a souvenir home. We're going to develop that. The corner to the community involvement is the ro restaurant and the lounge area. Uh the the hotel has had a history of
having a great lounge area. They had a uh previously they had a uh I guess it call a smoking room in the back and all that. We have ways to use this so that the people that live here, if they want to go for a great meal, they come to the
hotel. If they want a night, a quiet night to listen to a jazz concert, they come to the hotel. We become the first option. Awesome. So, uh, so in some of the retail areas, we do have like, um, a a
new shop across the street that's been there for nearly a year. She does sell soap and other skin care products and things like that. Um, so for some of the retail opportunities, are you extending that to local entrepreneurs or is that more so chain brands? You want to
No, no, no, no. They're our first option. Okay. Our goal, if you're going to build a community, you have to build a community that can afford to be here, too. I mean, the the the uh residents have to be here. Uh you if you if you build an airport at I mean a hotel at the airport
as a transient uh traffic, you build a Lafayette in Trenton, your residents have to use it and and I think sometimes if you lose that as as a part of your business model is why you lose the hotel. Uh so no, we'll be doing things
with the community to entice them to do because with six boutiques if if a if if one of the residents say here's a quality product that that fits the profile of how you want to present the hotel, why don't they take one of those boutiques?
So we'll give them options. But to chase them away, no. Awesome. Awesome. I worry about sometimes uh just a healthy balance between local entrepreneurs and being overshadowed by too much competition. So
she would be overshadowed by if you brought something like a Bath & Body Works and she sells similar products. So um but we do need those large commercial brands I think because they are anchor businesses and people tend to build around them. So, I'm looking for, you
know, a healthy balance that's not going to the entrepreneurs we already have while you're building up on the retail and the hotel. We're we're not Walmart. We we don't want to do that. Okay. Thank you. Um I think I've satisfied.
Council Harris, um my first question is how many hotels have you done? Uh, OTM has done I can name um they just finished in one in Nashville uh recently 155 rooms they did a 445 room but I can talk to Mr.
Washington who's here now who is a principal at UTM can give you more specific details. Uh but the question because I asked that question I want to know in the relationship how strong how competent uh and let's see the quality
and we know that the hotel that was done in Nashville is surpassed by no one. So we know we have a quality company that can do quality work. Okay. Also in here it says uh city support. It says the city will contribute funding to to defay the cost
of construction of this project. What does that mean? It it when you with this offering that you've made uh which which surprised me when uh the other council woman said that people came in with an exorbitant price what it would take to develop the this hotel.
You're offering a hotel at a really discount rate. So it it shouldn't take you this really high bar. You shouldn't set this high bar to to develop if you get it at at that price. But the cities often at that rate because they want it to be developed developed cheaply, want
to be to to sustain your business, we get that. So when we say that uh yes, the city's already offered something with the grant itself. The city is all we we want the city to work with us so that we can get if we can get a
designated inspector so we don't get tied up six months get an electrical approval. Those sort of things is how you work with the city to get this back online to become a ratable for the city also. It's a team that that we can create that works for both of us. So
we'll get the the the supplies the labors and the resources to get it developed. We just don't want don't don't want to run into the roadblocks that could happen say if we can't get permits done. Thank you. That was a great um question, Councilman
Harrison. Um which leads me to a follow-up question uh in terms of your other uh developments and experience that you may have. Have you ever been a part of a process similar to this? So, you know, our hotel has been
closed for some time. Our downtown isn't doing too well. Um, and it needs some work and we need a lot of buy in. And I hear that your yourself and your company are committed and you're knowledgeable of our economical issues here. Um, so
but have you do you have any type of experience dealing with areas like Trent and purchasing hotels and redeveloping them? Well, well, my background is I've always been the financeier. I've been the person that and and I've always operated in enterprise zones. Right now I'm in
East Orange. Uh but I live in in this area. So that there this area has is it's more near and dear to my heart than for me to go I'm not going to abandon East Orange in the sense in the middle of something. But I'd rather be here and that's the reason why we're here. But
the experience Yes. But mostly for that's why you go to an organization that has a proven track record such as OTM. You let them do the heavy lift as to how we develop and put put the structure and the building plan together. But we have
proven operators who can run hotels. We've had proven operators that that's on our team that have managed hotels. So the operating experience, we have that down pat as to as as to how many of because we're not going to leave here
next week, next month, next year. We're here. And so in that point, we'll get it developed. We get the people here that are stable here and they not only work in trend, they'll live in Trent. Awesome. That's good to hear.
Council Williams. Thank you, Council. as well. President, thank you. Um, just one follow-up question. Um, so this is a very very large project and I know you talked about uh other housing uh even in in some other towns and certainly no matter
what would happen we need help with housing in the city of Trenton. But those other additional housing uh projects that you would be involved with that would be running at the same time as you would be developing the hotel and
in managing the hotel or what what is the timeline on that? We will be finished in these joints by the time that you make a decision and we will move from and we do believe and we hope and pray
that this decision is positive for us because we'll move from that we'll we will we'll move here to do what we need to here in Trenton. Um, so the timeline is a great uh continuation for us, but it's not something that means we'll put you in the back burner as priority one
or priority two. Uh, Trenton is priority one. Okay. So, it may run concurrent with the hotel development. It might not, but no matter what, the hotel is priority one as you just mentioned. Absolutely. Okay. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am.
Right. Thank you so much. Thank you. I thank you for entertaining us. Uh if you need any follow-up questions, I think I left my contact information. I can provide anything that hopefully anything you can ask me. Thank you very much.
Have a good evening. Thank you. Um next on the agenda is Angel Real Estate Solutions. And um for council's information, we do
have it. There will be a PowerPoint presentation. We have one copy. I'll be passing it around. You see up close. Good evening. Please state your name. Mr. Garcia, does she need to say address as well?
Not necessarily. [Music] Good evening. Good evening uh ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much uh for your consideration. My name is Vanessa
Bushro. I'm the president and CEO of Angel Real Estate Solutions and co-founder uh with Gina Heiser. She is also the COO of Angel Real Estate Solutions Corp. Uh so I we are here in
front of you because we fall in love with the city. I'm originally from uh East Orange, New Jersey. Uh my background is uh Franco French. Um this is my accent.
And uh basically I am uh I am pleased to present in front of you uh this and I'm proud as well um the Trenton hotel redevelopment project. So who we are first of all
we are real estate uh consulting and investment company and we focus on distress properties. about the next pitch. So here you go. So
and we focus on repurposing and redeveloping distress properties and give them a new renewal when we're talking about um especially Trenton the Trenton hotel. So
our mission and where we see Trenton um renewal is very inclusive. Inclusive of the community, inclusive of the space that
we have, inclusive as well of the warehouses that are out there abandoned. also redeveloping cities like Trenton is actually a great opportunity. This is
the and especially 2026 coming up that was the first capital of the United States of America. So we are here because we want to develop and we want to develop the city of Trenton. So why Trenton?
when uh we approached the director of economic development, Mr. Arch Lon is a former director. We we made some research. We talked to the economic development and housing uh
employees, especially a manager, who told us that the city council actually voted on new resolution, notably um promoting home ownership.
One of our strategic partner, Social Equity International Corp, which the inventor and the pioneer of this real estate fintech platform is actually the pioneer of also the
fiber optic industry in the telecommunications. His name is Peter Dwight Seahagen. Unfortunately, he's out of the country and couldn't attend today. But we're going to present u the concept of social equity and this is the what we
presented to the director of of economic and development Mr. Listen. No, it's the video. We're going to present. We're going to present the video. Awesome. [Music] [Music]
So our vision for Trenton is total ecosystem transformation. First of all, affordable affordable housing, affordability, luxury home and tackle those challenges that we
have. Challenge uh homelessness, no like blight, distress properties. That's actually the original question that we asked to the director because we saw so so many properties um abandoned and when we saw that we saw
opportunities. So for us with a with our network uh I'm originally a financial advisor and wealth manager and I took over the management consulting company of my
father and I raise capital for manually and woman businesses. We are womenowned company. We will favor womenowned companies as well to work with in the city of Trenton in all areas as well.
And this is the value that we provide. We provide partnering with leadership especially uh the city council, the Trenton, the Trenton state, the Trenton city, Mercer County. We had the opportunity as well to talk to the
Mercer County Director of Economic Development and um during you know that process. So we we find out like you know the most community impact we can have in this city not only regarding the hotel
but the total ecosystem that we want to also implement because the hotel also asks for catering right. So there's a big there's a bigger catering area in the back end of the restaurant but it's
not sufficient. So that brings the catering industry as well into perspective. Once we approach this hotel, we approach this hotel with and that's our project proposal.
We read the RFP, we understood, you know, the requirements and basically with Gina's background as well because she comes from the um interior design, she we her and her
ex-husband used to um renovate four or fivestar hotels as well in Dubai in uh and she's going to mention that um right now in Dubai, in Brussels,
so Bel in Europe, Brussels, Belgium uh capital. So when we approach those um this uh project, we wanted to have first respond to that resolution
affordable housing, home ownership, right? So we understood that the h there was a 100 rooms that was required from that RF. So we say okay 100 rooms. So there was
97 rooms available for the for the housing right and with that social equity housing uh model that we present in front to you which is new which going to attract a lot of young professionals. We want
new professionals. The Trenton city based on the last census uh big ethnicity Latin from the Latin um uh countries but also between 30 and 40s. So they need entertainment, they
need uh this type of um of um destinations, right? So restoring the Trenton Hotel is for us a timeless
glor to his timeless glory with hospitality and wellness at its heart. Why? When you are young, you can still take care of your health. And we focus also on wellness on health.
We want to bring industries from the wellness as well uh industries especially in those warehouses. There's big potential urban farming locally uh produced um locally produced uh uh um
products. So all of that contribute to that ecosystem transformation and Trenton hotel is the catalyst of that transformation on that. So the next slide here is hotel operator the choice
and again we come from an approach of discovering but as well doing our research before we come into you in uh into in front of you the city council uh we find out what happened to this hotel
what's going what happened to the to the Marott why they abandoned the hotel um what was the reason and the cause and we can go from two perspective. One the Midian hotel exceptional services room
um location right with in the state capital of New Jersey. The the governor is right AC right down the block so to speak. And as a result we chose luxury. We chose
dependent luxury for the Aquabel world which is going to be our flag our brand our brand hotel Aquabel world you saw our designs thanks to Gina
coming from uh the Dubai world she lives 10 years in Dubai as well so luxury we understand it we know it and we can also um operate it. So we have uh in our
presentation this presentation we have included um our hotel operator letter of interest. They're very inclined if we win the award to come and operate the hotel.
They operate for 60 years in 75 countries and you will see their presentation and who they are as well. So the financing of this hotel is I am a I am 20 years in the financial services
industry. I understand how to structure this type of projects. So this is my background and I can uh tell you that you know we're coming with structured financing coming from equity developer equity coming with as well debt
financing for the construction and our main actually our key proposition is also EV5 immigrant uh money because as you mentioned before in the last presentation
The downtown has to has to first of all have security. The first I actually I was glad that they came first. The police director could talked about it. We will need much more law enforcement
in that downtown. We need much more. The space security is law and order period. Right. And we need to develop that warehouse. We need to develop those warehouse so that this acade academy can be here nowhere else. This is the
capital of New Jersey. That's the decision coming from you and from the the government basically of this of this uh state and also of this uh uh uh town. Now when we talking about the key features
and why we why we say security and law and order is is is actually a must and we including into our presentation today our uh community engagement and veterans affairs actually is going to explain
that to you but key features first of all The swimming pool. The swimming pool is in I think it's a must. You know, the only downtown hotel in town. Uh we want a Olympic size
swimming pool. We uh discussed with our constructor, Mr. Steven Oran, 40 years of experience in the state of New Jersey bringing you know even to the state cap the Trenton state capital.
Um we believe that entertainment is actually our competitive advantage. This is uh Gina is multi-talented singer songwriter platinum artists signed by major music label in Dubai as well. She
come with a an an amazing network of celebrities and I will let her speak about this. Good evening. My name is Gina Heiser. I'm the co-owner of Angel Real Estate Solutions and
together with my business partner, Vanessa. During our first trip to Trenton, we absolutely fell in love with the city. We saw the potential. We saw the gorgeous architecture. We saw the beautiful layout of the city
and we said, "There is something very special about this place and we would love to be a part of it." Further down as we ventured deeper into different streets and alleys, we saw all these abandoned buildings and it was a
very s very sad sight to us as well as we saw an amazing opportunity especially that we specialize in distress properties. We said, "Okay, we can bring a big change." With the background that Vanessa brings and my
background, I've lived in Dubai. My background is music, architecture, interior design. My ex-husband was the lead um interior designer in
Dubai. His company is called Heiser Interiors. Um he's half French, half Italian. He was him him and his company they were um working on the biggest projects in Dubai
in Abu Dhabi as well as European project in Belgium, Brussels and other cities. Uh they would do such amazing interior design that they were even commissioned to um to work on the private airport of
the royal family of Abu Dhabi. So um I would like to emphasize that this is where a lot of people have commented actually on our designs, our vision for the hotel. My
other background is also wellness. Uh I love holistic healing, holistic wellness. Uh there's a lot of things that I do like make my own vegan milk and make my own body lotions, body oils. So we want to develop the wellness
center within the hotel uh the spa and a beautiful wellness center and uh bring a lot of wonderful treatments that will enhance people's health and wellness as well as the whole um outlook for the
hotel. We would like the hotel to um be this like holistic paradise with beautiful interiors, essential oils being diffused through the vents and which as as I'm not sure if you're aware, but essential oils have an effect
on people's moods. They get people out of depression and they they they have a really wonderful effect. My other background is um is music. So I was assigned artist to Universal Music out of Dubai. Um I've since since I ventured
uh back to the United States. I have extended my network here. I have personal relationships with for example Nile Rogers and Chic. Uh so we can bring al celebrities to this wonderful ballroom. We want to really uh put
Trenton and Trenton Entertainment on the map. Uh we could bring uh Babyface Tony Braxton. and I have a personal relationship with LA records. Um, Nay Rogers and Shik uh Shaka Khan, that's that's a little bit of the more A-list
older older uh generation, but as well as Alicia Keys and some, you know, some other um celebrities as well. We are tied in with uh uh with radio stations, with podcasts and we want to bring a lot of marketing
and a lot of uh a lot of a lot of new fresh uh life into the city. So one of the key features that you see in the key amenities as well um is a cigar lounge. So during our visit,
second visit to the Trenton Hotel, we visited three times with our team, development team, first of all um we find out with through the property manager John that there was there used to be a cigar lounge uh every
Sunday 500 people attending there and uh we want to we want to get it back. Um, so that was uh that was nice to hear because we were looking at one actually cigar launch in in the Philadelphia uh
area and that was that was uh one of the things that we loved about it. I say, "Oh, wow. That's great." Uh looking to own to to make our own cigars. Um so that was a a great key feature. We're going to have also a rooftop lounge um
on the second floor. So pro John told us a property man the property manager for the past seven years told us as well that would be the best area to put that rooftop lounge. So want to bring major entertainment,
major uh festivals as well. Our uh marketing team uh they actually doing right now the Labor Day uh the Labor Day weekend um which is a big attraction in New York City. Uh we also have relationship with big uh uh Latin
promoters as well. There's a big uh uh community of Latin East and Hispanics people here. So, we want to bring festivals, jazz festivals, ka festivals, uh more exotic festivals, but we want to
bring that back. So, the development notes. Um, actually I will let Steve talk about uh the the back end of the the hotel especially the renovation about it.
Yes. [Music] Okay. Good evening everybody. My name is Steve Horman. I'm the owner of Asteron USA contractors. We are second generation company
uh in general contracting. Uh we are uh certified by the state and the federal SAM program to do state and federal contracts. Uh I came I have the opportunity to meet Vanessa uh and her partner for the first time
which I was introduced uh to look at this project here on Lafayette Avenue. I was very impressed and sad at the same time to see such a beautiful building sitting idle and just collecting dust and ditriated.
Uh there's a lot of potential and uh I love the potential uh plans that I received from Vanessa and her group. Uh I did visit the site uh from the top floor to the first floor. It's a
structurally sound building. Um lot of deterioration from water damages and uh leakage. uh very bad uh mold smelling which needs a lot of work to bring it up
to uh standard. Uh my company policy uh always has been uh every location we take contract or do project we give priority to locals, vendors and workers.
So we do have all uh type of uh workers whether apprentice or uh laborers or foremans. We always seek for the local help more easier and more effective for the project than import guys from
different counties and different cities. uh looking at the whole picture the project is uh amazing project and it can bring lot of uh light to the city and uh
in fact I like Printon more than Philadelphia which Philadelphia have a lot of more uh exotic cities. I think with a little bit of work here we could do a lot better. Anything else? if any questions you guys have. Uh
something about the swim. Yes. Uh one of the uh items that was presented to add the swimming pool to the park that small park in the back definitely is doable. Um my suggestion
was to uh provide a Olympic size uh swimming pool. We have a large uh area that can accommodate the Olympic size and also allow another one for uh small kids. So the shallow ones that they can
swim. Um we have to upgrade the the system underground system for the uh whether septic system or the sewer system to accommodate that additional uh water usage. and caution. Thank you.
So I would like to u continue on this uh um project proposal. I'm going to go apparently time is up. Uh but social equity integration I think is very important that I um I expose
this matter. First of all, the social equity and talking about social equity, affordable housing model is basically the OMX token. So, we're bringing new crowd. We're bringing new new young professionals, young adults. And today
the economy of today is AI, data centers um driving I mean driving technologies and we need that as well and we need to use it as a city uh into into our program into our project and ecosystem. So
that's what I envision and using that real estate fintech platform will allow us uh that Trenton will be part of the first it will be the first pilot city implementing uh that uh real estate fintech platform and this social housing
model out of 10. So we're going to we actually choose um choosing right now the cities as usual and actually mostly the one that are in the distress uh aspect of it.
Um part of the part of the um innovation right of this uh of this social equity housing model is the fact that people can choose to live together. That's one aspect of it. they can choose
to our platform to live together, live um live um in harmony under what they call a housing constitution. So we for the con for the social equity
uh condos that we plan to have and that can also that is flexible that can accommodate extended stays. Uh we intend to have 20 to 20 to to 30 rooms of extended stays in the in the boutique hotel. We're going to have as well uh to
accommodate the politicians. I'm sorry to interject very quickly and this is due to a miscommunication on my part. Um we have allowed for 10 minutes for presentations as regular practice this time. So I'm going to have to cut you a little bit short for council
questions. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Just one moment. I'll present my uh our developer. What? One one moment. I I really have to cut you short at this point. I do apologize everybody if everybody's been limited to a certain
amount of time. Okay. I unfortunately have to do that. So, um I will take full responsibility for that and at the same time I will turn it over to the council. Thank you. I really appreciate all of your time and attention into this presentation and I want to uh first of
all apologize for the miscommunication on our part. Um we were told that we wanted to allow for unlimited uh time for presentation. However, the five other or four other proposals that we heard prior to you, we were giving them
10 minutes to present. So we wanted to be fair. So, there was an internal miscommunication where we did allow for unlimited time, but we do have to um move on to asking questions and I'm sure that you'll have time to introduce the
developer as council is asking questions. So, um we'll move on to the question portion if anyone would like to go first and with their questions. Council President, Councilwoman Williams.
Thank you, ma'am. So, one of the things I I wanted to make sure I was clear and then also anyone uh watching the meeting, what would exactly be the relationship with uh because you gave us the additional um uh presentation
portion uh that talks about Panorama Worldwide. So would they be the company that actually runs the hotel from day to day? Yes, they could be the hotel operator and also our uh finance here. So that's
why I wanted to include them as well. One of our ma major financer as well. Yes. Okay. And then how much financing uh have you secured at this point? Because I know the other question I'll just put it attach it. Um so total as far as the
hard cost was $45 million. Yeah. And then um you listed $6.4 million for soft cost which would be architectural design planning and so for a total of 514. Right. Yeah. So basically uh we have a several
um several financial lineup right now wants to actually move quick on this project if we get the award. Okay. Yeah. So I know in a lot of municipalities and areas this may not be considered a luxury hotel, but in the Mercer County market it might very well
be for all the amenities and different things you're proposing. So um in a city such as ours, which you admittedly we're trying to build back, I think we're we're on a good trajectory. We still have a uh 39% home ownership
rate. We have a 28% poverty rate and some of the units was listed that would sell for $600,000. Um, I may be wrong. I'm not a real estate agent, but having followed real estate, I don't know that we've had maybe more than a dozen properties uh or
so in the last maybe five, seven years sell for more than 600 that are separated homes with uh yards and so forth. Right. So, um, Mercer County, um, in Mercer County, uh, the two bedrooms
actually go for 800,000. I actually checked that. We know watch what's the market rate. Um, that's what we were told uh especially uh for that. But also, we're going to sell those rooms. So end suite bedroom uh around $3,000
which reduce the cost uh for individuals um for for that area as well. So this is not a 600 price tag if somebody wants to pay that because of all the amenities because they're going to be they're going to have access to the hotel
amenities. Um we also reduce the price through social equity housing by uh allowing them to buy the bedroom. So, as long as they find a partner, they can reduce that price and then they work it out legally, right? If one of them
gets laid off, moves to California, happens. So, everything happens internally with actually with that app like you said, you see in the video. Um, so yes. So then in a case where maybe one partner uh they have a disagreement becomes a
legal issue how is that handled um within you know the operation of the building like if one party doesn't want to leave um and the other one wants wants them to leave or any incidents that may happen legally. Uh it sounds like it' be a homeowner sit
yeah it's a it's a homeowner situation. Okay. and and basically um the homeowner the the homeowners have a constitution and the way it happens is that the con the constitution of the unit right
is takes takes precedence. So there's there's mechanism in place if for example if somebody is um have a drug problems right but unfortunately that may happen and he
fell into that drug problem again then there's a one warning after there's a second warning right then we can help him go to rehabilitation center and we can develop a rehabilitation center in
in if there is none in uh Trenton but also um we can also bring new a new uh home order so there's different mechanism in place to that we have program that is program into that uh uh social equity housing model
okay and then um outside of the 48 condo units how what would roughly be the timeline if you could just highlight that for the public from closing date to the first day someone can go rent a hotel room. So it takes 24 months right to have um
this uh hotel finished completely condominium side to the hotel uh opening and uh the hotel side might and that's where we solicit your your your partnership here. uh we consider that we're going to enter into a a
partnership a public private partnership with the with the city of Trenton uh for especially to facilitate that accelerate the permits um also regarding you know tax incentives so that it can make it
more attractive to the to the investors as well um accelerate the liquor license for example. So because the 100 uh the so we when we plan and we saw the the the Trenton hotel there's two area there's
two uh entries. Yeah. So the one closer to the war memorial that's the one we're going to keep as a boutique hotel. The one on the left side uh that's where we're going to put the condominiums. So that's how we envision it. Uh that makes more sense is the direct entrance to the
ballroom. uh side entrance and VIP entrance uh to the war memorial because we intend also to um promote and develop you know events as well in in in collaboration with the current
management of the war memorial. Uh so that's um that's our vision. Um, I hope you like it and uh um that's basically what we want to do in this uh hotel. And um our developer Joy uh Charles with his
extensive background in in development in the state of New Jersey even in the in in the country like Ghana where he's building you know infrastructure roads. Um we chose him specifically because of
his extensive background of development you know high jobs development. This is a a city that needs to be redeveloped re-imagine towards the future towards to bring that into uh the 21st century using the
technology of today using high high employment jobs construction as well. Yeah. And I just have two more questions. uh one uh you list uh the five luxury suites, the presidential suite, grand executive suite, sterling suite, ambassador suite, and reguite. So those
would be rented on a nightly basis. And how much would they cost to rent for a room? If you have a rough rough idea at all, uh to rent. Um, so
you want to answer this? You want to speak about this? Yeah. Thank you for um leaving to everyone. Yeah. Well, with regard to the cost for
um the the the daily cost for executive suites, I the we expect that to be going at at market rate. I you know it's um one of the things that I love about what Vanessa and um Gina is
doing is that they plan to bring in the bring in the the market, right? So it's not just exclusive to the local residents and um I really see this as as really being um something that will
really really amplify what Trenton is all about. So you know so it's it's so when we look at cost aspect with regard to the daily rates etc. of course the market will prevail in that in that aspect but certainly what Gina and and
Vanessa are doing they'll bring in that market that the clientele as well but as of like today you wouldn't be able to give us a guesstimate of what that would cost if I wanted to rent a room like that tonight. I think the market rates I would you know
understood. Thank you. Um, and my last question as I wasn't familiar with this term, but when I was uh going through the project financing on page eight, it mentioned the pre-qualified TE AE B5 immigrant investment project. Right.
So, um I did see that that requires a cost to qualify for the program like half a million dollars if you're in an urban area I guess or an area doesn't have to be urban. It can be rural that has high unemployment and deteriorating economic conditions or versus $1
million. But what are the benefits outside? Do you get financing from the federal government or any any other benefits like what does that offer? It's low cost capital. Okay. low cost capital that's in the best interest of the Trenton of the
Trenton area as well. Um it's you know the market rate right now is two to two and a half points you know two to two and a half%. Yes. Okay. Um also the benefit is uh to use this capital as well for uh the city of
Trenton the downtown area redevelopment. Uh we can include that in the project as well. Is there a cap on how much you can borrow um for that program? No, there's there's I mean for each immigrant they can um actually put in um
8 800,000 you know that's a requirement but so so specifically with regard to the cap each development is about 40% you can use for EV5 financing. Okay, that's what I was Thank you because that was what I was wondering. If you're
having to pay out half a million or a million, you know, are you gonna Yeah, it's very It's a federally, you know, ran program. So, it has specific guidelines that has to be followed in a year or two. Okay. And that's from the federal government. Yeah. Okay. That would that be the Department
of Commerce? I'm sorry. What what federal uh department is that come through the uh Department of Homeland Security? and immigration, pardon me, Department of Homeland Security and immigration. Yeah, I was just curious if it comes to the Department of Commerce or how that
or because state wouldn't do that, but state would process visa application. So, the the state usually is the Department of Immigration Services. Oh, immigration. Okay. All right. Thank you. I just wasn't familiar with it, so you educated me. It goes through uh regional centers. EB5
region. Yeah. EB5 regional centers. So they actually uh filter those projects um and that uh help them to get approval and help them as well uh to collect the capital more easily. Yes.
All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you ma'am. Yeah. I just wanted to add to this. Um you know uh with my background of having lived in Dubai uh my personal good friend has these EB5 centers uh located
in London um Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and one other country and Qatar. Correct. So we do have the the connect to and the financial backing to make this happen.
Yeah. Councilwoman Frisbee. Thank you madam vice president. So I just have two quick questions. The first one is what is the latest property property that you have developed and is it anywhere in the area in the state of New Jersey? So our actually our development team
architect um they have like 100 years of experience. That's what they do. That's why we chose them specifically uh because of the experience they have in New Jersey. uh the developer uh with Joseph Charles the Steve ran here
actually devel he he built uh some of the properties there the state of capital redevelop the state of state capital talk about that and then also the Trenton uh the Trenton airport uh we
intend also to bring our um one of my uh client on the management consulting side we have this uh um amazing partner on the aviation aviation sector brings 80 I mean needs 80,000 people right now pilots so you
can bring that as well in the city an aviation school so that's what we propose right now um but the development team we have the architect of the boutique hotel uh as we mentioned here doing marot renaissance
you know uh with 30 years of experience You mentioned the Trenton airport. I didn't hear that. What did you say about the Trenton airport? Um, actually, Steve, renovation job. My the microphone, please. That was a renovation job that my firm did. Mercer County Airport. They did in
2014. I did the renovation to that airport. Thank you. We also just finished Amendam Township uh municipal building. Uh we ongoing with another project the Clinton Police
Department also we finish another uh 32 affordable housing units in uh Union City. Thank you. And my uh final question is are there any projects or hindrance that you see are there any
hindrance to the project being that you foresee being um that would keep you from completing it within the 20? You said 24 months um from to completion that you would foresee with this um security.
So um security the hindrance of that in the downtown actually I was looking a place u around here to have a a coffee a cup of coffee with the team as everything was actually closed at 3 p.m. I'm like,
this is, you know, we need to extend that time. We need to allow business owners to feel confident that they can open their stores later than that, right? And that's that's uh um our our
focus and today um we have a Kamar Foster and also our developer um that would I would have been talking about that unfortunately we didn't we didn't have the time. But for example, Jose uh runs a um a nonprofit for to
rehabilitate um individuals coming out of a prison um sector. So this is something where we bring experience um also building the community experience as well bringing community
commissions, veterans commissions. Uh there's a big uh veterans community here in the Trenton. We want to include them into the into the um into this uh project as well and into the re revitalization of the downtown area and
the city as a whole. Um also um the prevailing wage. So we found out and when we had the Steve coming into the the into the Trenton Hotel, we found out that uh you know the
federal grant you know we have to put preventing wage that's 35% cost uh on top of what we need to plan uh on the construction budget while we uh and so union union labor right there's a whole town to develop
right we would like to lessen that that burden and actually apply it to the whole town. That's that's basically what we were we will be looking for and with our attorney uh who is actually uh knows this project very well. He used to be a
former attorney on that same hotel uh transa sale transaction in the during the COVID area. So the what we need to really to do is have enter having an
agreement with you um and also see what can be agreed upon you know to best um facilitate this project. Thank you. And also restore investor confidence. Thank you. Thank you madam vice
president. Questions. Councilwoman Friggero Hamburg. Thank you, Madam Vice President. I don't have any questions. I just have a statement. Um I'm just I'm excited that you're bringing some eclectic
um thoughts um and ideas, you know, to your platform. Um, and one of the things I'm really pleased about is that you have surveyed the area and you realize the need to um, bring business, bring
uh, tourism, bring, you know, attraction to the city. Um, there's no point in having a hotel, you know, as you know, as our history. Um, when we can't, um, revamp our downtown area, when we can't attract people to the city, attract people to the hotel, but also to our
downtown area. and it needs to be kind of tandem in conjunction with the businesses, with the people, um, with the hotel. So, I just appreciate you just touching on that aspect, um, and realizing that that is that is real and
and making any hotel of this capacity um, making it flourish, making um, it be a success that that is that is very very real and um, something that we definitely need for the city. So, I just applaud that effort. Um, so thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Um, CDP, can I jump in real quick? Sure. Okay. Because I have to log off soon, but I just want to say thank you to both presenters for being here this evening. Um, and this last group, I want to just say, um, I do appreciate uh I want to
share those same sentiments of Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg. I do appreciate all of the different ideas that you all are trying to bring to the city of Trenton. It was it was different from what we've heard in the past. Um so thank you for that.
Thank you so much councilw woman and uh I would like to thank you as well for your consideration and your time. Um I would like uh to mention the fact that we have also partner in the west coast area. We can bring Latin comedy festival, the Latin Kings of comedy. Uh
just to make people laugh in this city a little bit. Uh there's a New Jersey cure arena um that I passed by um I mean actually today and I was like this is so much potential. We can bring a lot of people here. We can bring tourism. So
yes, thank you so much for your time and thank you for your consideration. Right before you go, I do have my own questions. Yes, I'm sorry. Um no worries. No worries. Um, so I mean echoing the sentiments of my colleagues, it's a wonderful presentation and it is
definitely a breath of fresh air to hear new uh different out of the box ideas than what we're used to seeing um being presented in the city of Trenton. I I you know and this does not uh my opinion here does not go towards any other
presentations that we heard but any other development projects that we have in the city is is certainly you know in comparison this is this is really great. So um uh my questions I guess I'll begin on
you answered sort of similar uh something about the Olympic size pool. I had concerns about whether it could fit on the property in addition to a kids-siz pool and what have you. Um, but you did kind of address like near the back of
the property. But my only concern I wanted to express that when you had mentioned the cigar lounge that wasn't inside, that was outside in that courtyard area. So, would there still be green space left available if you were to put that size of a pool?
Right. So, we're actually we're we're we're actually still considering where we're actually going to place the cigar lounge. We haven't decided because the the problematic situation is the smoke. That would be, you know, uh that would be an issue. But we are right now we we
still have to double check. We we took three tours of the hotel, but we never really um went up to the last floor to see the the size of the actual rooftop on the last floor. So, we would like to still take a look at that because potentially we could but we could extend
that into like a rooftop on the on the on the seventh floor cigar lounge or we could uh place it outside close to the swimming pool somewhere. So, we are still looking at the at the options. Okay. But it's definitely something that we
would love to um put together. Great. The the courtyard is pretty sizable. I believe will fit this one both of them at the same time about additional uh for cigar or something I don't think so we
don't have really surveys or actual dimensions of the the park that is present but looks pretty good size to fit both okay as as someone that uh went to NGIT and I can clearly tell you for architecture
you can certainly work that in different variables when it comes to ventilation I mean there's We can definitely work it in there to make sure that it works for both both sides. Okay. Awesome. Um there was another question I wanted to
ask in terms of uh similar to what Councilwoman Williams was asking. You know, like I said, this is something out of the ordinary of what we're normally presented with with redevelopment projects. We don't really see luxury too much um offered here in the city of
Trenton. Um though I do appreciate, you know, because we are the capital. Uh my concern is outpricing the local market. So if you're talking about and I see the suites and things and that's separate from your your regular average rooms and I do hear you say market rate, but for
people that don't maybe we don't travel as much and don't go to hotels as much. Can you kind of tell us as if you are assuming we don't travel as much how much it would be on average per night for a regular room? So we considered
that because the hotel um especially we reduce the rooms to 100. Um we price it around $125 average daily rate. Uh but again there's always downtime. we can always you know have a discount uh
because because we want to keep the hotel always packed. So for that we we need to see okay which days are you know because it's a daily rate which ones are actually going to be um discounted which
rooms. So it's all it's a very it's the hotel operator manager that's going to really that's that's his role. uh we want to support this as a redeveloper as well but as the um backup to with events making sure that is there's always
something going on in the in the city right um like in New York City like uh in Philadelphia so always something's going on so that's that's our plan that's our project and we want to develop that city depending on a
dynamism um dynamic and dynamism. So, and push innovation, attract young people um because this is a time to to take there's opportunities,
immense opportunities and uh we want to make sure that you know 20207 we open and we are all there celebrating with early celebrities. Right. Right. I appreciate it. I think that is um pretty average. I did see
that on page eight. Um, but for the public, they can't read what we're reading. So, um, another question I had is about your social housing plan. I saw that is $600,000 per unit with two bedroomedroom on suite in each of them averaging about
300,000 per bedroom. Right. Right. um with studying the market here and I do hear you saying you're bringing a market with you which you know I can appreciate and understand but if that doesn't work out do you have a contingency to pivot
away from that plan into something more sustainable or achievable? Yes. I mean we can lower the price um we can uh more appreciate the the market as well. We want to have tranonians into this hotel. We wanted them to benefit
from uh from this and they can have also um subsidies from banks. For example, Bank of America used to do some uh programs as well. So this is the first pilot project and uh yes we do have
actually a contingency reserves of uh I think around $10 million and so for us to accommodate if there is any problems you know so to speak but uh we actually um I I spoke this morning unfortunately we didn't have the bank comfort letter
for the mortgages but we do have a bank and they will provide this tomorrow uh because of their compliance But otherwise, we do have uh the financing behind it. It's a 30-year mortgage. Um and we can we can facilitate that as well.
Awesome. Thank you. You're welcome. Um that was all of my questions. Does anyone have any final thoughts? Okay. Thank you so much for your presentation. I appreciate your time.
All right. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Edwards. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. U Mr. Garia, it looks like that brings us to public comment. Yes, it does. Madam Vice President, if I could have the public com the public comment clipboard, please.
And to the public, public comment will be five minutes for each individual. You may address any matter that you wish. The council is not obligated to respond. And the lone individual I have listed for public comment is
Mr. Fernandez, Gy Fernandez, Mr. Garcia, I believe that we had someone in the room that didn't understand public comment sign up. Yeah, I think they need understood. And before we begin, do you mind explaining the rules, please?
Oh, certainly. So, public comment will be 5 minutes for each individual. You may address any matter that you wish. The c the council is not obligated to respond to you. And if you'll state your name and address for the record, please.
Raisy Fernandez, 37 East Street. That's my business. I am here because I need help understanding how can we open the gate that is on East Street. I finally are
able to open my business and it's a store and it's a business incubator and we have um a trade school as well uh for free. We're working right now with ISOs and
other partners to bring after school programming and all that stuff, but parking is a very is big issue. And I believe that if we are able to we volunteer like all our my staff um the
whole entire Eastay business collaborative, we're willing to take turns and clean and open and close that gate. In that way there's access to that parking garage. If anybody can guide us of how
we can accomplish that, we we will even do security if if that makes better and no cost to the city because we all understand from Donin Donas to down the gyro place that we need to have access
to parking and that way our customers can come especially now that the weather is going to be, you know, crappy again. So, thank you. Thank you. Uh will will not will despises.
Did I get that correct? Desp. Okay. Please state your name and address for the record. My name is Will Despine. My usual name for public people go Willie. Mommy Joe.
And is there an address associated with My address is at 1036 Street, Trenton, New Jersey, 08611. Thank you. You can begin. Okay.
I'm very happy today to meet the council. I honor very much for all the time I had the opportunity to come here but I had no chance to do I'm always busy working but today is a
God bless America God bless me this is Mr. Van Mrs. Vanessa Mr. Steve, this is Jinder architect. When I meet these people,
I Lord save me. My God today. I'm glad they here. I'm glad I'm here. Reason I have a little chill. I my suit jacket in my car. But I was walking. I
don't know over here because little chill for me. But what I most important I live here I work here all my life in Trenton. My former friends of me Douglas Palmer.
There is a building next co street right there. He tried to help me get this. After that the former mayor a brown former mayor he hold the building to his friends I
lost it I'm still struggle I still there until Mr. Steve, the one working the housing, he's sending around to help me. I'm not too lucky at this time. I still
read it. One day God would send your angel to help me. Mommy resto is a 1036 hour street. We doing food in town.
All his strategy, all good time, bad time was there. When I meet Miss Vanessa, he's a financial advisor. He has his father is coming to help me. I explain the situation, my struggle.
He said, "Hold on, hold on, hold on there. Y will until today the ladies gentlemen I meet you guys I'm very happy and I just stop peace
here the plane they sent to you is a real I can wait when I saw that I had closed he was in front of me I was there but I am not looking to know the way how to
[Music] When I see the project, I say my God, heavenly father, one day when somebody in trouble, you will send somebody to help them. That's the reason I'm here.
I don't have too much to say but the case in your hand plan could be the project we have will be is a real thing real life we want to make the
Trenton ways again Trenton stand up all the story the Trenton he put on yes I know I went to Washington I went to New York feel I'm a travel person
but one day as it trend will be raised again most people will be coming to make activities back to life. Thank you very much. Thank you and have a good evening.
Thank you. Madam President, those are all the individuals I have listed for public comment at this time. If it's your wish, you can start with any individual. Uh, Madam Vice President, I apologize. You can start with any individual you wish for civic uh civic comment.
Councilwoman Williams. Thank you, ma'am. Uh, I'll just say I'm really pleased that we've been able to have uh so many presentations and so many diverse presentations. I think that says a lot about our city that we are attractive to different kinds of
entrepreneurs and investors. and I'm very excited about whatever direction we go forward. I think this is a great sign. Thank you. Now, have a great weekend everybody. Council Harrison, just would like to thank uh both uh proposals tonight for giving us more of
uh a vision of what they see the great city of Trenton could be. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman Frisbee. Thank you, Madam Vice President. So, thank you everyone for coming out this evening. I want to thank um both developers for coming out and uh
presenting an excellence. We greatly appreciate you seeing the value in what we see here in our community and restoring pride um to the community or increasing pride I should say cuz we there are several of us that have pride in our community. We just need to increase it. Uh but we appreciate you
coming out and seeing what we see and we appreciate you allowing us to see your vision um as well. So thank you for that. I want to thank our uh department heads for all being out here as always. We greatly appreciate seeing each and every one of you for being out here this
evening. And I uh just want to close with uh a portion of our city's uh mission statement which is to recognizing that the people of Trenton have made it guardian of the public trust. We are committed to govern with integrity integrity and fiscal
responsibility. We seek to excel we seek excellence in the city's operations and to serve all the city's people with respect and compassion. Everyone get home uh safely this evening and thank you again. Um and in closing I would like to say
thank you all for your time. Um thank you for you know choosing to invest in Trenton. Um we have a lot to deliberate on. We've heard some amazing proposals from you all and from previous presenters that came before council. So,
we got a hard hard decision to make. Um, but it's a it's a good decision to make. And um I just hope that you know um we will rebuild Trenton one brick at a time, one hotel at a time, one building at a time, one person at a time. So, I
want to thank my colleagues for, you know, um agreeing to this special meeting. I know it's summer time and you know we want to go home and be with our families and travel. So you know it's definitely um you know not lost upon us for you guys to dedicate more time to
meeting more often than we usually do. So um thank you all everyone else that attended. Oh, she's not on the call anymore. That's um and um and thank you all for attending. Thank you for uh you know
taking the time and we will make this decision and hopefully we will hear back from you soon. Have a good night. A motion to adjourn. I'm sorry. Is is there a second? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Sorry, ma'am.
Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Uh Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilman Harrison. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.