2025 is now called to order. Please stand and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the 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 law 1975 chapter 231. This agenda is complete to the extent known. It was sent to the Trenton times and trrenonian newspapers posted on the first floor bolden board
in 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. Councilwoman Feliciano, Council Figuro Henbury,
Councilwoman Frisbee, Councilman Harrison, Councilwoman Williams, Council President Gonzalez. Myself, Brandon Garcia, Municipal Clerk, present. Mr. Edward Colloji, Legislative Council,
present. And in for West Bridges is Mr. Palmer Richardson. Thank you. And Madame President, if you like at this time, I'll read the invocation. 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. And Madam President, it's my understanding that we have a
presentation this evening. Um, this is if you want to introduce that, go right ahead. [Music] Uh no. Yes, we we there are other people and we will offer the same opportunity to other
interested parties. Uh we have three other individuals. So yes, we uh administration has received um a proposal presented by Tetra Build Development Corporation.
They have presented to um administration and we thought that it was feasible to bring before the full body. Um and so this evening they are here to to do their presentation. Brandon, are you
[Music] council president? [Music] Are you able to mute the TV [Music] so that we don't hear the the backup from the
Yes. No, no, not really. So this is the first um some people have expressed interest but this is the first uh entity that has
actually produced a uh documentation and that we have been able to follow up with their interest. However, we are planning with the authorization of council president to bring every single
interested party body to the body. at the same but this is a risk that every developer will take. I figure that everybody will present uh something that is really uh unique to them and so it would
probably be up to them if they are willing to let their plans be you know known by other free developers. Um, I think that at this time it would be basically to present what their
objectives are and they probably can correct me if I give the wrong information, but I think that because we are willing to move this process, not necessarily with this redeveloper, right? But we would like for the council
to be aware of what uh are the proposals that we are receiving and what are their asks as well. So I don't want to come back later and uh surprise the council with uh a decision. Remember that you
are the redevelopment entity and that you should be aware of the applications and the interest that we are receiving. Right. Go ahead. Are you go ahead finish? So that's I was going to ask. This is true. However, I was going to
ask was what was the deadline for the um There is really not a deadline. We um put an RFP out and we are trying to we will pick or council will pick what I hope is the best for the city. But you
need to to be aware of what those proposals are. At the beginning, we requested this meeting as an executive session precisely not to give out right too much details about this proposal.
But legal didn't think that that was appropriate because there is no litigation. It's not a personnel issue. It's not a settlement or anything like that. But they thought that it needed to be a public meeting. Madam President, otherwise we would have to present it to
just the subcommittee. But we thought that given the fact that we want to move and I know that that is the desire of the council to move ahead with the process of uh purchasing and selling the hotel and seeing a vibrant uh hopefully
a vibrant hotel in downtown that it was the time was of the essence to do these presentations before council. Thank you. Um, BA Richardson. Um, I think Councilwoman Frisbee wanted to have a question. So, BA Richardson, how long
ago do we put the um, RFP out? Oh, goodness. That was about 3 4 months ago. And this is the And we have some uh, individuals have expressed interest. They have visited the facility. Um, but
we haven't received a formal interest like this group that is here today. We received one additional um proposal and we are in the due diligence process with this group. We actually ask for additional information,
a lot of additional information and we are in the process of doing the same with the other group that sent us a proposal. So with that then I my um response council president is I respectfully request that we go ahead
with hearing them. I think out of respect for their time and what they put together, how they prepared to be here, uh I would not want to waste their time, I think it would be um advantageous for us to just go ahead and hear what they have just out of respect for the
preparation. No, I definitely agree with that. Thank you. Um I was just going to suggest too. Yes, I agree. I fault that me too. Me too. So this is the only
group that had submitted. Correct. Yeah. No, I I definitely agree too. I thought there were other people that submitted. Councilwoman Williams. Thank you, Council President. I just want to make sure for uh public dissemination. Um this developer uh was able to obtain an exclusivity on the project. That is
correct. exclusivity as far as a certain number of months to review everything and so forth or is that not the case? No, we are not giving exclusivity to anybody. Actually, the council will have to pick the the redeveloper, not administration,
right? So, everybody can submit a proposal. The proposal period is not closed. So, we are still receiving proposals. obviously is to our best interest to move ahead with this pro with this project as soon as possible
given that we found the correct free developer. So this is just to keep you informed uh and for you to make a decision when it is appropriate for you to make a decision. So my other question would because there there's uh conjecture out there in the
public that there was exclusivity or some uh developers who would be considered develop serious developers weren't able to obtain access to seeing the property. Is that the case? Yes or no? No. Uh we are still if any
redeveloper ask uh to see the property, we are open to show them the property. Okay. Thank you very I just wanted to make sure because um we want to make from the administration standpoint our standpoint that the process has been clean and clear. Thank you ma'am. Thank
you council president. No no problem. So just really quickly um because you just said we're still receiving proposals. So we are still receiving there are other proposals that a we received one additional proposal and we are in the
process our attorneys are in the process of asking for additional information. We we want uh to ask the same information to everybody. So the same process that we followed with the individuals here tonight of asking them the objectives
for their redevelopment project um their experience what projects they have been completed what projects they are working on. We are doing the same thing with the second uh interested in the party and we
will do the same with any other that comes to the table. Right. Um, thank you, BA Rich. My only my only concern was that I just wanted to like if we had like if we're going to set a deadline, right? So, this is me thinking fairness if we're going to set like August 1st is
the deadline and all of those submissions would be heard all at one time just so that we're not going to keep having special meetings or you know different meetings for for just the hotel. No. Um in this case we wanted to bring this before you and because the
next meeting is going to be um on July 1st right but we could not we wanted to do it uh faster than that right than July 1st to accommodate any other potential
uh interested redevelopers in the future. But it is up to council really until one you want to continue to see proposals. We we will bring them to the table to the subcommittee um on a timely manner and you will
decide when you have when you would like to have it on the docket or when you would like to have the presentation. Okay. Councilwoman Frisbee. So thank you Madam President. That actually was part of um my question is about a uh a cut
off date which I think that we should have 3 to four months is a long period of time to have put out a RFP if we have at least one more um interested party and they're in the works um and have expressed interest and have submitted paperwork um for the sake of getting
things in motion and not keep putting us um as a city on the back burner um and waiting for everybody else and doing it on air time. Um I request that we submit we give a deadline so that we are not waiting till August till September. We
give we could do that if so if you if the council president would like to do so I can discuss that with the subcommittee with uh in our next meeting so that we can determine a deadline for the proposals if that is okay with you. If not this is something that we can
decide today you can tell me. So just just for me because I'm just from my understanding I thought we did have an a deadline like prior to this before not to my knowledge I don't think that we do have a deadline because of the nature of this project. We really need somebody
that has the experience the money and that is going to present us with a a good proposal. So we were not we knew that this was not going to be an easy process. So, we didn't we didn't put I don't think that we put a deadline, but I can check.
Um, Council President Williams, I'd just like to propose, ma'am, uh, that we set a deadline of either September 15th or, uh, our first or second council meeting in the month of September. So, uh, this summer could be utilized for, uh, taking
any additional applications if there are any. And if they're not, that's an appreciable amount of time for people to developers to have visited the property, submitted what they want to submit for an RFP. And if there are no others, that's fine. If there are some, then that's more, you know, more to consider.
But I think that would be setting a deadline and giving people an appropriate amount of time to do what they should be doing for their diligence. Thank you, Councilwoman. I agree. We should set a deadline. Um, I would suggest like August before
September. so we can get it rolling. Um so August 30th he say I didn't suggest August is we only have one meeting in case we need to take action right but that's I mean the deadline will be August so we wouldn't it was actually um um attorney Julie Mary just um taught me
that it was a rolling deadline if you if we if you like the proposal that you hear today we don't need to wait for anybody else if you don't like it and you you know we present the second proposal and you like that one, you
know, you can go for that one. It's it's up to you entirely. And so you can set the deadline for whenever you want as long as we have the right redeveloper and uh and we just go for it, but that is your that is up to the council. Yeah,
I would like to set a deadline, but two, I do I still want to hear them their proposal tonight because like we said, out of respect for their time, we definitely want them to come in and, you know, present if they're willing to still present. So, it's August 30th, a date that is feasible for everybody in
the council. I'm okay with that. Yes. And so, why why are we waiting till August instead of like July 31st? Uh, I don't think I don't think we need to wait until August. I think I'm okay with a I just want a deadline. I think
we need a deadline. July, if we're going to do this, I think July 31st is okay. Then that way we could be geared up for when we meet August to to do, you know what I mean? And then you can even have them present if you'd like at the council meeting, right? So, we don't even have to have a special meeting.
Just have them queued up and ready to go. Okay. July cuz they've had a ample time um to prepare if people were going to prepare something for us and I don't want to you know what I mean like we we hear things we may like what we hear now we're extending things out again right
no I I I'm okay with July were you going to say something yes I'd like to I'm sorry you go ahead I didn't see it thank you so I again I I'm in agreement with councilwoman Feliciano I don't think that we should prolong this um again if it's three to four months that this has
been out, why are we waiting for others to give us their terms? So, um, if we put put this out there, take us seriously. Well, to be honest with you, I'm sorry, council woman, you know, it has been open for this long because we haven't received a serious proposal
until now. So, the idea is to find a serious redeveloper to take this project to the end, not just to put the proposal out. So until we actually get to that point, we should have the proposal out. Seems like now we have two serious
proposals that the council will give consideration to. So it is up to you. If you want to close it, we can close it tomorrow. That that's where I'm going with this. My I'm my again 3 to four months is a long time that we've had this open. We're just getting the second
proposal now. I think we should just cut it. I think that if we have two that we feel are that viable um candidates that we should go with that go with those two and hear what they have to say and then move from there. I don't think that we should keep prolonging it and giving
others the opportunity to pro to actually prolong it even more because that's what it's going to do is keep pushing us back and pushing us back. So we have one we have another one that you said that you you're reviewing and will be submitting to us. I think three to
four months is long enough. That's my two and a half cents on that. Thank you, C. So, I hear that you want to close it by July 31st. Passing July 31st, I'm allowed Council Williams to Thank you. Um I don't
While in spirit, I I don't necessarily disagree that we need to cut this off in July 31st. The reason I suggested that we do go through the month of August is tonight we're at a special meeting for a special presentation and for us to make
a deliberate decision on this which there's been an appreciable amount of time since we had a press conference in freezing cold weather uh in front of the hotel. Right. This is a decision that, you know, started back in the 2000s for a $54 million hotel that was bonded upon
which we still open with $2 whatever million dollars uh that has to be retired. I would just like to suggest being that today's July 24th. Taking an extra 30 days or so ain't going to hurt anybody. June Thank you. June 20. I want to go Gosh. Oh my gosh. Summer would be
almost over. Uh June 24th. that taking an extra month that's not going to hurt anybody, but it gives us a chance to be very deliberate um with this decision, but also making sure once it's decision is done, it's a solid decision, it's a
final decision, and no one shout should complain that uh they didn't get a shot at the apple. But that's just my opinion, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Uh Councilman Harrison and then council vice president. Yeah. My question is the second proposal. What's
the timeline for that? Um I don't know. They sent um they sent information. We requested additional information. Uh we are waiting. We are our attorneys um are asking the questions and we are
waiting for a response from the redeveloper. But we don't I don't have that information. We don't have that information. No. I would air on the caution of August actually because until we have this worked out with the second proposal I
always think was better off in life to have more options. Right now we have well you know with with this process you can actually listen to this presentation tonight and decide that this is the right developer for you. Correct. Right. And then that's it. You go with this and
and we move ahead. You might decide that you don't like it and you want to see the second proposal. It's up to you. There is nothing that would limit you except that you know we are trying to to have a vibrant hotel in downtown and
that we are we want to move ahead with that. remembering that next year is the 250th anniversary of the nation and that we should have something in downtown to accommodate the guests that we are expecting to have. Right? So, if this is
the redeveloper, then it's up to the council to decide, yes, we go ahead with this one. If not, we go to the next and if not, we hope that we get three 10 more good proposals. Um, but this is just a process that we need to go through. Thank you. Uh, council vice
president. Thank you. Um, I just want to say that um I do appreciate all the conversation and dialogue. Um, there wasn't a deadline to um, BA Richardson's point because of the difficulty in the whole
entire process. It was difficult to set a deadline. Um, this has been going on for a long time. Um, yes, the RFP had went out a few months ago, but people have been actively trying to buy the hotel for years. So, those that are interested have definitely stepped up to
the plate. And for those that presented a proposal or a letter of intent, I think it's fair to say, let's hear them out tonight. Let's get through this. We are not voting on this tonight. We're just hearing them out and then we can make a collective decision later down the line on whether we want to provide
more time to allow the second offer to submit a full proposal. And if not, then you know, you snooze, you lose. Don't want to say it like that, but we have to move forward. This hotel has been vacant for a very long time. And the longer it sits there, the worse it's going to get
for all of us. So, for the sake of time, because we've been talking about this for 20 minutes, let's hear the proposal, make a decision later, and set a deadline because I do agree with the deadline for July 31st, and then that gives time. If they need to, if there is
another proposal, so let's just respect everybody's time. We're here. Let's move forward. No. So, council president BA Richardson. Yes. Um and and just for clarity, what you are going to listen today is a
concept, right? They are not going to be presenting you with the design or any of that matter, but just with the concept and the objectives of their proposal, what they are trying to do, right? And so
that's that's just for just for clarity for the council. No, thank you. So yeah, I agree with us listening to them and then we can set a deadline um after. But if you want to introduce them, you're more than welcome. Oh, council. Yes, I am just actually going to call them to just real quick to the podium. Just real
quick, I just wanted to say um with given the time that has been in the matter of going back and forth um with ownership and everything that the city is looking to accomplish, I do think that time is of the essence and we do
need to hear to listen, you know, decide exactly how we want to go. If it works out, it works out right to everyone's point. If it doesn't work out, then we move to the next. But the deadline of the 7:31 I think is fair. Especially if
you all have your questions and stuff in queue already for the second person that's interested. Just step it up and tell them they need to turn in what they need to turn in. We have a deadline and we're moving in that order. If they're serious, they're going to have it and if they're not, then they
won't. I agree. Thank you. Um, so we can move forward with the presentation be. Thank you. Hood. Um, Mr. AJ, if you could please come up and your the principles um he is in the I think
Hey everybody, how are y'all? Good evening. Do I need to state my name for the record? Yes, please. Okay. My name uh my full name is Adrien Jack Belt III. I go by AJ, nice and simple. Uh live in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our office is in Greenville, South Carolina. Um my
colleague, where did he go? Oh, right there is Chris Chesboro. Um we'll talk about um his role in the company. And um everything that I was going to talk about tonight has kind of gone out the window. Um, we have every intent to come
into Trenton to improve this gym, what we view as a gym for you community. This is what we do. We're hospitality based. Um, and I'd like to just go through I listen to everybody on the council and thank you for your time today. um listen
to the objections and just want you to know that when we were first made aware of this opportunity, I think it was back in April or so. U we got a whole team uh on site and that's
um construction team actually u director of construction plus we have a partner who's a national GC. So, he was on site. Um, two of the principles have a re a rich and deep history in the hospitality space. I'm just a real estate developer
and I've been in a lot of different asset classes and I got involved in hospitality actually back in 2016 with a historical building. And as I walk into this room, by the way, this is gorgeous. Uh, we love historical buildings and and
this room is truly spectacular. Um, uh, I'd like to share with you with where we're at at this point. Um, again, we came in April, I believe. We submitted a letter of intent on I think May 20th. Um, there's a lot to do at the
hotel. First of all, the exterior is in great shape. Uh, the bones of it are very, very good. Inside, if you've been through there, it's it's a mess. Um, and it needs a lot of work. There's been a lot of theft uh in there, i.e. switch gear. Uh there's there's a lot of
expensive things that we need to replace at that hotel, but we're we're we've job costed it. We're ready to go. Um a little bit about my my company, Tetrail. Um there are four primary
principles. Um and then one minor principle. Um I'm the managing member of Tetrabilt development company. And again, my background is real estate development and capital markets. I used to run a publicly traded company. Um the
Chris is on the operations side. He's actually second generation. Um his father worked at Marriott for his entire career. And Chris uh although his father told him never to do hospitality, he didn't listen to him. And uh he's been in the hospitality space his entire career. And I'll let him talk about the
operations side. Um Phil Hugh is one of the principles involved in Tetrabil. Phil has forgotten uh has forgotten uh everything I know about hospitality. He is an expert in the field. He's been doing it since he was 17 years old. So, he's we've got a
rich and deep um history in hospitality and experience and contacts. Um and from the standpoint of what we need to do with Trenton, we've done it before. And by the way, I'm I'm going to touch on a few points that people said. There was no exclusivity. this was an open playing
field and we don't mind competition at all. As a matter of fact, every deal we ever do is competitive and so we'll put up our wares to anybody. So, just wanted to set the record straight on that. And and I think that we responded in very
quick fashion to not only get a letter of intent in, but that letter of intent was based upon job costing for the improvement of this hotel. And just to let you know, the cost estimate is about $25 million. And that's broken down into hard cost
for all of the interior work that needs to be done. Um FFN furniture, fixtures and equipment, which is a major expense. Um soft cost for non- financing, design fees, soft costs like legal and etc engineering. And then of course
financing fees. Um, and we feel very comfortable with that number and we're and we felt comfortable enough to go forward with the LOI based upon our initial job costing. We did have a set of plans that we can go to. Basically, it's it's touch and feel when you go
through these buildings. We've been we've done it enough to know what it's going to cost. So, um, from that standpoint, we um really have to pick on configuration. This hotel is similar to a lot of the ones that we've renovated.
Um, right now it's 197 keys transient rooms. It's too many transient rooms. What we want to do is uh reduce the number of transient rooms and and and provide extended stay rooms for those for those state officials or visitors that want a week stay, a month stay, a
six-mon stay. Let's tap into that demand driver and provide extended stay suites in this hotel. So, we're going to reduce the key count from 197 to 170. Um, I can't remember the exact makeup of the transient versus the extended state, but
I think it's 36 36 uh upscale extended state suites and the balance transient. The um the event space when I walked through it was much more grandiose than I I picked up on the plans. Um, I view
that as an incredible opportunity for programming and from what I understand the event programming here in Trenton is limited at least in capacity. Um, that event space can accommodate 600 700 people. So, um, it really opens up, uh,
opportunities for a lot more events and, um, and I want to talk a little bit about another company that I created as an answer to the food and beverage component within a hotel, if I may. Um, I developed a hotel in Alpharetta,
Georgia. It's called the Hamilton Curio. Um, we finished it in December of 2021. Um it is we we put 119 keys, 16,000 square feet of retail, um an amenity
deck and a parking deck on 75 acres of land. New build. This was in collaboration with city of Alpharetta which just north of Atlanta and this was the finishing touch to their vision of city center. So, we did that and when we created the
amenity deck, because of the pitch of the land, we had 9,000 square feet of effectively, uh, basement space. Like, what do you do with that? And so, um, we threw around a bunch of ideas,
um, spa, some other uses, and I called a friend of mine up that I'd done a lot of business with, and I said, I've got this crazy idea. I'd like for you to creativity and come up with a concept, something that's attractive to the hotel as an amenity, but also attractive to
the community. So, if you go on the website, you'll see the Hamilton Curio. You'll go on that and then I'd like for you to look under the website Koso Ventures, COO Ventures, which is competitive social ventures. And the
origin of that was this 9,000 square feet of space in the basement of a hotel. Again, no windows, stairs going down, accessible from the lobby, elevator. We came up I I told my buddy Neil Freeman, I said, "I I'm thinking about a speak easy. What are your
thoughts?" 9,000 ft. It's a big speak easy. So, he um he creatively came up with an idea and created Roaring Social, which um twothirds of it is a speak easy concept. very heavy uh musicdriven food and beverage, mostly beverage, but um
that typical kind of lounge that you feel in a in a speak easy setting. On the backside, through some creative separation buffers, um we created duckpin bowling because duckpin bowling back in the 20s was very popular. you don't have. So, and then we created a
Babe Ruth room and we have the rights to Babe Ruth's name because of we contacted the family members and their uh a part owner in that particular venue. So, put it together uh came up with this concept
of the roaring 20s and um with the faux door and whatnot. And we thought as developers of a hotel that um you know if we can do 2 million of topline revenue in this place then that's a win.
The first year we did 3.6 million of topline revenue. It was incredible. We thought maybe uh it's going to be trendy and maybe people won't come back. Well the second year uh we did 4.1 million in that venue and the last year we did 4.3
or 4.4 4 million. So what we discovered was not only was it an incredible amenity for the hotel, um it was great for the community and it was really attractive and repetitive repetitive business. The reason I bring that up is that
we developed another retail center down the road and we created another concept with um golf simulators much like Topgolf but inside. So we were adapting that particular use to that particular development that we created. So we as developers were very creative. We came
up with businesses that we thought would be appealing to the community. And then we have a pickle pickle ball concept. I don't see that happening here with what we've got, but you know, we're creative. Um but we have those three concepts. And and what we're doing now is um we're
taking down large I would I would say quasi ops elite hotels at this point. Big boxes 300 keys um big event space, big FNB. And what we're doing is we're tying the CSV team which is specializes
in experiential food and beverage. And we want to do the same that to to Trenton as we're doing with a bunch of other hotels that we're acquiring. So, if we're fortunate enough to be awarded this this contract, the CSV team will come in here, the whole team, and
they'll they're going to study the fabric of Tren the the history, you know, what do Trentonians like? Do they like music? Do they like sports? What what is their feature? And then create the concept to match for the community. That's what we're doing. And that's
different from anybody that that I know in the hospitality space. And it was really uh the creation from that one hotel that we did in Alpharetta. And we think we've got something pretty special here. Uh and that's what we plan on doing. So um before I hand it over to
Chris and he can talk about the operations side. Um very important fact. I'm capital markets. The capital markets have been extraordinarily difficult to finance hotels in the last two to three years. Very very difficult. Um I'm happy
to say through some relationships that we've created and and we're we have a fund um that is actually acquiring six assets for us that close on July 15th um for $75 million. And we're going to
create those concepts that I talked about. And um they also have provide a comfort letter for financing which I believe is being passed around. So we are we are fully funded. We are ready to go. We've got a contractor team that
basically said as soon as this is this is closed um you're going to see dumpsters out there and you're going to see um back hose in there and we're going to start demoing and get it down to to the skin and then rebuilding it inside. So, um, I heard from
the mayor and I heard from several other people here in Trenton that this anniversary, it's a big anniversary, 250 years. Um, I'm a history buff, so I know there was a lot of stuff going on here in Trenton back in the Revolutionary War, but um, we want to get this this
hotel open um, in time for that. Our development timeline is around 12 months. So, you know, you can work your way backwards, but if we want to get open and operating by Q3, Q4 of 26, we're
going to have to get moving on it. Um, it's it's a it's a big lift, but we're very very comfortable with it. Um, I do want to uh introduce Chris to the group. Um, and when I developed that hotel in 2016 in
Winston Salem, North Carolina, which is a hotel indigo, that's the historical building, we put a third party manager into that hotel. And I learned that was a big mistake. Um, I realized that the um incentive behind a a hotel manager not is not necessarily the same
incentive as a as an owner. And with an owner, we have shareholders. So, we're we're answer we have to answer to shareholders. And so, we got ultimately got rid of those third party operators. And I met Chris on a deal. We renovated a deal in Tallahass, Florida. I met him.
He brought the owner for um this asset. I got to know uh about his company uh operating company, and I said, "Chris, um I'd like to talk to you about buying into your company." and we transacted and now officially Millennium Management
is part is a subsidiary if you will of Tetrabuilt Development Company. So we do have all disciplines covered but I can't stress enough the importance that you can have the best location in the world and you can do the grandest job and get the right brand and and and all
this but if you have a bad operator you're going to fail just flat out because I thought it was just another real estate deal. I didn't realize a hotel was a business and it's very it's critically important you have the right operator and when it's organic when it's
internal we have a great deal of confidence. So Chris on that note I'd like to just if you wouldn't mind sharing your history uh like I said you've got the expertise in operations so I'll give you the floor and I'll stay up here if you have any other uh no pressure from that by the way. Um thank
you. It's an honor and a privilege to be here with you. Uh, thank you for taking time out of your schedule to meet with us and spend time with us. As AJ said, I'm a second generation hotelier. I grew up in this business. Uh, my first fora in the hospitality industry was during a hurricane in New Orleans. I was 5 years old, walking around making sure
everybody at the tables that were in the bank room, everybody sheltering in was making sure they were okay. Always told my father I'd never get in this business. 35 some odd years later, I'm aging myself. Um, here I am. Um, started out in the industry, like I said, as a 5-year-old. worked my way through, built
a lot of companies for a lot of people. Um, and then finally said, you know what, I've had enough. Um, and started Millennium Hospitality Management Group. It was my myself and my wife. My wife is also in the business. She now has the harder job of taking care of our twins and the house and everything else. Um,
but we started with two hotels. Uh, and we've grown from there. If you look at our website, it's built it. It says our tagline is old school hospitality with a modern flare. We've forgotten where we've come from in the hospitality world. We've forgotten what we've all about. You I see this beautiful hotel that you have and I
understand the history of it and what went wrong. And that's because they didn't understand what they were doing. They didn't understand what they had in front of them. It's all about hospitality. AJ says about um you know large hotel companies, third party management companies. They have thousands of hotels. Oh my god, they're going to know what they're going to do.
Every single one of my hotels is a hotel that I've pulled from another from a large management company and have turned them around completely and put them in a position where they are award-winning hotels, top of their brand, etc., etc. Um, you know, from from the hospitality
standpoint in this property, you know, you you guys have a gem here. Has to be done right. It has to be incorporated as a part of the community, as part of the Trentonian community. You have a lot of people that come here Where are they staying? They're staying outside, right? You have a lot of
tranonians. Where do they want to stay? They're going to stay outside because there's nothing here, right? So, what do we need to do? We need to bring them here. We need to bring everybody here and bring it as part of the community and being a part of everything that goes on. AJ and I have, you know, we've done
a lot together in a short period of time. I've probably developed, renovated, and constructed, new, built, construct, I don't know, I lost track about 20 hotels. Um, I've gone through in my career. I've had hotels from Canada all the way down to Florida and
every brand there is uh we've we've worked with um and so you know um we're we're privileged and honored to be here and to be a part of you. I could go on and on about hospitality um because it's a passion for me and it's a passion for our company. Um but uh that's kind of
who we are and thanks Chris and I um I'd really love to listen to y'all question if you have any questions. Yes. Thank you so much. And I will say one thing that I didn't mention um as far as flagging it or branding it,
you know, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, uh there's a whole host of of of brands that we've considered. Um we want to make sure it's the best one for Trenton. um we have connectivity with all of them. So that's not an issue. Um the
good news is AOP is area of protection. There's not an AOP issue here because of the lack of supply. Um so um I'm more than happy again, this is my first council meeting in Tren, so I don't know how I'm doing, but uh if you have any
questions, more than happy to stay up here or sit down, however youall want. You can stay there. Thank you so much first of all for one choosing Trenton um to bring a set submit your proposal for us. Um but I want to open it up. I know my colleagues have some questions. Um I
saw Counciloman Figuro with Kenberg Councilwoman Frisbee. Then we'll move on. Thanks. Uh thank you so much um for coming here for presenting for seeing a vision um for our city. as you know that hotel has
been sitting it's been through its ups and downs and um you know it's in dire need of rehabilitation and uh renovation etc. Um my question is like what what can you tell me about the Trenton market
and like what do you propose to um what what will this hotel bring in your vision to bring people to the city of Trenton to want to visit this hotel to want to stay in this hotel um and and how will it cater to the people who are already here? Great question. Um number
one there is scarcity here. So um it's to provide something a nice quality experience for the customer. Um there are some self-evident economic drivers here already. It is the state capital.
Um what I've what I I'll um I'll tout Chris again that when you take over hotel you're normally dealing with a lot of competition. So you have to go out with a dos, a director of sales, and a whole sales
team and revenue management to go after all the businesses proactively. So I think that they're going to be a natural course of, you know, events just because there's been this pent-up demand and and and we're going to provide a very
attractive facility to attract the those events and that programming. Um, but he's going to fill in the gaps. 365 days a year. If you're full 180 and you're don't have any occupancy, the rest you're in trouble. So, you got to fill
those rooms and you got to fill it with programming. That's the key. The other part back to that competitive social ventures is CSV to be able to come up with not just another, you've all been there, another hotel restaurant which is
boring and you know, not a whole lot of selection. We want to create an experience and that's what we're going to do with competitive social ventures and I think I I know that we're going to bring people here um just because of the attraction of the FnB side of it and um
I I think with the size of the hotel and the different nooks and crannies in that hotel I think we can create several concepts in the hotel and I think that it'll it'll bring people back. Thank you. And you know, as opposed to other U metropolitan cities um who do have
thriving downtown and inter enter entertainment districts, we don't have that at this point. Um so anybody coming into the city to redevelop that hotel would have to have interpersonal relationships with some of our businesses um so that you know we can
build up our downtown um because it has to be inter you know intertwined in order for it to work. Do you have any ideas on how you could plan to do that? that you have any experience with that particular capacity because you're coming into a rather desolate yes
downtown area and we want to you know bring the bustle. We want to absolutely collaborate with the business owners in this town because the business owners the more people that are involved in the process the more successful this hotel will be on its own but also for the
community. So, the f of the first things that we will do is we're going to meet with community leaders and talk to them about how can we what are you missing? How can how can we help fill those gaps? Um, perfect example, Winston Salem, North Carolina. I don't know if you've
been there. Um, Winston Salem, North Carolina. Um, that was that hotel, the historical hotel 2016 and and it was it was a fairly dead downtown. Um there was a
fair amount of crime. Um but they had some great economic drivers. They had Wake Forest University that's not right next to it, but it's a driver. But they have uh medical research and instrumentation that was built on the east side of Winston Salem, and it's really just tapping into that. And over
time, the community has has built up. And those concerns that were very severe 7 to 10 years ago, they're they're pretty much gone. Um, and we're actually enhancing the Hotel Indigo. We're actually creating some more extended
stay with some land that we own around it. So, we're we're all in. We invest in the long term. But, uh, you're right. Um, uh, it is it is we we've got to get involved with the community, the leaders in the community, and get guidance from
them, and and we're pretty good at that. Thank you so much. Um, should you be awarded this contract, you'd definitely have your work cut out for you. So, best luck. Well, you should see some of these other deals we do. This is you've you've
you've you've got a gem here. You really do. Wow. And it's just you got to get the right players involved and just in, you know, bring the community in. This is a community deal. Thank you, Councilman Frisbee. Thank you, Council
President. So, I want to thank you and Chris for coming and um presenting on this evening and uh acknowledging that there is an urgency here in our community. This is something that has been long long overdue and we really do want to get this done especially for our
250th. Um one of the things you kind of um touched on, but my one of the questions I had here was the timeline. If we say you were awarded this a contact, let's say on July 31st, how soon would we see
um our the trucks out there and everyone whatever. How long does that process take? Um one of the things that we talked to the mayor about was to expedite the demolition permit. So that's the first thing that we do. Um and we can mobilize once we know when
the closing date is, we can get our our group ready to go. So, I don't want to be dramatic and say the next day, but I'm I would say within a week, you're going to see dumpsters and you're going to see work going on because we can get ahead of it. We can pull a demolition permit early before closing and get our
our our team in there and doing what they need to do. There's a there's a there's a ton of cleanup. Um, but it's not it's not as when if you if you haven't done this before, uh, it can be daunting when you walk in
there, but it's not a big lift. Uh, but the bottom line is, uh, is we can get going very, very quickly once we're awarded and we'll get working on the plans. The good news is we're staying within the envelope. When I and what I mean by that, we're not clearly not
exchanging the exterior, but we're staying within the envelope of the layout. It's a good layout. We can work with that. And the only renovations that we're going to be doing to the rooms is taking some of the transient rooms and combining them and creating extended stay suites. So, it's not it's not very
difficult. We've got there's some serious electrical, mechanical, and plumbing to a certain extent, but MEP is the major crux of the issue. and we already have our arms around it and uh we we are ready to go. So development
timeline if we were to start say mid August our development timeline is about 12 months give or take. Excellent. Thank you. So you just um brought into the next question. you said um one I I love the fact that you realize that we should
not have all transient um spaces that the extended stay that is something that is very necessary here in our community for a variety of reasons but um one of my other questions um how would you feel about making sure that the labor stays
here within the city that we are dealing with our labor our unions actually here u but especially minority businesses in the community that we are utilizing them and they're not just the jobs that sweep up for a day or two, but there are those are the ones that for the life of the
job. Every hotel that we do, we go to the community for the employment base. I'm sorry, I can barely hear if you would push your mic up. Sorry. There you go. Thank you. Every community that we go into, we go to the immediate community for our employment base. Chris, I'm
going to defer to you because he's the one that's got to hire everybody. And I'd like to for you to talk a little bit about some of the policies that we've implemented in Tetrabuilt via Millennium. And on the construction side, we are we also want to maintain
that diversity and inclusion on the construction side. Um but you got to be careful about which trades we got to make sure that they're they're capable of doing the work of this type of scale. But I can tell you that that's our intent. Chris, if you don't mind, that's pretty much the answer there is
diversity is is key. Um, we have a diversity diverse organization. We continue to build upon that diversity. We work within the communities. A lot of our team members are from the community, um, including leaders at the properties. We work together with everybody to make sure because, listen, in order for this
hotel to succeed and pull in business, like we talked about earlier, making it a destination, it's got to be a Trentonian destination. It's got to be made up of everybody that's here. That's what this is all about. This is all about you guys. So, how do we take that and incorporate it into the hotel and
create that community environment within the hotel? You talk about trying to bring events in and things like that. I mean, we we would do uh grand opening events. We do all sorts of different things. Our reach, and I'm just going to kind of go in a different direction if you don't mind for two seconds. Our
reach out is not 30 miles, 50 miles, 60 miles. It is hundreds and hundreds of miles. It's different countries. There's international travel that comes through here. You're not getting it. We put something out here that's going to have long-term stays, upscale suites, nice
restaurant, open spaces, beautiful courtyards, great guest rooms, and great service at the end of the day. That's all delivered by you guys here in the community. It's going to bring that travel here. It's going to pull from New York City. It's going to pull from Philadelphia. It's going to pull from
everywhere because people want to be here, but there's nothing here today. So, let's build it. Let's get it set up. Let's set a grand opening for for next year for 250 year celebration and let's take that thing to the next step. So that I kind of bounced around a little bit on you um with that. I hope I
answered it right. You absolutely did Chris. So thank you for that. I appreciate that. And we want we want the employees to be proud of. I'm sorry to hear that. We want if we have a GM or a dos or a maid service or you pick a bartender, if they're from the
community, we want them to want to be in that facility and to have some pride, some pride of, you know, of of of service. And so we want this hotel to be um, you know, the focus of of employment
and and that is local. Absolutely. I forgot to mention one other thing, too. kind of already started to work with the community a little bit. We we've been talking with John. Come to the mic, please. Um I've been we've been talking with um John Arm with the Harmon. Oh, Harmon.
John Harmon. Excellent. Already having dialogue with him to try to understand the community, understand how we can all fit together. So, we've kind of already taken that step a little bit because we want to be prepared for us to be able to move forward. Awesome. Thank you very much. Um, so that answers that and you
the other one of ones I wanted to ask you was there anything that you had recently done and I see the Hamilton and Alpharetta that you said you that was completed in 2021. Um, so that's something for us to uh look into and from what I've seen it it looks lovely.
But I also like that you are um diversifying it that there will be it's not just a hotel. It's not just a place to stay. realizing that we need something more. We need a place for our entertainment here, a banquet hall, um so on and so forth. A place for when folks want to have a wedding, we want
them to be stay here in our city or come to our city and have that place to stay. We want them to come and have a place so they can act not just go there, but they can also have fun as experience. And when they walk in the your first impression, you everybody knows you don't get to do it all over again. So
that first impression that they get when they come to our city, we want it to be something that they want to come back to over and over again. Uh I think that is um all that I have right now realizing that this is um revitalization of our
capital city and we thank you for being here, being present, and realizing the urgency that there is with um getting this done and not uh thinking that we need to wait over and over again. So, thank you so very much for being out here this evening. Thank Councilwoman
Williams. Thank you, ma'am. Uh, good to meet you, sir. Thank you for coming. And then Chris, also uh really appreciate that you are taking such an interest in our city and that you see the hotel for what it is and not what it was and that's really important. Um, so things I
just want to talk about, they do have some questions. So, um, when the hotel opened, um, back in the mid 2000s, it also was a community hub, particularly with events like First Fridays, uh, Artifacts G Artifacts rather, the, uh,
restaurant, the bar area. It was kind of a place to see, be seen, but also, you know, have conversations, be able to just, you know, let your hair down and meet Tranonians. And that's something that's been missing ever since. Uh the Starbucks, we had a Starbucks here for a
little while. I had a community room that community groups can meet at. Um that's gone by the wayside. It also was a place, you know, kind of a mid-range between we had a uh the War Memorial World, which is 1,800 seats. And unfortunately, the partnership between
the hotel and the war memorial was not something that was able to be actually put together. And that was back in the days when they had the late Ray Charles coming, BB King, Willie Nelson, who would sell out. All of them would sell out the place. Uh Harry Bellfonte, all of them would sell out the We want to
bring that back. I would love we would you'd make a lot of money if you didn't. Um so, you know, that to be said, uh the community needs this because people have family reunions, they have, you know, weddings, funerals. It serves so many
more purposes. was the Trenton Film Festival. It was a venue for the Trenton Film Festival every year. Uh arts events, you know, there's so many things it could be. So, I like that uh we were talking about is by have be having it have that diversifying. Yes. But one of the things with our hotel in being a
capital city and having visited other capital cities and we're a city that should be able to easily support a Marriott or a Hampton or both in different hotels, but we just don't have that size. Also, New Jersey being a smaller state, we don't have the need uh
for our legislators to come in, you know, do their day at the state legislature and not decide it's better to drive back to Kate May that night or Bergen County or Warren County rather than to stay here. But then the hotel was able to do things like uh when the
Trenton Thunder uh was still an affiliate, I think at that point the Red Sox even uh they booked rooms for all their players every single night. Uh then we also had things where uh we had famous people even stay there with James Carville, William Sapphire, other
musical artists that were playing at Princeton for some reason they ended up in Trenton and um we really need to make sure I think given some of those challenges uh because also at that time there weren't hotels in Hamilton. Euing
didn't have any hotels. Mhm. So the competitive environment, you'll know that much better than I would. But just being able to make sure we place hotel, our hotel and the sweet spot it needs to be. One of the things in a lot of discussions uh that have come up is even
lowering the number of rooms down to about 100. So I think you had said 170. So 170 is where we're at right now. I mean it's it's right now it's 197. Okay. So, you know, the there's a balance because
if you've got a large event and you want to capture everybody for two nights, you got to have enough rooms. So, we had a similar situation in Pittsburgh. We're still working on that deal, but it was a massive hotel and it is a huge
conference center and we again did the same philosophy of transient extended stay but we had to keep enough rooms because you have to attract the events because you have to have the the bed count or the the the key count to
accommodate those bigger events. So, it is a balance and I hear you. Um, to your point about all the things you you said about the music, I'm not trying to discourage you, by the way. No, I we would have not we
wouldn't be here if we were discouraged. So um I think if you look at for instance the music side, Roaring Social down in Alpharetta, Georgia is a music venue and it's amazing and it's different types of
music. So it's we're not stuck on jazz. We have jazz, we have karaoke night, we have all sorts of different types of music venues that attract different people and it keep on coming back. So we actually integrate integrate uh music in
our pickle ball. It's called the yard. It's also so it's a big we're trying to promote families coming there. Not just playing pickle ball. Come you know listen to music and you know have food and beverage and have a good time. Um one of the other things we did again Winston Salem. Winston Salem was a very
artsy community and what we did is we brought we had artists display their works in different areas of the hotel where they they you know they could sell it or at least display it but it gives you a fresh
supply of art that comes into the rooms and I think that that's something we need to look into. We got to be careful about the brand because the Marriotts, the Hiltons and so forth, if you do with a hard brand as opposed to a soft brand, soft brand gives you the flexibility to
kind of do what you want. Kind of melds into the fabric of the community. Hard brand is this is what's going to be in the lobby. This is what you got to do. And those are the sort of things that we do the calculus on like what's best. And
clearly Trenton um this this is get as much of the community involved in this hotel so that you're all proud of it and you can endorse it and promote it and so forth and so on. So again back to the experience that we were talking about earlier. Um I think we can create
something special here. I I know we can. It's not guesswork. I know we can. I have a few more questions. So to that um I like the idea of in your distinction between soft hotel versus hard hotel because having a cookie cutter you know
that could be a problem too with having your Hampton's your Marriotts your Holidays Expresses and so forth. Um, but also with a hotel like this, like I recently went down to Raleigh, North Carolina, the you know, state capital down in North Carolina. Yeah. And it's been very interesting to see what they
do because in some ways it's similar to Trenton um in a lot of aspects except for their the state's a much larger state, so there's more reason for government to stay in town. Yes. But then you have nearby um the Glenwood Avenue neighborhood, which is really
really happening. But it's also done a smart job with creating rooftop restaurants. Yes. Uh and bars, something we haven't heard. It actually does, as far as I know, you know, I don't think any other town has one. Um are you looking at also doing things like that? I I don't know if we can actually do the
rooftop. Um, there are logistical concerns about that because you have to bring elevators, uh, a couple of elevators to the roof and I can't even remember what the mechanical systems are up there. But I don't know if I I don't think that we can do it on
this hotel. However, you got a wonderful garden in the back. That garden is going to be our focal point. And and so that's the tack that we would take. Normally the rooftop all in. We're doing a brand new building in Greer, South Carolina. You're thinking, Greer, where's that?
That's it's a suburb of Greenville, but very similar to Alpharetta. They had a vision. It was a textile town, and they had a vision to create Greer Station, and it's a wonderful, wonderful community. They've come to us. This is a
city-driven thing, and we're doing a similar deal to the Hamilton. there in Greer and we will have a rooftop because we see the value in that but they're really expensive and so you have to kind of do the the cost analysis cost return analysis. Yeah. And and that's one thing
that's good that you said that because the creek was something that was never utilized as an asset by the previous hotel and beautiful creek and it's something that could help build the rest of the city around too. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um my final question uh would be uh you going to use union
labor. Was that a consideration? I and we've been guided on this. It's prevailing rate. We have to pay union level wages and we factored that into the cost that 25 million includes the prevailing rate in that number. Okay. Thank you. And I just want to point out
uh while you're here, we have uh the executive director, chairman, one of the board members of the downtown association. I met this gentleman earlier walking up and I already like him. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Council President.
Councilwoman Feliciana. Thank you, Council President. I'll be I'll be brief. Thank you. Um, first I want to thank my colleagues for the great questions and comments that you made. I just want to say thank you for coming forward. Thank you for presenting us um
with this this proposal and the opportunity. I did um while everyone else was talking, I took time to read through to see what it is that you said here. I like the fact about creating the opportunity for our residents. You are going to reach a a um understanding if
this works out with the Patriots Theater to see what can happen with that. I am a teacher leader at Trenton Central High School. So the part about working with the children and establishing a relationship that is key and paramount to me. I do like the fact when you said about working with well you're going to
pay union prevailing rates um wages um to not only employ Trenton residents when it is complete. I heard when you said about being specific right about the people that work on the project because we want it right. We want them skilled and licensed. So, I like the
ideas that the union um workers will be considered for um working on the project. That is important to me as well. Um and then just the whole um thought process that you put into it and saying that you will have the people come in to survey around the town to see
what it is that Trenton wants or would want to see. That is very important as well. So, you've touched on key areas for me um and brought forth a a wonderful vision. Um, and you put a lot of thought into it and I thank you for that because we are the Capitol City and
we deserve to have something that that reflects um the growth and the beauty, the history and the potential of the city. So, I'm excited um to see where all of this goes and I thank you again for your time. All I can say is amen to
that. Thank you, Council. Council Vice President, thank you. Um, good evening. I I just want to say thank you to you both for your interest in the hotel and in the city of Trenton. Um, I appreciate
from one history buff to another your understanding of of our value um and how that relates to this venue. So, um, that that right there was a plus for me as somebody that understands uh our our geographics here in the city. I do have
some concerns. Um, there are just brought to me by the public, right? So, I'm on your website and I don't see any projects under Terra Built yet, but you did reference a few
projects and I do see that this was formed in 2004 or founded in 2004. And I do appreciate the understanding that people It's actually It's actually 2024, I'm sorry, 2024. and and we would have had a lot more projects under
Tetrabuilt. What we did is um I had my development company, Chris has Millennium, Phil Hugh had his company, and Brenton Lindsay, which is the contractor, has his company, and Phil and Chris and I have been working together for now three, well, you've
been working with them longer than me, but we felt as though that how can we create a hospitality company that makes a difference? and you've got to have these different disciplines in it and it's really difficult to get the right fit and that's the personalities
and you know we're we're kind of cut from the same cord from a ethics standpoint and focus and so forth. Um, so Tetrabuild is a new company, but the if you've got that list of projects that
there that's a partial list of past, there should be an exhibit on one of the exhibit on one of the documents, but I think we can get that to you. But we've got extensive experience in it, but it's been under under different names, different development companies. Like
for instance, the Hamilton Curio. Um, I didn't know Chris at that point. Didn't know Phil. I did know Phil one I found out that Phil went to Roaring Social several times that the speak easy without him knowing me and he goes, "Golly, that's awesome." And so that
that's I hope that explains it. It's pulling together the key people to create a company that's going to make a difference in hospitality. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Um I just wanted that to be on the record. People look at your website and say 2024, well the credibility, they're just newbies. Yeah.
Yeah. I I think fortunately or unfortunately I think we have a hundred years of collective experience in real estate development and hospitality. So nice. Thank you. Um I and I also wanted to comment that I do appreciate you um explaining the differences between a
third party management company and being an operator. Um that's something that's very important especially for this hotel. Just in my experiences over the last uh what 20 almost 20? Yeah, about 20 years it has been third party management and they're the ones that
drop the ball on this when you're not vested into the property when it's not yours. You know, you don't don't really have that same passion um to for the day-to-day operations. So, I do appreciate you um making that clarification. So, that's definitely
something I love to see. Um I don't have any of the references here, but I'm sure the administration will forward it to us soon. Um, I wanted to talk about most of my colleagues, they they commented on or asked questions basically everything
that I wrote down which was like how do you um attract all these people here and how are you going to activate that area because downtown is so dead. Um, so I do appreciate the answers to that. Well, this I I think this is the catalyst to
bring life to the downtown. To be honest with you, I wholeheartedly agree that this time just start. You got to start somewhere, right? And the hotel with a good food and beverage experience uh and event space um we've
got the makings of something that we can create something very special for the community. Nice. And I don't want to be redundant, so I'll move on, but at any point or is it possible for there to be a pool on the property? That's like the
million-dollar question everybody asks about because it's traction as well. Anything's possible. Well, it's possible, but I I but we've got to look at that garden area. We really can't put it on the roof or we can't put
it on the top of the event center. Um and it would have to be integrated in in the garden area. But what does that does that take away from the experience of what because what we envision is events out there uh gatherings and um you know sometimes when you put a pool in it's
great but it's sometimes it's distracting if you've got a vision that you're trying to meet. Sometimes it it it uh it it counteracts that. But well certain all that's what we want to try to do
here is everybody's thoughts on it doesn't work and integrate that into certain look at Okay, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Have any more questions? Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman Harrison. Um, my question, first question was uh how many capital cities I mean how many capitals have you done like for in other states? Tallahassee, but but you can't compare that Tallahassee deal to being, you
know, downtown Tallahassee. And did we go after some deals in Tallahassee? Absolutely. But the the dynamics of some of those deals didn't make sense. Um it the bottom line, it's got to come down to um
downtown. You've got state capital and you got Florida State and then you've got um Banu and there's a lot of hotels down there and you've got to be able to reach that revar that ADR and occupancy to make it make sense. And when properties are too expensive or it's
going to take too much to acquire it and then create your concept, that's when we say it's a go no, you know, it's a go or no-go decision. Um so I'm trying to think Raleigh. I didn't do a hotel in Raleigh, but I did the Citrix building.
So, if you look at the Citrix, it's a fascinating building, but we capitalized that building and developed the Citrix deal in Raleigh. Um, I'm just going back uh to other capital cities, but it's nothing's coming to me. Um, well, because I'm asking because of
the history of this great city um with George Washington. Um, you this hotel could have a comedy club. Um, we could have the NCAA tournament for men and women. Um, we have an arena. Actually, does have a minor league hockey team, which I would love to see get back,
which would be awesome. We have art all night the end of this the end of this month. Um, so there's a lot of great things the city has. Um, and you connecting with the hotel, the hotel, with the arena, with the trend, um, with
the local community, with the history. We agree 100% with you. That's what we want to do, right? That's exactly what we want to do because then it could jumpst start more other developments. Boom boom boom boom boom. You can look at any
city that's that needs uh revival and it takes a few buildings or uh projects to serve as that catalyst. I mean, Greenville, South Carolina, have you ever been there? No. Okay. If you were there in the 80s, you would be like, "Why would I go to Greenville?" I again,
textile town. Terrible. They started doing um some renovation in in 1992 to the main street down there and they they tied into the the little river. I mean, it's not a river like this. It's a little tiny creek is what it is. But
they started there and they built and built. If you go there today, it is the poster child for for revitalization of a community. and I I'm a believer that we can be a part of that here
and we would love to be a part of that. Thank you, council president. Thank you. Thank you. So, thank you again for being present both of you and sharing this presentation with us. Um most of my colleagues did touch on some of the things um about my questions were pretty
much community input. How will you engage the community in the the planning process? Um, uh, most of the questions have been answered. So, just thank you so much. Um, but one other question. How many staff are we looking to have? I don't know if you answered that. Wow. What are the employees for like a size
of that hotel? This is during operation presumably. That's your question. You're probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 give or take, maybe a little bit more. It's going to be heavier when we have events on. You're going to have quite a few quite a few event folks
that'll be kind of part-time that will come in, but you'll have about a 30 to 40 full-time base in the hotel. Hotels are major employment. Yeah, just curious. Um and one other question I don't think I heard was um do you
foresee or are there any challenges that you may foresee if any in this area because I know you spoke about are you talking about like micro challenges or macro just the redevelopment project itself in in this area we don't see any I mean normally when we
go into um a project we're concerned about uh u the environmental stuff so if you go into an existing building that's been that's been dormant for many many years. You've got mold issues. You've got potential asbestous issues. You got
all sorts of issues that you're kind of a little unknown. When you go into a historical building, you don't know what's behind the walls. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy some of the things you find. Um there is nothing in this building that causes us concern. Uh from a macro
perspective, I kind of go back to the point. Um, you've got some great uh economic base here. We just need to create the catalyst for that revitalization. No, I agree. Ever since the the hotel closed down, you know, we saw a decline in the businesses
downtown. So, sure. Again, thank you so much for being present this evening. Is that it or That's it. That's it. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I I really look forward to spending a lot of time in Trenton. So, thank you again. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Certainly, Madam President, we reached a point of public comment for agenda items only. If I could have the clipboard for public comment for agenda items only. And to the public, public comment will be five minutes for each individual. Uh,
this public comment is for items that pertain to the docket or agenda. Is there another uh I'm sorry. Is there another clipboard there? Is there one for docket items? I'm sorry.
Agenda items? No. Possible. Cleveland ported up already. Uh, no. So, I see none. If that's the case, then we can Are there any members that are there anybody that wish to comment on public comment for docket
items only? Nope. Okay. Moving right along. Seeing none, Madam President, then we have um a resolution before you for new business. That's resolution 25-236. This is a resolution to award contract
to Espus Law Enforcement for training needs assessment, specialized training development, facilitation and delivery and evaluation for the Trenton Police Department for a period of two years from the date of award with the option to extend for three additional one-year
options. May we have a motion to approve 25-236? So second roll call. Wait, I'm sorry. Call sorry. Is there any discussion or Yeah, I just um we just wanted to if if possible possibly uh director Wilson if we could
just um speak to the contract as far as with the training um why did this come about? So was it because of the DOJ report or we are we addressing those? I just had like two questions. That's
not hopefully it will not be police questions, but um this um award the administration actually put this um uh competitive contract out as a
response to the DOJ report. Thank you. Anyone have any questions? Council President, Councilwoman Williams. Thank you, ma'am. So um really just want to say uh director and uh be
rich I'm glad that you brought this for us. I think this is really important particularly because people are asking and wondering what's going to happen in response to the DOJ report even yeah I know that there's been training changes and things that have been happening before the report was released. So for
members of the public that may, you know, not have had a chance to, you know, see this or will see it and know what it means in detail, can you just highlight maybe for a minute what the training will do for our officers and for our city, please? Well, this this um contractor basically will address uh
three different elements. One element would be to assess the need for training. obviously still keeping into consideration the DOJ report but these consultants will come and address work
with you know the police force um and uh address what are the needs for training because it's not necessarily what the DOJ report says we don't want to limit to that right then they will uh design
the training plan and there is a evaluation process to it as well. But this would only be successful if is if everybody at the police department, all the ranks of superior officers buy into this. So that
is a very important part of this uh contract. Okay. So it sounds like it's everyone on force whether they have bars on their shoulders or not. Yes. Correct. Right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council President. I just had um a question like how are the uh trainings
going to be scheduled like these are uh face toface trainings so in person yes person and then how will we and this I'm sorry just need to clarify that this doesn't replace the trainings that are
actually mandated yes this is just this is additional training and then I was going to ask um How I see it's for two years. So then we'll be able to get reports after two years. Like how are we going to measure? This is actually five years tra um uh
contract. It's just that it's this is for two years and we have three options to stand for a year and so it will depend on how the the police evolves right with the training. So it would be
uh basically a diagnostic process in two years. Then they will evaluate and we'll decide what other trainings are necessary if necessary, right? But we have the option to to keep this firm for five years. That that was like kind of
my question like how are we going to measure the success? How do we know if the trainings are working or not? Yes, there is an evaluation process as uh I mentioned earlier that it was trifold that it will be assessment, training and evaluation and that it's kind of a
cycle. Okay. And will we get a periodic like status report on on the outcome of the trainings that the as allowed by the law? Yes.
Um that was it for me. No one other questions. Thank you. Ba Richardson. Thanks. And uh police director. Oh, she left. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carried. Madam President, that brings us to the point of public comment.
And first individual for public comment is Austin Edwards. All right, perfect. So, good evening, uh, city council members. Uh my name is Austin Edwards and I'm proudly serving as board chair for the Trenton Downtown Association and
our mission is to protect the interest of the downtown stakeholders including our downtown businesses. As you all are, I'm sure aware uh there have been ongoing and growing uh violent incidents that are happening downtown. Uh
specifically, we see them during a lot of a lot of uh weekend and weekn night events. uh whether it be our first Fridays or second Fridays um uh which is not necessarily a bad thing that these events are happening but we're concerned
about the ongoing and growing issues uh videos that we've seen of crowds uh participating in fights. Uh we've had eyewitness accounts of uh individuals coming with knives. Uh people have seen guns in the crowd. Uh this is an ongoing
issue and as we've seen uh some of these issues happened uh specifically on the steps of Trenton City Hall. Right now it's easy to say that, you know, we can point a finger at this business or that business that they're the problem, right? They're the troublemakers. But
the reports that we're getting uh from to the TDA is that this isn't specifically happening due to any business negligence. In fact, a lot of businesses that are participating are doing uh all the things they need to do, including filling out all the proper
forms, paying required fees, and uh specifically requesting uh police presence at these events. Unfortunately, what we've seen is a breakdown of the police actually showing up to these events to enforce law, order, and safety
for everyone at the event. And it's uh very surprising that we're seeing this because um I mean this isn't a surprise, right? It's summertime. People want to go out. They want to have fun. We're very surprised that there doesn't seem to be
any plan whatsoever to help control these crowds, right? And we hear all the time that it's because the police are short staffed, but again, this is something foreseeable that we knew would happen every single summer. And yes, uh this doesn't just happen in Trenton.
This is also a statewide issue. You see at the shore especially, there's a plethora of youth that are going out and same thing, we're seeing a lot of violence there. But if anything, that leads itself to knowing that we need to have a plan. So, we're hoping that uh something will change before we do
suffer a horrible violent incident. We don't want a great program and great things happening in the city to turn to something violent ending up on the front page of the Trentonian or Channel 6 and damaging our reputation. Right. Tonight we've had uh uh the presentation from uh
hotels, right, that want to come downtown. We don't want the first thing, you know, when they're about to break ground to be, hey, there was another violent incident that happened that detracts them from being here. and we're already feeling the impact even before that. Uh we have multiple apartment
buildings that have opened up recently and the owners of these apartment buildings have specifically reached out to us at the downtown association and said as soon as we saw that video or as soon as my uh potential tenants saw that video of people fighting on Trenton City Hall steps and someone getting you know
violently harmed like uh grievously harmed they immediately canled any and all appointments which is lost revenue for these businesses lost attraction more people we could have downtown that aren't. So, we're hoping uh that uh
again this doesn't get to the point where it becomes something that's out of our control that creates more negative PR for the city. But we're hoping that the police, we're hoping that the administration, we're hoping that everyone that needs to be a part of making sure our downtown is safe
actually shows up and that occurs. Thank you very much. Thank you. Tom Rust. Uh, good evening. My name is Tom Rust and uh, I first want to thank you, council, for allowing me to speak this evening. Uh, it pains me to have to come
together tonight to address you in this matter. um because I am a lifelong Tranonian uh a huge enthusiast that always looks at things glass half full. However, you know, our board uh believes that there
we express a a serious concern regarding the ongoing lack of adequate security within a special improvement district. Our shared vision of a vibrant safe downtown is being compromised by persistent public safety challenges. An
analysis of the 2024 crime data provided by the Trenton Police Department reveals that a concentrated twob block area from East State Street to Hannover Street, from Broad Street to Stockton accounts for approximately 70% 75% of all
instances reported in downtown crime. This alarming concentration demands urgent targeted action. Recent incidents of crowdfighting and fatalities only intensify the re reality that a safe and health healthy living environment in
this area does not currently exist. In addition, our clean team spends a disproportionate amount of time in the area previously noted addressing hazardous and unsanitary conditions, regularly cleaning up human feces,
discarded needles, point and airportsized liquor bottles, and the remnants of irresponsible behavior, including scattered food, waste, and litter. These conditions not only pose serious public health risks, but also undermine
the welcoming atmosphere we've worked diligently to establish. Compounding this concern during First Friday events, the contracted police presence failed to materialize. While no incidents occurred, the lack of
security created an unsafe atmosphere, forcing event operators to close early out of an abundance of caution, thankfully detracting from what should be a positive and engaging community experience. Despite the ongoing efforts of
stakeholders to revitalize and reinvest in our downtown, meaningful economic growth and residential development will not occur at the pace our city desires unless safety and stability are firmly established. The district is not a field
of dreams. We cannot expect progress simply by envisioning it. Public safety must be the bedrock on which revitalization is built. There is truth in the adage that a single negative experience can erase the
value of a hundred positive ones. Firm believer in that it takes extraordinary effort to rebuild trust once it has been broken. We strongly urge the council to take immediate and decisive action to enhance its security in the SID.
This includes strategic collaboration, increased police presence, and substantial investment in public safety infrastructure. As we continue promoting uh downtown as a vibrant and inclusive destination through initiatives like
downtown fit uh which is a regular running group that meets on War and um Lafayette Street, downtown Zoom which is a once a once a month um uh an environment for the stakeholders of
the SID to have an ongoing dialogue. uh Patriots week which is coming up at the end of the year and the fourthcoming revolutionary mile is scheduled for October 16th of this year. And by the way, we got an endorsement two days ago from the governor to do a video to
announce and participation in that event. So we remain fully committed to work alongside council to hopefully build the kind of foundation that is necessary for future generation success. Thank you for
your time. Thank you so much, Leonitary. Yes. Good evening. My name is Lead Oniri. Um, thank you guys for having me. I'm here to reiterate some of the statements that were made previously. Uh, I'm the vice chair of the TDA, uh,
downtown business owner. I'm a local DJ and most importantly I'm now a resident of the downtown specifically at 216 East State Street and I have a two-year-old. Um very thankful to see that there are plans to bring the hotel back to life.
Um you know with the networking that I have I have a studio on Warren Street. I did expect that I would be able to utilize the studio as a hub for major record labels and so bringing that hotel and improving security in the area. Very important for that business model to move forward. Um but I'd like to appeal
to the police and the administration today again that we use the law to our advantage as opposed to as a crutch in order to curb loitering um explicit excuse and um other issues that we have. Okay.
Uh we can rebuild the hotel with golden floors, golden beds and everything, but nobody's going to come if we continue to have a security and safety issue. So all of this is good and well 25, it could be a billion dollars. No one is going to
come if there are bullets still flying downtown. Uh I just want to make sure that we circle back to that portion of safety and convenience. if they're looking to do the work in a year, we have to do our job to increase the amount of safety and convenience that's happening to support
things like this. Um, you know, so I really want to appeal again to the lease and the administration to take this very very seriously. It's not on any single business owner. It's not on any single individual or any single member of council or this community. It's about us
coming together and creating a vision of safety and security that will help to improve this city on all boundaries and borders. That is number one. And if we don't take that very seriously, this project will never happen. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam President. Those are all the individuals I have listed for public comment at this time. If it's your choice or the board's choice, you may move to civic comment. You didn't sign the clipboard. Come on up here, Reverend. Oh, okay.
Come on up here, Reverend Taylor. It's a clipboard for you to sign. No, I'm sorry about that. It's okay. John R. Taylor, uh, resident of Trenton, 111 Perry Street, pastor, also president of
the Capital City Community Coalition and other businesses, uh, partnerships. Um, I wasn't going to say anything, but I have to say something because I don't want you to think I'm one of the partners that they were talking about
with the hotel. We didn't have an opportunity to get our whole team in until this morning, but I'll talk about that later. I want to thank you for being proactive
with trying to make sure safety is paramount in this city. And I like what the last young man said. I'm a fan of Austin because he used to be one of my members at my first church. Um
Edwards, let's just say um it's a community effort, not just law enforcement, but a community effort. We push a lot of community policing. That's our idea for the community to take control over their community, but at the
same time, we need law enforcement to do what they need to do. So, I'm glad to see although this is a result of the report that came out um from the federal government, but we also have to be fair because four or five of those things
that was recommended, the sitting director was already doing the former director, she told us that the entire department need to be retrained.
So, I'm glad to see um that you're making an effort to do that. Uh just like the young man, people don't think about church as a business, but 111 Perry Street been there 70 years. Actually been there longer. It used to
be Trinity Methodist Church before they moved and sold it to Friendship. The makeup of the community has changed. the challenge uh to stay here and we will stay here uh is a challenge when
you have to come to church six o'clock in the morning and we have an influx and not just our residents but other residents uh since they have shut down Kensington and Philly we have an influx
of some of people that have challenging lives cuz when you're dealing with opioids and drugs and various things, that's a challenging life and we have to do everything we can to help uh those
people. Um so with the community, with community policing, with the street teams and all of us working together, we can turn this city around with the hotel. uh our figure came out
to about the same. So I don't have no argument with that 25 million because our people that walked through this morning told us the same thing. It's going to take about 25 million to turn that around or less depending on what
you go about. But we going to come back and talk to you about that. But at first I wasn't going to say nothing. But I'm not going to sit and met with the mayor several times and other people and leave the impression that we were dragging our
feet because sometime they made it difficult to get in that hotel just to view it. And I'm not saying that's the mayor. You all know we had issues with the owner
um of that business. And I guess you know those that know me knowing I'm doing my best to talk here tonight in a dignified way. All right. So let us do what we need to do
collectively to move this city forward. If if we want to continue to draw young families to this, this is what this is what's going to save us. The people that are here, the seniors that pay tax that have
went through everything and stayed with this city. And now we have young families that want to come and developers that want to come. It's very important that all of us collectively
do the job together. So, let's get busy and do that. And I say that I never thought with preaching and pastoring pastor three churches in this city. I'm on my third one.
That I never thought that I would have to have nor can in the church in case somebody OD It's a different ministry now. We're fine. All right. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you. I just want to say that to you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. God bless you, ma'am. Thank you, Reverend Taylor. Um, civic comment ready for Councilwoman Williams.
Thank you very much, Council President. Uh so I just want to say it's very profound what pastor Taylor talked about and uh very true. We have a lot of challenges and um only we can save us and I think that's
that's a a great point and we need to do it together. Uh so just I think tonight was actually for a special meeting. This was a really fruitful and great informative meeting in a lot of different ways. And also want to thank uh Tom Russ executive director of Trenton Downtown Association, Austin
Edwards the chairman and Leonitary for uh being on the board and vice chair to come tonight and speak about these issues. Uh these issues have been percolating and being a problem for a very long time. It just didn't happen last weekend. It's just not one video on Facebook. I've had complaints from
constituents uh who live on that street. Yes, there actually are people living on that street in that that particular block who have been suffering underneath this. And then we have new apartment buildings which are going to be attractive to people. We want to see those filled. They're going to help us
build this economy, rebuild this economy in downtown and the greater city. So, we're not dependent on the state of New Jersey. We're not dependent on state workers coming back, which may be a mirage that never comes reality.
So, with that all being said, I just want to um thank everyone for tonight's meeting. I was glad to see this presentation, glad to see the greater discussion about what happens with this hotel. Um, also want to extend uh my condolences to the Trenton Police
Department, Police Director Wilson um for uh Officer uh Timothy Long's passing uh tragic. Um he was a very very good um good officer. He's a good man. you can see the pride that he had in our city, the pride he had in our police
department, and certainly the pride he had in serving us uh in the honor guard and every other way and also additionally the United States Marine Corps. Um that said, I just have one quick announcement. Uh tomorrow could actually uh on criminal uh police issues
and community issues, we have our Northward Citiz Police Advisory Council meeting at 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Galilee Baptist Church, 440 Martin Luther King Boulevard. Please come and attend. It's always a great discussion. you get one-on-one time, but also we get to
further build the bonds of connection within the north ward and the other parts of the city because other folks from uh other wards tend to show up once in a while and we really want to have this robust discussion. We need it going forward. So, thank you again. Uh
everybody be safe and uh stay cool in this heatwave and God bless. Councilman Harrison, I would like to give my condolences to to uh Officer Long. Um what a wonderful human being.
Everybody who knew him always said wonderful things about him. He touched everybody um by being just a genuinely good-hearted human being. It's sad to see, you know, if his passing um but if you all want to learn something, we could have learned it from him. What a
wonderful human being. um tonight. Thank you for this uh great proposal tonight. Uh thank you for the community coming out and speaking about their concerns. Um also remind everybody the end of this month the 28th and 29th is art all night. Please come out and support it at
the war memorial building. Um and if you can go on there and volunteer. So um thank you so much. Have a blessed evening. Councilwoman Frisbee. Thank you Madam President. So again, I want to just reiterate um we mourn with
the men and women in blue um over the loss of the life of officer Long, 25 years on the force in our community. He was an honorable man, a good man, and we um this is an absolute tragedy for our city. So our hearts are with you and we
are mourning with you. Um to Mr. Austin Edwards, um Tom and to um Leon, um you got your voices are heard. We're residents as well as electeds and we want our city to
prosper. Uh what we witnessed um what was what transferred transpired over this past weekend um should never have happened. um whether it was on the steps of city hall or anywhere else in our community. Our community deserves better. We have been moving in such a
great direction and that does take a step back. We want folks to want to see how we're well we're doing and opt is it it it says a lot. It does a lot. Uh I am disheartened to hear that there were potential business that was coming in hand that they turned around because of
this um act of violence. Um we do have to work out figure out that and and let me be very clear um from the moment that we saw that video though we have been trying throughout the years to get things um tightened. I have been
working, I know personally with other co um council members and driving I know my city clerk absolutely crazy because I've been emailing calling emailing calling and we have been very proactive in this um situation trying to see what we can
do to make sure that this is rectified to see when it does not um repeat itself. So please know that we are not sitting idle. We are absolutely um moving but we have to do things um strategically and we have to do them in decency and in order but we are
absolutely this is an urgent manner for all of us up here um and the families the residents that are there they I mean it the businesses we don't we want to see you drive. We do not want this to be a thorn that makes your business decline and we want our residents to want to
freely come out as well. Uh so we're not pointing fingers but we are um taking this very seriously. Pastor Taylor, thank you for always coming out and um just being your authentic self and talking about what is going on in the business. Thank you for the clarification. Um because I don't want
folk I don't want to feel like people are taking us for granted and that they're dragging their feet on that. So, thank you for that. Um I I think it was horrific that people so many people were standing around um this weekend and taking videos and instead of taking care
of um and just being one taking on it just eggs people on I think when people see that and it just does not help the situation. I just wanted to say that one last thing. Um, my West Ward community conversations will be this, not this, but on July 8th at 5:30 for those who
are in the West Ward or who otherw come otherwise 600 artist Street and the corner of Hermitage uh we will be there um having variety of discussions. So we invite you to come out. Um again wanted to thank those who
came out this evening for the uh hotel um your inquiry inquiry. We appreciate that and we are uh excited about getting this project started and hearing who else is interested. A portion of our m our city's mission statement is recognizing that the people of Trenton
has made has made have made us guardians of the public trust. We are committed to govern with integrity and fiscal responsibility to seek excellence in the city's operations and to serve all the city's people with respect and compassion. I wish you all well. Um
please be vigilant. It is hot. Be safe. Be cool as you are moving about. Check on your loved one. Check on our elderly. Check on your pets. Um all of them, our young people. Make sure that they are hydrated and that they are safe. Thank you for being out here and get home
safely. Thank you, Councilwoman. Council Vice President Edwards. Thank you, Madam President. Um, good evening everyone. Um, first and foremost, I want to give my condolences on the passing of Officer uh, Timothy Long. He he was such a great
person. I met him about three years ago in in one of the most funniest ways. Um and ever since then we have had nothing but excellent conversations about the well-being of the city about um things that we wish we were better like uh the
ninth grade academy being on Perry Street and how dangerous it was for the kids to cross the street there. And that's how I met him because I crossed the street without him not knowing that he was helping the students pass. I was picking up my daughter from school and
he was trying to wrangle up a huge crowd of kids and his back was to me so he didn't see me. So when the streets were clear I crossed and when he turned around across the kids I was almost across the street and I'm must have gave him a heart attack cuz he was like what are you doing? You were supposed to wait
for me and I'm and being confused. I'm like you know I didn't know I had to be crossed. He was like, "You could have gotten hit and then how am I going to explain that to your parents?" And I'm like, "I am a parent." He thought I was a child. He
thought I was one of the high schoolers. Um, and so it was the funniest thing. And I was running for office at the time. So we talked about, you know, um, just bringing the attention to the board of education about it, trying to get crossing guards, the shortages of crossing guards, you name it. He was in
tune with the issues of the city. Um, and he really cared. And that was my experiences with him throughout the years. And it was just every time we saw each other, we giggled because that very first time we met was so hilarious. Um
so it it was very very um shocking to me to hear of his passing so unexpectedly. So my condolences are with his family, with the police department, and the entire city of Tren because we we definitely lost a good one. Um, I want to say thank you to all of those who
came out about uh the hotel. It was great to hear of the plans. Um, I would love to um entertain the conversation even further and to hear from the other proposals that are coming down the pike. Um, I know that
this process was very difficult with the owner. um that was definitely foreseen given all of the past experiences that former um that other people had with trying to buy the properties um before the city even got involved. So um we
definitely sympathize that this was a long drawn out process and unnecessary in so many ways. Um so I know that you guys are trying to do things in a timely manner but um there was some things in the way. So, uh, like you heard most of
the comments up here today by the our colleagues of whether we're going to set a deadline or not. We're definitely keeping in mind that there were some, um, circumstances that were outside of your control that hindered the timely submission of the proposal. So hopefully
we'll be able to hear that from you soon. And Pastor Ter, um, thank you because I of course had no idea who the other proposal was. So, I'm I'm glad to see that it's someone local at least involved in it. So, um that's that's very refreshing.
Uh lastly, about what's going on downtown. Um what's going on downtown in the evenings and in the daytime, but particularly in the evenings is definitely not new occurrences. that has been going on for a few months and every single council
member up here has expressed concerns about what's been going on and have been asking questions about what it is the administration is going to do and we are very aware that there are some things that are happening um and there are some things preventing their
preventing them from doing more than what they have been doing. I'll put it like that. Um, but there are some things that I would like to suggest that would that does not entail any type of legislative changes or anything like
that, which is, you know, we have to get involved and prevent that crowd from even forming in the first place. If we have to barricade off the street and put officers out there, then we need to do that because someone was already murdered. People were shot, people were stabbed. There's fights every weekend on
the steps of city hall in front of city hall all up and down between the 200 and 300 blocks of East State Street. And I think that the efforts could be um greater. Even though I appreciate the efforts that have been made to the date,
there are certain things that we can do that can mitigate the situation without waiting on legislative changes or pro um anything that's prohibiting the administration from getting involved legislatively. So, um those are my comments. Um we have reached out to the
administration and we're looking forward to continuing these conversations. I'm hoping that we see some preventative measures going forward. Thank you and have a good evening. Thank you, Council Vice President. I'm going to be very brief. Um, thank you
everyone for being present this evening. Uh, my condolences to Officer Long. I have a couple of stories about Officer Long, but I won't tell him. He's definitely a sweetheart and will be missed. Um, thank you to those who presented on the
hotel. As we all know, the hotel is probably the main focal point that will drive business here in the city of Trenton. So, I'm thankful that there are some people who are um expressing interest um in redeveloping that area, especially knowing the cost that it would take to make this come to
fruition. So, I just want to say thank you. Thank you, Reverend Taylor, for expressing um what you just shared with us. I was aware that someone had asked me about uh the meeting today and said that they had also submitted proposals or, you know, were interested and and didn't know about this meeting. So
that's why I wanted to be fair and that we hear everyone prior to us making a decision. So thank you for sharing that with us. Um to all of those who share the concerns, my colleagues just stated it. We please don't think that we are not
not concerned about what is going on. There's a lot of questions. There's a lot of things. There's a lot of solutions being thrown around. We're we are on the admin about what to do. I would like to, you know, publicly state that one of the suggestions that were
made is we do need more police presence. I I don't I know there we're short manpower, but there's other resources. We have partnerships that we have with certain other entities and I just really think that we should do a better job at utilizing that partnership so that we
can get more manpower in specific areas especially when we know that things um are happening kind of consistently and we don't want to wait for another tragic event before we want to step up. So um that's all I have for tonight. Thank you
all for being present and good night. Madam President, if there's nothing additional, I believe we've at the point where you can ask for a motion to May. We have a motion to adjourn. Some second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards.
Councilwoman uh Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilman Harrison. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried.