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5.2. HRSR 12-06-2004 ITEM # 5.2. S � City of Elk -�-� River MEMORANDUM TO: Housing & Redevelopment Authority FROM: Heidi Steinmetz, Assistant Director of Economic Development DATE: December 6, 2004 SUBJECT: Project Communications Update Attachment • Rivers Edge Downtown Business Association Minutes,June—November 2004 Background • Beginning in February of 2002, communications for the Downtown Revitalization Project have included the following tools and distribution methods: City Web Site Project updates are available on the Downtown Revitalization page of the City Web site, located under the News&Events sidebar. The page is updated as project activities occur, typically following the most recent HRA meeting. Q &A Newsletter Project newsletters, "Q &As," are developed during critical points in the process when formal actions are made by the HRA or when the public feels the need for new information. Six issues of the Downtown Revitalization &A Newsletter,which responds to some of the recent questions about the project, have been distributed in the Elk River Star News, at City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce, at each public open house, and at other events. The next edition of the newsletter is anticipated for early January 2005. City of Elk River Newsletter The Current Periodic articles on the project have appeared in The Current. The Current is distributed in the Elk River Star News every other month and is available at City Hall. The January 5, 2005 issue of The Current will include an article about the project. Rivers Edge Downtown Business Association Staff provides verbal updates on the project to the Rivers Edge Downtown Business • Association at the Rivers Edge monthly meetings. Rivers Edge meets regularly on the 2nd Project Communications Update December 6,2004 HRA Meeting Page 2 of 2 Wednesday of every month. The June through November 2004 Rivers Edge meeting minutes are attached. Elk River Star News The Director of Economic Development is interviewed by the Elk River Star News as project activities occur. Direct Mail Per the direction of the City Council in July 2003, staff began sending monthly HRA meeting notices to approximately 200 downtown property owners, tenants, and citizens. Downtown Property/Business Owner Meetings Twenty one-to-one meetings with approximately thirty-five downtown property and business owners took place during the month of January and February 2004. The purpose was to gather additional input on the Downtown Revitalization Project and particularly parking options from the downtown property and business owners. King Ave. Parking Lot Task Force Staff is in the process of forming a King Ave. parking lot task force to gather design and enforcement input from property/business owner representatives from each downtown block. The task force meetings will be held monthly beginning in January 2005. More details will be provided at the January HRA meeting. • Open Houses Open houses are scheduled with the HRA's consent at critical points in the process in which the HRA requests public comment. The City has held three public open houses on the project. Staff Request Staff requests the HRA's direction on whether or not the direct mail HRA meeting notices should continue in 2005. This information is provided on the City Web site and at the monthly Rivers Edge meetings. • Rivers Edge Minutes June 9, 2004 The Meeting was called to order at 8AM. Minutes were approved as written. There is 2518.76 in the treasury. This includes revenue from the May 22 garage sale. Our treasurer, Jim Simpson, said that there was a$50.00 check made out to the city in 2002 that was never cashed. The recollection was that the check may have been a deposit to have a temporary sign. A motion was made and seconded to include that money back into the treasury balance. The motion passed. Old Business: Old Business: Heidi Steinmetz told us that there would be no July HRA meeting. There is a BRA Work Session scheduled June 30. The purpose of this meeting is to review and identify priority redevelopment issues for downtown north of Hwy 10. In addition, the BRA will consider requesting that the City Council call a public hearing for September regarding the establishment of a TIF District. Heidi gave us a timeline overview of what we could expect if the Downtown Revitalization Project is approved. Planning for the establishment of a TIF District is a 60 to 90 day process. A Final Development Agreement will be presented after the TIF District is established, which is anticipated for Fall of 2004. Richard Hinrichs has signed a purchase agreement with MetroPlains for his property. MetroPlains is negotiating with • U.S. Bank and the Nadeaus. The negotiations are a private process held between the developer and the property owners. A new Q & A newsletter responding to some of the recent questions regarding the project will be sent out in the Star News in June. It was felt that it would be helpful to have an open line of communication between downtown businesses and MetroPlains. Wendy will contact Vern to see if he or someone from his group would be available to attend a rivers edge meeting prior to the final development agreement. Garage Sale: Thanks to Meryl Gisselquists who did a wonderful, beyond expectations great job of organizing, cleaning and managing the garage sale. Thank you also to Linda Kopp from First National Bank of Elk River, and Betty Thomas and Lynda Harrison from Kemper Drug for their help. Thank you also to the other individuals who volunteered their time and those businesses and individuals who donated merchandise. With their help we took in $330.00 on the rainy May 22 garage sale. Placemats advertising downtown businesses. Marlys Ellingson from the Star News is working on a placemat advertising promotion. For under$30.00 businesses will be able to place a business card size ad around the border. The middle part will be a picture relating to downtown. The placemats will then be offered free of charge for community groups to use at their fundraising functions. Our goal is to have the placemats done by September. • • New Business: Another Garage Sale: Because of the awful weather on May 22, it was decided to hold a second garage sale June 17 to 19th to try and improve our results. Meryl will once again be running the Sale. Downtown SideWalk Sale: To help boost traffic for the garage sale, we thought it would be a good idea to hold a Sidewalk Sale the same days as the Garage Sale. Wendy will pass out Door Signs advertising the sidewalk sale and garage sale to downtown businesses. We will also put a garage sale and sidewalk sale ad in the Elk River Star News. Wendy will also get a sidewalk sale banner made to hang by the side of Kemper Drug. Jeff Gongoll said that he would put the garage sale on the Chamber of Commerce's outdoor sign to help us with advertising. • • Rivers Edge Downtown Business Association Minutes July 14, 2004 The meeting was called to order at 8AM at the Elk River Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room. Attending were: Tony Mikols, Heidi Steinmetz, Meryl Gisselquist, Cliff Lundberg,Patti Hipsag, Marlys Ellingson and Wendy Simenson Secretary's Report: The minutes from the last meeting were accepted. Treasurer's Report: The Balance is $2535.23. Recent additions have come from the garage sale ($650.90). Recent subtractions have been for flowers ($404.00) Old Business City Update: Meryl asked Heidi to explain Tax Increment Financing (TIF) since the establishment of a TIF District is part of the project. As stated in the June 2004 Downtown Revitalization Q & A Newsletter, "TIF is a financing tool created by the MN Legislature in the 1970s to help encourage development and redevelopment of underutilized and/or blighted properties. Under TIF, property tax revenue equivalent to what the current property generates continues to go to all taxing jurisdictions. The portion of the tax revenue that results from the increased value of the new development, also called the "tax increment", is used to pay site costs such as acquisition, demolition, water, sewer, and street improvements. Once the site costs have been paid, the tax increment goes to the taxing jurisdictions." Heidi told us that the HRA was holding a visioning work session on June 30th to discuss a S redevelopment plan for downtown north of Hwy 10. City Staff will then take the results of the work session and put together concept options for HRA review this Fall. Since there are properties adjacent to the downtown post office available, Tony questioned whether the post office would consider expanding downtown rather than relocating. Post offices are governed by the Federal Government. We need to find out the best way to forward his suggestion. Garage Sale: Meryl reported that the garage sale was a success. Items are still being sold as she is emptying out the building. Estimated final revenue is $830.00. Unsold items will be donated to GoodWill in Elk River. We would not have had the success that we had without Meryl's hard, work. Make sure to thank her for her efforts. Flower Pots: Meryl has planted all of the pots with roses and dianthus using the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's 2004 color scheme. Most of these plants will be moved to the Handke Stadium perennial garden in the fall, the remainder will be planted at the Chamber of Commerce. Steve Eid from Steve's Nursery in Elk River has said he would help with the planting and a mystery path at the stadium. Tina from Natural Expressions has donated recognition plaques for businesses participating in the adopt a pot program and helping pay for the plants. The adopt-a-pot program will continue for the next year. If you sign a contract to faithfully water the pot during the summer and give $20.00 for a mum to be planted in the pot in September, you for the following year. If you have not been can have a pot placed in front of your business fo t g y y • contacted by Meryl, you can pick up an adopt-a-pot form at Kemper Drug and drop off your$20.00. Once again, thanks to Meryl for taking care of buying the plants, planting them and taking care of the adopt-a-pot program. New Business: The Next Meeting will be held August 11,2004,at 8AM at the Elk River Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room. • • Rivers Edge Minutes August 11, 2004 411 The meeting was called to order at 8AM at the Elk River Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room. Attending were: Tony Mikols, Heidi Steinmetz, Cliff Lundberg, Mark Urista, Marlys Ellingson, Jeff Gongoll, Wendy Simenson, Vern Hanson(Metro Plains) Secretary's Report: Minutes from the last meeting were approved. Treasurer's Report: $2593.92 Old Business: City Update: Heidi deferred her update so that more time could be spent with MetroPlains. Revitalization Challenges and Solutions: Vern Hanson came to the meeting representing MetroPlains. Vern told us that both projects would be taking place at the same time. During the plan approval process they will resolve potential issues that might come up. MetroPlains Role: MetroPlains is a development company. They will hire a contractor for each development. Vern Hanson is the architect on MetroPlains' staff who will administer the project from start to finish. Each contractor will have a Job Superintendent or Project Manager working under the contractor. There will be a job office or trailer on site. The Job Superintendent will be the first contact for PR for commercial and residential developments. MetroPlains goal is to become a part of downtown. • Once the projects are completed, MetroPlains will retain ownership of the Jackson Square project. The Bluff Block Residential Condos and Business Condos will be sold. The Declarent stays with the units until they are purchased. Four contractors are being considered for the Jackson Block. If all goes as planned, Both projects could start in the spring of 2005 together depending on time of year for start. The proposed parking changes and closure of King to increase the number of parking spots available will take place prior to the start of the Jackson Square Project. First National Bank's Parking lot next to Elk River Meat Market will be made available for general downtown parking for an indefinite period of time. First National will have their employees park elsewhere. Staging and delivery of materials will be site specific. The plan for the Bluff Block is to build the underground parking area first and use that as a staging area. This will increase the time needed to complete the project from 11 to 13 months. Necessary worker vehicles (those containing construction equipment and supplies) will be parked on site. Non essential worker vehicles could be either north of the tracks or south of the tracks but north of 169 west of Jackson. The General Contractor for each site will be responsible for making sure that workers park in the • designated off site parking areas. The General Contractors are who should be notified if workers vehicles are showing up in downtown customer or employee parking areas. • Existing diagonal customer parking in front of the Bluff Block will be removed during construction and that area will be used for access to the site. Bluff Block residential parking will potentially exceed the 1&1/2 cars per unit minimum. Condo owners tend to have a greater vehicle parking requirement. It is easier to control parking in rental units and so the Jackson Square Site will stick with the 1&1/2 parking spots per unit. Geological surveys of the construction sites were done. The water table is down 25 to 35 feet. No bedrock was found—just native soil. Sixteen borings were done on the Bluff and Jackson Blocks. The land was found to be environmentally sound, not polluted. The land is fine except for the Nadeau site which may have some remediation necessary. There was concern that the Bluff Block was adjacent to a Wild and Scenic River and the project might be affected by DNR regulations. There is not a problem on that front. The old sanitary line however, will be a challenge. Metro Plains is exploring options to reroute a portion of the old line. They are also looking at the necessity for updating some of the line. The Bluff block businesses will most likely be service businesses rather than retail. The building will be a four story setback. The commercial spaces will be 900 to 1100 square feet. Could possibly be 1 larger unit. Could be sold as office condos.. It is not an ideal spot for fine dining, better for quick in and out type of businesses. MetroPlains will tentatively be working with • Brookstone for business tenents. Mendota Homes will be handling the residential development and sale of the bluff block units. Residential condos would be facing the street and waterfront. MetroPlains will be putting a Riverwalk on the parcels of land adjacent to the river that they will be developing. It is up to the City of Elk River to continue the riverwalk west of the development. The Jackson Square Development will be three stories high. The residential portion of the Jackson Square development would contain a 50/50 split of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. Each unit would have its own utilities—washer, dryer, furnace, central air. The TIF Plan is being worked on. Both The HRA and the Elk River City Council have to approve the plan. After the TIF Plan is approved, MetroPlains will submit a development agreement that will need to be approved. MetroPlains historically has maintained ownership of 99% of the areas they have revitalized. They have their own property management company. They plan to maintain ownership of Jackson Square. The Bluff Block residential will be sold as condos. The retail portion may possibly be sold as office condos. The meeting was adjourned at 9AM. • Rivers Edge Minutes for September 8, 2004 Present were Pat Klaers, Tony Mikols, Cliff Lundberg, Patti Hipsag, Roger Hebeisen, Wendy Simenson Secretary's Report: Wendy's computer crashed and there were no minutes presented at the meeting. They will be sent out with next months minutes Treasurers Report: Old Business: City Update: HRA voting on the proposed TIF District for the downtown project was delayed. The areas under consideration for a TIF District must be adjacent to each other. (Could be directly across the street). Since Jackson Square and the Bluff Block are not immediately adjacent to each other, HRA had to come up with a plan that would include both areas in one TIF District. The proposal on the table now is to make the TIF District include all of the property from Nadeaus to the Cinema Building on the River Side of Main Street and the Jackson Square property. The HRA will have the opportunity to vote on the TIF district at their October 4, 2004 meeting. If approved, it will then have to go the Elk River City Council for their approval. The development agreement will still have to be approved after the Council votes affirmatively for forming the TIF District. This delay has set the project back 30 to 60 days. . If the development agreement is approved, the City will then form a committee to oversee design of the parking lot on the site of the old city utilities building and King Ave. The committee will be charged with coming up with parking enforcement rules and managing employee parking. Placemats: Tony gave Marlys an 1893 drawing of Elk River. Marlys will talk to businesses to put ads around the border. New Business: Art Soup will be held the Weekend of June 17, 2005. Because of proposed construction downtown, The Elk River Arts Alliance is looking at holding the Festival at Handke Stadium. The majority of downtown businesses found that having the festival downtown was good for business. We are trying to find ways to link the downtown to Handke Stadium so that we can capitalize on the increased traffic to the area during the festival. Some ideas that were put forth were: have classic cars or souped up motorcycles parked along the street in between the two locations, have music in the park—possibly a radio station promotional event, have art displayed along the street, offer shuttle service from downtown to the stadium. If you have any other ideas please share them with Patti Hipsag at the Bead Bag. She will be downtown's liaison to the Art Soup Committee of the Arts Alliance. Scarecrow Contest: We will once again be having a scarecrow decorating contest downtown. This is a great way to kick off the holiday season. All businesses are encouraged to make a • scarecrow and display it downtown. Patti Hipsag will be sending out flyers explaining more about the contest. • Pumpkin Giveaway: Cindy Koonce at American National Bank has sponsored a pumpkin giveaway the past several years. Unfortunately, Cindy has moved out of the area. Several downtown businesses have been approached but none have been interested in taking on the task. The Elk River Rec department has their own Halloween celebration the weekend of Halloween and won't be available to help us downtown. They would help with a pumpkin collection after Halloween. Many individuals remembered when they were children, how much they enjoyed coming downtown before Halloween and picking pumpkins out of the Jackson Square Pumpkin Patch (when it was a park not a parking lot). If you have any desire to continue this tradition, please talk to Tony Mikols and he can give you some backround or you can start a new tradition. Holiday shopping events: last year we talked about having a few days in early December where we would offer food (samples from downtown restaurants?) at the lunch hour in the stores downtown to encourage people to come downtown over their lunch hours and shop. Last year we also talked about inviting the Elk River High School Choir downtown to carol on a night that the businesses stay open. We have also coordinated Senior Shopping events and offered free gifts, cookies and discounts for our Senior Citizens. PLEASE LET ME KNOW what you think of these ideas and if you would like to see them happen this year. The meeting was adjourned • The next Rivers Edge Downtown Business Association Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday October 13, 2004 at 8AM at The Elk River Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room. • . Rivers Edge Meeting Minutes November 10, 2004 The meeting was called to order at 8AM at the Elk River Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room. Present were: Jeff Gongoll, Marlys Ellingson, Tony Mikols, Cliff Lundberg, Andrew Karlsen, Pat Klaers, Heidi Steinmetz and Wendy Simenson. Treasury Balance: $228.54 The minutes from the October 13th and August 11, 2004 meetings were approved. Old Business: Heidi told us that the TIF plan for the downtown redevelopment district was approved by the HRA and City Council. The next step will be the presentation and vote on the development agreement between Metro Plains and The City of Elk River. Both the presentation and vote will take place at the Monday December 6th HRA meeting. Santa: no one came forth to sponsor Santa's Visit, so he won't be coming downtown this year. Farmers Market: Wendy has been in contact with Pam Hoye from CEL public relations. We need to have someone interested in being the coordinator on our end. Suggestions were made to ask the Star/News to put in an article about the potential farmers market and see if anyone comes forward to chair a committee to oversee planning for a downtown farmers market. There was also a suggestion that Hunt's Feed be contacted to see if anyone there would be interested in the position. Also, if anyone would like to learn more about farmers markets, the Initiative Foundation is holding the following conference: Farmer's Markets: The New, Old-Fashioned Way to a Better Economy & Community A workshop on Farmers Markets will be held on Thursday,December 9, 8:30-2:30 p.m. at the Initiative Foundation's office in Little Falls. This event will teach participants: * How to start a farmers market or enhance the one you already have; * The importance of food systems to the local economy and how to maximize increased traffic; * How local producers and growers can be more viable and profitable; * Promising practices from folks who are running successful markets or selling direct to consumers. Not only should local producers and growers attend this session, but local government officials, chamber representatives, and economic development professionals could all benefit from topics which can add one more strategy in creating stronger local economies. Session titles include: Finding food in Farm County; Cultivating Your Farmers Market; The "Minnesota Grown" Program; Starting a Farmers Market; Creating New Direct Markets to • Consumers; Panel Discussion, and a Homegrown lunch! Cost is $15 but scholarships are • available thanks to participation from the U of M Central Region Partnership. For more information or registration contact Leah at 877-632-9255 or Iposterick @ifound.orq Tree Lights: We have again hired Arnie to replace the burnt out lights on the large evergreens in the Jackson Square parking area and on the Gazebo. Meryl and Wendy will put new strings of lights on the boulevard trees. Scare Crow Contest: Thanks to those who put up scarecrows. There were not a lot of them, but they did enhance the downtown while they were up. The one vote that was turned in was for the Antiques Downtown's Scarecrow. New Business: King Ave. parking lot task force: The City has begun plans to form a King Ave. parking lot task force. Task force members will discuss design and enforcement issues. More information will be provided at the December Rivers Edge meeting. Downtown Promotions: Marlys brought in the downtown holiday shopping ad that we had last year in the star shopper. We decided to run the ad again in the Star Shopper and to also put it in the Star News. There is also a holiday cooking guide that goes out with the paper. Marlys was checking to see if we could have the back cover to list the downtown businesses. She said if all three were available she would get a reduced rate and have the downtown newspaper sales reps offer it to all their downtown accounts. Dues: It is once again time to collect Riversedge dues. It was decided to send out dues statements after the first of January and to keep dues the same. • The meeting was adjourned at 9AM Mark your Calendar: 5 PM December 6, 2004 : HRA meeting at Elk River City Hall Presentation and Vote on MetroPlains Development Agreement with the City of Elk River for The Downtown Revitalization Project. You will be allowed to comment on the agreement. If you can't attend the meeting please give your comments to Heidi Steinmetz. The City Council will also be discussing and voting on the Development Agreement at their meeting following the HRA meeting. The Development agreement can be accessed from the cities website on Friday after 2PM, at http://www.ci.elk-river.mn.us/on the left side of the page there is a bar that lists records. Highlight records to go to a menu that lists the different records available. Click on records at the bottom of the page and follow prompts to get the City Council packet for the December 5`l' meeting the development agreement can be found there. It is 80 pages long. There is a synopsis by Kathy Mehelich.