As an expert transcriptionist, I have formatted the transcript with the correct speaker names based on the context provided and the roll call. Please note: While many members are City Council members, they are acting in their capacity as the **Economic Development Authority (EDA)** during this meeting. I have used their titles as addressed in the meeting. *** **[00:00:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, uh, Happy Valentine's Day everybody as it is February 14th and we're sitting here at an Economic Development Authority meeting including some members that flew in so I'm assuming spouses aren't too happy. So anyway, I'm calling—Myron Bailey—I'm calling this meeting to order. Jamie, you want to do the roll call? **[00:00:15] Jamie Mann:** EDA President Bailey? **[00:00:16] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Here. **[00:00:17] Jamie Mann:** EDA Vice President Dennis? **[00:00:18] EDA Vice President Steve Dennis:** Here. **[00:00:19] Jamie Mann:** EDA Member Carrie? **[00:00:20] EDA Member Carrie:** Here. **[00:00:21] Jamie Mann:** EDA Member Crone? **[00:00:22] EDA Member Crone:** Here. **[00:00:23] Jamie Mann:** EDA Member Scott? **[00:00:24] EDA Member Scott:** Here. **[00:00:25] Jamie Mann:** EDA Member Theis? **[00:00:26] EDA Member Eric Theis:** Here. **[00:00:27] Jamie Mann:** EDA Member Myers? (No response). **[00:00:28] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, thanks everybody for being here this morning. Uh, the next item on our agenda is number three, which is approval of the minutes. 3.1 is approval of the December 13, 2022 EDA meeting minutes. If there's no changes or corrections, I'll look for a motion to approve. **[00:00:40] EDA Vice President Steve Dennis:** Motion to approve. **[00:00:41] Mayor Myron Bailey:** So we have a motion by EDA Vice President Dennis. **[00:00:42] EDA Member Carrie:** Second. **[00:00:43] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Member Carrie. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[00:00:45] EDA Members:** Aye. **[00:00:46] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Uh, next is number four, business items. 4.1 is Economic Development update and business inquiry, and G, or Gretchen, for the rest of you, is here to walk us through. **[00:00:55] Gretchen:** Everyone will call me G. All right, it's just easier that way. They don't call me Rachel or Heather because I can never remember my name. **[00:01:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** We could do that though. **[00:01:01] Gretchen:** Well, we're going to start off with the Beige Book. Um, you all do have a comprehensive report in your packet, but the report kind of shows what we have all been experiencing, which is that the markets are slowing a little bit. The labor markets, prices, and consumer spending all just grew modestly, but still, it's trending upwards. Um, in commercial construction, it fell slightly. The pipeline for project new projects is getting smaller and smaller, although industrial and multi-family construction is still okay right now, although we know rising interest rates are kind of slowing that a little bit as well. Single-family residential construction continues to decline—I know no one wants to know that—and real estate commercial real estate vacancies are relatively flat, and office space is still a challenge trying to fill it. Manufacturing activity decreased slightly during the reporting period, while agriculture and energy sector conditions remained at high levels, and farm incomes and working capital remain strong. So that was a bit of good news. Activity in the minority and women-owned business has slowed slightly since the last report, and of course, they are reporting lower profits. The food service business industries are especially hit hard. They just can't compete for anybody hardly and win that battle, so they're just going to have to try and keep up coming up with creative ways to get workforce. Robin Hakari is here with Washington County Workforce, so I'm sure she has a challenge every day trying to help people fill their slots. I'm happy to answer any questions on that. **[00:02:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, uh, the next... anything else on this one, or no? **[00:02:43] Gretchen:** Okay. **[00:02:44] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, the next item on our agenda is 4.2, which is the North Point TIFF, and G, you're going to walk us through this one too. Do we have the... do we have the updates? Did we misalign? **[00:02:50] Gretchen:** Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Do you want to continue with the updates? **[00:02:52] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Oh, I'm sorry. No, you're fine. That's why for some reason I thought we had... for some reason today I had brain fade. **[00:02:55] Gretchen:** Industrial Hem—anyway, Hemingway Industrial Center—the footings and foundations work have been completed for both buildings, and the on-site construction of the wall panels will wait until spring to resume. Well, spring's almost here. Renewal by Andersen—you can see by the photos the roof is complete and the concrete slab is beginning to be installed. GTI, also known as Leafline Labs—the addition is enclosed with trade work and the interior walls are underway. Pizza Ranch—they have the wall and the roof framing complete, and they're working on plumbing and electrical; underground work is going on. I spoke to the owner the other day, and he estimates that they'll probably open in June now. They're a little bit behind because of the supply chain; they expected to be open already. And RJ Schinner—Opus Development has applied for a preliminary plat to be called the Southeast Industrial Park Third Edition. That'll consist of one industrial lot and one outlot that would be located to the south of the Sioux Line Railroad, north of North Star Sheets, and east of Hamlet Park. A site plan review is for approximately 126,000 square foot office and warehouse building and an additional 80,000 square foot expansion area for future use. And there you go, now I'm to the right spot. I'm sorry. **[00:04:10] Mayor Myron Bailey:** No, that's all good. Uh, is EDA... any questions for Gretchen at all? And Emily [Schmitz] is here if you have any questions about any of the projects that are ongoing. Oh, we can just... let's see what can we get her on? No, just joking. Yeah, exactly. I did it the other day. All right, so moving on then, now we'll go to 4.2, which is North Point TIFF. Here we go. **[00:04:30] Gretchen:** Alrighty. So this is the First Amendment to the amended and restated contract for private development between the Cottage Grove EDA and North Point—I won't go into their very long name. Just as a reminder, in December of 2021, you all approved the TIFF district, and then in May, they came back to you—meaning North Point—and they asked for an amendment to that, and that addressed building 1A which was added into the overall TIFF. Then North Point reported the challenges related to the construction of the roadway, and you amended the TIFF at that time. So in December, North Point contacted the City Administrator and said once again that some of the challenges that they were facing meant they wanted to request a change to the current TIFF. The leasing of their spaces in their current buildings was taking a little bit longer than they anticipated, and therefore they're back before you today to ask for a restated and amended TIFF. What it does is they're asking for the commencement date for the building of phase two to begin not no longer on April 30th, but on October the 31st of 2023. We note that the square footage of the building and the completion date remain unchanged for that phase. It's just when they start as opposed to anything else. And representatives from North Point are here in case you have any questions of them. **[00:06:05] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, EDA, any questions at this point for staff? And again, since you guys came in, do you want to come up and speak at all or...? **[00:06:10] Ryan Ziegel:** Absolutely. Good morning Mayor, EDA members. Ryan Ziegel with Northpoint Development. Just want to thank you for having us this morning and appreciate your consideration for this amendment. I think Gretchen captured it perfectly—just pushing the commencement out. And, you know, we'll be starting building three, the one south of the larger one right now, another half a million square foot building here later this year. **[00:06:30] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay. How did your event go? I had an opportunity to see inside the big building, which is pretty massive by the way, right? Looks like you had a lot of people there. **[00:06:35] Ryan Ziegel:** It was wonderful. Yeah, we had almost I think 70 people here, which is almost as much as I had at my wedding. So a ton of people. It was a great, great showing. I think, you know, the brokerage teams really got some great insight and came... traveled from all over, so really, really successful event I would say. **[00:06:55] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. All right, any questions at this point? All right, thank you. Thank you for the update. All right, so EDA members, you can see before you it's a fairly simple amendment in this case. We're just moving the date for them to start the next phase to later in the year. So if anybody who has no other questions, I should say, I will need a motion to approve as stated up on the screen. **[00:07:15] EDA Member Eric Theis:** I will, uh, motion to approve the First Amendment to the amended and restated contract for private development and by and between the Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority and MP BGO Cottage Grove Logistics Parks LLC. **[00:07:30] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Theis. Do I have a second? **[00:07:35] EDA Member Scott:** Second. **[00:07:36] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, that she did the second—EDA Member Scott. Any further discussion? All right, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[00:07:40] EDA Members:** Aye. **[00:07:41] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. All right, and next is 4.3, which is Ryan Companies extension, and Jamie is here for that. **[00:07:45] Jamie Mann:** Thank you, EDA President Bailey. So the corner we're talking about in the industrial park is the northeast corner of 100th Street and Jamaica Avenue South. Ryan Companies entered into a purchase agreement with the EDA in February of 2022. They did come back to us in August due to some land issues—bedrock close to the surface, not a lot of soil on the site—so they asked to extend their due diligence period in August of '22, which extended it to closing in March of this year. Now they've run into some economic challenges with financing and such, and so they're coming back to us again to request a Second Amendment to the purchase agreement requesting an additional six months of time on their closing date. So due to some uncontrolled circumstances, they are now requesting a closing date of September 5th, 2023. We have talked to the representatives from Wag Farms Trust and they are agreeable to the extension date, so we are bringing it back before the EDA for review. So quick and easy, before you are a few recommendations, but I would be happy to stand for any questions you may have. **[00:08:50] Mayor Myron Bailey:** EDA members, any questions for Jamie on this particular item? Seems to be a little bit of a trend out there, whether it's this or housing; it's been kind of interesting to watch with the interest rates. All right, I'm not seeing any, so we do have three separate motions that we need to make on this particular case. So if somebody on the EDA wants to do the first motion, we'll start with that. **[00:09:10] EDA Member Crone:** I can grab the first one. Motion to adopt Resolution 2023-001 consenting to the Second Amendment to the purchase agreement between Wag Farms and the EDA and the Second Amendment to the purchase agreement between the EDA and Ryan Companies US Inc. **[00:09:25] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Crone. Do I have a second? **[00:09:27] EDA Vice President Steve Dennis:** Second. **[00:09:28] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Vice President of the EDA Steve Dennis—the coach's first name on that one. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[00:09:35] EDA Members:** Aye. **[00:09:36] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Who would like to take number two? **[00:09:38] EDA Member Scott:** [Motion to authorize] administrator to execute agreement with Wag Farms to extend the closing date to September 5th, 2023. **[00:09:42] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Scott. Do I have a second? **[00:09:45] EDA Member Eric Theis:** Second. **[00:09:46] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Member Theis. Any further discussion? Again, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[00:09:50] EDA Members:** Aye. **[00:09:51] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. And number three? **[00:09:53] EDA Member Carrie:** I'll move to authorize the EDA President and the City Administrator to execute the Second Amendment to the purchase agreement with Ryan Companies US Inc. to extend the closing date to September 5th, 2023. **[00:10:05] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Carrie. Now do I have a second? **[00:10:07] EDA Vice President Steve Dennis:** Second. **[00:10:08] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Vice President Dennis. Any further discussions on this? Again, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[00:10:12] EDA Members:** Aye. **[00:10:13] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Jamie. All right, and so if you kind of see... I'll just mention down the road here. So public hearings—we do not have anything this morning. Other business—we do have our EDA calendar that was sent out to everybody. EDA comments—are there any comments or requests by the EDA for staff at this time? Not seeing anything, and we didn't have any responses to previous EDA comments. And we do not have a workshop. So as you might see—if you're watching, well maybe not seeing it at home—but we're at 8.1, which is Years of Service. And this gentleman sitting next to me here, Mr. Theis, is finishing out his term—I guess is probably the best way to say it. And he has done a tremendous job over the last seven years, which by the way, for those out there that are wondering, the EDA terms typically are a total of six years max. He's seven because during this process we did have COVID, as we all know, and so during COVID, they gave us the opportunity to extend for an additional year. But we're now at that point where we can't extend it, as much as we'd like to have him on the EDA. So he's been a great member. I think I'm going to read a couple things that you had put together here—I thought that was kind of cool. Because it's so funny sometimes when we've been doing some of these ribbon cuttings and that... when we were at a... I'll call it a ribbon cutting, but a grand reopening if you will, of Oasis Chiropractic, and they've been here for 20 years in Cottage Grove. And we did the look back to see what has happened in Cottage Grove in 20 years—we saw stoplights in Newport and things like that. So it's amazing. And Eric had noted, he says that, "I joined the EDA back when Cottage Grove's Home Depot site was vacant for several years and Rainbow Foods was really on its way out." And for some of you that don't know where that is or was, that is now where Hy-Vee is located and of course TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Planet Fitness, Ulta is coming in there down in that mall there. And he was wondering why that we could not fill those open commercial spaces in a prime area of town, and so he joined the EDA to learn more about how the city can get involved with redevelopment of those sites and to learn about what new companies will be coming to Cottage Grove. So like everybody else, everybody likes to know kind of what's going on in the community, and one of the best ways to do that is to get involved obviously, because you get to see it on the front lines and work with these developers and like the people we have in the room here to bring investments into our community. And he noted that when he does... when you look back, the most proud of the thing that he has helped accomplish is the Home Depot Rainbow Foods redevelopment. And part of that was because the EDA—and boy I remember this—the EDA was able to purchase the Home Depot site, which was later bought by Hy-Vee. There was kind of a switching thing we were doing because we had a couple owners that were not getting along, so the city kind of swooped in and helped facilitate that change. And because of the city's involvement and the EDA involvement, that center now is fully leased. There's a couple spots that are in there, but as I just mentioned, Ulta is going in in the final space. Matter of fact, I think we even just saw they did their construction permit, which is Pacific Dental, and that'll mean that whole center will be completely filled. But we were able to bring Hy-Vee to town with an investment, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Planet Fitness, and as I said, the rest of the site now is full. I think there's only like an outlot that's left, but that's kind of a side thing. So very excited with all that stuff that happened there. It really was the catalyst for all the change that have happened along the 80th Street area there. So I just want to say I appreciate the fact that you've been on the EDA with us. And you know, now that you've been on the EDA, you know there's other commissions and that that we could get you involved in. And at some point in time, maybe down the road if there's another opening, you're welcome to rejoin us. And so what I'd like to do is do a presentation here, if you're okay with that? And I think they can see up on the screen there. We'll stand up. I'm just going to present this plaque to Eric in appreciation of your dedicated service to the City of Cottage Grove's Economic Development Authority. And again, it's from 2016 through 2023. I guess at least now you don't have to get up on Tuesday mornings, right? **[00:14:45] EDA Member Eric Theis:** I actually enjoyed this! It's nothing I didn't look forward to. **[00:14:50] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, there we go. All right, let's give him a round of applause. Now I spoke your words, now let's see if you have anything else you'd like to add to share with the rest of the EDA or the public. **[00:15:00] EDA Member Eric Theis:** Yeah, I just said I learned a lot being on the EDA. You know, it's just nice to see the great staff we have at the city. You know, you don't get to see all the behind-the-work or behind-the-scenes stuff when you're sitting at home, but when you get to come to meetings like this, you get to see the great work that the staff does and that the councils are doing and the commissions. It's just so great to get involved with the city that... you know, this is a great way to do it because there's not too many opportunities out there to get into the weeds of everything that's going on in the city. So appreciate the opportunity to be on there and I highly recommend anybody looking to do some volunteer work to join a commission. So thank you. **[00:15:45] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Absolutely. Good, good segue too, because that's one of the things... I know my Vice President Dennis, partner and I were just commenting. So now with you going off the EDA, we do have an opening on the EDA. And so if there is somebody that's interested and passionate about economic development or business development, whatever, we'd be more than happy to entertain that. You could just go to the city's website and fill out the application process, and then at some point in time here, hopefully in the near future, Councilmember/EDA Vice President Dennis and I will be doing some interviews and then we'll make the recommendation of the full City Council for the replacement—which will be a tough replacement—but for Mr. Eric here. So again, on behalf of myself and the rest of us, thank you for your willingness to join in and, frankly, thanks to everybody on here for that. Yes, EDA Vice President Dennis? **[00:16:35] EDA Vice President Steve Dennis:** Thank you, Mayor. And Eric, it's been a real pleasure to have you here for all these years and to be part of a team that's brought a lot of success here to the community. So what I would like to do—and obviously Mayor is representative of the council, I am too—we're very appreciative as a City Council of all of our volunteers. So on behalf of everyone, thank you. **[00:16:55] EDA Member Eric Theis:** Yeah, thank you. **[00:16:56] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Awesome. All right, so that was the rest of the items on the agenda. Boy, that was pretty quick for us there this morning. And so what we'll do at this point is we'll look for a motion to adjourn, and I suppose it would only be fitting for Eric to do that for us here. So would you like to make the motion? **[00:17:10] EDA Member Eric Theis:** Motion to adjourn. **[00:17:11] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Theis. Do I have a second? **[00:17:13] EDA Member Scott:** Second. **[00:17:14] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Member Scott. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[00:17:16] EDA Members:** Aye. **[00:17:17] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you, everybody.