This transcript is for the **Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority (EDA)** meeting. Note that in this context, Mayor Myron Bailey serves as the **President** of the Authority, and Councilmembers serve as **Board Members**. Additionally, the transcript identifies a staff member named **Gretchen** (likely Gretchen Artig-Hanlon, former Economic Development Director, though not on the specific list provided, she is explicitly named by the guest speaker). I have also corrected phonetic errors in the original text (e.g., "cheetah" to "Thiede"). *** **[00:00] President Myron Bailey:** All right, good morning. This is the November 12th, 2024, Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority meeting, which I'm calling to order. They did tweak—just so you guys know—they tweaked our agenda a little bit, so we are going to do the Pledge of Allegiance this morning. So, will please rise? 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. All right. G, do you want to do the roll? **[00:37] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Yes, thank you, President Bailey. Board Member Scott? **[00:40] Board Member Scott:** Here. **[00:41] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Board Member Carrie? [No response] Board Member Thiede? **[00:44] Board Member Dave Thiede:** Here. **[00:45] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Board Member Baptist? **[00:47] Board Member Baptist:** Here. **[00:48] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Board Member Meyers? **[00:50] Board Member Meyers:** Here. **[00:51] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Vice President Olsen? [No response] And President Bailey? **[00:55] President Myron Bailey:** Here. All right, thanks everyone for being here this morning, and we have some guests that we'll be introducing here shortly. Next on our agenda, before we do that though, is approval of the minutes. And so I will need a motion and a second, unless there's any changes, for the September 10th, 2024, meeting minutes. **[01:05] Board Member Scott:** I'll make a motion to approve the meetings. **[01:08] President Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Board Member Scott. Do I have a second? **[01:11] Board Member Dave Thiede:** Second. **[01:13] President Myron Bailey:** Second by Board Member Thiede. All those in favor signify by saying aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? Motion carries. Now we'll start through our business items. The first item, A, is the Beige Book and development update. G, you're going to start us on this. **[01:22] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, if only my finger would work... here we go. All right, on the Beige Book: employment increased slightly since the last report. Prices increased overall, but the prices charged customers has still not been adjusted. Most workers surveyed reported a decrease in the ability to find jobs that met their skill set. Consumer spending was flat. Construction activity declined. Vacancies in commercial real estate remained flat. The office market is still soft. Retail vacancies improved, as did residential real estate sales. Manufacturing activity decreased again. Natural resource conditions were stable and oil and natural gas exploration remained unchanged. And finally, minority and women-owned businesses reported lower sales and profits again, and lower sales and profits continued to decline since the last report. And happy to answer any questions about that if you have them. **[02:20] President Myron Bailey:** Any questions? Nope? I think keep going. Thanks. **[02:26] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Okay, and this is all the hard work your Community Development Department does. The Bluestem Apartments, which is the Trellis Senior complex on 79th Street: the installation of the exhaust fans and the exhaust ductwork done on the first floor has begun, and the plumbing rough-in inspection has passed on the second floor. The framing has passed inspection and installation of the HVAC ductwork is complete. Installation of the gyp-crete has started on the second floor and is complete on the third and fourth floors, and the installation of the exterior finishes are about 70% complete. You can see by the pictures it's coming along very rapidly—much the weather being what it was this past winter helped them. The low zone water treatment plant on Ideal: installation of the process piping in the lower level continues, and that'll happen for the next few months. Painting has started on the precast walls in the pre-treat area and excavation continues on the west storm pond. Also, the utility building on Ideal Avenue: finish painting continues for the exterior offices, mechanical rooms, and storage areas, and installation of the irrigation is complete and installation of the landscaping has started. And again, from the pictures, you can see it's coming along nicely. And happy to answer any questions on any of those projects that I can. **[03:45] President Myron Bailey:** Any questions from the EDA at this point? All right, we'll just keep moving along then. I guess the next thing is B, which is the BR&E program update. G, I think you're going to kind of kick it off? **[03:58] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Correct. Yeah, I just remind everybody: September the 6th, we mailed out the survey with the October 14th deadline. We received 50 completed surveys, so that's approximately a 19% participation rate, which is a good rate. We also encouraged folks to complete the survey by giving them a chance to win a gift certificate to River Oaks for an after-hours party, and the winner of that was Tradehome Shoes, and they've been notified. So the completed survey is done. We did it in partnership, as you'll recall, with the Chamber and Grow Minnesota. Sarah Erikson with Grow Minnesota is here to present the final report to you all, and then staff and the team from the Chamber will be here to answer any questions that you have. Sarah? **[04:45] Sarah Erikson (Grow Minnesota):** Thanks so much, Gretchen, and thank you all so much for having me today. It's really an honor. So I'm Sarah Erikson. I'm the Economic Development Coordinator at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. My colleague, Sean O'Neal, and I work on the Grow Minnesota program, so that's the economic development wing of the Chamber. We started out fundamentally as a partnership between local chambers of commerce and then us to work with business retention expansion. That takes two primary ways: meeting with businesses to collect insights and data to help them grow, and then also connecting them with resources and programs to help them thrive and stay in Minnesota. Over time, we've grown to add in some of the city staff—we found that that public-private partnership can be some of the most effective solutions at actually addressing issues that businesses are facing. I've had the pleasure of working with these two ladies throughout the process. We designed a survey and distributed it, as you mentioned. So I'm going to go through the results. I'm going to quickly kind of talk a little about some local economic data just to set the scene, but I imagine that y'all folks are a little bit aware of it. Our key questions for the report were: how many expansion projects are occurring? What's needed to support local businesses? And then what factors are affecting outcomes? We primarily are relying on the survey that we did, but then we also did pull some government data from state and federal levels to just bolster a little bit. We also relied on some conversations they've had with local businesses and then a survey that we did back in April that was statewide. Largely, the economic data out of Cottage Grove is positive. The total employment has nearly doubled and in the past five years alone, Cottage Grove has added nearly 1,300 jobs. So we're watching that continue as we go into 2024. This is looking at the past year and a half, and we've added almost 900 jobs during that time. So it's a really solid growth, and that's even recovered from the post-pandemic time and more than that. Looking at where that job growth is coming from, it's largely manufacturing. So the job growth has been really driven by manufacturing during this time. Wholesale trade and healthcare is following a little bit farther behind, and then some of those finance and professional services. Notably, retail trade and educational services have seen some significant declines, but this period does also include the pandemic, so it's likely some of that effect is still in there. Part of that growth has been business growth. In those same 5-year periods where we added almost 1,300 jobs, Cottage Grove added 125 new businesses. If you look at the chart line, it's a pretty nice consistent slope upward. We're seeing new businesses add and stay in the community. Going along with new businesses: unemployment. This is a really tight labor market in Cottage Grove. So you're seeing that 3.1% for the unemployment rate, and notably that's historically low for Cottage Grove. But it's low in general—compared to the state, it's fairly low, and then it's almost a point lower than the national average. So when you hear someone talking on the news about a tight labor market, think that Cottage Grove is a dramatically harder market. So that's just something to note. Diving into the report: Gretchen mentioned it was open for a little over a month. We had 50 responses, 48 complete responses. Two people said they preferred an in-person survey then did not provide proper contact information so we couldn't follow up. For the people who actually clicked on the link, it was 82%. So you saw the 19% [participation] and then the 82% [completion]. All of the respondents had a physical presence in Cottage Grove and then most are also headquartered in the state. There are a few folks headquartered elsewhere, in other places, but largely Minnesota. We also saw a nice distribution of industry—we saw at least 12 different industries. There's a pretty big population of "don't know" or left blank, and that's not incredibly uncommon; folks don't always know their NAICS industry codes. So I think there is some room for diving into some of the industries that were perhaps underrepresented and seeing what's going on there, but I am happy that we saw 12 different ones and we saw some of the key industries represented in the survey. Looking at the business size, 78% were small businesses and 12% had no other employees than the owner. That's pretty standard from what we're seeing. The thing that I think shocked us the most was the lack in the 50 to 499 range. There were some that we were expecting to see in there based off what the response is. Reading through them, it looks like some of the ones we expected to see have sites or facilities in other states and cities and they counted that towards their employee account, pushing them to a higher bracket. But I think that's something that would be worth kind of going back and targeting some of those midsize businesses because they are really significant employers in the area. So I think that's kind of a point of future research. Looking at the answers, we're seeing a pretty stable with moderate optimism. The current performance has been pretty strong. There are a few folks who are reporting declines, but it's pretty stable. There are a few people that also are in their first year, so didn't have a comparison. I think when we look on the other side, we're seeing optimism for the next year, so most are predicting moderate growth or stability and fewer are expecting declines. That is—people tend to be a little optimistic, but I think that when we look at the workforce, we also see that optimism carrying through, so that people are reporting that their staffing levels are planning to stay relatively stable or a modest increase. We only had one report that said modest decrease. So we're seeing that optimism and stability in the businesses that we want to see. Kind of looking at the all-important workforce availability questions: we asked it kind of in two different ways, of "Are you having difficulty finding employees?" and I was actually a little surprised to see how large the "no" population is. There's still 13 that said yes, but that was a slight shift that we're seeing. Interestingly, the availability—60% said it's about the same. There were six saying easier, six saying harder, but largely about the same. It is always important to take caution because this is a small sample size, but I think that interaction between those two is pretty interesting. So you're starting to see it's still a hard labor market, but they're having less difficulty finding employers; it might imply that they're starting to adapt and are able to change and find strategies to find the workers that they need. As they're finding workers and staying stable, and they're planning some growth, what do those future plans look like? We kind of got a mix of what they're looking at for future plans, with either they have concrete plans for an expansion—they've bought a building, they're building it out or thinking about it—or there's some other folks that if the opportunity arose, they said that they would be interested in it, or they're looking at what that financial situation would look like. We wanted to dive into this a little bit more and understand what those future plans do look like if they have them. I think this was something I was really happy to see: that the two most common responses were "increase our staffing levels in Minnesota" and "conduct a capital investment project in Minnesota." That those were the top of the list was really positive. I also want to draw your attention to the bottom: "close the business" and "reduce our workforce" were the bottom two. Zero said "reduce our workforce," which is very positive, and then the three above it are all outside of Minnesota. So we're seeing that the businesses are really continuing to prioritize their facilities in Minnesota and their expansions and investment in Minnesota. So we're seeing a strength and a tie to the community there, which we like. Notably, there's a note on there about the "none of the above"; that likely refers to folks that are just kind of doing the status quo—they aren't doing a large investment, they aren't closing, they're maintaining where they're at. There could be a few others in there, but that's kind of what we're trying to get at. We asked a little bit more about what some of their investments and expansions have looked like. Most have not made any major expansions recently; 12 did. I think when you look at the responses of the 12 that did, you can see really strong community ties. The most common response was "it's where I live," and I think that's something that's easy to underscore, but it is really important. Folks are very happy in Cottage Grove and that's what we're seeing in the report. There's community ties, their spouses work here, and then also the Twin Cities metro is a really strong growth market still for a lot of businesses. So there's kind of the dual piece keeping and drawing people here. Looking at some of the notable investments, here are just six notable investments for the past 5 years, and it's really driven by manufacturing, which is fairly common. It's a high expense industry, it creates a lot of jobs generally, but we're seeing that they're willing to invest a significant amount and they are creating—they're able to find the workers because most of these are final numbers, there are a few that are projected still. Diving in to kind of what's causing these expansions or preventing these expansions, the two biggest issues are workforce availability and state tax rates. That workforce availability is broken down into two pieces: general lack of available workers and lack of high-skill workers. When you add those together, you get 11. So we're seeing those state tax rates and the workers really jumping ahead of some of the other issues. I also want to draw your attention to the bottom four, the zeros: "lack of support assistance from local/state officials," "lack of community amenities," "lack of access to support infrastructure," and "lack of available childcare in the community." I think those are really strong to see at zero, that those aren't issues that people are having. I would say I have one caveat to the childcare one is that we asked "available," not "affordable," and then we also surveyed a lot of business owners and leaders who may not have the same childcare issues as some of their employees. So that would probably be worth digging into a little bit more going forward, but some of the other zeros are really positive to see. Obviously, the "none of the above" is 21. Looking at that a little more, we asked a follow-up question that was a short answer that went along with this to see what the greatest barriers are. Largely it's overarching trends: Workforce—I've said it a bunch today and I'll probably continue to say it, it's still an issue. We're still seeing competition, wages have risen, it's put pressure on a lot of businesses. The economy—inflation and interest rates have hit hard; the input prices have gone up, costs of insurance have gone up, and the cost of borrowing has gone up. And then as always, there are industry trends—if it's a seasonal business or it's driven by weather, there's going to be things that affect it. But they are still navigating some location-based and regional issues: marketing and foot traffic—we saw that a few times, that's more typical in your retail businesses. We saw Old Cottage Grove mentioned a few times in here, so that's really something to consider. Then a very similar issue is the location availability—finding a space to have your business, whether it's a pre-built building or available plot of land. Going along with that, we have some local issues: road construction is always going to be an issue, especially in Minnesota, but I think that's true everywhere. Public transportation was an interesting one to see on the list, and then energy reliability. And then obviously there's always going to be some of the state issues we mentioned—the tax rate, some people mentioned customers leaving the state and kind of going to the southern area. But one thing I really want to highlight is that Cottage Grove is not alone in these trends. The left column is the Cottage Grove top five most common answers, the middle is the statewide survey we did back in April of businesses, and the right column is from the same statewide survey talking to economic developers and city staff like Gretchen—and they're seeing the same things around the state. So it's just kind of important to note that while Cottage Grove is seeing these headwinds, so is the rest of the state. Diving in what we looked at in that report: we found that the inflation and the interest rates are just really hard for people to deal with. Doing these large capital investments normally does mean borrowing, and that cost has just skyrocketed. The policy environment has created a really particularly interesting dynamic. The large public investments in infrastructure and some of the more advanced manufacturing has created a really big spike in project leads, especially large project leads. However, some of the state tax rates and mandated programs are decreasing some of our competitiveness on those projects. Workforce: as always, workforce is a really strong competitive advantage for Minnesota but also Cottage Grove. When we look at some of the workforce numbers and the projects that happened, we're seeing that those are really highly skilled workers and there's a lot of them, and businesses are comfortable making investments for those workers. So I think we can see such a strength in the workforce even if it's hard to find those skilled workers. Finally, the site availability is a really growing issue that we've started to see more and more. There's very few sites available—I mean, we're in a metro, it's a pretty built-out area already. Very few of those sites are considered shovel-ready. And then also the high cost of inflation and interest rates have decreased the number of spec buildings that have happened over the past few years, so there's just fewer buildings available in general. Then kind of as I mentioned with some of those large public investments, the demands for utility energy, water, wastewater, and sewage have really increased over the past few years. We're seeing a changing environment there. But I want to end it back with the city services. We finished up the survey by asking people to rate their experience with city services one to five. We got zero ones, which is really good to see, and overall people are very positive about their experiences. The lowest rated ones with an average of 3.8 were transportation, planning, zoning, and permitting. Wastewater, water, and sewage were at a 4.2, kind of right in the middle, and then the highest were Police and Fire, which are to be expected. Overall, when we look at this and then kind of the whole report, we see a really strong business community in Cottage Grove. There's strong workforce, there's a strong labor force, so we're really excited, I think, to see what Cottage Grove can do. There are certainly some headwinds and that's not to be dismissed, but they're not headwinds that Cottage Grove is facing alone, and I think a proactive approach to economic development and these issues will get us past it. So I really appreciate you guys listening to me today and taking the opportunity. If you have any questions, happy to answer them. **[15:15] President Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. Well, first of all, thank you for supporting Lori obviously with the Chamber being a part of this too. It's some great information. Before I ask any questions, does the EDA have any questions or thoughts that you like to ask? I guess a couple things kind of stick out to me. One is: I know like with the Chamber we had been talking—being on the Chamber board as a guest member, I guess, or whatever they call me on there—but there had been a lot of talk about the need for childcare. And I know you did allude to the fact that maybe some of the people that were answering the questions might be more of the executives that don't have the childcare thing. It is interesting on the economic adviser side, they rated it very high, but yet for us it's like to the bottom, and then the others in Minnesota was not as high. I know you said we should maybe look into that a little bit further. Publicly there's been a lot of talk about the need for that. In the future, would you think commenting about "affordable" as you mentioned might be the better way to assess childcare as a need on this reporting? **[16:42] Sarah Erikson (Grow Minnesota):** Yeah, I think affordable is probably the better way to approach it. I think when you look at some of the childcare costs that we're seeing, it's almost equivalent to a full-time job, and so that's not affordable for most people. So using kind of maybe the average medium income and comparing that to what a reasonable childcare rate would be—and kind of if we can determine what that reasonable childcare price would be based off the average medium income—we can kind of look to see maybe there are spots of childcare available in the city, but what is the cost of that? And does that make sense for the community pricing? Kind of how could we affect those costs? How can we support childcare businesses? It's a hard industry to be in, that kind of also affects it. So I do think that the affordable approach would be a really interesting one and making sure we're talking to and surveying the right people on that. So that's kind of what I alluded to is they're probably not the right people to ask about childcare. They're going to be probably in their 40s or 50s and they don't have young children that they're caring for, and childcare costs have skyrocketed. So if we kind of—I believe Lori, you're looking into this a little bit more—so taking that approach: looking at the affordable childcare based off the average medium income, understanding how that interacts, and then how we can support more businesses at that level. **[18:09] President Myron Bailey:** Okay. And then for our staff, two items that I thought were interesting. One is kind of on this graph, even though it's not as bad as maybe I thought it would be, and that has to do with transportation. You know, a two-fold approach: we've heard a little bit from our business park the need for—I'll call it a circulator of some sort—from getting people into the businesses. And then the second, of course, I know we're working on 100th Street as a project, but just general access. Frankly, I'm kind of surprised that transportation rated as high... and I know it's more than just the business park, so I'm kind of honing in on the Business Park area. I mean, what's your thoughts, Jennifer, staff, on that? **[19:00] Jennifer Levitt (City Administrator):** Well, members of the EDA, I think your point is well taken. I think we've heard the need for a circulator in our business park to be able to get people from the park-and-ride into the business park. But we also know the park-and-ride times of the busing are not desirable. Council heard a presentation back in November or October from Metro Transit, and at that time, they'll be launching some different routes into Cottage Grove, but that's not till like 2026, 2027. And so I think there is this unfortunate gap that we have in transportation in the business park. Mayor, I know you are working with the County Commissioner as well, trying to get that local bus circulator—really important to be able to provide transportation to those jobs. And I think, you know, when you look at transportation and affordable childcare, I think those are two things that are probably going to be limiting and making finding those employees difficult. You saw some of that in the slides. And so I think those are probably the two biggest hurdles we have to figure out how to overcome in our community. **[20:12] President Myron Bailey:** Okay. And then my last question or comment, which I thought was interesting and it showed up on this report, and that's reliable electricity. As you may not be aware, but we been having some challenges in our community with random power outages for a variety of different reasons that are not necessarily related to weather. So the fact that the businesses are making comments about that—I think for us, knowing that we have an opportunity to have the CEO for Excel to come out for a visit might be a great opportunity to share that it's not just us saying it or citizens saying it, but it's affecting businesses within our community. And the survey results that you gathered is another example where it's not just us saying it, the businesses are telling it through the survey that you guys provided. So just food for thought on that because that's been a little irritating for many of us. So sorry, I was just a little extra jib in there, but it is... I mean, we've had a lot of challenges locally with that. **[21:18] Sarah Erikson (Grow Minnesota):** I think it was mentioned because it was in the short response, and then a few folks also said energy prices are too high. But I have to imagine they may also be getting at some of the other energy issues. **[21:30] President Myron Bailey:** Yeah, and I get the energy pricing, but "reliable" is the key. And you know, there's a challenge with—you know, they're excited to have all these new businesses and they want all that, I'll say, the revenue that's being generated, but they have to provide reliable electricity. On the other hand, we're doing very well on the water, wastewater, sewer—the piece that we handle in Cottage Grove. So that piece we're good at, but it's getting our partners at Xcel to do better on their side of things. Any other questions other than what I just shared? Yes, Mr. Thiede. **[22:08] Board Member Dave Thiede:** I'm just wondering how we can do a better job getting more responses. I mean, we have 260 businesses that we sent it to and we got 50 responses. I mean, hopefully in the future we can expand upon that. **[22:20] Sarah Erikson (Grow Minnesota):** Good question. I think one thing that we've talked about for the future is doing a little bit more of a targeted approach—so picking a specific group that we really want to hit. So maybe it's those midsize businesses or a certain industry, and going out and doing more proactive kind of pushing them, meeting in person, requesting to fill out the survey. So kind of doing a little bit more of that groundwork next time and doing a really specific outreach to certain industries. So I think that would be kind of how we address that going forward and getting a little bit more responses. We'll say we were pretty happy with 50—that was at least our goal was to hit 50 at least. So it gave us a good enough sample size to make some additions, but I do think it also identified areas for us to go further. **[23:12] President Myron Bailey:** Good, good question. Any other comments, EDA? All right. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you for presenting, and your partner over there who got to just kind of listen, but we appreciate the feedback. And Lori, thank you for your support with the Chamber on this project too. All right, so next we'll move to C, which is RFP for selection of internet service providers, and I believe it's Genevieve? **[23:38] Jenna Tester (Graduate Engineer):** Yes, good morning EDA President and board members. I am Jenna Tester, and I'm the Graduate Engineer. Today I'm going to talk you through the proposal for a citywide broadband program. We've received inquiries from internet service providers looking to install communication lines in our city right-of-way across the community. And upon permitting approval, this could mean continual disturbance for residents and the city, just having various contractors working all over town in an unorganized and potentially unequitable fashion. We looked upstream and saw an opportunity to more acutely manage our right-of-way space. And as a preliminary effort, last Wednesday City Council approved a Hometown Fiber broadband aware program, which is the fieldwork to better understand our fiber needs in the community. So what are the city's needs? This could provide our residents with high-speed connection opportunities. This could provide more robust internet solutions for the business park, where there currently is lacking. And this could provide internet connectivity to city buildings and infrastructure in a more cohesive and streamlined manner than what currently exists. So we researched what other cities across the US are doing with citywide fiber networks, and we landed on the idea of creating a Request for Proposal for ISPs—which is an internet service provider—to create and implement a citywide fiber network. We'd like to hire the experts. Broadband networking is a highly specialized industry and there are local companies that specialize in citywide fiber networks. We reached out to four broadband specialty companies, we interviewed two, and our proposal to the EDA is that we work with Hometown Fiber out of Minnetonka, Minnesota. The hired service could assist the city with the planning stages, the design, and the actual construction and management of the fieldwork. We essentially will have greater control of our right-of-way—where it's being restored and/or disturbed and consequently restored. The recommendation is on the screen before you, and staff is available for questions. **[25:52] President Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. Good job on the presentation. Thank you. So, EDA, do you have questions on this particular topic or purpose behind it? I think she kind of mentioned the purpose, but... yes, Mr. Baptist. **[26:05] Board Member Baptist:** Yeah, just a quick question. So when we chose them, what were like the main criteria in which we evaluated them on? Obviously, price being a factor, but then we look at previous work, safety records, things of that nature? **[26:18] Jenna Tester (Graduate Engineer):** Yeah, I would say the driving factor was their experience, specifically their experience in the local area of Minnesota. And they had really great reports of counties and cities that have gone through it, and then had their contact information to reach out to kind of have their almost resume of it all. So I'd say as soon as we met with Hometown Fiber in that interview stage, it was kind of a no-question sort of thing. It was: these people are familiar with the area, they're doing this as this kind of technological broadband awareness program is happening throughout the country. They are almost leaders in the effort of knowing what's going on. So yeah, like I said, they were kind of leaders in that interview stage. **[27:04] Board Member Baptist:** Thank you. **[27:05] President Myron Bailey:** Okay, sounds good. Yes, Mr. Thiede. **[27:08] Board Member Dave Thiede:** Yeah, so you had mentioned the business park. Are there any other areas of town that we're really looking to expand broadband into right now? **[27:16] Jenna Tester (Graduate Engineer):** Yes. So like I mentioned, last Wednesday City Council approved this awareness program. So essentially currently right now, the Hometown Fiber team, as part of that approval, are boots on the ground looking at every connection fiber point in our city. So at the end of that, we're going to have a great map of our fiber needs: where we're strong in fiber, where we're not so strong. And we expect that the business park is going to have some, I don't know, quote-unquote "red areas." And so from there we can work with internet service providers to say: we want you to start here; we want you to start in our business park; we want you to start in whatever part of the city. So that's that greater control piece that's good. **[28:02] Board Member Dave Thiede:** Okay. **[28:03] President Myron Bailey:** One question that I have: what's kind of the time frame? So we say we approve this and bring them on board, we get the data and information—so what are we thinking? Is it a year, two years, three years? What's the thought process? **[28:18] Jenna Tester (Graduate Engineer):** Correct me if I'm wrong: so they're out doing their fieldwork now for that broadband aware program, and then coming this early or I guess late January, beginning of next year, we're going to hone in on what that RFP looks like and start writing it, drafting it. And then spring, sending out that Request for Proposal. And then from there, I would assume it would kick-start. And then to get through the whole city would take a few years for sure, but I think it's a sooner rather than later project. **[28:50] President Myron Bailey:** Okay. And I'm assuming when all the data comes in—I'll maybe ask you this, Jennifer—will they or you come back to the EDA and share what the data shows? Where the "red blobs" are, if you will, or where the broadband is or the fiber is needed? **[29:06] Jennifer Levitt (City Administrator):** EDA President, members of the EDA, absolutely. Because I think one of the key things we have is to understand where the voids are. As the board member mentioned, you know, the question is where should our target areas be? Because right now we know there are residential neighborhoods that are lacking. You know, with a lot of people teleworking and working from home, that is definitely a need that's in our community and growing. I think there is some voids within our retail market that probably need to be shored up as well, and then our business park. And so I think once we get our fieldwork done, actually mapping out where those voids are, it'd be important for us to then be able to prioritize. And I could see the EDA being part of that prioritization with the company. So we'd want to bring that data back, analyze it with you, make sure we're kind of going in the same direction you see as our priority areas, and then be able to work with that end-user and that provider as we enter into a contract with them for the actual installation. And as Jenna mentioned, I would anticipate probably like Q3 of '25, we'd probably start to see some of that installation. **[30:21] President Myron Bailey:** Okay, thank you. EDA members, any other questions for Jenna? All right, thank you. So on the screen for the EDA is... we need a motion and a second if somebody wants to make that motion. And second, the verbiage if you will is on the screen. **[30:41] Board Member Dave Thiede:** I move to approve the Professional Services agreement with Hometown Fiber to create and issue an RFP for the selection of internet service providers to assist with development of a citywide broadband program in an amount not to exceed $19,772. **[30:58] President Myron Bailey:** All right, so I have a motion by Board Member Thiede. Do I have a second? **[31:02] Board Member Baptist:** I second that motion. **[31:04] President Myron Bailey:** Second by Board Member Baptist. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. **[31:15] Jenna Tester (Graduate Engineer):** Thank you. **[31:16] President Myron Bailey:** All right, and then finally under business items, D is a property appraisal. G, you're back. **[31:21] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** I'm back. Thank you so much. So all of you know that we've been actively trying to bring another hotel to the city since the HVS hotel study was done in December of 2022. We know there's an interest from hoteliers to be in the city as well. So in order to continue to move that project forward, we do have the opportunity to do an appraisal, if you agree, on 9430 East Point Douglas Road. For those of you who probably don't remember, that's the Rosses' property right adjacent to the 73-acre shops property, and of course, Walmart is next door. Mr. Ross unfortunately passed away a bit ago, and Mrs. Ross now wants to downsize. So obviously the opportunity to sell her property for a mixed-use potential site is intriguing to her. And the property owner—she has granted us permission to do the appraisal if you so approve it. We had two quotes: BRKW Real Estate Valuation, their quote was $3,200, and Patchin Messner Valuation Counselors was $4,000. And there is a recommendation before you. **[32:35] President Myron Bailey:** Okay. And G, before we move forward here... maybe just—I don't know if you want to do this or Jennifer—you know what the EDA has done in the past? I know what we're doing here and kind of thinking here, but do you want to talk about what the EDA has done in the past when it comes to purchasing properties? **[32:53] Jennifer Levitt (City Administrator):** EDA President, members of the EDA, the city has a long history of acquisition of properties. You know, if it was the old transmission shop on East Point Douglas and we actually took the environmental cleanup effort to be able to make that marketable to other parcels on the West Point Douglas side of things, where there were single-family homes that are now guided for retail or mixed-use. We continue to make those acquisitions to make development possible. One opportunity we see on this site is it could fit a hotel and it could go as a standalone project. The utilities have been extended to the property; the actual infrastructure roadway is already there. So regardless if the 73-acre parcel moves forward, the EDA would have an option to potentially use as this property as a marketing strategy to attract a hotel to the site if we have ownership of it. And so at this point, we would be interested in that appraisal, see if it's an offer that we can financially afford, and then see if that would work kind of in our long-range game plan of trying to secure a hotel for our community. And I will say as well, the Convention and Visitors Bureau did hire a company called ChandlerThinks out of Nashville, Tennessee, who's doing our strategic planning efforts related to hospitality—the hospitality industry in Cottage Grove. And it is showing a very significant demand for a hotel. So if we did acquire the property and then go out for proposals for a hotel, we think there would be a very strong market and we'd have a lot of supporting data to support that effort. And so we think right now, I would say maybe the stars are all aligning maybe for us to bring a hotel. It obviously has very good visibility to Highway 61 and it has that connectivity to retail, which is also important. So at this point, this seems like our strongest possibility of being able to kind of have control and help thrust that market forward for a hotel here in Cottage Grove. Thank you. **[35:10] President Myron Bailey:** Thank you, Jennifer. G? EDA members, any questions at this point on request of the appraisal? I just have one... Baptist. **[35:19] Board Member Baptist:** Yeah, just one quick question. And obviously you don't need to provide any specifics, but have we been in talks with any sort of developer that had shown some interest in potentially developing a hotel within Cottage Grove? **[35:32] Jennifer Levitt (City Administrator):** Members of the EDA, that is a great question. Once our hotel study had been done and completed, which showed a very favorable response for about a 90-plus unit hotel, we have been in contact with them. So once we have the appraisal of the land, know what kind of valuation we're looking at, we'd be able to return to those same developers who were interested. And as you will talk to any hotel person, they will indicate the land price is the most critical component. And as I understand it, the first three years are very challenging in the hotel industry because of its vacancy rate as you start to build your customer base. Those first three years on their pro forma are very hard to achieve. And so for them, the only way to make up those losses in the first three years is through a more reduced or subsidized land sale price. And so that's most likely the way we would have to look at this—is entertaining that to be able to attract that hotel to our community. **[36:44] President Myron Bailey:** Yeah, maybe I'll just interject a little bit on that, too. We're not just—with all due, being clear, if you will—we're not looking like at a Motel 6 or something like that. We're talking about a business-class hotel that has... because we are hearing that from our business partners, that they're putting people even next door here at the Hero Center. All of those people that are coming to use this facility or visit our business park, they're all staying in Woodbury. And even when we have tournaments and things in town, we have one hotel. Which, just for those—well, I don't know who all has kids here—but the fact of the matter is, you know, if you're going to be going to a tournament, you want a hotel with a pool and, you know, a meeting room or something to have fun in with your group. And the only hotel we have right now that really has that is Country Inn & Suites, and they're pretty much booked all the time now. So that's the idea behind this—is to try to bring that more business-class hotel in that will be helpful to that. So all right, any other questions? Good question. All right, so before you then is a recommendation by motion. Who would like to take that one? **[38:08] Board Member Meyers:** I'll make the motion to authorize the appraisal of 9430 East Point Douglas Road South by BRKW Real Estate Valuation Services for a total cost of $3,200. **[38:22] President Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Board Member Meyers. Do I have a second? **[38:25] Board Member Scott:** I'll second the motion. **[38:27] President Myron Bailey:** Second by Board Member Scott. Any other discussions? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, G. **[38:40] Gretchen [Staff Member]:** Thank you. **[38:41] President Myron Bailey:** Thank you, Jennifer. All right, six is public hearings—we have none this morning. Seven is other business—we have nothing this morning. We don't have a workshop, which is eight. Nine is presentations—there are none. So guess what? We're all the way down to adjournment. So if you're good to adjourn, I'll look for a motion and a second on adjournment. **[39:05] Board Member Scott:** I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. **[39:08] President Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Board Member Scott. Do I have a second? **[39:11] Board Member Baptist:** Second that motion. **[39:13] President Myron Bailey:** Second by Board Member Baptist. All those in favor signify by saying aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? We're adjourned. Thank you, everyone, and thank you guys for coming. And just a remind— [Transcript ends]