We're 10 minutes total. I I forgot what Jamie said. Henry, that works. Um, if your presentation is a little longer, a little shorter, that's okay as well. Okay. Okay. Thank you. By the way, Mhm. They moved you around. They did. Did you see that? All you guys don't know where you're at now. I was going to say it's weird. I'm not on the end. All right. Good morning. Uh this is the June 17, 2025 Cottage Grove uh economic development authority meeting uh which I am calling to order. Our first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. Will you 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. Thank you. Will Becca do the uh roll, please? Uh EDA President Bailey, here. EDA Vice President Olsen here. EDA member Jean Baptiste here. EDA member Kabata, EDA member Latak here, EDA member Scott here, EDA member here. Thank you. And thanks everybody by the way for the delay from one week uh since uh at the last minute both council member Olson and I had something that came up that we weren't able to and it's not just the arm. Um so we appreciate everybody uh uh holding off one week. Uh next item is uh number four which is approval of the minutes for a is approval of the April 8, 2025 EDA meeting minutes. And if there's no changes or corrections, we do need a motion and a second. So moved. We have a motion by uh EDA vice president Olsen. Second. Uh seconded by EDA member Cheetah. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. All right. So, we have some business items today and we've got some that are online just for uh the EDA members. Uh the first one is uh under business items is A is the uh hotel room leakage analysis report. Um and HVS is who um did this for us and they're online. I'm not sure who I'm kicking it over to. Henry, I'll be taking it from here. Can I Henry? Okay. Uh Demer, good morning everyone. Let me introduce our team. I'm I'm Tom Hazinski. the managing director of HS Convention Sports and Entertainment. We're very pleased to have uh worked for you uh to do this analysis. We uh uh were our our Minneapolis office uh group has had done some work in the area and that's how we came on to uh understand what you needed and and be engaged. So uh leading the project were uh as Henry Demer and uh Tara Jane who uh did the line share the work on this. I I kind of oversaw it generally, but they are were in the weeds on the study. And so I am going to turn it over to Henry Antar to uh present our summary of our findings which uh uh were uh provided to you in a in a in a narrative report uh which I hope you have, but we'll we'll just go over the highlights of that report uh in our presentation today. So Henry, please take it away. Thank you, Tom. Uh, good morning everyone. Um, I apologize if my voice is a little bit coarse. I've been sick the last couple of days. Um, but hopefully it's not too bad. Um, so I'm going to be presenting our hotel room nights leakage analysis um, and our overall findings. Um, so just to give an overview of what we're going to get into today, just an introduction and a scope review of what we did. market overview and uh our hotel leakage analysis findings. Um and then I'll open it up uh for conclusion and discussion. Um so a little introduction of ourselves a HVSCSSE's division of HVS founded in 2001. Um, we pride ourselves as very independent and objective third party um, that's going to present the results and findings and not necessarily be a cheerleader on the project, but present you the real results that you need. Um, so getting into the market, Cottage Grove, as I'm sure you all know, is has a population of just around 40,000, a little bit more, and is a 17 minute drive from MSB airport. Um getting into some of the visitation numbers, which is really what we care about uh when we're talking about hotel room nights uh and hotel room nights leakage over the last 12 months, which is the unit of time that we're going to be using for all of this Placer data. Um, so over the last full 12 months, 99,500 distinctive overnight visits were made to Cottage Grove and uh this amounted to a little bit over 300,000 uh visit nights. So that's about 3 days on average length of stay. Um, and while while there's 300,000 visit nights, this doesn't necessarily mean that there's 300,000 uh heads and beds in Cottage Grove or because of Cottage Grove events. Uh, this is because there's a lot of family re related events in Cottage Grove and all of these may not result in hotel demand. Henry, if I could interject uh just to explain the data source that we used here. Uh Henry referenced Placer AI. It's a a data source that we subscribe to which is locationational data. It's done by tracking cell phones uh hundreds of apps on cell phones and the data is anonymized and it gives us uh a sample of people that have uh traveled to Cottage Grove. Uh and it gives us uh information on the origin of the travel, how long they stayed, uh and where they went uh when they were in the market. And uh so we uh it it is the these are estimates. uh I mean they they they don't track all cell phones and so they get a panel of phones and they they they also check it against uh other sources of data. they have like credit card information and um to validate but they it produces an estimate of total stays based on uh where these people come from the percentage of phones they have and uh it even tells us about their income average income and uh and a lot of other characteristics that are correlated with the with the data that they have. So that that's what we're that's our primary data source that we're using for this. We also are using uh Smith travel research data which is uh the industry source of data on hotel occupancy and rate. It's reported by the hotels to Smith travel and then again anonymously uh provided on groups of hotels to uh to people who subscribe to the database. So those are the primary sources that we're using. So um uh that's what you're seeing. So it it it keep in mind these are estimates. We think that they're we deem them to be pretty accurate, but uh you know they they they are estimates. So don't take the numbers to be exact. Take them with a with a as a a a good indicator of what total volumes of visits are and what the nature of the visits are. Go ahead, Henry. Thank you, Tom. Um yeah, so getting into some of the overnight visitor origins as we look at some of the top destinations that people are coming from. You see Duth and Mano at the top there. Um with 24,000 and a little over 19,000 respectively. Um and interestingly, Mano has a much higher uh length of stay than a lot of the other destinations we see like Duth, Chicago, Rochester. Um and then as you look down the list a little bit um Madison, Minneapolis, Fargo bringing in um a little bit less people, but those those are some of the obviously aside from Minneapolis um where it's a lot of day trips, but Fargo and Madison are a bit further destination. So um so as we look at leakage it's important to assess the current lodging supply in Cottage Grove. So there's currently two hotels. Um the country in Suites Cottage Grove which is an upper midscale property in terms of chain scale quality. Um and the way in suites which is economy and has about 31 additional guest rooms. So a total of 107 rooms. 76 of those are upper midscale um which is pretty limited um in Cottage Grove's ability to accommodate uh surges in visitation um for any event. Um, and there are currently no upscale, upper upscale or luxury chain scale properties, which is really what a lot of corporate travel and higher spending leisure travel is looking for um when they're visiting. Um so when we look at location of lodging supply and the quality we use EZRI here um to map our hotel data from STR um so this this is the lodging supply in Dakota and Washington counties and as you see there's kind of three um groupings around Cottage Grove of hotels and um that's in Woodbury Bur, Inver Grove, and Hastings. And uh you can see that there's a little bit more of a diverse spread um to their supply. You see there's an upscale. There's two upskills in a luxury in Woodbury. Um an upscale in Inenver Grove uh and a luxury in Inenver Grove. and then in upper upscale in Hastings. Um so yeah, that's just kind of a brief overview and it just kind of shows the surrounding supply where people might be link leaking to primarily. Um so get into our analysis. Um and so as we look at visitation and demand drivers in Cottage Grove, we grouped them up into uh three categories. Uh the first of which being wedding venues. Um so the Hope Glenn Farm, uh River Oaks Golf Course, the Madison, those were our primary wedding venues that we chose to um represent that part of the market. um corporate travel. We have 3M renewal um and a couple others which it doesn't catch the entire corporate um travel source in Cottage Grove, but these are the ones that we selected which give us a good representation of what the rest of visitation in Cottage Grove looks like. And then we have sports and recreation. Um, Cottage Grove Ice Arena, Kingston Park um, holds soccer tournaments, uh, events like the Strawberry Festival, um, Oakwood Park, Disc Golf, Hamlet Park. Um, we couldn't include Wolfpack Stadium because I'm aware that's on school grounds and uh, Placer isn't allowed to give data on um, school facilities. So, that's a limitation, but we think that these areas that we selected are representative of sports and recreation visitation as a whole in Cottage Grove. Um so we can get into the results a little bit here. So off the um hotel visits that we were able to track uh which is based on same day visitation. Um so if they went to one of these venues that we uh selected and then in the same day visited a hotel um we'll count them as having stayed in a hotel because typically if you go to a hotel you're uh going to be staying there. Um so business um and corporate travel has the highest percentage of leakage uh with 87% there as you can see. Um sports and recreation is close to 70% and then a lot of the wedding events uh and venues um don't have a lot of leakage. So a lot of a lot of those people are held in Cottage Grove uh at the country and in suites or the way. Um so overall for every 10 people approximately seven of them stay outside of college cottage growth just to put it simply. Um and as we discussed before leakage is highest in corporate and sports and recreation visitors. Um, so our estimate of room night leakage over the past the most recent full 12 months is about 58,000. Um, and this is based on uh the lodging capacity in Cottage Grove and the current uh room nights sold. So this is our estimate of how much is being retained in Cottage Grove currently. Um 24,000 room nights and then um scaling it up with our estimated hotel leakage factor which is based on the leakage percentage that we gathered from Placer AI. Um we we find that over 58,000 people are likely um staying outside of Cottage Grove as a result of Cottage Grove demand generation. Um and this is a rough estimate but um a likely conservative estimate. Um so moving on to what this estimated leakage means. Um so with an average daily rate of $125 in Cottage Grove, um the hotel revenue leakage is uh over 7 million. And at a 3% local occupancy tax rate, uh this equals over 220,000 in annual loss tax revenue. Um and in sales tax revenue over 20,000. Um so yeah, these numbers show that there is significant leakage occurring in Cottage Grove. Um so we can kind of move on to our conclusion uh and some of the takeaways. So the current supply of lodging in Cottage Grove of 107 rooms um is insufficient to meet um the lodging needs generated by um corporate activities, sports and recreation. Um, and a lot of this is leaking out. Um, 70% to be exact, which is a high number. And, um, over the last 12 months, this is over 58,000 uh, room nights. And this translates to over 7 million in lost hotel revenue and over 220,000 in lost uh, occupancy tax revenue. Um that is to say that we can't say anything in this study as to the um cause of this leakage. Um it may result from a variety of factors beyond just lack of hotel supply and this includes limiting uh limited surrounding demand drivers. um absence of nearby retail, dining or entertainment options, just general amenities in the city which are typically preferable for a lot of this corporate and um sports and entertainment travel. Um and additionally, this study makes no projection for the performance of new lodging supply. So it we make no projection for how it will perform if a new hotel gets built. Um so with that I can kind of open it up for discussion or questions. All right. Thank you. First of all I guess I'll I'll throw it out to the EDA. Is there any questions that you have regarding the study? Yes. Um Mr. attack. Thanks. Um, so one question I have for the business traveler is the loyalty program. Um, is that pretty important regarding where they're deciding to stay? Yes, it is. Uh, it it is a a driver of in in a couple of ways. It's a driver of uh hotel choice on the part of business travelers. uh they have their own personal uh loyalty programs. Uh most travelers are enrolled in more than one of those loyalty programs, but it it really uh is a big factor in the draw to uh branded hotels rather than independent hotels. Um also uh corporations like 3M or Anderson Renewal may have uh corporate contracts with hotels and uh they guarantee a certain number of room nights a year in exchange for a lower rate. So that's also a big determinant of uh where of of hotel choice. Um, so I think uh, you know, when you think about hotel development for Cottage Grove, uh, it would make sense to have branded hotel developments in Cottage Grove. Okay, other questions? Oh, yeah. Uh EDM member Scott, um is there a recommended number of rooms that you would recommend based on this study based on the leakage? um you know if we were going to build a hotel um as I was say as as Henry said um we haven't done the or we weren't really engaged to do the work that one would do to recommend uh a hotel room count uh because because that would be a a different analysis where we uh look at uh the performance of a competitive set of hotels, project their market performance and understand how a new hotel might penetrate that market. Uh so a lot of other factors besides leakage that factor into that. Um but I could I would without having done that analysis uh I would venture I guess that u the most appropriate product for cottage grow would be uh a quality select service hotel that's branded uh that has um uh advantageous rate uh location the specific site of the hotel is very important to how it would perform uh what kind of neighboring amenities ities have what kind of transportation access what kind of visibility all those questions would come into play to predict how an individual hotel might perform. Um but I I you know full service uh select service hotels you range from typically are 90 to 120 rooms um that you might see in a uh Mar Courtyard or Hilton Garden in or a Hampton u those kind of properties. So that that's would be the most likely type of development to succeed in in this market. I can if I may. Oh yeah, go ahead. Our 2022 study by our uh Minneapolis um office also recommended a 90 room limited service branded hotel for Cottage Grove. So that study has been conducted in 2022. I I was just going to share that I believe we did do our own our own study. Correct. Is that what she's reference referring to? Um, one of the things that uh uh uh council member EDA vice president uh Olsen and I just uh came back in May from the ICS convention in Las Vegas and met with a bunch of hotel years out there or developers and what we were hearing from them was exactly the numbers that you were just sharing. somewhere between 90 and 120 rooms for a business class hotel, but then also about 40 to maybe 60 rooms of extended stay. And so they were talking about kind of a almost like a duo brand if that would be the case. It doesn't have to be, but they were commenting that some of these brands might want a portion of the hotel to be like the business class type hotel and that with one lobby in the middle and then to the other side would be uh their version of an extended stay for that particular uh brand. So, I thought that was kind of interesting because I did see based on the study that uh Tariq, did I say her name right? Tariq. uh what Trico was mentioning, it sounds like I know there was a comment about extended stay and that same uh message that that due to things that are happening in our market area that that was something also that was important for our community. So, um just thought I'd throw that out there. We heard that very loud and clear um when we were at the international well whatever it's called now, but the IC uh convention in Las Vegas. Is there any other comments? I I do have one of Oh, yeah. Uh Mr. uh Jean Baptiste. Yep. So, in in your previous slide, you kind of had a map of the different uh types of hotel that are in the area. Um is there any concern uh given the level of consolidation in the hotel industry that we might have trouble pulling in uh one of those bigger brands, given that they're relatively concentrated in the area and might be worried about some sort of cannibalization um on their individual hotels? Yes, that that would be a concern. Uh and it depends on uh you know the developer of the of these hotels often seek a brand restriction within a radius around them. I my guess is that the radiuses uh around these hotels are pro probably don't extend into all of Cottage Grove. Uh I would be surprised. uh they probably uh the radius restrictions are probably within those circles that you see on the map uh roughly. So okay. Um and then there are also there's a wide variety of brands that are available brands that proliferated and so even if there were restrictions there's probably comparable brands that may be available. Got it. Thank you. The one the one thing great question the one thing I had a question on uh when the slide that you showed where the lot of the uh the perceived traffic is coming to uh into Cottage Grove. The only I can I I personally can take out of that with grandkids in uh sporting events when you look at like Mano and you look like Rochester and Duth and some of these places um knowing in Cottage Grove that we have a lot of these tournaments um that doesn't surprise me to a certain extent that a I mean is that what you feel um or does your data kind of state that that's the case that it's it is being driven predominantly um per se by at the moment anyway by sports events that are happening in Cottage Grove. Yes, I I I I think that is a predominant driver. Uh I um because um convenience and proximity and drive time and the kind of product that would be appropriate for cottage Grove would suit sports sports demand. problem is it's not um consistent. Uh you know it's tournaments occur typically on weekends. Uh they're seasonal and so uh it's not a constant daily source of demand but it's a very important source of demand. Um just uh I uh in support of Cottage Grove I had Anderson Renewal just come to my house to uh replace some windows in my basement. And so I asked the sales guy who came over and um whether I said, "Oh, you know, I'm working in Cottage Grove. It's where your headquarters are. Do you do you have to go there for training?" And he said, "No, we all do it here in the Chicago area." I was so disappointed that there wasn't a a direct connection, but you know, he obviously was very aware of that being their corporate headquarters, but um apparently uh Anderson doesn't, you know, at least for their Chicago people, they do their training in Chicago. I'm sure we know there's a lot of demand related to Anderson that does come to the market but uh I was hoping to find that direct connection but uh so I think capturing the corporate demand is much more difficult because uh of the brand loyalty that you you mentioned earlier and uh because of the quality of hotel and the lack of price sensitivity that uh uh corporate visitors may have. Uh, so it would be tough to build a product in in Cottage Grove. I think that would uh draw a lot of that demand back into Cottage Grove. It certainly would some, you know, capture some of it, but uh uh that that's tougher, I think, than the capturing the sports demand. Thank you. Jennifer, did you have something you want to add? Okay. Any other uh questions or comments for the these guys? No. All right. Great. Well, thank you uh thank you for the information. Um we do appreciate uh getting it kind of uh solidifies I think what we thought with were some of the the challenges but uh I do know that uh as I mentioned earlier when we were out in the ICS convention um all of this different data that we have been gathering for the EDA was very well received by all the different hotel years that were out there. Um and then for our group just you can hear this too, our group um you know we are working on an RFP uh for a hotel uh in Cottage Grove and matter of fact one of the the hotel years we met out there has already been to town uh to look at the site uh is planning to put in an RFP on the site and it would be a business class uh hotel. So that's great news. It does go to show the data that you provided to us as well as what we felt was the issues in Cottage Grove are absolutely uh there and uh hopefully we'll see something uh develop on that site uh uh within the next year. So awesome. Well, thank you guys. Uh we'll just get back to Henry. Hope you're feeling better. Yeah, thank you. Otherwise, right, thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Nice to work with you. Bye. Did you need us to take the report? It was just to receive it. To receive it. Yeah. Okay. So, you need a motion in a second. Oh, you don't. Okay. I just want to make sure I knew. All right. Um, moving on to B, which is the economic development update. And Jennifer will walk us through this one. Thank you, EDA president, members of the EDA. We'll start out with the beige book. Um, overall, the economy activity is lower since the last report across most sectors. Uh many business sectors are reporting hiring freezes and in some cases temporary layoffs. Prices have increased uh moderately since February. Construction had fallen overall, but it is beginning to pick up uh as the spring here is approaching. Uh manufacturing has increased modestly as companies move to buy now uh before prices rise. Yesterday, as we met with a broker, one of the observations he was making is that a lot of our retailers in the Midwest market had kind of I'll say gone dormant, right? they weren't making investments um and were kind of holding their position. He said right now he's starting to see a lot of that those retailers start to emerge more with an interest to expand in the market. So uh that is good news. Also anecdotally from Cottage Grove when we look at our single family housing stock, it is still going very strong. So that is one good news for us is when you see those platted lots, we see those new housing permits come in. Um that activity is still very good. So helping our local economy. Um speaking of our local economy, uh Lumberman's is working on uh their buildout. Um if you recall, there's two buildings that North Point has. Uh Lumberman's was in the smaller building and now they've moved to the larger building and so they are starting to uh complete their tenant improvements with their carpet and floor tiles being laid, the ceiling grid, uh plumbing fixtures are being installed, uh and working on their conference room. I did meet with North Point on Friday. The good news is that larger building where Lumbermans is now uh being located. They believe they're close to securing another tenant uh that is kind of a partner with Lumberman's. And so we hope to see um that actually come in the door for a building permit uh here shortly. So still leaving some vacant space there. Uh but exciting to see that those spaces are filling up and that Lumbermans obviously is growing. uh blue stem. This was that deeply affordable um housing product uh that is right across from the Grove 80 in the library. We had an exciting ribbon cutting there earlier this spring. Right now they are just finishing up their exterior work and we'll be issuing a full CO here uh shortly and then working on their business subsidy. Um the low zone water treatment plant. Now, a big thing to note, um, when you start to, uh, have a glass of water from Cottage Grove this week, you will be drinking treated water coming from this very facility, uh, the council did tour the facility, uh, two weeks ago, just before we became operational. So, this week, we are hopefully flowing treated water uh, to residents um, in these interesting blue uh, tanks here in the top left screen. What's very interesting is there is a Brazilian green sand in there that actually helps uh take out the magnes um in that. And so that was actually one of the things that was delaying uh the plant from coming on was that green sand from Brazil. So you never know when you uh deal with projects where all of your products are going to be coming from. uh we had some controls that were uh stuck in France and so I mean it's exciting to kind of see even the global market right here in Cottage Grove on a water treatment plant. Uh public works has a very small um renovation that's taking place in their shop. We're taking out an interior wall so that we can bring in a larger hoist uh to enable our fleet team to be able to service some of our larger vehicles, you know, fire trucks, apparatus like that, uh and plow trucks. And so that work is underway. When it comes to schools around town, you're probably starting to see a lot of activity up in the Ultman area. Um they are starting construction on the building addition there. um the council will be a uh or they just awarded the um Ultman uh ball field and um playground and so that project will start as well. So if you're up in the Ultman area, you'll see actually our project activities start with the um park and then you're also seeing the building improvement take place. When it comes to Park High School, you've driven by Adia Street and you've seen all of the chain link fence all the way along uh to Crest View. Uh a couple of things that are happening there. One is there's a very extensive new drive being constructed between the um tennis courts and Crest View. So, you're going to see that road alignment start to come out to 80th Street. And then uh as part of our project in 2026 on 80th Street, we'll install the churn lanes that will go for that. But right now, if you're out there, you'll start to see some demolition work, but you're also starting to see a lot of that um civil work with the pipe work and stuff start to be delivered to site. So, um, that's what's all happening there if your neighbors are asking. Um, just a friendly reminder, I know you've received the invite. Uh, horse, their grand opening is on Wednesday. And yes, it is from 1 to 10. That is not a typo. Um, I guess they really, uh, like to, I would maybe say party then, uh, because, um, they're bringing in their team, uh, a German-made, uh, product, uh, in agricultural. And so, uh, it's exciting that they're here in Cottage Grove. So, if you have an opportunity to stop by, welcome them to the community. You'll have a fairly significant time slot uh to do that on Wednesday. And I would be happy to stand for any questions. All right. Thank you, Jennifer. Any questions for Jennifer Love it? No. All right. Thanks, Jennifer. All right. We'll move then to C, which is the resolution modification 2024-01. And Tammy, I believe you're taking this one. Thank you, President Bailey and um EDA members. My name is Tammy Anderson and I have the honor of being the city clerk for the city of Cottage Grove. I'm not used to standing right here. I'm usually over where Becca is. So, this is kind of nice though. I could get used to this. Um today I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what clerk responsibilities are. And one of my responsibilities as clerk would be to make sure that I um have clear, transparent, and legal records that go forward for future generations that reside in Cottage Grove. And during an audit 3 weeks ago, we discovered that um two resolutions that were presented to the EDA in 2024 had the same resolution number. The first one was presented on January 9th of 2024 and it was approving a modification to the development program for development district number one and adopting a tax increment financing plan for tax increment financing in district number one through 21 and that was regarding roars. Then we found another one with the same resolution number as I stated before 202401 which was approved by DDA on February 13th of 2024. And that resolution was approving the first amendment to a purchase agreement and it was in regards to quick trip. So after consulting with our city attorney Corey Land, we came up with the solution. Um and that recommendation is before you today and I stand for any questions. So it's just a formality kind of situation. You just need an update to make sure that the two aren't equal. Y okay. So, uh, with that, uh, just looking for somebody to make a motion in a second, unless you have any questions. Okay. I motion to adopt resolution 2024-014, correcting a numbering error in our official records, ensuring clarity and accuracy for a previously approved action related to purchase agreements with Glendoning Farms and Quick Trip. All right. So, we have a motion by EDM member Baptiste. Do I have a second? Second. Oh. Uh, that was um Cheetah, Mr. Cheater. Okay. Uh, second by Ed member Cheetah. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Now, we'll move on to D, which is 9430 East Point Douglas Road purchase agreement. And back to Jennifer. Well, thank you. Um, we've talked a lot this morning about hotels, and we're going to continue that theme. Um as the city council had looked at the strategic plan uh in January of this year um we knew there was a need uh for a hotel. I mean we had estimated the leakage you know through our Chandler thanks project. We knew that there was a drive and a driver and a need for a hotel here in Cottage Grove. Um one of the unique opportunities that presented itself is that there is a 3.59 acre site uh adjacent to Walmart um that is owned by the Ross family. they have been interested uh in selling um and so we have been engaged with them to negotiate a purchase agreement. You'll recall you previously approved in an appraisal uh to be conducted um on the property. The property is zoned uh residential today but is guided as mixed use. So it would support um a hotel uh and be compliant. the city did hire um our consultant to make sure that a hotel would actually fit on the site itself. And so what you have demonstrated here is that a 90 room hotel um would fit on the site um and that uh it would be conducive to that. We are undergoing a phase one environmental on the site right now. That report should be completed at the end of June and with that we're looking at additional assessments in soil borings. Um the leakage study uh that was just presented will be sent to all of those that are currently holding our RFP. Um the RFP for the hotel would be due uh at the end of August. And so we would be bringing most likely a proposal to you in September uh to discuss an acceptance of a proposal to start the acquisition uh uh process. So the intent with your action today is for the EDA to actually buy the Ross property. Um and then our intent is to do the demo work on the house, the well, the septic, um and if there's any environmental work, we would take care of that. So that way there before we close um with a hotel investor, uh those things would be done. So we are trying to make it as easy as possible uh for a hotel to come in on this site. We also believe when you look at uh the adjacent 73 acres, this might be that catalyst or that spur to help uh bring additional uh investment on that 73 acres. In talking with a couple of the hotel companies, um they do like the visibility from Highway 61. Um and so that prominent um visibility and easy access is very attractive to them. One of the other things too is we did receive federal funds of just over 3 million uh for the shops of Cottage View related to infrastructure. We would anticipate starting that work in the spring to construct the spur road into this and then realign uh the a road going into uh Walmart and then we would provide the sewer and water services as well. So, um it's as easy as we can make it for a developer making it shovel ready um the day they would sign on the dotted line for the acquisition. So, with that, I do have a purchase agreement in your packet uh with Martha Ross for that purchase of the 3.59 acres. And I'd be happy to stand for any questions. All right. Uh EDA members, any questions for Jennifer at this point? Oh, yes. U Mr. for uh uh back pieced. Y um I'm assuming we have site control for the piece of land where the shops at Cottage Grove would be already. Is that correct? Uh currently the 73 acres is currently under option to River Catis. Um and so I'm not sure if he's going to continue to extend his option on the property. Uh but it is under option by someone at this time. So even if our project moves forward, it would be a catalyst for that uh end user um who holds that option or if he relinquishes it, it could give an opportunity to another investor to uh pursue acquisition on that 73 acres. Got it. And do we know when our current option expires? I'm not sure the exact deadline. That is a private uh agreement uh between the broker and the land owner. Got it. And then um there was a couple other lots surrounding both shops at Cottage Grove as well as where the hotel is going to be. Looks like there are, you know, a small piece of land to the left and then one to the right. Um do we have any interest in those or are those up for sale or is there any plan to develop those as well? Uh that's a good question. The lot to the left of the 3.5 acres, that's a storm water pond. So it's an outlet. It's owned by the city. Um the other parcel that's not highlighted here um it could be included in the shops at Cottage View. It's maybe just an error in my graphic. It's actually under a separate um entity, a different LLC. And so it actually uh goes together. It's the same underlying land owner. It's just two different uh companies that own it, but it's the same land owner. So it probably should have been shaded on the graphic. So I'm sorry for that. Oh, no. No worries. That makes perfect sense. And then my last question is for the shops at Cottage Grill. I think I've seen some renderings that originally had a hotel as a part of that. Um, is that still the case? Would we duplicate and have two hotels or we just do something else with that space? I think it would be in the bottom right corner now that we are, you know, hopefully going to purchase this 3.59 acre lot and have that as the hotel. Um, in my perfect world, I would love to see that 90 unit uh hotel, you know, like a Marriott brand um type uh hotel come in and you might then have an extended stay hotel, maybe purchase the land adjacent. It gives that um opportunity for restaurants, you know, more upscale restaurants that were lacking in our community, uh potentially to be attracted to the site. So, we think all of that um is going to make this uh acquisition a great catalyst to make all of that happen. Okay. Uh yes. Um AD member LTE. Thanks. So, for the 3.59 acres, um I'm curious if we go back to the map. Um the property on the other side of the road that may not be super useful to a hotel. Would that be able to almost be resold as a gas station, quickserve restaurant or something like that? Uh, just for clarification, I Are you referring to this little triangular piece? Yeah. Yep. Or is it too small to do anything? Actually, we'll be cleaning up that up as right. So, East Point Douglas, we would secure the rightway uh for that and then the DOT would actually take that little sliver uh there. So, we would have to clean up that rightway as part of this acquisition in the plat. But good question on that. Okay. Uh any other questions? All right. I will say just one thing real quick just it was some great questions down there about the the plat because I've been part of knowing about this from probably the very beginning. Um there was at the very beginning uh the owners of the shops at Cottage View, the heringers were actually going to well they had an agreement so to speak with the Rosses years and years and years ago that as things were developed on that site that they would go in and um whatever Jerry at that time Jerry's past uh was selling his uh when he was selling his property he would also help buy the Ross as well. Jerry passed away. Uh Jim Ross passed away. And so we just decided after a conversation I had with Mary is that it would just be a good idea for us to go ahead and do it because right now as you kind of heard uh things have been kind of stagnant on that site with the current um option that's out there. Um, the other piece of the difference I think on that that screen that you were showing is at the time Jerry when he was alive actually purchased that other square uh on the corner. And what what's nice about that to be honest with you is uh when Walmart came in and did the deal with the heringers, Walmart put a bunch of restrictions on what can go in down there. And so as part of the deal, I mean, for example, I don't believe there can be a a grocery store uh in any of that bigger parcel there if there was a need for a grocery store. And so this area down on the bottom there where the cursor is right now, that area has no restrictions because that came was purchased and came on board uh with the heringers after the agreement with um Walmart. So, just giving you a heads up on uh that there's all these tentacles of things that can uh be a challenge with some of these sites, but uh hopefully uh we'll see something uh develop in there other than what we're proposing to do with this one site. So, good question. All right. Um if no other questions on this topic, uh we'll look for a motion and a second on uh the purchase agreement. Mayor, I'll move to authorize the EDA president and city administrator to execute the purchase agreement with Martha Ross for the purchase of 3.59 acres for development purposes. All right, so we have a motion by EDA vice president Olsen. Do I have a second? Second. All right, EDA member uh second by EDA member Scott. Uh any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Right. Now we'll move to E, which is the 2025 U. Facade improvement program. And Jamie is going to walk us through this one. Thank you, EDA president, vice president, members of the board. Um, I'm happy to announce we have three applications this year for our facade improvement program. Um, but we'll start out with a little bit of history on the program. So, it started with the city in 2019 as a way to beautify um, commercial stock in the city. It is a grant that is a 50% match, so it's up to $25,000. Um, but they have to provide $25,000 in investment into the upgrades as well. And it's meant to keep our commercial stock beautiful within the city. Uh, we do have criteria um for the awards. Um, it has to be based in the city. Obviously, it's meant to encourage improvements to surrounding businesses and improve attractiveness. Uh, it has to be compliant with city codes. Um and local businesses are given priority over retail chains and if a business has been awarded a grant previously they can apply but priority is given to new applicants. Um we do have priority zones within the city of Cottage Grove. You can see them on the map here. Uh the green in our uh higher density areas for commercial and retail um is shown in the green. It's along 80th Street East Point Douglas along with Jamaica and East Point Douglas. And then we do have priority zone 2 which is in the blue shown on your map. Um which are a couple areas along 70th Street and then West Point Douglas Road as well. So the grant um the EDA has we have budgeted for two um facade improvement grants this year. So we have a $50,000 budget in the 2025 EDA budget. um with that um all the work needs to be performed before we pay out the dollars. So they pay for everything. They submit the paid invoices to us and then it's a reimbursement to them for up to 50% of the costs. Um you'll see estimates on the future screens that I have here. Um we base the dollars we pay on their final cost. So, those are just estimates at this point. Um, as we move through the three projects, the first one that came in was 80th Street Crossing. This is where Pizza Hut um, Basic Needs, Ace Hardware is. They are in priority zone one. Their total estimated project costs are just over $75,000. There's a list of what they plan to include uh, on the screen for you, and they are requesting the full grant match of $25,000. Um, they also requested design assistance to go out and do the final design. And we allow up to $2,000 in design assistance to businesses that apply for that as well. The second that came in is Sherwin Williams. Um, they do have a rendering, the photo on the bottom right of your screen is the rendering of what they're looking to do along with um list of the extensive list of what their project plan includes. They are requesting just over $75,000 for this or their estimated project costs are just over $75,000 and they are requesting the full grant match as well. They did not request design assistance because they've done that inhouse. Uh our third application was for Boondocks. Now there have been some ongoing code violations with Boondocks. Um and they did not have complete estimates. So, they submitted uh estimated project costs of just over $21,000 asking for a 50% um grant funding at that. They did not submit quotes as the other two applicants have. Um but they did request design assistance. Um they are looking at their biggest cost for the project being leveling their parking lot, which is not included in our grant program. we have um ineligible expenses such as parking lots, replacing lighting uh in parking lots and things like that. Um so a big portion of their grant request was for that ineligible expense. So with that, I have a few motions before you, but I'd be happy to stand for any questions about any of the three projects. Okay. Uh thank you Jamie. So um each of these will be a separate motion. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. Is there any um questions? Uh Council Member uh Ed, Vice President Olsen. Thank you, Jamie. Thanks for the update here. Um I was aware of all of these uh previous to the presentation. Uh but I'm grateful that we got some further detail here on what everybody's looking for. Uh one of the things you mentioned earlier in your presentation was we try to prioritize those local businesses, which I think is absolutely the right thing to do. Uh, one of the questions that I would ask though is when you work with a local business, uh, in many cases you're working with a single owner, um, you know, maybe two owners, uh, much smaller infrastructure than you'd get say if you're working with a corporate entity. Um, do we help them with their submission? In other words, when they express interest and they say, "Uh, hey, I heard about this program. I I I really would like to get involved, but I'm not quite sure what to do." Do we do any um advising or uh provide any sort of support in terms of applicant submitt make sure that it's, you know, buttoned up the right way so that they can uh hopefully, you know, gain some sort of award. And the reason I'm asking the question is I I think back to um our our COVID time frame and uh at that time we had a number of local businesses at risk of uh you know shutting down because of the the changes in the market caused by the COVID pandemic and we did a lot of handholding. Um, you know, I I recall our former economic development uh uh director, Christine Costello, um, literally going and sitting down with people and taking out the little piece of paper and okay, here's what you fill out here, here's what you fill out there. I'm just wondering, I know that that's very timeconuming and staff time is uh definitely something that um, you know, we have to watch closely. Do we do we help to get these folks tracking the right way? Uh, thank you, EDA, Vice President Olsen. Uh, it is an option available to businesses. Um, I actually met with the Sherwin Williams group before they did their submitt to talk through the process. Um, answer any questions they might have. So, if they do let us know, they are looking for assistance, we are more than happy to help. Um, thinking about the boondocks, uh, one of the things that was mentioned to me on a visit here uh, about a month month and a half ago is that they uh, were pursuing this. They mentioned that they were pursuing this and that they had a meeting set up with our former EDA director. Do you happen to know if that meeting ever took place? I am not sure on that one. I can look back to a calendar to see if it's out there. Maybe that's maybe that's a wise decision because um when you mentioned that they had some things that they were looking to to do and uh that those things weren't eligible. Um, I would hope that if they did have that meeting that would have been discussed with them, but um, I just would like to know whether or not that meeting actually took place or not because if it didn't, maybe we need to do a little handholding there that we hadn't done in the past. Just a thought. That's all I have. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh, any other questions on the three? All right. So, uh, if if there's no other questions, uh, if you if somebody is interested, we can start with, uh, number one. Uh, we will need a motion in a second for each of these. I can make a motion. Um, I make a motion that we award VP Investments LLC, owners of 80th Street Crossing, an award letter for the submitted project with matching funds of up to $24,999 for any eligible expenses as part of the city of Cottage Grove facade improvement grant program and $2,000 in design assistance. All right. So, I have a motion by ED member Scott. Do I have a second? Second. Second by uh ED member Gene Baptiste. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Um, who would like to take number two? I can. All right. Mr. Cheetah. I move that we award Allison LLC company Kin Properties owners of the Sherwin Williams building an award letter for the submitted project with matching funds up to $24,999 for any eligible expenses as part of the city of Cottage Grove facade improvement grant program. All right. So I have a motion by EDA member Cheetah. Do I have a second? A second. Second by uh EDA vice president Olsen. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. And last, number three. Yep. Go ahead. A motion to award Boondock's Vintage Boutique an award letter for design assistance for the submitted project of up to $2,000 for any design work procured by a licensed design professional to assist with the creative design for their FICADE facade improvement grant program application. There you go. Uh so we have a motion by ED member LTE. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by ED member Scott. Any further discussion on this? Yes, sir. Uh, EDA, Vice President Olsson, thank you. As I mentioned earlier, um, I'd be curious if that meeting did take place and, uh, you know, what additional support we may be able to provide to this local business. Uh, I'd like to just remind people that one of the owners of this business um, had a terrible tragedy in their family here um, in the not too distant past. and that may have been um something that would have prevented them from maybe dotting the eyes and crossing the tees to the degree that they needed to. So, if we can just follow up with that uh you know see if there's any additional support we can provide. Um I would sure like to see that happen. All right. So, we have a motion to second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you everyone. Uh we'll move to F, which is the National Community Survey Report. Uh Phil, you're going to walk us through this one. Yes. Good morning, President EDA president, Vice President, and members of the board. Uh very excited. You've you've heard a lot of information today, a lot of data, a lot about some different topics. So, I'm very excited to uh present you with a little bit more data from our our very own residents and talking about the uh results of the PCO National Community Survey which was recently conducted. Uh before I get into the slides, it's just important to note that there is a lot of information in the full survey report uh that I have copies of if anyone would like that in physical form or emailed. Um the slides that I have before you are shortened from the full presentation if you will just in the interest of time and also focusing on topics that u the EDA board might be interested in. Having said all of that, there's a lot more information available that I'd be happy to discuss or provide you with the full report uh as a follow-up to to this morning. So all households with all households within Cottage Grove were eligible to to participate in this survey. Uh the city used and PCO used GIS boundary files provided by the city and addresses located outside of Cottage Grove boundaries were removed from the list of potential households for this survey. From that list, 3,000 addresses were randomly selected to receive the survey. And of those 3,000 randomly selected households, they received mailings beginning on March 20th, 2025. And the survey remained open for uh six weeks. The first mailing was a postcard inviting the households to participate in the survey. And the sec, excuse me, the next mailing contained a cover letter with instructions, the five-page survey questionnaire, and postage paid return envelope. both the postcard and cover letter uh included a web link to uh give residents the opportunity to respond to the survey online. All follow-up mailings asked those who had not yet completed the survey to do so and those who had already done so to not respond twice. Uh the survey and all mailings were also available in English and Spanish and a total of 483 completed surveys were received from these efforts. uh that provided a response rate of 16% and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It's very worth noting that nationally uh we are hearing that survey responses are down uh and that we at that 16% uh response rate and margin of error rate uh is higher than that national average and or better than that national average. and so happy to report that that our residents are clearly engaged and responding to surveys even though survey fatigue nationally may be a real thing. Uh in addition to the randomly selected uh probability sample of households, a link to an online open participation survey was published by the city. Uh in the following uh slides, you're going to see uh words like uh in comparison to benchmark communities. So those are communities all across the country that have filled out the national community survey and how we rank against them. So you'll see words like higher, lower, similar. Uh just for point of reference, uh the methodology that PCO uses defines higher as 10 percentage points higher than an average. Uh lower is 10% at least 10 percentage points lower. And similar is within that that range. And so when you see we've ranked higher than the average, similar or lower, you kind of have an understanding of what that actually means. So in the survey, in addition to many other topics, uh we had two questions that asked directly about community livability. The first asks residents to rate the quality of each. And you can see the resulting comparison to the national benchmark in the shading on the chart. So where we rank higher uh in kind of that darker green, similar in that well lighter green and lower in an even lighter green. [Applause] The second question asks about the same facets of live livability but is centered on how important residents think it is for the community to focus on each facet in the in the coming two years. Uh I personally really appreciate this particular uh data point because it's really important as a city is a lot of things to a lot of people and provides a lot of services uh with limited time, limited staff resources and other resources. It's very important insight to see if somebody thinks u you know safety or the economy or utilities is of high or medium or low quality. Uh where do they rank it on a scale of importance? Hey, I think that this thing needs to be improved and I also think it's really important to focus on that or I don't necessarily think this thing needs to be improved um but it's not as important to me. So that is very interesting insight in terms of how we prioritize our time moving forward. The next slide is just another representation visually of that uh gap if you will importance to quality. Um, PCO put those put this together this gap analysis chart uh which is used to help determine which areas are of relatively higher importance and lower quality to residents. This chart is one of many ways to interpret the data and can be used to identify key findings and help uh determine which areas may need additional focus uh or resources allocated in the coming years and which others are performing well by comparison. So you see here some standouts are the economy, utilities, community design, uh and again just another I think interesting visual representation of that relationship between opinions on quality and importance. So in terms of the economy in Cottage Grove um which the EDA board may be uniquely interested in in learning about uh we saw that the importance slide earlier 86% of residents emphasized an importance on focusing on the economy ranking second among the 10 facets. The overall economic health of Cottage Grove was rated positively by about six and 10 residents as was the overall quality of businesses and service establishments. Cottage Grove as a place to work followed at 49% ranking lower than the benchmark highlighting other potential areas of focus. Ratings were also lower than the national benchmark for the variety of business and service establishments at 36% and Cottage Grove as a place to visit. An important note on uh variety of businesses and establishments, uh we also had a couple open-ended questions. What would you like to see changed or added, I believe was the phrasing in that one particular question. And we have a lot of, you know, written responses to that open-ended question about what people are looking for. Uh, it's a little bit of an unwieldy spreadsheet to print out, but I do have those results and you see a lot of common themes uh that support kind of that talking point of uh people are looking for a variety in businesses in the community. Also worth mentioning is that custom question that uh the city developed and added into that survey uh where residents shared open feedback on anything they would like to see improved or added. uh and while those verbatim responses are not coded uh and analyzed as you see in this slide as I said that uh those survey responses are available um and support um people's opinions on wanting that variety of businesses here we have some information regarding taxes and services a lot of information on this particular slide here and a lot of interesting feedback uh when asked about their opinion relating to taxes and services in Cottage Grove about a third of residents uh that respond responded um uh are have a positive opinion about our taxes uh here in the city of Cottage Grove. Fewer residents expressed willingness to accept uh lower taxes at 34% uh or excuse me 34% said that they're satisfied with the current level of taxes in Cottage Grove. And a similar proportion, 32% uh felt they pay too much uh in taxes for the level of service they receive. uh and e even yet 15% um are willing to or excuse me 11% are willing to pay more or fewer taxes um to to get those services. Uh a small share reported having no preference at 5% or having held an opinion that's not listed at 3%. Uh for additional context, we also see here the ratings for one of the default survey questions which asked residents to rate the value of services for taxes paid to Cottage Grove. The results showed that 9% of respondents rated this item as excellent, uh 44% as good, 27% as fair, and 20% as poor. For benchmark comparison purposes, uh PCO combined the excellent and good ratings to represent an overall quote unquote positive uh percent positive in this case, giving us a 53% positive rating, which ultimately ranked similar to other communities nationwide. And then in terms of city priorities, when I referenced those custom questions that we added into the survey, uh one of the questions or or in those custom questions sought some insight into longer term focus for the city. Uh among the options provided, residents placed the largest priorities on focusing on uh utilities. So that's 97% uh at high or medium priority, fire and EMS, transportation, police, and then of course economic prosperity. Hey, Phil, I'm going to stop you for a second. The fire and EMS uh color coding on 68%. What does that represent? Uh Vice President Olsen, it's a good point. Uh this is something that I actually caught yesterday that I didn't correct in this slide because I was working on a different presentation for tomorrow night, but that's just a coloring error. Uh that should be the blue high priority. Oh, thank you. Yeah. So, with that, uh I'll stand for any discussion or questions. As I said at the beginning, a lot that that already was a lot of information, and there's even a lot more uh in the full report, uh that I'd be happy to give you as a follow-up. All right, sounds good. Thank you. Thanks for presenting it. Uh uh EDA, Vice President Olsson, you had additional item you want to ask? I do. Thank you. This is the first time we've used Poco. Uh we've done community surveys like this in a variety of manners for as long as I've been a member of the city council and even before that when I was on the public safety health and welfare commission and we've we've tried a lot of different ways to extract uh what we felt would hopefully be valuable information um from surveys. How do you feel about the methodology and um the data capture that that we got using this method versus the number of different ways we've we've done it in the past. I'm sure you've done a little bit of looking back even though you weren't here but um you know a lot of members of the staff uh certainly have been for quite some time. Uh do you feel it was better? do you feel it was um valuable etc. Vice President Olsen, uh, EDA president and members, that's a good question. And while I can't very specifically speak to, you know, methodologies that were used in the past, I can definitely speak to this experience using PCO. And I think that overall, you know, any survey is going to have, you know, I mentioned a percentage of margin of error, uh, response rates thing, how people respond. There's always going to be a little bit of an element of, uh, imperfection, right, in in any survey that you conduct. my perception of PCO as a a vendor uh highly professional, very engaged, very responsive. And so our project manager, our um our experts who designed the survey uh were excellent to work with and very responsive to our feedback, our push back, our questions, and so on and so forth. Uh I also think I was probably bothering our project manager during the survey as I was asking him very frequently how we were doing, what our responses looked like, and what our response rate looked like. uh and he was very gracious in his time in responding to me. And so I think both the survey survey methodology um makes a lot of sense to me. You know, they're they're they're using a survey that is used all across the country. I believe it's something like 500 some communities nationally. And so not only do you have a solid again with that caveat of every survey is going to have a level level of imperfection to it, I have a lot of confidence in the survey itself and the responses we received via the methodology used just on its own. But then also understanding that that survey is used almost verbatim. I mean the communities are allowed to tweak things like we remove the word sheriff because we don't you know the county provides the sheriff not the city. But the overall survey is more or less the same because they want, you know, trust in data when you compare against those 500 communities nationally. And so I have a lot of confidence in this survey itself and also appreciate how their their methodology applies to other communities across the country. Uh and then just to to end uh my experience in in in my prior uh job, I would have loved I would have dearly loved to have the resources to to conduct a survey such as this because uh one thing that we that we gleaned with this survey through the open-ended question, which I'm very glad we asked it on on communication methods, and obviously as the city's communications manager, I'm very selfishly uh interested in people's responses to how we communicate and how they feel about it. Um, it's hard to always understand, you know, when we send out a newsletter to thousands and thousands of addresses that takes a lot of time to put together, a lot of staff resources across multiple departments, a lot of cost in terms of postage and mailing. Is that worth it? Are people reading it? Do people find value in it? It's it's hard to know, right? you create it and you'd like to think that it's important and people read it and find value in it and then lo and behold they respond to an open-ended question about uh communication platforms and the newsletter cottage connect emails things that stood out as very common themes of how people responded. I was very pleased to hear that uh hey this thing we're spending a lot of time and effort on across so many different departments that people seem to actually value it. Um, and so there's a long way around of saying that in my previous job, I would have loved to have had that similar insight into what we were doing and why we weren't always able to do that sort of thing just because everyone's got limitations on resources. So hopefully that answers your question. It does. Thank you very much. And and again, you know, as I look back at um making phone calls, you know, use using that sort of methodology, uh we've done the community conversation surveys and uh tried to kind of catch people where they are and we had chalkboards all over town and did a bunch of different things. Um you know, I was excited when we talked about PCO because precisely as you said, they have a benchmark and they work with so many other communities. I thought it would give us a a more valid snapshot of how do we look versus similar communities across the country and I think we achieved that objective but methodology is everything when it comes to surveys. It's the manner in which you ask the question. Um, how do you interpret the data? And of course, we spent a lot of time before the survey even went out kind of dissecting what do we want to ask? What do we not want to ask? How do we want to try to gather this information? So, I was hopeful that from your seat, you felt comfortable with it. Sounds like you did. And uh that means that you know the data can be utilized moving forward as we get into the budget conversations and things to kind of guide our decision-m process which is really the point. So thank you again for the presentation and thanks for your feedback. Okay. Uh EDM members, any other questions at this point on the survey? Um I just have one question. Uh when was the survey performed? Yeah, you had a slide on it. I do. Yeah. Uh March 20th to May 1st. Okay. I was going to guess late March to May and I would have the dates wrong off the top of my head. So I'm glad I pulled that out, but it's a great question. Does that answer your question, M? Yeah, thank you. I appreciate. Yeah, it's funny too because the other thing, you know, I'll this is just me personally uh on two things. One is what I think we also learn is whatever's happening at the time of the survey will possibly dictate some of the the items that you're asking for in the survey. So when you kind of look at the economy kind of thing, I guess you could probably see because there was concern about tariffs and rising prices and all that. So I just throw that in there as as something I thought was interesting. And then um though statistically and typically Cottage Grove has been higher um on survey response rates, I'm still not personally happy with the lack of total survey responses, if you know what I mean. That's just me again. It's I know statistically they're saying we're higher than, you know, uh the the national average, but I'm just like Jesus, we just can't uh get enough people to give us feedback. You know what I mean? So, that's just those are just the two things. I mean, the information that was provided was very good. I have not had a chance to see the the comments yet. I know you're putting that together. Um, though I've been told on on a few of them, uh, of what some of the items are, but uh, I will be interested to kind of see what the, you know, what people are saying in a general open-ended question kind of comment with regards to communication. What do they want to see in Cottage Grove, you know, restaurants, things like that. So, okay. Any other questions on this one? Thanks. Awesome. Thank you. And then, uh, last under business news is housing and redevelopment authority preliminary 2026 levy adoption, and that is, um, administrator Levit. Well, I have to say, EDA, I wear a lot of hats in the city, but I have never worn the finance director hat before. So, um I am going to put uh the finance director's hat on on this presentation. So, um that's my uh intro to say go easy on me. Um if you want to talk about uh streets, plowing, development, I'm all there. Um on the finance, um just throw me the softballs this morning is all I ask. Uh so to start with, uh we are looking at the EDA levy uh once again uh for this year. We obviously adopted our first levy uh last year. The way our EDA is set up and structured does permit uh for a levy for EDA activities and HA activities. So if you think about that as economic development, redevelopment and housing and affordable housing. So a good example of that uh redevelopment uh element related to um affordable housing is trellis. So, we talked about that deeply affordable subsidizing. Um, you know, we've been talking to real estate equities once again bringing affordable units, uh, apartments into our community. So, that's looking at your HA activities. So, on EDA, that's when we look at the TIFF redevelopment for, uh, properties that may be blighted, um, or properties, uh, that have environmental challenges that we can bring to the table there. So, uh, for last year's levy, or I should say in this year's active levy for 25, we had a levy of 137,500. Uh, to remind you, our statutory maximum was $1.2 million. So, uh, what we are proposing for the EDA levy in 26, which we will take to council in July, would be for 182,500. So, uh, that is not in your purview, but that would be the city council taking action. And that's where we're uh looking at that recommendation. When we look at the levy for the EDA that you would be taking um action on today is the HA levy portion. Now remember that calculation of how we get to that 1.22 million is based on a percentage of our market value which is limited by that. 0185%. Um and that's for payable taxes in 26. We will be holding a public hearing on the levy. Uh it's an evening meeting by state statute on December 2nd at 6 PM. So mark your calendars. We do need a quorum for that. But what what we are proposing today is to just increase the levy from that 1375 to 142,500. So uh just over uh 3.5% increase uh for the levy. trying to track with that uh financial management plan that we had put together a couple years ago to continue to grow that base. Now, one of the interesting things is you heard in the PCO study a few interesting points. One is when you look at what people desire in the community for economic development, it was like 89% and where they believe our quality is is at 54%. So you saw one of the largest gaps in the survey, what our residents are desiring are uh more economic development activity. And so just a reminder that um the EDA levy plays a a critical role in that. One of the other elements in the study that uh we didn't highlight today was related to affordable housing. I think we were um below the market uh nationally of what people want and need in affordable housing. So our residents have said affordable housing is important to us. And so uh when you look at your HR levy, you now have the statistical data to show how important um affordable housing is. And then as the body of work that you do as the EDA, how important uh economic development is for our residents. You know, they're noting there is a need and a desire um for us to achieve more on that. So with that I will stand for any questions and then uh I have two uh motions today. One is to adopt the resolution on the preliminary levy and to establish that and then the other is to call for uh the public hearing uh for the regular meeting um in December for that. Okay. Thank you. Uh Jennifer, is there any questions on the process here or the levy as it relates to HR? Okay, let's see. EDA members, I do want to note I see that my finance director, we have a typo here. It says 137500. It should be 142500. I apologize for that. Yeah. Okay. So, if somebody does want to make the motion on the first recommendation, uh you can read it on the screen, but remember that the actual number is 1425. Mayor, I'll move to approve resolution 2024-10 authorizing a preliminary levy to be set on taxable property of the city of Cottage Grove, Washington County, Minnesota for fiscal year 2025, a special benefit tax levy not to exceed $142,500 per the proposed 2025 budget on file with the city. All right. So, I have a motion by council member and EDA vice president Olsson. Do I have a second? Second. Second by uh EDM member uh Jean Baptiste. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. No. Motion carries five to one. Okay. And then uh second uh is the number two. If somebody would like to make that motion and second, I'll make the motion to call for a public hearing to consider the adoption of the final levy to be held by the EDA at their regular meeting on December 2nd, 2025 at 6 p.m. All right. So, I have a motion by EDA member Scott. Do I have a second? Second. Second by ED uh Vice President Olsen. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Awesome. Um, as you can see on the screen, uh, our next EDM uh, meeting will be on July 8th. Um, I will just moving along here. Public hearings, we do not have any this evening. Uh, other business. Um, I don't know if anybody has any comments or anything. I would just, as mentioned earlier, I would just uh since we didn't uh I don't think we've met since ICS ever. Nope. Yeah. So, um uh the ICS meeting this year uh in Vegas was very well attended. Um we had uh literally uh every half hour had meetings set up with all these different uh end users, hotel years, uh uh business uh investors and so on. Um uh did take away some very good information as I was mentioning uh earlier. Uh within a week of getting back from the convention, we actually had a a investor uh in town uh looking at the hotel uh situation. And that's just the one. We've had more that have reached out to us since then. Uh and then I would just one of the interesting things and I'll just say it and then council member Bson can um can elaborate if he wants uh uh who was there EDA Vice President Olson. And that is uh we met with a couple different uh investors and developers. And one particular investor and developer literally shared with us um and and I'm not exaggerating when I say this number. Uh he said he had over 100 um retailers, restaurants, whatever that want to be in Cottage Grove. They just need a home. And it kind of blew me away and then he started going down the list. Uh some of them we're aware of. Uh some of them are going to be new to the Twin Cities uh that are coming in uh that have been in Cottage Grove or have been visiting Cottage Grove and they're like find me a place. So, one of the one of the big challenges that uh once again that we're having is either our ability to bring these businesses into town either has to be through redevelopment opportunities within certain corridors in our community or um the shops at Cottage View, I guess, is what I'd mention as an option. We did meet that um the person has the option out there. Um I can say it. I don't I don't care if he sees it. I was not happy uh with basically what we heard uh from him. Um so it's at this point um you know I've been speaking with the current uh family members that own um the actual property there to talk about what's the future hold for that site. Uh because as you all know at some point here we are going to you know be having some development in the other side of the highway along Highway 61 where the old Majestic Ballroom site is. And if my comment has been is if that opens up at some point down the road, um we could see that fill up fairly quickly and then the shops at Cottage View will just kind of wither on the vine, so to speak, if they don't get going on their projects, especially with what we're hearing from, uh the developers and such out there. So, the great news is people know who we are. We've said that before, but even people that and businesses that we had no idea um were interested in coming to our community um are literally planning to come to our community. It's just they they need land and they need a a place to locate. And so um good news is we're hearing that. Uh great news is our staff's working as diligently as we can to figure out how do we get these people into town. Some of it is the things that we just did today, which is the EDA purchasing some property to, you know, uh, kind of spur some opportunities in in certain areas of our community. U, but, uh, I don't know if you want to add anything else to what I just shared. Yeah, it was a very productive um productive trip to ICSC this year and I I would argue that uh probably 10 to 15% more uh attendees than last year with respect to the the brokers and uh the various businesses etc. The they keep expanding that um Las Vegas Convention Center and uh no matter how big they make it, it seems to be full. So, we definitely got our steps in. Um, you know, in terms of the shops at Cottage View site, I would echo the mayor's sentiment when we met with the uh individual who is currently um, you know, enjoying the option on that site and we asked the specific question, well, hey, are you marketing the site here at ICSC? Um, the response was, well, no. I don't really have any drawings or anything like that. And so as we met with the other brokers uh and developers that we had appointments with, they all seemed incredibly excited to potentially take down that site if and when the property owner decides to make a change. And so uh we'll continue to to work that angle because uh as the mayor mentioned, there are numerous entities and users who want to be here in Cottage Grove. some of whom uh actually are currently doing business in in other states and other parts of the country. Um but they haven't quite dipped their toe in the water yet in Minnesota and they'd like to. So um there's a lot of work to be done there. We had a very nice debrief meeting with the staff after the ICS uh convention and and uh I know that Jamie uh Jennifer etc took tons of notes and I know that there's a whole lot of followup going on. Um this is the place where you plant seeds and then uh you try to watch them grow and we've got number of businesses in town that have resulted from our excursions to ICS over the last several years that we're proud of. Um and I think you know having control of the Ross site's going to definitely help us when it comes to being able to make something happen there sooner versus later. So, uh, all in all, I thought it was a really, really beneficial trip. Um, we were tired. It was a it was a lot of running around, but, um, it was a good kind of tired. You felt like you accomplished something. So, anyway, uh, glad we did it and, uh, excited to hear that there's already been some attention paid to the community by some of the folks we talked to out there. And I would expect we're going to have more good news to share here before the year closes out. I agree. I agree. Yes. Uh, President Bailey and members of the EDA, I'm my first time wearing the finance director hat and um I have a slight glitch. The resolution that was on the screen does not match the resolution in the packet and I for the levy. Could I just ask you to uh acknowledge the resolution uh that is in the packet for the EDA uh resolution? It's 2025-00001. Um, just for absolute clarity related to the fiscal year 2026. I was wondering I wondered about that. I saw that on there. I almost stopped us. So, I was wondering because it says 25 versus 26. Okay. So, do you want us to Could you just remake that motion? It's matching the resolution in the packet. My apologies. Yeah. Put it back up on the screen, please. And then we'll just update it. There you So it is resolution 2025001 and fiscal year 26 and the 140 to uh 500. All right. I move to approve resolution 2025-00001 authorizing a preliminary levy to be set on taxable property of the city of Cottage Grove, Washington County, Minnesota for fiscal year 2026. a special benefit tax levy not to exceed $142,500 for the proposed 2026 budget on file with the city. Thank you. There we go. So, I have a motion by uh ED Vice President Olsson. Do I have a second? Second. Oh, we got a different second. That's okay, though. Uh seconded by uh EDA member uh Jean Baptiste. Any further discussion? Thank you everybody. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. No. And again, same outcome this time. Yep. All right. Uh, we don't have any workshops today nor any more presentations and so we are down to an adjournment. I need a motion in a second. Move to adjourn. We have a motion by EDA vice president Olsson. Do I have a second? Second. Second by ED member Scott. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. We are adjourned. Thank