This transcript features the **Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority (EDA)** meeting from December 12, 2023. [00:00] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, guys, ready? All right. All right. Uh, good morning. Uh, this is the Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority for December 12, 2023, uh, which I'm calling to order. Uh, we'll start with roll call. Uh, Jamie? [00:15] **Jaime Mann (Assistant to City Admin):** EDA President Bailey? [00:16] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Here. [00:17] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Vice President Olsen? (Phonetic: Kata) [00:18] **Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Here. [00:19] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Carrie? [00:20] **EDA Member Thomas Carrie:** Here. [00:21] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Myers? [00:22] **EDA Member John Myers:** Here. [00:23] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Scott? [00:24] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** Here. [00:25] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Jean-Baptiste? [00:26] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Cheetah? [00:27] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Here. [00:28] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, thank you. Uh, next on our agenda is number three, which is approval of the minutes. Uh, 3.1 is approval of the 08/29/2023 meeting minutes. That tells you how long ago it was. I'll just—if there's no changes or corrections, I'll need a motion and a second to approve. [00:45] **EDA Member John Myers:** I'll motion to approve the meeting minutes. [00:47] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Myers. Do I have a second? [00:50] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** I'll second that motion. [00:52] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, second by EDA Member Scott. Uh, any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [00:57] **Group:** Aye. [00:58] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Uh, next, now we'll move right into—thank you—um, we'll move into four, which is business items, and we have a variety of items today. Uh, we'll start with 4.1, which is the economic development update and business inquiry, and uh, Gretchen or G will take us through this one. [01:18] **Gretchen Rice (Economic Development):** Good morning, everyone. So we're going to start with the Beige Book, just a brief update in the labor markets. Employment grew modestly since the last report and labor demand was positive overall, but somewhat lower than earlier in the year. Price pressures also increased modestly and fewer than a quarter of the firms responding to a business conditions survey indicated that prices charged to the customers increased from the prior month. In worker experience, it's good to hear that more than half—almost half—of the respondents expressed satisfaction with their current job, wages, and company culture. Consumer spending was flat since the last report and sales tax receipts were flat month-over-month and year-over-year in general. In real estate construction, both sectors report that activity was flat overall. In manufacturing activity decreased slightly, with respondents reporting decreased orders relative to the previous month and further expectations for declines. Minority and women-owned business activity was balanced overall, with roughly even shares of respondents reporting higher, unchanged, or lower sales and profit margins were lower for more than half the respondents, while capital expenditures edged higher. And we saw today that the Feds are likely to not increase interest rates and inflation is cooling, so we're hoping 2024 everything turns around and maybe some of that interest rate comes down as well as the construction cost. [02:35] **Gretchen Rice:** So, some Community Development updates and all the hard work of your Development Department. Honenstein's—the foundation work is completed and erection of the exterior wall panels is underway. It's really moving fast. Glacial Valley Park—a temporary certificate of occupancy was issued and we're waiting for exterior finishing material, so this project is almost done. Dunkin', Baskin Robbins—the trade work continues on the build-out. The View Apartments—they have a temporary C of O that's been issued as work continues and the builder has replaced the material on the lower level with stone veneer. Other development updates: Chase Bank plans have been approved; the community development team is waiting on a cross-parking agreement from Kohl's. O-T-B Kids—civil work and the construction of the retaining wall is underway. And RJ Schinner has been issued a temporary CFO. And again, Emily Schmitz, your Community Development Director, is here if you have questions about the projects going on in the city. [03:36] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. Uh, so EDA, any questions for G or Emily? The only comment I'll mention—Emily, she goes, "Oh no, he's going to bring something up"—no, I was actually just going to mention that I've seen the change on the brick on The View, you know, after we had that little challenge there. Um, looks amazingly better. So, nice job, nice job getting that done. Okay. All right, uh, any other comments? All right, seeing none, we'll move then right into 4.2, which is the report from Hunden Partners, uh, which was the Arena Management or Market, excuse me, Implication Study findings. And G will start us on this one. [04:14] **Gretchen Rice:** Okay. So just as a reminder to some, um, because I think Thomas [Carrie], you were not on the board at the time. The City, the Shops developer (which is the 73 acres adjacent to Walmart), and Hunden Partners met at ICSC in May of this year and we had discussions revolving around the development of the property and the feasibility of a potentially a stadium venue at the property. So in order—like with all large projects—in order to make an assessment of whether or not that would be true, the EDA approved that we engage the services of Hunden Partners for a Phase One Arena Market Implication Study. The cost for the study was $20,000 and today, um, Rob Hunden and Cassidy Sutton are going to be on your screen explaining the findings of their report to the board and then answering any questions that you have. And once that's done, we'll have a recommendation for you. It's all Lonnie's now. [05:08] **Rob Hunden (CEO, Hunden Partners):** And while Annie is getting that set up, good morning everyone. My name is Rob Hunden, CEO of Hunden Partners. I've got Cassidy Sutton here as well who's going to be giving the report. Um, just to set this up, um, as Gretchen did, um, it was smartly decided by you all to have a two-phased approach to the analysis. One was sort of a high-level view of the market to understand if there's enough opportunity to continue pursuing a deeper dive market and financial feasibility study with all the bells and whistles. And, uh, so the Phase One was completed. We actually did, I think, a lot more supply and demand analysis in this first phase than we were probably scoped to do because we wanted to be sure of our conclusions before we reported those to you. So, um, I think you all did the right thing by breaking this up into phases, and I'll turn it over to Cassidy to give the results and I'll chime in if necessary. Take it away, Cassidy. [06:06] **Cassidy Sutton (Hunden Partners):** Awesome. Thank you, Rob. Yes, let's get into it. So, uh, first just to provide a brief background on how we got to our results. We first looked into those two main event opportunities that usually generate a large majority of activity for an arena. The first one being sporting events, which often aids in providing that consistent activity for the arena through an anchor tenant like the Minnesota Wild at Excel, for example. And then that second component is usually live entertainment, such as concerts and family shows, and that really helps to fill those remaining calendar dates for an arena. And both of these components are crucial in order for an arena to be financially feasible. [06:44] **Cassidy Sutton:** First, looking into that live entertainment sector—those concerts and family shows—what might work from a market perspective as a whole might not necessarily work for the project just based on its characteristics. So throughout our conversations with event promoters, it was determined that the market is satisfied with its current supply of venues. There is essentially no unsatisfied demand in the Minneapolis market from a concert perspective. The Armory is the main host facility for all of those midsize concerts and given Cottage Grove's further southeast location in the market, it would especially struggle in attracting those new events. For family shows, despite there being market opportunity, that preferred capacity of these venues—which is around 12,000—is too high considering that small amount of calendar days that these events would actually fill. [07:33] **Cassidy Sutton:** And then looking into that kind of second bucket for arenas, which is sporting events: Minor and Junior League hockey was the first anchor tenant opportunity that we analyzed, and with there being such a limited prevalence of minor league and Tier 1 and 2 junior league teams in Minnesota, it was determined that there is market opportunity for both of these. However, given that the minor league's high operating budget and has high capacity requirements, Junior League hockey is essentially the only league that would work from more of a project perspective. [08:04] **Cassidy Sutton:** And then for youth and high school hockey, demand for this is heavily based on just local needs of associations. The Cottage Grove Hockey Association already heavily controls that prime ice time that you see at the Cottage Grove Ice Arena, but the high school hockey teams have voiced a desire for a new facility with dedicated locker rooms in the past. However, as we go into our implications to kind of sum this up: in order to prevent impacting current performance at the Cottage Grove Ice Arena, the amount of prime ice time that would need to be utilized for those high school teams at the end of the day just isn't sufficient enough to support that new arena. There is opportunity for a Tier 1 Junior League hockey team, which would really be that main "golden ticket" item if the arena were to be developed, but given that there is limited opportunity from more of an entertainment perspective, which is really essential in filling those remaining calendar dates, ultimately the venue couldn't be supported financially to cover those operational expenses. So that's really our main findings that we had—just a brief summary of what we conducted. And Rob, I'm not sure if you have any other concluding thoughts, but happy to... [09:14] **Rob Hunden:** Um, yeah, Cassidy summed it up well. Obviously, there's a much bigger study here than what we showed you today, but we really looked at those those key sort of legs of the stool and it was actually pretty surprising. Two things were surprising to us: one is that the concert and entertainment market is so well accommodated currently by so many amazing venues around the marketplace, and in order to get something that isn't yet in the market of a size that would make any sense to like the Disney on Ice, like Cassidy was saying, you'd have to build something quite large and expensive, and so that doesn't—it's a tougher hill to climb. [09:56] **Rob Hunden:** The other thing that was surprising to us is the fact that in such an ice and hockey-crazy region of the country that while, of course, you have the Wild, you don't have any smaller minor league or or even Junior Hockey League teams and facilities around the market, which is just absolutely surprising. So, you know, there could be an opportunity for that, but that comes again with a pretty high cost, and if you aren't able to fill the calendar with concerts and family shows in addition to having a minor league tenant, that's not necessarily going to be a full venue, a very occupied venue, and so it didn't make sense to really move forward. [10:41] **Rob Hunden:** We don't believe—if you can't really fill the facility—then then one aspect of this that we didn't cover but we know to be true that would come out in the next phase that I think sort of helped us underscore where we ended up is the fact that these these ventures are not... you know, these aren't commercial venues, right? These are things that municipalities pay for. And so it would be, you know, they're they're very expensive, they can be easily $100 million. And so with that, even though that wasn't part of our analysis because that comes down to more of the financial viability aspect of it, we received some indications during our initial work that suggested that it would be unlikely that the City would get behind a venture that didn't have strong confidence of success and, you know, probably get behind a $50 to $100 million project. So that's just something that, kind of looking around the corner in the future, seemed like maybe not a good idea to continue spending money on this analysis if it wasn't going to be successful. [11:44] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay. So, um, well first of all, thank you both for, uh, doing the study. Um, I do know that, excuse me, what you just shared was I think a theme from the Council. We were interested in the concept and to see if the belief was there was some opportunity out there on the East Side Metro. And for the EDA members that are here—and some were not when this first kind of got kicked off—there is a particular developer that is looking at developing what we call The Shops at Cottage View on the former drive-in theater site. And one of the options that they were looking at was some type of a stadium or an arena that they would then supplement with restaurants and hotels and things around that, which they've done a few around the country. [12:31] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** But we were a little concerned, which it sounds like the validation is what they just shared with us, that there is some demand, but it's certainly not to the level of where the City of Cottage Grove would be able to say that this is a financial way for us to move forward. And I looked at it, you know, it was good to do the study, I think, to give us an idea. And that study is our study, so we have that for the future. But also, just coming off a couple years ago of a referendum question for a Community Center that was I think at that time about $46 million, to have the City say that we're going to fund a stadium for $50 to $100 was probably highly unlikely in this particular case. So, um, I don't know if anybody on the EDA has any questions for Robert or Cassidy on the study or any further thoughts? All right. Um, thank you too. You kind of disappeared from my screen. [13:30] **Rob Hunden:** We're still here. [13:31] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Yeah, you're somewhere out there in the world, but again, thank you for providing us with the data. This is honestly what we needed to understand what the next phase would be both for us, I think, as well as the developer. And maybe at some point in time down the road, we'll be talking with you guys again. [13:46] **Rob Hunden:** Well, very good. Thank you so much for the opportunity to work on this with you and we're happy to be of service in the future. We work on all kinds of compelling, game-changing, transformative placemaking project assessments and advisory. So whether it's a hotel, conference center, arena, mixed-use district—anything like that that could sort of be a game-changer for you, feel free to give us a shout. [14:07] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** You got her. Thank you to both. Merry Christmas. Take care. Yep. Bye-bye. [14:11] **Cassidy Sutton:** Bye-bye. [14:12] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Do we need to receive the report? Is that what you need for this, or you have a recommendation before you? Okay. All right. So, um, EDA, what we're looking for is just to officially receive the report from Hunden Partners as it was presented. [14:26] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** I'll make the motion to receive the report from Hunden Partners as presented. [14:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Scott. Do I have a second? [14:33] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Second. [14:34] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Member Cheetah. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [14:40] **Group:** Aye. [14:41] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Um, next is 4.3, which is the Housing and Redevelopment Authority H Levy. And Brenda is going to take us through this one. [14:52] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director):** EDA Board President and members of the EDA, good morning. Uh, we do not have any action that you need to take on this; this is information because your next item is why we're doing this today as you do your 2024 calendar. I have Stacy Kvilvang here from Ehlers today, and she will discuss some of the reasonings between and differences between EDA and HRA levies. [15:18] **Brenda Malinowski:** Ehlers—they help us not only with bonding, so as we issue bonds for our pavement management projects, they help us with that; they help us with our Tiff districts, so our certifications and decertifications. And something that they helped us with this year was a 10-year financial management plan that we did with City Council earlier this year. We looked out 10 years, obviously for the City—our operational needs, our debt needs, our capital needs—and then we also looked at property tax impacts. So we not only looked at our general fund, which is our chief operating budget, but we looked at other funds such as our EDA. [16:01] **Brenda Malinowski:** Right now, we have a small portion of our property tax levy that goes for EDA activities. For 2023, it's about $125,000. As we looked at the financial management plan, we realized that we have just over two FTEs that do EDA activities and we weren't covering their full amount of their salary. So for next year, for 2024, we're increasing it to about $250,000. The other thing is that Council wanted to have consensus to start doing a higher property tax levy for EDA and redevelopment activities in the city. And one of the ways that we can do this is not only with the EDA levy, but the HRA levy. And so that's why we have Stacy here to discuss how those—the advantages of those two levies. So with that, I'll turn it over to Stacy. [16:53] **Stacy Kvilvang (Ehlers):** Great. Thank you, President and Commissioner. Stacy Kvilvang with Ehlers. So just a little background for the Commissioners—I'm not sure how long you've all been on here. Essentially, you are an Economic Development Authority and you also have Housing and Redevelopment Authority powers. That's pretty common, right? So it's one body that has both powers, which is great. You get to do it all, right? You get to do business development, you get to do housing, and you also get to do redevelopment. Many cities may just have an EDA, which is EDA powers, and an HRA with separate powers and two boards again. So you guys are combined into one, which is actually great and it's a little bit more convenient because essentially you're coming together on your policies and recommendations that are aligning more closely with what the City Council has. [17:41] **Stacy Kvilvang:** As Brenda had stated, we've been talking about the EDA levy versus the HRA levy. And just to give you a little bit of a difference between the two is basically there's a statutory amount which you can generate for both of those, but you're restricted in what you can use those dollars actually for. Now, the thing about EDA levies is essentially that that is a levy that the EDA does—the City does on your behalf—and with that, right, it's not as transparent because it just comes into the overall City levy. So there's nothing that's separated on the tax bill, right, for residents or others that are out there. [18:19] **Stacy Kvilvang:** Now, the HRA levy is a little bit different. Okay? So that one is—you as an EDA can approve that HRA levy on your own, but the City Council has to give final authority on it. And then the nice thing about that is that it's separate on the tax bills. So residents, when they're going through the tax bills—and if you look at yours, you see "City of Cottage Grove," you know, the County, you see the school district, and then you would also see an HRA levy or other taxing jurisdictions that are down there at the end of the day. [18:49] **Stacy Kvilvang:** Part of the discussion when we were working with the Council on the long-range financial management plan wasn't only just about what should you be levying as an EDA for all your economic development, housing, and redevelopment opportunities, but where is the transparency? Is it better to do one over the other? So we're going to talk a little bit about that. If you look up at the screen, you can see that the EDA max levy calculation is in green up there—it's about 1.1 million. And an HRA max calculation is 1.1 again. They're very similar in the formulas and the amount that you can generate. [19:25] **Stacy Kvilvang:** Now, as an EDA, because you have HRA powers, you could levy both. So say the City said, "Let's go to the max," right? You could levy $2 million right into your budget to do all kinds of economic development, housing, and redevelopment things. Well, that doesn't make practical sense because you guys don't spend $2 million a year on that. The biggest category that we typically find with EDAs and HRAs is that the biggest expenditure is staff time, because it's appropriate. You're charging staff time—either Gretchen's time, City Manager's time, Planning and Economic Development's time—to that. And right now, again, it's at 125,000. We're increasing that to 250 as Brenda had stated because, again, you weren't even covering salary costs. So what was happening is that your EDA fund is starting to decline because you're eating into that fund balance because you're not levying enough for staff. So we've got a plan over the next 10 years to start to increase that levy and then eventually get up to that 1.1 million. Okay? [20:25] **Stacy Kvilvang:** Doesn't matter if you choose to levy under the EDA or the HRA authority. Now, a couple other things with those two different levies is that an EDA levy, because it's a City levy, that is a function of its... if there's ever levy limits by the legislature. There haven't been levy limits in probably 15 years—I'm trying to even remember, Mayor, the last time it was; it's been a long time—that that would fall under levy limits, which is basically a cap on how much you can increase your levy. The legislature will say that. Again, they haven't done it in many, many years, but it would fall under that and that's where you would have a little bit of an issue that if you need to levy so much but it put you outside levy limits, you wouldn't get as much as you needed. [21:11] **Stacy Kvilvang:** Now, the HRA levy, because it's a separate levy outside of the City levy, that's not part of levy limits that are out there. So again, you know, the City can levy both if you want. And again, as we stated, the EDA levy shows up as a City levy and the HRA is a separate one that you have there. It's the same use of the funds; they're fungible, right? You can do most of everything except if you just have an EDA levy—again, you're using it mostly for staff—but if you had more, right, if we're levying that amount... you know, I can't ever think that you'll get up to a staff that you're spending 1.1 million on salaries essentially. But if you want to have funds to do other economic development redevelopment things, you essentially could not use the EDA level for housing projects. Okay? Likewise, the HRA levy you couldn't use for business loans. So say you wanted to do, you know, business facade grants that are out there, or if you wanted to do loan guarantees for businesses, you couldn't do that. [22:15] **Stacy Kvilvang:** So at the end of the day, you know, it doesn't matter which levy you do, you just got to think about what you want to do as an EDA. Now, most of the work that you guys do and all the projects you do, unlike Trellis that's before you today, right? Even though that's a housing project, you're still doing that because you have your HRA powers. Most of everything that you guys fund in finance is through tax increment, so it has nothing to do with the levy at the end of the day. So I think it's going to be a balancing act with staff to say, "Hey, do we just move directly to an HRA levy, that's all we do, or do we still do some EDA levy because we want to build a fund balance or something?" because you as an EDA or as the Council may want to start some programs to do things to incentivize businesses to come here that you can't use your traditional tools of tax increment financing for. So with that, President, I'm happy to answer any questions. [23:09] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, thank you. Uh, EDA members, do you have any questions? Yes, Mr. Cheetah? [23:14] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Thank you, Mr. Chair. So when would we be looking to put this on the ballot? [23:18] **Stacy Kvilvang:** President, Commissioners, it does not have to go on the ballot at all. This is something that you as an EDA can actually do. So if you choose the HRA levy, you say, "Yep, we're going to authorize a levy of $250,000." It will go to the City Council as part of the budget process that they would bless it and say, "Yep, we agree that they should have that." Likewise, you already have your levy in there for 250 for 2024 and the Council has already signed off on that as well. So there's no ballot requirement here. [23:49] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Follow up if I can. Yeah, go ahead. And then so the state just passed the largest housing bill in the history of Minnesota by a distance—it was over a billion dollars. And part of that was a new sales tax in the Metro. How do we tap into that instead of raising taxes on Cottage Grove? [24:06] **Stacy Kvilvang:** Yeah. Um, President, Commissioner, so those dollars are restricted. Okay? Those dollars that are going to go to the City, uh, and essentially what that is is that it has to be for affordable housing projects. So it has to be either for rental projects that meet certain income requirements that you have to have affordability at 60% of the area median income and below. So for example, the Trellis deal that is before you tonight, we're using existing Tiff district dollars to provide them the $185,000 in assistance. If you had that sales tax money available to you, you could also use that if you so choose. But in this case, we're using existing Tiff dollars, um, so we don't have to create a new tax increment district for it. Okay? So again, they're restricted only to housing out there. [24:59] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** But the new HRA levy would be restricted to housing as well, correct? [25:03] **Stacy Kvilvang:** No. HRA levies are for housing and redevelopment, so you can use it for staff time. Sales tax you can't use for staff time or administration. The HRA levy you could use for redevelopment objectives that you have as well. So think of something that's old and tired—a shopping center, something. If you're going to redevelop that, you would be able to use the HRA levy for that if you weren't able to create a redevelopment Tiff district for it. [25:31] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** So we can use a housing levy on business facades? [25:34] **Stacy Kvilvang:** You cannot use the housing levy on business facades as I stated. You have to use the EDA levy for business purposes. So an HRA under your HRA powers, you cannot give loans or grants to businesses for business loans and purposes such as facade improvements. The HRA levy—you can use that for redevelopment in the larger context and housing. [25:57] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Maybe I'll help, because I know where I think I know where you're going with it. So you are correct that with this money that's coming in from the state, there is money that's going to come to every city. I believe it flows through the County, am I correct? Seven-county metro? [26:12] **Stacy Kvilvang:** Yeah. [26:13] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** So it flows for the County and then the County divides it out based on size or population of cities. And so there is a portion of the money that is coming to us, um, right, wrong, or indifferent, everybody gets a certain amount. There is money there that's different than, if you will, the HRA. If we did the HRA, the idea is how much money do you need for some of these projects to get done? And that's the—that's, I guess, what this is all about. What I believe you're saying is, you know, we'll get a certain amount of money—and I'm going to look to staff or maybe Brenda if you remember what that amount is by chance, or projected amount? [26:52] **Brenda Malinowski:** The projected amount, and it's projected estimated... [26:54] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Projected, yeah. [26:55] **Brenda Malinowski:** $234,000. [26:56] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Yeah, so that would be the money that would come to the City or our portion of it to be utilized. Well, as you—I'm just going to use Trellis as an example, nothing against Trellis obviously at all because we're excited to have you come—if we were to do that, the 250,000 or so, 180,000 would go to this one project in this particular case. But what we've noticed is when we do a lot of these affordable housing opportunities, the gap for making it affordable is much larger. And so what ends up happening is either we as a City have to do Tiff—tax increment financing—so it's almost taking it out of one bucket versus the other, right? If you didn't do Tiff but you gave them through the HRA levy, I'm just saying that you would then um, not need to Tiff, and so the revenue from that project would flow into the City. But we're still—either way you're paying for it, it's just which way do you want to pay for it in this particular case to cause... just, I hope hopefully that helps you. [27:52] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** That's what's funny—you see these huge numbers from a state perspective, and when we get down to the nitty-gritty... now mind you, $250,000 isn't, you know, a little chump of change, but in the grand scheme of things of a project, it's fairly small. And so what would end up happening, in most cases what would end up happening, if you said, "Hey, we didn't want to do Tiff or anything like that," we would have to save that money for X amount of years. Or which we have done in the past is using some EDA funds to do these projects. Well, when we use the EDA funds to do these projects, that takes away from our opportunity to do um, commercial or business park opportunities there. So it's trying to figure out how do you balance it? And that's what this is all about—is the Council has asked, and that's what the EDA is here for, is you know, should we do one? Should we do two? What that two should look like? What are the differences between the two? Because we were asking as a Council the same questions, and that's why they're here to kind of talk about here's what some of the things you can or cannot do whether it's with HRA or the EDA. So hopefully that... I mean, I don't know, it might be what you want because of a taxing standpoint, but that's where this is at. [28:59] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Fair enough. [29:01] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay. Uh, any other questions? No other questions at this point? Okay. Um, and I do believe—and I'll maybe look for either G or Brenda—so with what you're proposing to us today, what's kind of the next step, I guess, for the EDA and obviously the Council? [29:16] **Brenda Malinowski:** Yep. Great question. Um, next steps would be during the summer of 2024, as we're starting to do our budget here at the City. Um, it's always the balancing act of our property tax levy. And so that's when City staff and City Council will start looking at the amount to propose to the EDA to levy for HRA for 2025 property tax year. And so we'll kind of bring that back to you informationally. And then in December, you will have to hold a meeting after 6:00 p.m. in order to do that HRA levy. And so that is why we're here to you today, to kind of give you that information regarding EDA versus HRA levies so that when you adopt your 2024 calendar today, that that is the reason for that night meeting in December of 2024. [30:11] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** And that's why we set this up this way. So there's a requirement by law that the EDA would have to have a meeting in December as after 6:00. It's funny that they do that. But so, but nothing has been confirmed yet at this point. It's more of this is kind of our—and the Council and staff will work together. And what was mentioned earlier—I'll just say this—is, you know, our Council has looked at with this long-term plan, have really looked at to try to keep the taxes, if you will, stable, is ultimately our goal for a 10-year period, to keep it at a certain level. [30:46] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** And so what we're trying to do too at the same time is how do you keep that so the tax implications of anything we do on the City doesn't negatively or adversely affect the citizens of Cottage Grove. Though I do—and it's not on here—but I do want to just make one point, and this was from... we just did our approved the budget for 2024 at our last City Council meeting. And we as a Council always like to know, "Hey, where do we sit in the County? Where do we sit in those cities that are like us in the Twin Cities metro area?" And within the County of Washington, we—the City of Cottage Grove—has the second lowest taxes that the City collects out of every city in Washington County. The only city that collects less than us from their citizens is St. Paul Park. And St. Paul Park—and I know Sandy very well—they get a lot of LGA funds, so they get some extra money from the state that helps them keep that levy lower. And within the Twin Cities, I believe we were third with Blaine and Shakopee, correct? [31:50] **Brenda Malinowski:** Absolutely. [31:51] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** See, I remember these things when it comes to money. So Blaine and Shakopee are the only ones that are below us within the Twin Cities in the amount of tax dollars that the citizens pay. So we want to make sure that with—like you were talking about with the tax side of things—we want to make sure that we're definitely staying at the bottom. That's just how we've been, so that our citizens get the best value. So, all right, any other questions? All right, the next item on our agenda is the 2024 EDA meeting calendar, and Gretchen, you're going to show us this one. [32:21] **Gretchen Rice:** Yes, sir. Thank you, board members. So Brenda did a great job of presenting it, so this one's going to be really quick. You can see on your screen the proposed 2024 Economic Development Authority calendar. You can see all the meetings are on your regular second Tuesday, with the exception of December the 3rd. So what you're doing today, if approved, is you would adopt the calendar; then that allows you to—as Brenda went over—it allows you to do some preliminary levy if you decide to do it before September 30th of 2024, and then you would have a final levy adopted on December the 3rd of 2024 at 6:00 p.m. So that would be an evening meeting. So to meet the requirements of the law, you need to approve and post the calendar before, on, or before January the 1st of 2024, so the public has notice of these upcoming activities. And with that, there's a recommendation before you. [33:14] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. So if no other questions for Gretchen, we'll need a motion and a second to move this forward. [33:20] **EDA Member Thomas Carrie:** I'll motion to adopt the 2024 Economic Development Authority calendar as presented. [33:25] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Carrie. Do I have a second? [33:28] **EDA Member John Myers:** I'll second that motion. [33:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Seconded by EDA Member Myers. Uh, any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [33:36] **Group:** Aye. [33:37] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? No? Motion carries four to one. All right. All right, we'll move forward here then. 4.5 is the Dowdle service agreement, and Gretchen, you're going to take us through this. [33:53] **Gretchen Rice:** Thank you, sir. Members of the board, in October, the Dowdle marketing team reached out to the City to invite us to participate in the "Land That I Love" tour for America's 250th birthday starting in 2026. As a part of that, they're lining up various cities in all of the states who might be interested in participating. So there's a lot of work to get to 2026. The Dowdle Art Studio team is passionate about capturing the essence of stories of the cities and places in our country and around the world through the medium of folk art style painting. Some of you may know Eric Dowdle from Magnolia Network's "The Puzzlemaker" and some other shows that he has. He's really made a great business out of taking his original art, translating it into puzzles, and telling a deep story about any city that participates—understanding the culture, the people, and how you became a city, and who are the important influencers in your community. [34:53] **Gretchen Rice:** Part of this project has two components, and this was all in your packet, of course. But there's an original 32x40 painting by the artist Eric Dowdle and an unveiling event, and the purchase of 3,000 puzzles to be sold at events throughout the year starting June 2024 to June 2025. The cost for the painting and the unveiling event is $75,000 and it's payable in three installments: the first one due if this was approved after this, right, for the week of December 18th; the second payment with the approval of the concept art—so you get halfway there, you have the agreement that the painting moving forward, people, places, and events is what you want—so then we would owe them money on March the 15th; and then the third and final payment would be after the delivery of the original painting and the unveiling event, which is going to be on June the 13th of 2024. [35:50] **Gretchen Rice:** The cost for the puzzles is 37,500—I think that's actually a typo on my part; it's 37,500. It's payable in two installments and the first one due on or before April the 1st. So you get the painting started and going, and then they put in an order for the puzzles and wait for the painting to be finished, and then the second one is due after the delivery of the puzzles at the unveiling event. So that's the cost. And then the next part of what the staff did was discuss with the City Administrator about a potential cost recovery of this program. That is the recovery through the sale of the puzzles. We have 500-piece puzzles and 1,000-piece puzzles. You can see on the screen the retail price of each and the quantities. If all were to go as planned and we sold all the puzzles at the prices that you can see on the screen of $24.99 and $27.99 retail, you'd recoup approximately just shy of $81,000 of the total project cost. [36:51] **Gretchen Rice:** As a part of this agreement, the City receives a perpetual license for the use of the images for promotional and marketing purposes. So right now it's puzzles, but you can think about posters, T-shirts, other things that may have your art on it. Exhibit B in the agreement is not finished yet; that's the people, places, and things, and we intend to complete that list by the end of the year. We've started a partial list with the department heads, then it'll go to City staff and all your commissions, and then it'll come to the Council for final approval. Looking at what has been recommended in each of the three categories, the total cost for the project is 112,500 and the funds are available in the EDA fund for that. We'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have about the project. [37:37] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** The funny thing I'll just mention is on that picture, if you notice, there's strawberries and it says "Grove." That is not what was... that was just city not placement? [37:46] **Gretchen Rice:** Yeah, it was another city that was like, "Oh my gosh, you could actually see kind of the idea." [37:51] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** At least I said it was the "G" puzzle "G" on the top. It was pretty funny what they did that. So, um, questions on this proposal? Yes, Mr. Cheetah? [38:00] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Sorry, I guess I'm the one who has all the questions today. No, it's okay. Um, so I guess looking over the contract in our packet and whatnot, who actually owns the artwork? I guess—are we just licensed to use it and we have to give royalties back to him, or I guess how all does this work? [38:15] **Gretchen Rice:** Well, let me rephrase that. We own the original painting that he paints. He keeps his licensing agreement on his own artwork, but we have a perpetual use of the images. So you get the painting itself, you get the giclée that is... when they tell the story and put the puzzle together at your unveiling event, and then you have the perpetual rights to use the images. It's his artwork, so they never give away... artists never give away their original files. No, it belongs to him and will continue to belong to him. [38:46] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Okay. And we—but we can use it for anything we want? [38:49] **Gretchen Rice:** Okay, we just can't stop him from then... once that whole year's over and we've sold all of our puzzles and we've done all that, then it reverts back to his business model, which is he puts those puzzles at his website just like he has thousands of them there now. [39:03] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Okay. And we—but we can continue to use that image after that year? [39:06] **Gretchen Rice:** Yep. Okay, we can slap it on coffee mugs and T-shirts and keychains. [39:10] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** $81,000 doesn't equal 120 or 112, right? [39:13] **Gretchen Rice:** Right. We did not cost recover the entire thing at this point. [39:16] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Okay, but you could potentially, obviously, with the perpetual licensing agreement? [39:20] **Gretchen Rice:** Yeah. [39:21] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** And do we know what other cities have done in the past? Have they recovered this cost through selling puzzles? [39:26] **Gretchen Rice:** I don't think that we know that they've recovered every cost associated with it so far because it's a fairly new project, but most of them reported that they did pretty good with their puzzle sales. And so it's going to be one of those things that I think that we probably can recover the vast majority of it by the time you use the perpetual license and then eventually more. But initially, I don't think anybody has ever reported that they've recovered everything because it's just too new of a program. [39:54] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Fair enough. [39:55] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Well, we get, you know, this recommendation before us is the number of puzzles that they recommended. Um, I think if I remember right when he was... we did a virtual call, he actually was using—it also gave us an example of a city out in California that, like, they had a list, like they were waiting for people to get more puzzles or they sold through all their puzzles and they're waiting for more to come in. Because yes, you just—I guess we won't know until we see what the demand is within the City. Though it is funny to say, when the Cottage Grove Monopoly game was at Walmart, they were selling out at the Cottage Grove Monopoly game. And not that you use that as your own example, but the point is, it's something unique and it's something different. Art is also the other thing that we do hear a lot from our citizens—they want more opportunity for art and things within the community. So this—this came to us and I was like, "Ah, this is actually kind of a neat idea." Plus we get to use the images when it's all done for however we want to use it on shirts, mugs, whatever. [40:57] **Gretchen Rice:** At this point, we definitely see it as an economic development marketing and tourism initiative in as a part of your strategic plan. [41:04] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Okay. And the source of funds was the EDA trust fund, and that's not—I know this has been covered before—that's not taxpayer dollars that funded that, correct? [41:14] **Gretchen Rice:** Yep, that is correct. [41:15] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Thank you for bringing that up. [41:16] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Yep. So that's why we're going to try and make a profit. And maybe for some of the newer members on here, there are—just so I can say it—there are two funding sources. One to the EDA is levy, as was mentioned earlier. And then the other one is business... businesses or a business that provides funding to the City of Cottage Grove for Economic Development Authority or economic development. And so we use that—we try to use that money for projects like this or some of these conventions and things that we go to, just so we can say, "Hey, it's not taxpayer-funded trips to here or something like that." It is something that's a donation that's privately provided to the EDA. Okay. All right, so if there's no other questions for the EDA, we have a motion before us if anybody would like to take it. [42:11] **EDA Member John Myers:** I can motion to approve the Professional Services agreement with Dowdle Art in the amount of 112,500, subject to minor modifications related to Exhibit B—the "must have" and "nice to have" items to be included in the painting. [42:25] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Myers. Do we have a second? [42:28] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** I can second that motion. [42:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a second by EDA Member Scott. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [42:36] **Group:** Aye. [42:37] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. [42:39] **Gretchen Rice:** Thank you very much. [42:41] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, moving right along to 4.6, which is Trellis Company project memo, and Gretchen will start this off and then Mr. Walsh is here. [42:50] **Gretchen Rice:** We have a site location map here on the screen to show you the subject site outlined in red. And essentially that's across from your... it's on 80th Street and 79th, across from the library, just for everybody's edification. So what Trellis is going to do is build a 52-unit affordable senior housing project on that site with units at 30 and 60% of the area median income. Housing at these income levels provides an opportunity for deeply affordable senior housing, which is currently limited in the City. [43:23] **Gretchen Rice:** Tiff assistance discussed earlier was requested, and an analysis showed a funding gap of approximately $185,000. However, it's—you know, there are costs associated with setting up a Tiff district, and because it's only $185,000, we decided to look at some other options. And the option that made the most sense under our business subsidy policy was a forgivable loan. So we had the City Attorney craft a forgivable loan agreement that's in your packet. Trellis has already gone through the planning process and before the Planning Commission, and they have the approvals needed to begin construction in 2024 and they close on the property in March. This is a schematic of what they're intending to build, relatively close, that the Council has seen before and the EDA board has seen previously as well. [44:14] **Gretchen Rice:** The agreement also requires that Trellis or an affiliate of theirs continuously owns the property for at least 5 years and that they operate the building as an affordable residential [facility] occupied by either seniors and/or disabled individuals. So that's true. And then the agreement also requires for a period of 15 years that the annual rent increases for all the occupied units not receiving project-based subsidies shall not exceed the lower of the maximum allowed under Section 42 as administered by HUD, or 6% from the previous year's contract rent. So that answers some of the questions that the Mayor and Council had been concerned about and the EDA related to rent increases year-over-year at multi-family complexes that have received Tiff. And before we go to the recommendation, Dan Walsh, who's the Vice President of Housing for Trellis, is here if you'd like to acknowledge him, Mayor. [45:15] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Sure. Do you want to come up and just say hi? There may be questions. [45:19] **Dan Walsh (VP of Housing, Trellis):** Good morning, Mr. President, Mayor Bailey, and other members. This project, we've somewhat recently named Bluestem Apartments. So the Bluestem project is in the home stretch, as Gretchen mentioned. We're working towards closing and beginning construction in March 2024, and the request to the City before you today closes the funding gap. This allows us to get to that March closing date. I'm happy that the loan includes the cap on rent increases that Mayor Bailey and Councilmember [Olsen] and others raised. It is an important issue and and you all are leading the way on it. The project design and concept have not changed since we went through the planning process. We're proud of this building and are excited to become your neighbors for the decades to come. Thank you for considering this funding request and for supporting this important project. We think it's fantastic. [46:18] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** EDA, any questions for the applicant at all? [46:21] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** I have questions in general. [46:23] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Yeah, absolutely. [46:24] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** So it looks like for the requirement that it be occupied by seniors and disabled individuals is for 5 years, but the rent control is for 15. Why do we not... why is it not the same number? I don't know who wants to answer that, so feel free, but... [46:38] **Gretchen Rice:** So the 5 years is they have to own the building continuously, right? So if they sell it to someone, they can't sell it for 5 years. But then all of these things would still apply. The 15 years is just a different time period for the rent control purposes; it's not actually connected. Trellis has to own it for 5 years or someone that is a subsidiary or affiliate of theirs. They could sell it as a senior disabled housing project and then the 15 years still applies. [47:08] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Okay. So it has to be occupied by seniors and disabled individuals for the entirety of this 15 years? [47:14] **Gretchen Rice:** Yes. [47:15] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Okay, yes. That was my concern—it's just that they could sell it, somebody else could buy it and operate it. [47:20] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Yeah, that's fine. I understand that. Part of it was just... I just want to make sure we're fitting the need we're talking about, which is seniors. Well, and that's what actually from a Council's perspective was so exciting about this project. It is, comparatively speaking, to some of the other senior affordable projects that we have in Cottage Grove. Over the last couple years there has been those steep increases in rents where literally we've been down at some of these complexes and having some very, you know, serious conversations with those building owners and obviously the citizens and the seniors. The fact in this case—this is actually, as weird as it sounds, but in a good way, because this is a really nice project—it's another step below some of the rents that... now they have to—they have to obviously qualify for it—but the rents in these cases that he shared with us was significantly less than what a lot of these other facilities in Cottage Grove that have the affordable process to it. Way less. Matter of fact, we were... that's why the question was up there is like, "We, with all due respect, didn't want any developer to come in and just say, 'Okay, for the first couple years we're going to do the rents at this rate, but then after those first couple years we're going to jack it up.'" And that's not what they do to begin with. I mean, some of the other cities they've been developing in have been very well received by the citizens there in the city. So we just wanted to make sure from a... and you acknowledge that we wanted to make sure that this will be a long-term opportunity for those that want to still stay in Cottage Grove and don't have the financial wherewithal per se to do it at some of those other levels. Okay. Any other comments? All right. Do you want to flip back to the motion there? All right. So if there's no other comments in this particular case, we'll need a motion and a second on the screen before you. [49:15] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** I'll make a motion to approve the forgivable loan agreement with Trellis Company in the amount of $185,000, payable upon building completion and a certificate of occupancy being issued. [49:26] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Scott. Do I have a second? [49:30] **EDA Member Thomas Carrie:** I'll second. [49:31] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Seconded by EDA Member Carrie. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [49:37] **Group:** Aye. [49:38] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Walsh, for coming in this morning. [49:42] **Dan Walsh:** Thank you. Looking forward to the project. [49:44] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. And then last item under business items is 4.7, which is the Viewpoint project, and look who's here: City Administrator Jennifer Levitt. [49:54] **Jennifer Levitt (City Administrator):** Well, EDA President, members of the EDA, I don't typically get to stand over here. So, uh, I'm going to be talking about a unique project and opportunity that we have called the Viewpoint project. It is a video storytelling service that works with PBS and it's broadcast in all 50 states. It's hosted by Dennis Quaid. Um, he teases up a lot of these series and episodes right before some of your favorite PBS shows. And one of the things that's unique as we start to think about this is just thinking about the time that we're in. We're thinking about the interest rates; we're seeing kind of a lull in the residential market; we're seeing a little bit of a lull in the industrial market. So when we start to think about this project, we're thinking about how can we bring Cottage Grove top-of-mind as we start to market our City to help bolster some of that economic development. So keep that in the back of your mind as we go through this project. [50:53] **Jennifer Levitt:** The Viewpoint team's goal is to provide innovative and unique content featuring the world's most influential organizations and individuals. And in your packet, we did showcase one of the cities that was in there, looking at building and architectural services. There's hospitals, universities. And so at this point, we still need to build our storyline, and you saw within your packet the questionnaire that we have to complete. Staff is still working on that and we would bring back that questionnaire to you. We would anticipate that we'd most likely film in late spring or early summer when Cottage Grove looks at its best. So keep that in the back of your mind as well. And as part of that storyline, it helps develop through the work of professional videographers to capture it and then to broadcast to an international audience. [51:43] **Jennifer Levitt:** So from our perspective, you get to project Cottage Grove—what a great place to live, work, and play. I'm not saying that's going to be our tagline, but you're going to have 60 million executives viewing it. You're going to have people that have a very high income of over $150,000, so they have means for travel. So if you think about it from a marketing standpoint, partnering with our CVB, you know, you get that tourism draw. But those executives are the ones that are making decisions on where businesses locate, where their employees could be located as well. So you're getting that marketing boost there. [52:21] **Jennifer Levitt:** The video would run for one year on public television and it would be shown before like "Nova" and "Masterpiece Theater." And the video would be featured on their website and then they also assist us in being able to use their membership as a target audience. So as we define what our target audience is—maybe it's executives related to the biotech industry or something like that—we would be able to broadcast to those audiences as we're trying to attract high-paying jobs, maybe in the bio-industry, into the City of Cottage Grove. So we get specific deliverables as part of this contract. You get a five-to-six-minute corporate profile—that's the one that's going to run that educational message in between PBS broadcasting. [53:11] **Jennifer Levitt:** As I mentioned, we're still developing that storyline. So one of our key things right now is to think about how well Cottage Grove has been positioned for growth—when you think about the recreational opportunities that we've had, how we've provided for housing, how we've set the stage for industrial growth and our infrastructure, that we've been planning it very well. And so how do we tell our story to be able to attract others to our community, both from a tourism perspective, but then also from a business development. As part of this, they also help us with the interviews, they do the narration, the scriptwriting, the video, the graphics, the music. All of our logo and contact information is featured on there, so we get that branding as part of it. [53:57] **Jennifer Levitt:** And then we also get a one-minute educational video that we can use as well, but then that also broadcasts over a very large network to over 84 million homes via MSNBC, CNBC, and CNN, or other equivalent networks. Um, we anticipate that segment would also air about 400 times on the top 100 designated marketing areas at peak and prime time networks such as Fox Business, The Learning Channel, Discovery Channel—those kinds of markets. So we're getting an extreme amount of exposure where we currently do not have it. And I think coming out of this high interest rate time, we want to use 2024 to position us well coming out of it into a strong '25 market is really our hope. We also get that digitized file for our website, social media, and then they'll use that to help us with that email blast to our target audience. [54:53] **Jennifer Levitt:** So you're probably asking, "Well, how are we proposing to fund this?" So our budget for '24, we're not anticipating to really change but just reposition our marketing effort. So instead of going with a booth out to the ICSC convention in Vegas, we would not do a booth. And so it would be pretty much equivalent cost for this project, which is 25,900, plus we have cameraman travel time and expense of 3,400. So in exchange for that, we would not do the booth out in Vegas, but we would still send staff to maintain those relationships with those developers, brokers, and end-users. So at the end of the day, this would be really a net zero against the budget that we had proposed for '24. And just as a reminder, as we talked about with the puzzles, this is the EDA trust fund; this is not taxpayer dollars. So with that, I'd be happy to stand for any questions. [55:54] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. Uh, EDA, any questions on this? Yes, Mr. Scott? [55:58] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** Do they give you a schedule of when these are going to be running? Do they tell you in advance so that you can see where those segments are? [56:06] **Jennifer Levitt:** EDA President, members of the EDA, yes. At that time, once they have the final video completed, and then they can give us the airing schedule after that. [56:15] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** But you don't get to see it beforehand? [56:17] **Jennifer Levitt:** We can actually... we have a call with Dennis Quaid or with Anthony Davis tomorrow, so we can clarify that. Chances are, I would assume we would, though, based on what some of the initial conversations [were]—that we'd be able to see it because I think we get [to] review it to make sure that it's accurate and such. Yeah, but we'll check. That's a great question; we'll ask that tomorrow. [56:39] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** Final cut? [56:40] **Jennifer Levitt:** Yep, exactly. [56:41] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Something unique. Um, it's not going to negatively affect [us]. We've had this conversation about—we've been going to the ICSC for many, many years now, and probably the last four or five or so we've done the booth there. And so we're just going to... the cost of the booth is what you're seeing here. And so we thought, just to keep it within the budget, when this opportunity rose for us, we said, "Well, we're still going to go to the ICSC and market the City," but the reality is, in this particular case, we just thought this money could be better spent doing this, even though... and versus having a booth there. We've done it—we've done it with and without a booth out there in the past. So we'll still be meeting with end-users, developers, and such when we go there. Okay. Any other questions? Yes, Mr. Cheetah? [57:30] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Um, what have we seen other cities who have done this before—seen how they benefited? I guess I'm just curious about what we should expect from this. [57:38] **Jennifer Levitt:** Mayor, members of the EDA, in regards to the success rate, you know, it's like any project, even like the puzzles. It's always hard for us to have metrics to be able to track against. For us, it's going to be developing that as part of our own marketing plan to be able to track, say, inquiries. For example, have we gotten an increased amount of inquiries? How does our tourism, which we determined by lodging tax success, you know—are we seeing more occupancy rates in our hotels? So there's not necessarily always an immediate or direct correlation, but there are metrics that we'll be looking at as part of our own marketing plan to be able to track and develop those so we can report those back to you as well. [58:24] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Okay. But Viewpoint doesn't have any spiel about how this has done this to X city or Y city? [58:30] **Jennifer Levitt:** They did not share any of those types of details with us. [58:33] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Okay. [58:34] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay. Any other comments? All right, so there is a motion before us. It would be to approve the Professional Service agreement with the group called Viewpoint. Does anybody want to make the motion and the second? [58:47] **EDA Member Scott Van Keuren:** I can make the motion to approve the Professional Services agreement with Viewpoint. [58:51] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Scott. Do I have a second? [58:55] **EDA Member John Myers:** I'll second the motion. [58:57] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Member Myers. Again, any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [59:02] **Group:** Aye. [59:03] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Jennifer. All right, we're in the home stretch. Five is public hearings—we have none this morning. Six is other business. We do have our EDA calendar, which is before you. Just from a general standpoint, later this week on Thursday, there is a Chamber holiday after-hours event down at River Oaks for the Chamber of Commerce, local Chamber of Commerce. And also on that day, our Administrator and I will be attending the Metropolitan Governance Task Force public engagement over in Lake Elmo. That's just for those that are wondering—there's kind of a task force to discuss what the Met Council looks like going forward, if it's elected, not elected, or whatever. So we'll be there for that particular item. And next on our agenda is EDA comments. Are there any EDA comments? All right, there was nothing, and then no response to previous EDA comments. Seven is workshop—we don't have any. We do not have any presentations. So guess what? We're all the way down to a motion to adjourn. Who would like to adjourn for the last meeting in December? [01:00:15] **EDA Member Thomas Carrie:** I'll motion to adjourn. [01:00:16] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Carrie. Do I have a second? [01:00:20] **EDA Member Thomas Cheetah:** Second. [01:00:21] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Member Cheetah. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying "Aye." [01:00:26] **Group:** Aye. [01:00:27] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? We're adjourned. Merry Christmas.