All right, good morning and happy new year to everyone. Uh this is the January 13, 2026 Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority meeting which I'm calling to order. Uh the first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. So if you'd 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. >> It's kind of cute. They put they put on my thing, Becca. [laughter] So, Becca, our clerk this morning, could you please do the roll call? >> Yes. Good morning. Uh, EDA President Bailey >> here. ADA Vice President Olsen >> here. >> Uh, ADA member Jean Baptiste >> here. >> ADA member Kabata >> here. >> ADA member Lac. ADA member Scott >> here. >> ADA member Shea >> here. >> There you go. Right. Got you right at the end there. Perfect timing. All right. Uh, we'll move right along here. We, uh, number four is approval of the minutes. Uh, what we're looking for is a for a motion and a second to approve the December 2nd, 2025 EDA minutes. If there are no changes or corrections that need to be made, >> move to approve. >> I'll second that. >> All right. So, we got a motion uh by ED EDA Vice President Olsen, seconded by EDA member Kada. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. All right. Now, we'll jump into our business items. We'll start with A, which is our community development update, and Nate will take us through this. Welcome. >> Good morning, mayor, uh, members of the EDA. Again, my name is Nate Carlson, economic development manager. First uh EDA meeting that I get to lead. So, thank you. >> Yep. >> We'll start with our uh community development update. I have the community director Emily Schmidtz here in the audience if there's other questions. Starting with the Beige Book highlights. Um in looking at the previous report, uh not significant changes. I'll point out um the positive manufacturing uh commercial construction and real estate residential real estate has increased uh decreased in consumer spending and flat in areas of construction commercial real estate energy and egg. Other updates from the community development department uh Park High School uh framing and trade work continues in the cafeteria. More work was done over the holiday break at the middle Cosg Grove Middle School. Uh concrete slab and plumbing connections are being completed were completed over the holiday break. [snorts] the Ultman Middle School interior framing and trade work is is starting to begin in that area and roof assemblies uh both additions are continuing. Uh recent apartment projects that have been approved uh the Hadley Ridge apartments uh being constructed by real estate equities closed the building permit has been issued and they closed on their financing on the 30th. I had a hand in uh completing all the LAA uh documents and working with our finance director, finance director Brenda. Uh and I'll be working through the uh the livable communities grant as well. And the RORS department, that permit was also issued and they have began site prep. If you drive past it on 61, you'll see a bunch of uh trucks there already making some efforts to clear the site. [snorts] More progress is being made on the water treatment plant [snorts] as well as the water tower uh continues to make improvements. Some other planning projects that are in the works that I want to bring to your attention. Uh the yellow tree apartment project um which is adjacent to the legends on the hill there. The planning commission did recommend approval of the PUD preliminary PL and site plan in at the December meeting and they have been working through tax abatement application with myself and Ellers and are we intend to bring that to council on February 18th along with the additional planning items. Another project that I'm working on is with uh Van Meter Inc. They're working on an addition uh set to happen this spring. They did get through their planning commission approvals. Um the site plan is on the docket for council on the 21st and I'm working through state incentives through deed. So primarily Minnesota investment fund and job creation fund. Um it's kind of a two-step process before an application begins and I'm working through some of the due diligence efforts to see if they would qualify for some incentives. Another project I want to highlight is the uh redevelopment grant for the Ross property. The EDA acquired this in October and I um I'm leading efforts to apply for a demolition grant with the state to see if we can offset some of those costs in order to prepare the site and make it more attractive for development. >> Okay, >> if there are no questions, we can move forward, but I'm certainly ready to >> Perfect. I'll ask is there any questions? Uh C or Well, Council Member Olsson Vice President Olsson. >> Thank you, Nate. appreciate the update there. U my question is um along the lines of uh explanation actually and that is for yellow tree you mentioned that they are making an application for tax abatement due to unique site constraints. Could you tell the uh members of the EDA as well as anybody watching at home a little bit about tax abatement how that works? >> Certainly. So there are two major tools when it comes to incentivizing through any you know deferred taxes or tax reimbursement. That's more more common is tiff. So tax increment financing. A secondary tool is tax abatement. Um the major differences with tax abatement as opposed to tiff. TIF is a lot more rigid. There are certain um districts that can be created certain activities that can qualify for TIFF. And uh with TIFF, all three u levying entities. So the city, the county, and the school district are part of the deal. U the school district and the and the county cannot object to a tiff district as opposed to tax abatement. A lot more flexibility. There are no districts pretty much. If the council deems tax abatement to be necessary, they can use tax abatement. However, only for their portion of the levy. The county and the school district would need to adopt tax abatement separately. Um, so in this case, what we're looking at with Yellow Tree through a tax abatement process because uh I'm inheriting the project where TIFF wasn't deemed to be appropriate for this project. um tax abatement is being pursued solely for the city's portion to help offset the significant costs as it pertains to the development of the site and with the unique grading and everything. >> Okay. So to be clear, um tax increment financing which is often used has a impact on uh all three taxing bodies when you include the county, the school district, and the city. tax abatement is only going to impact the city. And in essence, what that means, please correct me if I'm wrong, is the school district and the county will still be able to um enjoy taxable value of this property and taxes will be paid to them, but the city on the other hand will receive no taxes from this. Is that right? >> I'm working through the de you're correct, member Olson. uh that that that's the framework um with with regards to the other taxing jurisdictions as it pertains to our structure for the deal. We're still in process because there's been some significant changes to the unit count and so the assessment is not accurate at this time. So I'm working with others to ensure we understand fully what our abatement what what our risk is at this time and I see when that comes before the city council we'll have a better understanding of >> that's correct >> the specifics. Yep. Okay. Perfect. Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate it. >> Very good. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? >> Oh, yes. Uh, EDA member Gene Baptist. >> Yeah. I do have a question on the Ross property. Um, one is where is that one located and two is do we know what what we're necessarily targeting as far as development? Like is it going to be hospitality, um, industrial things of that nature? >> Uh, so you're asking where is that as far as location? Yep. So, so the shops in Cottage View, major development site directly uh south of the Walmart here on East Point Douglas. Um it's a about a 4 acre site with a single family home still on it uh from the Ross Homestead. Um and my understanding the direction that I've received is that this is reserved for a hotel. >> Got it. >> Thank you. Yeah. And are you aware you remember where that house is there? Kind of where you're going to turn up to Walmart. >> Mention it. I remember looking at it. >> There you go. Yeah. I just want to make sure. I know you're new, so I was Good job on that, by the way. [laughter] >> Great. All right. Any other questions? >> All right. Then we'll move on to uh B, which is the Madison facade improvement program application. And Nate, you're taking this one, too. >> Certainly. Uh we have the owners of the Madison here. Uh they're going to help me uh present this, but I'll give some background as far as I understand the facade improvement program. And what we have for an action for the EDA this this morning is an approval a recommendation of approval for this application. So as far as program background the facade improvement grant started in 19 2019. It's a grant based off of a 50% match of for commercial property owners and it's meant to help beautify buildings increase awareness and sustain healthy commercial building stock in Cottage Grove. Uh as far as the criteria is concerned, it needs to be located within the city of Cottage Grove. Uh there is a priority map. There are two different areas. I have a map on the sec on the next slide that shows kind of where we hope to put um investment, but it's it doesn't preclude any other areas. Um we want to encourage uh improvements to the surrounding business help uh improve the appearance cons be consistent with codes and the comprehensive plan and pri there are there's priority given to local businesses as opposed to national re retail uh tenants. Um a a requirement is that they must also not have already received it. So, I mentioned that priority zone. It's hard to tell here, but uh there's blue and green areas that kind of flow along the 80th Street commercial corridor as well as Jamaica and then on on 61 there. Uh the priority simply states that this is kind of our two areas that we're focusing on on funneling funds. But again, that doesn't mean that the parcels do not need to be in here uh to apply for those funds as we'll get to with with the Madison. It's not highlighted in this area. So, as far as the Madison's application, um it's to it's to improve the historic Ferber House, which currently operates as an event center. Uh the total project cost is just over 100 or almost $135,000 and there the project entails windows, sighting and foundation repairs. They did receive their approvals from the ACP, that's the historic preservation commission, as well as the planning commission and council in November [clears throat] of last year. And they're looking they're seeking the maximum grant request of $24,999. I will note uh as I said kind of in I alluded to in the previous slide that this project is not in a prior priority zone. However, that doesn't preclude them from getting an applica uh from getting funds and it is not zone commercial. However, because it is a historic structure, they do operate operate under a historic cup which allows them to operate in a commercial way. Um, and I'm I'm recommending uh approval uh of of this uh application, but I also want to note that because I'm new and I I have worked in facade, so I come from the city of Northfield previously and uh for about six years I operated a facade improvement grant for the downtown. And so my recommendation to the board today is not if you were to pursue um approval of their application, I will also re recommend a secondary motion that allows me to kind of review this uh this this program and provide feedback to the board for any, you know, potential amendments or considerations. So with that said, I would invite Brad and Louise forward to talk about their project. Good morning and welcome. >> Good morning. Thank you, Nate. Um, good morning. Uh, one quick thing I wanted to mention, uh, uh, based on that map you showed there, I know one of the things, uh, you mentioned was the priority areas. I thought it was kind of funny. It just popped into my head. Although we may not, uh, physically be within the area of the constraints of that map. One of the things that uh when we moved to Cottage Grove, somebody pointed out to us is that our business was on the puzzle that you guys hand out around town. So although we may not be on the priority uh zone of the map, we are we have made the puzzle. So I think that's kind of cool. Um my name is Brad Madison and on behalf of my wife Louise and I, we would like to thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today. uh looking across the the faces I've seen here, I've met so many of you throughout our process of becoming part of uh Cottage Grove's neighborhood as a business and as a family. Uh many of you have spent time inside the walls of our venue. Uh some of us have an even more special relationship than than just uh meeting. Uh some of us are actually patrons and I appreciate that. Uh we purchased the property. Uh it was under a different name. Um, some of you may be familiar with it. In on September 17th of 2024, we saved the venue from a bankrupt business that would have most likely put the property into a foreclosure. We celebrated our first year anniversary on September 17th, 2025 and are well into our second year with unexpected level of success. We've currently had more than we currently have more than 60 events booked for 2026 and are still continuing to book for for 2026 as well as 10 events for 2027. Um, so we have hosted I'm going to switch my slide here. Sorry, this is I don't do this very often though. So just like Nate's sort of new to this uh I'm new to this particular thing as well. We um so we we host approximately 12,000 to 15,000 guests per year. Many of these guests come from out of town and will make use of many of Cottage Grove's businesses creating economic opportunities on a broad scale. The Madison supports local businesses with opportunities to serve these guests through partnerships with hotels, restaurants, in addition to the typical wedding and event vendors. We are also proud to have a strong community presence with the support of nonprofits, fundraising events, as well as donating our space for memorial services for community members in need. We also hosted a Christmas market this last year which gave opportunity to over 40 unique vendors. The event served around 1,800 guests. Mr. Bailey, you were there. >> Yep. >> Um who they all visited our barn on Lamar Avenue in one day. The event alone was able to create around create around $50,000 worth worth of gross revenue for all vendors involved. That's not our revenue. That's the vendors that were all present on the day. Most of you will recognize our business from the barn. Uh the facade of our barn is quite well known. Again, it was it is um put in all its glory on the puzzle there. Um and there's a picture. Actually, I just recently took this when the the um northern lights were looking very beautiful over the city of Cottage Grove. I thought it was kind of a cool picture. It >> was cool. >> Um so, located prominently on our property is a dilapidated house which in its day was a beautiful piece of architecture as well as a historical cottage grove landmark. This house built in 1851 is on the National Historic Registry and now a forgotten historical diamond in the rough. It sits waiting to be reborn or to crumble away. It's in in its current state. It is not only a detriment to the facade of our business, but also a sad representation of Cottage Grove's past, and our hope is to bring it back to its former glory. And here are some images of the Ferour House. Um, I'm sure most of you have driven by and seen it on Lamar. The picture on the left there is actually an original representation of it from the Almanac which was handdrawn in 1871. That's a picture of John P. Ferber himself. And this is a picture of John P. Ferber and his wife and family. Um, one thing I want to mention before I jump over to actually talk about the plans we have is although um the the name of the business that we purchased or sorry the name of the the the name of the business that ran a business at the property we purchased uh many of you will know it as the Ferber Farm. Um we obviously changed the name to more represent our our own business. However, we do want to pay homage to the historical aspect of what that house is to Cottage Grove. So, with that said, our goal and our intent is to operate our business under the Madison as as we have for the last year and some days. Uh when once the improvements are made to the house, we would like to honor the family and the name of the people who that homestead which was Ferber. So, the house itself will be called the Ferber House. Um, and these are are um I I know it says tenative. Most of these are kind of set in stone. Uh, but at the time when I made this, some of them were tentatives, and our interior plans aren't really part of this presentation. Uh, but the exterior ones are, um, really what we're talking about today. Um, so, um, this is a photograph of Louise and I. Uh, we chose Jake Jones of Medicine Wood to help us restore the house. We were actually referred to Jake through a member of the Cottage Grove ACP and it's been a such a wonderful relationship. He has such a passion for uh historical properties and restoration. So, um everyone all that's involved with the ACP uh is obviously very excited about us working with him because they know that the true uh heritage is going to be retained and and restored. Um for instance, we're not doing vinyl replacement windows. We're doing actual uh replacement of uh replacement and repair of all of the original windows. So, there's not going to be vinyl replacements. And this goes right down to even the mechanical uh aspects of the windows. There's weights in the wall. Uh everything, the sashes are all being replaced. Anything that's rotted is going to be replaced with new wood. Um and that's pretty awesome. as well as the siding. I'll mention um we're restoring the uh the the original idea was actually to replace the siding because we assumed it was going to be very rotted underneath the asbestous sighting. Uh but on uh upon uncovering the asbestous siding, we found the original clapboard siding uh or clabbered siding as they say uh to be in wonderful shape, which is really exciting. So the whole exterior of that house is going to be authentic from 1851. Um so this is the Ferour house. Uh our first step was to remove the asbestous sighting. We actually completed this step already in December. If you were driving by, you may have noticed uh some work being done and it was really exciting and kind of gave us a little bit of anxiety because now our dilapidated house looks a little bit even more like a dilapidated house and a ghost house. Um but it is pretty incredible to see that uh is that um siding come to life. You can see it actually originally was red. If you look at that picture there, they painted the house red originally in the early in the mid 1850s. Um, window restoration is uh scheduled to begin on January 14th. One of the stipulations for this grant was that we didn't begin any work until we were either approved or denied. So, our hope is uh with approval, we can begin construction or repair of the windows tomorrow. Uh Jake Jones will be doing that and it's slated to be completed sometime in March. Um, and after the windows are uh finished in March, we have around a month before our wedding season starts where we're going to start the restoration of the sighting. Um, you can see this is a closeup of what that clab clabbered sighting looks like. It's kind of incredible that something can be all all of the authenticity can be retained and it's in such good shape for so long. Um after the windows are completed, uh another step will be to start working on the uh um the remaining exterior of the house with its decorative features, all the beautiful things that are are well documented in photographs like the round windows and the cornises and the uh corbals of the house. Um there's some more pictures of that. Um, with the completion of the exterior of the Ferber House, we will have successfully improved the overall visual representation of our business and we will have made way to start the next step, which will be the restoration of the interior. Once completed, our plan is to make the Ferber House available to our event guests as an overnight option and also available to anyone anyone visiting Cottage Grove that is looking for a unique place to stay. Wedding guests, families on a ski trip to Aftton Alps, or even history bus looking to visit one of the oldest houses still standing in the state of Minnesota. These are all the people who we hope to welcome to stay in the house. Louise and I thank you for your time and your consideration and if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. >> Fantastic. Well, thank you. Uh obviously you guys have done a tremendous job with that uh venue out there and yes, I did get a chance. I I know you were running around that day because you >> Oh, you have more people than you thought. >> Yes. >> Which is not a bad thing. >> Poor Louise was directing traffic. >> He was out trying to get people off the main street. So I I was I'm like, "You'll be fine. You'll be fine. Let it happen. It's good. We're fine. >> We have lots of notes uh from that day. It was our first time doing it and I think the community really loved it. [snorts] >> My closest neighbors maybe not so much because of the traffic on the road and with the parking. Um but that's one of the things if we we have not decided yet if we're going to do it again next year. Um, we're kind of in the in the process of working that out, but if we do, we're going to work more closely uh with the folks who actually ran the event to make sure that we have more people monitoring traffic and and attending to the parking lot. A so I don't have to do it or Louise and B so that it doesn't affect our our uh community in a negative way like that. So, but yes, the turnout was phenomenal. >> Perfect. And my only other comment then I'll see if C or uh your EDA has any questions or comments. The so the ultimate goal once the house is finished and refurbished is to use it almost kind of like a bed and breakfast. >> Well, we're gonna refrain we're gonna refrain from bed and breakfast because that uh that means that we're dealing with food and beverage and that takes on a whole different sort of licenses. >> We're going to let's just we'll call it similar to like an Airbnb. >> Airbnb. That's what I was going to say. Okay. All right. Perfect. >> But a little different and classier than a just a typical Airbnb. >> No, it looks like when you when you're finished with it. Perfect. All right. So, yes, I'll start with uh the EDM member of Kambata. >> Um [clears throat] Brad, I happen to know that you're also a talented photographer. So, um some of the pictures you took were really amazing. >> Thank you. >> Uh and I imagine that when you're done, the pictures that you post of the after um after after construction photos would be equally amazing. Um, yeah, I'm I'm really impressed with um your kind of the the direction you you decided to go with, especially finding that some of the original um materials were still intact with the house and refurbishing the windows. Um so, so I'm really and and I I disagree with you. I think that by taking off that asbestous siding, I think the house already looks better, >> okay, >> with that original siding. Um, but my my question is I see in the in the historical photos it shows like a uh like a a fulllength porch or gable over the over the front of the house. Is are you guys planning on changing any of any of the existing architecture on the front of the house to to mimic that or are you going to keep >> Are you talking about this one here? >> Yeah. >> Yes. That's so what we're we've worked this into what we're calling different phases [laughter] for for many reasons. Uh money, time, all of those things. Um phase one uh is um well on its way uh in terms of starting the exterior process. where our biggest goal was to make sure that when people drove up our long driveway towards the barn that if their glance happened to go off to the right and see that house that it didn't make them stop the car and put it in reverse, which is kind of the way it is right now. It does not really help us out. It's uh you know, we we every time we do we we've booked 60 weddings next year, but all all 60 of those people that pulled in uh we've had to kind of spin it in a way that says, "Oh, that's our historic home. Uh it's charming. It's a, you know, it it looks a little rundown right now, but it's a historical building, you know, so we kind of have to spin it. Uh and our hope is to one day not be able not have to do that. In fact, our goal is to be able to do that by the start of weddings this this summer. I'm sure some of us are excited about that. Um, so yes, phase two is the interior. So once we get the exterior done, that's phase one. Uh, we want to make the exterior beautiful. Uh, once that's done, we'll over the summer and probably some of the winter, who knows how long exactly, that's when we'll start phase two, which is the interior. Phase three is going to be adding the frosting on the cake. And that is our plan is to add that original deck on the front. In fact, Jake Jones from Medicinewood has a has um found uh a man who's specializes in authentically recreating historical uh structures like porches. Uh so our goal is to do it exactly like that that picture that's there. Um, one thing we did, uh, fool around with the idea of is, uh, we have direct contact with some of the original family members, uh, Ferber, uh, we have a connection with a woman named Gretchen Ferber who lives in Florida and she's very excited about this project and has sent us literally stacks and papers full of like family almanacs and historical like handwritten letters from John P. Ferbert. Like, it's incredible. Many of these things we're going to try and recreate and put in the house as artwork on the wall. Um, but one of the things we found out is that they had hoped to do a wraparound porch. Meaning, so the the if you see on the facade, front facade, the porch only extends the front part, but we'd like it to maybe go to what they had hoped to do, which was to extend it a little bit sideways and then back towards the windows as well. Um, but that's uh obviously something we'll have to get approved through the ACP and all of that. But at the very least, we're looking to recreate that. And in fact, if you look at the back of the house, uh I'm not sure if you guys do you guys see my mouse? This section here is also actually a little back porch. And uh the building that's attached to that porch is currently uh a rebuilt kind of threeseason porch, which doesn't really match the built the house itself. So, we're looking to recreate the this original look. And originally, there was a uh a quarters above that that section there, which is where um um some uh people who worked with the house lived. And uh so we're looking to recreate the second level of the house as well, trying to create as much uh make it as authentic as possible to its original plan. >> Sounds good. >> That's awesome. >> Amazing. Awesome. >> All right. So, uh, C, uh, C customer, >> thank you, Brad and Louise. You guys have done an amazing job. I I'm sure you've heard that just [clears throat] hundreds of times, but, uh, we're very grateful that you took on this project, um, because it was a project, and as you stated earlier, um, it had some, uh, bad juju associated with it. So, I think um turning that around was uh not an easy task, but you've definitely done tremendous work and we're we're happy to have you in the community fully. Uh you know, I'm behind your facade improvement program. Selfishly, I do want you to do the Christmas market again because my wife and I had a blast, but I understand it was a crazy day. Uh at the end of the day, both of you needed a two-day nap, I think. Um my question for you is this. I know that you have a lot of different balls in the air as it stands right now with not only this house but also other things that you want to do um with the property. I'm just curious uh have you guys made any decisions about um any other improvements that you're working to towards on the property or are you taking this sort of step by step? let's get this done, then we'll do the next thing, then we'll do the next thing. Because when we met initially, I know you had some other ideas. Uh but of course the realities of um you know, availability of materials, availability of talent, uh not to mention the costs associated with those things can be a little bit crazy. Anything else that we should know about that's coming up? >> Sure. Uh we love we love a little teaser. >> Yeah. >> Um thanks for the question, Justin. Um so yes we do have uh lots of plans uh additional plans and of course anytime you want to make a business better or anything in life better you come up with a um you know you brainstorm ideas. So we have [clears throat] many many ideas. Some of them will will some of them will most likely come to fruition. Some of them will continue to be dreams until later on down the road until they become reality. Um, we do have hopes to uh restore the pole barn on on site there, which is they the uh they call it a historic pole barn because a historic machine shed actually because it was uh it wasn't ob obviously built in 1851. Alongside the house, there was a small out building that was uh much of the history of that house. Although it the the family Ferber is the most important name, uh the Vandenbergs were the ones who built that barn and they were also a had a significant place in the city of Cottage Grove and I believe that they were the ones that built that machine shed. Uh our hope is to restore that machine shed to first of all make it safe uh and usable space for us uh to use for the business. Uh but there is a portion of that uh pole shed, the far uh the south side of the pole pole shed or machine shed that we would like to restore and hopefully one day turn into an additional um asset for the business in in the form of what we'd like to call maybe like uh a a speak easy or um uh or a cigar bar kind of thing for obviously for our clients to use, but also potentially maybe for uh to have it open for limited amounts of time for for Cottage Grove community members to come and sit and have a glass of wine or a beverage or listen to some live music. Uh these are uh obviously lots of things that we need to get uh approval for and there's things like liquor licenses that would have to be acquired. Uh and those are but those again are just uh in the pipeline uh in the dream in the dream of where we'd like to go. I would say that's the most immediate and largest thing. Um, outside of that, um, Louise, am I am I forgetting anything that we have plans to do? >> Garage. >> Huh? >> The garage. >> Well, we'd like to Yeah. In terms of like making the the property itself look nicer. One of the things we'd like to do is there is like a a 1970s Menard's built garage that sits right in the middle of the property, which doesn't really align with the rest of the property. And I'm hoping to get permission to put a cement pad back towards where our parking lot is and move that to the back the north so like the more closer to the north end of the property within the trees areas that we have uh and let trees grow around it to kind of hide it and then use it to put you know the the snow plow in the summer and put the the the lawnmowers in the winter that kind of thing. Um, I know that we're not allowed to go over a certain number of square footage without buildings. And I do believe we're over that number uh like grandfathered in, but I I've been told that if we tear any of those buildings down that we're not allowed to rebuild them because of that. So, that's something that we'll obviously work with the uh Cottage Grove uh the people uh who are in charge of that stuff to to see if we can do that. But th those are the I would say those are the most pertinent goals we have. >> Well, great. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for being here today and thank you guys for doing such great work for our community. I know you've enabled people who um you know have had various challenges in their lives, use the facility for a lot of different reasons and you haven't charged them anything and um to me that's just proof that you guys really want to be good neighbors and uh you've definitely demonstrated that. So, thank you so much. You know, we do appreciate that relationship with Cottage Grove and and um in one thing just to throw out there is in in addition to the community members we've served that way, uh we also were able to serve 12 families who had contracts with the previous owner uh who we uh executed their contracts, 12 contracts free of charge as well. So >> Oh, that's amazing. Thank you so much. Back to you. >> Thank you. Any other questions by our EDA members? All right, EDA. So, what we've got before us then is actually uh an approval which is uh basically awarding as you could see before and there's actually two specific motions um that are up there. So, let's start with number one if somebody would like to take number one. I'd like to make the motion to award the Madison Minnesota LLC 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 ED member Kater. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by ED member Cheetah. Uh, any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed. Motion carries. And then who would like take number two? >> I will. Um I make a motion to direct staff to review the priority zones and overall facade improvement program criteria and provide the EDA with potential recommended program updates. >> All right. So I have a motion by EDA member Scott. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Oh, we I think we got it down here. Uh we got a second by Gene uh Baptist. ED member Baptist. So any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Yep. Good luck. Well, it'll be neat to see it get changed out. >> We'll do a We'll do a grand opening and have uh have you by to cut another ribbon. >> There we go. Be happy to do that one. >> And by the way, we do have a city photo contest. I don't know if you know that or not, but that would be a great entry. >> What's that? >> Uh city's photo contest. We have one. >> So, that would be a terrific entry. Yeah, the one with the barn and the northern lights above it. >> That looked pretty cool, by the way. >> Mhm. >> There you go. >> All right. Uh, next item on our uh agenda team is uh C, which is the approval of the 2026 meeting schedule. >> You're free to go. >> You're afraid to go. >> Are you sure? >> Yeah. >> You guys are good. >> You just told us we can leave. >> Yes, you can. You're good. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Yep. Take care. >> [laughter] >> All right. So, EDA, as you can see, we're obviously on January 13th for 2026. You can see all of our meeting dates that are laid out for the rest of the year. Uh, the one notable one, of course, is December 1st. That is a special meeting that's held at 6:00 uh p.m. as part of the um HA levy uh approval process. So, just want to make everybody aware of that. Uh, and of course, uh, these are the set meeting dates, but if there is not something on the agenda for one of these meeting dates, they obviously the meeting could be cancelled. So, uh, since, uh, you could see the meeting dates, I'm looking for a motion and a second. >> Move to approve the meeting date schedule. >> All right. So, I've got a motion motion by council member Olsen and I've got a second by Ed member Katada. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. Motion carries. And then finally this uh this almost an evening this morning um is a letter of intent with trade home shoes and I believe Nate and Jennifer may be taking us through this one. >> Uh thank you uh President Bailey, members of the EDA, [clears throat] I'm getting my feet wet with uh these WAG properties as I understand them with the the Glen Denning family. Um, Jennifer had received a a drafted LOI from Trade Home Shoes for 13 acres uh east of Jamaica and just about south of 97th Street there. It's highlighted in yellow and red. Uh my un my understanding as far as how this operates with with the EDA being involved is um the property is sold to the EDA at a reduced cost uh to help us um and then we we sell it then secondarily to um the buyer and in a way to help us uh recoup in investment in the infrastructure directly adjacent to the site. Um, and what I'd be working toward if the EDA does approve this LOI is setting a public hearing in February to execute purchase agreement documents. Um, and so the the price as it stands right now that the EDA would uh sell it is uh $1.7 million. I'll turn it over to city minister Jennifer Levit if there's other things I missed. uh EDA president, members of the EDA. Um this is one of those properties that we had a previous agreement on with Ryan Company. They were looking to build 140,000 square foot um warehouse uh facility. Um that uh purchase agreement never came to fruition and now uh Trade Homes, which is nice, an existing business would like to expand. um we're still connecting with them and their specific plans um in regards to uh what they see on this site and how they potentially uh desire to phase that. So um at this point we would be bringing the purchase agreement uh to you hopefully in February um if all goes well and you'll see a planning commission schedule for their project uh hopefully uh in early Q2 um as well. So uh I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. >> Any question? Uh uh ED member Katada, >> with regard to the to the prior contract with Ryan Companies, um as part of their due diligence, was there any um security put up? And then, you know, was was that forfeited to the city? If there was any any security funds posted, were those forfeited or returned when the contract did not proceed? >> Uh EDA member Kada, that's a good question. Um if you'll recall there was a couple of amendments to that contract and as part of it there were uh a section or a portion of the money that went hard as part of their um earnest money and that money uh was split between the city and wag based upon the actual percentage of the actual purchase agreement. So that's a good question. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Any other questions? All right. Seeing none, uh we do have a motion before us if somebody would like to take that motion. I'll motion to authorize the EDA president and city administrator to execute the letter of intent with trade home shoes for the purchase of approximately 13.1 acres with P2.027.21.34.007 at the price of 1,711,98 to prepare purchase agreement documents to be approved at the next available EDA board meeting following the necessary public hearing notice. >> All right. Thank you. I have a motion by uh ED member Kanana and I think I just got a second from EDA Vice President Olsen. Any further discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Thank you. Um uh there are no public hearings this evening. Uh there is no other business. Uh no workshops, no additional presentations. So I know we were trying to get one particular member out here by 8:15. I think we're we made that happen, didn't we? So, we'll look for a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn the meeting. >> All right. So, we have a motion by uh ED member Scott. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by ED member Kada. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. >> We are adjourned. Thanks everyone.