[00:00] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, all right. Good morning, everyone. This is the April 11, 2023, Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority meeting, which we're calling to order. Uh, Jaime, do you want to roll? [00:10] **Jaime Mann:** EDA President Bailey? [00:11] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Aye. [00:12] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Vice President Dennis? [00:13] **EDA Vice President Dennis:** Here. [00:14] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Carrie? [00:15] **EDA Member Carrie:** Here. [00:16] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Chrome? [00:17] **EDA Member Chrome:** Here. [00:18] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Myers? [00:19] **EDA Member Myers:** Here. [00:20] **Jaime Mann:** EDA Member Scott? [00:21] **EDA Member Scott:** [Present/Here]. [00:22] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, everybody's here. Thank you. The next item on our agenda this morning is approval of the minutes, and we do have one, which is 3.1: the approval of the February 14th, 2023, EDA meeting minutes. And if there were no change or corrections, I'll need a motion and a second here. [00:35] **EDA Vice President Dennis:** I'll make the motion for us to approve the minutes from February 14th. [00:38] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Vice President Dennis. We have a second? [00:41] **EDA Member Chrome:** Second. [00:42] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second, uh, EDA Member Chrome. All right. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. [00:48] **Group:** Aye. [00:49] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Uh, next is for is business items and 4.1 is the economic development update in business inquiry. And Gretchen will take us through this or—gee, sorry—uh, G will take us... [01:03] **Gretchen Larson (Economic Development):** You can call me either name that you would prefer. Good morning, everyone. It's another nice day in the neighborhood and we have members of the audience—hi, Robin. So, economic business development updates: we're going to start with the Beige Book. Employment grew modestly since the last report, and prices—pricing pieces were also modest overall with some signs of easing inflationary pressures. The food and hospitality industry continues to struggle to find workers with many workers reporting that they quit their jobs to start their own businesses, making an already challenging situation even more complicated. Consumer spending fell slightly, commercial construction fell slightly, while commercial real estate was flat and residential real estate continued to slow or stopped altogether. Manufacturing activity increased modestly while agricultural conditions remained strong, and women and minority-owned businesses reported steady activity although the labor market tightness continues to put uneven pressure on their businesses. Next, we have some updates from the planning department. Cottage Grove Apartments: as you can see, the framing, insulation, and drywall continues for the building while trade work nears completion in the south. At The View, construction of the wood frame portion of the building continues and trade work is ongoing. Then we have Cottage Grove Logistics Park. Both current buildings are waiting on materials to complete the electrical work, and NorthPoint is proposing to construct a speculative office area in each building to encourage leasing as "ready to occupy." And we can now officially announce that they do have their first tenant: Van Meter's expansion. With Van Meter's expansion, they took 104,000 square feet, so that's exciting news for both of them. Renewal by Andersen: the interior framing and plumbing have begun; it's looking good. Pizza Ranch: drywall has been installed and finishing work has begun; they're still hoping to open probably in June. Wells number two and seven—bless you—framing and installation are complete for these water treatment buildings. And then some other things we thought we'd pull out from the report that the department did: Pacific Dental, the permit has been issued but construction has not yet begun. Also, Beauty Plans have been received for the interior remodel and facade improvements, and they're going to be located next to Planet Fitness. HomeChoice plans—their plans have been reviewed and approved for their furniture store located next to Ace Hardware. Jersey Mike's—the building permit has been issued for their subs and they're going to be located in the vacant tenant space next to Menards, or adjacent to the building adjacent to Menards. And then in Glacial Valley Park, the plan review has been completed for the new building. Happy to answer any questions about that, and Emily, our acting Community Development Director, is here as well. [04:14] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. Any questions for G at all, anybody? You covered it all. You did good. Well, they're doing all the heavy lifting. There we go, planning. All right, so seeing no other questions on that one, we'll move to 5, which is a public hearing, and 5.1 is the 95th and Jamaica land sale to Hohensteins. G, you're going to take us through that? [04:36] **Gretchen Larson (Economic Development):** Yes. So, the city's received a purchase agreement from Hohenstein Real Estate LLC for the purchase of the vacant property located at 95th Street South and Jamaica Avenue South as indicated on the map. Hohensteins plans to build a beverage distribution facility at the site. Historically, just as a reminder for some folks, all the land in the business park has been sold to the EDA and then sold to the end-user, allowing for cost recovery to make the site pad-ready. And then pursuant to Minnesota Statutes 4469.105, the EDA must hold a public hearing on the sale of the property and publish a notice of the hearing at least 10 days but not more than 20 days in advance. And that official notice has been published in the city's official newspaper for the hearing. The applicant is available in here, and I'll turn it over to you and the public hearing. [05:25] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. First of all, any questions by anybody on the EDA here for Gretchen? All right, seeing none, I will go ahead and open the public hearing. This is the opportunity that if anybody wants to speak on this item, is welcome to do so at this time. And not seeing anybody, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. And we actually have three separate motions that we'll need to make. So if there's no other questions or comments for our staff, I'll look for a motion for number one that's on the screen before us. [05:53] **EDA Member Myers:** I can kick it off. Go ahead. All right, we've got to—motion to approve a resolution for the purchase of property from WAG and sale of property to Hohenstein Real Estate LLC for development purposes. [06:05] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so I have a motion by EDA Member Myers. Do I have a second? [06:08] **EDA Vice President Dennis:** Second. [06:09] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Vice President Dennis. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. [06:14] **Group:** Aye. [06:15] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Who would like number two? [06:18] **EDA Member Scott:** Okay, Sandy. I make a motion to authorize the EDA President and City Administrator to execute the purchase agreement with WAG for the purchase of 19.17 acres for development purposes. [06:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, it's—we have a motion by EDA Member Scott. Do I have a second? [06:34] **EDA Member Chrome:** Second. [06:35] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Member Chrome. Any further discussion on this one? Seeing not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. [06:40] **Group:** Aye. [06:41] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. And finally, number three. [06:44] **EDA Member Carrie:** I can make a motion to authorize the EDA President and City Administrator to execute the purchase agreement with Hohenstein Real Estate LLC for the purchase of 19.17 acres. [06:54] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by EDA Member Carrie. Do I have a second? [06:58] **EDA Vice President Dennis:** Second. [06:59] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Vice President Dennis. Any discussion on this? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. [07:04] **Group:** Aye. [07:05] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. And you didn't have to talk! Welcome, hopefully—welcome to Cottage Grove. We're excited to have you here. [07:13] **EDA Vice President Dennis:** So here, I'd like to make a quick statement. Yes, we're very excited to have you guys here. Um, as investors into the community, Hohensteins is a fantastic family-owned Minnesota licensed wholesaler for adult beverages, most notably in the beer realm, and they have the preeminent craft beer book in the state of Minnesota. So we're very happy to have you here. Thank you very much. [07:40] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** So, all right, so I'm moving on to 6, which is other business. EDA calendar—that was given to you. And then at 6.1 and 6.2, EDA comments. EDA Vice President Dennis? [07:54] **EDA Vice President Dennis:** All right, thank you, Mayor. And for everyone here on the panel and those at home that may be watching, we had a monumental accomplishment take place here in the city, and that is a Triple-A bond rating. And Brenda, our Finance Director, I'd like to just reach over to you for a second and have you talk just a little bit about that accomplishment and what that means for our community. [08:14] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director):** Well, what it means for the—what it means, Council and members of the EDA, what it means for our community is that we are one of a few communities in Minnesota that hold that Triple-A bond rating. And so what that says to our bondholders and to our residents and our businesses is that we do a great job with our finances and our financial planning. And so in the future, when we go out and issue bonds for the community, we will do that at a lower interest rate, so we have our savings for our taxpayers. [08:42] **EDA Vice President Dennis:** Yeah, and that's a huge, huge thing for us because if you think how interest rates have risen and additional cost factors across the board, for us to be able to achieve this and have a higher level of value is really an amazing thing. And as you said, this is something that is usually relegated for far larger cities than ours. So I think it speaks very clearly to the job that everybody has done—our Council and our staff team—to manage a really, really good business. And so it's not just going to help us for future times of getting a better rate, but it's also giving us an opportunity that if we want to refinance some of the current notes we have, that we can get a lower rate on that as well. So this can make a big, big difference for us. And again, we've got new investors coming to town; I think it provides a lot of confidence for them to know that we run a good business here. So thank you for that feedback. [09:31] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director):** Thank you, Mayor. [09:32] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. And I will just piggyback a little bit on what you were just saying. And again, you mentioned about a city our size—or not that many cities in Minnesota that have Triple-A. I do remember, and I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again publicly here: when I became Mayor, you know, 16 years ago, one of the things we always aspired to get to was, frankly, Double-A Plus, which we did. And then we said it's going to be—and heard it was going to be—a very long time before we would get to Triple-A and we'd need to be a much bigger city. We heard all those stories, and then boom, you know. It just took years to do this, but very impressed and, you know, kudos to our staff and councils and such for, and EDA, for making this all happen, by the way. So definitely going to be cost savings for our citizens of Cottage Grove. So pretty cool. Any other EDA comments? I'm going to look to staff for a quick second. Are we going to do a meeting before we go to the ICSC? Is that correct? [10:31] **Nate Carlson (Economic Development Director):** Yes, Mayor. At that time, we'd make a presentation to the EDA in regards to our efforts and strategies out there. [10:37] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Perfect. I was just going to mention just for the EDA that, with staff—some staff members and EDA Vice President Dennis and I—will be going to the ICSC convention in Vegas towards the end of May. And that is obviously to meet with developers, investors, and so on about bringing their businesses and such to Cottage Grove. So we'll let you guys bring that back to us to share with the EDA and the public what our plans are at the next meeting. Any other EDA comments or requests? 6.3 is a response to previous EDA comments or requests—there was none. 7, we do not have a workshop this morning. And 8 is already a motion to adjourn. Who would like to take it? [11:21] **EDA Member Scott:** I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. [11:23] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so a motion by EDA Member Scott. Do I have a second? [11:26] **EDA Member Carrie:** Second. [11:27] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by EDA Member Carrie. All those in favor signify by saying aye. [11:30] **Group:** Aye. [11:31] **Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? We are adjourned. There we go. Quick, but thanks for coming.