THE BROOKLYN PARK ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN PARK MARCH 21, 2016 MEETING MINUTES I. ORGANIZATIONAL BUSINESS: 1. CALL TO ORDER: President Jeffrey Lunde (7:00 p.m.) ROLL CALL PRESENT: President Jeffrey Lunde, Vice President Peter Crema & Treasurer Terry Parks, Commissioners Rich Gates, John Jordan, Bob Mata and Michael Trepanier, Executive Director Kim Berggren and EDA Secretary Theresa Freund. ABSENT/EXCUSED: None. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT AND RESPONSE: 2.A Response to Prior Public Comment: None. 2.B Public Comment: None. 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION GATES, SECOND CREMA APPROVING THE AGENDA AS PRESENTED. MOTION PASSED II. STATUTORY BUSINESS: 4. CONSENT: 4.1 Consider Approving the EDA Meeting Minutes. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: 5.1 None. MOTION GATES, SECOND CREMA TO APPROVE THE FEBRUARY 16, 2016 EDA MEETING MINUTES. MOTION PASSED 6. GENERAL ACTION ITEMS: 6.1 Consider Approving Purchase of MNDOT Right-of-Way Property at the Southeast Corner of TH610/US 169. MOTION TREPANIER, SECOND GATES TO WAIVE THE READING AND ADOPT RESOLUTION #2016-4 AUTHORIZING STAFF TO PURCHASE MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OWNED SURPLUS RIGHT-OF-WAY AT SOUTHEAST CORNER OF US-169 AND TH-610 FOR $1,480,000. MOTION PASSED
Page 2 6.2 Consider Directing Staff to Proceed with a Branding Project: the Replacement of the City Hall Monument Sign. MOTION JORDAN, SECOND GATES, DIRECTING STAFF TO PROCEED WITH A BRANDING PROJECT: THE REPLACEMENT OF THE CITY HALL MONUMENT SIGN. MOTION PASSED 6.3 Consider Approving Modifications to the Guidelines of the Home Rehabilitation Deferred Loan Program MOTION LUNDE, SECOND GATES APPROVING MODIFICATIONS TO THE GUIDELINES OF THE HOME REHABILITATION DEFERRED LOAN PROGRAM. MOTION PASSED III. DISCUSSION: 7. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 7.1 Status Update Kim Berggren highlighted the following: Business Forward does meet monthly and they recently had a presentation from Luis Salado-Herrera from BrookLynk about the internship program that is being run by the Alliance for Youth in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park. They also received an update from Erik Hansen around workforce development and will continue that conversation. The board is hosting an open meeting for the business community on April 12 th. They are inviting businesses to attend and share thoughts on the business environment here. Please encourage anyone that owns or manages a business in Brooklyn Park to attend the April 12 th meeting. There are two open positions on the Business Forward Advisory Board, If commissioners know anyone that might be interested in those positions, send them our way. This Thursday is the Real Estate Forum, an annual event that the EDA hosts for real estate agents that sell homes in the community. It is an opportunity to come and learn about Brooklyn Park and get the information they need to sell homes to new residents. Shingle Creek Watershed will be putting some artistic aeration systems in along the creek. The watershed has talked about trying to make the creek healthier by exposing more light to the creek and the other part is getting more oxygen into the water. One of the aeration systems is on the border of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, down by Park Center High School. It will be near the new trail and outdoor learning space that the EDA and the City has been partnering with the watershed and school district to create. They are just now selecting the artist to work on that project.
Page 3 Staff is in the process of recruiting for three summer intern positions. One of the intern positions will be partially funded by a $1,000 grant from the Economic Development Association of Minnesota (EDAM). We have received this grant several times from EDAM to promote the learning of the industry. We will also be hiring a BrookLynk intern, which is a high school student. The intern positions are budgeted for in the EDA budget. Next month on April 18 th staff is looking to see if we can coordinate a tour in lieu of the EDA meeting. Staff will get commissioners more information and will post if we deviate from our meeting schedule. If we do change the EDA meeting date by doing a tour on April 18 th, we would likely reschedule the EDA meeting for either the week before or week after following the City Council meeting. President Lunde requested that he receive a copy of the ad that will be in the Minnesota Twins Yearbook Everybody can play ball in our Park. Ms. Berggren reported that the ad was designed internally by staff, Angelica Klebsch and Erik Hansen. 7.2 Redevelopment Planning Discussion Emily Carr reported staff has been to the Citizens Long-range Improvement Committee (CLIC) three times in the last year to talk about redevelopment. They have showed support for exploring redevelopment opportunities in the community. Back in 2003 the City Council authorized a Task Force to look at redevelopment in Brooklyn Park. Out of that came a report called Master Redevelopment Framework Plan for Brooklyn Park. There were five priorities outlined in the report: 1. 85 th Avenue Corridor 2. Apartment Redevelopment 3. Acceleration of Village Creek 4. Commercial Property Reinvestment 5. Neighborhood Reinvestment Today the EDA owns 39 acres of vacant land. Most of it is clustered in the Village and Oak Grove Town Center which is north of TH610. Along the 85 th Avenue North corridor the EDA owns 4000 85 th Avenue North. This property was purchased back in 2011 with a lease back agreement. The business continued to operate there until last year when the property owner passed away and the business closed In terms of redevelopment along 85 th Avenue North it would be ideal to combine 4000 85 th Avenue North with the two parcels to the west. Redevelopment along this corridor in general has been challenging. There are a lot of grandfathered uses, the property owners have not been very willing to sell, there is contamination on some properties and there is also a pipeline. The pipeline would either have to be moved or not developed over. The strategy here is to continue with our land assembly
Page 4 approach and wait for welling sellers. Staff also feels that there is limited market potential here until TH610 is built out. As we saw with the Acorn Mini Storage project the market here is quite soft. That property was on the market for ten years before Rome Properties found a willing buyer that met our conditions. The EDA purchased three properties up north of TH610 in the Zane and Oak Grove area through tax forfeiture and a fourth property from a willing seller. Right now staff is on a wait and hold mode. We want to make sure that the Doran project is successful and we don t want to be competing with another EDA investment. Staff is hoping that once there is more development in this area the market value of this land will increase for these properties and better position the EDA to develop. In the Village Creek area the EDA owns approximately 20 acres and the vision for redevelopment is incomplete. The most significant work of the community has occurred here. Planning for this area began back in 1997. At that time there was a 150,000 square feet of vacant commercial space, it was blighted and it was economically and functionally obsolete. Shingle Creek was degraded, it acted as a drainage ditch and there were garbage and debris issues. A series of planning processes have resulted in what is there today. The city and EDA have invested $28 million. The current market value as of 2015 is about $56 million and this is a 175% increase from pre-redevelopment activities. The planning work here has really increased the market value, improved the streetscape, created more housing options and has restored Village Creek. The 2005 Development Plan for the Village Creek area included using the creek as a community amenity, creating retail and service nodes and owner occupied housing. The Huntington Pointe site at this time is the most marketable site for redevelopment but additional analysis needs to be done to evaluate that market interest. Our next steps are to pursue partnerships around possible users and uses of the Huntington site. Staff will return to the EDA with a scope for a feasibility analysis. The purpose of the feasibility analysis is to assess the infrastructure needs of the site and see what development options there might be. 7.3 Foreclosure Recovery Update Erika Byrd reported that through the program the EDA partners with developers to rehabilitate distressed homes in the community. This program came out of the recent foreclosure crisis between 2004 and 2008 when the number of foreclosures in Brooklyn Park more than quadrupled. In 2008 Brooklyn Park saw nearly 1,000 foreclosures. To address this crisis the EDA created a three step plan: 1. To prevent foreclosures the EDA partnered with community organizations to do foreclosure prevention and credit counseling. 2. To stabilize and preserve the housing stock Brooklyn Park intensified its code enforcement process, began identifying vacant homes, securing them properly and monitoring their condition. 3. To recover the foreclosed homes the EDA focused on acquisition and rehabilitation of distressed homes.
Page 5 Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds, which come from the federal government, have made up 63% of the total foreclosure recovery program funding from 2009-2016. All together the program budget was $9.8 million. Since 2009 we have invested $9 million of these dollars and this has resulted in a total investment of $35 million. Looking at 2005 numbers we saw over $81,000 difference in acquisition and resale price, we saw $10,000 in increased assessed value and in total over 242 properties have been touched by this program (including 183 rehabilitated homes, 58 homes that were re-occupied with the help of down payment assistance and 1 land banked home). While foreclosure rates have returned to their pre-crisis level, we do see the potential need to continue foreclosure work, particularly because Brooklyn Park has higher foreclosure rates than our peer cities. Going forward we anticipate that there is one year left of funding for this program, $850,000. The next step is to evaluate the program. This involves an undergraduate intern this spring and through the RCP there will be graduate interns in the fall looking at the impacts to the community. Staff will also seek out other funding options and find out what other cities are doing to do this type of work. Staff will come back to the EDA this fall and present the evaluation results as we have them and look for feedback on the next steps. 7.4 Metro Blue Line (Bottineau LRT) Update - Emily Carr reported in terms of station area planning, staff did receive a draft copy of the Bottineau or Brooklyn Park Station Area Plan that we worked on last fall. Commissioners were part of the design workshop. We will be providing comments through the consultants, Urban Design Associates as well as Hennepin County. The Council took action on the Municipal Consent Plans on February 22 nd. Those preliminary design plans will be further developed and you will be seeing updates of those soon. A few recent press articles were included in commissioners packets. We will be doing some type of tour outreach in regards to pedestrian enhancements or grade separated enhancements at 63 rd Avenue. More information will be coming on the tour. President Lunde requested an update on the acquisition process. Ms. Carr stated that after the record of decision in August, the project office and Hennepin County can move forward in the negotiating process with impacted property owners. IV. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 7:52 p.m. Respectfully Submitted EDA Secretary Theresa Freund