 Yeah. They're all here. They're your helpers right here. But they don't stand on the stand where they are. They're your helpers. Yes, I know. Watch your mouth. Watch your mouth. I can't tell dirty jokes. I can't tell dirty jokes. I'm going to have to do this all night. I'll see if you like this. Or do you like this? Good evening. We'd like to call the Durham City Council meeting to order at 7.01 p.m. on Monday, 21st April. Certainly want to welcome all of you there in attendance with us this evening. If we could just take a moment of silent meditation, please. Thank you. Councilman Brown, if you would lead us in the pledge along with his assistance and all the cups that we have. The pledge is to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, for one nation, for the united, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We're assisted tonight by, I guess, the Cub Scouts from First Calvary Baptist Church. Is that correct? That's right. The Tiger Cubs and Wolves, PAC 108, Den Leader Eddie White. Stand up, you guys. And they are from First Calvary Baptist Church. And so they came earlier, and I talked with them briefly on how they can better serve the community. And several of them are already serving the community by helping the elderly and raking leaves for their neighbors and just doing some marvelous kinds of things. So we expect great things from them. And thank you so much, parents and Cub leaders, Scout leaders, for all the work that you're doing with these boys. They are going to be great men one day. Thank you. We would ask the clerk if she would call the roll, please. Mayor Bell. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden. Present. Council Member Brown. Here. Council Member Cattati. Here. Council Member Davis. Here. Council Member Moffitt. Here. And Council Member Shul. Here. We have three proclamations that we would like to present this evening. The one, the first one is recognizing Earth Day. And we would ask Rhonda Park as Chief Director of Parks and Recreation. Whereas a sound and natural environment is the foundation of a healthy society and a robust economy. Whereas human activities in various locations around the globe are causing severe environmental damage. That threatens human life, human health and diminishes our planet's abilities to sustain a diverse community of life. Whereas the knowledge of ways to live in harmony with our environment and methods and technologies to establish and accomplish this in already exists. Whereas local communities can do much to reverse environmental degradation and contribute to building a healthy society by addressing issues such as energy use, transportation, waste prevention and sprawl. Whereas there are sound economic, environmental and social reasons for local governments to initiate energy efficiency and renewable energy practice. Whereas in 2014 Durham Earth Day Festival will be celebrated on April 27th and will bring together the community and the festive atmosphere to raise awareness of environmental issues, share knowledge and promote positive action that protects and enhances the quality of life for Durham residents. Therefore, I will be billed by Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, to help our proclaim Sunday, April 27th, 2014 as Earth Day in Durham. And hereby urge all citizens to take special note of this observance by encouraging residents, businesses and institutions to use Earth Day to celebrate the Earth and commit to building a sustainable society. With my hand, Corporate City of Durham, North Carolina, this is the 21st day of April, 2014. I would like to present this to Rhonda for any comments that she may have. Rhonda Parker, Director of Durham, Parks and Recreation, thank you Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Temp, Cora Cole McVadden, City Council, City Manager, City Attorney and residents of the City of Durham. I would like to, if you'd like to learn how to love the Earth, please come and join us this Sunday and we will show you ways to help preserve energy for the City of Durham and also to reduce our carbon footprint. We have some new features to share that we're excited about and that we want to share with you. And this will be the Sunday from 12 to 5 at Durham Central Park. We have the farmers laying with fresh local produce. We have Trosa store with gently used clothing and small items and e-cycling and recycling yard where we have drive through recycling, drop off for electronics, plastic bags and clothing. And in addition to the other activities and this event is sponsored by Durham Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Keek Durham Beautiful. But we have activities for children, Earth Day Parade, Sustainability Expo where you can learn all kinds of new techniques from local nonprofits and businesses. We have live music, local food trucks, eco lounge and even bike valet. And it's free admission, it's rain or shine. So come down and participate and enjoy what we have here in Durham and how we can keep making Durham better. But also on Saturday to kick off our Earth Day activities for the weekend, Solid Waste has a management department at the Earth Day kick off. It's the e-waste recycling and paper shredding event that they do every year in conjunction with us. But this will be on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Durham County Memorial Stadium. And so staff will be there on hand to help unload electronics and paper. And this event too is also free and open to the public. Thank you and we hope to see you this weekend. That's Vicki Westbrook, Assistant Director and Department of Water Management, if you would. The only kind of Vicki. Whereas the City of Durham continues to explore ways to manage residential consumption of water and to inspire its residents to preserve and protect our natural resources, especially our water supplies. Whereas the City of Durham as an EPA WaterSense Partner encourages our community to conserve water and be water efficient whenever possible. Whereas the Weiland Foundation has sponsored the National Mayor's Challenge for Water Conservation Challenge for three years promoting active competition among cities of all sizes across the nation to reduce water use by adoption of water efficient behaviors and practices. Whereas from April 1st to April 30th of 2014 the City wishes to inspire its residents and its neighboring communities to participate in the challenge by making a series of online pledges to reduce their impact on the environment by decreasing water use and striving to be more water efficient for the period of one year. Now, therefore, I, William V. Billville, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, proclaim that the City is an active participant in the Weiland Foundation National Mayor's Challenge for Water Conservation and encouraged Durham citizens to take the conservation challenge between April 1st, 2014 and April 30th, 2014 by making an online pledge at www.mywaterpledge.com That's www.mywatrpledge.com This proclamation shall be effective immediately and witness my hand in the Court of the City of Durham, North Carolina. This is the 21st of April, 2014. I'm going to present this to Vicki for comments she may have. Thank you. On behalf of Water Management, I would like to encourage each of you to go to www.mywaterpledge.com Since we kicked off this with a news release earlier this month, City of Durham is in 9th place among the cities that are listed, so we are in the group between 100,000 and 299,999,000 people. We're in 9th place. What I have noticed is there are actual movement taking place, so some cities have dropped off the list. I would like for Durham to move higher. Since people started pledging as of April 1st, the population in these cities has pledged to save 843 million gallons of water a year. It's very easy to do. Pops you through about three or four screens. And when I did it for myself, I committed to say 56,000 gallons of water per year for myself. So this is an exciting opportunity for us to participate. It's very fitting that we're in place with Earth Day, Earth Week, Earth Year, and I encourage all of you all to go to www.mywaterpledge.com and pledge today. Thank you. I'd like to ask Reginald Johnson, Director of Community Development, if he would join me. Thank you, Reginald. Whereas the Community Development Block Grant Program enacted into law under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 and the Home Partnership Rule Program enacted into law under the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990. Whereas the CDBG and home programs provide communities with the flexible resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs. Whereas the CDBG and home programs, primary objectives are to support communities by providing decent housing, creating suitable living environments, and expanding economic opportunities to households of low and moderate incomes. Whereas throughout their 40 year and 24 year histories, the CDBG and home programs have helped create strong partnerships between federal, state, and local governments, the private sector, and non-profit partners to successfully carry out activities that improve the lives of low and moderate income households of low and moderate income and revitalized neighborhoods where they live. Whereas the City of Durham has used CDBG and home funds to leverage additional resources for preserving housing, through rehabilitation, treating home ownership and rental housing opportunities, revitalizing neighborhoods, assisting the homeless, supporting job creation, and improvement of community facilities, improvement of community facilities, improvement of the participation of Citizens Advisory Committee. Whereas community development block grant and home programs have positively impacted the lives of residents and made a visible difference in the Durham community. Now, therefore, we view the old Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, to hear by proclaiming April 21st or April 26th, 2014 as National Community Development Week in Durham, and hear by urge all citizens to take special note of observance being held this week, showcasing projects and programs supported by CDBG and home funds in the city. With my hand, the Corporate City of Durham, North Carolina, this is the 21st day of April, 2014. And we present this to Reginald for any comments that he may have. Thank you, Mayor Bell. Members of the City Council, for the 2014 National Community Development Week proclamation recognizing 40 years of building strong communities. On behalf of the Community Development Department, the Citizens Advisory Committee, all of our partners, as well as the Durham residents, all of the Durham residents and families that have benefited from these funds, I'm humbled to accept this proclamation. I especially want to recognize the Citizens Advisory Committee, a committee appointed by the City Council, as well as the County Commissioners who advise the Community Development Department on allocating funding. The Chair is DeWorne Langley. Thank you. I don't see any of our partners right away, but if any other partners are like them to stand, we cannot do this work without all of our partners here in the City of Durham. Mayor, in celebration of this week, each day of this week, we're having an activity to showcase the positive impacts of CDBG home and other leverage dollars in meeting the needs of Durham's community. For example, tonight we're honored to receive this proclamation. On tomorrow, Tuesday, we will feature an urgent repair project. On Wednesday, we'll feature a rapid rehousing overview at Williams Square at 501 East Carver Street at 10 a.m. On Thursday, there will be a Fair Housing and Sustainability Conference at 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. at the Cotton Room 807 East Main Street. On Friday, there will be a service project and tour at Urban Ministries 14 Liberty Street at 8 a.m. Also on Friday, the Duke University Home Buyers Club will tour the homes at the bungalows at Southside. On Saturday, there will be a housing rehabilitation project kickoff with Habitat for Humanity at 2010 Ash Street at 8.30 a.m. And Mayor, I can just tell you that great things are happening in Durham. Are there comments by members of the council on any particular item? Recognize the Mayor Pro Tem? As I was about to go upstairs, I saw the staff of the Carolina Theater coming into City Hall and they will be celebrating the contract agreement after they leave here tonight. It is on consent agenda, so you don't have to say anything. But you can stand up and be acknowledged. This is the staff of the Carolina Theater. Everybody. Thank you. I hope we pass that contract tonight, Mr. Mayor. Let me ask whether prior to items first by the City Manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the council, good evening everyone. No priority items. Likewise, City Attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No priority items. And likewise, the City Clerk. No items, Mr. Mayor. The agenda will proceed with the consent agenda. Any item in the consent agenda may be pulled by a member of the council or a member of the public and discuss that later in the program. Otherwise, I'll read the heading of each item. Item one is approval of City Council Minutes. Item two is Workforce Development Board Appointment. Item three is award of Dedicated Housing Fines and Home Fines to Durham Community Land Trustees, Inc., for the renovation of rental housing units in the Southside neighborhood. Item four is partial payment to Parkwood Volunteer Fire Department for fire protection in Southern Durham. Item five is Interlocal Corporation Agreement between the City of Durham and the City of Fayetteville for use of the city's 800 megahertz radio system. Item six is the building and services agreement between the City of Durham and the Carolina Theater of Durham, Inc. Item seven is telecommunications license agreement with Microelectronics Center of North Carolina. And I'll pull that item. Item eight is CIP Ordinance Amendment for Bay Point Phase III, Green Gardens Phase II, and Windmere Ridgeville Development Reimbursement. Item nine is grant agreement for sidewalk construction on Campus Walk Avenue on Ocell Street. Item ten is Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Annual Report. Item 11 is contract SR 58, Cure in Place Pipe Installation and Manhole Rehabilitation Project 2014. Item 12 is 2013, Recreation Advisory Commission Annual Report. It is 14 through 16 items that can be found on the general business agenda and the public hearings. Item 19 is TIGER, which is Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, FY 2014 Planning Grant Application. Entertain a motion for approval of the Senate agenda with the exception of item seven. Second. It's been a proper move with second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven as zero. We move to the general business agenda for public hearings. Item 14 is amendment to the Economic Incentive Contract with the Gentian Group LLC for the Hotel Derm known as the Holland Hotel Project. This is a public hearing on this item. Any comments, questions by members of the council? Any comments, questions by members of the public that would like to speak on this item? Thomas Leather's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Mr. Mayor, Ms. Mayor Pro Tim, City Council member, City Manager and City Attorney. Staff recommends that the City Council authorize the City Manager to enter into an amendment to the agreement with the Gentian Group for that would extend the terms of Section 3.1.1 of the original agreement by amending the date to secure a final certificate of compliance to no later than April the 30th and to hold a public hearing. Yeah, this is a public hearing. You've heard the staff report. I would ask other questions by council and staff. Councilman Schuhl. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I had just a question about the specifics of this. I can see that we're allowing them more time, but there was one thing I couldn't quite understand which was what does the change to the $400,000 signify? A change from what? I didn't really quite understand that. Also, I couldn't quite understand what kicks in when that $400,000 threshold is met. Right, the $400,000 was the amount of the certificate of inspections, the inspection certificate that the developer had at the time of the agreement. Because of the agreement was delayed due to the public hearings and the public charrettes associated with the right-of-way proposal and the easement that the council passed in December, the developer was not able to proceed with his plans for the development. So the $400,000 represents the encumbered amount that the developer had expended in good faith efforts for the development agreement. And so that has previously been expended? Yes, the developer has secured inspections for $400,000. And it was my sense, and I'm sorry I'm confused about this. I didn't quite understand, is this different? Is that $400,000 now kick in over some threshold that previously something else was going to have to be required for? I just wasn't quite clear about that. In the original agreement, the certificate of the inspection was supposed to be 25% of the minimal capital investment for the entire project. As the developer proceeded to initiate the development, the $400,000 was secured. So that is currently secured. There will be additional certificates of inspection that the development will secure going forward based on the delays. This is not in any way... There's no... In terms of... There's no increased liability, lack of security, anything like that that we would be... None of all, the city would not face any liability until any additional trips. Our incentive doesn't kick in until they're done and ready and... That's correct. Yeah, okay. All right, thanks. I was confused about that, and I appreciate the clarification. You're welcome. Other further questions on behalf of the council? Again, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone in the public who would like to speak on this item, either for or against? Left Director Fleck, no one in the public has to speak on this item. I will declare the public hearing to be closed. As a matter of fact, for the council. Second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes 7-0. Moved item 15, proposed economic development and incentive agreement with Austin Lawrence partners, East LLC, for capital investments and architectural elements at 119 West Parris Street, 113 West Parris Street, 118 West Main Street, 120 West Main Street, 122 West Main Street, and 202 North Cochrane Street. Again, this is a public hearing. I would ask the economic development director, Kevin Dick. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Madam Mayor Pro Tem City Council, City Administration, and Durham residents, I'm Kevin Dick with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and I'm here this evening to discuss a proposed economic development incentive between the City of Durham and Austin Lawrence partners, East. The presentation tonight will come in two parts. I will go through a brief overview and review of the project and address a specific question related to contracting goals that arose at the March 20th work session and in subsequent discussions with council on the project. And the developer is also present and will address further questions related to different aspects of the development. Before I continue, however, I do want to acknowledge the efforts of many city staff who have brought the project to this point. And in particular, I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of Thomas Leathers, David Boyd, Keith Herman, and Fred Lamar. We've all worked very hard to bring the project to this point, and although I'm making the presentation, I'm making it on their behalf as well. By way of review, the project, the city center in Jack Tarr, our redevelopment project, is in two central parts. One part is a 26-story mixed-use tower, literally in the center of downtown. That would be at 119 West Paris Street. Also involved is the restoration, as the mayor indicated earlier, of four addresses within the city center. 113 West Paris Street, 118, 120, and 122 West Main Street. Further, the redevelopment of the Jack Tarr Hotel is proposed at 202 Corcoran Street, which would convert that facility from a 44 to 74-room hotel, and also rehabilitate a 260-space parking deck. The city center tower is proposed to consist of two levels of sub-grade parking, ground floor retail, four floors of office space, 20 floors of apartments, and rooftop amenities. In all the project at the city center would have roughly 424,000 square feet of total space. That would include 145,000 square feet of office and commercial, and also maintain architectural elements at four addresses that are slated for rehabilitation. The Jack Tarr phase of the project would consist of 14,000 square feet of retail, 32,000 square feet of hotel space, and over 110,000 square feet of public parking with 50 spaces for general public use. In terms of project benefits, we anticipate the city accruing over 8.3 million in new tax revenues that would consist of property taxes, sales taxes, and occupancy taxes. That would yield a $4.3 million net revenue gain once incentives will be paid out. The proposed incentive is 3.9 million over 15 years, and as we all may be aware, the county is proposing a similar incentive that would essentially match what the city is proposing to provide and believe the county is slated to discuss this in a public hearing and approve an agreement on April 28th. In terms of jobs benefits, 585 jobs which would yield increased permanent foot traffic in downtown, and that includes roughly 325 new jobs. There would be 250 temporary construction jobs and $65 million in qualified capital investment. Other project benefits include the fact that new opportunities for the NC Works Career Center, formerly the Durham Job Link, has been recently renamed by the governor. New opportunities will be created for individuals who are registered with that system, and as we've done with other projects, we will be connecting the developer with our resources to help Durham residents have the opportunities to be placed in some of these new jobs. There would also be new opportunities for Durham-based firms including Durham-based small and disadvantaged business enterprises. We are proposing a goal that has been agreed upon with the developer of 15% for Durham-based businesses to include 5% for Durham-based small and disadvantaged business enterprises, and those goals were derived collectively and collaboratively between the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Equal Opportunity and Equity Office based upon an ongoing methodology that EOEA uses to determine goals for projects. The one thing I would also like to bring to your attention is section 3.1.1 of the agreement. That's been modified slightly since the April 10th work session, and the proposed change to that is that the commencement and the developer will go into more detail related to this aspect, but that the commencement date of the project would consist of adherence to the commencement date of the project would consist of two parts. Applying for at least $300,000 and permits no later than September 1st and applying for an amount cumulative up to $1.5 million, so including the initial $300,000 by January 1st. And what the applications for permits will allow and once they're approved is the developer to begin shoring up the facade and interior walls that will enable them to clean out debris at the behind the wall of the burned out building at 117 West Paris Street. And at this point I'm going to turn over the rest of the presentation to the developer and they'll continue with specific aspects related to how they intend to carry out the development but I can take questions at this time or at the end. Well, let me ask other questions but recognize the Mayor Pro Tem. Kevin, I have a question about the 15% goal for Durham based businesses including the 5% STB. Have you outlined or designated what those businesses are? What kinds of business is needed? Contracts are needed on this. Yes ma'am. They include construction related trades as well as professional services so architecture, engineering and various construction related trades electrical contracting plumbing drywall work those kinds of things. At what juncture so at some point in the future if we requested to see those businesses we could see those businesses on that contract? The specific businesses that have been contracted? Yes. The developer will be required to submit quarterly reports and we can certainly bring those back to council. Thank you. Any other questions on the council? If not Hi, my name is Greg Hills. I'm managing partner for Austin Lawrence Partners East. I want to thank Mayor Bell the members of the council Mayor Pro Tem Tom Baumfield Kevin for his very eloquent explanation of our project. I'll be the guy here with the pretty pictures. As Kevin stated we have a lot of projects that were coming in front of you to consider for a public-private partnership and we very much appreciate that. One is the city center 26 story building the other one is the joc-tar. I'll give you a quick overview of the project. Our timeline which I'm sure you're very interested in how we see the benefits the financial scope and I'm here to answer any of your questions. City center the tall building there is 26 stories mixed use project located at Corcoran between Maine and Parish it is designed to bring energy to that area of town with retail 25,000 feet the 120,000 square feet of office and 20 stories of residential. It will this is the corner of what it would look like at Corcoran and Parish just another pretty pictures of what it will look like. We are also restoring five facades we've gone through historic HPC certificate of appropriateness to we feel strongly about trying to restore these facades are in very poor condition three on Maine, two on Parish the buildings have been altered significantly from where they were 100 years ago we plan to restore them back to what they look like originally so it will be a lot better looking than they are today they are going to be just a facade we are planning to tear the buildings behind the facade down and build the brand new structure behind these facades they will be restored and they will look like they always were there we are going to combine the old historic buildings with the new flavor of the contemporary structure we have done a number of these projects in other areas latest in Aspen, Colorado they are also very sensitive to restoring and paying tribute to the past and we feel strongly about doing the same thing it is expensive it does take time it is a logistical issue to deal with but we like to feel that we held on to our historical roots as Kevin very eloquently stated we are going to have two levels of parking below grade for city center 25,000 square feet of retail 120,000 feet of office of which Duke University is committed 25,000 feet in the building and 20 stories of residential philosophically we feel that is the best project for downtown Durham because it brings bodies that you would want here during the day in terms of the retail in the office and then it also helps activate a nighttime lifestyle in terms of people going to restaurants also be here on weekends so we feel having a mixed use project is a very important component to reactivate the energy of downtown Durham timeline our timeline is to hopefully achieve consent between the city and the county on the public-private partnership during the month of April we expect to get site plan approval from the city we are on our third iteration it should be a final iteration of the site plan we expect to have that approval in the month of May we are going to our second phase of document design it's called the design development of these documents the DD phase that will be done on May 1 once you're done with that phase you reprice the project and then you go on to your construction document phase so we expect to have our construction documents completed by the end of August in terms of financing we are working with our financing partner it's a REIT out of Virginia that is very interested in being our financing partner on the project we're expecting their term sheet from them tomorrow and hope to have that completed in total document phase in the month of September we then expect to pull our first permits which would be our demo permits early in October get commencement of work based upon that work will start once we have final shoring and foundation permits from the city so sometime we're hoping in the fourth quarter of this year to be actually seeing work going on and then deliver the building in the fall of 2016 the Jack Tar building is a building that at first I wasn't sure about the building quite honestly as to what to do with it over time I've fallen in love with the building and we would like to restore the parking and what is parked in that deck realizes that it could use a little brightening up and better lighting and access and so we plan to restore the parking we'll use a couple hundred of those spaces for the city center overflow parking as well as parking for the public the building itself the hotel 14,000 square feet of retail has about 14,000 feet of office and then 44 hotel rooms it's marginally occupied right now there are a lot of communities that are looking at these buildings today these post war modern buildings as a significant part of their history some people feel they should be raised other people feel that an important part of the history need to be preserved we're in the camp that we feel we do represent an important part of history and we'd like to preserve it we think the best use is for it to be a hotel bottom floor retail and a limited service, moderately priced hotel we like to we call it sort of a hip artsy cool place to spend an evening or spend time on the third floor the deck as you know has a pool we would like to reactivate that pool maybe not that pool but another pool so that at the end of your city council meeting you would think you'd want to go over there and have a drink so it would be open to the guests of the hotel as well as to the public so it's a little bit of a view of the deck itself concepts of having the ability to show a film up there for film fast again a great place to gather sit by a pool, have a drink enjoy your friends and what not the parking deck has approximately 250, 260 parking spaces that we want to obviously reactivate and make it much more appealing to park there for both the public as well as hotel guests and city center users retail 14,000 feet we'll probably have a couple restaurants there we think there's an interesting opportunity with Paris street having owning both sides of part of that street we think the history of Paris street is very important we've had a number of conversations about that subject we don't have our vision identified for Paris street we think there's an opportunity to pay tribute to the historical nature of Black Wall Street and reengage it I think initially we think a better concept would be to make that street feel a little bit different than a lot of the other streets in Durham so in fact we would be a stakeholder on both sides we think there's an opportunity to help with our part as well as a number of other stakeholders there as well as I said we'll have retail we're going to have 74 hotel rooms time frame on the Jack tar again we hope that the public private partnership will be approved this month we'll have our schematics finished in July we'll submit our major pcc ship oh and site plan in July we will hopefully have approvals in a couple months in September we'll start a construction document in September we'll have our financing all finalized by the end of the year and we'll start in early January and one open hotel in the spring of 2016 we'll be starting slightly later than the city center project but we will be opening sooner in the city center project but we want them to go about at the same pace in terms of as Kevin was outlining we hope that the community will feel there are significant benefits to our project not just in construction jobs and people that are going to be living working playing in these two developments we think there's a significant opportunity for local trades to participate in the building of these projects our contractor is here and they have a history and reputation of hiring local trades and prefer to hire local trades as much as possible we think the benefits of the project are helping to revitalize transform an area of downtown obviously our site is part of the blade is the right word but maybe it's a lack of appeal so we can just do something with our buildings that will help with the center core so we think that it will help revitalize the downtown by having a very significant development the combination of 21C and our project we think will be a very powerful combination for downtown Durham preserving historic assets we think that's a good thing to do for a community both in the five besides as well as the Jack tar it will help to increase the population within the city downtown both day and night which will help a number of folks we think it's going to induce other stakeholders in the area to improve their buildings to help revitalize downtown we'll be adding to the inventory of class A office space which I know that Durham definitely could use we feel that the downtown area even though there are beds hotbeds coming to downtown it's always good to have a mix of types of hotbeds coming to downtown we think the Jack tar will offer an opportunity on what would be considered the lower end the price point for a hotel room we'll be adding and upgrading parking for locals and so we think this project is a project that we're going to invest probably somewhere north of $85 million between the two projects between debt and equity and so we're hopeful that between the city and the county that they'll want to participate in the public-private partnership to about 7% of what we're investing the tax increase between what those two assets are doing today somewhere in the neighborhood of between the two or running for the city it's around $18,000 a year we project that those two assets should generate almost $600,000 a year of taxable income once we're up and running I think it's a project that I think at the end of the day the city will be very proud of we think it will create great jobs we think it will offer an inventory of retail office and residential for the community that doesn't exist today and we're hopeful that you'll feel the same way so we're also here to answer any questions that you might have so first of all, your interest in Durham and more particularly your investment in Durham potential investment in Durham this is still public hearing I want to find out first are there questions from members of the council you did Kevin or the developer and I have some questions but I'll wait if not we have people in the public who've indicated they like to speak and I'd like to recognize them at this time Jeff Durham I saw Jeff Kevin Casey Steinbacher Andrea Harris and Grave Brooks if you could limit your comments to three minutes please and the time is over till you're right in front of you very well, good evening Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp Mayor of the City Council City Administration, thank you very much my name is Jeff Durham and I'm here to support our project for Center City and Jack Tarr as presented by our partners at Austin Lawrence we believe that the project will in fact have a transformative effect on the surrounding Center City District I think the positive effects of this development will allow for the nearby property owners to potentially capitalize by future redevelopment of their site and to hire and better uses we also believe the project will literally serve as a beacon to visitors to downtown many of you may be unaware of all the dining and entertainment options that exist right now currently inside of the loop it's in this regard that the activity generated for this project will greatly improve the pedestrian connectivity in between the downtown districts the project respects the street level engagement with the ground floor restaurant and retail activity very importantly we think the project is consistent with the goals of the downtown master plan and the mixed use development in the Center City District first the master plan identifies the need for continued partnerships with public sector investment in order to better encourage private sector developments second the project is a good deal for the taxpayer and that the returns on the completed project far exceed the initial public investment and no funds will be dispersed until the project is open for business and generating revenues third the downtown master plan is a critical contributor to the continuing success of downtown the plan calls for additional 5,000 downtown residential units and this project contributes to that number greatly from a residential and lodging standpoint the increased number of residents and visitors will help diversify our local tax base which is currently dominated by the commercial markets Center City residents and Jaktar visitors alike will provide a crucial market segment beyond just the employees from day to day it is this market which will support and drive demand for additional dining retail and entertainment options from the standpoint of the commercial end the office component does indeed provide additional inventory to the much needed class A market sector as Greg mentioned earlier this additional class A space provides recruitment opportunities for new businesses and retention opportunities for expanding businesses that are already downtown and lastly from that retail standpoint the Center City project does plan to save those five asides in addition to the ground floor of the Jaktar hotel while all these projects are indeed complex and they're very very ambitious they did require a great deal of creativity, problem solving and dedicating from all sides this is one of my first projects here in Durham and it was a real privilege and I certainly do appreciate the partnership that's involved in working with both teams from the public and private sector so thank you all very much Welcome Good evening Mayor and members of City Council I'd like to speak about the hotel portion of this particular project I'm Shelly Green I'm president of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau and I know this council has been very very generous particularly in offering incentives for hotel projects in our downtown area and it's essentially offsetting a small portion of those projects so that they can happen and I know some of you have asked the question so when is enough are we there yet and I would suggest to you we're not quite there yet we did a study in 2007 and 8 looking at where parity lies with our competitive set of cities and the hotel number at that point was about 1200 rooms and we have not redone that because there hasn't been a lot of building of hotel rooms through this recession we've got 200 right now we've got 450 on the books 450 rooms so that puts us at about halfway in my opinion but that's not why I think this is a good project I'm thankful that a lot of these additional hotel rooms that will come will not need incentives we hope but I've spoken with the developers and I really believe that this hotel is going to fill a niche that is really an important pricing point because this hotel could be and nobody's published rates yet but you look at some of the luxury market hotel rooms coming in this could be as much as $100 less per night and that's going to appeal to a lot of visitors that may not be able to stay in a 21C and it's going to really appeal to conventions so I think having this piece of the pie is going to be really important but incentives like this don't just help create jobs and those are certainly important but there's a value added when you have a hotel because you're going to have about 150 people every single day in that hotel that are going to be spending money in our restaurants, entertainment venues our retail stores our gas stations there's a lot of places that they're going to spend money and that of course generates additional revenue for the city and the county so as my board member Cora Cole McFadden says it's not just about raising property taxes it's about generating revenue and I think that this project can really do it so I'd like to offer my support and I thank you for your time tonight thank you Kasey Steinbacher Mayor pro temp to good council members good evening Kasey Steinbacher and president and CEO the greater Durham Chamber of Commerce the last Wednesday night I went to the men's Duke's men's basketball banquet and at that banquet coach K always has a kind of tradition in which the seniors always get to speak and so the first there were four seniors this year the first three came up and they all had their notes and their note papers in front of them and spoke eloquently the fourth senior came up and he walked up without a piece of paper and he set his hands on the counter and he says I know my counterparts had speeches and note cards prepared but it is 2014 and I brought my iPhone so I thought I would do that this evening as well until I realized I forgot my eyeglasses so instead being the old woman that I am the greater Durham Chamber of Commerce doesn't always get actively involved in downtown development projects we leave that to our partner economic development organization downtown Durham Inc and once again have done a fabulous job but the chamber got involved in this project because we believe it is absolutely a transformational opportunity for Durham it is a phenomenal project that in so many ways not the least of which from our perspective two really important things you heard a lot about all that's going on in that project one that I really want to stress that may not be as obvious and that is the incredible density that we start to create in downtown Durham density is incredibly important from the chambers perspective if we're ever going to get to the numbers that we need to get to for all of our transit and related needs that we have in downtown Durham so the idea that we start to create a very dense environment downtown is a really positive thing for our live work, learn, play activity for our sustainability issues and for our transit issues second piece that I want to emphasize on behalf of the Durham Chamber is the class A office space you heard earlier in the presentation that it is much needed in Durham and it is we the only class A office space we have in Durham on a regular basis is speculative kind of office space and it's very difficult for us as we go out and talk to prospects interested in coming to Durham to be able to tell them that we have potential opportunities for class A office space but none sitting there ready or in the process of getting ready and we actively are asked to bid on projects that involve class A office space and we are very very limited throughout all of Durham County not just downtown and not just the city of Durham so we are very anxious and excited to have this kind of inventory coming on the shelf for us we are very confident that we are going to be able to use that to Durham's benefit so all the other issues all the other proponents that you have heard from spoke more eloquently on the other pieces the Durham Chamber strongly supports this and we are really looking forward to that. Welcome Andrea Harris. My name is Andrea Harris with the Institute of Minority Economic Development I live every day on Parish Street 114 116 West Parish Street and we've been there now for about 15 years so I've watched the street come to life I've also watched the building that was burned about 10 years ago as it further deteriorated and as expectations of owners changed as people no longer look like me and standards went down but also watched the Parish Street fund come and go and so at this point I must say that I celebrate this development rarely do you have a developer come to you and say we're willing to work with you we want to make sure that the minority women's business community participates in this project whether it's around supplies professional services construction we will utilize your plans room we want to make sure that in constructing still constructed in a way that you all still have some sunlight who also we're willing to design the building in such a way that the parking is in the building and that Parish Street didn't become a service alleyway but we're willing to commit to trying to bring back the significance and I think it's welcoming to have that kind of partnership and rarely do you have this level of potential investment in the downtown so I just wanted to say you know we welcome this we welcome this partnership and we hope that as you work towards clearly having a positive response to this development that you also work towards re-indigorating the Parish Street fund and also helping with some of the other repairs that need to be made on Parish Street thank you Grave Brooks Mayor City Council thank you guys for your time I'm Grave Brooks I'm the owner of Pizri a Toro one of the owners of it soon I promise I love this project I just want to say quick obviously just being truly selfish the density is great for us but if I was selfish I wouldn't have moved back to Durham I could have opened a restaurant in Seattle and it had been like Saturday night every single night but I had the fortune of living in Seattle from the time about 15 years from the time where Durham was about 6-7 years ago to where I think we hope to be in about 10 years and when I saw that happening here I really wanted to come back here and be part of it it's my hometown I love this place and watching it turn around I wanted to be here I wanted to be part of that happening and one of the things I noticed in Seattle there were sort of almost two Seattle's in the downtown area one developed retail really heavily and one did not sell heavily just boomed property value went up, revenue drivers went up people started coming there for what was happening there and I think to me what's most exciting about this really is all the retail space because when my wife and I have a Saturday off together which does occasionally happen even when we are open not often like one of my problems with downtown Durham is that there's still on the ground floor of all the retail spaces around town there's still too many too much office space I do love attorneys but when my wife and I have a day off she wants to go to Hillsborough or Pittsburgh and when we get something to eat and she likes to go look at shoes and we got to go look at clothes or go look at electronic shops we don't say after lunch let's go in this law office and check out their case files and I think that's a big deal because right now people will come here people from Raleigh and Kerry and Chapel Hill they'll come here to go to Toro or they'll come here to go to Matteo or come here to check out Verdon Vogue but they don't really say the way they do for Hillsborough or Pittsburgh they don't really say hey let's go spend the afternoon in Durham and I think that's our next step is to make Durham a place where people they don't come with a particular business in mind they just come to walk around people who live here are great but we all live here we're going to spend our money here I really want to see people from Raleigh and Kerry and Chapel Hill come here more just to check out the city and wander around and see what's going on to me that's what's most exciting about this project and I think most of the people who do what I do if they knew what was going on if they had the time that I have now to follow the stuff they would absolutely be on board with me thanks for your time let me ask before I anyone else in the public that wants to speak on this item before I close it okay recognize members of the council may have comments I have a couple comments myself and I will hold mine I recognize Councilman Davis, Councilman Brown Councilman Shewell may I proclaim in that order thank you Mr. Mayor I guess I would like to ask the developers there has been dialogue and conversation with the current business owners about the potential of what may be coming have they been kept abreast of where they may fall into this whole concept yes yes and no yes from the standpoint we had a meeting of the PAC 5 group in downtown Durham was I would say 100, 120 folks were at Carmack the gallery and we talked about what we were doing and the concept and listened to a lot of their questions and comments and a lot of those points were very well taken actually incorporated some of them some actually on environmental so we really thought more about the environmental impacts of our project so yes what we're going to do have we done a good job since then as to what we're doing I would say no and as we've been busy sort of moving the project forward and trying to work with the city and the county on this part of the project we have talked to at Jack Tarr to Gwen at Blue Moon Cafe and so a blue cafe excuse me and and talked to her about whether her interest would be in terms of staying we have a diner concept that maybe she had an interest in and so we were going to meet this week so I've definitely kept in good contact with her in terms of going forward we actually plan to have a person that's part of our group to communicate with the local businesses as to what we're doing the construction management plan in terms of our retail concepts we haven't defined them well enough to say gee we really want you in here and you in here that we have not done yet thank you Mr. Mayor I recognize Councilman Brown thank you Mr. Mayor Greg thanks for your comments and we're very pleased that you and your family are here this evening and I want to thank those who spoke on behalf of this project as well of as you know at our I guess it was April 10th meeting the Council and I did hear from Paul thank you for that expressed some concerns about the facade on Paris Street and the fact that it's been there really for for too long and I was wondering if you could have your contractor come up and address those issues to reassure us that that this will be done Hello I'm Amanda Moreau I'm with Hit Contracting the contractor for the project thank you so much for allowing me to speak to this topic we are very excited and we do have preliminary plans as far as the way that we see the structural reinforcement of the existing facades to make sure that they are maintained structurally while we demo out the building that is behind them now and then of course restoring them to the beauty that they were 100 years ago that is the plan as Greg mentioned earlier so did we send over the we did send over I don't know if you all have it available but we had did a mock-up of the plan for reinforcing the structure it would be to install some steel reinforcements basically supporting them from the street side and then on the back side of the facades also so that there would be bracing and then when we remove the existing structure for demo everything basically is structurally sound we're not worried about anything caving in it's not a safety issue and then as we excavate we're shoring the dirt and we've got underpinning and soil nails kind of the plan right now so that everything is kept where it's supposed to be and none of the buildings that are adjacent have any issues two other points one I think Paul in your message and Amanda I think you obviously will concur with this that it is not a good idea to remove the debris first not at all no we are pretty adamant that it should just remain the way that it is if we were to go in and remove the debris that's there now without putting in the reinforcements and doing the full demo we essentially have to rebuild the structure so that we can go in and take out the debris that you can't see so that it's safe for people to go in there we certainly don't want to create any issues of safety so because the structure is sound even though it's a little bit unsightly right now and I know everyone can't wait for it to be beautiful again that just kind of hold on for a few more months until we can get that bracing in place do the demo and continue with the project so that way it's safe we don't have security issues and we don't have to spend money that really is just going to be torn back out in a couple of months and also with your future plans for these buildings they would coincide with the existing height the facade the facade stays the existing height it would be we will keep the materials there that are sound that we can just kind of clean up and restore them whatever is existing where we need to replace materials there's a lot of deterioration especially on the building where the fire was and it's a lot of sections that are missing from that facade we will have custom materials made that will match what should be there so when it's all done it will be a seamless look as far as what was there initially we are very excited about it so are you telling us you may exceed the height of the original facade but it will be an identical match the height of the original facade would stay the same we shouldn't be exceeding at the historical facades they will stay the same height at that portion okay and finally Amanda could you give us the calendar again the time frame we are looking to start this once we've got the demolition permit and start in October would be ideal so that we could start bracing up that structure do the demo once we've got all that existing structure out of the way we basically would go right into the earth work phase and start digging down so that we can build back up again so we've got to go down for those two levels of below grade parking and then come up to grade and then we'll go up from there thank you and I just have thank you Amanda and I just have a few questions for Greg could you be a little more insightful in terms of the financing because I didn't did you say Reese out of Virginia a REIT a real estate investment trust and that's out of Virginia yes and obviously you would not be here tonight with your family unless your preliminary discussions with them appear to be very positive that's totally we've to give you some context we paid three million dollars for that piece of land we spent another two million dollars to get to this point so we've invested cash about five million dollars already into this project and so if we didn't feel we could make this work we never would have made that investment so that's one two the financing markets are a lot different right now than they were a year ago two years ago 2008 when everything imploded it is much it's not an easy process banks are not easy or REITs are not easy to deal with but they have a lot of money to place and they want to place it and Durham is a place they would like to place it not everybody but a lot of them want to invest in Durham well that's good to hear again thanks for your insight let me conclude with a somewhat minor point I like it when you said you had fallen in love with the Jack Tar right but on the other hand you used a phrase that I would suggest perhaps you don't want to use again and that is bringing bodies to bringing bodies to downtown Durham that has some negative connotations to it and indeed perhaps 30 or 40 years ago particularly after 5pm some people may have referenced Durham as being a morgue but no more bringing live bodies are more importantly bringing people and citizens it's a better way of perhaps phrasing I will phrase it more carefully next time thank you so much we're glad all of you are here if you recognize Councilman Schuyl thank you Mr. Mayor thank you for the presentation and for the comments from everybody it was really good to see the moved up timeline on the for pulling the permits and appreciate you all working on that and I feel a lot more comfortable about that and also it was good to get the photographs of the facade which I had seen before I realized but appreciated seeing again and I know that they're not going to look exactly like that but I appreciated getting that and understanding that better and I do think it will be walkable and I think that's really really important so a few questions and maybe some of these are actually for Kevin I guess first one where he is hey Kevin the Corkin Street parking deck has 260 spaces 210 of which are slated for use by the developer for the hotel or the city center commercial clients what's the current situation with that parking deck how many of those spaces are used on a daily basis and what will be the options for people who park there now I do not have those numbers with me exactly and I think we can get them to you but I'm not exactly sure the daily uses requirements they do not approach the numbers and the scale that we would expect to happen with this development there but this is not our deck no it's a private deck and so I assume they have some they have some contractual relationship and I'm interested in do we know anything about those people and what the plans are you're assuming I'm assuming that the people parking there now who aren't going to be able to park there in the future and I'm interested in do we know anything about that we don't know exactly what relationship they have with the current building owner maybe the developer could comment you have a number of spaces being used by the 21C construction folks in Skanska you have the Marriott is leasing month to month about 30 spaces you have about another 30 spaces in the building of office users that that's going to be turned into retail and then the rest of it is day to day parking and come to town and you just need to be there for a couple hours so their alternative would be the Chapel Hill or Corcoran deck or even the spaces that we'll have within the building okay thank you that's helpful so not a lot of people in that situation that have long term contracts could expect something okay thank you and then also I think this is for you Kevin on the project memo we just got for the hotel Durham jobs and the Jack Tar it says is going to create 10 hotel jobs with benefits for what's a larger hotel perhaps the difference is in the hotel Durham job maybe that includes restaurant jobs or something as well I wasn't sure but can you explain the difference it includes restaurant jobs hotel jobs it's also considered a more specialty boutique hotel which may cause a different job mix than the Jack Tar hotel would and then I'm interested in an estimate of how many of the 500 office jobs are going to be from relocation from Duke I assume and I'm wondering how many new jobs we think we're really talking about here as opposed to how many relocated jobs and I was wondering I know you can't tell me that exactly but I wonder if you could give me some sense of it the estimate is about 50% of each in 250 relocation okay great thank you I noticed that was about Duke it looked like it was taking about half the office space so thank you on page 7 of the memo it gives an estimate of $3.4 million to the city over the period of the incentive in occupancy and retail sales taxes and can you talk about how you develop an estimate like that in terms of the course it's mostly sales tax and less occupancy but I wonder if you could talk to us about how you develop that estimate sure that was derived from the hotel so we weren't considering necessarily to retail sales and other aspects of the development okay based upon consultation with the convention of visitors bureau determined some occupancy estimates over the life of the incentive and essentially what we did was stair step those percentages so we did a few years at 60% occupancy and then went to 62 64 and up to 68% by the end of the 15 years and so based upon that escalating occupancy we were able to derive approximate taxes based upon the average daily room rates and we came up with that $3.4 million thank you very much I noticed that the it had been my understanding I think perhaps from a discussion that I had with Mr. Smith not long ago that there were going to be condos and I don't see any described here is that at one point I think you say 20 floors of apartments and then you said residential this is really curiosity as much as anything else and my interest in what the markets interested in but I didn't see any condos in here and I was wondering if you could comment on that there's a total of 132 residential units if the market demand if the market demand is strong enough we're talking about 6 floors of condos the top 6 floors I'd be 23 units and then 109 rental units okay the reason of the hesitancy is 2008 that in the event we're building this building and we think we're going to be doing condos and an event happens so now all of a sudden that market changes now it becomes an all rental building we no longer have that component if the world stays where it is now then it probably would have 6 floors of condos 23 units okay thank you we the total private investment listed on the slide that we're looking at now is $85 million our memo I believe says $65 million perhaps I was expressed as a minimum but that's a big difference in those two numbers I wonder if you could talk about that earlier in my presentation I referred to the $65 million as qualified capital investment we have specific types of capital investment in our economic development policy that is considered qualified because it either directly relates to taxable improvements on a building or it constitutes certain what's known in the industry as soft costs that correlate to construction and so some of the delta between the $65 million are legal fees different administrative fees that would not correlate to those harder soft costs that I referred to earlier that's why there's a difference thank you that's helpful and the ratios in the memo Kevin that you have for the different projects recent projects compared to this Austin Lawrence project is that based on the on the qualified costs yes okay thank you this is really just a concern more than anything else and I don't know that there's an answer to it but I know I've said this to I've said this at city council before and I'm not sure if you all were there but one concern I have is the disruption the potential disruption of downtown during the fairly long period of time during which construction is going to take place I know it's a lot easier to renovate as the sun trust building next door but I think they've done an exceptionally good job of minimizing the disruption to downtown you all have a much harder job ahead of you because you're building new of course and you're building something huge and so forth but I wonder if you could you're experienced at this if you could comment on what you do to try to minimize disruption and any thoughts that you might have about that so minimizing disruption is of course a priority for us one of the things that we have working in our benefit is with the jack tar project being across the street that gives us an additional area where we can use for storing materials and lay down and our parking for the construction crews so that it's not congesting the area the site fencing really tight around the site so that we're not blocking off roadways and sidewalks we'll be we'll build overhead protection it'll be well lit so there's security so everything will stay as open as we can possibly safely do so everything of course safety number one we want to make sure that there's not any safety or security issues but with that being said we have experience really primarily at the DC area there's nowhere to go you can't block off a sidewalk you can't block off the street and we're very experienced with the logistics that come into play with that so we are looking at all those options and of course any of the plans that we have as far as any sidewalk closures if when they need to happen we'll be working very closely with the city to make sure that there aren't disruptions or that they're minimized one of our other plans is as we get closer and throughout construction we will we can put up a website which actually the community can log on to and see what's coming over the next few weeks we can have kind of progress photos of what it's going to look like there's a lot of interesting technology now where we can model the way it's going to look so for people who aren't really familiar with construction instead of it just being words on a page they can see this is what you will see over the next few weeks this is what the affected area will look like this is what your path will look like we might have to close off this street while we're doing utility work in the roadways but this is how it will affect you this is the time frame so that everyone is aware that's really what we've found has been the biggest thing that minimizes aggravation from everyone is communication so that's one of the ways that we deal with that we communicate often and try to stay open we try to be good neighbors and touch base with everyone who's around the site to make sure that we are minimizing disruptions and hopefully throughout the course of construction the area businesses will see the restaurants around here I'm so excited I keep trying new places they're amazing and I know that hopefully they'll get a little bit of a burst as throughout the day people are going for lunch and we are excited about this one so minimizing disruption is absolutely a priority for us you'll like pizza tora also I haven't had anything I don't like around here it's a great city thank you that was helpful so I just want to echo what one of the things that Eugene was saying which is I appreciate that throughout this process that you all have been here for this and for our meetings and for the various hearings it's great to have Smith here he's an experienced person in Durham and we know him well and he's done a lot of good things but it's also good to see some of the principles also other principles here to me that's meaningful it means that you are paying the kind of attention that this needs and it's been good to have you I like the fact that in terms of our incentive that this will be significantly revenue positive during the period of the incentive for the city and the taxpayer I do think it will be walkable which is important I agree with you about the density being this will be Casey Steinbacher mentioned this and I think that it is definitely a benefit I think that if we don't build up as expensive as Durham is getting to a relatively expensive Durham is getting to live in I think if we don't build up we're just going to make Durham more expensive to live in I do think that height is a benefit long term in terms of affordability for people to live downtown so I think that there's really a lot to like here and I really appreciate you all bringing this project to us I was really skeptical at the beginning but I think that we're incentivizing the right things in terms of the historical benefits and so I'm definitely supportive and looking forward to a great new building downtown hope you all do it as well as you think you can thank you Good evening Amanda I'm excited before but you have really enhanced my excitement about this project and thank you for investing in my hometown the Jack Tar Hotel brings back some very fond memories I lived in a neighborhood located between the east and west campuses of Duke University and several of my neighbors worked at the Jack Tar Hotel of course a lot of change has changed since then so I'm really glad to see you invest here the piece that is very attractive to me is the additional rooms that we need downtown so that we can attract more meetings and conferences I go to conferences all over the country well not at the city's expense but I do go to conferences and we've been able to host a couple of small meetings here but I'd like to see us bring much larger groups here and just as Shelly said it will definitely enhance revenue opportunities for the city as well so thank you so much for choosing the city for this investment I just have a couple of questions I guess I wanted to sort of pick up on where Jean was to get a little more clarification on the financing piece I saw the target that you expect to have your financing done by September of this year and you're using the real estate investment trust as your but I also heard you say that you were talking about apartments but it might be condos and what could be the downside of not being able to get to your financing assuming the city and county makes this investment I appreciate the investments you guys have made what would be the downside of not being able to do that? First and foremost it's a sort of a national or international event obviously it's unforeseen but those things happen and it scares investors, it scares people they don't want to part with their money they keep their money in their pocket whatever so if something of that is a risk we can't control it if that happens it happens but I would say it would be that kind of event short of that I'm not sure what would quite honestly happen having the Duke lease having the city incentives and the county incentives and having the pricing unless Amanda can't give us the price that we're looking for I'm not sure what it's a great building, it's a great city it's a needed niche it's a connoisseur I don't know what it would take the money is going to be there so it would take a significant event to occur that's really going to cause us a problem Are you looking for any other sources of investment other than the real estate investment trust? Are we looking at other sources? Yes, there are others that have been approached we like this one in particular and I said we should have the term sheet it's going to come tonight, tomorrow so we like this but there are others that we have talked to so it's not like we put all of our eggs in this one investment basket there are a number of people that have shown a lot of interest in this just if I could dig a rest for a second it's interesting I went to New York about six months ago to start talking to people about this project and it was really interesting the response the response was they know what's going on in Durham they've heard of what's going on in Durham and they would like to be a part of Durham these are Wall Street firms these are private family offices they are private equity people there's a a buzz of what's happening in the financial sectors and so whether it's a Duke influence because you have a lot of graduates from Duke that are up in Wall Street that know what's going on but there's a buzz about what's going on in Durham and so we get approached all the time about are we interested in talking to them we all had another call the other day from a very large life company we're interested in being a partner but it's easier now than it was thank you let me ask the next question is for Kevin and it has to do with the agreement specifically we've been rather specific in the agreement in terms of the payment in terms of dollars incentives that we're going to provide the developer assuming he meets certain criteria I'm not as comfortable we've talked about this term capital investment and this let me tell you I've said this once before the capital investment that we're looking at is really going to be what this goes on the tax books for that's the bottom line to it in terms of because we're talking about being able to derive a certain amount of tax dollars from the investment in this property and that's going to be based on the evaluation of the property the limit that you use deep which we don't show in the agreement but you use in part of our memos that you handed out assumes that we're going to receive a certain dollars and tax revenue from this project based on a given tax rate based on a given capital investment evaluation my preference and the reason I raised this question I raised it once before the re-assessments of property by the time this 15 year agreement is time we're going to have this re-evaluation that comes up in the next couple of years this is a 15 year agreement and we'll have another one and more than likely the first evaluation is going to possibly hit the value that we've got in terms of 65 million dollars but more than likely we find that it tends to go down when we have re-evaluations because the property assessment is going up we try to make it neutral so more than likely the tax rate goes down if it doesn't that's a different issue so I'm suggesting we're probably going to have two different reductions in tax rates over the time of this agreement and my concern is that I would rather express the return in terms of absolute dollars rather than the way we have it written in this agreement so 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, 6 years whenever time people begin to look at this agreement and they say well how much does this project bring in they should know that it brings in at least this number of dollars and I would like to see it expressed in that rather than the way it's written in the agreement and I guess I defer to where people are on looking at this but my concern was that as it relates to the property assessment minimum city taxes of $327,000 over the term of the agreement I would prefer that we talk about the minimum capital investment that yields at least $327,400 and property taxes that way it's no question about what we expect this property to return rather than talking about the tax rate percentage the way you have expressed there just like you've said that you're going to make a payment of $277,000 whatever it is to the developer over the 15 years I would like something written in that says we would expect this property return would be at least $327,408 so when somebody looks at the agreement two or three years from now are we meeting agreements we know the dollars are coming in if it's not coming in at least that then we know we're not meeting what we expected because we're going to be given out a certain level payment for 15 years and I want to make sure that this property brings in at least $327,408 I know the additional dollars that we're talking about in terms of sales tax and hotel tax it's no certain that we're going to get that but we need to be certain that we're going to get the least the minimum dollar amount that we made our projections on in the project so and I guess this was in section I'll give you the section that was in it was in the agreement, item two and it was section 2.1 capital investment the way it's written it says it refers to expenditures that are subject to city and county property taxes on a consistent type of capital investment expenditures defining blah blah blah blah I would just prefer us to say that the result in city taxes from this property should at least be $327,408 if it's more than that if it's any less than that then we're not meeting the agreement that we want as it is now we're just netting when I say just, I'm not just minimizing it we're just netting in terms of revenue about $60,000 if you look at the property taxes the property revenue we expect to bring in and the amount that we're paying out so that goes down in a reasonable amount it's almost neutral so I'm clear Mr. Mayor you would like section 2.1 section to refer to capital investment that yields $327,000 at least it comes in more expected to come in more but it needs to be at least said so that makes it independent of whatever the tax rate is Mayor if I might, David Boyd finance director I think we have to be somewhat careful in how we structure this so that we're not talking about a tax rebate which is, as you know, something that we can't do but the way we've tried to mitigate your concern is as you know the property tax portion the percentage of property tax that's being that results in the incentive payment is about 80 is what's about about 80% of the property tax and I believe the county is and at like 62% of their projected property tax revenue and then in our projections of properties tax revenue we have used a number about 10% lower than the $65 million number that is in the agreement so we've tried to build in conservatism to protect from exactly what you're saying I think the way this agreement is written is consistent with some of the other agreements that we've done and we've tried to address that concern by being conservative in the process valuations as well as not pledging the entire amount of the incremental revenue and then as you said there will be additional revenue that would spin off from occupancy taxes and sales taxes so we believe that the number that is there does protect to a certain extent from what you're concerned about I think the other difficulty in how you're describing a guaranteed property tax is that rate variability the valuation of what they build could be where we need to be but if subsequent councils significantly reduce the property tax not that we're seeing that happen that would back it down to a number that might be below the threshold over which nobody would have any control I understand that and that's concern that I have it really is and I know the issue about not saying that you trading property taxes for investments but the fact is the way it's written in here that's what you're doing that's what we're doing and my concern again is that we all have absolute surety that the property revenue that comes from this investment at least meets a certain minimum now whether it's based on the fact that the tax rate has gone down and the property has gone valuations gone up to meet it that same material to me what's material is the fact that we assure ourselves and we assure the public anybody that looks at this document 3, 4, 5, 10 years from now that they know we ought to be receiving that property at least to be putting off $327,000 and we can do what we want we say $327,000 is fine we take $327,000 and put it someplace else because we're not saying where this money is coming from it's coming from the general fund but at least we know the general fund gets $327,000 plus dollars each year so that if we're giving them this set amount of payment that we said that we're committing ourselves to do we know we have some place to get it from let me tell you another reason I'm raising that question it goes into a little history but you know I was here when we did the American tobacco parking piece and I know what we went through in terms of trying to say well because we're going to build a dex a certain amount of value of an American tobacco company project and therefore we're going to pay off the dex I bet you right now somebody went back and looked at that agreement they wouldn't know what you're getting they wouldn't know what we're getting and I think we're smart enough with our legal staff to do that but I just want a fixed normally in here that this generates and we put the money where we want to put it and we find $327,000 from someplace else we understand that's where we're going to get it from we just want to make sure it gets there I'd like you to give that some serious consideration because I'm not going to be here two, three, four, five years from now somebody's going to be here paying this debt and they all know why they're paying it and what's the basis for it and the basis is that we've got an investment that's contributing to the general fund of at least $327,000 we might not use that $327,000 we might use the $327,000 from American tobacco use it from all these property taxes that come in to pay it off but at least we know it's bringing Adam around in here I know our attorney has something to say why we can't do it Fred Lamar Fred Lamar with the city attorney's office listening to your comments Mr. Mayor I think they make a lot of common sense and there may be some in my opinion from the little bit I've heard there may be ways to get more certainty in the agreement than what you currently see or what you've seen in prior agreements but you know this the way this was drafted is consistent with the current policy in place with regard to looking at capital investments and there's a purpose in having the policy written such that it is not a direct link to actual tax revenues that come into the city for the purpose of avoiding conflict with the state constitution tell me how this agreement doesn't already say that well I think that it speaks specifically to the capital investment of this project it doesn't speak specifically to any capital investment it speaks specifically to this and because we haven't counted in dollars we've counted in percentages but it's speaking to this project I think that's true we don't know that there's costs associated with constructing the improvements but as you're pointing out we don't know the exact valuation when it's completed the exact valuation with a reevaluation we don't know those numbers but we're here to even the general statute that authorizes incentives specifically speaks to increasing the tax base so that's a for us to provide incentives to make property improvements that will result in increased tax values the only issue is can we directly link our, directly link our incentive to the actual tax value the tax revenue for a given year and that's what's problematic and what I think we have at least the policy has historically avoided up to this point well again I'd like you to come back and tell me why we can't do it because I'm not comfortable with that I'm personally not comfortable with that when you speak specifically to this project in terms of capital investment I mean you're not speaking to other projects speaking specifically to this project you want to have at least this amount of capital investment and I'm just saying fine counts it in terms of dollars in investment I wonder if it's possible to say just so far as the tax revenue realized on an annual basis less than $327,000 that owner of the property will make a payment that provides the difference between that tax revenue and $327,000 I wouldn't recommend that I wouldn't Councilman Shulman that would be a direct I mean that would almost be a direct correlation to a rebate which is specifically disallowed by statute I think I'm not trying to I'm just trying to assure that the projections that we've all depended on that this increase property value is going to net at least $327,000 that's what that's always saying well would I if I could recommend I know this the council has been considering we'll be considering revisions to the policy particularly in light of its discussions with the county at some later date I know there's an item on tonight but this type of issue in my opinion is better dressed if it is reflected in the policy because again this agreement was drafted consistent with the current policy which is what has been used for up to this point most all of the incentive agreements that have come before you including American Tobacco my preference would be to address it in a full manner as part of the policy and have it adopted into the policy if we can find a consensus as to how to more directly assure the city council and the city of the type of revenue or income that you're looking for that would be my recommendation to the council there will be a lot of questions on the new economic development policy that have already been asked by one of the council people I have a couple of questions myself but it doesn't relate specifically to this point that I'm making and I guess I'm I think it's a great project but I'm not going to be here 15 years from now 10 years from now sitting at this desk when the county city has to fork over the payments they've got to make and I just think it's a clear understanding of why we're making it and what the basis is and for whatever reason the property tax yield comes less than $27,000 then people ought to know about this because I was interested in you didn't put that exhibit in this document which showed the cash flow in the presentation no I mean in the dream in the dream you have I'm probably taking too much time on this you have an exhibit D in one of your memos which is the cash flow exhibit I thought it would have been on your iPad no it's in memos but it's not a part of the agreement it's not it's not attached to the agreement it's not going to the agreement and I don't know why but well we can make it an exhibit to the agreement I mean it was listed as one of the elements for your review so we can label it an exhibit to the agreement you had ABC and you didn't have exhibit D which shows the cash flow analysis for this project which specifically says that you project a property tax to be $327,000 and you expect incentive payment to be $264,000 and you put in the sales tax and auction tax and all that but it's not a part of the agreement Fred do you have an opinion as if that would be an issue to make that an exhibit in the agreement my legal response is if it's not going to be referenced or if it's not going to be part of the agreement why is it in there I guess I don't recommend putting attachments in exhibits making them part of an agreement unless you're doing something with them and so I'd ask that question well let me tell you what is doing for me it's asking, it's answering the question how much do we expect this development to net us and what do we expect it to pay out and like I said you've been very specific in terms of what we've got to pay out in the agreement but you've been less than specific in terms of what we expect the property tax revenue to be in the agreement that's the issue I have if it's for illustrative purposes to how it came up with the incentive amount that would be one thing is shown in the cash flow analysis that something else would happen I would question that issue well I've made my point I've heard what you had to say and you're an attorney I'm not I still have a serious disagreement with it because it's no question that everything is tied to the fact that we expect this investment to throw off the amount of revenue property taxes sales taxes and hotel tax and I'm not focusing on that I'm focusing on the property tax which is a certainty and we've very specifically said we're going to give these guys a flat stream of payments for 15 years and I just think it ought to be saying that we expect this property to at least give the general fund because that's where the money goes it's not like the money's going to go into the general fund and we take out the general fund the $267,000 it could be coming from all of our taxes you can come from all of our taxes to pay it off I'm through with it I'm a voter guest but I'm through with it I recognize the councilman more of it Mr. Boyd just so that I can refresh myself on this you said that in that exhibit D the property tax revenue that's in there can you tell me again the calculation that was used to derive that number that's based on an estimated assessed value of $60.9 million net of the existing $42,500 of property tax from the existing structures and land values that's currently there so it's incremental tax revenue based on a $60.9 million assessed valuation that was provided by the county tax assessor when she evaluated the plans for the project I think she has historically been quite conservative in her estimates let me be sure that I understand so it's a hundred percent of the property tax that would be derived at today's property tax rate times at $60.9 million correct net of the subtract from that the existing tax revenue that flows from the project today when you talk about I heard you say something about 80% that's the that's the the tax revenue calculation that results in that results in $327,408 as the mayor's reference is from that calculation the incentive amount of $265,000 is 80% of that number 80.9% of that number that's irrelevant I'm just answering his question that's really irrelevant I'm just making the percentage of money we're going to give back to them from what we get at that's irrelevant what's more important is the fact that you said what we expect the revenue to be from the evaluations of this property and I'm just saying that you can say that in terms of dollars and say we're going to put it in your own fund you don't say where we're paying the money from you understand where we're getting the stream of money it's not like you were saying $277,000 and put it in your own fund and we're going to earmark $267,000 of that to go back to pay off this $3 million debt we loaned and we're not saying that that's correct and I'm not saying it either I understand we ought to say here's a dollar stream we expect at least to come back from this this development I've wasted enough time and I've cut in you Don I apologize for that it's not a problem the minimum capital minimum required capital investment is $65 million why did you use $60.9 million we used the assessed valuation that came from the tax assessor's office it's two different definitions Kevin's using a definition based on the developer's projections on what the project will cost and what qualifies as a capital investment per our definition we believe more accurately reflected the tax revenue that we would expect to get yes I think I understand the tax administrator said we think the appraised value will be $60.9 million they have some schedules that are provided by the state that they follow so we rely on what the taxes will actually be calculated from thank you Mr. Lamar if I'm just to be clear I'm clear if we did anything that looked like we said well gosh property taxes don't reach a certain level and if the project developer here was to say I'm happy to make a donation to anything between this number and the actual property taxes that would put us a file of state laws correct I think there would be a significant risk of that yes and what would be like would it be the developer or future owner then suing and saying they don't have that obligation or what's the risk a taxpayer could file a suit for violation of the North Carolina Constitution so just about anybody could bring a suit and if they were to prevail what would happen I'm just trying to figure out what the risk is here well the agreement would be the agreement would be found to be void would be one one risk they may be able there are other liabilities I don't know how detailed if you want to get into it in open session okay just fine thank you okay so one possibility is to say let's figure out a way to make this work better to satisfy the concerns raised is there a way to make it if we were to take more time and I'm not suggesting that we would go to make it work to address the concerns raised I would say there may be but I think that to be able to come up with that right now again in discussions with the mayor you know this is consistent with the current policy which y'all have approved and maybe that policy and that whole assessment of how we look at capital investment and what that means directly at anticipated revenues it's worth while doing that I don't have a recommendation for you right now for this agreement tell you the truth thank you I have a question for Mr. Hill you're expecting a term sheet next 24 hours from your number one lender can you talk a little bit about how the time frame for the approvals that you need in terms of this a deal with the city the public-private partnership here the timing of that just the impacts of timing and the importance of when do you need approvals and so forth well I think just like we had in our schedule to have it all done in April allows us then to just keep moving the process forward the more that gets delayed it just delays everything doesn't necessarily kill the deal but it just means our timetable that we put on the TV gets pushed back by a certain period of time because now if we're having problems finalizing language or the arrangement then it's a matter of what do you do with your construction documents what do you do with your lender what do you do with all these things that are variables out there and so it does cause delays and so we're hopeful that we'll get it all this all worked out in April and we can just keep moving the ball forward because we really want to be breaking ground this fall thank you I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it back to the council in the commerce that you have anybody might have I'll call it a question can I ask Patrick do you have any comments at all on I know that he's showing the spot that's fine mayor pro tem this is the first that I've heard about this particular issue in terms of and I understand what the mayor I understand the mayor's question I'd like the opportunity to confer with Mr. Lamar on what we can and can't do and it's difficult to do that on the fly here today I do perfectly understand where the mayor would like to go to and I'd like to be able to if we can't go exactly that way to see if there's another way to go but again this is hard to do on the fly could we hold this until Thursday Madam pro tem I appreciate that we've got the votes to pass it I support the project and I'd rather go ahead and call the question and let it vote and let me vote move on for the reasons okay so I'll call the question on item Shaquette it's been properly moved in a second Madam clerk will you open the vote close the vote it passes six to one with mayor bell voting no thank you let's move to the next item thank you proposed revisions to the economic development policy original Jones with the office of economic and workforce development Mr. Mayor Madam Mayor pro tem members of council city administration citizens of Durham this item proposes changes in the resolution establishing an economic development financial assistance and incentive policy for job creation and capital investment that was proposed by city council in April of 2011 the office of economic and workforce development has conducted a review of the city's current policy and recommends changes and edits to the policy to modify certain existing programs and to provide greater clarity and consistency among all programs relating to economic development incentives and financial assistance staff recommends that city council hold a public hearing on the proposed revised resolution establishing an economic development financial assistance and incentive policy for job creation and capital investment include 9th street commercial corridor and incentive grant programs designate 9th street as a targeted area beyond the cda create a new private capital investment minimum for building improvement grants in the cda targeted areas outside of downtown at $50,000 expand the definition of the retail professional and services grant by adding exterior improvements to it merge the sign and facade grant programs into the retail and professional services grant program the funding for rpsgs would increase from 15,000 to the new maximum of 20,000 the funds for signage would remain capped at $2,500 change the time to complete the building improvement grant projects from 12 months to 18 months and change the language of urban growth area to target areas beyond the cda councilman sure you had submitted some questions concerning this item did you want to deal with them at this time this is a public hearing so the public hearing is open we have one person that wanted to speak so we can defer to that one comment and then get back to the council Victoria Peterson you have two minutes on this item Miss Peterson since I was the only one Mr. Mayor I really would like to have three but let me just say this I have a little concern I appreciate over the last several years the city having this program because it has helped the only problem that I have been having with it is that for whatever reason over the last few years I just don't see the African American community stepping up to the plate to go after some of these dollars to purchase buildings or either to get buildings and and refurnishing them or to build them up the only and I don't want to say anything wrong so I would like to ask this question I would like to know how many buildings are downtown that are now owned by African Americans not that they're just leasing space but they actually own the buildings because right now I only know of one and over the last several years because I remember going to the committee on the affairs of black people sharing with them that there was going to be a problem if we did not start buying some of these buildings that were going for very low dollars and now if you look downtown Durham you're not going to find that many African American owned buildings down here I would like and I only have a few minutes I would really still like to tweak this economic program here because there's an area that we really do not talk about in Durham and that's globalism we have and I'm jumping sort of far ahead because I only have a few minutes but I do want to mention this real quick we are partners with very sister cities around the world but not one of those sister cities is an African American country and we do have African American countries around the world and I would like to see I would like to see and for instance one if you don't know is the continent of Africa we do there are countries on that continent that we can partner with Kenya, South Africa where we have those folks that actually live here in the country but anyway Mr. Mayor I would like for us to sort of expand our economic development program here you've heard of Tanzania that's one of our sister cities Arusha that's the country Arusha is a city in Tanzania no, not quite a while in fact I visited them about three or four years ago thank you it's a quiz conference do you want do you want staff person to ask you yes thank you thank you for I I appreciate your preparing some responses I just want to say that I spoke to the manager this afternoon and he kind of put me in some context here Kevin that I think was helpful to me in the sense that what we're really doing as he explained it is dropping the 9th street area in here and making a few other small changes I understand that so rather than asking the questions can I what I think I'd like to do is put out some concerns that I've written down here for our future plans and then maybe you could comment on those if you wanted to if not you could save them for when you are working on it but let me just tell you what I some of my concerns were the we heard Shelly earlier talk about the hotel incentivizing hotels I thought we had reached our target and when we list the target industries I'd be interested in some discussion of that and what that means how many and why I'd always thought the target was 700 and I noticed she said 1200 and so at some point when you all are developing that policy that's something I'm interested in and then on page 3 of this agreement why is the maximum incentive 16% and my question really here is do we really want to continue to be that high and I know we are working on a combined economic development plan and maybe we ought to have a single figure which city and county public investment together equals a certain percentage but I worry that let me put this way don't we want to begin to create different lower expectations and developers who review this policy that is if we are going to be weaning people off the idea that every time they come to Durham they can ask for a certain incentive and get it if they see a maximum number I think that it's quite likely that they might seek to hit that maximum and so I just want to express that concern that when we think about the new plan we think about what should the maximum really be and can it be lower than this also in page 3 we talk about the fact that the 16% maximum incentive can be exceeded to the extent required to offset increases in rates for parking spaces that are at least I just want to say that this strikes me as counterproductive in terms of our desire to make parking more market based market rate based which I think is great that the city is moving in that direction and I really appreciate the efforts that our transportation department and others have put in in that in that realm but I just want to flag that as what seems to me to be counter to that and then finally I'm going to skip a few of the smaller points but I've noticed several times actually I take it back not quite finally now that the UGA no longer exists in light of the new annexation laws I can't understand why would we want to be incentivizing capital investment outside the city limits where we're not going to collect any taxes on that real estate I can certainly see why we might want to incentivize jobs outside the city limits but not capital investment especially in light of the new annexation laws which makes it impossible for us to annex without a different whole different level of consent than was previously required so I just want to flag that as another concern and then at page nine at the top the tax increment revenue must exceed the city incentive that's good but I'm interested in including some percentage by which it must exceed the city incentive so in a way I think this would give us more assurance when we're talking about the kind of issue that the mayor raised earlier if we had a higher level of higher percentage if we had some percentage that we felt comfortable that the incentive that the incremental revenue must exceed the incentive by then we would feel more comfortable I would feel more comfortable if if things didn't go quite as well as hoped we would have some room in there we would still have some room in there and then on the bonus criteria we currently have bonus for provise rental apartments and given the rash of apartments springing up downtown I wonder if it makes any sense to use that as a bonus criteria we also specify workforce housing in bonus criteria too and I think we ought to I think we ought to offer a bonus for affordable housing we ought to define that in some specific way so workforce housing or affordable housing as we've all discussed many times as a vague concept and I think if we could apply some specificity setting the standard of 60% of the area median income or something I'm not necessarily proposing that standard but using it as an example of something that we might say is that a bonus would accrue to you if you had that in there not just rental apartments or workforce housing so anyway I'm finished I'm really any of that that you would like to respond to would be fine but I am comfortable with the explanation that the manager gave me in terms of the fact that we're going to get this policy back and when the city and the county have for a big review once the city and county have negotiated something through your good offices but I did want to at least flag those things because I think that there those are all things that if we were adopting this policy today as a big long term policy rather than just a small change with the non street I would definitely not be voting for it because I would not be comfortable with all these criteria so excuse my over long speech but I did want to make those points Councilman Schill we appreciate the thorough review I think for the sake of time it probably would be better for us to give more answers when we bring back the policy as we've done in the past we've gone through it section by section and talked about the changes I think a lot of what you see in there was developed based upon a different time it was based upon a different situation and not just downtown but the community development area around downtown and urban growth areas and so forth but we'll take your recommendations under strong consideration and we'll bring back a policy that we hope will address a lot of the city and county concerns thank you thank you Mr. Mayor I'm going to ask if you would look at that definition after Steve just recommended just pointed out TAC recommend revenue based on current rate exceeds sentence and I'd like you to look at that relative to the conversation we just had earlier the other part of your proposal that I had some thoughts about on jobs what isn't clear to me is I always think about jobs Durham City residents because that doesn't come through in the proposal and somehow I would like us to tie the jobs that the site of four which speaks about standards for jobs why can't we tie the jobs that are created be for residents of Durham I mean you can get a company that comes in here and has a hundred new jobs and 90 of them can be residents outside of Durham so why can't we tie to the fact that those jobs are for persons who are residents of Durham now they might move here unless the job is established but if they're living in Durham it gets counted if they aren't living in Durham I don't see why we should count that would you like that answer now or deferred if you can answer it now fine but I've carried you too late anyway I thought we'd be out here soon so since we're going I'm not going to adopt it you can answer it later but I just would like to see a rationale for why we can say that those jobs that are created for Durham residents and when we track them they end those jobs they're still a Durham residents I don't want to create I don't want to give an incentives for companies that create jobs that don't go to Durham residents I guess that's the middle what I'm saying any other comments this is a public hearing so I'd like to ask anybody in the public wants to speak other than those that have spoken I'd like to reflect no one else to speak close public hearing and I guess I would entertain a motion that we continue this report until we get the answers that have been raised by the council I'm not saying adopt it now you want us to adopt it now the recommendation is to adopt so that we can employ the problem I have with adopting again is this job space and I just got caught up on this other one before and the reason you didn't want to do it because it wasn't in the policy so I mean if it's a rationale for making it specific to Durham residents we want to make it now think about it if the council would prefer to defer you know the impact is that we just won't be able to implement any of the incentive program or the improvement programs for the Ninth Street area merchants I guess the question is how soon can you come back with an answer it will be probably after the summer break is my guess before we come back why not work session if we come back Mayor Beall our original intent was to bring this policy forward when the city and county had jointly developed an economic development strategic plan it was the desire of council articulated at the February 6th work session that we should bring back an amendment that would enable us to administer economic development grant programs in the Ninth Street design district and so this policy amendment had that specific purpose and we were going to go back and look at the other sections in their totality when we developed a joint economic development strategic plan that work is ongoing and we intend to bring at least a draft plan to you later in the spring or early summer but the purpose of this amendment was so that we could do economic development improvement in conjunction with the private development that's going on in the west side of the street and so that was the purpose of this amendment mostly what would happen in the Ninth Street design district would not create a lot of jobs anyway because it's really smaller building improvements facade improvements that aren't going to have a big impact on job creation in any event and so any policy change in that regard wouldn't be very impact okay so if you tell me you need it to do what you want to do in the Ninth Street the jobs portion isn't going to be seriously impacted that's correct and I don't think we have any other incentives in the queue that I can think of Kevin that are job job oriented in the next month or so no not in the next month no alright yes if you don't mind Mr. Mayor I'd move approval I'd probably move in second in for the discussion here in the uncalled question it passes seven as zero thank you we'll go back to the pool item item seven on the consent agenda Ms. Peterson telecommunications lice of the dream with micro electronic center of North Carolina I heard a lot this evening about companies and jobs and I just want to say publicly I want to think I want to think MCNC Joe who has a telecommunication company here in the triangle and I just want to share with the mayor and the city council several years ago when I brought copper cable fiber optic to this community to work with ex offenders this gentleman with his company hired some of our guys and I wanted the public to know that I think the public needs to know that when we do business with companies that also if those companies can try to hire our local citizens and this company just did not hire our local citizens they hired individuals that had challenging backgrounds challenging backgrounds they hired individuals that had passed criminal records and gave them jobs and I want to think Joe I want to thank his company for doing that and Mr. Mayor we need to encourage other companies that want to do business with this community to hire our Durham residents and particularly hire those hire those in the past who might have had some challenges but they have overcome a lot of those challenges and now they are trying to become good productive citizens and I just wanted the mayor and the city council members to know that also I'm hoping in the future that this community will do more business with this company because fiber optic needs to come and I said this several years ago to every home and to every building in this community fiber optic is high speed it brings information it brings data it brings information quickly to your home and to your business and for us to really state that we are in the 21st century we really need to act like we are in the 21st century so thank you Joe and thank you council for allowing me to share that information thank you Ms. Peterson entertain the motion on item your name is Joe what okay where is your company located no no no that's okay we can find that okay move the item Mr. Mayor I just want to take a moment to say thank you I think what Ms. Peterson has raised is exactly right she's raised it over and over again so thanks Joe thank you sir thank you sir I know I have a vote thank you thank you we had a motion and a second on that Madam clerk we open the vote close the vote it passes 7-0 thank you any other items to come before the council I'd like to excuse I'm excused absent for Thursday's work session Madam clerk we open the vote close the vote thank you it passes 7-0 recognize councilman Brown I need the same we could have done it together I move it alright it's been a problem to move the second item clerk open the vote close the vote it passes 7-0 thank you any other items to come before the council I recognize councilwoman Cattati I go to a family reunion in eastern Maryland family comes first alright no further items the meeting is adjourned at 9-23pm and I apologize for the long discourse I had but I had to ask the questions you're the mayor you can do what you want to do you're the mayor