 Welcome to the back story. In this case, the back story on a major addition to long months economic environment and economic base retail environment and economic base. This is your opportunity long monitors to learn the back story, the story behind the story on a decision of a major significant US corporation to expand the long month. This is this is going to show up on a city council agenda on Tuesday, November 17, we're recording this in advance of that and we'll get into the reasons why in just a few minutes. But this is a big story and one that we want to make certain that all long monitors have a chance to come along and learn all you need to learn about what's going to be before the city council. My name is Tim Waters. And while I do where city council at in this setting I'm a volunteer for long month public media. And as the moderator of the back story, I have the good fortune of interviewing experts, elected officials, city officials, economic development experts policymakers from time to time on topics of interest and relevance to long months. This is a big topic of interest and relevance to long matters and I've got a great panel for this interview. Harold Dominguez city manager and has been city manager since Harold 2012. This is Jim Bagley. In his second term, Jessica Erickson who is the president and CEO of the Longmont Economic Development Partnership. The Arata maker who is the deputy city manager, and Jim Golden who everyone knows as long months long serving chief financial officer. So thanks to the five of you for for clearing your schedules to be part of this conversation. Just by clarifying that we're recording priority counseling, which is unusual, but we want to make certain that this story is available to the public. At the same time, Council materials are available so there's some risk of doing that, because it's something Council could decide to do something different than what we're reporting here today. But I'd like Mayor Bagley for you to start with, why is it we would be confident enough in in what's going to be in front of the Council to start telling the story in the days prior to the Council. Well, first of all, because even though we haven't made a public decision, there have been private discussions among Council about this economic development opportunity. It started well over a year ago when, and I know we talked a little bit about about whether or not we should, we should share this but it started over a year ago when there was a there was an original location in Longmont, where the developers mistakenly thought that that was the only location that was available for Costco. And so, knowing the importance of this specific retail location, or that this this specific retailer they approached the city city staff and city Council, and basically we're saying, we want economic incentives. I think the cost was immense. It was close to it did somewhere between 18 and 20 million. And at that time, we were concerned, because a it seemed like a lot of money, but the strategic significance of Costco coming to Longmont cannot be overstated. Because the other location they were looking at was Frederick off I 25. And if they were to have built Costco out there in Frederick, what that meant was our retail corridor, rather than becoming an epicenter, which it would become with Costco, it now would be cut off, had it been located in Firestone or Sam's Club would have been hurt, our retail stores would have been hurt or downtown would have been hurt. So it's not about whether or not we allow Costco to come or not, it was coming. The question, the question is, what is Longmont, or was Longmont going to be able to participate in the tax revenue. And so, at that time, we tried to negotiate with those particular group of developers. And when it became apparent that we a needed to have Costco in order to survive at work and be it became apparent that this location was not going to work. We then set our sights to finding a second location, which at the time, many thought were impossible, but thanks to the hard work of people like Jessica Erickson and Jim Golden and Dale Rademaker and Harold Dominguez the people you see on this, this back story. We were able to speak to the Goldman family, and they were able to find a location over there on 119, just in the eastern portion of Longmont. And we were able to come to terms that allowed us to come to an agreement with Costco that was vastly cheaper for the city, had far less risk, and allowed us to solidify the agreement with Costco the corporation that led to hopefully what will be the city council and the partnership. And again, we've had executive sessions, we didn't vote, but we certainly were able to speak our minds. And I have not seen a vote, but I have not heard any, any council member voice any opposition to this. So, just to just to drill down on one aspect of what you just said, yeah, over the arc of time as this opportunity has been under consideration. The city council and it really brought to the council by the staff has entertained proposals with various costs associated with them as incentives to put together a deal with Costco. Right. And the, the, the ultimate, and we'll get to what the ultimate package looks like just a minute. What I hear what I what I know is going to be those conversations, but whatever you say is the ultimate cost that cities investment here is substantially less at the end of a year of negotiations, and it might have been had this been a deal closed quickly a year ago. Absolutely. It's immensely cheaper. And there's clawbacks in it, which I'm sure that our city staff can mention. And there's also, you also have to look at, okay, well, how much are we anticipating in sales tax receipts versus how much the incentive packages. Yeah, and we'll get to all those details here as we go through this conversation. Thanks for getting this started. Jessica, you have been, you're the pro here in terms of economic development. You've been in these conversations repeatedly over in not just in this community and multiple communities. So, from your perspective, that have an economic development expert. Why should long month as a city and long month residents care about Costco's decision to come to an invest in one month. Yeah, happy to answer that question but if I may respectfully clarify something that Mayor Bagley alluded to which was the initial kind of incentive package that was being looked at at the original site, because I think it's a distinction that will be given to long month residents that it was not Costco seeking 18 to $20 million in order for them to come here. They had, and they have an amount in mind that works with them to pencil a project in any community. So, I would like to look to the community to basically come to the table to help them get to that from a land price and cost of building the project in that community perspective so it wasn't Costco trying to get 18 to $20 million out of the city they were just trying to pencil their project to meet their needs to perform us. So, those costs had more to do with the property owners and the deal they needed infrastructure costs and all that was related to this Costco's been pretty consistent. Yep, they yeah they've been consistent from this is where we need to be, whatever it takes to get there and so I think where we ended up as has also been suggested is a much better deal for the city as well. But to answer your question about the importance of Costco as an economic development project for the city. This is a bit unique in terms of and the mayor spoke to this a little bit in terms of not only looking at from, are we going to incentivize this project based on what we gain as a community, but also based on what we have the potential to lose as a community, because they were going to go somewhere that either in Longmont or just outside of Longmont that would have had the same impacts on traffic and some of the other things that might be seen as negatives about the project without the benefit of the significant fiscal and economic impacts that a project, a Costco project bring to a community. It wouldn't be unusual is it is this fair to say that a corporation like Costco large retailer any large retailer deciding that there's a region, a general area in which they want to locate would consider multiple options. I might have options a through BCD. And, and would not resolve or decide finally on one of those without considering considering all the possible. So, so if those positions or locations BCD or outside of Longmont, we are then competing with other communities. If indeed we want this asset in our community. Absolutely. And in this case, like I said both competing for that what we had the potential to gain and competing to not lose what we would have the potential to lose. Yes, any project of this size and scope is going to have multiple options available to it and go a certain distance with every single one of those options. Kind of deselecting some of those as they go along as others rise to the top. I don't speak for Costco but in my experience and I've been doing this for quite a long time. They likely still have a plan B on on the table so until, yeah until the things are signed and there's a shovel in the ground, and they will likely still have an alternative plan B. So they're, they're, they're in our some risks which we're going to come to in just a minute and I'm going to be able to talk about those. But before I do that I'm going to turn to Harold. Harold a city manager. You've been in these conversations over a period of years, opportunities that rise and fall, big and small. And there's always a commentary right. And then, or not, or how big a win was it for the community. From your perspective as city manager. Why should long monitors care about this what's the, what's the significance, both in terms of the economics, but the timing of this decision, and what it means to go short term along. So a couple of things I think one, when you start evaluating the fact that they were looking in this general area. I think that a says a lot about Longmont where we stand in the broader world of economic development and how people are looking at our community so this. There's a lot of conversations with them about this this ties to other decisions that council have has made on the economic development front, whether it's smuckers or whether it's a vexus but then also some of the other businesses that we've worked with in our community so they're in tune to that they're in tune to rooftops they're in tune to our sales tax performance. So that's what we do. And to Jessica's point, I think. So they were looking at this broader geographic area to say, we're interested in this, but they weren't beholden to Longmont within our city limits and to be frank you see us all touching on this. They very well could have just located just outside of Longmont city limits and we've heard different things through different pieces of Intel. So it should have been an option up to the intersection of the interstate and in 119 where you see American furniture and some of those other locations because if you really look at where they typically go. They're typically on interstates us 36 major highways and so that was something that we had to take into account so the fact that they were interested says a lot about where we are as a community. Another thing that's really important about this is that it also really helps redefine our retail trade area. There's not a lot of businesses today that you would really go we need to go after this, especially in the retail world. Because we all know how it's operating but when you look at redefining a retail trade area that's what Costco does. They are a destination retailer. And so for us that is a huge that makes a huge impact to our community. And it brings people in. And so that then starts helping the other businesses that were then are within Longmont as well. So that was a big piece of our conversation. Obviously Jim will talk about the economics on this and but I can't understate it enough. A lot of times when you look at this you go you can win. And if you win you get this. There was another component into this conversation, and you've heard us all touch on this. If it doesn't go to Longmont and it goes just east of us. We actually stand to lose a lot in this conversation and that's really for me. One of the first times in my career where it's not just what you can gain it's really evaluating what you can potentially lose it if you don't get them to locate in our community. So those that's a big piece and then generally what I will say is I think it does say a lot about Longmont where we are today and the confidence that Costco which is one of the best performing retailers in the world and how they feel about Longmont. So I think that says a lot about our community. And I think it really positions us for other retail opportunities in the future, even in a world that's somewhat chaotic. So was a Ross Perot who back in that presidential campaign talked about that big sucking sound you hear was somebody's tax money sucked up. In this case that big sucking sound would have been Costco just outside that Longmont city limits suck in sales tax resources out of Longmont into another municipal. And if I can add to that I think it's really important so you know we're in a time right now and in this coven 19 world, where we've done. You know, as we if we look at how we're performing versus other communities. You know, we've done better than we've projected. But it's related to businesses like Costco and so if you didn't have that and you have people traveling to those locations. Then it just starts exacerbating, you know the different issues you have to deal with and. And so that's for us why it's important we know people travel to Costco and you'll hear Jim talk about leakage. I know that's part of our conversation. Yeah, it is a destination for Tim and Jane waters. Harold, can you talk about the location where in Longmont we're going to see this. And I know there's, there's more involved in land acquisition. Just the site for Costco can you talk about that. Yeah, I can and and I will point out that so I started on the front end of this conversation with Jessica. And then as our world changed Jim Dale, Dale's really Jim and Dale have assumed the bulk of this with Eugene. So they can jump in on this but may our city attorney Eugene mayor city attorney but I want to kind of go back a little bit so we all know about this other location. And I think this point. We really have to emphasize it as well. We were really in some ways, trying to identify any possible location we could just to keep Costco and Longmont and it was, and I've got to thank Reggie golden because a he took a call from me. And at the end of the day, when we were, we showed him multiple locations. And at the end of the day they go this is the one we like. And so we had Reggie to jump in when he did and move as fast as he did in partnership on this, without that community connection. And, you know, they're there long term community connection I don't know for having this conversation. So I've really got to reinforce that piece so it is just east of harvest junction but what was also good about the conversation is we were trying to really work the broader financial package. He was talking to me about his interest in providing affordable housing opportunities in Longmont and something that he was interested in. And that actually led to us also purchasing nine acres of property with our affordable housing fund for affordable housing in our community. And, and that was in terms of the price for land that was actually a really good price for affordable housing. I'm excited about that. Obviously it was part of making the whole deal work. But the fact that you can do something like this and bring a Costco and and get nine acres of affordable housing is a pretty big deal for our community. The other thing that's really important is we know that there was a lot of consternation about the mining occurring immediately adjacent to some neighborhoods. That actually also pushes that mining further east and we have a buffer between what we have more of a land buffer between where the mining will occur in those neighborhoods. It isn't because I've been in this conversation with you I know the answer to the question, but I'm going to ask it that nine acres, which would be south of the Costco site. It's potentially a site that the city could sell for multiples of what it paid and use whatever those proceeds are to build or invest in affordable housing elsewhere in the city. We will have both of those options right. Yeah, we have a number of options on the affordable housing front I'll let Dale kind of jump in on this one because he's been more active in that conversation over the last few months. Let's then let's invite Dale into this conversation Dale. You've been in the middle you and Jim really been in the middle of negotiations for almost a year. And, and as you go through these, there are agreements that get made their concessions that made the corporations going to do what it needs you to protect its interest. Your task is to protect the city's interest and keep the deal moving forward. So, what can you share about kind of the background information on those negotiations over the last year. And, and what risks might the city be subjected to and, and how do you mitigate those risks how will you mitigate those risks in the contract that the council is going to have a chance to consider. I'll start with just the, the initial premise of bringing the parties together so between the landowner, the golden family, Costco as the company and the city as the partner this has really been sort of a three way negotiation. The good thing about that is each of those parties can see a, a reason to be part of this and a benefit that's involved. And I think the, the other thing I would say is that in working both both with the property owner as well as with Costco. There have been few with any surprises along the way. In other words, we had initial discussions, we set the initial framework of what each party was sort of willing to bring to the table, and people have held with that. There's obviously nuances and things that we've had to negotiate through, but at the end of the day. And my impression is that we've been working with people with really good integrity, and, and, and people whose whose word in these days still mean something. And the attorneys all got involved. So, I find that refreshing just to be able to have, have a relationship whereby, if you give your word in a discussion, you can know that they're not going to turn on you. You know when when something gets a little tight or something so I'll start out with that. What I would say is that the, as Harold was mentioning the city had multiple objectives that we were wanting to accomplish in this, in this arrangement. First and foremost, of course, getting Costco to Longmont, and frankly getting them to open here in Longmont as soon as we can. That's our first and foremost issue. You know, right behind that was certainly a desire of the community to try to also advance our affordable housing opportunities and needs and as you appropriately noted, the city has, you know, the full ability to do with those nine acres as they believe to be most useful in their pursuit of affordable housing in the community. Harold also mentioned the, the shifting of the impact of some of the mining. You know we were, we were certainly hearing that from some of the residential neighborhoods close in of concern about mining and that's a very reasonable thing. When you, when you move to your new house, you're not really anticipating a gravel mine on the other side of your fence. And so also being able to shift that over has been helpful so no aggregate industries as a, another party to the overall arrangement that we're working to resolve in that they hold the gravel lease on the property. And as part of this overall process, we needed to also keep aggregate industries whole, because what was essentially happening with development of the properties you're removing it from gravel mining. And that's a loss of resource for for aggregate. So, again, that was part of the negotiation. You know, whenever we come to the tables of city with public dollars we have to be very cautious, very conservative. And I rely on, you know, Jim is great at making sure we're, we're being very cautious with expenditures of city dollars. In this case the city's probably largest expenditures are the some of the costs to provide the land, both for Costco as well as for the affordable housing so those 26 acres of ground. The city, by, by coming to sort of being in control of those 26 acres, we then are also now sharing in the prorata costs of the, of the public improvements that are going to be necessary. In order for this, it's currently in alfalfa field. And for that alfalfa field to go from its current condition to one that is ready to be developed. And so that's the, the design and construction of all the rows and utilities, traffic lights and so forth. So that has been an integral part of the negotiation as well that the city is a partner by virtue of our percentage ownership of the overall. It's about 48.66 acres. So, we are very closely looking at and running our own estimates on the costs of those public improvements and offsetting those with some of the costs of the land that we're also bringing into the picture. So, you know, the city's financial investment is is is significant, but it also is one that is predominantly going into the prorata share of those public improvements, as well as the property that's involved. And in doing that, we had to also sort of backstop the city's risk. In other words, everybody hopes these projects go goes go smoothly right. They start they get built. They have the ribbon cutting yay, it's all a good day. We spent a lot of time focusing on, well what happens if it doesn't go so good, right. And so there are there are about four different clawback scenarios embedded in the agreement. We try to the level of infrastructure, for instance, that has been installed when things go south. And so, at the end of the day. And in each of those scenarios, by the way, the city is explicitly made whole in the event that the Costco store does not open. As far as if you open your doors, but you don't stay open long enough for us to recoup to fully recoup through sales tax, our investment that you will pay us back that difference as well. And so we try to be very thoughtful, as we were doing this negotiation and working through any number of different scenarios that can come up. And again, from the city's perspective, looking to protect our investment, obviously to the best that we can. You know, I think at the end of the day. This, this has the potential to really be a showcase development for the city on our entrance coming in from the east. And I think it's going to be impressive. I think the community is going to look at that and be very proud of it. And at the end of the day, I'm looking forward to this the integration of this new development within the larger harvest junction retail, as well as the residential development to the south. I don't remember all the details on the clawbacks, but that was the, that was the premise that was the goal was, if things go south. Now what happens, how, how can we best secure the city's investment so as to protect those public dollars. So, at the end of the day, there's an investment on which we hope to get a return I'm going to turn to Jim in just a second. But, but we've negotiated to the contract protections for the city. Yes, so that while we it's going to take time to earn the return. We're not, we're really not exposed for the cost to the city for infrastructure and in the preparation of that site. That's, I would say that's a fair statement and in addition to the clawbacks that we have in in the in the P3 agreement. When we get to the stage of issuing the public improvement agreements. We're also going to have additional securities that will be issued once again as an additional backup to the city so that this is one that we probably have as much protection on this project as we as we likely do any capital project that the city goes out and to build. And we you made reference to 48 plus acres, and you made reference to harvest junction but we haven't been explicit about where this will, or this development will occur south of 119. East of housing development on the east side of harvest junction south of 119. Yeah, the 48 acres, it butts up against Kim Pratt Boulevard State Highway 119 on the north. And it butts up on the west to both the harvest junction retail as well as the harvest junction residential areas and extends to the to the to the east. I don't know the exact distance but it's to an area that is a natural location for the stoplight to be installed on Ken Pratt Boulevard which is also a constraint that we're working around because there is an access control plan on that highway. There are only certain points where we are allowed to get access to the highway. And so that defined at some level, the eastern edge of the project and the main access road into the development off of the highway. Very good. Jim, we made reference to investments and, you know, kind of broad statements about about costs and in returns on investment. Let's drill down on some of the numbers. People will be curious how big the investment we heard numbers earlier from from the mayor and from Jessica. What kind of investment is the city making. What have you forecasted in terms of in terms of sales tax receipts. What's the over the arc of time what does it look like in terms of returns on that investment and what does it mean the city long. First, let me clarify a couple of things first that first of all, no relation to the owners. I should say. Second thing, and I'm really not been involved in negotiations like Dale and Eugene have a really deserve all the credit they sure put in a lot of time over the last forever it seems like. For the numbers so the investment in the project for the total project that we've we've referred to here, including the affordable housing is 12 and a half million dollars. That's the investment for the city of that amount though 2.9 million dollars is for the affordable housing portion of it. And 6 million dollars is for the Costco project and what's related to to having that be accomplished. We've made estimates of the amount of revenue that can be generated by this development Costco has provided us with their estimate of the first year facilities sales tax per square footage. Based on that we are projecting that the facility would generate 4.06 million dollars in the first full year of operations. Now Costco, they use for some pretty aggressive growth projections after year one and as if you know me I don't like to get to optimistic with that and so I'm a little bit more conservative so we we've used 2% growth projections after the first year and I will tell you that the Costco is is is telling us it could be as high as 10% in the second year and for the first few years afterwards. But all of our projection we're using is based on a 2% growth over 20 years that would generate 98.6 million dollars of sales tax revenue to the city at its current rate of 3.5 8% So property tax on this is also going to be generated it's not certainly nowhere in the neighborhood of what we're talking about in sales tax but the city would probably get my estimate is around $60,000 per year should also point out though as well that that it'll generate about a quarter million dollars for the school district and $100,000 or so for for Boulder County. So at the rate that that we're projecting at the $4.06 million per year 2% growth, we would recover that 9.5 or $6 million in less than two and a third years, and that's just the gross revenue sales tax revenue that would be generated. Now we do realize that not all the sales tax that's going to be generated by the Costco will be new to the city. We do project that they'll be cannibalization which would be the loss of existing sales in existing groceries or discount stores that already exist in the city. We're projecting that to be about 26% of the sales tax generated by the Costco. So we are really looking at a net sales tax. And when we're trying to identify the benefit to the city. And that's still that net sales tax projects to a total net sales tax revenue of at least $73 million over 20 years. That's your conservative estimate. That's at my 2% growth. That's correct. And I won't even ask you to comment on the, the projection, the projections or forecast the Costco does, because it's way north of that $73 million I know. But I would point out, I would point out though that that even though that that would also probably increase my cannibalization estimate as well so I think that these are still realistic estimates. And the, and I want to reiterate the return on investment. We even we recovered that 9.6 million did you say in less than three years. Yeah, two and a third years we would get at least that much sales tax revenue within that period of time and at their projections, probably less than two years. So, I'm going to come back to Jessica. There will be residents when they read about this in the newspaper and in which they'll be able to do soon. And they'll listen to this presentation or listen to the council meeting. There'll be plenty of folks will be critical of the city of Longmont once again, providing some kind of financial incentive to a major US corporation to expand to Longmont. Municipalities. Why, why is it this municipality would participate in that whole process scenario of making incentives available. Why, why do we do it. What are the implications if we don't. Yeah. So, thank you for that question. And I think it would probably come as a surprise to many that people in my position and most economic development professionals are not huge fans of incentives ourselves. We prefer the idea of as any for projects and economic development investment to be able to compete on the merits of our community because we have the right infrastructure the right talent the right culture and quality of life for a company to make that kind of impact in our community. But there are times that an investment and I'm glad we've been referring to it as an investment and investment in a project on behalf of the municipality just makes sense because of the potential for return and the potential to mitigate in this to the community. And we look at it from the perspective of not just those direct fiscal impacts that Jim has talked about which hopefully people understand how impactful that will be to to the fiscal health of our community, but we also look at the economic impacts, but economic impacts are job creation and wages and then the induced induced and indirect benefits of that that job creation and wages. And so we look at a company like Costco and the types of jobs that they're creating the wages that they're paying the benefits that they're providing and how how those spread throughout the community into places like our downtown into places like our other retail and and service areas in the community and and the return on this investment is undeniable, and both from a fiscal and economic perspective Costco pays well above average wages for the types of jobs that they hire. They're actually in the neighborhood of average annual citywide average annual wages when you get into employees that they've had for a number of years on their payroll. There are company that promotes from within and is very focused on creating opportunities for all of its employees within its organization, not just in the local store that somebody might start in but throughout the corporation. There are companies that invest heavily in benefits for every single employee on their staff, and they're going to be creating 200 jobs so we typically look at at a company like Costco retailer like Costco is more of a locally serving business which has significantly less of a multi multiplier effect than what we would see from a primary industry employer like a manufacturer technology company. But in the case of Costco because of the wages that they pay and because of the trade area that they create the act from an economic perspective more like a primary industry employer. And so both from that direct fiscal impact perspective that Jim talked about, as well as the broader economic impact potential for our community, and then add to that potential the potential loss to our community if they were to relocate in particular, just on the other side of the county line. Again it's a no brainer for the city of long want to make this investment in this company at this time. I'm not going to put you on the spot, but I know you calculate multiples. When you do these analyses. Have you done that on this one by any chance. I have. I don't remember off the top of my head but it's near a two X multiplier, which again is something that we would typically see 1.9 something on on jobs and I think 1.7 something on wages which is something that we would more likely see with primary strike primary industry employer to translate what 1.7 or 1.9 means in terms of economic impact. So, 1.9 multiply jobs multiplier means that for every job that Costco creates there will actually be 1.9 jobs created in our community, a 1.7 wage multiplier means that for every dollar that Costco pays in wages there will be 1.1 dollar and 70 cents in wages generated throughout the community. So, in addition to what Jim talked about, just the benefits to the city as well as to consumers, in terms of the overall economic impact in the, in the larger community, this is pretty substantial. It is absolute. So Mayor Bagley. That sounds like good news. Yeah, I wait here some I suspect about the bad news. And you made reference to some of this earlier traffic and more activity, more people more traffic on 119 coming across town. What say you to the to the to our friends and neighbors. Those who's interested. Why this remains a good idea. A sound investment for lawnmower. It's a sound investment because it will continue to provide jobs and opportunities for people who live in my mind. It will provide a source of employment. It will provide a source of sales tax revenue. It will provide something to do on the weekend to go shop with your kids at Walmart. So in addition to Walmart and Sam's Club, but and any time you develop anything, there will be more traffic and more people. And I would like nothing more than a wave of magic wand and go back in time to when long had 60,000 people and when I moved in I could have just closed the door behind me and said that's it no more. Unfortunately, Longmont and northern Colorado and Colorado in general is a beautiful place to live and people are coming. They need food, they need clothing, they need stores. And so unfortunately we can't lock the door and in order to continue long months ability to generate sales tax to be able to fill our potholes. We need to be able to provide sites, pay our police officers and just make sure that our city gets paid and continues to progress and prosper. We need to continue looking for economic opportunities and development such as this so we can move forward into the future, comfortably, happily, and united, and I would be very upset. And so I might as well put this now, we had on three different occasions, asked members of the city council, if you have any doubts or pushback, or if you are opposed to this speak now, because we are going to be going through a lot of effort, a lot of expense, a lot of stress. A lot of people relying on this, and not not to mention our reputation in the development community with Costco and the landowner. But if we say no now, no one has opposed this. And so I will be very curious to see how this vote goes. Oh, we won't have long to wait. I want to give you one more chance to put an exclamation point on this in two ways. You made reference to the commentary. This makes about long month from a corporate perspective in a, especially in a time where there's probably more economic uncertainty than ever. I mean, given, given what we've been managing with this pandemic. Go back to that just for a moment say repeat or expand on what's what is this say about long month number one. And then number two, what should people know about timing. If the council approves this on Tuesday night which the mayor is confident they are and I would join you mayor vaguely in that confidence. What should people expect to see over what period of time. So I'm actually going to, I'm going to answer the first question and then add some information to this then I got to turn it over to Dale for timing. Because, again, a lot of work recently on all of those issues. So what was interesting is we actually started this conversation, obviously before the pandemic kit. And there was concern. When we started moving into this world of what does it mean to this project or you know as everyone's still committed to this, are we still moving forward. The answer was yes, obviously, we're still moving in this direction. And so I think that really says a lot about our community and their confidence in the retail trade area that they've identified to touch on something that. You and Mayor Bagley talked about when we talk about traffic and these types of issues. That's one of the reasons we actually like this location because it is further to the east you don't necessarily have all of that traffic moving deeper through the community. But the other side of it is, obviously the retail trade area is pretty big and so you can guess what they're looking at. And if they move east of Longmont, we're still probably going to have a lot of that traffic moving through our community, we just don't have the revenue coming in. So that's another piece of the conversation. But one of the things I want to bring up is I think I would be remiss if I didn't talk about how this is how Costco operates. And what we're going through is not any different than what other communities go through when Costco wants to locate in their communities and so when this started. I started doing some research and came across Oh, City of Dallas had to have a similar agreement. I can't remember if it was Jim Dell or Eugene that provided me with a presentation. Actually, we knew there was another location being considered within the front range and there was an action taken by the City of Denver. And the City of Denver actually had a very similar agreement to the agreement that we've put together. And specifically and this will be included in the council column. The City of Denver improved an incentive agreement for development in Northeast Denver called the flyway. And that includes a Costco warehouse. In that agreement, Denver committed to share back 9.5 million of sales tax from that facility. So when you look at the numbers, Jim just talked to you about and said ours is 9.6 and you look at Denver doing 9.5. I think that also says a lot about our community because, you know, larger population based more home more rooftops those types of things. And actually the deals pretty similar in terms of what Denver put together and what we put together and I wanted to point that out because I think that gives a framework of it's not just long. It's Denver, it's other large communities throughout the nation that all go through the same process. Because Costco is one of the most highly desired retailers in any community. And I would look to Jessica and others to say if I'm wrong on that statement. It's a pretty powerful statement of confidence and long run from from major American corporation. I'd like to add to Harold statements there I think the, you know the city's deal that that we've been able to pull together, not only gets the Costco project here for a similar amount of money. But also opens up for additional retail and other development, the balance of the 48 acres. And so we are coming forth with a similar amount of money for a much larger potential development area that also includes as we mentioned the affordable housing as well as additional housing on the south side and so there's a whole benefits coming in. And I think the other thing that made long mod a strong candidate for Costco. It is some of our very core services that we provide things like our water and our sewer and our power and next light. Those are all very attractive to a corporation like Costco they understand that value. But they pay for water and water taps and other communities, as opposed to here in Longmont and so all of that comes together and sort of the overall package that really helps us to compete and and to, you know, be able to pull together these kinds of deals where we're able to bring this kind of a retailer into the into the community. Well, I want to talk about timeline but before you do. Does anybody in this conversation want to speculate about the other kinds of development Costco typically stimulates around Costco's. No, no one wants to speculate. Okay, well I'm not going to put you on the spot. But I think you will say the viewers of this program stay tuned, because Costco typically draws other kinds of development around Costco's. Most people would like to see. They'll tell us about timelines. And timelines. Again, if the council moves forward with this item on first reading and then it will come back for second reading because it is in the form of an ordinance on December 1. That then will initiate the public land review process. And then there are a number of land entitlement processes that the 48 acres will go through everything from a comprehensive plan amendment to an amendment of the PUD for the mining plan. And then ultimately ending up with the plotting and final planning of the property. And that's expected to be about a six to seven month time period. And so we would fast forward now into about, say, July or so of 21. At that point, where we are anticipating to go to closing, because at that point you'll actually have platted legal lots that can be, you know, sold from from one owner to the next. You'll have the all the final designs done for all the public improvements at closing. The parties will come together will close and you know typical type of closing Costco will then also initiate what's called the notice of commencement to begin work. And that began work begin the construction of the public improvements. We have timed out to be anywhere from a 12 to 18 month timeline, you know, depending on winter and depending on you know, can you are you able to keep working through the through the cold and snow seasons or not. All ending with a are the goal that we have in mind is to have the pad ready site available to turn over to Costco, such that they are in a position to open their store and what they refer to as their fiscal year 23. They'll be somewhere in the timeframe of a mid year, say, July to September of 2023. The agreement provides for them an additional year in the event that there are delays and those types of things but what we're being told at this point by Costco is, they see this as a very attractive site. I think there is interested in getting their, their warehouse opened as we are in making that possible so that's the timeline, and a lot of work will happen between now and ribbon cutting for the for the warehouse. So long miners are going to want to have their kids back in school by the fall of September 23. I hope so. So, let Costco know we'd like to buy our school supplies. We're going to buy it by August or September 2023. Listen, any other final thoughts comments anybody in this group wants to make. Yeah, just one quick thing, Tim. This is the first time the Council is going to be implementing some of the raw water policy, both economic incentive options with our raw water policy as well as implementing and the raw water policy for affordable housing. And so you're going to be acting on on those particular issues as well. And it'll be the first time that we are implementing those particular policies. Again, for the benefit of both economic development and affordable housing in the community. Just a few moving parts to this one. Yes, just a few. If I add. Oh, sorry. Harold Harold you get the last word just to go ahead. So I just want to also add that the, you know, knock on wood that this ends in a successful ribbon cutting for a Costco warehouse here in Longmont. It really is a true testament to the work that we've done over the last several years to operate as a cohesive collective unit and pursuing these types of projects I have worked in multiple communities I've worked at the state level, and never experienced a group, a diverse set of perspectives approaching a project and really working and step with the same goal in mind and contributing each the expertise that each of us brings to the table and letting each other at contribute the expertise that the others bring to the table without stepping on each other's feet. So it's been, it was a really good process to be a part of with this group and I'm excited that we've finally gotten here. A good process I'd say that's fairly remarkable what you just described. And that is a positive comments are Harold. I said you get last word actually I'm going to have the last word but before I take my closing comments. Give you a chance to offer your last words. I wanted to touch on what Jessica talked about really the team that came together on this one to have this conversation was great teamwork people were moving in and out, you know we were managing many things during this time. So for the folks that were on this those that are great teamwork. I just wanted to say I think I've you know I've been through a number of these conversations, and Dale touched on this earlier, all the partners, Oscar the property owner, really, you know, saying what you mean and meaning what you say was, there throughout this process. And I want to commend everyone in Costco for this because they're great organization to deal with through these processes, even when you disagree with each other. Well, a lot of times, go ahead, I'm sorry. A lot of times you know we look at this it's it's interesting to watch how we approach the conversations and we go through this and, and at times I joke to the team about this, you know Jim and I would be on different sides of this conversation. And we go back and forth on this but you know, when Jim golden comes to you and says we need to really find a way to make this happen because it's that impactful to the community. For me, that then makes the conversation much easier because because his perspective and his judgment just means a lot. And when he says that to you, it's like okay we all know what we need to do now. And, and so I, you know we've kind of talked about the financials on this but I really want to reinforce the perspective that Jim brought to this, and how he brought clarity to me, in terms of where we need to go. And when your CFO does that, you need to listen. So you tell me as we're going through this. Well, Jim golden is the EF Hutton of long month. When he speaks, everybody listens. He's talking about when we're looking at $18 million. Tim, I can barely remember that commercial barely. Well, that's a baby boomer thing. It's just the old people in this conversation Jessica doesn't you know what we're talking about. Hi, folks I want to say on behalf of of your residents, having been one for 25 years. How much I appreciate, not just the time you gave today but what you do every day. I'm going to lose on this one. I just know how hard you work on behalf of my residents selfless selflessly selfishly selflessly day in and day out under right now really unusual difficult circumstances so thanks to each of you for what you do every day. And thanks again for what you've done this afternoon, and we'll look forward to back to school shopping or Christmas shopping. In 2023 like 2023 in Costco, and you can, and we maybe we can share this link with Costco, let them know how much we appreciate their role in this as partners, long modders. That is the backstory on Costco, coming along. Thanks.