 Okay here we go. Green is for go. City Council discussion item number one the commercial retention and redevelopment CRR program formerly known as the facade program and we'll have Ms. Ayesha Dreggers our Director of Office of Business Opportunities. Good morning everyone. It's great to see y'all this morning. I also have our staff here Brett Whiting and Carla Eichelberger those are the staff members responsible for our commercial retention and redevelopment program that was formerly the facade program as people are familiar with it with that title. So I just want to provide you with some updates we didn't have funding last fiscal year but we do this year so we're excited to get kicked off with that program. All right so here's an overview of the program we offer 15,000 for exterior improvements and 10,000 for the interior improvements and then we also have an additional incentive for vacant or abandoned buildings for $10,000. The property must be vacant for 12 consecutive months prior to those improvements and that's just an incentive to kind of fill vacant spaces. That was started a couple years ago in the five-point area. It has been yes. So eligible businesses you can be a property owner or a tenant of the business to participate in the forgivable loan and the tenants have to get approval from the property owners in order to apply for that. I did want to point out the ineligible businesses listed here. The residential use of course, government, public educational facilities, franchises, hotels, liquor stores, convenience stores, private education chain stores, businesses with 51% are more of revenue from alcohol sales and adult-oriented businesses are ineligible for participating. So this is the question that I had because we do have businesses that are restaurants but then also serve alcohol and five points and I know we had a conversation via email about how there's no federal restriction or program restriction and that is maybe a OBO or OBO law. Oh, it's a Tina Herbert rule. That was started during my, because we had a lot of five-point bars that had issues with that arose out of alcohol incidents and we just say bar versus restaurant. Yeah because there are some restaurants that I think should qualify but well and that's how we determine what qualifies. If you... It's 51%. If 51% or more comes from alcohol then you are a bar because that's the majority of your sales but if your sales are 50, 51% food then you're a restaurant because what happens is when we had it then everyone wanted to become a restaurant. No, we're a restaurant because we serve food. So I'm sorry that is the background to that. Okay. The legal cases that have come out through the Parpoolian law firm, I believe they use 35% as a threshold for alcohol sales. No, for food sales. You have to have at least 35% of your income off of food in those cases where some of the bars shut down. And I think our standards should be higher because we're talking about businesses that we are investing in. Descartes-Potlian is not talking about investing in. Well that's the thing like this is when you're looking at it holistically you want to be able to invest in an area to make it look better. That's the whole point of the program so I don't want to make it harder. I do think we should be intentional and not be you know using it for something that will turn over in you know two years because it's just a bar but there I do feel like so something like Jake's with that does serve 50% or more but people also eat there right so they would be ineligible and that's just one example but I do think that there are I just want to make sure that there could be conversations about I'm thinking even different than that because let's say you have a high end tapas okay that goes into five points and they're taking over an old building and they want to go in it well if you go in there and you get a $75 bottle of Cabernet and you and Aliana split an entree well it's a lot more than 50% spent on alcohol but it's it's a restaurant I think we got to have some leeway that's what I'm at yeah let's accept one well I mean I would have to go to the list but I think we did find when we did it previously I don't know high end stores were necessarily interested in government money as well I had met anybody that's gonna not take a $15,000 facade grant I've already said I've already said this to my guy technologies I mean that is the history of it is that I don't know what the discussion is was to just is that this discussion today no I asked to just get an overview of it because I had some folks ask if they could be eligible for it and based on this we were not so I wanted to know the history of how this rule was created because it's not in the program or federal language that restricts from being able to use it so which I'm fine I just think that there should be some flexibility to allow for that's my stance is there's going to always be you know businesses worth investing in that may not fit squarely in this rule but could make a huge difference when it comes to a particular entertainment district or neighborhood I'm just thinking about like if you go down there and you look at who said it's been empty now for three years it's gonna need a facade grant for somebody to get to go in there along with the other pieces and the people who have been traditionally looking at it oyster bar this and that they're gonna be they could be tucked in there on sales I mean I would argue that today you know probably some of those places if you go back to years ago in five points the majority of places were restaurants but then they turned into bars that later on will that change their whole you know percentage of sales what if they're what if they're 49 we're gonna take somebody for 2% I just I'd like to give staff autonomy I wouldn't give staff autonomy because I think you get them in trouble I think if a company applies and they have more than 51% sales from beer alcohol that's the viewer will have it alcohol and council needs to approve it I would not put that in city staff's hands I'm fine with that I just want the ability to have that flexibility what's the other part of today's discussion that I was hoping outside of the overview and addressing this is that they certainly have interest because we've already there I guess before knowing that we wanted to do the overview and get some of this clarification the staff has softly put out the fact that we do have funding this year so they have gotten started getting interest about it and so some of the history I wanted I should also give was about over the years there's been iterations of we're gonna focus in one corridor and we want to focus on I think at one point we were targeting certain types of establishments to focus on to improve the barbershops and so in the targeted areas I think is where we were we're still yeah you need some direction and we need direction on is are we doing citywide are we saying in our targeted area and that's well and I do have a slide on that and I will share that we did work with Krista's group and we've identified there about 12 bars in the five points area so there is limited funding as well and since bars have been told no for the past probably 10 years we anticipate if we say yes then we'll probably have you know an increase of interest from not interested in bars I'm interested in restaurants that's right yeah so it's how we defined how we define that and if we use the 51% definition to determine if they are considered I think we decided that we accepted and then if there's one that that city council helps make that make that decision that would it be better to instead of using alcohol use food like the law suits do we not the law suits I think as a dip they're not comparable standards this is the city government investing in a business that sells alcohol totally different than dick's law suits and the because and honestly you wouldn't want to tie because he is showing how the bars are problems and and so you wouldn't want to tie your philosophy wouldn't be there do you something like you would have maybe developed a language saying like certain businesses you know over there so that's not a this year we're accepting applications but it'll be up to city councils I tell you what's not on there that needs to be on their vape shops I agree with that so we're clear you're suggesting that we take out the language businesses of 51% or more of revenue from alcohol sales no we keep it but if we have one that staff deems there's one that's teeter-tottering that makes sense for us to do that they bring it to council and council approves it so it doesn't put the burden on staff is what how would they happen how I mean I think they're gonna you gonna have restaurants or something I mean yeah I guess that's the thing like I'm like they won't be able to apply if that's in there so and this discretion so what would that look like when we need when judgment calls have to be made you wanted to come to the whole council you wanted to come to a committee of council you want to I definitely don't want it to be put that the staff in that position I don't either but I'm trying to help facilitate what it looks like but I mean if that's the direction we're going and what you can do is we can add you can appeal and a decision like if you deny because of okay first of all you're a new business you can't you can't disqualify them number one if it's a new restaurant you can't disqualify them because you got no sales history yeah no but they're gonna have three years of projections and it's gonna be in a restaurant business for 20 years I'm gonna tell you I can't tell you one year I had a lot of alcohol sales and one year I didn't have a lot of alcohol sales it all depends I mean they can't even make that decision without having the information so every they have to have three years projections what are we really trying to make the distinct the distinction between the restaurant a bar I mean I think I think if we can come up with yeah it's a restaurant in other words if you're a bar then then you probably not going you're not shouldn't go to the appeal process if you're a restaurant then I think we want 50% I just think it's hard when I started thinking about some high-end stuff coming in and there was an example of a certain elected official who might be a lawyer who somebody brought his receipt from his dinner that he had and his alcohol exceeded his meal and it was 75-25 and the point was is that doesn't always work they weren't they weren't submitting the alcohol portion for reimbursement were they well I always just advised that if we establish something we need to be clear about what we're establishing there's no point to put something out there or take something out and then we get into a pattern with bars and or restaurants applying and and then we say no so they're like why what is the city really doing why are you even with oh could you increase the threshold well just one suggestion can we not try and figure it out today and go do some research like naceco's I'm assuming there are some official definitions of what is a restaurant somewhere like Nate Nate calls the looking look at a sure that maybe get some information said businesses with out revenue from alcohol sales are subject to further review and extra other information or something I mean we don't have to make a decision today but thinking something along that lines that way you're not saying no but you're also not saying yes business license may be able to give you the answer to that how they are registered with the naceco so they have a different one yeah yeah that's that's good and I mean you and you can also create another category we don't they don't just think where it's like subject to additional review like it could be like its own yeah we can another thing I talked to missy about is we probably want to look at any nuisance complaints just trying to figure out what any trickle down effect of allowing you know I think that that is actually incumbent that you check nuisance complaints now we would expect cold violations because it's for exterior of it and that that was kind of like the original intent was help deal with the code it was yeah cold violations but and then we all agree shops add those right yeah yeah this is a list of eligible improvements for the interior so with the typical walls things that can't be easily removed and taken to another location and then the exterior the awnings commentary lighting masonry signs as a big one for our businesses improvements on their signage and then signage is a big one the awnings are really expensive call this expensive painting I do have some pictures to the majorities from the outside exterior versus interior I think so yeah but I think what we determine is we did a lot of improvements in the past on the exterior and then if you go inside it's not very aesthetically appeasing so you wanted to do some types of improvements on the inside as well and these are two different grants yes there's an exterior and an interior okay depending on the need because everyone may not need some interior improvements I don't need to be technical but a parking lot is not interior right you're right and are they able to get but one one business can up to a certain amount of funding yeah so they can have one but it can be interior and exterior combined yes we do remind me because I'm drawing a blank you require x amount from the owner as well is it equal match during COVID we we pause that that match in the past it was 20% currently there is no match right now but we have done 20% in the past 20% of the overall cost right they're doing an equal amount of work 20% of the cost some type of improvement I think you got to have something in there do you feel like 20% was well received by that's a little bit difficult for some of our our smaller businesses um but I mean I think they met that requirement in the past I don't know from staff if they've heard any feedback on that 20% um on the commercial side or on the facade side because we're talking about two different lines yeah on the facade side with 20% was required on the facade side on the exterior the interior did not have that requirement so I know from the different sectors that we work many of the businesses in certain corridors are unable to participate because of that 20% um I'm so sure that's an issue I mean I think you got to have a general rule so the question becomes if you make these improvements I mean signs can be taken awnings can be taken lighting can be taken doors and windows can be taken so I guess the question is is you want to make sure that if we're investing in that business maybe maybe it's not 20% cash that they come up maybe it's improvements that equal that amount so that everybody's invested together does that make sense yeah was an incentive for the businesses to participate let's face it many of the improvements that we've done yeah that also don't want to I also don't want to prohibit business especially when we're talking about some of the gateways that need that extra push from you know Brett for some reason I knew that was coming I was seeing how long he was gonna go before he reached 11 the last time we did the program in five points and I'll just point out a business on saluta the gourmet shop they replaced the awning over there and if you know the gourmet shop that awning goes spans almost a half half of the block so our 15 percent I mean I'm sorry our 15,000 was a portion of what the requirement was there and the owner you know participated and added whatever funding was needed and that is true of most of the program programs that we do so based on history is there a way for us to just ensure that they're making investment alongside of us without making it a dollar amount requirement you know and to me like so let's say we're on North Main at the North Main Plaza for example we're the one that further out near I-20 somebody goes in there and we get them a facade grant but they also they're converting to a restaurant so we're helping them with the grease trap could then I guess you could say that grant count is I you know what I want to make sure is that that people are investing for the success all the way around and it's not just well I got this and then all of a sudden three months later right yeah um I think later on in the presentation uh Aisha will go over some some numbers and the numbers will show uh their private investment I just want to confirm do we still have the requirement with the facade that they have to stay in that location a certain number of years for it to be forgiven right it's it's a two year on both sides on the interior and the exterior two years because it's forgivable it's forgivable over two years it used to be forgivable for five years that might have been yeah now that that changed when I came on I don't remember the five so there is a one rule um so yeah we can add some language in there about um in kind and other investments um for the project the grant is so small they they wouldn't buy it they would almost have to put in a whole lot more money and count that towards it but that way it it's the overall investment yeah yeah and this is just a pie chart of the investment since the program started are some iteration of the program since 1997 it's been called different things but there's been a 2.2 million dollar investment with different funding sources I will say um largely over the past 10 years it's mostly been cdbg funding is how we funded um the program and I do have some additional information because this year we do have the addition of the ARPA funds for that is that somebody had mentioned um not too long ago that there was a lot of funding either through sba or treasury for small businesses that you heard no I'm not familiar with what that would be um for for health with growth um for equipment purchases and other other items for businesses um it may be worth reaching out to rick wade at chamber to ask him about because I think it was he that mentioned it to me a couple weeks ago and I'm trying to follow up with him but all I got was a full voicemail okay yeah I'll reach out to see what else I can find you know I should too can I add will you I think this is one good thing we used to do but we would have public investment oh I have so on this slide and this is kind of the one that Brett alluded to over the years the different areas that we've been in and the private investment for each year I will say currently we're in the five points area now we did not have funding last year so we don't have any projects from last year um cdbg does require that we are in a target area because we do have to do an environmental um but as I mentioned we do have ARPA funds available now that um will allow us to extend outside those areas um I probably have about 11 businesses so far that are interested in north main lady street to notch road there's a lot of interest outside of five points while we still need to have a target area I think there is an argument for us extending it with the ARPA funds because we have the flexibility to do so how much is the ARPA funds I'm sorry from the yes um so I have 350 000 for the next two fiscal years so this year 350 and then next year 300 and that's in addition to these two loans that's that's in addition to this program so that would be yeah but we would model that program after the one where we utilize the cdbg dollars okay I think you I think you try to to spread it as best you can yeah I don't know well now that so welcome to the team of world yeah they should see her face she's like this is my but no so here's the issue that we've had we if you try and want if you want people to really see the impact you have to really concentrate all of the improvements in a certain area if you want people to see it um and so that's that's how downtown looks so much different but then when we did north main people still don't even know we did it and that's because we had an eight mile stretch so that's the only reason why I say um it is good to have a targeted area so that people can see the impact of the investments that we're making and I'm not I'm not here for one or the other I just wanted to make make sure to know that that has been our experience and I think along with that which you know the fiscal years have ebbed and flowed over when we could fund the program substantially so that works well when you know that we're sustaining the program year after year year over year because then you can expect to see okay we're going to we've done this in this quarter and we're moving to the next quarter or we're continuing to work in this quarter so you do there were years where back to back you know there was certainly impact and you know a lot of press about main street when the program was used that way but you know that would have to be something during budget time that we're really focusing in on that we're going to continue to invest in the program consistently I mean I do have a couple of pictures of the different areas we've been so we have been in the main north main corridor in the past and you can see there is a you know significant difference in the before and after we've also been Hardin Street North Millwood Taylor Street survey and five points is where we were most recently I think Ms. Herbert I think you were trying to figure out gourmet shop that's the this one right here is gourmet shop awning that right was talking about how long it is that so those awnings can be pretty expensive and during COVID there were a lot of supply chain issues so we experienced that a lot with this project but we were able to expend those CDBG dollars before the deadline which is always good and then I just wanted to we kind of already talked about this the different funding sources because sometimes that matters with how we implement the program where the funds are coming from so currently we have 250,000 from CDBG they must meet a national objective and that one is the to eliminate slum and blight and then there are federal regulations that apply such as the environmental we have to do Davis Bacon interviews with the employees that are on site then with American rescue there we are not limited to our targeted area but the small businesses have to demonstrate that they've been negatively impacted by the pandemic are located in a qualified census tract so those are items that we'll put on the application and make sure we're meeting the requirements of the ARPA funding and then I just have a note about the increase kind of gives you the guidelines right you can actually go with it yes so we'll include that as a part of the application their address and make sure they're within the qualified census tract or a reduction but like I said we have at least 11 that are interested and we really haven't done a full push to say you know the funding is available so I think there's a lot of interest throughout our entire city for this program even the eligibility of being in a qualified census tract is probably not going to be that difficult no and I mean so well I mean it's interesting where those pockets lie it's not sometimes where you think that's what I'm saying so if we to the discussion of if you're going to target it or not I mean I think checking that box is not that difficult we might be surprised where it's a qualified census tract after all so yeah I've looked at some of the ones from the 11 that we've received interest in and they are located in the census tract do we send you businesses that we think might be interested yes yeah I have already received some so um and then our staff will also go out into the community um Brent and Carlett going door to door and five points to determine interest in that area so we'll extend it to other areas in the city if that's the decision that we made to do a citywide program are we doing are we part of any of that that's going on at the other side of the trestle where those folks are redoing the facades not yet but there's been some interest because we're not that's not a targeted area but if we go citywide um we have met with um some of the individuals over there and they are interested what they've done is fabulous it is what is currently the targeted area five points is where we are with the cdbg dollars yes which was it was last year as well right yeah year before last we didn't have any funding last year might be time to switch areas so forgive me total funding for the next two years for this program nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars if we combine our ARPA funding with the cdbg funding when do we decide the path forward on we've cut it up into an equal amount for four districts yeah well cdbg since that application has already been approved that is the target area is five points for the cdbg dollars and those have to be expended by i'm pretty sure april or may so that's the two two hundred and fifty thousand so yeah so so that's that's our priority right now is getting those funds um spent but um i think we had to 2025 to um i'm looking at missy kaufman 2025 or 2026 to expend those 2025 okay if that's the goal we'll do 2025 i feel like that that's it like you have the targeted area for cdbg and then perhaps open up with this unique one time funding to the the i i agree with you like it shows more impact but then i worry that some of the businesses that need it the most like in ferro road and some of these areas that aren't necessarily entertainment districts yet but could be um they would miss out i should target it in that area so is the recommendation for parts like the arpa money into four parts are i was just saying open it up citywide and see what you get um and then if you need to allocate based on district if you have so many applications maybe you know that would be up to you all but that's my recommendation yeah and we can go into the different districts and kind of do a push for we go out and share information with the businesses to make sure they're aware and we have had times where we have gone to businesses because they look so bad yeah like because those are the ones they may not realize they needed um to your point there's a i think there's a market starting up in edgewood that i think could really use some of these facade grant fundings because they are going to offer some fresh food foods and everything okay okay is it edgewood or in that pocket this account lost from um deacon voters reds barbershop it's the new appointment in second azure no i'd like to see it prosper thank you for speaking up um i will say too because it's one time money i think that is an opportunity to do citywide you know something that we wouldn't normally do i'm i'm trying to look at it and all from all different angles um has the dollars to stow applied for this because i know brian he was interested in getting hasn't been able to apply because that wasn't in the targeted area but he would be eligible if we open it up okay yeah that would be he's working really hard he's a tenant of that property and that's fine we would just have to get approval from the property owner which i was going to say i think are his parents but that but that the other suites in that development could also apply yeah yeah now what we have talked about is um if we have a owner that owns multiple like in that one if he owns three we have another where there's a shopping center limiting it to maybe two just because if someone has you know a shopping center with ten store funds that could easily take all the money so we might do something where we say two um depending on funding availability so if we still have funds available you know in a year that maybe they could come back citywide so i think the consensus citywide is focused on the arpa money and that the block grant obviously has restrictions and guidelines and census tracts tied to it as well i'm assuming it does and so what 250 is already allocated towards five points it has been through your actual plan right through for this year but yeah it is almost time to apply for funding again so if there's we can definitely do some research to see if there's another targeted area for future cdp no i think yeah i think there's plenty of areas we can talk a little bit i would i would push my opinion would be or i would like us to consider moving the arpa money to to open it up to yeah that's what i there's just some really i think there can be it may not all happen in one area but i do think where it does happen will create a big impact i think so too sometimes just planting the seed right it does it does have a um a trickle down effect like it does you see the net the business next door starts making improvements and um so it does impact the entire area this was really helpful we needed to get that feedback thank you iisha thank you thank you and then you'll come back or send a recommendation on some definitions of language um i didn't do the best job on timing you all are just really working quickly today so we were planning for you all to have some a little bit of a break and some lunch um now at well 11 yeah so we can go ahead and do that if you like about 15 minutes too we're having a working lunch we can start up if the consult we can get the consultant um there's a consultant that has to be present for a second of session okay so we'll need them to be able to set up half here half virtual okay so just need time to get them in place right yeah ready i don't know do you want do you want us to go are we going and do you know yeah the lunch will be here at 11 so if you i don't know if y'all need to just do what you need to do we'll go ahead and go into executive session now and that will cover us through we can have lunch in the executive session and do the discussion right but i need time to get them set up they're not due to be here just quite yet so so what she's saying is we have about a 15 minute break you like us to do that now madame clark or would you like us to do that at 11 we do it now that way we can go ahead and set down the audio okay mr. mayor i mean we go into executive session for discussion of negotiations incident to propose contractual arrangements pursue it to seco 30 days 40 s 78 to crawford consulting thank you most is a second second uh any questions concerns hearing non-seeing i'm madame clark can you read the role please mr. brown yes yes you are not