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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 21, 2003 ~~ ~ l~/I-(2-D3 I~)· 1685 CROSSTOWN BOULEVARD N.W. . ANDOVER, MINNESOTA 55304 . (763)755-5100 . FAX (763) 755-8923 . WWW,CI.ANDOVER.MN,US CITY OF ANDOVER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY SPECIAL MEETING OCTOBER 21, 2003 - 6:00 p.m. CONFERENCE ROOM A AGENDA 1. Call to Order 2. Approve Minutes - October 7, 2003 3. Discuss Andover Station North RFP Submittals 4. Other Business a. Authorize Purchase Agreement':'Bruggeman Homes S. Adjourn Ü 0 92 ~o \NóbVË /'-" \,-) 1685 CROSSTOWN BOULEVARD N,W. . ANDOVER, MINNESOTA 55304. (763) 755-5100 FAX (763) 755-8923 . WWW,CI.ANDOVER.MN.US ANDOVER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MEETING OCTOBER 21, 2003 - MINUTES A Meeting of the Andover Economic Development Authority was called to order by President Mike Gamache, October 21,2003,6:00 p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota. Present: Commissioners Don Jacobson, Mike Knight, Ken Orttel, Julie Trude. Absent: Voting resident members Fred Larson and Robert Nowak and Non- voting resident member Edward Schultz Also present: Executive Director, John Erar Community Development Director, Will Neumeister City Attorney, William Hawlcins City Finance Director, Jim Diclcinson Others (J APPROVAL OF MINUTES October 7, 2003: Correct as amended. Commissioner Trude noted on page two, fourth paragraph, second line, she would like to delete "time" and add "short notice". MOTION by Trude, Seconded by Jacobson, approval of the Minutes as corrected. Motion carried unanimously. AGENDA APPROVAL Executive Director Erar explained the agenda is what is shown and under other business there is a draft purchase agreement for authorization. All of the items are pursuant to what was agreed to at the last EDA meeting. Bruggeman Homes has agreed to make the changes to the garage space from 400 to 440. Commissioner Jacobson asked if the attorney has looked at the purchase agreement. City Attorney C) Hawkins stated he has been involved in the negotiations and made the changes and he does not have a problem with this. Commissioner Trude asked if there was a down payment now and then payments later. City Attorney Hawlcins stated they will pay $200,000 now and $800,000 by purchase money mortgage 0 0 ,'~ Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting Minutes - October 21,2003 ~ -,/ Page 2 that is payable by April 15, 2004. Commissioner Trude stated they have a separate side agreement with United on this as well. Mr. Erar stated that was true. MOTION by Orttel, Seconded by Jacobson, to approve the Agenda as written. Motion carried unanimously. AUTHORIZE PURCHASE AGREEMENT - BRUGGEMAN HOMES Motion by Orttel' Seconded by Jacobson, to authorize purchase agreement with Bruggeman Homes. Motion carried unanimously. DISCUSS ANDOVER STATION NORTH RFP SUBMITTALS Community Development Director Neumeister explained Construction 70 and Hanson Builders ~) presented their proposals on September 16th. The Hartford Group made their presentation on October 7,2003 and they stated their interest in purchasing all of the land. >, Whether or not the EDA will entertain the new proposal from TOLD Development/Landfonn should be a topic of discussion before there is any discussion of the new RFP. The EDA may want to hear from the EDA's legal counsel before any further discussion on the new RFP and/or further discussion regarding the three previously received RFP's. President Gamache stated he believes everyone was contacted regarding a letter they received on behalf of their attorney, Larken & Hoffman. He explained he would entertain a motion at this time based on the fact that in their RFP proposal, they did have a solid date as to when the proposals needed to be in and he was not sure they made a motion at that meeting. He stated he also did not see in the minutes that they were indicating specifically that they were looking for more submittals and he felt it was more important they stay within their agreement. Motion by Trude to terminate that process. President Gamache stated he wanted a motion to stick to the RFP proposal schedule. Commissioner Orttel stated he noticed they have another proposal in since the last meeting. There was not a second for Commissioner Trude's motion, so it failed. ; /-~ V Motion by Orttel, Seconded by Gamache, that the City stick to the original RFP Schedule. ! Commissioner Trude stated that she thought they modified the RFP and then there was 0 0 (-) Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting Minutes - October 21,2003 Page 3 discussion about inviting additional people and that happened in August. She stated there were two invitations that occurred. She thought the Council modified who had been invited and obviously if you invite more people, you need more time to respond. She thought the Council modified it last week as well. Several times there were comments making sure there was a broad invitation out there. She stated there were two ways to handle this. They could say they modified it or they could shut it down and start over. President Gamache stated his recollection was they opened it up originally and the RFP's came in. He did not remember extending the time further or opening it up to make any changes to the RFP's. When they started this process in June or July, they indicated the RFP's were open and they would have a month and a half to get the proposals in. Everyone that came in who had the opportunity got in before the closing. The interesting thing was there was nobody after that date until the discussion at the last meeting. He stated they need to stick to their word and their word at the time was the RFP was open and it was closed at a certain date. He would fmd it difficult to go back and change that. He was not under the opinion that they were going to seek others; they just talked about it. He would like to go back and close it like it should have been at the end of August. If anyone should decide they do not have a good proposal they should reopen these to another RFP. CJ Commissioner Trude stated in the future when the RFP's go out it should be copied to the entire Council because she did not see the dates or deadlines until yesterday. Commissioner Knight stated he did not know either. President Gamache stated the information went out publicly. Commissioner Trude stated it was not in a publication, it was mailed individually. She stated there was a list of about twenty. She did not have a problem with the motion. City Attorney Hawkins stated the motion, in his opinion, is proper. They have a deadline in there and there is language to allow reissuing or modifications and if they wish to modify the original RFP they could do that or they could reject them all. He stated they have quite a bit of flexibility , here. Motion tied 2 ayes (Orttel, Gamache), 2 nays (Jacobson, Knight), 1 abstain (Trude). Commissioner Trude stated she did not vote and would like a better explanation of the motion. After further explanation of the motion, Commissioner Trude voted against so the motion failed 2 ayes (Orttel, Gamache), 3 nays (Jacobson, Knight, Trude). () Motion by Jacobson, seconded by Trude, to reject all of the submittals and allow the City Council time to consider all of the submittals. Commissioner Orttel asked why they should do this. Commissioner Jacobson stated this would allow the Council to review all of the submittals in order to make a good decision. , I 0 0 Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting f'\ Minutes - October 21, 2003 " -oj Page 4 Commissioner Knight asked if the invitations were sent to select individuals. Community Development Director Neumeister stated there were 30 invitations mailed on June 16, and six mailed on August 11 tho Commissioner Trude thought the second mailing was when the time issue came up because before that mailing, the Commission discussed the lack of interest and they discussed what could happen to improve their choices. Commissioner Trude asked why they could not start over and combine small with large with partnerships. Commissioner Orttel stated they had a plan and a legal process, set a time and deadline and received a few submittals and then after the deadline there was one submittal. Commissioner Jacobson felt that some companies missed the deadline and they should be able to extend the deadline for additional submittals coming in. Commissioner Orttel stated they did not miss the deadline; they did not start the RFP until after the deadline. Commissioner Trude thought there was miscommunication on some of the individual's parts and " -) she would have felt better ifthis was openly posted but it was sent out by invitation. \.. ..,/ President Gamache stated the Commission was the one who decided who the invitations went out to; it was not a part of staff design. It was part of what they indicated they wanted to see done. He stated that now that it is done and they did not get the responses that some people wanted they are going to reject these and he does not understand why. Mr. Neumeister explained the process. Commissioner Orttel asked if the late submitted proposal was at issue. Mr. Neumeister stated Told Development was included in the original thirty invited. President Gamache asked what the timeframe is they are working on. City Finance Director I Dickinson stated on the TIF issue they have seven potential years they could collect and the clock is ticking on the 25 year district. They are looking at a potential opportunity loss of another year if they do not act; they have the potential to lose an additional year of increment. Commissioner Trude asked if this is a twenty-five year district. Mr. Dickinson stated it is and they are on year eighteen of twenty-five years. Commissioner Knight asked if they do not accept or approve the present submissions do they need to start over from scratch. Mr. Erar stated if they reject all of the submissions based on the (~J discussion, it would go back to reopening the process and then again going out for more RFP's. Commissioner Trude stated this was not how the process was brought to them with United Properties. I 0 0 I Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting '--. Minutes - October 21,2003 ; ) \, Page 5 Mr. Erar stated the process would be they would reject the proposals and then authorize a new process to try to begin receiving new proposals. President Gamache asked Mr. Dickinson if they had two proposals on Andover Station South. Mr. Dickinson stated they did. One was Ryan and the other was United Properties. President Gamache stated his concern is they have seen the three RFPs that have come in and it was his understanding that one of the developers is willing to work with some of the other developers to form partnerships if these were to go forward. Commissioner Trude felt they did not hit the mark on how she viewed Andover to be. She thought they should start over because it sounds like they are looking for five hundred more residents in Andover but they have ninety-nine percent housing and one percent commercial tax base and this is their last chance to get commercial tax base. Somehow they missed the mark and she thought the people who responded did so very well to what was written up but somehow the Commission did not indicate their visions. . --, Commissioner Trude stated she did not envision three thousand people in apartment buildings in . ) that part of the City. President Gamache stated he did not recall three thousand people living in apartment buildings. He thought one component of the site would be a senior housing complex. Commissioner Orttel stated one hundred units with three per unit are three hundred not three thousand. President Gamache stated they are looking at what the market can bear and what they think would fit there but they also indicated they are willing to work with the EDA to design it the way the EDA sees fit. President Gamache stated his main concern was they had two proposals on the RFP for Andover Station South and they had three proposals for Andover Station North and if they reject three of them, they may have nothing that comes in the next time around because the developers may decide this would not be worth proposing again. Commissioner Knight stated conversely President Gamache is saying they should accept something they are not happy with and he has a problem with that. President Gamache stated he is looking at someone who is a developer that has a background and i has done some good work in other areas. He stated that is what they have in Hanson Builders and the Hartford Group and they can work with them in creating their vision. He is worried that if they go ahead and say no they will be out. , ~) Commissioner Trude did not think that closes the door. She thought that if they were feeling ". ' pressured because of letters fÌom Law Firms that say they have to follow the process, then they should follow the process and reject them all and have some informal discussions about their visions regarding the type of community they want and how this could be best carried out with 0 0 Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting r-' Minutes - October 21, 2003 ,~ ) Page 6 some of the people they have seen or even some they have not seen. She stated they all had in their campaigns bringing commercial businesses and jobs to Andover, not residential. President Gamache stated these are not just high density housing; it is some of the housing they agreed upon with the met Council. The commercial areas could be what they have in St. Louis Park and whether or not that fits in the area, he would leave that up to the developer if they think they could sell that. Commissioner Trude stated she was thinking about Hans Hagen and spending all that money on the market study and all the stuff he told them. He told them they cannot sell that type of housing out here in the north region without a bus line. Commissioner Knight asked what the motion was again. Commissioner Jacobson explained what the motion was and the reason for it. Commissioner Jacobson stated he did not feel constrained because they had three; he wants to make sure that what they do there, they do right. If they have additional people come forward with ideas, suggestions and people willing to pay them more for the land, with additional CJ proposals and time, they can work that out. Commissioner Knight stated he thought there was additional discussion needed and they should hold discussions with each developer alone. Commissioner Trude did not think they needed to close the door to the developer either. President Gamache stated they need to look back at United Properties when they started working with them because their initial development was different than what they ended up with. Commissioner Knight stated he has heard from the beginning that they need to work on this all year long and he heard different early on and it is different. Commissioner Jacobson asked if they would rather go through each one individually or look at all of them together. President Gamache stated one of the mistakes they made is he thought they needed to have a master developer in this plan like they have done with United Properties and then they could work with builders. Having a master developer gives them the opportunity to have it done Commissioner Jacobson stated he would like to drop his previous motion if it was ok with the seconder. Commissioner Trude stated it was fme. Motion by Jacobson, Seconded by Trude, to reject the fIrst proposal of Construction 70. Commissioner Orttel asked if they do not reject this proposal, does it mean by default that they CJ approve it. City Attorney Hawkins stated that by not rejecting this, they do not automatically approve it. Commissioner Knight stated he would like to see the merits and demerits regarding this because 0 0 (' ) Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting Minutes - October 21,2003 \--./ Page 7 there has not been any discussion regarding any of this. Commissioner Jacobson stated they delayed taking action at the last meeting to make the decision at this meeting. Commissioner Knight stated what he did not like was there was not any discussion as to why they are rejecting or accepting the proposals. Commissioner Jacobson stated he assumed everyone has reviewed each proposal on their own and each has made up their mind regarding each proposal. Commissioner Orttel stated the problem is the proposals are fairly intertwined. President Gamache stated that while he did not have any real issues with the proposal, he would still prefer a master developer. Commissioner Trude stated she wanted to see coordinated architecture on this. Commissioner Knight stated he did not want to vote on rejecting these because they have no reason to. He wanted to have an open discussion on these proposals because they have not done that. ~) Mr. Erar stated a couple of points to consider are the strategy of developing Andover Station. The RFP laid that open in terms of if they wanted to have a master developer on this entire site or do they want to parcel this out to smaller developers. The strategy of developing Andover Station is the key question. If they go with one developer that can pull this all together. They will have the site pulled together and end up with a product that is most closely aligned with a key vision. If they go with smaller developers they will have this constant tug that may not match what the developer wants in another part. By authorizing a master developer, they are not letting go of the process, they are picking someone who will be the person they are designating to pull key issues together. He stated that is all part of the process. The fIrst step is to identify a fIrm that can do that for them as opposed to developing the site by themselves. They need to evaluate what they want to draw upon. If these were parcels that were separated by geographical boundaries or topographical elements that would be one thing but this is one parcel of land that will take advantage of the full potential of the site. They would really want one fIrm to pull them all together. They are selecting a developer to pull all these items together. Commissioner Trude explained this is huge for the City's future and she does not have enough information to say they are ready to have a long term relationship with a group until they have had more information and time to contact other communities and they have not done that. If they want to play the legal game, they need to stick to the process and reject these. Commissioner Knight stated with United Properties and Target, the big company took over and ~ they lost control of the development. President Gamache stated they needed a large company to come into Andover. Mr. Erar stated they have the ability at any point to say no to a development. Commissioner Trude thought it would be safer to go back instead ofrejecting each of these 0 0 (~) Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting Minutes - October 21,2003 Page 8 individually. Another thing that affected her decision was talking to people at the business dinner. Commissioner Jacobson stated he was not enthralled with the proposal for the liquor strip malL They had a master plan for the area and two of the submittals were fairly close. When they come down to the housing part, he thought Hanson did a goodjob and he is facing the Hartford Group with a little trepidation but he would also be willing to not throw the Hartford Group out and he would be willing to sit down and discuss what they liked and did not like about their proposal. He would like to separate the housing because the housing component was what they all wanted for the area. Commissioner Jacobson stated that any time they receive a letter from an attorney which puts a damper on things, it makes him wonder if the fIrm will be a problem to work with in the future but he is willing to sit down and discuss this individually with them. Commissioner Orttel thought they should go along with the method they used with United Properties. He stated he understood the actions from the Hartford Group because he would be .,- ) outraged if they played by the rules and someone else did not. They should fmd someone they are comfortable working with. \.. / Commissioner Trude stated she is not comfortable with the level of confidence Commissioner Orttel has. The motion was called by Commissioner Jacobson. Motion carried 3 ayes, 2 nays (Orttel, Knight) Commissioner Knight stated the reason he voted against this is because he did not see any reason for rejection on this. Motion by Jacobson, Seconded by Trude, to accept the Hanson Proposal subject to some minor modifications that will be discussed with them regarding the housing component and subject to the layout. Commissioner Orttel stated Hanson is the only bidder for residential. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Jacobson, Seconded by Orttel, to consider additional discussions with the Hartford () Group to modify and discuss their proposal and make a decision at an upcoming meeting. Commissioner Jacobson stated his concern is how they phrase this because down the road he does not want another letter from an attorney stating they were approved and then deciding not to go with them. He wanted to make sure there is an understanding that they are only agreeing to 0 0 (--) Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting \-. , ' Minutes - October 21, 2003 Page 9 further discussions with them. Motion by Trude to reconsider the proposal by Construction 70. Commissioner Jacobson stated there is already a motion on the table and needs to be voted upon before a new motion can be made. Commissioner Knight stated he could vote on this unless he knew whether or not this was excluding version one. Commissioner Trude agreed. President Gamache stated at this point, they are not going to look at any others. Commissioner Knight asked why they should pick this group over Construction 70. Commissioner Jacobson stated he did not like the proposal from Construction 70. President Gamache stated he is looking for a master developer. Commissioner Trude asked if this provided closure for these and they can say they have seen some great stuff come into town within the last four weeks that they did not know was coming " ~ì and they liked what they saw. She explained that is what really happened with this other '../ proposal on the table. Commissioner Trude stated some stuff showed up at the Council meeting after all the stuffwas in. She felt it was something they had not seen before and thought it all happened in their discussions at the Council meeting where they saw proposals they liked. She explained they actually invited as a Council this other group to propose and now they are saying they mayor may not look at that proposal. Commissioner Orttel stated he did not invite that group and ifhe knew who the developer was he would not have invited that group. Commissioner Trude stated at that meeting that she received a phone call ffom a local developer stating there were some irregularities having to do with the bidding process and that is not what he has heard at this meeting. Commissioner Trude believed there was a misstatement that someone came in and watched the proposal and then asked to give one. The person came in late to the meeting and she did not think there was anything surreptitious going on. Commissioner Jacobson stated if they hear from Hartford and decide they do not like what they see, they can reject them and pick someone else. City Attorney Hawkins stated they are not rejecting anyone else; they are just focusing on one developer at this time. j () Motion carried unanimously. Commissioner Knight stated this was going to be a discussion between the EDA and Hartford, ¡ not staff and the EDA. Commissioner Trude stated she would like to sit down alone with the ; Hartford Group so they could talk to them without miscommunication. President Gamache () 0 '-J /~'- Andover Economic Development Authority Meeting \ J Minutes - October 21,2003 . / Page 10 stated he did not think there would be an issue of miscommunication. They need to come up with what their vision actually is and he is not sure they have done this. Motion by Jacobson, Seconded by Orttel, to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 6:59 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Osbeck, Recording Secretary ,- -'\ .\ ..! ; ',") ....~./