Economic Development Incentives Committee - April 23, 2024 Minutes

ECONOMIC AND DEVELOPMENT INCENTIVE COMMITTEE
Fargo, North Dakota

Regular Meeting Tuesday, April 23, 2024

The April meeting of the Economic and Development Incentive Committee of the City of Fargo, North Dakota was held in the City Commission Room at City Hall at 1:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

The committee members present or absent are:

Members Present: Dave Piepkorn, John Cosgriff, Mayor Mahoney, Lucas Paper, Jon Eisert, Levi Bachmeier

Members Absent: Eric Barner

Commissioner Piepkorn called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.

Minutes Approved

A motion was made by Lucas Paper to approve the minutes from March 26, 2024. Mayor Mahoney seconded. Motion carries.

Continuation of the Commonwealth (NEX Senior Housing Project) PILOT

• Jennifer Henderson, NDHFA and Joe Fink, NDHFA spoke
o Lots of extra costs for low income project compared to private projects
o Typical cost because of financial structure
o In line with other projects similar to this one
o The way this is structured is why this costs more, it has federal requirements
 HUD dollars
 Federal dollars
 Regulatory requirements, Davis-Bacon Act
 Contractors have additional burdens
o Not an apples to apples project
• Senior Housing project is a priority
• Lucas says, why is this project nearly double the price for out of state developer vs a private developer and he would like to see a cost analyst done of the last three approved projects similar to this one and a breakdown of those costs
o Jennifer says increase in costs due to inflation, very comparable
o Joe says trending up in costs, increase in hard & soft costs, stringent requirements going into the project, public funds

A motion was made by Mayor Mahoney to approve the PILOT project and John Cosgriff seconded it.
Vote was 4-1, with Lucas Paper dissenting.
Motion carries.

Request for one year extension for the Kmart TIF Project

• Austin Morris from Enclave spoke
o Retail center completed
o Changed the whole neighborhood
o Costs have leveled out
o Cost savings has plateaued
o Retail side is slower than we would like

A motion was made by Mayor Mahoney to approve the extension and Lucas Paper seconded it. Motion carries.

Request from JS2L for Redevelopment of the block NE of 4th Street and 6th Ave

• Stephen Lyngstad and John Lyngstad spoke
o No set plan, would like to get rid of the eye sore
o Would like to get it taken down sooner, rather than later, hopefully this summer
• Costs of removing buildings and cost of demolition
• 5 years from the next contract is signed. They have 5 years to start on new building.
• Hopefully this is a model, we get more developers to come in and take down more buildings like this, safety reasons
• Cost effective, helps recoup the costs by doing this

A motion was made by Jon Eisert to approve the Redevelopment and Lucas Paper seconded it. Motion carries.

TIF Summary

• Mikes Splonskowski spoke
o Project requested by the county
o Beginning value/End value: lowest increase per year would be 16% and highest increase per year would be 5000%
o Do TIF’s pay off? Yes, they do
o Percentages are helpful but would like to see this in dollar amounts rather than percentages. Dollar amounts would speak more to the people
• Great information

The meeting was adjourned at 1:38pm.