We have determined that a quorum has been met.
The Downtown Denton Tax Increment Financing Reinvestment Zone No. 1 Board of the City
of Denton, Texas will now convene in a regular meeting at 12.06 p.m. this Wednesday, the
26th day of May 2021.
Our first order of business is 1A.
Consider approval and/or corrections of the meeting minutes from the March 24, 2021 Downtown
Denton TIF Reinvestment Zone No. 1 Board of the City of Denton, Texas.
Are there any corrections to the minutes as distributed?
Do we have a motion?
I'll motion to approve the minutes.
Do we have a second?
Paul seconds?
I do.
It is moved and seconded that we approve the minutes as distributed.
I will call your name and once called, state your name and your motion of adoption or opposition
with a form of yes or no.
Don't forget to unmute yourself.
Ben already knows he's not going to.
We'll start with Ben.
Ben Easley, aye.
Paul?
Paul Meltzer, aye.
Kass?
Aye.
And Melissa is an aye.
The motion passes by a unanimous vote of four.
The next order of business is receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction
regarding the programs and activities of the Denton Main Street Association.
We're so excited to see Christine and John here from Denton Main Street.
I'll turn that over to Christine.
Yeah, I just before we get started and turn it over to Christine and John, I just want
to remind the board why Christine and John are here.
So if you remember at your last board meeting, we were talking about possible changes to
the downtown reinvestment grant.
And then if you think back over the long term, we've had a lot of conversations over the
last year about the downtown, not just the downtown reinvestment grant, but the TURS
as a whole and what the funds could be used for and what types of projects we'd want to
prioritize.
And so the direction we got from the board at your March meeting was, well, let's ask
Denton Main Street what's going on, how they've, you know, how businesses have been dealing
with the pandemic, how they have, you know, how they see the TURS, kind of what role it
can play, what kind of projects that, from their perspective.
And so with those kind of ideas in mind, John and Christine kind of sat down with me and
Christine and we talked about the study and kind of what's been going on.
So they're going to give you a little bit of an update generally about Main Street,
but also they have some direct feedback for the board, you know, after talking about it
with the Main Street members regarding the role of the TURS and how it can best support
downtown businesses.
So with that, I'm happy to introduce John and Christine, who are two of our fabulous
partners.
John is the Denton Main Street Association president and Christine is the executive director.
And I can speak personally and say Jessica wouldn't have made it this past year without
the support of Main Street.
So very happy that they're here to talk about everything that they've done and kind of weathering
the COVID storm as well.
Thank you for having us.
Yes, thank you.
The opportunity to come to y'all and talk about Main Street and what we do as an association.
So I think Christina Davis has our presentation that she's going to put up for us.
And so John and I are going to tag team this year, and we'll take questions at the end.
But again, thank you for the opportunity.
And there we go.
Okay.
All right.
So we're ready for that first slide, Christina.
On the next one, Christina.
Sorry.
Okay, great.
So many of you know who the Denton Main Street Association is.
We're often referred to as that group that does Twilight Toons and the car show.
But there's a whole lot more to us in terms of how we work and work with the economic
development department.
So we're happy to be here today and talk about that.
We are officially the Denton Central Business District, Incorporated, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit.
In 1990, we started doing business as the Denton Main Street Association when we became
an urban Texas Main Street city.
But we actually had an association of businesses that formed in the mid-1960s headed up by
the late Bill Thomas that formed together to go and represent downtown businesses, to
be a partner with the city and work on making downtown a destination and continuing to keep
it as a destination.
So it's been around for a very long time, and we're very proud to keep that tradition
going.
This year, we are in our 31st years of Main Street City.
We are part of the national and state program, and we are an accredited national Main Street
program.
So happy to report that.
And today, we have a membership of 15 active board members with ex officios from economic
development staff, Discover Denton and the Greater Denton Arts Council.
Our organization has anywhere from 135 to 150 members at any given time, which is made
up of businesses and community members.
Anyone can be a member of our association.
We are an association of businesses, but of course, community members can get involved
and volunteer as well.
We are partnering with the city of Denton on managing the Main Street program, and that
is in order to promote and preserve downtown as a destination and keep locals and visitors
coming here and participating in events and activities.
So we are largely in charge of promoting downtown year round through our social media marketing
events and promotions.
We actually do 10 annual events and promotions throughout the year.
Most of what you know is our larger ones are Twilight Tunes, the Arts and Autos, Extravaganza,
Fossil Fest during Holiday Lighting, and we do several other smaller retail and restaurant
based promotions and activities to attract people to downtown.
These are all funded through donations and sponsorships through the 501(c)(6) and through
our business memberships.
The Denton Main Street Foundation of C3 was formed three years ago to fund and support
the Denton Arts Walk of Fame and arts revitalization in downtown Denton.
So DMSA helps coordinate two to three events per year to fundraise for the Denton Main
Street Foundation.
Next slide, please.
The Main Street model is a four point approach that involves economic vitality, design, organization,
and promotion.
This approach is done through creating multiple partnerships and working collaboratively with
local governments, nonprofits, and organizations to build a strong downtown district.
We work to preserve and promote the historic downtown and create a vibrant cultural district
with shopping, dining, museums, entertainment, arts, as well as places to live and work that
are attractive to a diverse group of citizens and visitors.
We also utilize economic development tools and incentives to promote business and growth
in downtown and development.
And we also work with various committees and organizations of volunteers to plan and organize
these initiatives and activities annually.
Next slide.
Jessica talked about the pandemic last year and how it impacted downtown and you guys
wanted to reach out to us.
So as you can imagine, the COVID-19 impacted downtown businesses quite a bit.
We had 14 businesses in the downtown area close brick and mortar stores permanently
because of the pandemic and a few businesses reopened with new concepts online or a food
truck model.
Downtown Denton saw nine businesses open in 2020, so that's a positive.
We had several businesses immediately pivot to online sales and delivery and Main Street
hosted online sessions to inform downtown businesses on how to shift their business online as well
as information sessions with calls with bankers and small business development professionals
and of course our city officials for support and updates.
Businesses changed hours of operations after reopening after the first and second shutdowns
to adjust the customer demand including some seating adjustments to add outdoor options.
And the Denton Main Street Association immediately responded at the beginning of the pandemic
and shutdowns by creating a page on our website to support local which included listings that
businesses could submit on their own with their altered hours and their operations and
any COVID-19 updates and information.
We also had grant and funding opportunity information for small businesses and links
to access back to the City of Denton Economic Development website.
It was actually one of our highest visited pages in 2020.
And the Denton Main Street Association paid for a social media campaign that was about
11 to 12 months long to support local and build awareness for downtown businesses.
And we believe that that was one of the larger reasons that much of our activity in downtown
through the pandemic we saw a lot of local support and that was again due to our dedication
to a campaign to bring awareness.
Next slide.
So that's a little bit about what Denton Main Street does for downtown just kind of information
informational type of stuff for you guys.
But to the reason why you invited us and once again we want to thank you for allowing us
to address you guys.
Denton Main Street and downtown business priorities specifically the economic vitality is critical
to the Main Street program.
The priorities for the Denton Main Street Board and downtown businesses are first we
want to focus on lighting and walkability improvements.
We believe that they're vital to the growth of downtown.
In our meeting with Jessica and Christina we talked about how we believe that's very
foundational to the growth to past growth and future growth.
The second priority would be to complete the streets program that includes the new streets
and as we all know those are the streets that are right behind the buildings that face the
square.
So it's not just the sidewalks and lighting but it's finishing the project.
The other three new streets Cedarstone we want to work on the other three.
And then the third priority we believe that there should be an update to the downtown
reinvestment grant program that provides incentives for improving the façades of structures that
are in desperate need of them.
You know instead of a flat fund request we believe the fund should kind of be transitioned
to a matching fund that way we can protect the fund we can protect the fund from a project
where the total cost is maybe 35,000 and but 25,000 comes from the fund we believe it should
be a matching where we can let make these funds really make an impact on facade improvements.
We want to bullet point the fourth bullet point says the we recommend that TURS funds
be used for the expansion of sidewalk lighting and facade improvements and increase the downtown
reinvestment grant cap to 50,000.
So we can if we use the matching model recommendation for you guys there can be a hundred thousand
dollar grant excuse me a hundred thousand dollar project that can be met with 50,000
because there's a fifty thousand dollar matching from the investors.
So we believe that we could probably get a lot of a lot of different things moving downtown.
Examples of those projects would be that our need of assistance would be the Fine Arts
Theater the City Hall West there's undeveloped and empty lots downtown and other properties
that are in poor condition and they need restoration rehabilitation improvements and so I guess
the next slide is the yes we also believe that the TURS fund should not be used for
the PEC for the previous slide yes let's go back to that one I want to underline that
if you don't mind Christina the bottom one we we've really firmly believe that the the
downtown tourist funds should not be used for the for example the PEC for drainage and
flood improvements we believe that the the TURS fund should be that are really useful
to the development of downtown businesses and so people can come downtown you know that's
a probably a cap best described as a capital project and so as it relates to the lighting
and sidewalks perhaps the TURS funds can be used but that's how we really should downtown
businesses and Main Street kind of see what the TURS funds should be used for and then
now we can go to that second slide the next slide we kind of talked and so we want to
investigate other funding mechanisms to create $1,500 micro grants with a minimum of like
I said earlier a 50% match from the applicant business and have a much shorter approval
timeline the grants would allow for smaller projects such as facade improvements and signs
and new and existing businesses and these could be just a paint job grants that we can
just you know for lack of a better word lipstick on a pig but there's a lot of the facades
that's all they need is a paint job but you'd be surprised how much capital it takes to
to do everything that needs to be done to a building to open up for businesses so micro
grants and then develop a matching fund program for up to $5,000 to assist with physical expansion
and collaborative partnerships to support small businesses and their development the
applicants would be required to have a business plan and identify long-term goals for growth
to be considered for example a business wishes to move into a larger larger space and expand
their footprint business model a grant could include funds for fixtures a supplement for
rent increase for up to six to 12 months which can be determined in a with a three to five
year business plan presented with the application you know as people move into different buildings
and they make improvements to buildings that they don't own perhaps they're the the tourist
funds can be used to offset the rent increases and maybe payments to the actual building
owner in lieu of increasing rent there are some programs that are out there that offer
some kind of rent subsidies that would be to help a new business especially as they
get going start out with some of that rent assistance because as you all know it takes
a while to build up a business and some of these rents are pretty steep so there are
other ways and programs that are out there that we we are learning about especially through
our main street network that we believe that if we were to you know investigate some of
these options that those could be possibilities if if we were to to look further into other
options so the other thing i just want to add is yesterday i was in a webinar that with
buxton that they presented on some recovery for for retail and and restaurant recovery
and i think one thing one point that was made that i would just reemphasize and kind of
reemphasizes the main street association stance on the new streets and improvements of lighting
and sidewalks is sometimes it's the small things that we can do that really will attract
the people to downtown and it's the things that make the difference and people downtown
is what we really really need for these businesses to continue to succeed and to recover because
it does take density and and some saturation of people and in the market in terms of consumers
so that is something that i just want to leave you all with as a thought and i don't have
anything else to add unless john does you know and i'll just piggyback on your final
thought you know in business we can we can spend a lot of money if your business or you
want to attract some people to your business or example for this downtown we can spend
a lot of money to try to get people to come downtown and be real successful or i could
spend a lot of money to get finally coming to my business because i'm in dire need of
people big ad campaign is real successful but if i'm not ready for them if i don't
provide a good meal or if the downtown is it doesn't meet their expectation of what
it should be as relates to simple things like sidewalks and lighting we may never get an
opportunity to get them back downtown again so it's important that we kind of be fundamental
in our decision making we believe we believe for you guys to make those types of decisions
i just want to say thank you again for the opportunity for us to present to you guys
and we're happy to answer any questions
we open it up for discussion q and a don't forget to unmute yourself does anybody have
any questions we just gave you so much information you have no questions trying to go last year
alex do you have any questions or comments i have plenty to say i do not yes jimmy okay
can you hear me now yes sir just starting with the first what do you what do you what
is your thought with the lighting and walkability what can you expound on that any at all yes
there have been some corridors off the square that have had some improved lighting but there
are still some pretty dark back streets and as we in sidewalks especially austin street
and i think even you know walnut street and even pecan those walk those sidewalks are
not as walkable and the lighting is not as bright so we hear a lot of comments from visitors
to downtown and even our businesses who are closing up at night about those concerns and
as relates to parking too jimmy when you think about it you know there's we all we all know
that parking is difficult on the square and it takes and with the news of pedestrian walking
lighting stoplights it takes a while to get it on the square so we need to start thinking
about how downtown really expands from the square proper into exterior remote parking
lots and so whether it be a you know southeast northeast southwest or southeast we need to
make sure that walkability with lighting and sidewalks is is there as as we try to build
from the we try to build a skyscraper as it relates to an awesome downtown and it's
we kind of believe that's foundational well i think that segues into the second thing
with the muse doesn't it uh finishing the the new streets yes yes those improvements
would help greatly i'm very new on this board so i don't know where where that stopped or
why it stopped uh for years is it does anybody have any info on that why that project just
you got they yeah they did cedar and then didn't do anything else i don't i don't have
an answer for you i don't think muse was not initially related to terz anyway so i don't
oh originally no and i know uh you know doing muse streets is a multi-million dollar it's
certainly hundreds of thousands of dollars to do one uh because there's so much goes
into it but um but once again i think it's kind of foundational uh to uh to improve downtown
if i may not much of an answer but uh it wasn't funded so you could say you know what something
else was but uh yeah the short answer is it wasn't funded and wasn't any interest in raising
taxes to increase revenues uh but you know uh this is another source of funding i will
i'll just make a comment i start to feel like a broken record so i apologize but that just
ultimately the terz is never going to at least the way it's currently set up being in a position
to fund the kind of improvements for infrastructure that we need in downtown there has to be a
fundamental shift in the city council's feeling that we've got to make a you know sustainable
commitment to infrastructure whether that's just through the general fund or we look at
other mechanisms such as a you know a a pid in itself um could also be a way in which
you know we handle the drainage those properties affected just agreeing to a essentially a
secondary tax or something like that i personally would get on board with it i'm not sure everybody
would but to me that's just what has to happen there's just so many places i visit that have
continued to commit annually not do one street and applaud themselves and then wait 10 years
to do another it's just like a an ongoing commitment to improving the you know the urban
fabric beyond the square so yeah and it was one of the slides that we talked about how
you kind of need to reimagine um projects and you bring up you kind of need to reimagine
funding for different types of different types of projects i mean you know i know you're
connected with the fine arts theater and its project status uh but um you know if there's
a it's right next door to cartwrights but at the same time you know if we can if there
is some kind of funding mechanism for for that that type of project that really adds
to downtown because right now it subtracts a lot from downtown because it's just such
a big part of one of the sides and so um more so than something like city hall west or something
like that but to reimagine downtown yeah i'm new i'm new to these types of boards too and
i'm still learning but um yeah i'll say this that this is not a plug for the fine arts
you know but when i visited downtown lewisville uh it's probably been three years ago i couldn't
believe how much their downtown you know to me appeared to have gotten so much better
some you know pocket parks and sidewalks and lighting and street trees everything looked
really great and i complimented the city manager and i said did y'all do this you know it looks
great down here did y'all have a tiff district or tours so we do but the only thing that
that funds is our performing arts center we just made a commitment through our general
funding to continue to improve the infrastructure in downtown so jimmy do you feel like your
question is answered well obviously there's no funds for the muse project well i guess
they they moved those funds to do the the east hickory all the way to the train station
i don't actually know the accounting history of it as long as i've been here the three
remaining new streets have just been in the unfunded status alex do you know alex and
melissa you've probably been more involved that might be right i mean it's just hard
to say because i've yeah it's gone so long but again i'm trying not to sound negative
but it's a pretty common theme to spend a lot of time talking about things that that
we spend so much time talking that the costs get get to a point where they they they get
so much higher that we can't fund you know such as the the drainage project you know
so just got jimmy and jessica if you don't mind if i remember properly from and please
correct me if i'm wrong on this uh memory of the presentation last summer when they
when uh they came to us with the tours possibility possible projects presentation our board saw
presentation that stated the new streets could be done for seven million was that is that
correct around seven million yes at the time the estimate that we had was somewhere around
seven million but there was never a decision related to the the level at there's variations
it was approximately seven million but until it's designed and developed and all of that
we don't have the exact number there has to be kind of i would say the dynamics uh are
that i don't think anybody's against it right it's like alex was saying something to talk
about but then do you do it then uh you kind of start from uh tax rate you know and where
like how do you want to impact people tax wise uh that creates a revenue projection
then you go okay let's prioritize when at what point does the money run out so it's
not like someone said there is money for this let's take it from that to put it somewhere
else you could argue that probably the last kind of uh optional decision uh maybe was
investing in the uh facility on 288 that'll be uh co-locating uh shelter services and
and my senior king now i'd argue that's a downtown development project you know i think
improving the environment downtown so you're not kind of having a forced march of unhoused
people through the square twice a day you know uh it's probably good for all concerned including
including the businesses so it's like all right got that done what's next i think i
think uh i don't think there's anybody who's against doing the muses how much do we want
to tax people and how much what's what's higher on the list uh but you know i i agree with
all the sentiments expressed about it i do have some questions about it i don't know if i should
if you're looking for other questions before i finally i do want to remind everyone before
we go too further the point of and we are not posted to discuss these projects in depth it
is specifically to talk about kind of main street and their recommendations and so let's try and
keep the conversation focused on that before matt gets mad at me if i can you know ask a few
questions about what has been presented uh first of all can we go back to jimmy since jimmy had the
floor by all means with his q and a sure uh well that sounded like we were trying to cut that off
that conversation off on the muse uh if you want to continue on that is there other funding like at
the state level or grants from the state i know they're giving out some grants for some
live music venues now that was i just heard that this morning on uh specter news this morning
is that a possibility is is the grant writing uh do we have grant writing abilities
if you're referring to the american rescue act uh the arca there are some funds available for
those venues that were shuttered and the restaurant relief act follows under that the restaurant
relief fund also falls under that so there i'm not sure and jessica could probably answer this
better um there are opportunities for communities to get some funding as well through arca and
there's it's still rolling out but i do know some of our venues uh that were shuttered have applied
some of our restaurants have applied for funding um so those are individual grants that they have
to apply for but as far as community uh cities getting funding there is some funding available
but i'm not sure what den's qualification should be yeah the muse streets would not be eligible under
that the federal funding that's coming through the american rescue plan act city council received a
presentation yesterday with sort of staff's recommendations as it relates to the new street
specifically and you know those are projects that could be funded through a variety of mechanisms
the ters is not the only option um but it would be as the same as any street project it's either a
you know a geo-funded or a ceo-funded uh project as part of the city's capital plan um or you know
the ters could provide funding for them but they're i'm not aware of any grants we always look at
um the economic development administration to see they have some public infrastructure grants we
always see um look at those whether we would be eligible or not really depends on the limitations
of that particular grant in time usually they're tied to um income levels based on census tracts
um and sort of if the area has a depressed economic situation unfortunately that's a
really hard case to make in downtown um when you kind of have a thriving downtown
so we do have to look at those challenges that we have seeking those grants but we we always look
um at every option we have we know how important that project is to downtown so we we are
constantly looking okay that uh i just threw that out as an example from the state and i
i think that's a new grant it's specifically designed for uh music venues
or smaller venues for uh seating under 3 000 are you referring to that as something maybe for the
fine arts theater jimmy is that that they could i just threw that out as an example of a grant that
possibly there are grants other types of grants i'm i don't to i'm new at this so i don't really
understand you know all of those mechanisms i used to be a grant writer but that was a hundred years
ago it's hard work jimmy did you have any other questions for main street with regard to their
presentation uh no thank you paul i think you had some questions uh yeah and actually uh i'm
going to amend a comment i made um because one of my questions was uh was about the new streets uh
you know i've spoken forcefully i thought in favor of doing that in part on the
rationale that it would offer you know potentially double the storefront facings
onto the new streets and i and i said that nobody is against it but i recall our current mayor
council member at the time uh questioning that premise but whether that was really true at all
that it would provide additional kind of storefront facings so i'd be very interested to hear
your perspective on that what what would the new streets what would the benefit be if we do the new
streets and would that be one of them or is that just not reality well i think it would depend on
the building design um of course some of those that back up to the new streets have little
staircases down to to walnut and so having that so it is a back door exit but it would certainly
help beautify some of the back streets and help those sidewalks become more walkable if someone
were to park back there or if it could be converted to use for an event or promotion uh you know block
off the street which walnut street has done before um and make it a sort of a plaza for a day or
something but also in terms of the the aesthetics and just the usability after covid what we did see
in in a lot of downtowns across america is walk up to go windows and pick up windows those could be
opportunities on the back side of a business for them to have a to go pick up window for you know
just permanent business operation it doesn't have to be just a covid adjustment now we're finding that
if we were to have opportunities for people to grab food to go they're still using that
food to go opportunity um even beyond you know a year after covid or after the first hit of covid
so i would say from a design standpoint there's a lot of opportunities for businesses to have a
little bit of a backside operation that's interesting on the uh the model of back go
oh yes yeah and and to your point uh you know the remaining three new streets are they're unique
and each one uh kind of mccon and austin are a little similar walnut street is in its current
state is is an alley um and to your point about it being a place where perhaps from storefronts
uh you know i you know i don't even think about that when i think about the the the
potential of new streets uh i'm kind of i'm really not cedar street's right behind cart rides and so
i'm used to that having sidewalks and people people walk up and down cedar street constantly
both sides walking up from the parking lot from from down to mckinney up to hickory uh or or behind
the old debt coup building and walking down the street uh people walk down cedar street all day
long and so i kind of see it as as that's a success cedar street is a success you know it runs along
a you know the campus theater it also runs behind the fine arts theater and so i think it was a
great great choice i wasn't even downtown at the time and that decision was made but i think that's
the example that when when you do you beautify one of these streets people walk up and down it
i mean who walks up and down the con street who walks uh maybe maybe austin street more often
because it's kind of cabinet it goes to east side you know everyone wants to go to see john down
there so i get it but uh but uh cedar street is the example for for new streets of what it can mean
to downtown that's a helpful uh vision and i go to east side occasionally if i'm not going to bearded
mug ah bae and i apologize sir also has do you have any other questions paul that's right i'll
come back go ahead looks like ben has a question um not so much a question just uh to add a little
bit of information is that all right is that all right yeah i want to confirm i'm not stepping out
of a stepping out of our rules um the presentation go for it all right um it's last year in our
recommendations for some grants to fund um one of the requesters was over on walnut right that they
were opening up um uh jim uh yes what's that the movement lab yeah yes uh and yeah that was it um
and i think about what what john is saying that he's seeing people using that street all the time
simply because the sidewalks are beautiful it feels safe it's well lit uh and this this board
just uh suggested that we should fund a business that's on a dark what john just referred to is
pretty much an alley um so if we want people to move beyond the square um to not not go to
somewhere on 380 or 288 because there's no parking on the square after only circling the square
itself a couple of times we need to open up that that outer area if we add lighting if we add
sidewalks that's going to expand people moving through a down walnut street just like he's saying
that's going to encourage people to park just off the square uh that was my only addition it's not
just utilizing the buildings on the new streets it's utilizing them to transfer between different
areas yeah i think the building development is secondary that might come and probably will come
but i think the primary thing is is uh if the old uh field of dreams if you build it they will come
john what do you think that the building stuff will come second as a secondary after new streets
well when you it's kind of limited uh when you think about it austin street there's there's some
businesses already there um kind of visualizing there seems to be a lot or a space that could
something can be built there we have um the old mini mall on austin street the back obviously the
back side of it perhaps when when that is done when you know if we were to do redo austin street
no telling what can be put in that space uh someone can reimagine or something can something happen
and that's that's a that's probably the biggest i saw on the square is an empty lot uh but as
scary as that lot is an awesome street doesn't seem to be a place where gosh i want to put a
business here um but once again i you know i think back to cedar street melissa that people walk up
and down the street you know there are no new businesses uh save for that one little hairdresser
place right next to the fine arts theater that really faced cedar street uh you know the corner
the lawyer office that faces oak street has been renovated uh but there's really nothing
else going on on cedar street uh back there but uh but people walk up and down it uh all day long
and it's and driving up and down it as they they move from oak to hickory and uh avoiding the square
you know i'd love to have uh hickory and and uh excuse me elmond locus not even be considered to
to move from north to south from south and north you know i i'd love to have uh alternate routes
for cars to move not on the square um i just think that's that's perfect you know i just don't
understand why we can't have a downtown uh the the ring outside this central square is is incomplete
uh some of it's two ways some of it's one way um just kind of confusing for people like i said if
we want to bring people downtown if we're going to spend a lot of money uh economically to to get
people to visit us downtown you know i think we we need to come down we need to make sure downtown's
ready you know to alex's point you know he went to louisville and he's like wow and so we need to
make sure that we're wowing people and uh you know the lighting getting back to our number one the
lighting and sidewalks sidewalks on austin street sidewalks parcon street somehow figure out walnut
street like we need to do that we need we need to make people say wow not just on the square which
is awesome but uh we need to take it to the next level uh we know the square is awesome and if you're
on the square people know it is but there's a whole level the depth of of people that can come
downtown we're only scratching the surface and so we need to start thinking outside the box and
outside the square proper the new streets and then we go to the next block and then the next block
and so um we're on the cusp we just need to make some decisions to get her done and to add to that
on the walkability side of things when there is lighting and smoother sidewalks in it and the
visual for a person psychologically to walk down a sidewalk and it not to change much they're more
likely to park further away and use that sidewalk access to get to where they're going so we see
that with cedar street with that parking lot once it got improved once the lighting's been improved
on cedar there by howling mutton broson thorn you see a lot more people using that parking lot at
night now and walking but before many women reported to us they were not feeling safe walking in
through dark corridors to get to the square and so we need just to make sure that that uh that
there's not a a blank space in the middle of a really nice parking lot to get to a really nice
square you're walking through a really dark alley feeling um corridor so that's important again for
the new streets because there is a lot of parking off the square but you have to walk through one of
those streets to get to it and to your point alex as we as we try to do all these projects
obviously the tourist fund is is is not there's not enough money to do all the things that need
to be done downtown and so the and maybe these types of discussions or what kind of causes the
groundswell to go up here to uh present the city council look we we're gonna need to do something
we're gonna just we're gonna need to be innovative we're gonna look we need to think outside the box
i know that's an old cliche but uh it seems like you're a little bit of frustration you talked
about how you just kind of saying the same thing again uh and you're not a broken record those these
are the types of decisions that uh the people who live play and work downtown are in debt as a whole
uh demand almost uh we we need uh take it to the next level and i'm maybe speaking out of turn i'm
just and i don't know yeah i don't know what what the purpose of we're so grateful to be to be in
front of you guys but um uh this has been a great discussion you're preaching to the choir here and
i'll yes i have to say anymore but you know it's uh again it's i think the turds has had a had an
identity crisis since day one so i'm not sure what i'm not sure what your what direction we're
supposed to give main street but you know just from a perspective of you know your role i think
it only helps if you guys are you know continuing to to bring to light the issues that the downtown
faces and i personally think that we have have stalled out in our in our progress for you know
a little while now at least from the from the public side i'm i've been extremely frustrated
to be honest with you know as i stare out at elm street that just i guess is getting redone
that we could not have coordinated better sidewalk designs through that you know so just another just
another jessica as we round that last part of the discussion out can you remind us what the um what
council asked for with regard to sort of all the projects that would be considered under the turds
consultants review and when that sort of review because it was if if i remember correctly it was
sort of like a return on your investment sort of request from council to see where money might be
spent that would be best yes and i apologize my laptop died that i had everything pulled up on
and but we kind of walked away from the i think it was february city council meeting with direction
from city council to keep looking at a few things there was a direction to fund um part of the pec
four phases three and four project partially uh from the turds but we were looking into
roi specific to redevelopment and that and we also got some direction on kind of what their
priorities were and how they thought turds funds should be used so we were working to put together
a kind of pro forma a menu of options um related to the various projects that we talked about as
part of that study um one of the pieces of that was getting the updated value 2021 uh values from
d cad so those have now been kind of or they're working through those we have the 2020 values
there was a delay in getting those because of their change in software now we've got the 2021
value uh preliminary value so we're working through getting all of the data we need um we had a data
challenge as d cad was shifting over to their new software that we hope is working now it's had some
hiccups but it seems to be working now um but that's kind of our data point data points that
we needed um and with that again we're kind of working through projections revenue growth um of
the turds itself um and then kind of putting together based on council's kind of stated
priorities which were kind of pack three and four partially um maybe some uh public private
partnerships and some sidewalks and walkability i think were the three that were prioritized by
city council i can't remember that could i i apologize but i did have it open and it died um
and so we were going to kind of put together here are some projects we know of in the area that could
be invested in with the turds fund but our goal to to alex's point was kind of to get off center
right was to kind of say here are the priorities and we were gonna we're working through kind of
what those menu of options are to bring back and make those recommendations and so we're not
continuing to have those discussions our goal is to kind of do the pro forma and plan out the turds
and so that moving forward um we we've got projects in the hopper and we're ready to move on them and
now the turds is designed to cash fund projects um which is a bit of a challenge right because we
don't have that much money in the bank we have revenue potential and so if council were to
continue cash funding projects that delays something like the new streets if it was to
be fully funded from the turds well the turds doesn't have enough cash in the bank right now
so we'd have to issue debt um and then the turds would pay back over time so there's a couple
financial challenges and things um not just projects but how we kind of pro forma those
projects out and how they're funded so we're working through all of that uh that was a very
long complicated answer but we're working through all of that it is and there's only one thing i'd
like to maybe this is alex likes to state on that could we as a as a board discuss and make
recommendations that we change our policy to allow for for the use of of obligation you know basically
bond against our future revenues it's just every every big infrastructure project that gets done
gets done generally that way why on earth would we think we should do it another way we don't have
a policy against it alex it would be a possibility it's just the way that this turds was designed was
kind of a cash funded project but there's nothing that would limit it from from borrowing against
itself that's why partially we brought on the consultant right yes yes so we did look at debt
impacts of projects as well paul you had some additional questions yeah we're not completely
tired of the topic a couple of other areas to explore with our guests um i'm very interested in
your very creative thoughts on micro grants and down time reinvestment grants my uh concern
is you know those the temporary investment grants are super popular i'm i'm like them because i want
to help encourage uh you know businesses to to start and to grow in that area by uh growing
discomfort is uh over having been on this board for several years now uh is that i don't get the
sense that we're leading to new decisions being made like it seems like you know whenever we give
a grant it's like yeah they kind of would have done it anyway but you know it's a source of revenue
like all for it and then if i argue this point the pushback is always well if it was marginal
you know we wouldn't want to fund that because they'll probably go out so you know i'm kind of
left wondering like what is the best way to deploy funds like that so it would really help something
happen it wouldn't have happened otherwise and something uh productive that wouldn't have
happened otherwise any thoughts on that well it's a great question uh and i think you know in my in
our presentation we talked about qualifying businesses um that have a business plan that have
matching funds and so there's some qualifications that a business that that there are investors
there they have skin in the game um that allow projects to get done uh that allow them to perhaps
move into a larger space or move into a space and then having to do a lot of improvements and you
know maybe it's a underdeveloped property that's owned by somebody else and uh you know they they
spend a lot of money to go into it but uh but the rent is becoming prohibitive so um so the business
having a business plan with the application i think is important that uh that it's a it's a
bona fide applicant that's that has a plan uh and that there's matching funds that uh that
the terse grant would implement that requirement that we have up to 50 000 to get the 50 000 you're
going to need to have an investment of 50 000 in this particular project that you're applying for
also and so um i don't know if that answers the question of paul yeah how does that get into the
part where like you know but for the how does this make you feel confident that we're creating new
activity like if they have all that behind them and they've kind of done it anyway like what gives
you confidence that this will create additional activity because for me that's the that's the
reason they use taxpayer money you know well especially right now i think businesses uh because
of covid their cash flow is very challenged and so if we are going to help businesses recover and
if they want to expand or grow or maybe they have a new business model that would really be a great
addition to our downtown mix of properties and businesses that is an investment in our downtown
because many of these improvements these businesses are making stay with that business building
through a new business owner if that unless they extremely change the the use of building but it is
something that adds value and that would be the goal of the grant would be projects that add value
that add some diversity that adds some but also maybe help some some more diverse audience of
businesses as well who might not look to come downtown otherwise because they just simply don't
have the money and to open a business to the process and opening a business is really the
that's an important part obviously but it's it's uh it's not as important as staying open uh and
the cash flow is is imperative so any dollars that could be saved in the pre-opening stage
of a project you know if you're going to put a restaurant in or something like that
you know it takes an army of people to once you're open to conduct business and so any kind of
savings that could be had it could be helped out just as christine talked about where it's adding
value to downtown by this new business that that money saved is going to allow them to stay open
hopefully you know and and once again i go back to the qualifying business plan make sure you know
this is something that the turds fund at the end of the day you're investing in this project and so
i think the the turds should have it pretty you know they should be they should ask for a business
plan and you know what are the qualifications of this guy this guy who wants to open up a restaurant
downtown you know just what does this do is he just a cook on the outside was he an accountant
in his former life and all of a sudden he wants to open a restaurant and those types of decisions
actually found a couple of uh your your thoughts there really appealing uh in addition to the you
know being qualified and so on but the idea of both supporting uh lasting additions that will
you know kind of stay with it whether they make it or not but on the other end uh the idea of like
subsidizing those early months before they were established is they have a chance to get a foothold
i think that's kind of interesting too if uh lisa are you okay with me going into one more area
go ahead yeah well he's okay you okay chair what is the question
okay uh so it's a paragraph question uh you commented that what these downtown businesses
really need is a critical mass density uh i'm sorry alex blinked off um
so i think you'd be interested in this you know you need some density and why would you be against
um sort of adding to the buildable downtown you know to create some live work play people that
would be you know kind of built in audience for existing downtown businesses i was sort of surprised
that there was like an absolute we're not interested in that and paul is talking specifically with the
not wanting to fund the pec four yeah right because that's how you get to that okay
well i i just you know that's that is a multi-million dollar project uh that's as i
and and i'm i'm speaking a little bit of ignorance but um that is a state highway um and and i know
the plans are to turn it over to the city and stuff like that but um that more so than amuse
streets i think that is a project that uh is not what the tourist is designed to do um that's an
opinion um and you know as important that is is so we can lift uh all that property south of downtown
uh full disclosure i owns the property south of downtown and so um but and i want it done as fast
as uh you do alex uh that's you know as as a funding mechanism that's not what tours should
be about uh give especially given the fact that it was limited funding um we're waiting for
profitability to come in and hopefully we can add significantly to the the tours amount um but uh i
guess uh sharp point to your to your question is that's really not what i believe what that
manager believes to be the the use of the tourist fund for that capital improvement project
and the discussion around that um was that in order for us we we obviously want our downtown
to grow beyond the square when we look at east hickory and we look at other projects and we see
the success but we still have these eyesores so to speak of these back streets that no matter what
you put down on south elm when you don't have the walkability and the lighting and all these things
fixed in your core it's still a distraction to get them to the core get them from the core to the
south and the north um we've heard this for years from our businesses beyond to the south and the
north but at the same time we have this core that's still not quite ready i mean i think you need to
do all that but yeah but if there's funding for something in the south elm area for that drainage
that's where the board felt like that funding should come from a different source and not for
the tours because the tours was designed and developed for downtown development improvement
which again that is improvement but when it comes to business activity they feel that lighting and
the walkability and the grants and so forth are very important thank you
is that your final question paul all right thank you if there's no other questions we'll go on to
item 1c no hands raised okay the next order of business is 1c receive staff activity report
i would like to recognize christina davis hello um just real quick i'll go through this since
we're already after one o'clock um the brownlow house is finally open and and holding weddings
lamuse vintage has moved to its new location and is now open at 121 north elm in the former
circus 77 location at 225 west oak we now have salvage secondhand shop um and some massage has
also moved into a new location and the mug which is a coffee truck has now expanded and has a kiosk
inside of chestnut tree um coming soon we do have uh totally joe's and i'm sorry i totally butchered
his name books and uh indulgences and they're actually having their opening this weekend they're
going to do a soft opening and then the gentleman of verona christine actually met with them
about a week or so ago and they hope to be open in late june so we'll see how that goes for them i
think it's going to be a little bit further out than that but we'll cross our fingers
as far as our active uh status for our reinvestment grant at 104 west mckinney
i still show that they have their next inspection is going to be june 25th and we hope to see that
that gets them everything that in compliance and they're ready to move on to the next phase which
was originally going to be some kind of asian type food and now it's going to be a burger joint so
we'll see if they're still moving along with the current plan other than that the next bit of
information we have is our next meeting for july 28th and on that i will say that after june 14th
this board will be one that converts back to in-person meetings so your july 28th meeting will
be in person so i do look forward to seeing everyone's smiling face in person we will have
options we'll send out additional information you should have received an email from rosa rios our
city secretary about um anyone who meets still uh desires to participate remotely um it'll be a
a new situation that we'll we'll be doing but otherwise we'll be planning to meet in person
on july 28th there any further discussion related to the staff activity report or meeting in person
okay final order of business is item two which is concluding items is there any other business
to discuss please raise your hand and i'll call on you then
uh are we are we going to further discuss suggestions made by main street later
like i was thinking like the recap or the the cap on the reinvestment grants or making the the full
uh full suggestion to the city on how we'd like the the money to be used said in a later meeting
you could make that ask of us if you wanted us to to bring something back um to look at that absolutely
would you like to ask yeah yeah could should we ask that that be put on an agenda for us to
uh approve or deny increasing the investment cap and making a recommendation from
or do we need to hear any more about um making a recommendation off of the options
the consultants gave us like making an official recommendation to the council yes so we will we
can put something on the next agenda to talk about changes to the to the grant um in the amount i
don't know where we'll be on the overall recommendations related to the kind of totality
of the ters there's a lot of work that we're putting into this um hundreds of hours of my own
time has already gone into it and we'll continue to go into it um and dan's too um if you see dan
smiling um on screen as well so there's a ton of work um that's going into that um
piece but i will keep you updated if we get to a place where we're ready to come back
in july we certainly would we're not we're not delaying for any reason other than it's
just a lot of work jessica is there a possibility of maybe having me as the chair meet with main
street to maybe get a better idea of you know one off not through a meeting or before the next
meeting to i mean i think i was with paul like i was surprised to hear their discord with the
idea of ters funding um the peck four projects or any pet projects and it doesn't sound like
they've been very well informed on on that so i was just wondering if there could be a
meeting related to that that's not in this meeting i don't want to sit in this meeting to tell them
things if that makes sense not an issue we we we meet with them regularly okay so
all right any other so we've agreed that uh that would be added to the next agenda based on what
ben was requesting and is there anything else that any concluding items regime there no other
business the regular meeting is adjourned at 11 1 11 p.m today thank you