All right good morning my name is Marty Rivers I'm the chair of the economic
development partnership board it is 1101 a.m. on Wednesday August 14th and I will
call this meeting to order our first item of consideration is the minutes of
our July 10th meeting I would take a motion at this time if you're so
obliged we've got a motion and a second to approve the minutes from July 10th
any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion
carries all right thank you all right staff reports Adam was not
gonna be here today he's got some information in your backup so I have
just three items that I want to update the board on and the first is I'm sure
everyone was watching the City Council meeting yesterday and saw my two-hour
presentation regarding the razor range public improvement district but I know
this board had some input and guidance on that early on in its creation and so
we're that we got direction to move forward with that so we're moving
forward to the next step to move towards levying assessments in that public
improvement district and and then the other piece of information that actually
councilmember Briggs and I discussed yesterday was that our strategic plan
that we discussed when I did the budget presentation has been funded and so we
will be working to develop a scope of work so that's something that will
likely come back to the board to get your feedback on at some point this fall
and then the last item is that the Economic Development Partnership board
nominations for the members whose terms are expiring this year will be going
forward to City Council next week on August 20th so you I don't believe we'll
have any new members oh excuse me we might have we have one new nomination
for councilmember Hudson so yes so we will give you the feedback when we get
those nominations approved by City Council that's it great anybody have any
questions for Jessica thank you so much all right moving on with the program
we've got item C EDP 19 - 0 5 0 receive a report hold discussion and give staff
direction regarding the economic development investment fund that on
their minds for a few months here yes and Erica Sullivan our economic
development analyst is going to do this presentation good morning I'm the
economic development analyst for the city and I'm going to be talking to you
today about the economic development investment fund the investment fund the
objective of this presentation is to provide a brief history and overview of
the economic development investment fund discuss the funding mechanisms that
weren't went into the fund and discuss the changes in parameters to the
investment fund the city's incentives have predominantly been performance
based as many of you all are aware since Denton doesn't have a type-a or type-b
sales tax like many other cities in Texas do so the economic development
investment fund was created to provide a cash grant program to increase Denton's
ability to compete for large and targeted economic development projects
so I'm going to provide some of the history leading up to the investment
fund the city's first adopted tax abatement policy occurred in 1989 and
the city's required to update that policy under chapter 312 of the tax that
the regulations that govern tax abatements every two years so we made
several major changes throughout our history in 2010 and 2012 we added green
incentives and then you'll see here that the biggest change relating to the
investment fund occurred in 2014 when the product policy was broadened to
apply to chapter 380 of the local government code and this allows cities
to grant cash grants or loans it's about a half page in the local government
code so it gives the city's a lot of latitude here and the incentive and tax
abatement policy gave the city this latitude and ability to offer cash
grants in effort to receive more desirable outcomes so the investment
action team was charged with implementing the dent rising our
strategic action agenda and we sought to create a funding mechanism to grant
these incentives and the first strategy was to explore methods of financing and
then to explore the creation of an economic development incentive fund and
these recommendations were presented to this board in August of 2015 the EDPB
board recommended creation of this investment fund and the City Council
directed staff to create the fund in August of 15 as well and then one year
later in August of 16 the economic development fund was officially created
through ordinance 19-229 and the fund was incorporated into the last update
that we made to our incentive policy when we folded in our airport and this
particular fund under one umbrella policy through our rewrite so the fund
details the program is funded through a special revenue fund of mixed beverage
taxes at $150,000 per year any grants awarded would require a separate chapter
380 agreement and the granting of incentives under this program would
still require the same process that we go through a recommendation of EDP to
council and the valuation or wage requirements would be included on in
this council approved agreement so far there's only been one application that
has we have received but it was withdrawn there have been a few leads
that we have seen that might qualify but they haven't gotten to that stage yet
the fund criteria according to both policies in order to be eligible to
receive a grant under this program a company must mean at least two of the
following criteria so they need to provide high wage or knowledge based
jobs we defined high wage as having an average annual wage of 55,000 or greater
for all positions or at least 25% of the positions have an annual wage of 65,000
or greater and knowledge-based jobs are defined as occupations that require a
college degree work experience special licensing or certification we also would
require of the three two of the three criteria to make a substantial capital
investment and this is at a minimum of 15 million and then finally to address a
recruitment or supplier target to include aviation advanced manufacturing
renewable energy research and development information technology
supply chain logistics and distribution and large consumers of municipal
utilities you'll see here in this spreadsheet a table of the investment
fund balance you'll see that there are not any planned expenditures in 18 19 so
the fund balance at the end of the current fiscal year will be a little over
600,000 as the interest is estimated and staff has also included 150,000
allocation in the upcoming budget the 1920 budget and have not proposed any
expenditures at this time and that leads us to the discussion the investment
action team had originally recommended reaching 1 million fund balance in year
one and 2 million fund balance in two years this was not included in the
authorizing ordinance at a recent EDP meeting the board requested to consider
including parameters related to a minimum or a maximum threshold for
dollars to be held in the fund currently there's no limit fund balance that can
be accumulated and should an amount of funds be granted to a company there is
no required minimum fund balance that the fund must maintain as well currently
150,000 per year is allocated for mixed beverage taxes previously accounted for
in the general fund when making this recommendation to see you have some
background the investment team examined the possibilities of allocating a
specific amount committing an amount above a projected growth in a special
revenue fund dedicating a portion of the property tax rate and setting aside the
equivalent amount of incentive grant payments after the incentive expires a
specific the specific amount and special revenue fund was what was chosen and
that was based on the allocated amount rather than growth above projections we
thought it would be easier to do that and it would also be easier to plan and
allow the funds to roll over into the next year in accordance with Gatsby
regulations and since we talked about this at the last meeting I've provided a
summary of the incentives that are expiring over a 10-year period you'll
see there's four ad valorem incentives expiring in the table below and there's
two sales tax incentives expiring so Denton Crossing and Unicorn Lake and two
incentives expire at the end of this fiscal year so the ad valorem total
you'll see is a little over 9 million and then if you combine the items
outside of our budget which are tax abatements that we don't normally
forecast for since they're taken out from the appraisal district and TERS
grants that come would come out to 11.6 million so I welcome input from you all
on the goal setting of any minimum any cap what you'd like to achieve with this
program these questions have come up before in the board discussion and we
thought this would be an appropriate time we also have it posted in a
separate agenda item to talk about things that will be topics of discussion
at the Joint City Council EDP meeting so we wanted you to have this information
should you wanted to make some recommendations that we could then
prepare for for that meeting as well so really we're open to any feedback that
you have or ideas or thoughts related to the fund at this point
that's a good point it is our deal closing fun so my line is coming on that
means I don't think you can hear you so I like the flexibility that it has with
maintaining are you know allowing it to be completely used if needed without
having a minimum or or cap
mr. Baines John Baines my question is we get two million dollars and we're gonna
hustle to get some people in here where we're gonna put them what's the what's
the we have this fun but do we really have the space for a big dog targeting
high-wage jobs we can do a lot of infill development just Saudi is an example they
have very high-wage jobs but they don't have a maybe a significant capital
investment so someone like that if they were to come in just Saudi if they were
to come in today they would qualify under their highlight high-wage and and
a skill set so they would be under the targeted industry sectors so this would
really allow us to recruit higher skill higher wage jobs 15 million you know
that was spoken about two of the three so they may not have to meet that in the
case of just Saudi if you have the high high wage you wouldn't have to meet the
high capital investment thank you because it has the industry sectors well
this could be used in addition any other I mean if we had uber coming they're
going to Dallas and they're working through that I mean if somebody like
that was coming in and we couldn't meet their needs on our normal funding
mechanisms then this is combination the hole to help fill the gap or helps them
build it's money you could other cities that have the 4a 4b economic
development tax which we do not have we spent that on our train involved in that
so it's a good economic development tool but they just have cash and so they can
go out and develop land and give people pad sites that are ready to go with all
the utilities give them money I think that's happened in Corinth in the last
several years it's happening all around us and we don't have that tool so this
would be money that when the right opportunity came along whatever the
definition of that is we would have another arrow in our quiver so to speak
to be able to help somebody get there and my question is is if say we have a
million dollars I mean let's take the original goal was to get to two million
dollars in a couple of years that's easier said than done if you're on the
council but say we continue down this road where we're putting in 150,000 every
year we get to a million dollars and then Google comes along and we want to
give them a million dollars and then we're back to square one and we don't
have any money in there so I do feel like we need to talk about trying to
have an established minimum and if we spend money below that how fast what is
our goal to get back to that point that's a long discussion but you know if
we even you know if somebody came today we spent that that's great we have the
money there now five years to get back to having a balance again that we could
use for somebody else having a continuing funding mechanism designated
a goal in mind so that we know how to get there and maybe it's not an equal
amount of money every year once we get there we don't have to fund it anymore
until we use it and then we put that back in place
you're absolutely right about the business parks there's a lot of EDC's
that own their own business park and current can grant land grants another
thing that we considered would also be retention we looked at it when we looked
at retaining Sally Beauty with their current headquarters and then they
expanded distribution we got a lot of stuff about to happen out of the airport
if we had a really cool company coming in out there maybe you're gonna use this
to help buy land or lease land I guess it's leases a lot of things are under
the acquisition phase but yes there's still a few a few spots it's not
completely well that could be an area down the road or something like that
Gerard thank you yeah no and I think I like where you're going with the airport
I talked to my council representative for my area and he and there's there's
no but that we are going to clear out the city already owns it and we're
clearing out from the gun range and so that may be an opportunity to try to
target someone and and maybe fold in cost savings on that land or different
land that we own and then I specifically to this I think there's a couple of
things that jump out at me one that I'd like to see a graphic that it's great to
have the overview of what is rolling off but I think what guides my decision
would be the percentage right so what was invested in okay great there's
additional detail but it's not by percent right right but I because I think
that average I think at some point with that legacy data we begin to see what a
what return on investment averages out to be and so when someone comes in it
gives you kind of a baseline to to evaluate them by to say average ROI in
the past four or five years has been this we do have an annual return on
investment report I haven't completed it for 18 tax year but we have it for 17
then I can forward to them okay yeah because especially the ones that are
rolling off kind of so this has come to a conclusion here's kind of an average
for that I think is good and then I think the the other part to Marty's
point when you're talking about spending it all recouping that sort of thing
maybe there's a threshold maybe there's a super majority that would then trigger
to deplete the funds below a certain point so just a simple majority carries
50% but to go further than 50% maybe some or some range triggers a super
majority requirement to try to protect that interest that's a just a thought
about a couple of things I would like to suggest increasing the amount from 150
for the mixed beverage taxes I mean we do have a lot more bars and restaurants
than we did when this started and so I think that could feel that and we also
used to use those for downtown grants and that's going away and so I think the
reinvestment grant did not used to come if they were separate but they're both
funded through the special revenue mixed beverage that's going away because it's
going to be used in the tip so I feel like there's some room there from that
fund that we could use to go into this one now so that you know it's it's being
used instead of put back in so that would be my recommendation I don't know
how much that is but I feel like we should increase that amount because to
Marty's point you know it's taken so long to get to where it is and if we
want this to work we're going to need to have that increased more frequently and
then I just have a question so you mentioned that there's some leads that
you think this could be used for I mean so where does that recommendation come
from does it come from the chamber do you guys approach the leads and say hey
we have this does it come from our development department or this board
like I I'm just we receive state leads from the governor's office of economic
development we also receive them from the Dallas regional chamber the chair
the chamber itself will have its own leads but if we have the criteria we
respond to those leads and there have been a few that have very high skill
sets and knowledge-based jobs that I think would be an excellent candidate
and so man and so that just means that you recommend or you have that in your
mind that this is another opportunity sure so sometimes when we respond to
leads they upfront ask for incentive information and so at that point we
usually provide a copy of our policy or summary of the incentives that would be
available to that lead based on the preliminary information generally at
that point we don't have enough information we just give them the entire
policy just generally right once we kind of enter into further negotiations or a
relationship they might submit an application or they might come in and
talk to us and then we kind of work through given the information that that
business is giving us will recommend what they what incentives they would
qualify for we may I don't want to say pre-qualify but we may get preliminary
information that will look at what the policy says and if they qualify and meet
criteria that will kind of let them know we think you meet the criteria of an
abatement or we think you meet the criteria of this other type of incentive
when by the time it gets to this board we've done much more vetting we've
reviewed whether they're compliant with the policy and that's when we bring the
recommendation forward and so that's how we get to those recommendations that you
see yes if they qualified for this and it met the policy we would bring that
forward at that point this would be pre-application so we wouldn't have as
much data whenever we bring something to the board forward we've already gotten
an application so it's just early in the stages and it wants different where is
the current expiring incentives is it going into our general fund where is it
currently going mm-hmm yes this would be I'm giving you more detail to the
breakdown of the tax payments and the terms as well tears one in terms two if
I'm while you're doing that the reason we're talking about the expiring is so
if the town center is up and that we're currently putting in I'm throwing out
random numbers $50,000 a year that is going back to them from their sales tax
collection when that expires next year that's going in the general fund one
item of discussion is if it is using those funds that are expiring instead of
putting them in a general fund to set them aside for our economic development
fund so I we're not missing them right now we can put it in there instead of
using beverage taxes so it's just a funding mechanism to think about down the
road they continue to pay their taxes if it's a sales tax it would have been a
cost share that we rebate back if it's a chapter 380 with property tax we would
rebate it back usually in the spring following the tax year and then for tax
abatements that the DCAD exempts them so they pay less into the appraisal
district so once that stops and they continue at full payment so there are a
couple of options that are being discussed as far as upping the beverage
tax as well as the expiring incentives is that correct we've got they're not
mutually exclusive it could be a piece of both we can raise taxes the City
Council could raise taxes to do that I think that's a fantastic I think
everyone would get on board with this this is a summary of what the investment
team looked at originally so allocating a specific amount which we've done
committing an amount above projected growth and a special revenue fund which
we've done as well mixed beverage and dedication a portion of the property tax
rate which you just discussed and then the incentives this stuff have a
recommendation as far as a combination we did with the original investment and
we did because that was a staff liaison for the investment team and we worked
through that group and you tell you that finance is amenable to all of them that
because I've discussed these with them in the past but thank you we do when you
do a revenue fund I've also heard from finance you try to keep it in a similar
nexus so makes beverage and makes sense Tony so the funds been around for almost
five years we've only had one applicant that withdrew so what's the where are we
missing maybe opportunities or why are we have not have we not had more
applicants is it or criteria is it was it is it dollar amount that's in the
fund available I know we're probably looking at bigger fish or bigger
companies in the beginning it was a dollar amount a lot we did set very high
thresholds our current policy is five million for a tax abatement 15 million
is a lot more significant and then they have to be in one of the sectors or they
have to meet the wage two of the three so that's another item we could look at
is changing the criteria so in your opinion a follow-up would be what would
this what would the balance in this fund need to be for us to be really
competitive on projects that we would really love to have move into our area
I'm just curious it's some of its unrealistic if you look at some of the
Frisco's and things like that they have you know ten million or more to work
with it just depends it's we are somewhat limited not being we have to be more
creative not being a type a or type B and getting that so I just wonder you
know this is a great bullet in our gun but if we're if it's not substantial
enough to be a real tool for us and obviously it hasn't been today what's
that what's our goal or what's our plan to maybe make it so it is something
that can be attractive and can give us a little bit of a competitive edge or
incentive to bring some of these companies in my thoughts are though
there's these discussions we'll have a more finite goal and funding mechanism
to get it because we can't take five years to get to exactly $750,000 easy for
me to say I'm not passing a big budget and I will say this is one of the items
that is on my list to include when we hire that consultant to look at our
economic development strategies to say we have this tool it hasn't been
effective how do we make it effective and so ideas that this board has you
certainly can be wrapped into that but that that's certainly my goal is not to
have a tool that we can't use because we put too many limitations on it well I
guess how my perspective on it is that it's good to have a tool but those
those aren't numbers are gonna get people off the couch I mean they're not
even close they're not even close I know you know we just put a facility in
McKinney and those numbers aren't even they're not even close to what other
cities around us have and their quiver I guess is the term that we use right I
mean if you got other taxes that are now available that we're being abated
now you think this is the kind of thing that those funds ought to go into
because that's the only way you're gonna get the bigger players to come because
Denton's a wonderful place to be and we've been here 40 years and it's
because we think it's a wonderful place to be but that's not gonna those aren't
real dollars I mean not for companies that are looking to invest 50 60 million
dollars I won't even get a bulldozer on the property so Chris what's the real
numbers 3 million then you can start talking well that's you know that's
those are the thing the numbers are if we get it to 3 million and then if we
spend 2 million of that how do we get it back up that's I want to make sure
there's a we don't just say we're gonna put a hundred fifty thousand dollars in
until we get it back up to 3 million and that takes 15 years or however long that
is those dollars are gonna get you fast food restaurants that's what they're
gonna get you right because that's a two three million dollar investment if you
can offer somebody a hundred fifty eight thousand on that hey that's a that's a
good deal that's an industrial site that's not a padside for no for a fast
food restaurant no yeah you can't get in that place to put McDonald's in a good
place it's not that it's not the only thing we're talking about it maybe they
get a tax abatement like we've been talking about the last couple ones and
this if it's somebody that's extra special whatever that number you know
whatever that means they could be really great topic to talk about with City
Council and I think it'd be good are you guys looking for us to say here's what
we think the number needs to be or you can give me some direction or I can come
back with some ideas it's it's up to you I've gotten enough direction to come
back with something but any more direction would be great I know that we
want to have a minimum balance it sounds like and we want to ask for an increase
at least the equivalent of what the downtown reinvestment grant had
definitely want to get to a goal closer to 3 million in the short term so so
Erica when we're looking at our various pots that we have mm-hmm do we have a
pot where we can get three million much of hot has already been spoken for but
mixed beverage probably to the tune at least of what the downtown reinvestment
grant had but we'd have to look into that further what is that amount I'm
sorry the downtown reinvestment grant what amount does that is that one
hundred thousand dollars so we're talking about a serious change in order
to make this happen well no yeah to get to get to where we're talking about we
just say we want three million dollars and ask the council go figure out how to
get there to get if we added a hundred and we'd start putting 250 in there
that's a lot better but that's still years away from having a balance it's
gonna sway an opinion of somebody coming here versus McKinney or wherever else so
can we go back to the expiring incentives again it looks like that was
the mechanism that might get us there that could be it seems to me so far the
best suggestion well and that's the other the reason I brought up a cap so
that future councils you know if we say we start adding five hundred thousand
dollars a year from this and we get to three million dollars I also understand
that if there's this pot of money sitting out there it's not use they start
getting pressure from people though why are we not spending that and so if
there's a minimum trying to get in a cap once we get to that cap that money goes
back into the general fund until we spend some of it again so that we've got
this range we want to be between here and here at all times over ready to
somebody comes across a desk I think it's a really worthy use of our time to
discuss this and give direction and counsel to our City Council if we want
the type of jobs that are going to continue to elevate the standard of
living here and help those that need help and under our parks and everything
else you know that the types of positions we want we need to be
competitive with and Denton is a great place but it's just not going to be able
to be sold to every group that we want that's going to continue to increase our
standard of living so I very much appreciate all the work that has gone
into this and I I think it's very much worth time at our joint meeting to
continue the conversation and appreciate everyone's input for aspects that I'm
familiar with so it sounds like this group is thinking two to three million
dollars and how do we get there in less than seven to ten years and then what
happens if we do spend you know somebody came along we wanted to spend a million
dollars of that how do we get back to the two or three million dollars piece
of cake that's why the City Council members make the big bucks right so we'll
add that we'll make sure that's on our agenda we'll confirm that we get to that
line item anybody else have any more words of wisdom or anything want to talk
about on that item question before we stop when we have our meeting with the
City Council our joint meeting can we have some sense of what our
competition is doing out there maybe some of the communities around us
because there's a lot of stuff going on it would be interesting I mean we're not
gonna be a McKinney or Frisco but it'd be interesting to know you know what
what our competition looks like and what they're doing
Gainesville is a good example they have a business park and money and they're
within 30 miles of Peterbilt they wanted to they're actually a competitor for
somebody that wanted to come in and do that so yeah they're able to partner
with NCT see to do a lot of programs as well to their anything else all right
thank you item D receive a report hold the discussion on the joint meeting of
the Economic Development Partnership Board and the Denton City Council on
September 9th not a coincidence so September 9th at 1130 a.m. you have been
scheduled for your joint City Council EDP meeting it will be in this room
we're going to fit I promise it'll be close but we're going to fit and really
wanted to give the board an opportunity to suggest ideas to the to the mayor and
City Council and the city's agenda committee to put on for that agenda for
consideration it sounds like the Investment Fund is number 1a perhaps on
the list but welcome any feedback that the board has and in on page 62 I've
added there was one other item that had been mentioned before which was the
membership makeup of the EDP look taking another look at the ordinance and how
the board is structured but that was sort of not set in stone wanted to give
I would like to have that on there anybody have any items they want to talk
so I some of the things that I had written down are for us to discuss and
review our current target industries just so that we're all go down that list
and say here's what we're targeting this is anybody have any discussion or not
you know I get a lot of questions about why are we getting all these cold
storage facilities coming that's because because we have really great location
and utilities and the synergy of those companies out there it's not that we're
not trying to get office or you know national headquarters or whatnot it's
just we've got kind of a location and a place for all that but be good to run
through thank you those target industries my opinion on that
you know it's interesting I I'm just an inner-city kid with a suit on okay so I
use a lot of figurative language we're trying to weigh people down to say
please come today so who are we trying to get here I mean I don't really know
what the audience is I mean you know it's our list of target industries yeah
but who is that what do they look like I mean I sit on the economic development
board here but if you ask me who our target audience is I don't really know I
know we're trying to get business I know we rely on on the on the chamber and
this board and the and the staff here to go out and hustle business but I don't
really know they are so I think we really need to have a good definition of
who our target audience is and you know what we need to do differently I need to
flip flag sandwich board or pretty girls or what pretty guys I'm over gonna do
well we get folks here so I have on my list is I think it'd be good for us to
review what this board does and how things happen again we have a lot of
really new people on here and I know we've said this but it's complicated
it's complicated because we have a city department and a budget we have a
chamber department and two budgets private and public budgets and Adam is
is out marketing the chamber supposed to go out and market and bring folks in and
the city's supposed to get them off the hook and bring them to fruition and
probably wouldn't hurt for us to talk about that again and I'm thinking the
City Council might use a update as well so I don't know how long that takes or
if anybody's interested in doing that but that's something I thought I also
thought it'd be good to go back over the 2017 ROI report Erica had we've we've
gone over that three or four months ago but it gives you a history instead of
looking at a graph here's a synopsis on what's been happening at razor ranch or
any of any number of those here's when it started here's how much we said we
would do here's where they're at they're on target here's what it expires and how
much money because frankly a lot of these ones we've done in the past are
tens of millions of dollars in incentive applications that we have talked about
six eight ten years ago the things we've been looking at the last couple months
or peanuts into comparison to some of these other things we've been looking at
so I think it'd be good for us to maybe not go over every one of them but have
that report there and talk about the different ones or ask questions about
that kind of in a group yes and I think I would add a subset to that target
industries that would allow us to look at trends because for example I could see
us attract in a JCPenney who's about to fall off the stock market they're at a
trading at a penny and they have that giant landscape in Plano so our tax
rates a little higher than Plano but we could also with the new headquarters you
can maybe massage that a bit and lower your footprint and you have working
capital here in the three universities so I think like in my mind I think a
retail type quarter because that is going through a pain point and you kind
of pair the retail pared down synergies with the shipping capabilities there in
the in the industrial district and I think you have something so I think if
we look at kind of current trends in the market and try to build something that
places us in a unique position to maybe come behind some of the larger cities
and kind of be a come here instead of I think that that really would would begin
to pick up traction and so I'd like to kind of have a no question have that
conversation about target industries in a perfect world here's who we bring but
also here's some industries that may be feeling some pain that we may be able to
draw in that aren't as headily targeted and maybe hadn't crunched the numbers
and so I think there's some opportunities there and I think there's
a to follow John's point I think there's some marketing that we're missing
because I hear from anyway I hear that Nebraska furniture goes to the colony
city council polar opposite problem we have they don't have workers in their
area they're having to bust them in so we have that component so if we can
market that differently to say in this region there's three or four high
schools where's the colony has one you know so I think there's some we have
some unique advantages that then it just it's incumbent upon us to kind of put
together some kind of packet that disseminates that information yeah be
good that I was not here today would be good to let him go over how we're doing
I think we're doing all that depending on who we're talking to as a reminder
on our target industries that gets approved by this board and City Council
every two years and updated goals and plans so this shouldn't be new
information to anybody I don't I can't rattle off the list but it comes through
this board and gets approved by City Council we updated every two years so
that'd be that's why I think it'd be good to have a discussion about those
target industries and why we're doing what we're doing it's good points
I would like to talk about the median wage to see if that needs to if we
think that's fine the way that it is or the percentage of it or if it needs to
be increased a little bit as we're talking about our target industries
that's a good point it's easy to say higher than how much higher than or if
we want to revisit median and average and all those kind of things I think I
think it's also important that every year we select a company this board does
it says we recognize you as being the top contributor to Denton I don't know
exactly what we call that but I remember doing that last year we're fixing the
vote on that today that's awesome this will be a good tie in there because the
same characteristics that we choose that award for those are the characteristics
of the companies that we want right because that's what we think's important
and so it's I don't want to say hey we don't have enough money to attract
companies because it's not always what didn't can give them it's what they can
give Denton that's why we're here right so I want to make sure that whenever we
do have that discussion with the joint me we need to talk about these are the
things like because their chamber gives an award away to that has criteria and
that's the criteria that we want because that's what we also do is important from
what makes an impact to the community so that's kind of where I'm at with that
so that's I made a comment about that's not enough money to get people off the
couch I just want to make sure it's not that's not the only thing that matters
right and that's doesn't hurt that's a I think everybody in here is what can you
do for the city what are you are you gonna give food away donate to serve
right not away all those kind of things and frankly Peter built is the kind of
live litmus test of everybody I compare everybody to that's the difference in
somebody coming in and then staff recommending a hundred thousand dollars
over four years or two hundred thousand dollars over six years and somebody like
a Peter bill coming up we say hey we got two million dollars in a fun and we want
to get when I get you here so that's that's why we're coming up with the
extra funds and we do have a criteria in our app like incentive application now
where we ask for companies to describe their level of community involvement and
community support and we do way that I remember that from the U.S. of each
presentation sometimes I don't do what they say they were gonna do when they
came in front of this board yes chamber I've heard this and hopefully I can get
away with this question am I still new enough I've heard this over and over we
don't want to be like Frisco and Plano and McKinney what part of their success
do we not want to mirror what part of they're extremely aggressive and it's
working for then from what I can tell in the time that I've been here four
months five months didn't has this deep deep rich history that is nothing like
those communities and I imagine that they're over there wondering how they
can get some of this over there but at this level at the economic development
level why wouldn't we want to be like that and maybe there's not an answer to
that today but why wouldn't we want to be aggressive progressive why wouldn't we
want to attract to these larger industries and why wouldn't we want to
find out what they're doing and mirror that question yeah no absolutely those
that mischaracterize those communities would tell you it's cement in the end and
overbuilt and over structured and over trafficked and all those things and I
challenge that because one Plano's tax rate is 20 cents lower than ours and I
think that's you know positive and if you drive down headquarters road you
can't see any of those companies but for the trees landscaping berms so it's
absolutely steeped in misnomer fear concern over non realistic experiences
but if you don't drive headquarters row or whatever they call it you don't know
you know and so I think that they they only will see a the stone briar snapshot
of Frisco and not the other components you know but I'm absolutely with you
there's there's one reason the Walberg's are moving their hamburger joint from
the East Coast to Texas and it's blue star you know and being in that kind of
that development that aggressiveness so I but I to answer your question I think
it's just people misunderstanding and misrepresenting what it they snapshot of
stone briar that's lots of parking lots but the difference is also there's areas
that are well-treated and and and conservative but yeah so I think that's
the that's the answer I would give you and I want to quantify my statement in
that I choose Denton too and I do love the uniqueness and I don't think that
Denton is in any danger of becoming any of those things in personality or
uniqueness but my goodness don't we want I mean we have things that they don't
have like space we have land and we have we still have space left to develop
they're having to build straight up they're hemmed in where we do have these
great opportunities and I'm just asking I'm just asking what can we do to help
think outside of the box and how can we help and who can we partner with to be
more aggressive and bring all those things that build this community into
the picture that everyone in this room has in their head for this community
Marty one question relatively new to the board here what can we do at a high
level just to give some idea of the city's plan for our growth you know where
are these companies working these companies go you know from a map
perspective what's available out there what's being developed kind of a long
term plan of where we were our industrial growth is playing from the
city perspective and maybe just get a better feel for I think you mentioned
it John earlier where these guys gonna go be interesting to see kind of what
that looks like I think on our future agenda items is that one of our we have
industrial park space or lack of space or it's a good point we're about to run
out of space on our tours and that'd be a good topic to have overview yeah we
can definitely bring back and to you from a planning perspective you know we
just went through like the massive city-wide free-zoning and that was to
become compliant with the future land use plan and what does that look like
because there are still large areas that are undeveloped and so how do we guide
that I think a lot of these questions that are being asked today maybe a
little bit very broad for an hour and a half discussion with the City Council
but again I will come back to you we are going to be going through a
comprehensive planning process for economic development and I think that a
lot of these points and I have taken a lot of notes I'm running out of space on
the page need to come back in that discussion so if we can narrow down to
maybe three or four kind of topic areas for the City Council discussion that
would that would help staff out a lot but I'm open to to any we will craft it
whichever way the board deems appropriate I think the number of top
couple of topics are board makeup and establishing the fund and the criteria
for that and then review of targeted industries and targeted industries
think we're setting the agenda or suggesting agenda items for yes but she
was if anyone wanted to know what they currently are those are renewable energy
advanced manufacturing aviation and aerospace research and development
information technology supply chain for existing primary employers and
significant consumers of municipal utilities and that gets talked about an
updated twice a year but I think it'd be good to take a look at that that may
cover an hour and a half
this board votes on that list twice every two years we've been doing that
and it comes in a big report and I don't know that we've changed that very much
but we talked about it cities staff talks about a chamber I mean the City
Council talks about it we identify that I don't know I can't tell you that we
added somebody or subtracted somebody renewable energy is one that we've added
two years ago or if not maybe four years ago because of the additions we've done
here in the city so those are all those industries this group and the City
Council has all had conversations about every two years as we update our
policies and there are national trade shows that circle around these
industries and that's our job to reach out to those and attend those things and
make contacts within those industries right now that's what Adam does set up
a big booth brightly colored wave him down yeah that's what's happening some
of them so Adam some of his marketing is going specifically to a conference of
those type of people where aerospace is gonna be there the other ones are he's
going specifically to conferences where their site selectors are all that so
those are all people that are repping all kinds of companies so he's talking
to those real estate companies on any other conversation on items for our
agenda with the City Council all right thank you it's a good discussion we get
and we get an hour and a half all right item EDP 19 - 040 045 because we're
meeting on September 9th with the joint meeting we need to talk about canceling
our September 11th meeting or not if we don't have any incentive request or
anything like that it's easy to go ahead and send out the staff reports and not
have a meeting so everybody okay with canceling that month that monthly
meeting since we're gonna be on Monday all right hang in there guys item EDP 19
- 046 receive report hold discussion and consider approval of changing the name
of the Denton the downtown didn't pass force to the downtown economic
development committee and adopting a downtown economic development committee
policy so as Jessica's walking up there we talked about this last month we also
staff took this to the downtown economic development task force and
presented this and I attended and answered a few questions they've actually
met twice since we talked about this they made a couple of seemingly
reasonable suggested changes and other than that I think they're okay with
everything right I will I will go through this pretty quickly and just kind of
point out the changes that they suggested and so on July 11th a task
force reviewed the full draft with the changes that the EDP had made so the
draft that you have I would say it's substantially similar as I go through in
the kind of terms that are in the policy on they're noted in red so you see them
so they did and like the name change of the downtown economic development
committee so good with that and they can concurred with it extending the area map
so you have a new map in your backup that extends south to Eagle they asked
about adding a instead of staying the Main Street president having it be a
member of the Main Street executive committee that is a voting member they
asked to add a representative with general knowledge of urban planning and
then staff as I was reading the term limit section realized it was pretty
confusingly worded and so I just cleaned up that section a little bit to make it
clear so the sections were authorization and purpose the only change here like I
said is the map and this is what the new map looks like that is in your packet on
page 70 of your packet and the change was it previously just went straight
across Prairie so we went down Bell to Eagle now again I would say that we've
written it pretty broad this isn't a hard boundary this doesn't mean that if
there's a business coming in somewhere along Fort Worth Drive that it wouldn't
have an impact on downtown we would still bring that through the committee we
would just it would be a little bit more subjective and here are the changes that
were made to membership and structure representative with general knowledge of
urban planning and that the executive someone from the executive committee be
a full voting member and then clarifying that and it's three consecutive two-year
terms and that the group the initial 13 members will split six members or seven
members one will have one year and one will have two year terms what we're
gonna do so that no one is short change the group that gets one year can serve
three full two-year terms that one year term doesn't limit them and then no
changes to the meetings and reporting and they did at their last meeting their
August meeting agree to change the date of their meetings so they'll actually be
meeting with enough time that we won't have a month lag between them meeting
and the EDP meeting so when they're making recommendations they'll come back
to you quicker so we thought that was a smart move so some someone who's on the
hook waiting for feedback or something isn't waiting for a month and then right
now we have it scheduled we'll be placing an item quarterly on the EDP
agenda to get an update on the activities of the committee so really
what's important today is next step so if you have changes and so the policy is
drafted certainly let me know but it's in front of you for consideration our
goal would be to get recommendations for who would be the appointments to the to
the board that would be separate from the EDP recommendation remember there'll
be one number of EDP serving on the on the committee that's actually on your
agenda today if you choose to make that nomination today and then our goal would
be at at the October meeting of the EDP that we would bring back nominations
appointments to nominate that with the new members being seated depending on I
didn't know when they were going to change their meeting date to so being
seated if they met after you in October or before you they would be seated at
their first meeting and in November and that's sort of the their game plan
so I'm okay with all this my only question is if you could clarify remind
me so this committee wanted to add a Main Street Association member and then
they just wanted to make sure it was an executive
we suggested the Main Street president as that member and they asked it could
just be somebody from their executive committee in the case somebody was better
suited to make the meetings or whatever and are there three members in their
executive committee I guess my question would be on that does that mean they're
gonna have the same person from the executive committee come every year I
don't want somebody new coming every it would be someone from that group would
have to be appointed by this body so it would be the individual okay it wouldn't
be just an open seat that any of the four could attend there would be any more
discussion or questions we have not talked about attendance for this
committee it's not it's not written in here I would say for just about every
other board the attendance policy is guided by the city's boards and
commissions handbook this board isn't subject to that because they're not a
city of Denton border Commission they're an economic development partnership
border subcommittee so subcommittee and so it's a little bit complicated but we
could add a line that says that their attendance policy will be in line with
the boards and commissions if we want attendance to be it's pretty important
that they attend meetings for me personally that would be okay I mean it's
up to this body I think they've had really good attendance they may not
meet every month if they don't have an item but generally speaking I think
they've got good attendance what that does is gives you an out in case
somebody's never showing up and they're on a two-year term you can re-appoint
somebody because they're not coming so I think it that helps
all right any other questions or concerns if not take a motion
I'll move to approve I'll second with the change for the attendance you good
with that John I'm good with that all right we had a motion and a second any
further discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries
our next item is receive report EDP 19-047 receive report hold discussion
and appoint one or more members of the economic development partnership board
to the downtown economic development committee so one of the things I guess
it's got this conversation started off with was we've always loosely had
somebody on this board on that committee because it was a subcommittee and we
could report back and just wanted I guess we are reconfirming that so we
need to nominate somebody from our committee to do that so who's not here
the second question is who wants to be there I'm happy to do it if that's what
the committee wants I've done it forever and I care about downtown but if
somebody else wants to do it I'm happy for anybody else to do it - and thank you
well what do you want to make a motion and let somebody else do that I'm serious
anybody wants to do I'm I feel weird going back no it would be very much
appreciative and ideal I move we appoint Marty Rivers to the newly named
downtown Economic Development Committee I will second that any discussion all
those in favor say aye aye any opposed all right that's a great group folks
all right we have item EDP 19-049 get a report hold discussion and give
staff direction regarding the selection of our business recipients for the
recognition that our mayor and City Council business awards of breakfast
it's Academy Awards time feels that way doesn't it did you pass out a sheet for
yes I did if you would all please look at the blue topped additional side
packet this is the this has the criteria that were outlined by the board for both
the small business meaning under 100 employees and large business criteria
and I do need to specify that because last tech a meat market it actually has
ownership on the board Jimmy Mejia that you'll need to refrain from discussion
regarding the selection of the small business award recipient but you will be
able to join back in then on the large business recipient so anyway if we could
get started we've met the last two or three different meetings you've had an
opportunity to nominate potential businesses for as your recipient for
small and large businesses and so this gives you an opportunity to see where
they fall across the selection criteria and I did want to mention in in
researching I saw yes I've been waiting months every day I drive by on my way to
work to see if it's open I'm so psyched and then the response to that was yet
somebody else saying rats the day I leave for two months well delicious
fajita meat awaits me when I get back so it was it was big fun on my part to be
able to go in and research these companies and see additionally as I was
going through some of the comments that were made and of course we're talking
about laws tech and meat market law is techa the ones in that are in Denton are
owned and operated by the Mejia family and they opened their first location on
I-35 in 2003 and you'll notice the second location opened in the former
pickly wiggly in 2016 the I-35 location moved to a new site on ACME and opened
in the fall of 2018 property tax for Bellorum for both sites is at four
million they do donate to regional and state nonprofits Red Cross fallen
officers and Texas troopers I know that there's consideration of participating
with local charities as well as North Central Texas College kind of in the
future considerations they they have had successful practice the parent operation
actually has 11 different sites owned by two separate families in the North Texas
area so they have competed very successfully against other Hispanic and
Latino grocery markets and continue to look for ways to do outreach to their
customers their family on grocery story can eat in the store and when people come
in like me that have no idea what to do with 20 different kinds of peppers staff
is on site to tell me and offer recipes so a very unique Denton centric kind of
experience Dan silver leaf Dan states on his website that they are a range of
live music from Texana to experimental staged with a roadhouse bar in the back
in a roadhouse bar with a back porch and in a glowing article in the Wall Street
Journal actually I'm sorry New York Times this has been several years back
they dubbed Dan's as quote-unquote the hub of Dentons unplugged music scene for
job creation workforce development Dan's has 15 employees and they're a dedicated
music venue that really supports local and touring musicians a lot of UNT
students and emerging bands get to cut their chops at day at Dan's Dan's bar
has been here for since 1995 not at that site they opened on Industrial Street in
2002 property tax valuation that whole Industrial Street area is the the
companies that are leasing so their their property tax valuation at twenty
two thousand is business personal property I've include BPP and all of the
calculations here Dan is board member or has been a board member on the Denton
Main Street Association he is a board member of the Denton music and arts
collaborative that has worked on initiatives to help support the arts and
music industry folks that are here in and Denton they're a benefit host to a
number of different nonprofits United Way greater than Arts Council C7 which is a
human trafficking halting human trafficking nonprofit organization many
many more he's the 2015 recipient of the Kara award that is for significantly
enhancing cultural life and outstanding support of fine arts so 2014 the
downtown task force actually does a business awards award at the business
awards breakfast and the downtown task force actually designated Dan and Dan
silver leaf for that award on that year since 2002 there have been numerous
press citations of Dan silver leaf as ground zero for dense emerging and
independent music scene so they are a placemaking venue for the downtown area
for visitation to downtown and people spending time there and and money there
there are considered a catalyst business while they have not done historic
preservation or so much investment per se in downtown revitalization they were
the first business in that industrial street strip that was a catalyst for
pulling other businesses there and there are a number of eating venues and
everything else in that area now so they were kind of a pioneer along those lines
Steve's wine bar this is a actually an out-of-retirement almost venture for
Steve and Karen severance they have purchased this it used to be big knee
wine and deli and that was on I believe East hickory and they have moved and
doubled their space by moving to industrial they have a back room that is
an event that venue and the construction on their patio is currently underway so
they are still growing property tax value again business personal property
here sixty six thousand dollars they're also involved in the community past
president of the debt and Rotary Club a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a
in two actually musician and two of the music groups that are constantly playing
with their place of worship successful business practices they're here they're
hanging in there they had no background at all in this area they just love
drinking wine and they have turned that into a successful venture by looking at
what is needed in Denton and by responding to what people are asking them
for the additional live music venue has targeted jazz performers so they are
providing an opportunity for the UNT jazz studies faculty and staff as well
as students to perform there and as well as again an event venue that adds that
opportunity to the downtown area and the fourth nominee that you all put forward
was Allison engineering group they have 14 employees they opened their office on
locust in 2005 and they recently relocated to a site on North Elm in 2018
their property tax valuation there is point seven six million Allison does
pro bono design services they save serve Denton over $50,000 in design services
putting in the Denton community food outreach at that serve Denton campus
they do pro bono work they help do the specific use or special use permit for
Wheeler house in its construction they were the served at business partner the
month member of the morning Kalana's and Chamber of Commerce board member so they
are doing service in the community for successful business practices they
belong to the professional organizations for engineering and downtown
revitalization historic preservation they're currently working on a the
historic preservation of the O'Neill Ford Fairhaven assisted living facility
that is a nine million dollar 30,000 square foot senior living project underway
so that's that's the gamut for small business and I didn't know whether we
wanted to discuss that first and and the large business later after you reach a
decision on smaller do you want me to go ahead with the large business now let's
since we only have one large business to talk about let's feel like if we don't
get to that point someone needs to leave we'll probably end up at the same place
so okay let's talk about okay these if that's with everyone can I add a couple
things sure why is Teco one of their community leadership as they have a
representative on the EDP board correct we don't have on here I'm sorry I want
to give them all the credit that's true that was the most obvious and I missed
it sorry about that Allison engineering to there and private economic development
investor with the chamber I think that's important to put on there as well they're
also involved in leadership didn't think of somebody on the okay steering
committee all right any comments questions motions
Julie yeah so I'm just gonna dance was my nomination so I'm going to continue to
advocate for dance so relief I although every business on here is a notable
contributing business to Denton I shop and attend all of them and I'm very
friendly with mr. Allison and appreciative of what he does for a
development community I still since we are in process of becoming a cultural
district we just were designated a music friendly city last year I think that it
would be really great if we could nominate or award a live music venue to
fall in line with that just to show that we are committed to to those things that
would be that would be my recommendation George first thanks to staff outstanding
kind of synopsis so I appreciate that I agree for our dynamic I think looking at
it on paper I mean it's kind of the the same experience you had that's not
captured on the paper that drives me and what to me causes a stack of that stand
out it's the it is the community it is the kind of you can go they go there you
eat you shop I kind of there's a social aspect there and just kind of the it's a
community that doesn't always get the recognition they deserve I think that's
important I didn't realize the 40 employees is dynamic to me I mean it
y'all are in business you get it I mean that it is tough it's a tough market to
find employees employees are tough to manage and so to me to have that two
different locations that means you're always in two places at once and so to
me just kind of that footprint that culture and what it represents to that
Denton field and that sense of community really jumps out at me I think again all
well-deserving I didn't know about the New York Times article that's fantastic
for Dan's but that kind of is that the employee number and just kind of the the
community aspect and then jump out at me as someone we want to kind of put to the
forefront so that's gonna be I don't know what the process is mr. chair as
far as how we never know what the problem just been thinking about that
these last couple minutes about I hate to have a motion for one and everybody
try to vote on one or not if you were doing that we may want to go around the
table and vote everybody say what they want here they would like and add them
up on I'm asking for suggestions
this decision is very difficult for me
although my preference is the stick for the reason that it is necessary to
use this opportunity to include this part of this community
en el pasado no no creo que ellos personas que reciben este award pero es
una oportunidad muy única para incluye una parte de este este comunidad no
incluyen pasado es todos mis palabras gracias
in other words I heard you I think it's an opportunity to to provide recognition
to a part of the community that has not been recognized sufficiently here to
for Dan is a very good friend of mine his his son and my and my daughter were
in high school together and we go way back I love Dan a lot I don't know mr.
Allison Steve's wine bar I've heard nothing but good things about them I
think they're all wonderful candidates I just feel like we have a unique
opportunity here and that's my choice can somebody remind me who the downtown
economic development task force voted for their to their subcommittee of ours
I was there and I can't remember they voted for the Locust Street businesses
Oh recovering from the fire okay several businesses I think we ought to go around
the table and you can talk or just vote and everybody with everybody but Jimmy
Jimmy can't now I'm deciding which part of the table Chris will start with you
that's okay well I've only been to one of these
businesses and so I can only speak intelligently about one of them but I
got all the facts and figures here on the paper here but I guess based on what
I read and what I see and I remember kind of creating this last year this
under a hundred employee thing if I was going to vote I would vote for a loss
tackle I am undecided at this point I would like to hear more feedback to pass
at this time oh I already said yeah sorry I'm gonna put in a vote for Allison
engineering group from an economic I love all for these people and I really
don't care who wins Dan's is great they have also already won an award from the
subcommittee of this group thought you'll long go for all those things we
talked about and doesn't mean we can't award them again I think that's great
and Steve's is great also Lee is up in front of council he's an economic
development he's involved in a lot of these projects that are helping drive
tax dollars and I think he's well liked by everybody he deals with in planning
he's been very instrumental through the didn't development Alliance actually the
staff has as far as working with planning and zoning this last year to
get go through the whole process of rewriting the code and the zoning maps
and their economic development partnership investors on the private
side they're the only one on this group that is and so they're putting their
money where their mouth is and right there so I'm gonna vote for those guys
she voted yes sir I voted already as well to stick with my nomination but I
do want to add about Allison engineering just in just to add my input about Lee
Allison he I value his opinion and ask him if I have any questions or concerns
about projects and their their group shows up and for the community and
values their input and listens and so I just would be remiss if I didn't say that
and when I had the opportunity Tony yeah Tony Clark I would vote for last
deck as well for all the things that have already been said you know the
Ortega family very well have a lot of respect for them what they've done in
this community as well as their other locations Bob Bob Ames I've known Dan
both professionally and drinking in his joints for a long time I think he's an
honest man and I think he's done a lot of good over a lot of years for the
community and so I would vote for Dan Jill looks like I'm the tiebreaker I'm
just kidding I'm all completely worthy I would put my vote to Allison engineering
group all right we've got seven if my numbers are right for laws TECA so that
will be our okay we've got I'll take a motion is our choice for small business
of the year award from the economic development partnership board second can
I make a friendly amendment to that that we give also a recognition that these
other companies were considered and we're all considered highly esteemed you
know some somehow we just we realize that's TECA we'll get the award but at
least acknowledging the others that is a conversation this group has had in the
past as far as we have listed finalists in the past and it seemed that it led to
some frustration on the part of some of the groups that were nominated a few
years in a row but didn't win so I would maybe deny the friendly motion for this
motion but give it as a topic for conversation but the intent I'm
completely in agreement with thank you Keely motion and a second any further
discussion all those in favor say aye any opposed all right and our large
business nominee does anybody we've been given information ahead of time does
anybody need Michelle to read through all that I can sit I can tell you in one
sentence they were awesome and the amount of outreach that they actually do
would have filled the entire page there was not enough space for it they're just
stellar only question I have is any any city department that's through like CBB
or anything like that are they in consideration for anything else or
although that you would not answer all that okay not at this point and with whom
we will speak and we can let them know hey they're already taken or they're
already being we try to diversify and not have the same folks right yeah
anybody like to make a motion I would like to make a motion to or I'd like to
nominate embassy suites for the large business award that's what it's called
there's a second second Gerard is seconded any further discussion all those
in favor say aye any opposed motion carries we are done with our agenda
anything anybody would like to put on as a future topic so our next meeting is
Monday September 9th at 1130 update we'll just change the calendar invitation
from the 11th to the night so we should be getting that from Michelle yes one
thing I from it's been a week so I'm not certain but if staff could help me
disseminate the information I think Mayor Watts is not going to be at that
joint session so I think he's not going to be at that meeting so if you have
something that you need to get to him if I'm right you may this group may email
him or something just in advance but just know I think he said he was it was
traveling that there's something going on we would be here so if there's
information to be shared with him may have to do it yeah it's a short timer
yeah all right we're German thank you for coming today good to see everybody