Nov 13, 2024 Economic Development Partnership Board on 2024-11-13 11:00 AM

- All right, I believe we have a quorum. - It looks really good. - Yeah, I thought it did too. - Is that accurate? - Yeah, that's correct. - Let's pick 'em up some time this week. (indistinct) - Yeah, it looked really good. - It's just the veteran. - That was a great tour. - That's the best. - That was a great tour. - Oh, good, I feel like I want that truck. - Okay, everyone, I've got 1103. We do have a quorum, which is seven members plus, and we'll go forward, good morning. Welcome to this meeting in the Economic Development Partnership Board. It is Wednesday, November 13th, 2024, it's 1103. We've established a quorum, so the meeting is called to order. We'll start with an opportunity to review minutes from September 11th. Are there any questions at this time? If no questions, can I get a motion? - So moved. - We have, thank you, and second, thank you. We have a motion and a second, any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. - Aye. - Any opposed? Same sign. Hearing none, that passes, and we'll move into, our next item is item B, ADP 24-088. Three, receive a report, hold a discussion, give staff direction regarding the meeting dates and times for the calendar year 2025, and let's take that forward, please. - Hi, everyone, my name is Vanessa Sparsa. I am the... - Where are we? - Board secretary. - Board liaison. Whatever you'd like, I get your food, whatever you need. These are the dates for 2025, and basically, we just want everybody to take a look, and as far in advance as you can let us know, if you're not gonna be able to make a meeting, just let us know, shoot me an email, and then fill out your notification of absence form, and get that signed. Usually here, we don't have any of these falling on any holidays, so we should be good, but do y'all have any questions? - Only thing I was gonna ask the group is if we wanna meet in July, 'cause we've had to, because of vacation and scheduling, and everybody never made the form in July, but we just wanna go ahead and just get stuff to the group, but if it has a good form, yeah. Might as well strike that one and not do it in July. - Okay, so I'm hearing, skip the July date, or would y'all like to move it to the following week? - I think skip it, personally. We have to make forms. - We could put an asterisk on it, and say we need an asterisk on it. - Yeah. - We can always, you can strike it, and we can do a special call. - Yeah, that's fine. - Okay, awesome, is there anything else? - All right, so we propose accepting next year's calendar, with the exception of July, July schedule board meeting. All in favor, signify by saying aye. - Aye. - Aye. - Any opposed? - I understand. - Hearing none, that passes, thank you. Great job. Okay. Next item is item C, EDP 24-081, Receive Reportable Discussions and Recommendation to City Council Regarding an Incentive Agreement for the Engentech North America Corporation for Performance-Based and Valerian Tax-Rebate. Ready to go? - I'm ready. - Take it away. - Hello board, Greg Sotelo, Economic Development Director. It's great to see you today. We're very excited to present an incentive application for Engentech North America. We will go through the presentation in whole, and I will transfer to Christina Davis Midway, who's been the primary project manager on the project. So let's go ahead and get started. I need this one, they gotta work as soon as I go up here. Okay, okay. Today's objective is to review an incentive application and seek your approval to then move forward to city council. Company background, they're an international company based in India with over 500 employees. They're an advanced injection molding manufacturer. They specialize in engineering and design automotive models for global companies. They are IATF 16949 certified systems manufacturers with highly engineered automotive equipment, part to patents. So with their specialized technology and patents, they are a highly skilled company, and they have rapid growth in part to their new pack car partnership and expansion to the U.S. So they have chosen Denton as their new North American headquarters. They will manufacture injection molded engine parts, the only one in Texas based out there in Mexico. We actually find out there was one of seven injection molding companies. They will be one of seven injection molding companies in Texas. And they plan to create 133 new jobs over a term of five years. And their growth is in part due to their partnership with Peterbilt. Pack car is our largest North American customer. They were awarded a zero PPM quality award for the last three years by Pack Car. And that's their global, Pack Car is our global company of Peterbilt. And what zero PPM means is parts per minute. Brian, did you know that by chance? - Parts per million. - Parts per million. Oh, I'm long. He did know that. Got that wrong. And they added new, since their announcement that they would move to Denton, or since they've chosen Denton as a site to move, they've added three new product contracts within the last 30 days. So here's a list of all of their global customers, including Chevrolet, Izuzu, Caterpillar, Kubota. They are a very well-known company worldwide. And just to share the timeline, I wanted to share that this is a very untraditional request due to the circumstances that they are moving from India. Our incentive process is a little bit off base. It's not our normal method of moving forward. So we're gonna share our timeline. Back in 2016, the company met PACR at a Mumbai conference. In 2018, they became a PACR vendor. In 2023, they started scouting locations across Texas and met with the chamber meeting staff in late 2023, and the city staff, I believe. In 2024, they met with, earlier this summer, they met with chamber staff, and then they met with the city staff in late July. They officially submitted their incentive application in August, and then in 2024, I'm sorry, in October, they negotiated incentives, and they finalized their lease. That was in late September, early October. And their goal is to start production in January of next year. And so this is a very much a chicken and egg situation in that the company, since they're moving from India, they're having to transfer, open up a bank account in order to open up a U.S. bank account they need a U.S. address. And so that is why they had to sign a lease. They're also having to transfer funds from their bank in India to America, and that hasn't been an easy process. As you can imagine, the fees, but they're having to pay for that. And then also setting up a U.S. bank account, is it easy as well, right, to pay for work, setting up legal documents has been a process, okay. So they have chosen to locate at 2025 North Mosh Branch Road building number two at the M380 Business Park. And on their incentive application, they listed that they would create 5.9 million dollars in investment, 200,000 in improvements, 5.7 million in business personal property, and 130 new jobs over a five-year term. So they did submit their incentive application prior to signing a lease, and that is okay in our incentive policy. Leaks do state that as long as they submit their incentive application before signing a lease, or any type of, getting any type of apartment, then they are allowed to ask for incentives. And so Christina Davis will go over the number, the jobs credit numbers. This isn't working, what am I supposed to do? I'll use the mixer, I'll use the mixer. Hello. So what we have here is the incentive and objective revenue that'll be generated by this project. We're looking at a 50% abatement rebate on business personal property for five years. We're looking at a headquarters grant of 50,000, and job space grant based on salaries and a bonus for debt and residence. Going through the columns from left over to right, we have cumulative totals for each year of the agreement, beginning at 110, 909, and then the fifth year, down to, my numbers are not right. Down to the total, the cumulative total of the five years comes out to $339,545, so the revenue for the city during the same timeframe, 50% for five years, and then 100% for the remaining five years because we do a 10 year picture of our revenue generation on the agreements. So years one through five, the city would gain 15,909, and years six through 10, $31,819. And so this is based on the land only, not on the business personal property. In the table below, we break that out for you in land, improvements, and business personal property. So the total valuation for current valuation is 3,154,606. The estimated increase of that valuation, land, there's not an increase because the land is already existing, the building is existing. We're looking at $200,000 in improvements and then business personal property of 5.6 million. At the end of the time period, we're looking at a total estimated revenue to the city for land of $4,019, improvements, 14,790, and the business personal property of 3,189. So the total annual on that will be $50,628. On the next slide, I have a corrected sheet that I handed out to each of you because my totals were off at the bottom. Excuse me. So this is a breakout of the jobs. During the five-year period, Inditech plans to add 133 jobs. During year one, there'll be 25 jobs and we're looking at starting their incentive with this year so we can capture all their startup and all their new employees if they'll be starting this first year. Year two will be 39 employees, year three, 43, year four, 14, and year five, 12. Looking at a total of 133 employees. The average base salary for those employees annually is $62,522 and hourly it's 30.06. On the second part of the presentation, we've done the calculations for you for the base salary plus an average of 30% for benefits and salary. And that's based on the standard benefits package. So you're looking at paid holidays, sick leave, insurance, share costs, and a 401 or other type of pension for retirement. So adding through those, the total annual salary for the benefits for all employees is $10,810. Sorry, $10,810,150, sorry. So any questions about the salaries part of this before we move on? We're good. - Okay, and also I wanna add on the previous slide, Vanessa. - Okay, please. - We are proposing a headquarters grant and that's something that we haven't done before. So we do wanna hear your opinions on if that's something that you would support because since they've already signed their lease, that's something typically we would provide in a relocation grant. But since they are headquarters, we're pitching a headquarters grant of $50,000. So we wanna hear your feedback after this presentation. And I do wanna say that the company leaders, Director Akshay and his team, Anil and Harsha, are here in the back and are here to answer any questions. - Thank you. One more slide, please. We do use the numbers available to us to create an economic impact report. For this project with the investment and the cities incentive, we're looking at a rate of return of 13.6 and then the payback period for that is 6.9. One other item I wanted to point out to you is under the net benefits, over 10 years to the city, it calculates out at just over $115,000. I don't know what else to point out on this slide, but basically, those are the key factors. Go ahead, Brian. - I have a question 'cause they are manufacturers of, you know, they do injection molding. Do we do any kind of analysis on how it'll help DME from a revenue perspective because it should be pretty high energy usage? - Based on the information we had on the machines at the beginning of the application process, DME did not see them as a significant user of energy, but that falls toward their being more environmentally friendly and helping us with those kinds of things. So the machinery that they've chosen is low energy use. - And that more from a revenue perspective. - Revenue perspective, yes. - My point is, this is gonna help DME with their base customer power. - I just calculate in on the cap model. I'm not sure which category it goes under, but the revenue back to the city is one that it calculates that goes into the net benefit and the rate on return. She was speaking to, we did look at them to see if they would qualify for additional incentives for DME, and they didn't currently meet that threshold, but we certainly are capturing the revenue they're gonna pay into the city as part of that calculation. - I believe it's part of the cost and then the net net revenue, right? The projected revenue and the financial impact for this project, Ingenhec is expecting a 30% increase in revenue over the next three years of the project. The cost savings analysis, so the local production is expected to help them with the USMCA umbrella, so the cost of bringing things through in the United States, Mexico, Canada agreement, if those work or trade. So having them here locally, it helps with that instead of having to bring things in from out of the country. And then Ingenhec is committed to sustainable financial growth and helping other companies within the area to succeed. The way that this project aligns with our policy and our plans, it is a key focus area too, which is fostering economic opportunity and affordability, fosters growth through the supply chain logistics, advanced manufacturing, research, and development. It's one thing we didn't talk about is that Ingenhec designs and builds all of their own products. So they're doing their own research and development, they're owning their patents, so this is a patented technology. Also goes toward energy efficiency and conservation, and then green buildings, and it's a building that they're moving into is LEED certified silver. And also a goal three of the strategic plan to strengthen community inclusion, so workforce collaboration and growing our own talent initiative. Next one. So the benefits of Ingenhec being in Denton is that this location will be the North American headquarters. They will be a top 20 employer once they're up at full capacity with 133 employees. They are a global chain supplier, so they supply in all the countries that Pat Carr has products and companies in, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia. They will be one of seven injection molding companies in Texas, and based on their NICS code, they were the only one I could find that does engine parts. So we have lots that do medical and things like that, but they were the only ones for engine parts. They do have sustainable practices. They do have, originally, when they came to us, they were looking to purchase a piece of property and build their own facility. But due to timing, they didn't, they went with the lease process. So hopefully in the future, they'll build a facility here and be here much longer. The jobs that they have there do require some specific knowledge. So they'll be working through training with North Central Texas College, the DISD, and other opportunities for training. So our request for you today is for options and directions. We're hoping to see a chapter 380 grant for performance-based ad-lorm tax rebate, 50% for five years. A job-based grant, which includes 70 jobs based on the eligible jobs in our plan matrix, and 32 additional jobs for Denton residents. And then the agreement would include evaluation of the branch hold and cap of funding of $339,545. Well, the other option is snow and center. Would you like to entertain any questions? - You may have, it's a five or 10-year lease that they've signed. - The lease itself will be incentive? Application is required-- - No, no, the lease that they've signed-- - I think there'll be a question for action. - I need to pick up. - Hi. - Oh, I'm sorry, can I get you to come up here, please? - Can I introduce yourself? - Yeah, yeah. - So this is five years, but we plan to do a motion of starting to identify land when we start the production in Q1, 2025, because the current location will take care of only four machines and limit the amount of production, so we need a larger scale. Our product portfolio is a lot wider. Many of the things that we're currently doing in India are already used here, and we just have to pick them up from there and get them here under the USMCA. So this five-year lease, in the meanwhile, we're looking to find a place for a piece of land and begin the construction. - So you guys want to own the ventures? - Yes, yes. - So it's an agreement, 380 agreement, correct? So the 380 agreement, if it's an agreement, will actually, the abatement will actually be to the building owner, it'll be passed back to you guys through triple nets, is that how this is structured? - For the business personal property. - Just the business personal property, that's all, it's an agreement, also. - It is, it is real property, business personal property, so just everything, the interior of this whole thing. - Okay, so no, we're not doing any, okay, perfect. That answers my question. - So, you brought up, I got two questions. I mean, on the headquarter grant, what are the rules of that? Like, what are the specifications? Because in this case, it's not their corporate headquarters, it's just their US headquarters, right? So, what, you asked the question, does this, what's our feedback? But I guess I would volley that back to you and say, what are the guidelines that are in place for the definition? - Right, so this is something new, it's a new concept. This, I mean, it's not in the policy. We do have the SGA strategic growth areas, so under competitiveness, there is an option where you can provide, if there are headquarters, you can provide a grant, and then I'm gonna ask Erica to actually come up and speak on what our typical relocation grant measures are for. And since we can't, and Scott Fray may wanna speak to this as well, we didn't, there were some issues or many confusion on why we would provide a grant funding for a company that's already signed a lease, but due to the timing of everything, right? It's kind of backwards for us. Then, this is why we decided to do the headquarters grant. So, Erica, do you mind speaking upon what we typically do for the relocation grants, and then I'll take you back and talk about that. - And I'm not as so much as worried about that as they're not relocating their headquarters, are they? - They're not relocating their US locations, US headquarters. - You're doing a subsidiary for North America here? - No, this is not a subsidiary, this is a fresh company. - Okay. - And the ownership remains the same what we have in India, but it's a separate company that we've established here. - So, it is a North American headquarters. - Correct, North American headquarters. - That depends on your grant definition. - Which we don't have a definition, it sounds like. - But that's similar to Toyota. They have the North American headquarters. That's what they do. Sounds the same structure. - Erica Sullivan, economic development program administrator. Speaking to our policy, our job-based grants, they are for relocation typically and for expansion. So, headquarters is a new concept. What she mentioned is the strategic growth areas. These are our priority considerations, and headquarters is one of those areas, if you remember from the criteria that we look at. So, basically what we have in our job-based grant is set up in the agreement. So, the policy is pretty general. It doesn't specifically say how it's gonna be enforced. Typically, with the job-based grant we required, in the past we required a W-2 and an offer letter, 'cause most people aren't hired January 1. So, the offer letter will make up that amount when we do that. We've done ad valorem and job-based grants as well. And so, the different particulars are set up in the agreement on how we specifically address that. But the rebate is a percentage based on, in this case, 50% for the five-year term. And we've done five years typically for all of our job-based grants that we've done. - Is the 50,000, is that through the treaty agreement, or is that a grant ran through on top of that? - It's a cash grant up front. Typically, what we've done for the cash relocation grants is it helps them do the finish out. We had Team of Defenders, we had From the Future, SACREN, and then Ranchland also received that. But basically, it's helping them set up the facility to move out of stoke in the case of Team of Defenders so that we reimburse all their expenses for their new facility, including rent, and then everything to the facility. - But it's a reimbursement after the money's-- - Yes. They're all done reimbursement basis. - Great. - And Christina had a point that's similar on any of the cash ones to build in parameters to make sure they meet certain milestones, to mention certificate of occupancy was being put in there, and other milestones before money is given. - That's what I was talking about with the agreement, that they continually occupy the funds that they're going to use for example. - So after five years, let's say their lease is up, and they decide to move to a neighboring city. What impact does that have on this? - That would be beyond the term of the agreement. - Right, so what's the net after five years? Was it $4,000? Is that what it is? - No. - I'm not sure I understand the question. - If they leave prior 'cause we showed a payback period and a rate of return based on assumption of years, if they leave before that. - It's a 10-year basis, so that would need to be adjusted, so yes. - They left it in that time. - But then it happens at seven years, right? Seven years. - Yeah, they wouldn't like it. - Or we have to look at the... Can you go back to the-- - It's a break-in. - It happens after 10 years. - It happens. - Okay. - The rate of return and the payback period. - So that's five years after seven years. - This one? - No. (mumbles) - So it had a payback period of seven years, 6.9 years, and a rate of return of 13.5. That's assuming the assumptions that we have today, we would need to go back to the model. - So based on what we're providing them in grants, it's gonna take seven years for us to get payback, if they're eligible for all the stuff, and they're only committed for five years, so we could lose money on this in a five-year period, correct? - It depends on how you look at it. They all have different varying rate of returns. For Project Orange, that was very rare when you have like a three-year rate of return, for example, but we have had some that have a 16-year rate of return. We passed as well, by and large. So it depends on what that particular project offers and what you're looking for. That had a community benefit, for example, by and large. - We'll add a callback clause where we require, if they don't meet certain measures gross grade every year, if they don't meet the Avalorum valuation every year, then they won't get that rebate the following year. So those are the measures that we take to protect ourselves, and that's our total economic impact that we will have a return of, this is for nine years, but it doesn't mean that they're gonna get the full grant funding. So all the callback measures where they'll have to pay back all the money that we provided them if they don't meet those measures, and also they won't get it if they don't meet the measures that fall in, second or third year or fourth, or whatever that may be. - So we're tracking it each year to callback if they hadn't met it, and then we, so we have stage gates along the way. And, you know, to, honestly, for what we're giving is pretty minimal compared to other places. So I'm good if it's seven years, you know, where you have a two-year risk there, that's pretty minimal. - So the payback you're trying to get, so that role for us is a 50-gaddy split, right? So if they don't come, there's no money. - That's right. - So all you're trying to recruit in the seven-year payback is the 50% you left. So we still make 50, which you're not counting at all, which is income. So if the payback is on what you let them have, it doesn't mean we didn't make any money all the time. - Right. - Good for the, is it the next slide, maybe? This one. - About one. - That one. So you have 70, or I'm sorry, 27 jobs over 100,000. Then you scroll down and you look at the annual base salary and you add up all the ones, total number, yours one through five, there's only 17 jobs there. Where's the other 10? - So we're actually basing it off the annual base salary plus benefits. And the reason why we did this is because we were gonna be short about three jobs, they weren't gonna be eligible for this grant by three jobs if we just used the base salary. So that's why we're using with benefits. In the agreement, we're gonna require them to report how much they're paying in 401k, whatever benefits, right? That's something we haven't done in the past. Our policy doesn't necessarily say if you have to use base salary or with benefits. Our practice has been just to use base salary. - Well, if you remember in our last conversation when we went through all that, we made a big argument that benefits matter. And so my argument would be we should be using that every time, because that was a whole discussion when we did our last checklist was, if you're paying insurance, if you're paying 401k, that's real dollars and another company may not be paying. So I think we did it properly. - That's how we did that this time. - 'Cause we had-- (overlapping chatter) - Contractors are given the same value or less and it gets tied to the benefit. - That's right. - So I agree with that. - Yeah, I mean, what's in that? Benefits and above in 100k is 27 people. (overlapping chatter) - Yeah, well, she's got the color code. (overlapping chatter) - Help for each section that goes up through the file. - Yeah. (overlapping chatter) - I'd make a motion to approve. - Second. - I second. - Oh, sorry. - I got a question from legal. Do I need to recuse myself? - It's not your business. I think if it, no, I think the fact that there's a-- - There's a tie, so I was asking. - I don't think there's any reason you need to. - Okay. (overlapping chatter) - Does Pat Card, the sole contractor? - No. - They have other contracts. - They have other contracts. - But ultimately, that's your choice. You know, whether you recuse us in the discretion of things. (overlapping chatter) - We have a motion and a second. Did you get that recorded? Further conversation, discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to vote. All in favor, signify by saying aye. - Aye. - Aye. - Opposed, same. Hearing none, we'll approve that and we're going to the next, thank you. Great job, great conversation, everyone. Thank you for coming in. We appreciate your attendance. (overlapping chatter) (audience applauds) - So, I think our group's coming up. He's our business agreement specialist. We are going to get more creative with our incentive proposals just because we need to be competitive to other cities. And since we don't have large incentive funds, we will start seeing creative packages like this. At any point, if you have any questions, let us know. - Good morning, everybody. I'm Clay Parker. I'm a business agreement specialist here at the Office of Economic Development. And today I'm gonna bring you an application from Bloomfield Homes. So, today we're presenting their incentive application and trying to seek approval for a recommendation to city council next week. So, Bloomfield Homes is a market-leading home builder. They are a top five in the DFW metro area. And they're headquartered down in South Lake for the last 20 years. And currently in Denton, you can see two of their neighborhoods right here on the Southwest where they're building 248 new homes in Country Lakes and Glenwood Meadows, both of those neighborhoods. So, they currently pay local sales tax on their construction materials at the place where they simply buy them, those warehouses where lumber is or stone is. Alternatively, they can issue a Texas direct payment permit, which I'll get into the requirements of later and how they qualify for that. And that allows a home builder or any company that qualifies to pay taxes on those materials at the job site where it is used. So, in this case, they're paying on the taxes for those materials at those two neighborhoods in the city limits of Denton. So, they're proposing to us to enter a 10-year Chapter 380 agreement where they will use their direct pay permit and the company will receive a 33% rebate from us from this newly acquired funding. And we will retain 67% of that new revenue that otherwise would go to the cities where the suppliers have their warehouses. So, for that Texas direct payment permit, you have to qualify by purchasing $800,000 of eligible sales annually. And that allows you to pay taxes directly to the controller as opposed to paying to the supplier upfront. And those items have to be for the purchaser's own use and not for an immediate resale. So, in this case, they can't turn around and sell that lumber to somebody else. They're gonna use it to build a house and to sell that house. This is not a new thing for Bloomfield. It's not a new thing for home builders in general. First Texas does this as well. And they currently, Bloomfield specifically, utilize this permit with 21 different communities within DFW, such as ANA, Salagna, a lot of our neighbors and a lot of our friends. So, this is kind of how the math breaks down based on what they estimate to be the average cost of the materials of their houses. So, it's about $75,000 for materials per house. And you multiply that by our local sales tax rate of one and a half percent. And that gets you about $1,000 per house in sales tax revenue generated. Again, outside of this agreement, that sales tax revenue is being dispersed between multiple cities based on where the materials are. But in this case, if all of that was paid at job site in Denton, under this current agreement, that new funding would, 33% of it would go to Bloomfield. So, that'd be $375 per house. We would get new funding of $750 per house. Let me go to the next slide. This is how it adds up, 248 homes in these two neighborhoods, for that $750 that we're gonna get, that's $186,000 of new sales tax revenue that we would not have access to otherwise. And that is assuming a 0% inflation, depending on how long it takes to build these houses and how much materials change. If you assume 5% annual increase, that goes up to 237,000. And if you assume an 8% increase, that goes up to $278,000. But construction materials fluctuate, it's all up in the air. Here's where we start on investment. Obviously, this expands the tax base. It provides the city with over $186,000 that we otherwise would not have access to. It also creates good relationships with Bloomfield, which helps with business retention when it comes to construction jobs, based on how much they estimate the need for construction workers on a per house level. They estimate it's about 992 construction jobs throughout the construction of both of these neighborhoods. Bloomfield's also a sustainable company. They try their best to use efficient HVAC lighting appliances and it's a part of a lot of their certification, how they advertise their solid homes. And they're also a charitable company. In a lot of the neighborhoods they set up, they have food pantries and library reading programs, a lot of positive stuff for the communities that they are investing in. So the incentive recommendation would be to do a chapter 380 grant, which is a sales tax rebate on those construction materials at 33% for 10 years. Then for your options, it is following through that staff recommendation for opting to choose no incentives. - So question, on the, you said the $186,000 we wouldn't normally get, does that assume they don't build a house? - That assumes, so they're building the houses, that assumes that they don't opt to use that tax and direct pay permit. So otherwise, say lumber, for instance. Bloomfield specifically and most home builders get lumber from First Source Building, which is out in Frisco. So I buy it at that warehouse, technically all that sales tax for lumber goes to Frisco, but under this current agreement, it would be able to pay at job site, which would be in the detected neighborhood. - Excellent, excellent. The assumption is that none of their suppliers currently exist and didn't count. - The majority of their suppliers. - They're preferred suppliers that they use. They probably are suppliers that provide it, but that's probably not who they use as their go-to. - Well, my question is, is if they buy it, then do we still split those tax savings if they were doing business alone? - Yes. - We've looked at this on multifamily in pretty high level detail in the past, and there's a lot of work that goes into it on their side to keep the records for this. My issue with these has only been, I think I can support it, but it incentivized them to buy supplies outside of Denton because they split or we're giving up tax that we would get for our businesses that are currently in debt. So that's where I've always kind of, not sure if it's a one-time project and everything's out that they're outside of town and they're not doing business with 84 lumber out here already, 'cause now we're splitting that tax savings already. So that's where I kind of have a little bit of, we never did it in our multifamily world, just because one, it's a lot of paperwork. They probably have good processes 'cause they're doing it in multiple cities to do that, but does it incentivize doing business in Denton? That's my only kind of downside. And if their vendor list is already, no, they're not buying from vendors out of Denton anyway. Do we have that information of what business are doing in Denton and what they're not? - So we have some information on, obviously we don't have as much information on what they're buying outside. We have some of the tax revenue from the last few years of what they've done here. It reflects that they're buying outside of Denton in terms of it doesn't look like something like 90% of their materials are coming from here or anything like that. - We would probably also, if they give you information on a neighborhood in Francisco, then there'll be different suppliers when they're using it in Denton. So you'd have to almost cop it with another neighborhood they've done in Denton and where do they spend their money to come up with that? It's gonna be hard to-- - Really, it's not a big needle mover, right? It's 186,000. Is there any extra work that that's gonna cost the city to do accounting for you? So is it all done through the state? - For that administrative stuff, that's part of their agreement where they're basically handling all of it. - So is it gonna put any extra workload on the city staff? - There'll be some compliance and maintaining compliance with it. But the catalyst behind this was we're trying to get creative with our incentives and right now this conversation of economic development is competitive. That's just the way it is. And we see this as a way to increase the tax base without paying down cash. - It's very easy to administer 'cause we've done to already. With Winkow, we did sales and use for construction. We didn't do it over a 10-year period. It was one time for the equipping of their facility. We also did it for O'Reilly, the Convention Center, one time. There's actually two separate codes that the city receives and work with our finance department, 26 and 27, so we literally can marry them up with their returns if they give us some of the comptroller. And I think we were like four cents off on one of them. So very easy to administer with the taxes directly. - That's what I'm just going, if it's gonna add a big uplift, we've gotta add, you know, for ongoing one project, I kind of get that, right? It's a one, but an ongoing kind of thing. - It would be a semi-annual draw. So it wouldn't be that much administrative time. We wouldn't be doing it on a monthly basis. Like we do for some of our sales tax incentives. So that would be a lot easier to end use. - Mr. Melton. - Yeah, thanks. Other people know about this too, right? It's not just like only Ed knows about this. - Yeah, they currently have agreements with 21 different communities, Bloomfield specifically. It's public record to who has a Texas Direct Pay Permit. So you can go to the website of the comptrollers and type in home so you can see it. First Texas has it. - I wasn't really looking at the list. My point is, you know, essentially we're, we're kind of bogarting sales tax from another community. Presumably, others will catch on to this. And I'd be interested in your point of view on what the implications are if this becomes the general practice. Does it create a race to the bottom on sales tax rates? 'Cause who can attract, who can kind of attract the most, you know, sales tax opportunities from other communities? Does it? - It's already there. - Yeah, I can answer for Clay so he doesn't have to. But economic development isn't a fair process. Like it is competitive. We've had this conversation and the model-- - Do we win in that competition is my question. - I'm sorry? - I get it's competitive. To win when everybody's doing it. - I mean, that's the model and that's what we have to be aggressive in what we're going after. And that was kind of our charge with this committee and how do we get creative? How do we get out there and pull some of this? So if we step back and we're not pulling for it, it still exists and it's happening. So likely revenues being pulled from the city of Denton. - 'Cause I know I was just in a meeting up in Gainesville the other day and they passed the same thing for residential subdivision in Gainesville, the 10th Creek, this period. And I promise you that's their closest supplier to be competitive who've been coming out of Denton. 'Cause they're not gonna ship stuff out of the Metroplex to Gainesville for built houses. They're probably coming out of Denton, which is for shipping costs. Which is really smart for Gainesville to do that. They were a little ahead of the crowd. It might've been Cook County actually. May not have been the city of Gainesville. But it's happening all over. And I like the incentive. I think where we, I would support this, but I think where we can have more uplift, if you look at these multifamily projects that are going up everywhere, that's a big lumber package. That's probably, you know, seven, eight million dollars in just lumber alone. And we've talked about it in the past. It's just teaching people how to administer it. So it's happening everywhere right now. - And would it be more efficient in getting more benefits here by finding ways to incentivize them to buy here? - Yes, but the problem is, you look at lumberyards, builder's first sources, who they're buying from. And they're the largest lumber supplier. Or you look at how in apartments, we buy it directly from the mills to a broker, right? So there's no way a local lumber supplier could compete with what that is. So there's a lot of moving parts. That's what my original thought when I looked at this, I go, we're de-incentivizing buying here in town. But not really because they're just getting a piece of that tax incentive too, right? So that helps it up. But having other cities taking that from us is the problem, right? Because it's like Cook County, they're buying out of that problem. - So if you're a developing community, you're a pro-developing community, then this is the way to go. If you were a community that has a lot of suppliers, this is not the way to go. - That's right. - So I don't think we have the latter. - Yep. - So it's probably the way to go. - I think these are valid questions because of my exact thought process. We don't want to de-incentivize it. But if there's other companies taking our tax base, so, you know, from our suppliers. So it's a creative tax. And I think this is a good start. And I know, but the bigger projects is where this really works well, is kind of their purpose. - Good conversation. Do we have a motion? - Steve, right away. - I'm not opposed to this, but do you have a place I could go to get more information so I could read more about this, please? - Absolutely. The Comptroller has tons of perspectives. - I move that we approve the staff recommendation. I have a resource document that we can distribute. - We have a motion and a second. Any further conversation? It's okay if we don't. All right. (laughing) All in favor, say goodbye by saying that. Any opposed? Same sign. - I have an aye yet. I'm gonna say I appreciate the conversation. I give another point at the end. - Okay. So moved. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good job. Thanks everyone. (papers rustling) - All right. Is that all on the agenda? We move to work session now. Is that accurate? All right. First session. Going right ahead. Mr. Fines. - I didn't realize that I had a speaking part today. (laughing) - Should we get comfortable? - Yeah. I don't know if there's a significant amount of change since the last presentation that we did. The economic development or downtown plan was approved on September 17th with the city council. And I had actually asked Christine on another deal, a little bit of information about that. So I figured it'd probably be good just to echo her comments that she gave me early in the week about that. But it was approved for the expansion of that district in the downtown area. It will, it goes to the council work session on the 19th of this month. Hopefully, it'd correct me if these dates have changed. Then tourist board approval will be a special called meeting to be determined. Then it goes to public hearing on December 3rd, public hearing the second one on December 17th, and then looking for council approval on December 17th. And that'll expand the boundary of that district. And that goes, and I think most probably everybody in this group is well versed enough to know, but the outline expands down to Eagle and then out east on Hickory out toward the new development area. So anyway, I think a lot of activity on that. There were some, I guess, comments in our meeting with regard to this as well, Carol Boulevard and the road and the lanes being reduced and things like that to allow for more pedestrian access. I'm just giving you a 50,000 foot level 'cause I'm not an expert in all that. I don't know that there were any additional grant construction on the road. Everything was updated and done complete on that piece. And I think if they came back to do some improvement, I guess, not change orders, but corrections, and those are being completed, I presume, at this point. I don't know that from a grant standpoint, there were anything new from the last time that we met. Christine, what do you need? - I was telling you, next slide. - Okay. I don't think there was anything additional on that that we haven't already seen. Then we have an ambassador update. Next slide, next slide. Did you show us the trash in red, litter, in blue? You can see the last few months, there has been a little increase in the litter. The bill sticker is graffiti up and down. There's really no pattern on that, the last three months. Next slide. I don't know that this is, everybody's already kind of reviewed this. If you go to the downtown, openings and closings. But one thing I had a question on, the next slide, there was Omega's Dream Child Care open and closed in the three-month period, is that correct? - That is correct. - Okay. So, jobs gained obviously with Union Bear coming online. That was 90 of the 117. Net, or the jobs lost for the period were 14. So a net of 103 overall. And that's basically an update. The only other thing on the downtown national development committee just to kind of think about, and I talked to Steve a little bit about that, I didn't know it one year. I was the board chair for this year. So come January, there will be a new, I guess it'll come to this committee for a new appointment for that. And I would personally prefer someone else would stick up here so I can get back to work a little bit. (laughing) A few more hours. - You guys did a great job though. (laughing) - Any questions? Thank you. - Good job. (footsteps) - This one? - Yep. Up next is major records report since we last saw you. It's been two months since we last saw you, but we've had a lot of great news coming out of our office and our team's office. So South Park expansion was approved. Congratulations, this was something that you approved. Put yourself on the back. You can count this on your portfolios, resumes, whatever, it might be on your time serving on this board, but that's 95 jobs. And I think it's what, $17 million? A couple of us that had to pull up my laptop. But congratulations, we're excited. South Fire, they're still waiting for TechSoc to finalize their loop expansion plans, but it's still in the works. Next slide. We do have a very exciting announcement. Stoltz North USA just announced that they are moving to Denton. So this was something that was brought because of our, I feel like it was our due diligence and our efforts in hosting them. So they first contacted both the chamber and the city's staff to meet back in, I think it was July, August. So we planned an initial site tour with the CEO of the company, Brian Hapmaker, and his colleagues. And so we brought in Jamie Adams with the Economic Development Partnership. And then we brought in Charlie Roosevelt with Development Services, D&E, Tony Puente, and Jeff Filder. And then we also brought in Workforce Solutions. And so we didn't hear back from them for a few weeks. They did contact us later to ask about incentives. And they did bring their HR director to come and look at the site. They are looking at leasing, it's the third leasing building, number three, at 288 and 380 Logistics Park. So the HR director, we hosted them at the NBC Suites. And I'm trying to think who else was in the room. Clay was in the room, Christina, Jamie. And we also brought in another gentleman, Workforce Solutions. And so we didn't hear back from them for a few weeks. And then we heard back maybe a month, a few weeks ago actually, and said, "Hey, we signed the lease, we're moving to Denton." So they decided to opt out and send us because of the lengthy process that we have. That's a conversation for another day. But so we're excited to have them. They are opening their third location here. They manufacture technology, cooling equipment for data centers. And so their initial project name was Project Westward because they wanted to move west. So again, so third facility is gonna be their only one in Texas, we're excited about. 200 jobs and a $17 million capital investment. And so if you don't follow us on social media, please do because that's where we're releasing the latest announcements. Wing launch, as you know, they launched at the Walmart on Loop 288 on October 2nd. And we are still planning the tour for the board. They've launched in both Lancaster and I think 40 maybe, I can't remember the other site. So they've been a little bit busy, but the tour is still underway. We'll send you those dates whenever we get them. So Wing is flying within a six mile delivery radius and they currently have 10 delivery drones. And we're looking forward to their next expansion at that same Walmart, which we will announce here soon. Well, Lunsford had their groundbreaking for Denton Point number three, four and five. That's three additional buildings, a little over 450,000 square feet of development of I say warehouse space. And so they invited us to attend. So we're excited about that. I think one of the Lunsford owners said that they weren't worried about filling those buildings just because Denton is a hot market. Our staff attended the Move America Trade Show in Austin and the trade show focused on mobility, technology and sustainability. And so we met with several startup companies that are in the mobility tech world. We also went with Bill Kahn, research and development engineer for Peterbilt. Thank you, Jamie Adams for the sponsorship and Erin. And so we had a great time. Bill is actually over a lot of the innovation initiatives at Peterbilt. And so we didn't know when we walked into the trade show that there was gonna be a Peterbilt truck. And so it just so happened it was right there at the front entrance. It was like the start of the show. And so if you look closely at the truck, you can see all the sensors that have been added to this truck. And so Bill said that they are working with a lot of those mobility tech startups. So instead of Peterbilt having to invest in those tech companies, the tech companies are actually investing in themselves. And so then they're using the Peterbilt trucks to add their technology. And this one is for autonomous routes. I think they take a route in Texas somewhere, a rural area where they're driving autonomously. And so we're looking forward to seeing how that transpires. Brian, do you want to add on to this? Do you know about this company? - That's Aurora right there. It's Aurora Technologies. - They're driving around 200 trucks. - So pretty cool stuff going on. We were already met with a few of the companies that we met at the trade show. So looking forward to seeing what comes out of our connections. Training development. We've attended a few conferences in the past few months. Our staff attended the Texas Economic Development Council annual conference in Addison. We attended, first and foremost attended the Texas Downtown Association Conference and she presented on two panels over fire suppression and I think it's a panel with MEN Group, the consultant on the Downtown Master Plan. So really proud of her. And then Matilda attended the UNT Advanced Air Mobility Symposium. So we are out and about representing Denton. And then we met with the Dallas Regional Chamber. In case you don't know, we get leads from the state of Texas and we also get leads from the Dallas Regional Chamber. And so we want to ensure that our partnership is strengthened so if they have any prospects, we want them to continue sending them to us because as you can imagine, with all the cities in the Department of Agriculture, it could be hard to say, "Oh, this city." They say they don't play favorites, but let's, you know, 'cause everyone plays favorites. So we met with them, Mike Rosa and Kevin Shatley, they're the head leaders of the Economic Development Division and it's always great to talk to them because it's like talking to a therapist. They're really great. They kind of know what's going on in the region and kind of the pros and cons. But what they did say is it didn't just seem to make sure that they are out there promoting, continuing promoting yourselves. So, next slide. Our new CRM, so we currently, well, we're using POSFET as a database to track our prospects and leads. So now we officially moved over to a new system called EDOIQ that specializes in economic development. So as you can see already, the dashboard is 100% better. So once we start loading, our data from POSFET has already been loaded into the system and so now we're gonna start adding our new prospects and leads. So you'll start seeing better reporting from us in the near future. So Projects in Progress, our downtown area utility grant. Kristen Pulio and our city management team in finance has put this downtown utility grant together and I wanna ask her to come up here and speak just a little bit on it. She's primarily a project manager. - Hello, good morning. I wanted to talk briefly about the utility grant. So according to the council strategic plans, council priorities, small business, development of small businesses was key with a key focus area. And so city leadership reached out and so they wanna put together this downtown small business utility grant and on September 24th, council approved the grant. And so we sent out over 500 letters to our downtown small businesses. As of today, we have 23 businesses that have applied, which is about even to the businesses that applied for the ARPA funding. This is what we're using the remaining ARPA funding money for is for this downtown small business grant. And so I think back in 2021, only about 28 businesses applied for the ARPA funding. And so we're right on track and hopefully we can continue to get our small businesses. This is a reimbursement grant. So they will see the reimbursement on their December bill up to $1,000. So each business has to apply and then they can be reimbursed for up to $1,000 on their utility bill. Thank you. All right, in addition, we are hosting a small business bootcamp in partnership with SCORE. SCORE is funded by the Small Business Administration. So they have a network of mentors across the United States and their former executives like yourselves that are just, they're retired, they don't know what else to do. And so they're helping entrepreneurs get into business and helping them with general business resources. And so we have partnered with our Community Services Department and our Development Services Department to host these workshops. So Courtney Donohue, I know I'm gonna miss... Oh gosh, should I say it first thing? Courtney Donohue. Okay, I can't say her last name. She's great. She had a grant that supported these workshops. And so our second workshop is this Thursday. Initially 17 people signed up and we had about 10 people show up last Thursday, which is great. It was raining that night, but there just seems to be a real hunger for small business education for our residents. So we're excited about that. And then we plan to continue hosting workshops. Priscilla. - We have three more people call like the next day and I'll have to find out who they are. (indistinct) - That was really important getting that. - So we sent it out. We have social media ads and we sent it out via, oh gosh, I think we contacted a church, we contacted churches. Who else did we contact? Priscilla, can you answer that? - Churches, social media. We actually did flyers in the Southeast Denton area and direct mailers. - And we distributed it in the Friday report, which (indistinct) (indistinct) - Thank you. - Next time. - Okay. In addition, we are working on Tourism and Boundary Amendment. That is what Jeremy spoke about. We are the men group who worked on the downtown master plan has recommended that we expand the boundaries. And so we will include Quaker Town Park. They wanted to include north of the right of ways on North on Carroll Street to university. Those are areas not currently included in the downtown tourist boundaries. And so if we're expanding, of course that'll allow more funding to use for some of the bigger products that are proposing the master plan. And so it's an entire process. We have our first public hearing on December 3rd, second public hearings, December 17th, and then our four tours were meeting on December 4th. And so it's, we're kind of pushing the deadline right now. It's a little bit, it's moving quickly, but we really want to include this base year value so we can start collecting increment next year. So that's a goal. And then the last one is incentive effectiveness study. That's something that I mentioned when we first got here. We all know that we're not as competitive in our incentives area. So we're going to release the RFI to several consultants so that they can tell us, compare us to other cities and compare our incentive policies and also compare maybe impact fee waivers, whatever it may be to make us, to help us recruit more companies in the future. So that's what we're aiming to be part of that study. - Yes, it is, it is. So thank you. - So getting rid of the train going to be part of that study. I'd like to see that as an option. - We're definitely looking to funding, yes. - That would be a huge part of that. - Thanks, Lee, appreciate it. Okay, so we have a lot of good things in the works. We've been, we've been busy for sure. So if you have any questions for us, any ideas, and then future let us know. That's all I have. Oh, sorry. - Yeah, comment and a question. I'll just share if it wasn't already obvious that on the, it's not a complete coincidence that the downtown area utility grant happened around the same time that the state decided to cream downtown with a surprise construction project in September. So I'm just bringing that out to you. I figured why you saw council action on that. But my question is, 35 days of Halloween, my observation to everybody is, what a home run. I'm curious if you have a sense yet of sales tax versus expenditures. - Not yet, sales tax is about a two month delay before you get the reporting information from the state. So we'll be doing a full report once we have those numbers. The initial numbers we have on foot traffic show 145,000 visitors above last year in the same time period with 60% of those not being residents. So really outstanding foot traffic numbers. And then the initial response from the downtown businesses, one of the businesses on the square sent that email saying that it was a record year for their sales. And typically during an election year, sales are down and they were the highest they've been. And typically his highest numbers are around the tree lighting day. And he was in record numbers every weekend. - In fact, another downtown owner this morning said that in October was the biggest month they'd ever had. - There was an article in the Denton record probably. - We were, yes. - It said 145,000 and 43K in merchandise sales. - We're really looking forward to being able to show that full economics report. We released some preliminary stats, but overwhelming positive response. So just excited to see that. - Everybody give a thumbs up to the parks department. I mean, they work pretty well. - We appreciate that man. - You can invite him next week and speak about that. - Well, let him get all the stuff. (laughing) - We want him to take a vacation. - Yeah. (laughing) - But honestly, he's already planning next year. Like he was already. - We're lucky to have him. - Brittany, thank you. Any other questions for Brittany? Thank you. Jamie. (murmuring) Jamie, how's economic building partnerships? I just got a handful of slides. We'll talk about our business protection and expansion efforts. Any feedback you have would be great or any advice you have would be great. But what the EDP is tasked with is engaging with our established businesses. And that's key within our Denton community. We want to identify needs and provide support. Welcome to stay here. One of the things I always tell everybody, I don't want you to leave until the night. I want you to be here. I want you to be in Denton. I want you to talk to me about how we can help you stay and also help you expand. Going out and meeting with everybody and getting tours is a great resource for that. And that's kind of our main approach as opposed to sending online surveys or just reaching out via email. Four strategies I focus on are obviously assisting businesses, like I said, proactive engagement. You don't want to meet with somebody and they say, hey, we're 90 days from closing. We want to make sure we're out visiting everybody who can address their needs and help them provide any economic benefits that they have. That essentially means I've come to help desk and help them find answers that are needed where they'd be community partners in our first city. The next part is over the course of a year, I try to approach 48 businesses about four a month. And I want to point out that a lot of, when you think BR&E, you think we're just visiting major businesses, we are. Down there was Jocelyn, it's after Winko, but I visited a taekwondo place. We visited restaurants. We visited entertainment venues. Trying to get out and visit as many people as possible I think is very important. So that's our overall reporting, which you'll see at the end of the year, we're producing a lot of information. Top five challenges we're hearing from everybody. Obviously workforce development is one of them. Everybody wants to have a partner with their education. People in town from UNT, T of U, NCTC, or NISD. Transportation assistance. How do I get my employees to work? Brittany's favorite, incentives. People always want to ask about incentives. Employee satisfaction ideas has come up a lot. You know, from, do we put a weight in their manner, or do we take them to a Cowboys game, or whatever it may be. So they always want to pick my brand and learn some good employee satisfaction ideas. Top five challenges we hear, time to time. Some other, you know, broader feedback we get. Hey, my rent increased, I'm looking for some resources. That's typically, we recommend people to Swell Business Development Center. I want to expand, which is always great. I want to be involved with more industry leaders. That's when we sign up for the EDP. Seeking connections, workforce development. Transportation assistance, like I mentioned. And, you know, a lot of turnover from young young people. So we're working a lot with the Grown Academy and developed that youth pipeline. So we hear a lot, and it was talked about this morning at breakfast, that high school students aren't ready for workforce, ready for college, and trying to help them be there. So there's not that term for it, it's important. Help that's provided from my standpoint, business to business relationship, workforce connections, business to community, relationship is huge too, and infrastructure concerns. And that's a lot of that is just sharing information or connecting with the right people so they can get their questions answered. Over the last couple, over the last year, we've hosted a couple of events that kind of spoke to business potential expansion. We had a HR round table, which is always great to get to know our HR leaders in the community. That was a really good event. And then we had a couple of industrial round tables, one at Unity, Discovery Park, one at Tetra Pak. But the main, one of the main things I want to point out is when I met Brittany within five minutes of meeting her, she told me I need to have manufacturing dates. She's been pressing me on that. We are, that's a national day that we're going to sign up for and have it, hopefully in the next fall working with her, in ISD and NCTC to host a day that brings our industrial partners together, where students can get to know them and know what it's like to work. And I'll hopefully stay here and do that. That was a quick and fast business potential expansion, but, Mr. Toro, what we're doing. Is there any questions on that or any questions for the EDP? - Any questions? I really appreciate the update on the projects, so thank you for bringing that forward. Appreciate the report. Great. All right, Christine. - Last item, short and sweet. We have our calendar for the end of the year. Next month, I believe we just have standard items on that agenda. So if there are additional topics as incentive agreements advance, then we will add them to the calendar. If there are any additional topics that the committee's interested in, please let Steve know and he'll work that with Brittany and I. But through the end of the year, we just expect updates and regular action items next month. But very much appreciate the attendance and engagement and encouragement as we go after these different incentives. - All right, any other items to be brought forward? - I'll just comment that the airport has undergone a one-way repair, actually a reconstruction. Somebody somewhere along the line made the runway so that it was higher in the middle than it was on each end. You couldn't see an airplane run into the other. That's against the FAA rules. $17 million later, it has now been fixed. You can see from one end to the other. But it's a nose rule. - You could make a mirror right in the middle. - Yeah. - It's very nice. - So it's a big improvement, and hopefully we'll start seeing some activity to start opening the Westside. - Thank you for that. - All right, y'all, as always, thank you. Appreciate your attendance and participation. That time of internment, 12/13. Thank you.