WEBVTT

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 All right, we're going to go ahead and get kicked off now that we have the forum.

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 So good morning, welcome to the meeting of the Economic Development Partnership Board.

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 It's Wednesday, October 8th, 2025.

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 We have established a forum, so I'm calling the meeting at order at 11.05 a.m.

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 Please join me in welcoming Councilmember Byrd to the board meeting.

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 She is filling Mayor Huntsman's city council seat.

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 All right, we've got calls for, so we'll now begin with presentations from members of the public.

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 Do we have any requests for public comment?

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 We'll now begin with items for consideration.

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 Item A, EDP 25-028, consider approval of the meeting minutes for September 10th, 2025.

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 Are there any questions?

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 I do have a motion, can I get a second?

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 Second.

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 Second from Leo Morales.

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 All in favor?

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 Aye.

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 Any opposed?

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 Motion passes.

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 Now for item B, EDP 25-029,

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 Receive a report, hold a discussion, and consider recommending approval to city council

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 for renewal of an agreement between the city of Denton and Hickory and Rail Ventures, LLC,

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 regarding an economic development program for Stoke Denton in the amount of $158,170

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 and provide an effective date.

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 The Chair recognizes Brittany Saltillo.

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 Are you going to be there to present?

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 Sure, so I will provide my updates here in a second, but Heather's going to start with

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 providing a reaffirming a report.

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 If you're going to be recusing yourself, you have to sign.

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 Do I need to step out?

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 I think it's up to you.

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 We're voting on that.

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 You can abstain from voting.

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 Well, if you're going to recuse yourself because you think you have a conflict of interest,

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 then you'll need to step out and you'll have to sign an effective recuse.

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 Hi, everybody.

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 Thank you for having me here today.

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 My name is Heather Gregory.

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 I'm the owner of Hickory and Rail Ventures, which has a public-private partnership with

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 the City of Denton Economic Development Department to operate Stoke.

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 And I'm going to kind of go over what we've done in the last year of our contract

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 to show you some of our efforts and the impacts of our program.

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 Because there's usually at least a new face, I like to go over the kind of history of Stoke

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 just so that we kind of are all on the same page.

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 So in July of 2016, the City of Denton had a lease that started at 608 East Hickory Street, Suite 128.

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 In December of 2017, the City entered into a partnership agreement with Hickory and Rail Ventures to operate Stoke.

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 The City at that time paid the rent and the maintenance of the space.

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 We paid for the staff and the programming efforts.

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 In June of 2021, the City's lease expired and Hickory and Rail Ventures signed our own lease with the landlord for that Suite 128.

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 At that time, the City and Hickory and Rail Ventures partnership shifted to a program partnership.

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 So we began receiving funding to do the entrepreneur support programming for entrepreneurs of Denton.

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 In 2021, 22, 23, and 24, that partnership agreement was unanimously approved by this board and by City Council to continue those efforts.

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 This last summer, that lease that we signed in 2021 expired.

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 We renewed the lease on that Suite 128 and expanded next door into Suite 130.

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 So we went from just over 9,000 square feet of space to just shy of 12,000 square feet.

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 It had eight private offices, two unisex restrooms, an improved mail and copy area, and a large multi-use community room.

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 It brings our total up to 28 private offices.

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 And then we have three conference rooms, a larger private community space that can be used for our internal programming and also be rented to the public.

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 When I was preparing these materials, our expansion wasn't quite done yet.

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 So these are pictures of the space that we've been operating since 2017.

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 We're going to have a ribbon cutting in November.

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 And so I invite you to come and see the expansion that we have now.

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 That expansion opened in September.

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 So that was the beginning of our operating in those 12,000 square feet.

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 So one aspect of what we do is really operate the co-working space and the memberships within that space.

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 We provide ecosystem building between the entrepreneurs that are in our membership.

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 We do that with monthly happy hours, monthly member huddles.

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 We do special events throughout the year.

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 A few months ago, we started offering free chair massage to members.

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 We have a really diverse member population anywhere from lawyers, bookkeepers, web developers, UX designers, videographers.

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 I mean, the skills are really, really diverse.

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 And so we try to bring people together to be able to learn from each other, work with each other, and kind of support each other's business growth.

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 On average, over the last 12 months, we've had about 100 monthly member companies.

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 And that equates to about 130 to 140 individuals, because many of these companies have more than one person as members of the space.

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 Over the last 24 months, through our member surveys, 72 percent of the respondents have said that their business has experienced growth during their membership.

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 That's through sales growth, job growth, new clients, raising funds or expanding their services or products.

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 We have an 8.9 out of 10 member satisfaction rate and a 7.5 out of 10 net promoter score.

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 And again, so this is kind of the one aspect of what we do.

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 Within the 12,000 square feet, we are providing a professional workplace for people to use, offer amenities like conference room, printing, and then the kind of entrepreneurial ecosystem of members.

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 We also do programs and events that are open to the Denton community as a whole and also regionally.

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 And so I'm going to kind of run through some of the highlights and impacts of these programs and events that we do.

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 So kind of chronologically, because our contract started October 1 of last year, so the first event that we had was Global Entrepreneurship Week.

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 This is an effort that's worldwide, all hosted during one week of the year to celebrate and showcase entrepreneurship.

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 We host a series of events here in Denton.

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 We hosted five events over the course of the week that had over 175 attendees.

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 We showcased nine big ideas at our creative mixer, which included the ArtoMap machine that just had a ribbon cutting yesterday at the Greater Dent Arts Council.

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 And through the Pitch Competition and Entrepreneur Expo, 15 businesses were showcased, either through pitching their businesses or having a table in the Entrepreneur Expo.

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 That event, we sort of consider the Pitch Competition a program and event because people apply, we provide coaching to businesses, we get them ready to pitch, we select the top 10 that are ready to pitch,

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 and those 10 pitch in front of a panel of judges, which ultimately determine the winner, and a live audience.

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 So last year, we had four winners. The first, second, and third place winners are funded by our partnership.

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 And the Community Choice Award, we crowdfunded through some of our members, through audience at the event.

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 So we raised an additional $1,700, and the audience at the event voted on a Community Choice winner.

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 So we had four winners of the Pitch Competition last year. All of them were women, and half of them were minority entrepreneurs.

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 So this is some of the impacts of this program specifically from the winner.

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 Well, through the program, we've coached over 40 entrepreneurs, because like I said, we coach them to try to get them ready, understand their business models better,

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 their financials, understand how to best explain what they are doing, so that they're ready.

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 We've awarded over $30,000 to businesses of debt, and 80% of those winners over the last three years, we've done this event 22, 23, and 24.

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 80% of those winners over those three years have been women, and 40% have been BIPOC or LGBTQ.

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 And then information about those winners, you can see that the huge majority of them have experienced revenue growth,

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 customer growth, expanded reach, growing their team through jobs, or diversifying their services.

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 From program participants, so this is going to be people that maybe got coaching but weren't selected to pitch, or maybe they pitched but didn't win,

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 or they participated in the Entrepreneur Expo, you can see some of the business growth and the beneficial aspects of the program.

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 So that business growth includes new customers, new partners, new hires, new services, launching products, starting a new business, or increasing their revenue.

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 And I just kind of wanted to specifically highlight a few of the winners over the last three years.

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 So in 2022, one of the winners used the funds to improve their equipment to be able to kind of level up their service offerings.

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 Since then, they launched an entirely new business, creating a whole new customer base and 19 new customers for that new business.

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 Their revenue growth for this year over last is a 26% increase, and their climate growth is a 21% increase over last year.

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 In March of this year, they hired their first full-time person, and they annually engage over 20 independent contractors in their business.

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 2023 winner update, so this business, she was a speech language pathologist, and she was at the time only accepted private pay.

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 So what she wanted to do with the funds was to be able to go in network to accept insurance.

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 She now accepts six insurance carriers and has more in the pipeline.

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 Her revenue growth since the pitch competition has increased 400%.

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 Her client growth has increased 350%.

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 Her team has increased 300%.

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 And overall, the efficacy of her efforts have increased because people are getting discharged because they are accomplishing their goals, not because they can't continue to pay for the services.

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 2024 winner update was a therapist who had an additional office in her suite, and she wanted to be able to furnish it, to hire an additional therapist to increase her revenue for her business.

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 Her projected growth this year over last is a 68% increase, 45% increase in clients, and 100% job increase because she was able to hire an additional therapist.

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 They're also pursuing additional certifications to expand their service offerings.

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 One of the other programs that we do is Accelerate Her.

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 This is a female, this is an incubator program for female founders.

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 In January, we graduated our fifth cohort, and in September we started our sixth. The picture on the left are seven individuals that are a part of this sixth cohort of the program.

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 Overall, we have graduated 34 female founders. They've completed the five-month program.

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 And last year, or I guess that was early this year, we started hosting quarterly alumni meetups.

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 One of the huge benefits we see in this program is not just education and mentorship that we're providing to people, but the peer-to-peer learning that happens, and so we wanted to start bringing those peers together across cohorts.

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 And so we have the last two meetups. This was the smallest one we had, but it had representation from all five of the previous cohorts.

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 We hosted one a couple of weeks ago that had almost 30 people in the room.

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 So the power of these entrepreneurs getting together and sharing their wins and their resources and their knowledge is really, really powerful.

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 Some of the highlights of the business growth from this program include gaining new customers, increasing their staff, and increasing their revenue.

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 Spark is an event that we launched in March of 2024, and this one is one where we saw a gap to help creative entrepreneurs really identify not just as artists and creatives, but also as business people.

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 And so we provide quarterly networking events and educational opportunities for creative entrepreneurs.

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 So far, we just hosted this quarter's event last week, and so we've now hosted six events with 140 participants, but it's a great opportunity for creative individuals to come together and learn some of those business skills that they don't necessarily have.

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 Coffee and Convo is our mentorship program. This is small group mentorship. This brings people together by the subject matter expert or a veteran entrepreneur.

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 Some of the benefits of these of this program that the participants say is that they're building their connections and their network.

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 They get find a huge value in the quality of content and the diversity of the speakers, and they've also experienced business growth, including starting new businesses launching new services increasing their revenue.

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 Flint is an annual conference that we do every spring. It is a day long event. This last year included six speaker sessions, one hands on workshop to networking opportunities, and then we kick off the event the night before with a kind of a mixer and panel on

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 the economy. This year we were able to also also offer free headshots to every attendee, and we also provide a playbook for people to use so it includes worksheets that the speakers have provided talking points and prompts for people to really walk away

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 from the event and be able to continue their learning with this resource that we provide to them.

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 These are some of the pictures from this year's event. We've hosted the last two years at the greater than Arts Council.

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 Some of the outcomes like I said include some of the outcomes specifically that people are gaining from these things are improved financial literacy and efficiency in their workflow so that they can do more of what they do best and increase their

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 impact, increasing the revenue and gaining exposure for their businesses.

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 And then overall we just are trying to look at the impacts the programs and events that we do have for the community. You can see overall we have a really high effectiveness rating, and people are highly likely to recommend our programs to their

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 peers. And they're gaining really tactical skills that are growing their businesses, whether it be through jobs, through revenue, through learning ways to expand their service offerings and increase the number of revenue offerings that they have.

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 And so we're really proud of all of the, the entrepreneurs that participate in our programming, and the impacts that they've had.

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 I'm happy to answer any questions that you have about our efforts, or any information that you just saw or Brittany can take.

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 Yes.

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 No, we do not know we have a wide variety of entrepreneurs in our space and in our programming.

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 We see I think that some of like the winners of the pitch competition being women. A couple of those people were participants, either, either were were currently or previously participants in our accelerator program.

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 So I think it more speaks to the quality of the programming, and the fact that they're doing the work to understand their financials to understand their business model, they're, they're sort of immersed in the programming.

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 And so you see the outcomes, being successful there. That incubator program that we do is funded by Texas Women's University, but it is part of our kind of work metrics that we do with the city.

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 And so I like to report on that even though that funding is separate, but no we do not just cater to women of the of the pitch of the folks that participate in the pitch competition, typically at least half of them are men.

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 Or, you know, in the expo our membership leans a little bit more heavy men and the age range is also huge I mean we have anywhere from 25 to 60 age represented in our membership and in our programming as well.

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 So isn't a program that is kind of to help people on the early ages obviously the early stages of their business. And then, is there a set period of time that they stay in that or is the same, you know, 100 and whatever thousand that the city gives in their contract

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 and they go to the same people every year, 10 years or whatever.

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 For a long time they office there.

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 They have a dedicated desk.

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 That is, you know, that is what that is their like main office space.

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 We have seen are the people that participate in the program grow and change every year, the people in the incubator program change every year, the pitch competition changes every year, you're not eligible to participate in those programs, more than one so that those

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 very much like they're changing the support is changing who is who is available to and being provided to.

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 We definitely are, we support a lot of people that are starting and kind of growing in the first, I would say, one to eight years of their business.

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 We have members that have done more than that we have a member that just a couple of months ago, sold a business, we are trying to understand how we can better support businesses that are more established that are maybe looking for more exits that are maybe looking

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 to acquire other companies so we are working to understand how we can better serve businesses that have been in business for longer and maybe are looking for a different level of support but absolutely people.

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 People that participate in the program there are repeats that come to coffee and combos and things like that, but the pitch competition serves new people every single year.

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 Yeah, new people are coming in the expo as well. Yeah. So the initial, I guess strategy was to promote, I guess, startup new and existing.

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 Yes, I guess, I guess where I'm going with this is, is the city.

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 Continue to essentially subsidize a business that is an established business has been there for a long period of time.

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 That just continues to use that resource or is there a time out for you over a certain number of years, or you kind of asked this guy, what I was wondering is what is the, what is the time like what are the measures of success in the actual contract, kind of say, right.

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 Yeah, I'm trying to differentiate, like, someone that needs the help now versus an established business. And, you know, if you say that we're, you know, have 35 employees that are here but that's the same 35 employees that have been there for eight years.

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 It's, it's basically just an annuity that the city's paying to them and there's no new, no incremental gains is what I'm getting. So, so what, what shows that incremental gain or new businesses or new growth or, I guess you can understand where I'm going with this.

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 Yeah, the businesses that are participating in the program are not businesses that have been around for 10 years and have 35 employees.

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 Those are ones that we do believe that we could provide better training in terms of like management, leadership, how to, how to scale beyond that.

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 But the people that are these programs are designed for people that are starting and growing businesses people that have never done it before.

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 People that I mean, I don't know how many of you have ever run a business but sometimes it can take you a year or two to really kind of figure out what to do and what not to do and maybe you're an expert at your craft or design or marketing but you've never operated a business

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 before so we're helping them understand their business model, who their customers are and aren't how to reach those customers, how to access funding when they need to access funding so the people that are participating in the program are on the early side of things.

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 So is there, is there something that once you've got an established business for X number of years you can no longer be a part of that so that they don't keep draining the resources that could be available to another new business because I think if that's the, if that's the goal, what

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 kind of leverage do we have in place to support that maybe I'm wrong.

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 And, correct, and, and the, the funding that we get is, is not related to the co-working space that's something that they're paying no they're paying rent, it is funding is just going to these programs, correct, correct.

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 Yes, take back on the conversation then on on the businesses mix that you're having right.

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 I guess I'm looking into our area. What's your mix I mean you're gonna have a picture of everything, you're gonna have lawyers who are doing business in here but you'll have web developers who are doing business everywhere else but not necessarily meeting the people here so.

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 So, are you, are you asking about our members of our space or the program.

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 So, they are largely going to be Denton residents that are trying to create a job for themselves and for other people, and they don't know how to do that.

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 They maybe are working a job and they're trying to get out of that and so they're kind of starting as a side hustle, or they have some savings and they're trying to launch something.

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 And then they. So for example for the pitch competition. They have to be contributing to the tax base so they either have to be a Denton resident, they have to have a lease on a physical space and then they have to have their business registered here.

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 So the sales tax that they're collecting goes back into right so that there is a very specific requirement, because the benefit of that program is cash in their hands, they have to demonstrate that they are, we make them prove their eligibility of being contributing

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 to that tax base, which is why we're sort of we're looking at what is the job increase what is the revenue increase because that again kind of comes back into the tax base.

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 I have a similar question and it kind of ties to maybe the process and I think maybe we're all dancing around it is, and it's maybe a question for the city is do we feel as if, based on the parameters of our contract that y'all are doing, y'all are doing

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 the right, you know, like, like any other contract, like, you're meeting your measurement you're doing what the mission of the thing is for what we've agreed to subsidize basically so how do we, how do we know that, like, is there some kind of dashboard that

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 says yeah, I signed up to do these five things and yes I would say they're a green light on all the work plan. I mean we do so from the economic development strategic plan, we, there were a number of places where Stoke was called out in terms of efforts

00:26:51.200 --> 00:27:11.200
 for convening and championing growth and there's a number of things and then work plan items that are in our agreement, and then we submit annually sort of the efforts and outcomes of those efforts that tie back to and I guess that's where we're being asked to approve

00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:35.200
 or just kind of say hey I'm going to endorse this money, but I don't know what the, yeah you're, I mean I think on a high level sounds like you're doing really good, I don't think I have a problem with it but just maybe it's more of a process question it's like, from the city, how do I know that they really are, they're doing what's in the contract.

00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:50.200
 So Heather did submit a work plan. I believe it was included as an AIS exhibit item, but that's something we can share with you. So their contract does have a variety of work plan items. What I will say over the past five years since it was created, I think all the directors and probably

00:27:50.200 --> 00:28:05.200
 cycles have added on to it. And so there's a few slides I can go over that we're proposing to change. We do feel like she is meeting the measures but it could probably be cleaned up and where it's updated to today's world 2025.

00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:16.200
 Heather and our team have discussed partnering on a future mobility summit with UNT, where we are engaging more tech companies. I think that was our original goal back in 2017.

00:28:16.200 --> 00:28:30.200
 I don't know if Ditten was a prime candidate to build that ecosystem back then, but that's something we want to be board with changing. So Heather has said, I'm open to changing this work plan or collaborating with us in the future to focus solely on tech companies.

00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:36.200
 But I think you're right and that's something I hope in our board retreat that we can better define.

00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:48.200
 Typically we do include a draft contract in the board materials. We weren't able to do that because this was on a fast track because Heather has planned programming.

00:28:48.200 --> 00:29:01.200
 It will go to City Council next on October 21st. It's currently in legal's hands along with other agreements. And so he will potentially add additional performance metrics and then we'll go from there.

00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:09.200
 I think for this board it might be good to have just a one-pager. I don't need to go through a 40-page contract.

00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:22.200
 Here's high level, what we agree to. It's really like you do for any other incentive that you're presenting to us. This is why this is a good idea for us to endorse.

00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:37.200
 This is great. I don't want to take away from it. I support what everyone's doing. It's just from a governance perspective and everything else, we need to make sure we have back up to, hey, I like you.

00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:42.200
 That's why I'm approving your money. I want to know what's in the contract.

00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:55.200
 Apologies on our end. It was supposed to be included on there. She did provide a work plan to us. That's fine. I just want to make sure going forward.

00:29:55.200 --> 00:30:05.200
 I think it's very similar to what would be for any other incentive where the city, yeah, y'all meet, y'all be over the work plan. And yes, we agree this is a good idea. This is a good program.

00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:16.200
 We agreed that, you know, these five things are hit. They're knocking it out of the park. I just like this board, in my opinion, needs that second outside. Yeah, we're good.

00:30:16.200 --> 00:30:27.200
 There is an option to potentially and Scott, correct me if I'm wrong, to extend the contract for a few months while we can better define those performance metrics.

00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:54.200
 I think that is, Scott, is that something that is an option? Yeah, I just, I want to get to, but that point's been talked about, the idea that getting feedback from y'all on the specific performance metrics that y'all want to see, and then getting those into the contract, I think because of Stoke's calendar, financial calendar, kind of calendar, and then maybe the funding.

00:30:54.200 --> 00:31:21.200
 Correct. We're working on the pitch competition for November, which makes sense. Yeah, so, so there was a discussion about extending the contract under the current terms, as they are, for a few months, and then coming back with more fleshed out performance metrics in a longer term agreement later.

00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:26.200
 That's not been decided on.

00:31:26.200 --> 00:31:49.200
 What's y'all's recommendation? I think to me, it's, I'm fine going forward. I'm talking more about a process in the future that if we feel in good faith and everyone endorses that this is, they are fulfilling their contract, which I'm confident they are, this is more of a procedural thing, is what I'm getting at.

00:31:49.200 --> 00:32:04.200
 That way we can make sure the board's kind of informed in a certain way, right, about all these different things, then I'm fine, personally, I don't know what the other board members think.

00:32:04.200 --> 00:32:33.200
 Can I share a little bit of perspective? I was actually involved when this program began, and what this behind it is, when you look at an economic development strategy, there are several components. You've got your attraction component, you're trying to recruit new companies, you've got your retention component, expansion, where you're trying to keep your businesses here and help them expand and bring in new jobs, and you've got your small business development and entrepreneurship support.

00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:55.200
 And this is kind of, this is a public-private partnership that essentially outsources that key component of an overall economic development strategy. So that's kind of the background on it, and I think that Heather's group has delivered what has been expected up until now.

00:32:55.200 --> 00:33:18.200
 And if we want to look at either the process or kind of what's included in that contract, I think we can certainly do that. But I think Heather's been a stabilizing force for Stoke and has delivered an incredible amount of programming for a very small amount of money over the several years.

00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:42.200
 And I just want to continue. Open nine years in August. So I've kind of seen it through the years, and I think that she's delivered what has been expected of her from the city's perspective, but if there's a desire from this board to change those expectations, I would say let's visit that.

00:33:42.200 --> 00:34:00.200
 It's not changing, it's more of a what's the procedure to report as confidence, just like we do any other incentive that we recommend. Like, yeah, we agree to these five things, and based on this, they're knocking it out, right? That's all. That's basically what I'm asking.

00:34:00.200 --> 00:34:17.200
 What are the metrics? Yeah, just like any other contract, right? But if I happen to know I have that contract, we'll see.

00:34:17.200 --> 00:34:39.200
 I just want to add that I feel very confident in Stoke. I have been a fan of you all since the inception, and have even had an opportunity to watch my daughter pitch. So I know the process is there, so I'm confident in that area.

00:34:39.200 --> 00:34:55.200
 I can certainly agree with him that we, this is my first meeting, and I haven't even thought through anything, and I certainly do appreciate you bringing in as much as you possibly can to us.

00:34:55.200 --> 00:35:05.200
 But as you were speaking, going back on kindergarten level, what makes you all different from our Chamber of Commerce?

00:35:05.200 --> 00:35:20.200
 We are providing education, mentorship, and like I said, so we have people that are great at something, whatever it is, and they want to work for themselves, but they didn't go to business school.

00:35:20.200 --> 00:35:41.200
 They've never gotten any training, and so we are the people that are, through our coffee and convo's, they can learn about how to do a business plan, how to do strategic planning, how to do their financials, how to consider taxes when it's time, those sort of fundamental business components.

00:35:41.200 --> 00:36:07.200
 We are providing the education. I do one-on-one coaching and mentorship with people, and then it is a, whereas I think the Chamber is supporting small businesses, technically, because up to 500 people, according to the SBA, is a small business, but larger small businesses, more established, larger teams.

00:36:07.200 --> 00:36:29.200
 We are helping people work to kind of get to that level, but sometimes our businesses are one person, maybe they grow to two or five over a number of years, but we are helping those people get to a point of needing to be a member of a Chamber of Commerce, or maybe they are because they're there for networking and meeting their clients.

00:36:29.200 --> 00:36:45.200
 We are, through the physical space, we are incubating a community of entrepreneurs, and then we are providing the programming that's open to not just our members, but Denton as a whole, that you don't have to be a member.

00:36:45.200 --> 00:37:10.200
 You don't have to be, like I said, contributing to the tax base of Denton to participate in the pitch competition, but most of them are not our members. And so we are, and again, I'm sitting with people one-on-one to walk them through what is the problem you're solving, how are you solving it, what are your financials, how are you going to deliver what your business does in five minutes for your chance to win money to help you.

00:37:10.200 --> 00:37:25.200
 They all have a problem that they need a little bit of funding to grow and to grow their business and increase jobs. And so, yeah, we are providing hands-on education mentorship.

00:37:25.200 --> 00:37:40.200
 I'm going to, for the sake of time, we're a little bit over on this item, I'm going to call for, I'm going to call for a vote or a motion.

00:37:40.200 --> 00:37:55.200
 I recommend to the Council to approve this agreement with the understanding that we need more clarifying information before we reconsider this the next year.

00:37:55.200 --> 00:38:14.200
 No, like a motion from, from Rick, you'll get those, those notes about clarifying basically in the future, kind of a contract statement of work review.

00:38:14.200 --> 00:38:28.200
 And we'll get a second from Amy. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

00:38:28.200 --> 00:38:49.200
 All right, motion passes. Thank you for your, thank you for your great explanation. I appreciate it.

00:38:49.200 --> 00:38:54.200
 All right, we'll try to get this back on track. Appreciate everyone's conversation here.

00:38:54.200 --> 00:39:12.200
 Now item C, EDP 25-035, receive a report, hold discussion, and make recommendations to City Council regarding a request to nominate tension packaging to the Office of the Governor, Economic Development, and Tourism through the Economic Development Bank as an enterprise project.

00:39:12.200 --> 00:39:15.200
 The Chair recognizes Erica Sullivan to present.

00:39:15.200 --> 00:39:25.200
 Good morning, Erica Sullivan, Economic Development Program Administrator here at the City and I'll be providing a presentation on the next nomination to the Texas Enterprise Program.

00:39:25.200 --> 00:39:35.200
 We'll begin with an overview. So it's a state economic development tool to create capital investment and job creation in economically distressed areas of the state.

00:39:35.200 --> 00:39:42.200
 The program requires cooperation, a partnership between the local government and the business seeking to be nominated.

00:39:42.200 --> 00:39:47.200
 Successful applicants are able to apply for a sales tax refund through the state.

00:39:47.200 --> 00:40:03.200
 And it provides reimbursements according to the level of their capital investment, their jobs created or retained, except for the jumbo and double jumbo, double and triple jumbo for economically disadvantaged individuals and veterans, and we'll go into that later.

00:40:03.200 --> 00:40:12.200
 So here you have a table. The first column has a level of investment, and this is from a half enterprise project to a triple jumbo project.

00:40:12.200 --> 00:40:19.200
 Then you have the maximum number of jobs for each one, the potential refund, and then the amount per job.

00:40:19.200 --> 00:40:29.200
 And so the last two are capped out at 500 and they don't include retained jobs. That was the jumbos.

00:40:29.200 --> 00:40:39.200
 And our particular applicant actually falls into the enterprise project category. So that's the 5 million to nearly 150 million at that point.

00:40:39.200 --> 00:40:48.200
 In order to apply for a project, they must seek nomination from a local community, and the communities have a limited number of nominations per biennium and state as well.

00:40:48.200 --> 00:41:00.200
 The state has 105 and the city of Denver has six. We've actually made two, if we were to nominate this project, this would be our second nomination, this biennium, because we nominated US Gold Storage.

00:41:00.200 --> 00:41:08.200
 And then we have an ordinance in place that allows us to participate in the program and we're able to nominate via resolutions through council.

00:41:08.200 --> 00:41:15.200
 Here you see the enterprise zone in blue for our area. Projects can be located inside or outside of the zone.

00:41:15.200 --> 00:41:26.200
 If they're inside, 25% of employees have to meet the Disadvantaged Criteria, live in a zone, or be veterans. And then outside is 35%.

00:41:26.200 --> 00:41:37.200
 The criteria is good for five years. Jobs must complete 1,820 hours, which equates to about 35 hours per week of the 52 weeks.

00:41:37.200 --> 00:41:44.200
 Jobs must exist through the end of the designation period, which is five years or at least three years after the date when the benefit is received.

00:41:44.200 --> 00:41:50.200
 And then applications are held quarterly on the first of the month.

00:41:50.200 --> 00:41:55.200
 So Tetra Pak, I've submitted a request to the city for consideration as an enterprise project.

00:41:55.200 --> 00:42:00.200
 Tetra Pak creates a septic and other packaging products for their clients.

00:42:00.200 --> 00:42:07.200
 We've actually nominated them and they received the Texas Enterprise Zone in the past, in 2018, and that was for our new laminator.

00:42:07.200 --> 00:42:18.200
 Today they are looking at investing $12 million, again in Denton, at their new facility. $1.5 million is for gas-powered rooftop HVAC units that are more energy-efficient.

00:42:18.200 --> 00:42:25.200
 $7 million for enhancements such as employee bathroom upgrades, replacement of roofs, windows, doors.

00:42:25.200 --> 00:42:35.200
 And then another $3.5 million to complete their customer innovation center, which is going to help them deliver more customized product packaging solutions to their clients.

00:42:35.200 --> 00:42:45.200
 And they are currently located within the zone. Again, they're investing $12 million. They fall into the $5 million to almost $150 million category, the enterprise project.

00:42:45.200 --> 00:42:58.200
 So this allows them to 500 total jobs at $2,500 per job with a maximum potential refund of $1.25 million.

00:42:58.200 --> 00:43:09.200
 And so some of the benefits to Tetra Pak, they can get a benefit of $1,250,000. There's a typo on one of the zeros there.

00:43:09.200 --> 00:43:22.200
 And then 25% of new jobs created will be filled by, if they turn over, they'll be filled by people who are economically disadvantaged or residents of Enterprise Zone for our veterans.

00:43:22.200 --> 00:43:30.200
 And then nominating Tetra Pak assists the company in applying for these state refunds, and there's no fiscal impact to the city.

00:43:30.200 --> 00:43:38.200
 So the recommendation is that this board recommended to Council that we approve a resolution nominating Tetra Pak E as an enterprise project.

00:43:38.200 --> 00:43:46.200
 And the next step is City Council consideration. Right now we have the project scheduled for October 21st.

00:43:46.200 --> 00:43:54.200
 So seeing the number of investments amongst my industry, do I have confident interest in it?

00:43:54.200 --> 00:43:59.200
 Sorry, it just made a jump at me. Some of the investments in what they're looking at.

00:43:59.200 --> 00:44:01.200
 Just related to your industry?

00:44:01.200 --> 00:44:02.200
 So what?

00:44:02.200 --> 00:44:03.200
 Just related to your industry?

00:44:03.200 --> 00:44:05.200
 Yeah.

00:44:05.200 --> 00:44:06.200
 Could be.

00:44:06.200 --> 00:44:08.200
 Do you have a contract with them?

00:44:08.200 --> 00:44:10.200
 We do work with them.

00:44:10.200 --> 00:44:17.200
 I wasn't aware of that.

00:44:17.200 --> 00:44:24.200
 It really depends on, I mean obviously we're going to be a contract that can do work.

00:44:24.200 --> 00:44:26.200
 Like HVAC.

00:44:26.200 --> 00:44:31.200
 Some of the HVAC they're looking at doing will fall into that category. It doesn't look like they're going to actually crack at it.

00:44:31.200 --> 00:44:35.200
 But I just have to raise my hand and ask that question.

00:44:35.200 --> 00:44:46.200
 I think it's not really, I hesitate because I'm not supposed to apply on whether or not they're in a complex venture.

00:44:46.200 --> 00:44:58.200
 The city's rules for complex, they don't really describe like a potential future agreement as a thing that would give rise to a contract.

00:44:58.200 --> 00:45:06.200
 It's just really about are you currently under an agreement where you receive that approach?

00:45:06.200 --> 00:45:13.200
 Yeah, so at the end of the day, it is like a judgment on your part, whether you think you have a conflict and if you think you do, then you should refuse.

00:45:13.200 --> 00:45:28.200
 This is also not directly impacting the city of Benton from a financial impact situation. This is more of a, like this is our endorsement for city council.

00:45:28.200 --> 00:45:33.200
 I think it's true. I appreciate you.

00:45:33.200 --> 00:45:34.200
 All right. Any other questions?

00:45:34.200 --> 00:45:47.200
 We improved, it wasn't, it was in 2013. So it was a 32,000 square foot expansion.

00:45:47.200 --> 00:45:54.200
 But then we did a Texas Enterprise Zone nomination in 2018 when they purchased a new laminator.

00:45:54.200 --> 00:46:02.200
 We also have Janssen Givens here from Ryan, their consultant. If you have any additional questions, we'll be happy to answer them.

00:46:02.200 --> 00:46:06.200
 You didn't ask if they plan on trying for local and said, I mean, said no.

00:46:06.200 --> 00:46:13.200
 Yes, something like approved to nominate.

00:46:13.200 --> 00:46:16.200
 I want to start here. I can read the official language.

00:46:16.200 --> 00:46:25.200
 Okay, say I'm looking for a motion to recommend approval for recommendation to the city council for approval of an agreement between the city.

00:46:25.200 --> 00:46:40.200
 Oh, that's the wrong one. Motion to recommend approval for recommendation. City council for approval regarding a request to nominate Tetra Pak Inc. to the office of the government economic development and tourism through the economic development.

00:46:40.200 --> 00:46:55.200
 The enterprise project as presented has been moved by and we have a motion. We have a second by Rick.

00:46:55.200 --> 00:46:58.200
 Is there any any further discussion?

00:46:58.200 --> 00:47:03.200
 Yes, ma'am.

00:47:03.200 --> 00:47:12.200
 The office of economic development tourism is that the section that has it. They also have different programs. They have Texas Enterprise Zone. They have Texas Enterprise Fund.

00:47:12.200 --> 00:47:17.200
 They have a number of programs in the state government's office.

00:47:17.200 --> 00:47:20.200
 All right, I'll call for a vote. All in favor?

00:47:20.200 --> 00:47:21.200
 Aye.

00:47:21.200 --> 00:47:30.200
 Any opposed? Hearing none, motion passes. Thank you.

00:47:30.200 --> 00:47:48.200
 Moving on to working sessions, I call item AED 25-032 to receive a report and hold discussion regarding section 2.83C of the city code which governs boards, commissions, and committees specifically related to the attendance policy that the chair recognizes.

00:47:48.200 --> 00:47:52.200
 Vanessa Sparza to present. Thank you.

00:47:52.200 --> 00:47:55.200
 Thank you. Good morning.

00:47:55.200 --> 00:48:00.200
 My name is Vanessa Sparza.

00:48:00.200 --> 00:48:05.200
 I'm the board secretary for this board and I'm just going over our attendance policy real quick.

00:48:05.200 --> 00:48:24.200
 Since May 8th, 2024, all economic development boards began to follow the city of debt and code of ordinances attendance policy and that decision was made to better align us to all the rest of the boards that were also doing that.

00:48:24.200 --> 00:48:30.200
 So here's our attendance policy. It was originally adopted in 1966 and has continued to be updated.

00:48:30.200 --> 00:48:41.200
 It states that every board member shall try their best to attend every regularly scheduled meeting and if they can't make it, they should notify the chair or staff prior to the meeting.

00:48:41.200 --> 00:48:54.200
 More than three unexcused absences in one year or more than 50% of the meetings is a cause for removal. It doesn't mean you're automatically remover anything like that.

00:48:54.200 --> 00:49:04.200
 And then here to the right are the automatically excused absences and here are the seven criteria which we can go over in the next slide as well.

00:49:04.200 --> 00:49:15.200
 And then just to note, ex officio members and city council members do not fill out the notification of absence form.

00:49:15.200 --> 00:49:36.200
 So the only thing that has changed this year is that instead of having to fill it out like a PDF or having to sign a physical paper, we now have a online form. And so first step is just to whatever the case if you're going to end up missing a meeting, notify me or staff.

00:49:36.200 --> 00:49:48.200
 You can respond to my emails or the calendar invite or give me a call whatever is easiest to you. I usually am in here setting up before the meeting so if you call it right before, I won't answer.

00:49:48.200 --> 00:50:05.200
 Second, you can fill out the notification of absence form, and it just asks for your name, email, or, and if it's one of the seven reasons, right there. That's it. You just submit it and you're done. It goes to the city secretary's office, you're good.

00:50:05.200 --> 00:50:20.200
 If it's not, you have to select other, other reasoning for it, and then say that you do, you have to check the box saying that you do want it to go to city council, and then they'll approve or deny it.

00:50:20.200 --> 00:50:32.200
 That is an excused absence. Per the city's charter, you have 10 business days after the date of the meeting to submit this form.

00:50:32.200 --> 00:50:41.200
 Does anyone have any questions over this part, enter the smart sheet or the form.

00:50:41.200 --> 00:50:43.200
 Yeah.

00:50:43.200 --> 00:50:48.200
 So if we don't submit the form.

00:50:48.200 --> 00:51:06.200
 Do you all have an automatic notification that you need to be reminded to submit the form, or does it just, it doesn't just go away, you know, does it just in there, or will you all remind us to submit the form.

00:51:06.200 --> 00:51:19.200
 So we have started basically if you do, if it is an unexcused absence. I've started to send out emails and it's like hey, tomorrow's your last day to submit a form if you would like to.

00:51:19.200 --> 00:51:25.200
 You could also just leave it as an excuse.

00:51:25.200 --> 00:51:42.200
 But city secretary's office is who receives them, and you'll get automated emails of like, thank you for submitting your form we've received it or it's been processed it's been approved, good to go, and you'll get all those via email.

00:51:42.200 --> 00:51:56.200
 Just the procedural if it's not too easy, you might already be are too hard, you might already be doing this. It's not that this is online. When you send out the board packet and everything can you just stick that link in the email.

00:51:56.200 --> 00:52:07.200
 And then, actually today we just, I created a QR code and it's on the front of your, if you open up your EDPB binders will be on the front page.

00:52:07.200 --> 00:52:11.200
 Excellent. Any other questions.

00:52:11.200 --> 00:52:18.200
 So if you do end up having any questions, you can reach out to the city secretary's office there or me.

00:52:18.200 --> 00:52:25.200
 And then, attached to.

00:52:25.200 --> 00:52:28.200
 And the agenda this was another attachment.

00:52:28.200 --> 00:52:34.200
 We did just want everyone to be aware of their attendance.

00:52:34.200 --> 00:52:40.200
 I don't know if you can pause for a minute if you want to look at these.

00:52:40.200 --> 00:53:03.200
 I know that prior to 2024, there was quite a few meetings that had to be counseled because of lack of quorum, just want to ensure that if the order improved that we will have a meeting and once we have a project that's going to be presented.

00:53:03.200 --> 00:53:12.200
 And so, yeah, that's pretty much it. If you guys have any questions always feel free to reach out.

00:53:12.200 --> 00:53:17.200
 And if you see something that you're like hey I submitted my form I never heard back.

00:53:17.200 --> 00:53:24.200
 We can definitely follow up with the city secretary's office.

00:53:24.200 --> 00:53:43.200
 Hearing no other questions, we'll move on to the next item. Now item C, EDP 25-033, receive a report, hold discussion regarding the Murphy Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation from John McCarrie, the University of North Texas, the chair recognizes John McCarrie.

00:53:43.200 --> 00:53:55.200
 Morning.

00:53:55.200 --> 00:54:07.200
 Our new board members. This is part of our new series of having a guest speaker, so that you can hear from our partners directly on some of the issues we're working on and what they work on every day.

00:54:07.200 --> 00:54:16.200
 Awesome. All right. My name is John McCarrie. So I'll give you a really quick overview of myself. So I've been a venture for over 20 years.

00:54:16.200 --> 00:54:37.200
 I would say a good portion of that was spent overseas in Japan and Hong Kong. I've invested in companies, I've also started companies and exited them. So I joined UNT in 2018 to take over the Murphy Center to really help them start to commercialize a lot of the research that was going on.

00:54:37.200 --> 00:54:41.200
 So this is just a kind of a brief overview of what we're doing.

00:54:41.200 --> 00:54:49.200
 So here is just a, this is actually dated right now. So we put this together about a year ago.

00:54:49.200 --> 00:55:09.200
 As a list of our advisory board members, Stephen Tudor is actually used to be UNT is now left. He is now at UC Davis, as in charge of a tech transfer, which is essentially a function within a university that takes research and then spends it out into companies or licenses it to existing

00:55:09.200 --> 00:55:25.200
 corporates. Mike Bynum, who I've known for a number of years, I have met him when he was attached to the DOD, is now with the Outpost, which is primarily responsible for getting funds into startups from the Department of Defense.

00:55:25.200 --> 00:55:40.200
 And we have a number of other serial entrepreneurs as well as investors on our advisory board. And then my counterpart at UNT is a gentleman by the name of Marcus Wolfe, who is also a serial entrepreneur.

00:55:40.200 --> 00:55:50.200
 He had started and exited three businesses, primarily more in the med tech space, and he heads up academic content at the university.

00:55:50.200 --> 00:56:03.200
 So the really the bulk of what we spend our time with is actually working with startups. Those can be student oriented, but more and more they tend to be more faculty centric.

00:56:03.200 --> 00:56:14.200
 Because some of the faculty that we've been bringing into the university are looking to spin up companies themselves and get them out of the university.

00:56:14.200 --> 00:56:29.200
 So really what we do is, is that we provide a ton of mentoring services to those startups, in addition to connecting them with capital support, and also access to talent.

00:56:29.200 --> 00:56:48.200
 So over the course of the last few years, we've been engaging pretty heavily with different EDCs. So City of Denton, in addition to Frisco EDC, as well as McKinney EDC, and continue to have discussions with Dallas and Plano as well.

00:56:48.200 --> 00:57:01.200
 And we have two competitions annually for students, which right now we award about $70,000 a year, based on student pitch competitions.

00:57:01.200 --> 00:57:23.200
 So to date, the companies that we've supported have access just over about $8 million in funding from various angel investors as well as VCs, and two of the companies that we've mentored have had successful exits out of those, which is not too terribly bad.

00:57:23.200 --> 00:57:40.200
 Unfortunately, we don't take equity in those yet, but something that I'm working on currently. And right now we average about 80 mentorships on an annual basis with different startups across different sectors.

00:57:40.200 --> 00:57:56.200
 So really, what we've tried to do after I came on board is embed this not only within the university, so I tend to work a lot with different centers within the university that are focused on different aspects of research.

00:57:56.200 --> 00:58:11.200
 But I've also been advisor to a couple of different venture funds, and then in January of this year, became a partner at Wave Ventures, and we can have another conversation about that at another time.

00:58:11.200 --> 00:58:26.200
 And then, as well, I do maintain some advisory relationships with some of the spin outs that we have from the university. In addition to that, we've also developed two different programs within the university.

00:58:26.200 --> 00:58:47.200
 The first, the other one, Angel Academy. Angel Academy is primarily more focused on early stage investing, so teaching investors, particularly institutional investors, high net worth individuals, how to invest in early stage companies, what to look for, what to avoid.

00:58:47.200 --> 00:59:06.200
 In addition to that, we also run a class in the university called STEM Startups, which primarily helps students that are in the STEM fields, basically learn a crash course in business, basically how to put together a business, how to get it up off of the ground, and how to get it running.

00:59:06.200 --> 00:59:26.200
 Primarily, what we want out of that is that I don't want a particular person that has a PhD in life sciences, particularly molecular biology. I don't want them learning accounting, but what I do want them to learn out of that is what questions to actually ask an accountant when they're dealing with an accountant.

00:59:26.200 --> 00:59:47.200
 And then, again, more relationship work with the EDCs, and then we work with different organizations in entrepreneurship. Last week I was up in Calgary for the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Center meeting.

00:59:47.200 --> 01:00:06.200
 I mentioned STEM Startups. The other thing that we just started earlier this year is the Faculty Innovation Network. The point of this is to actually have different parts of the university collaborating with each other, something that universities as well as other organizations seem to have a problem with.

01:00:06.200 --> 01:00:29.200
 So really what we're trying to do is that I want to have the physics department having a conversation with the biology department. And the point of this is that what we tend to find is that they will find areas of collaboration, and this really helps to spur a lot of innovation.

01:00:29.200 --> 01:00:51.200
 This initiative that we developed actually came off the heels of a conference that I was at in 2022. In May, it was a Goldman Sachs Institutional Investor Conference up in New York, and the CIO of NYU was talking, NYU Langone, which is their medical school.

01:00:51.200 --> 01:01:09.200
 And one of the things he had mentioned was that when they accidentally put their engineering school in the same building with their medical school, the number of med device startups that they had basically went from about a dozen a year up to well over 100.

01:01:09.200 --> 01:01:27.200
 So needless to say, you know, that's a wake-up call for us, and what we wanted to do is basically start to spur a lot of the same thing. And, you know, after we formed this group, we've been starting to see a lot more connectivity between the different areas of the university.

01:01:27.200 --> 01:01:40.200
 Angel Academy already mentioned that a newsletter is headed up by Marcus. It tends to be more of just an update, just in general, to our stakeholders as to what's going on and what we're seeing.

01:01:40.200 --> 01:01:47.200
 And then I'm in the middle of a repurpose for the advisory board of the Murphy Center.

01:01:47.200 --> 01:01:58.200
 And so what we're in the process of doing is, is that we are taking the advisory board and completely breaking it up and then splitting it into different verticals.

01:01:58.200 --> 01:02:12.200
 The idea being is, is that we will have a life sciences vertical, we will have a entertainment vertical, which focuses on a certain aspect, and then we will have advanced materials and energy, and then the last one will be more deep tech related.

01:02:12.200 --> 01:02:21.200
 The idea for this is, is that the advisory board members that are actually part of each one of those verticals have experience in corporates or they're in industry.

01:02:21.200 --> 01:02:33.200
 And what we want them to do is we want them to be very active, not only in meeting with students, but also faculty, because we want the research to actually be focused as opposed to being ethereal.

01:02:33.200 --> 01:02:42.200
 Focused on, you know, something that a researcher is interested in, but really has no commercialization value whatsoever.

01:02:42.200 --> 01:02:50.200
 That's it. Any questions?

01:02:50.200 --> 01:02:53.200
 Yes, go ahead.

01:02:53.200 --> 01:02:56.200
 I missed how long you all have been around.

01:02:56.200 --> 01:03:07.200
 So, I've been there since 2018. It's more red tape than I've ever wanted to deal with in my entire life.

01:03:07.200 --> 01:03:14.200
 But I got my undergrad at UNT back in '01, which is why I came back to take the job.

01:03:14.200 --> 01:03:23.200
 So it's been an absolute joy to see this really start to take on a life of its own, especially with the new president that came on board.

01:03:23.200 --> 01:03:35.200
 There's been breakneck speed, you know, implementation of a new direction since he came aboard last summer.

01:03:35.200 --> 01:03:41.200
 And, you know, like I said, things are changing, you know, almost on a daily basis in a really positive direction.

01:03:41.200 --> 01:03:45.200
 And so I'm super excited on where the university is headed right now.

01:03:45.200 --> 01:03:52.200
 The center itself was funded in 1999. It's been around since 2000.

01:03:52.200 --> 01:03:56.200
 I am the third director that it's had.

01:03:56.200 --> 01:04:05.200
 Unfortunately, the previous two directors were academics, which didn't really work out too terribly well.

01:04:05.200 --> 01:04:12.200
 So they would put an academic in place, and then they would mothball it, and then they would put another academic in place and mothball it.

01:04:12.200 --> 01:04:23.200
 So when I came on board, it was a new shift to basically focus more on industry as opposed to the traditional academic route.

01:04:23.200 --> 01:04:27.200
 You're actually starting to see a lot more universities start to take this approach.

01:04:27.200 --> 01:04:36.200
 A lot of this is also being driven by, as I'm sure you all are probably aware, federal dollars drawing up for universities.

01:04:36.200 --> 01:04:47.200
 I'm actually, I view this as a positive step without getting into market mechanics of how the universities actually function in the country.

01:04:47.200 --> 01:05:00.200
 I do say it actually is helping universities start to refocus and really start to look at their research and the intellectual property that they generate as a revenue center.

01:05:00.200 --> 01:05:12.200
 And so you're seeing a mag dash from a lot of universities to try and commercialize their assets, which is great for the communities and the economies around the university.

01:05:12.200 --> 01:05:20.200
 Because if we can spin out companies, they have to go immediately outside of the university into the immediate community.

01:05:20.200 --> 01:05:26.200
 They need talent. They need real estate. They need lots of things in order to survive.

01:05:26.200 --> 01:05:29.200
 And so that's what we're really hoping to push.

01:05:29.200 --> 01:05:35.200
 In the future, we hope to maybe target some of those companies that are coming out of the Murphy Center to incentivize them to expand here in Denton.

01:05:35.200 --> 01:05:46.200
 That was kind of my question is, what from a PDP or perspective, from your perspective, how can we help this accelerator grow?

01:05:46.200 --> 01:05:52.200
 I mean, it sounds like it's a good opportunity to grow the community, and that's really what we're trying to do.

01:05:52.200 --> 01:05:55.200
 Anything we need to get engaged in?

01:05:55.200 --> 01:06:02.200
 Yeah, so a lot of that actually comes down to alignment with four areas of the university.

01:06:02.200 --> 01:06:07.200
 So that's being defined at the president's level right now.

01:06:07.200 --> 01:06:15.200
 So what areas of research are we going to champion versus those that will take second place for now?

01:06:15.200 --> 01:06:28.200
 Once we're in alignment on that, then I think that helps provide some guidance as to the types of companies. When I say types, I mean more like industry types that we're actually going to see coming out of the university.

01:06:28.200 --> 01:06:39.200
 A lot of the IP that I see right now that's ready for commercialization, ready for a startup tends to be more in the life sciences space of medical devices, things of this nature.

01:06:39.200 --> 01:06:49.200
 A lot of that actually requires wet lab space, and it's a little bit more unique real estate that's required for that.

01:06:49.200 --> 01:06:55.200
 But a lot of these startups are not going to be able to go out and set up their own real estate, you know, like wet lab.

01:06:55.200 --> 01:07:02.200
 They need a partner, a real estate partner that already has a space set up that they're going to come in and rent from.

01:07:02.200 --> 01:07:16.200
 So it's little things like this, but ultimately I think that's a conversation that will definitely need to be had with the president's office so that you know both we and the city are fully aligned with one another.

01:07:16.200 --> 01:07:33.200
 Is he yet on there? One of them is like collaborate with the other departments in the university. So were those two started before Dr. Keller or after? Was that part of his initiative or was that already in place before? Which ones? There was two.

01:07:33.200 --> 01:07:46.200
 The faculty innovation network was started after Dr. Keller started. The STEM startups, technically both of them were started after you started.

01:07:46.200 --> 01:08:03.200
 Do you foresee, I mean this is obviously a new, what I see is street smarts versus book smarts, always been versus, but you're actually making a hybrid. So this is going to start changing the DNA of education and the DNA, especially UNT. So how rapid do you see that progression happening?

01:08:03.200 --> 01:08:07.200
 I mean we're talking about the partnership, but how quickly are you seeing that change happen internally?

01:08:07.200 --> 01:08:30.200
 Pretty rapidly. A lot of the, well okay, it's rapid right now, but it's taken, I would say, it's probably taken the last like three years before the last year and a half to really get momentum behind things.

01:08:30.200 --> 01:08:40.200
 The biggest initiative that started a lot of this change was when they put the biomedical engineering department in place within the College of Engineering.

01:08:40.200 --> 01:08:53.200
 And the reason why that was so critical was that when they brought in the chair of that department, they gave him the ability to choose how they were going to give tenure out to the researchers.

01:08:53.200 --> 01:09:10.200
 And one of the past tenure is not publishing, which is great as far as I'm concerned. Publishing doesn't accomplish anything in so far as generating dollars, but you can get tenure by spinning out a company and going through a series A funding round.

01:09:10.200 --> 01:09:34.200
 And that to me screams success. And so the majority of the faculty that he was able to recruit came from Johns Hopkins, Stanford, NYU, University of Chicago, so he was literally able to recruit a ton of talent into a department that was literally like two years old.

01:09:34.200 --> 01:09:46.200
 And now, as a result, the PhD candidates into that department, there's a backlog of, I think, like two years now, just get into that program.

01:09:46.200 --> 01:10:00.200
 And they're trying to find ways to expand the program. There is a joint entrepreneurship program within that where the students in the PhD program have to take entrepreneurship classes.

01:10:00.200 --> 01:10:20.200
 So there's a lot of this cross-stream starting to occur within the school, which is, like I said, as far as I'm concerned, absolutely fantastic because what I don't want to see, it's not to say that some people need to be in research and some people need to be teachers, that's great.

01:10:20.200 --> 01:10:36.200
 What I don't want to see is that I don't want to see somebody ready to graduate and they have an idea for a startup and they have no idea how to do it. If that happens, then the university has to start a job properly.

01:10:36.200 --> 01:10:42.200
 Thank you so much.

01:10:42.200 --> 01:10:50.200
 Now, item EDP 23-034 receives various staff reports.

01:10:50.200 --> 01:10:56.200
 Good afternoon, board. Thank you again for coming out. It's always great seeing you every month.

01:10:56.200 --> 01:11:06.200
 For the month of September, we had the second Ditten job fair of the year. This is actually the first time that the department and our partners hosted this job fair.

01:11:06.200 --> 01:11:18.200
 So this was on September 24th. There was 50 Ditten County businesses that attended, over 1,200 job openings that were offered, and 561 job seekers in attendance, which is amazing.

01:11:18.200 --> 01:11:33.200
 So this is something that Christina and my team manage, and she worked with several of the partners in the community, including Ditten ISD, the Chamber, Easy Expansions, Goodwill, North Central Texas, and Workforce Solutions of North Central Texas, and a few others.

01:11:33.200 --> 01:11:46.200
 Overall, she said it was a great event, and I was really impressed because when I showed up, a lot of the job applicants were dressed in business formal wear, and I walked in and thought, "Wow, I've never seen so many people dressed up."

01:11:46.200 --> 01:12:00.200
 But I realized that I learned later that Christina had actually sent a preparation email to those attendees, so they came prepared. So hopefully they were able to get a good job and set them up for success in the future.

01:12:00.200 --> 01:12:15.200
 Our recruitment stats. In September we have 30 active projects right now. In the pipeline, that's over 4,200 potential jobs and $6.5 billion in capital investment. We have quite a few of these projects in the lead stage, 24.

01:12:15.200 --> 01:12:36.200
 We have two awaiting applications, and one in a qualification stage, and three in an incentive negotiation stage. So the reason why we have a few in the lead stage is because it takes a while to help the prospects with their initial questions of finding them a site, helping them with zoning questions, and working with development services, connecting them with our local community stakeholders.

01:12:36.200 --> 01:12:42.200
 And that can take a while before they actually get in the process of saying that they want to apply for incentives.

01:12:42.200 --> 01:12:56.200
 We had six new leads coming to our office, three from a broker, one was a direct lead, one from the UDP website that Jamie boarded, and one from the Dallas Regional Chamber. We did not have any incentive applications or recruitment visits last month.

01:12:56.200 --> 01:13:04.200
 We lost seven leads, one did not qualify for incentives, one was transferred to business support, and five that was transferred to cold.

01:13:04.200 --> 01:13:19.200
 So someone had a really great tip. I'll say who's in this room, Scott, to say a lot of these leads that we track, if they're going through the incentive process and applying, and they get approved, we count it as a project one.

01:13:19.200 --> 01:13:30.200
 Currently, we don't track the businesses that do come to without incentives, but they may have used our services for an hour or two. So that's something that we're going to try to claim that moving forward.

01:13:30.200 --> 01:13:36.200
 And Clay reached out to 90 businesses via email.

01:13:36.200 --> 01:13:47.200
 He is starting to get a few responses from those emails, which you're excited about. We have a meeting with one, I think it's tomorrow, right Clay? Yeah, we're excited about that one.

01:13:47.200 --> 01:14:01.200
 For downtown, Kristin had two very visits and four new downtown grant leads. There was one that was a lead loss, the project's no longer moving forward, and she reached out to 14 businesses.

01:14:01.200 --> 01:14:13.200
 In September, the RFI stat, we received 13 from the Dallas Regional Chamber and Governor's office. We submitted six, we did not submit on four, and we had zero lead conversions.

01:14:13.200 --> 01:14:26.200
 From the ones that we did submit, the potential capital investment is $127 million, and potential jobs is over $1,800. And so for the year, we've submitted 51 RFIs.

01:14:26.200 --> 01:14:41.200
 For past upcoming events, we attended the National Security Cyberland, Air, Sea, and Space Summit. This was hosted by UNT at the Flight Museum. It was held on a Saturday, so that was really fun, getting up on a Saturday early morning.

01:14:41.200 --> 01:14:56.200
 So that's the bottom picture, Matilda, myself, and Clay. But we had a special guest with us. I was able to get in last minute, Leo Morales, on our board. Leo, do you have any comments about the event?

01:14:56.200 --> 01:15:11.200
 It was an eye-opener. It was a great conversation. It was one of the quality people, and the magnitude of people that were there was, for instance, all defense secretaries and people that get to the company on all levels.

01:15:11.200 --> 01:15:34.200
 I was able to meet a couple of the CEOs and our leaders who were established as CEO companies for defense, and got a little bit of both. They were presenting on the company side, and some of them had to get loans, people paid, some reverse taxes, things like that.

01:15:34.200 --> 01:15:47.200
 It was really interesting, but overall, in the one-on-one conversation that we had, there's a very large weight of opportunity for economic development for businesses that are looking for locations.

01:15:47.200 --> 01:16:06.200
 Something I've been able to talk to one-on-one. It's one company I've stayed in touch with, and just seem to talk about that, and what that brings, and what it can do if you have a position for how quickly you can go in any direction, and how quickly it is to so many airports.

01:16:06.200 --> 01:16:15.200
 I think the opportunity is great for that kind of entity to come into the area.

01:16:15.200 --> 01:16:20.200
 Leo was doing his role duties and getting us leads, so thank you. It was great.

01:16:20.200 --> 01:16:28.200
 Any time that we have any trainings or conferences that we've listed, if you want to attend, please let us know. We can help sign you up.

01:16:28.200 --> 01:16:38.200
 We also attended the IC3 Life Science and Healthcare Innovation Summit in Dallas. We met a few healthcare professionals across the state of Texas.

01:16:38.200 --> 01:16:51.200
 That was really nice, as we're still a team of four. Life Science is a great industry for us to start recruiting. On October 23rd, the Governor's Small Business Summit will be held at the Monroe Pearson venue.

01:16:51.200 --> 01:17:01.200
 The Governor's Office hosts these business summits across the state of Texas, and we're lucky to have one here. It is women-focused, so if you have any folks on your team that want to attend, let us know.

01:17:01.200 --> 01:17:12.200
 This is the registration link. That's right around the corner. Matilda's been working really hard with TWU to coordinate the panel of speakers. We're meeting every other week now.

01:17:12.200 --> 01:17:23.200
 Hopefully it's a great event. I included in your packets the Texas Economic Development Council legislative update. This is a report they submitted to us to review.

01:17:23.200 --> 01:17:36.200
 I won't go over everything. This was just for your review, if you're interested. One item to note is the 2025 Constitutional Amendment Elected Amendment Report.

01:17:36.200 --> 01:17:47.200
 There's a proposition that will be going to voters, which increases the business recovery tax exemption from $2,500 to $125,000.

01:17:47.200 --> 01:17:55.200
 That would be good for small businesses, not so much for city revenue side. But I just wanted to let you know that's what one item to note.

01:17:55.200 --> 01:18:07.200
 I think that's it, right? Oh, actually, I have one more, sorry. Board retreat. We did finalize three dates. So on November 10th, we will have a basic economic development workshop.

01:18:07.200 --> 01:18:22.200
 And on November 17th or December 17th, we will hold a board retreat. And so Matilda's going to get with you after or myself to see if either of you can't, if you're not able to make the 17th, if you can maybe potentially attend the 17th for the board retreat.

01:18:22.200 --> 01:18:40.200
 Bring all our ideas. Any questions? Main Street programs update.

01:18:40.200 --> 01:18:53.200
 Good afternoon. Kristen Pledo, Main Street Program Manager of Economic Development. I'm going to take you through our Main Street Annual Report. So this is from October 1st, 2024 through September 30th, 2025.

01:18:53.200 --> 01:18:56.200
 We'll start with the Downtown Reinvestment Grant.

01:18:56.200 --> 01:19:10.200
 For 2024-25, we awarded three businesses with the Downtown Reinvestment Grant totaling $127,000 and their total capital investment for those projects was $1.6 million.

01:19:10.200 --> 01:19:29.200
 We hosted a downtown master class to educate those businesses that are within the new TURZ 1A boundary. So as you look to this table on the right, the Downtown Reinvestment Grant pipeline stage, we've been able to categorize all the leads that are coming in for the Downtown Reinvestment Grant.

01:19:29.200 --> 01:19:46.200
 So what that means is we're at 10 leads, 5%, and that means I've had a conversation with a business interested in applying for the Downtown Reinvestment Grant. We've got 13 in the awaiting application field, and so I've had another conversation with them.

01:19:46.200 --> 01:20:01.200
 I've met with them in person, reviewed the Downtown Reinvestment Grant policy, and this is probably the longest time in that grant pipeline just because you have to get construction bids and all of that to apply for the grant.

01:20:01.200 --> 01:20:11.200
 As Brittany's report stated, we do have four in the application review process. One of those is the Fire Suppression Grant for Fine Arts, so they're moving along really well.

01:20:11.200 --> 01:20:27.200
 And then we've had 10 lead loss over the year, so what that means is some of the businesses are not ready to proceed with applying for the grant. Maybe they don't have the right building, maybe they're not moving forward with the project just due to costs and things like that, so we're able to track all of that now.

01:20:27.200 --> 01:20:35.200
 Next is our downtown opening and closings for the year. We had 19 businesses start, we had 12 businesses close.

01:20:35.200 --> 01:20:51.200
 We gained 153 jobs and lost 157, so we're kind of evening out, which is good. We have amped up our recruitment efforts so we can start to get some of those businesses in those vacant properties.

01:20:51.200 --> 01:21:11.200
 But a couple reasons for those closures is just personal family matters, location zoning, and then in my BRE visits, which I'll touch on in the next slide, some of the things that we're hearing from businesses and how we can better support them are parking solutions, I think we all know that, wayfinding and marketing and promotion.

01:21:11.200 --> 01:21:28.200
 So here's those business retention expansion recruitment visits. We started tracking these probably in January when we got our new software, so from probably January to September, I did 37 business retention and expansion visits, which is about three per month.

01:21:28.200 --> 01:21:47.200
 My new goal for downtown is to touch base with five businesses a week to come to downtown. We started tracking those in July, so I did 34 recruitment emails, touch bases, and right now we've got about three to four that I'm still in conversations with on some of those properties if they're interested in.

01:21:47.200 --> 01:22:02.200
 And then we also have started tracking business support requests, being the Main Street Program Amdrag and a lot of requests from downtown businesses and spending a lot of time trying to help navigate our businesses, find the right person to talk to about things.

01:22:02.200 --> 01:22:19.200
 We started tracking those in June. Some of those requests are just partnering with our city departments, whether it be signage, parking, zoning, any of those things so we're really able to kind of get our businesses in touch with the people that they need to to be successful.

01:22:19.200 --> 01:22:34.200
 We had several downtown engagements over the years, or over this year, downtown masterclass again where we touched on the downtown investment grant, couple safety meetings, couple public improvement district meetings, I don't know if you know but we're in 31 days of Halloween.

01:22:34.200 --> 01:22:45.200
 So all the downtown businesses came together to see how they can support 31 days of Halloween. We're really engaging our folks, our retailers downtown with retail roundtable.

01:22:45.200 --> 01:22:58.200
 We invited a UT professor to join us in those conversations, especially during Halloween when we know that staff can be sometimes difficult and staying open late, and then our fire suppression workshop.

01:22:58.200 --> 01:23:15.200
 So just a couple training and highlights. Again, we were nationally accredited program, we launched the downtown lowdown which is our monthly newsletter so if you have not liked and subscribed, please feel free to scan QR code to get all the lowdown on what's happening

01:23:15.200 --> 01:23:34.200
 and just a couple of trainings that we share.

01:23:34.200 --> 01:23:38.200
 It should be finished by the end of this year.

01:23:38.200 --> 01:23:51.200
 I think it's completely.

01:23:51.200 --> 01:24:09.200
 So part of my recruitment strategy is to. I received reports on co star of what upcoming vacancies there are so I have all of that information and when I'm reaching out to businesses, I give them specific sites to look at, and also what their needs are, how much

01:24:09.200 --> 01:24:29.200
 they need what are their their pride what their pricing looks like. So yes, we're happy to also, we reached out to a couple brokers, also to partner with on some of those things just so we can maintain, you know that downtown feel with what's what's coming in.

01:24:29.200 --> 01:24:32.200
 Thank you so much.

01:24:32.200 --> 01:24:51.200
 Hopefully, you will have a project to present to you we just so you know we're trying to finalize a lot of products getting out the door we've had a variety of challenges it's been really fun and top of managing our 52 plus board members and for boards to

01:24:51.200 --> 01:25:05.200
 know that, but on the 12th we have, of course, a director support we turned into items, we also just added one. I believe the airport master plan is in the process of being finalized.

01:25:05.200 --> 01:25:12.200
 So, either Ryan Adams other consultant working on the master plan will be here to present.

01:25:12.200 --> 01:25:25.200
 That's in November.

01:25:25.200 --> 01:25:49.200
 October one. Yeah, so can you give us an update on that and also whenever we did the last, I guess nowadays, maybe the feedback that we received from that not any was that sort of language in the actual ordinance is fine but it just doesn't line up with the goals of

01:25:49.200 --> 01:25:59.200
 economic development point because of the top whatever taxpayers is pulling in like Amazon and a lot of multifamily developers.

01:25:59.200 --> 01:26:10.200
 We just need to make sure that that aligns with what the type of people that we want on here or if there's another target area that we want to make sure that we're getting.

01:26:10.200 --> 01:26:22.200
 That's something that we discussed internally, because we, we need your help right we want to have different industries on the board and I'm very thankful for everybody on the board open tremendous help to us.

01:26:22.200 --> 01:26:40.200
 I appreciate when you answer my calls to help. But we're looking at our boards comprehensively where there's, we have four boards and then to that are indirect. And so, again, that's over 52 board members and that's 50% of my time is going towards preparing

01:26:40.200 --> 01:27:01.200
 documents so answer your question yes we will review that. And some of them are administrative processes that go behind it as well. We're hoping to get that done by the end of the year.

01:27:01.200 --> 01:27:12.200
 Sure.

01:27:12.200 --> 01:27:20.200
 All right, anything else that the board have any other business to discuss or suggestions on what we could discuss in future meetings.

01:27:20.200 --> 01:27:24.200
 Talk through that. Anything else though.

01:27:24.200 --> 01:27:39.200
 Our next EDP be meeting is scheduled to be on Wednesday, November 12 2025 at 11, please let staff know you're not able to attend and submit your notification.

01:27:39.200 --> 01:27:45.200
 There's no other business I will turn the me at 1233.

01:27:45.200 --> 01:28:02.200
 Thank you very much. So on October 28, we're going to have an event at my location university, so just want to let everybody know I've got postcards one once it was five to seven, we're gonna have to snacks and drinks so if anybody can come by.