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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-03-04 Business and Economic Development Committee Minutes � BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE TUESDAY, March 4, 2003 Meeting Minutes Councilors Attending: Gerry Palmer, Frank Farrington, David Nealley, John Rohman Staff Attending: Ed Barrett, Jonathan Daniels, Mike Dyer, Rod McKay, Norm Heitmann, T.J. Marzial, Chief Cammack Others Attending: Ken Buckley, Steve Moores The meeting convened at 5:00 p.m. 1. Bass Park Report. a. Update on basketball tournament. � Mike Dyer said that the MPA is projecting that the attendance for the basketball tournament is down 17% from last year, or 6,000 people. The weather played a part in the low attendance. He noted that last year was an extremely good year, and we need to look at a five-year average to get a better picture. He said that we have had the Class C and D State Championship games and we have the Class A Championship on Saturday, March 15t". He advised the Council to compare the statistics from this year to 2001. The per capita sales for 2002 were $1.91, the best ever, and through February of this year it is running about $1.87. Rohman asked what the television schedule was this year versus other years, and how does the availability of television affect the auditorium attendance. Dyer said that Public Broadcasting did pick up some championship games that normally WABI would have covered. There were four A sessions and attendance was up in three of those sessions, and these were not televised. Dyer said that in the long run, television helps attendance, however in the short run may not be as helpful. Palmer asked what the per capita industry standard is for concessions on facilities built in the last 5-10 years. Dyer said without alcoholic beverage sales, . in a new building with a lot of points of sale, it would be closer to $3.00/$3.25. When alcohol is involved, the per caps go to $4, $5 and $6. At least 30% more • than what we get right now. Palmer said that since the old days when the food was in the hallway to now that it is in another room, what is the difFerence in per cap. Dyer said that for basketball it was about $1 per cap five years ago. b. General discussion on parking/traffic flow. Daniels said that this was placed on the agenda at the request of Councilor Palmer to examine the existing facilities for alternate options. Chief Cammack also expressed concern with emergency access. Cammack said that we only had one means of egress on Dutton Street. Dyer had reserved the end of the Civic Center parking for SDA officials. The CSO project had been completed so late in the year that the means of egress from the horsemen's end was not passable, due to a drainage problem. Cammack said he met with Dyer and City Engineer Jim Ring to survey the area. Ring agreed to open up the backend of the grandstand to allow emergency vehicles. Cammack said that we would be examining routing/traffic circle options for the future, after the basketball tournaments. Rohman asked if Ring was going to be involved in the discussion of future . changes to parking, and would there be permanent changes? Cammack said that we will probably not be making major changes. Palmer said that the best high school basketball tournaments in the United States of America are at the Bangor Auditorium, there's no other that compares. Palmer said that traffic flow was less than optimal. He said that he heard members of the public comment about how they were stuck in the parking lot. It should be user friendly to go to the auditorium. Daniels said that there will be a lot of attention brought to parking and traffic flow, and with the auditorium in general in the next several months. Cianbro is planning on meeting with the City soon regarding the project with Capital 7, and part of that discussion will be the need for traffic studies. Nealley said that it would not make sense to go too far, with the impending plans that we have. Daniels said that nothing has been done with the former Mahaney properry acquisition. There may be some options that we can combine with Capital 7 if they retain developer status. Palmer said that even if Capital 7 does their thing, there will still be the same auditorium and anything we can do to make it more user friendly would be a real plus. Rohman noted that he would like to see final figures on the basketball • tournaments. Palmer asked if we compared figures to Augusta which also has � basketball tournaments to see if the economy is affecting the turnout. Daniels said that we can check on it. 2. Discussion on proposal by Beacon Sports Capital Partners, LLC. Daniels said that we had been approached by Beacon Sports Capital Partners. He said that they are a six-year old company based out of Boston, and the,y develop financing packages and acquisition packages exclusively for sports franchises. As they have become aware of the potential for a new facility to be located in Bangor, and as a result of the CS&L and HOK study, a new arena in Bangor should have an ice sheet. One of their primary focuses has been on acquiring and relocating teams associated with the AHL, the American Hockey League. They are looking to get in early in the process and serving as the City's agent in the identification and acquisition of a franchise to be located in the new facility when completed. The best case scenario is a 2006-2007 hockey season. Some of their recent projects include the sale of the Springfield Falcons, Springfield, Mass., an AHL franchise, Portland Pirates, Montreal Canadians, and the Washington Wizards. Daniels said that the City would have an agreement with Beacon Sports, and . proceeded to list all of the undertakings of such agreement. The initial term would be for one year beginning the day of signing. The City would not be responsible for any fees or expenses arising from this agreement. Nealley wanted to know why we are moving forward with just a one-year agreement. Daniels said that we could expand the agreement beyond one-year if necessary. Nealley mentioned that this may conflict with what a company like SMG may want to provide as part of their services. Rohman agreed that this might make it less appealing to a private management company if we start taking pieces away. Daniels said that Beacon Sports has worked with SMG in the past. Sanborn Group is the one that made the initial contact with the city and they are the ones who began the process of bringing SMG and other development opportunities to the table. Nealley wanted to know if SMG or another company would prefer that we work with a group like this or would they prefer to do the work themselves. Daniels said that his intent was to bring this to full council, however we can do more research if necessary. Farrington wanted to know if this was a standard type of agreement. Daniels said that this is the first time around, and that this was unsolicited. Farrington wanted to know how committed this company would be to the City. He questioned the tone of some of the verbiage from the standpoint of protection of � the City. � Palmer said that he was excited about the prospect of people showing interest in a facility that we haven't built yet. He said that we need to be careful not to step on people's toes and carve the pie up too quickly. The RFP method might be the best way to go. Rohman said that if we are talking about looking at the management folks coming on board, that we would want them to be at the same table with us when talking about things like this. � Dyer said that he has had experience with hockey rink management, and noted that Beacon mentioned the term acquired, and we need to get the definition of this. He said that he would be concerned about Beacon negotiating a venue lease, since they stand to benefit from the lease. The NHL collective bargaining agreement is up in 2004, and this may totally change the landscape of the AHL. Rohman wanted to know where we stand on the process for arena manager. Daniels said that Dave Pellegrino had forwarded an updated copy of the RFP for review, and it should go out by the end of the week with a return deadline of April 2�d. Rohman said that we should wait until we get an arena manager on board before pursuing this item. Palmer agreed that we should wait and get more information. He noted that our current franchise team is locally owned and encouraged the City to work with local people who would have a more vested interest in the City. � Daniels said that Beacon Sports understands that we are going through the RFP process, and he will notify them that we have this item on hold. 3. Proposed Penquis CAP Housing Development. T.J. Marizial said that Penquis CAP approached the City about a housing project development on Griffin Road. At this point in Penquis CAP's development proposal, their application to MSHA for approval of a set-aside of Low Income Housing Tax Credits is due on March 7. They have requested a letter of support from the City. Stephen Mooers, Housing Director for Penquis CAP, said that he was asked by Penquis CAP to develop afFordable housing. He discussed the various areas that this had already taken place. The proposal is to build a 16- unit family project. He discussed the difFculty in finding the right amount of land at the right price. Tom Lewis went on to discuss the tax credits and other financial details of the project. McKay said that we would typically use grant funds to assist projects. Some of the funding that has traditionally been available through the State Housing Authority is no longer there due to budget problems, and the responsibility is falling more on communities. There is a need for large family housing. We can not use community development block grant funds for new housing construction. � He said that Penquis is proposing that the City provide 100% tax increment � financing over a period of 15 years. If the Committee is supportive of the project location, we would like to submit to Penquis Cap a letter in support of the project and work with Penquis CAP. Rohman said that there are two pieces, the letter, and the financial support. Farrington asked how much if any this land was currently generating for taxes to the City. McKay said that the value of the land is assessed at $16,200. Martzial said that this project would most likely allow low-income families currently living in sub-standard housing into this development. Farrington expressed his concern over complete taxes being swallowed up for a 15-year period, which means that those that are paying taxes will have to assume that burden.. Martzial said that Penquis must have a marketing analysis done as part of this project. Barrett said that we are projecting a drop in new students for enrollment, and as we lose students, our share of state subsidy declines. Barrett said that with 2 children per unit, this could mean up to $150,000 in state aid that we might not otherwise get, according to the current system. So right now it is to our benefit to get more children into the school system, because we can handle it right now with existing schools and staffing. Palmer said that substandard housing is a barrier to education, and this is a big plus for children. Palmer said that the curb cut is close to Bolling Drive, and we • may need some help from adjacent properry owners. Nealley said that this locatio� is highly residential with similar demographics. Barrett described the location of the proposed project. Rohman expressed reservation that the CBDG monies are not unlimited, and is concerned about using funds for an area that we do not normally do so. Barrett said that we have committed a big chunk of block grant funds to the waterworks. Barrett said that we could, as McKay pointed out earlier, support the project and commit to taking a look at providing some financial assistance to it. McKay presented a draft letter for the Committee to review. The Committee made a motion that was seconded to accept the letter as presented. Farrington noted that we have fiscal restraints, and Rohman suggested adding this to the letter. The Committee approved the letter. 4. Extension of agreement with Carol R. Johnson. McKay said that we now have the funding and the design for an area near Railroad St. and Front St. The initial proposal has been amended to state that • the City Engineering department would provide the civil end, electrical l � components working with Carol R. Johnson. McKay said that we asked Carol R. Johnson to separate the construction documents into two phases, one for the subsurface along the bulkhead and the plaza area, and the other for landscaping above ground. The City Engineer has approved the amendments. Barrett said that we are breaking up the project into phases and completing construction as we have the money to do so. Rather than doing the complete design work all along the water's edge, we are asking Carol R. Johnson to do a conceptual design plan. The Committee approved the amendments to full Council. 5. BanAir Corporation —Agreement with the City of Bangor/Airport Department. McKay said that this is a request for a five-year extension of an existing lease between Bangor International Airport and BanAir Corporation. The BanAir Corporation leases the Enterprise Center at the Airport. Farrington wanted to know how much this costs the City and what does the City get for this. McKay answered that 65% of the lease revenues go to the Airport, and 35% are retained by the BanAir Corp. for managing, cleaning and finding tenants. There � is no cost to the City or the Airport, and the major benefit is that we provide a business incubation center in the foreign trade zone, which brings businesses in. The Committee approved the lease extension. The Committee voted to go into executive session. 6. Executive Session — Discussion on land disposition and preliminary fnancial package for proposal at Maine Business Enterprise Park. 7. Executive Session — Discussion on land disposition associated with the waterfront development project. �