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ITEM 4. <br /> • January 2, 1997 <br /> 111 To: Honorable Mayor-Elect, Council Members-Elect, and Ongoing Council Members <br /> From: Chuck Whiting, City Administrator <br /> Re: Bel Rae Ballroom Project Status <br /> A few weeks ago most of you met with myself to familiarize everyone with the Bel Rae project and <br /> get prepared for several decisions that will face the new Council in January. I would like to outline <br /> the status of several facets of this project and again emphasize the need, if you choose to, to act <br /> quickly in January. I normally do not like to ask a Council for this kind of expediency, but the need <br /> of the Children's Home Society to know their future location is driving this urgency. Therefore, I <br /> am hoping this memo will help outline the project status and prepare the Council for discussion at <br /> your January 6 work shop meeting. <br /> Present Project Concept: <br /> Based on the work done to date, the project is evolving around three central themes; 1) provide space <br /> for social service and recreation programs determined to be needed in the Mounds View community; <br /> 2)evaluate cost/benefit analysis of building construction and ongoing operational costs versus tenant <br /> 0 arrangements, programming revenues and use of existing and possible future tax increment funds; and <br /> 3) possible association with VB Diggs (the volleyball group) for their development of a volleyball <br /> center and possibly additional community activity space. <br /> 110 <br /> Possible Uses and Users <br /> As for social services, staff has talked with Ramsey County staff about what can be done to provide <br /> better access to county services for Mounds View residents. While the County staff was not <br /> interested in leasing permanent space, they did indicate a willingness to consider periodic site visits <br /> for particular services. What this meant for the second theme above was incorporation of some small <br /> office and meeting space into a floor layout, but no factoring of revenue towards operational costs. <br /> It also appeared that much work would have to be done to get and keep the County's attention to <br /> get services provided in our area even with their willingness to consider it. <br /> Our own recreation department was directed to consider recreation programming options for the <br /> building. In doing so, based on our current programming practices, two things were clear, one that <br /> programming usually aims to simply recover its own costs and therefor is not a profit generator, and <br /> two, that events at the Bel Rae such as dances, receptions and the like will be subject to market forces <br /> and therefore, at least in the interim period, hard to quantify for profit to the facility. Also, the <br /> configuration of the floor plan would likely impact the nature of events for which the building could <br /> be used. <br /> • Another early and still strong potential tenant for the building is Community Education. Nick Temali <br /> has repeatedly indicated some interest in utilizing some space in the building for programming. While <br /> 0 the 1996 Council was interested in the programming aspect, this is also a good revenue source for <br />