Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-20-1997 M:\MASTERFILES\EDC MINUTES-RESOLUTIONS\EDC MINUTES\1997\EDCMIN11.DOC 1 Minutes of the Economic Development Commission City of Mounds View Ramsey County, Minnesota Regular Meeting November 20, 1997 City of Mounds View, Council Chambers 2401 Highway 10, Mounds View, MN 55112 1. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 7:40 a.m. by Director of Economic Development, Cathy Bennett in the absence of a chair or vice chair at the beginning of the meeting. 2. ROLL CALL: Members Ron Schmidt, Rosemary Goff, Tom Field, Steve Larson and Cindy Carlson were present. Dir. of Economic Development Cathy Bennett was present. Members Dan Nelson and Brian Sjoberg and Liaison Duane McCarty and Alternate Liaison Gary Quick were absent. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Motion/Second: Goff/Schmidt moved approval of Minutes from October 28, 1997. Motion Carried 4 ayes 0 nays Carlson was not present at this time 4. SPECIAL BUSINESS No special business. 5. EDC BUSINESS: A. Consideration of Tax Increment Request by Pelstring Capital Director Bennett noted that she had contacted the Director of Administration for Sims Deltec and had a meeting with Principals of Fiscars/Portable Products to understand their needs and expectations regarding the request from Pelstring Capital, acting on the behalf of CALPERS, for a grant of $700,000 to assist in the retention of Portable Products, a division of Fiscars, in the Mounds View Business Park building A. Sims Deltec remains neutral on the matter but could see benefit to their company if they were asked to move with potential expansion at the same time. In the meeting and plant tour of Portable Products Bennett can substantiate their need to expand but did not get a sense of what the corporate office plans were for expansion if the City did not support the request. Bennett communicated the difficulty with the request from the City=s perspective and suggested that they M:\MASTERFILES\EDC MINUTES-RESOLUTIONS\EDC MINUTES\1997\EDCMIN11.DOC 2 evaluate the possibility of working with Everest to move into the proposed Building N of which the City has committed a large amount of TIF. Those thoughts were communicated to Portable Products in writing. Pat Pelstring handed out a response to the City regarding their request and mentioned that he was aware that Portable Products had contacted Everest regarding Building N as an alternative. The response requested that the EDC consider providing $620,000 instead of the $700,000 as a grant. These funds would support the buy-out of Portable Products lease so that they could expand into Building N. Mr. Pelstring noted that by allowing Portable Products to break their lease obligation, which is estimated to have a present value of $2 million, Calpers would be losing a minimum of $180,000 in leasehold improvement, in addition to the $2 million committed and Portable Products would be losing $115, 000 in leasehold improvement invested for their current location. TIF Consultant Dave Maroney wondered if Sims Deltec was interested in moving anymore and what guarantee would the City have that Portable Products would stay in Mounds View. Mr. Pelstring could not answer those questions and suggested that the City discuss this with Portable Products directly. Carlson noted that this request is still difficult to consider and she would feel uncomfortable recommending approval unless there could be strong justification for the use of the funds. Mr. Pelstring mentioned that this would provide for the continued growth and retention of two quality companies and Portable Products is unique and valuable to the community. Calpers is fairly neutral in the request but is trying to facilitate options to keep the company here. Carlson responded that the burden of growth should be on Fiscars and that they should have taken this into consideration when they purchased Portable Products. Larson agreed and felt that in a business buy out that the commitment to the lease is already on the books as a liability. Schmidt wondered if there were other ways to resolve this situation by possibly reengineering the distribution system. Goff wondered why the company was not here to represent themselves when they would be the key beneficiary. Carlson thought that a request for $62,000 may be reasonable but that the $620,000 was still out of the responsibility of the City. Maroney verified that he would never recommend this professionally as presented. Motion/Second: Carlson/Larson moved not recommend the request to fund the buy out of Portable Products lease and that Calpers and Portable Products should negotiate as a owner/tenant transaction only. This request is outside the realm of the City=s responsibility. Motion Carried 5 ayes 0 nays A. Discussion of Mounds View Ring Road Concept Bennett gave a summary of the ring road concept and discussions at the community meeting regarding the traffic concerns. The commissioners agreed that the ring road concept was good for the City and that the traffic signal is very important to the community center for the enhancement and safety of the City and its residents. The commission would like to continue to be involved with the development of the concept. Larson mentioned that it would be worthwhile to have the road moved M:\MASTERFILES\EDC MINUTES-RESOLUTIONS\EDC MINUTES\1997\EDCMIN11.DOC 3 away from Highway 10 as much as possible so that it does not look like a frontage road. This should be looked at taking into consideration the costs for mitigation of the wetland. 6. REPORTS FROM CHAIR, COMMISSIONERS AND STAFF: No reports 7. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business before the Commission, this meeting of the Economic Development Commission adjourned at 8:55 a.m. Respectfully Submitted, Director of Economic Development