HomeMy WebLinkAboutHRA MINUTES 02081983CITY OF ST. ANTHONY
HOUSING ARID REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
�a MINUTES
February 8, 1983
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M. by Chairman Sundland.
Present for roll call: Sundland, Vice Chairman Letourneau, Secretary/
Treasurer Marks, and Commissioners Enrooth
and Ranallo.
Also present: David Childs, Executive Director; William Soth, Attorney;
and Richard Krier, Westwood Planning & Engineering Co.,
Planning Consultant.
Motion by Secretary Treasurer Marks and seconded by Commissioner
Enrooth to approve as submitted the minutes for the Housing and Rede-
velopment Authority meeting held January 25, 1983.
Motion carried unanimously.
The Chairman read a prepared statement in which he explained the purpose
of the meeting was to conduct interviews and question the two developers
who had submitted proposals for the Kenzie Terrace Redevelopment Pro-
ject in conformance with the procedures which had been established at
the H.R.A. meeting held January 25th. He emphasized that there would
be no comments or questions permitted from the floor, not because such
input would not be valued by the H.R.A., but in the interest of main-
taining as high degree of fairness for each proposal as possible.
Instead, Chairman Sundland requested that any questions or concerns
about the proposals should be submitted in writing to Mr. Childs prior
to February 11th when the H.R.A. and staff would be reviewing and
evaluating the proposals.
Former Mayor Sally Haik and a number of Planning Commission and Task
Force members were among those residents who were in attendance. The
Chairman gave the background history of the redevelopment project and
acknowledged the Commission and Task Force involvement in the project
planning process. He then advised those present that the H.R.A intends
to make a tentative selection of a developer and a plan for the project
during its meeting February 22, 1983, and following that decision there
would be a 90 day period prior to the signing of contract with the
developer in which the fine points of that contract would be negotiated
with that developer and during which it is anticipated that both the
Planning Commission and Task Force would be heavily involved.
At 6:05 P.M., Mr. John Curry, President of the Knutson Construction
Company, opened the presentation of his firm's proposal for the re-
development project by introducing the members of the team which would
be involved in the project. These included Tony Vavoulis, project
manager; Bruce Knutson, architect, and Art Peel, who would be responsible
for the financing. Included in the presentation were discussions of
the firm's previous experience with housing projects of the same type
as proposed for the Kenzie Terrace area, the reasons the developers
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consider the project could be successfully undertaken and the mix of
market rate and subsidized senior housing, which would be included in
the 400 to 425 units the Knutson Company proposes to develop in three
stages, starting with the 125 units to be built in the next building
season on the north side of the Kenzie Terrace site.
The formal presentation was completed at 6:30 P.M. and at that time the
developer was presented with a written list of questions about their
proposal which they responded to until 6:54 P.M., at which time the
meeting was recessed.
The presentation and responses to the questions were taped and trans-
cribed for permanent record as was the interview and questioning of the
second firm whose presentation was given at 7:15 P.M., following the
recess.
When the meeting was resumed at 7:15 P.M., the Chairman read the same
prepared statement which had preceded the Knutson presentation and at
7:20 P.M., the second team of developers presented their proposal for
the redevelopment project.
Stephen Yurick of the Arkell Development Company told the H.R.A. mem-
bers his firm would enter into a joint venture with Kraus -Anderson,
Rothschild Financial Corporation, and Saunders-Thalden & Associates,
Inc., architects, to develop approximately 495 market rate and sub-
sidized senior housing units in the Kenzie Terrace area in three stages,
the first of which would be 135 units of market rate housing to be
constructed within a year on the northern project site.
Mr. Yurick introduced the representatives of the other team firms who
were in attendance, including Gary Tushie of Saunders-Thalden; Gary
Gustafson and Rich Kirschberg of Rothschild; and Jack. Sleddin, Dan
Egglesma and Vince Kaufman of Kraus -Anderson. They joined in with the
developer in discussing the various facets of their proposal and when
the formal presentation was completed at 7:50 P.M., joined with Mr.
Yurick in responding to a list of questions which covered the H.R.A.'s
concerns about the financing options, should 202 funding not be
available for the second phase; their reaction to the Developers Con-
tract; their ability to develop the entire project and whether or not
they foresaw difficulties in meeting the design guidelines set down
for the project.
The question period ended at 8:10 P.M., at which time the meeting was
recessed until 8:29 P.M.
Motion by Commissioner Ranallo and seconded by Commissioner Enrooth to
adjourn the Housing and Redevelopment Authority at 8:30 P.M.
Motion carried unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Helen Crowe, Secretary
ST. ANTHONY HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
INTERVIEW OF PROSPECTIVE DEVELOPER
(ARKELL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION/KRAUS-ANDERSON CONSTRUCTION)
FOR THE KENZIE TERRACE
REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT
February 8, 1983
Bob Sundland
app preciate the opportunity to meet with you this evening at this
interview. Over the last few months we have solicited proposals
for the Kenzie Terrace Redevelopment Project, in accord with the
adopted plan, which was recommended by the Planning Commission and
approved by the City Council last summer. The purpose of this meeting
is to interview two who have responded to our requests for proposals.
This is a formal interview which will proceed as follows.
Each redeveloper will be given one half hour to present their
proposal. That half hour will be precisely timed by our clerk.
At the end of that half hour session, the redevelopers will
be requested to answer questions which the H.R.A. has prepared
and which deal with their particular proposal also any questions
which the H.R.A. feel are appropriate will be asked at that time.
The questioning will take place for one half hour.
Now, we have Arkell Development. We welcome you. I believe, Mr.
Yurick, Mr. Arkell, Mr. Tushie. I don't know if fir. Englesma is
here from luaus Anderson, but if the clerk will start the timer,
then you folks have at it.
Steve Yurick
T azT nY -you very much, Mr. Sundland. On behalf of the members of our
redevelopment team, we'd like to thank the members of the H.R.A.
for this opportunity to present our ideas and concepts for this
very important program. Before introducing each member for a brief
recap of their experience in the housing, redevelopment and re-
construction fields, I simply would like to express our desire to be
selected for this project. We have an old saying in the sales field
that if you don't ask for the order, you can't get the sale, and
we like to follow that whenever we can.
We feel we have put together a knowledgeable and dynamic group of
people who are not only experienced in residential housing, but
have an emphasis on condominium development. For your additional
information, booklets were distributed to you tonight that focus a
little more clearly on each of the entitles that would be involved
should we be selected. At this point I would like to just very
briefly introduce the people who will speak to you shortly. First
we have Jack Schlettee, Senior Vice President for Kraus Anderson
Construction. Jack. Gary Tushie,, principle in the firm of Saunders-
Thalden, John Arkell, President of the Arkell Development Corpora-
tion and Gary Gustafson, Senior Vice President with Rothchild Financial
Corporation. To start things off, I'd like to introduce Jack
Schlettee to give you a brief word on Kraus Anderson. Jack.
Jack Schlettee
Just a brief description of Kraus Anderson, for everybody's sake.
It's a privately owned company that was acquired by Mr. Englsma in
1939. It has 5 offices of construction companies, 2 in Minneapolis/
St. Paul, Dallas and Honolulu. Since then, he's expanded it into
real estate development, leasing, property management, insurancies
and advertising. Our experience related to housing, elderly, con-
dominiums and such is very extensive. Over the last probably 20
years, we built somewhere in the area of between 2 and 300,000 units.
We have some slides here that will give you some example of completed
projects. That's a condominium project that we completed about 3
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years ago on Rawaii. It's 148 units, condominiums. This one is
an elderly project at Waconia, 47 units, and that was completed
about 3 years ago also. This is in Edina, 200 and some odd units
and that's also an elderly project. This is another project we
completed in Hawaii. It's 225 units, condominiums. This is a
market condominium in Rochester, 36 units. And this is an award
that we received in a project in the Selby/Dale area in St. Paul.
It was for the affirmative action program for participation of
minority contractors on the job. This project was cooperative
housing which was sponsored by the archdiocese. Gary.
Garym GGustafson
fpm ary Gustafson with Rothchild Financial as you can see. Well,
maybe you can't. Our logo up there says we're in business since
1885 so we're just about 100 years old. We're locally owned, mid-
western based company. Our home office is in St. Paul and we have
other offices in various cities in the mid -west and southwest
Florida. Our current servicing volume mortgage bankers are judged
by how much their servicing volume is. We're currently servicing
650 million for over 100 different lenders, which ranks us about
125th nationally out of 700 mortgage banking firms throughout the
country. We're involved in all facets of the real estate lending
business, family lending, income property loans and construction
loans. Our annual originations of loans have been running approximately
$150 million and we have lines of credit of about $25 million for
construction lending and single family loan warehousing. We're
also involved in the property management business. We employ
apprixomately 100 people in the Twin City area. Very active, I
have an office out in Edina. Just a few quick shots here, haven't
got much time, of some of the things we've financed over the years.
This happens to be a shopping center, another shopping center we've
financed, that is not a subsidized project, that is a market rate
housing project we've financed, another shopping center and another
conventionally financed apartment building. That happens to be a
family project financed with section 8 FHA insured construction loan.
We've been very heavy in the FHA area, the 202's for the non -profits
and have done approximately 100 multi -family projects under the FIIA
housing programs. That happens to be an elderly moderate care type
facility in Edina.
Gary Tushie
My name is Gary Tushie . I'm with Saundess.Thalden and Associates and
as Steve mentioned earlier, I'm a principle with the company in
charge of this office here in Minnesota. Saunders Thalden and
Associates is a nation wide firm of landscape architects and planners.
Minneapolis is a regional office, our home office is in St. Louis.
We specialize in working for developers and that's given us the
unique opportunity of doing a wide variety of types of building,
from small commercial to large commercial, from resort/hotel types
of projects to small motels, shopping centers, the whole gamut. And
also, more specifically, the residential market. Particularly con-
dominiums and subsidized housing. This particular project is a 3
story condominium, 40 unit building, out in Minnetonka, underground
parking with frame construction, another one in St. Louis Park.
Again, another project that's a market rate condominium project in
St. Louis Park. This is an elderly highrise building in Muscatine, IA.
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It's called Clark House, which was a 202 subsidized project. This
is a redevelopment project, part of an existing block in St. Louis
where we not only provided elderly 202 housing, but also family
housing in the same development. We've also been involved in some
different type of housing units. This is a renovation of a hotel
that we're converting into condominiums. Because we specialize in
working for developers, we also have a very close relationship to
their concerns about dollars. We know that money doesn't grown on
trees, so we make a very strong commitment to the developer and their
typically negotiated general contractor to make sure what we designed
in the beginning gets built for what everybody anticipated it to be.
That's all part of the team process. So, what we've done in our
office is simply to put together a team of professionals to deal with
all the things that developers have to deal with to get the projects
designed and built. What that means is that we're providing better
places, better environments for people to live in, like this and
like this and not like this.
John Arkell
Thank you Gary. The Arkell Development Corporation was developed in
1977 with the purchase of the remaining unsold units of the Towers
Condominium in downtown Minneapolis. While we were involved with the
Towers, we were fortunate enough to have about 70% of the sales there
both as an employee of Knutson and afterwards, after we bought Don
out of the building. our involvement here in the team concept is that
of a developer and a marketer and the following are some of the pro-
jects that we've been involved with.
This is Ridgewood Hills. It's a 22 unit complex in South Minneapolis
that was down through MHRA funds back in the late 170's, 78, I guess.
This is 3 Fountains, a 36 unit again in the South side of Minneapolis
again with MHRA money. This is the first project we owned as a
developer and marketer. It's in Sioux Falls, SD. It is an $8h, million
conversion. This is the Greenbrier. It's a 462 unit development.
My associate, Steve Yurick acted as the director of marketing and
finance for the Keller Corporation. Another building Steve was
involved in called the Ponds, a 130 unit new construction project
in Minnetonka. The building that we're just finishing up, it's probably
our greatest success, in Roseville. We had over 50% internal. it's
a 96 unit conversion and we currently office within the complex there.
This is a very poor shot of a building we just bought. We don't have
any pictures of it yet. We started the internal, I believe we went
to the residents today , it's 158 unit, it's called Bridgewalk. The
158 units consist of 92 units that will be converted and 66 units which
will be new construction project. Steven.
Steve Yurick
Thank you gentlemen. We believe that we have the individuals nec-
essary put together under this team concept to complete the project
as we think, in working with the City officials, and with the community
itself, that should be completed. To give you some more details on
what our proposal consists of, I'll turn the program back over to
Gary Tushie. Gary.
Gary Tushie
I Thank you Steve.
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You're all somewhat familiar with the plans we've already submitted
for this project. What we've done is put them in a presentation for-
mat. What I will do now is explain some of this to you. I hope
that everybody, Board members and audience alike, will get a good
idea of what we've done here. Maybe if some of you would like to
move around. I think the thing that impresses us most about the
project is that number 1, it's in St. Anthony. St. Anthony's a very
nice community. What we wanted to do with the site was respond to
some of the neat characteristics that St. Anthony has, which is a
park type of atmosphere. We wanted to incorporate that into the site
plan and in the overall site plan, I think you can see how we've
incorporated a park -like type of atmosphere, trees, boulevards coming
in with the ponds as part of the second phase, buffering the first
phase building from the trailor court, trying to provide sense of
entry into both phases of the project. We're talking about general
terms about the whole site plan, and then I want to be specific about
phase 1, phase 2 and phase 3. We do consider it all as one project
plan. Some of the site amenities that we've incorporated into the
second phase will not only be used by the second phase, but also the
people moving into the first phase will also have use of those
recreational facilities, which we think is a real unique charcteristic
particularly of this plan. one of those recreational facilities
is a pool room that has an indoor pool, sauna, weight room and that
type of facility. We also have the pond with a waterfall which we
anticipate we've got a sidewalk system going around it which we
anticipate will be a casual walk around the pond type of thing at
night. We've also got an extensive sidewalk system that incorporates
both projects and are hoping that the City will have a sidewalk system
that goes particularly for this phase to St. Charles Church and then
back again, you know, that type of system. So we're encouraging
everybody to use the entire complex which is one reason why we've
got a new stop light, 3 way stop, which is part of the project as well
so that to and from both sides can actually work. We've also got
tennis courts as part of the second phase, we've got some rooftop
gardens which more specifically can be used by the residents of those
particular buildings. In the first phase, the north side of the
project, we've got shuffle board courts, horseshoe pits and those
types of things. We are also hoping we can incorporate some sort of
garden plots as part of that first phase so residents can grow their
own vegies.
Now I'm going to talk about the first phase which is the 134 unit
elderly building which is this building here. We've provided a total
of 103 parking spaces, which is a little bit over the average for
this type of facility, but we felt that it is important to incorporate
those amount of parking spaces into the project.
This is the overall floor plan. It's a four story building and
basically the floor plan is the same for all four floors except that
there's a central court area on the first floor. We've got some things
that aren't included on the top floors, like a security room, which
will have a full time security guard. We've also got the party room
is and lounge which is part of the first floor, the lobby and card room.
We've also got a T.V. lounge and we anticipate that being an area out-
side of the unit where residents can go and socialize with others
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in the building and watch T.V. during the day, just a place to get out
of their unit. We also have greenhouses on every floor so that
indoor plants can be grown in that part of the central court yard
area. We've also got 2 elevators servicing the building, one would
be for stretcher use and the other would be strict pedestrian use.
We've got laundry facilities and that's typical on every floor as
is the T.V. lounge with the janitor and trashman.
Unit mix is primarily one bedroom, we've got some two bedrooms and
we've got some large one bedrooms and then we also have some guest
rooms for if residents have guests over they can sleep there during
the night. We anticipate that being a reserved type concept, rather
than a rental. One other thing that we feel is unique particularly
about the unit plans is that we feel that they're fairly large sized
for this type of facility and we've also provided decks off all the
units which become part of the unit along with the bay type of window
in the bedroom.
These are the elevations showing you the type of exterior that we're
talking about. We're looking at a pitched roof, a brick and wood
exterior, the wood being primarily being on the recesses of the
deck areas, the rest of the building would be entirely brick. These
little dormers up on the top provide vaulted ceilings on the top
floor units. There is an underground parking garage as part of that
building and we anticipate that part of the parking spaces inside
the building will be guest parking. The way that will work is we'll
have a buzzer system outside the entry into the garage and if someone
has a friend coming over, they'll alert the security guard so when
they come up to the door, they can press the buzzer and the security
guard will let them in and tell them which stall to park in. There
will be some indoor guest parking.
The second phase of the project has 2 building types, the first what
we anticipate being an elderly 202 project, either cooperative or
rental and also a market rate condominium. This is the 202 building
which would be an elderly facility, which would be a government
subsidized project, hopefully if it gets approved. Again, it has
similar type of building characteristics, brick with wood inserts.
No decks, that's not allowed on this type of project, the units are
fairly small, based on government restrictions. The brown shows
circulation patterns and again we have the 75% one bedroom, 25%
efficiency. The market rate condominiums which not only part of phase
2, but also the remaining 2 buildings of phase 3 all have similar
type of characteristics. They'll have 2 levels of underground park-
ing underneath the building itself and in addition to that all the
parking requirements for the building will be in a ramp type of
situation, there won't be any parking spaces outside. Now the ramp
will be an open air ramp, but they'll still be under cover. Part
of the problem with this site with the density is providing enough
parking spaces and not covering the whole site with asphalt, that
was an important part of the project. This is the overall floor plan
for the building. You can see the circulation pattern is a basic
. T. The building does vary in height. On the first building has
5 to 8 floors, the second building 4-7 and on the other 5-8 stories.
Looking at the building from that angle, these are the greenhouses on
top of the lower story buildings which lead out onto the roof top areas
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which we anticipate will be the primary viewing areas for Minneapolis
and the surrounding parkway. This is the parking ramp here and the
other parking ramp here. We've also got a rendering of the whole site
which can help you visualize a little bit more how all those build-
ings fit together.
This would be the whole development. This would be the first phase of
134 units, the second phase, elderly 202, the second phase market
rate, the parking ramp with the tennis courts on top, the two third
phase buildings with a parking ramp inbetween.
With that, I''d like to talk a little bit about the construction.
On the first building, which is this building here, would be of steel
stud type of construction, the second phase building and the remainder
of the buildings , the second phase and 202, excuse me, would also
be stud, the remaining buildings would be of a floor concrete con-
struction. With that I'd like to turn the floor over the Steve and
he's going to talk about the marketing program.
Steve Yurick
awn -R you Gary. I think with the time we have remaining, which must
be getting fairly minimal, I would just like to comment on a few areas
that we considered in our marketing proposal. Our submission was
based on a very positive and aggressive marketing posture. We pro-
jected the first 134 units being absorbed over a 10 month period of
time. This was based really on two assumptions. One that the pro-
spects for this phase are able to dispose of the units that do come
to the marketplace augmented by two other positive factors. One a
housing revenue bond program to assist first time home buyers in
purchasing the existing homes, combined with a trade-in program
to guarantee the availability of that homeowners equity being available
for use in buying the home in phase 1. Our goal is to have in-home
financing in approximately the 10% range. We believe this would help
to ensure the the targeted 10 month absorption rate for that phase.
The marketing phase for phase 2 is only slightly less optimistic as
being approximately 12 units a month for a 15 month absorption period.
If viable, the 202 program is going to play a very important part
in the absorption rate. If the funds do become available for the 202
program, we feel that those 54 units are going to be absorbed in a
very short period of time, probably in a 6 month period of time. That
leaves the other 103 units being absorbed in the 15 month period of
time at a much more reasonable rate of absorption. In the third phase
we're talking about absorbing about 100 units per year. In normal
real estate markets that is not an unreasonable amount to expect.
One of our biggest concerns and I know one of the concerns that has
been discussed in the analysis of this project is what is going to make
people move to the City of St. Anthony. Obviously, 475 units, which
is what we're proposing, are not going to be filled by St. Anthony
residents. Our feeling is that by the time we get into the latter part
of phase 2, and part of phase 3, St. Anthony Village is going to have
acquired a much more public image throughout the Twin City area, as
a result of this project. And, we feel that it is going to be more
. attractive. People are going to be more aware of St. Anthony Village,
and its proximity to the downtown area, its proximity to the University
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and a number of other amenities that enhance the appeal to the St.
Anthony community. In addition, combined with a number of other
projects that we're doing around the Twin Cities area, we'll be able
to steer a number of people who may not feel that they fit into the
other projects that we're involved in to a project such as they might
find in St. Anthony that they might find more attractive.
Again, while these projections are ambitious, given the appropriate
market conditions and marketing strategy, we feel that they can be
attainable. At this point, for the last couple of minutes, I'd like
to ask Gary Gustafson to go over a little bit of the financing
aspects.
Gary Gustafson
Quickly, there are really four things that can be done by the fin-
ancing institution for this type of project. Number 1 is you have
to get the project approved by the various government agencies,
federal national mortgage association, FHA and VA. We have a
gentleman here, Richard Kirchberg has been with us approximately a
year. His background was chief regional underwriter for
in Chicago so he used to look at all these projects, I don't know
what even the region was, Richard, but he's very familiar with the
approval process and we're glad to have him on our staff. We also
have to be able to provide a construction loan. We are in that
business, not only with our own funds, but arranging construction
loans for people all the time. We also have to be a single family
lender and units for this project need loans. And also, if the
202 thing goes, you need expertise in the FHA area. As I mentioned
earlier, I think we've done 100 br 200 FHA projects, approximately
20 of the 202 variety, which this one is. Just a couple observations
on this project. I think the timing is right. Certainly, with the
economy coming back, people talking about housing again, I think it's
an excellent time. I know there's some processes to go through and
all I can do is encourage you to speed those up if you go ahead,
because the time is here. I think these units, particularly the first
phase which we're looking at more carefully at this point, were
properly priced. I think that's a market today that homes are selling
at. I think that City involvement is plus. Obviously, you people
feel a project of this type can go or you wouldn't be committing
City funds through the tax increment thing, so I think that's great.
I'd like to reiterate what Steve said about the bond financing. I
think that may well be a very important aspect of this thing and if
you can pull that off and do some City bonding to provide money for
first time home buyers so that these people can move into these units,
I think that is excellent. I think it's an excellent project and
we stand ready to work with these folks and we've worked with them
before and are looking forward to it.
Steve Yurick
Thank you. There are two gentlemen who arrived late, I think they
finally found it. Dan Englsma and Vince Kaufman, both from Krause
Anderson. I think with that we'll turn it over to you for questions
and answers. Thank you very much.
(Sundland) Thank you very much. I think what we'll do gentlemen, we've
prepared several questions for the second half of the interview and
we're going to present these questions to you and ask for your comments
and answers.
The ones lined out are
Steve Yurick
r, Question number 1 is,
and will you provide a
elderly development?"
ME
the ones you answered in your presentation.
"who will be architect assigned to this project
list of his experience in condominium and
Saunders-Thaulden will be the firm as architect on this project and
I believe the information that you have should provide a fairly decent
descriptive background on both condominium and elderly development.
Are these questions that you would like me to answer or...
CSundland) However you feel comfortable.
OK. Gary would you like to respond to that.
Gary Gustafson
I think that's appropriate. The information that we originally pro-
vided with the partial list of our projects. I know that Westwood
Planning has contacted some of our references and particularly in the
market rate condominiums and the elderly 202.
Steve Yurick
Question number 2 is, "of the condominiums you have listed, which ones
are new construction and which ones are conversions of existing
apartment buildings"? I presume which ones the Arkell Development
is what you are questioning.
The Ponds at Greenbriar was a new construction project undertaken by
the Greenbriar Corporation of which I was the director of marketing,
administration and finance during its development. The Arkell company
did not directly participate in that, but through my experience with
it, it was a new construction project that I'm very familar with.
The ones that Arkell Development did, I believe that every other one
in it is a conversion project and we are now starting on the new
construction project on the St. Louis Park project, which I think
John alluded to during his slide presentation. That'll be a 66 unit
new construction development added to the existing 92 unit conversion
project.
Steve Yurick
Item number 3 is "how many elderly or elderly 202 or 221D3 cooperatives
have you been involved with as a redeveloper"? Please describe your
involvement.
Our involvement as Arkell Development Corporation is in essence non-
existent. That is exactly why we have put together the team of
individuals to provide the type of background in that area of develop-
ment that we feel is so needed in that particular phase of the St.
Anthony project.
Steve Yurick
Item number 4, "would you use a separate management corporation to
provide management for homeowners association, if so, who?"
We would not. Typically, we manage our own complexes right on to the
time of turning it over to the homeowners, the first homeowner board.
We take the responsibility for setting up that first homeowners
ME
association so it is able to function when that first homeowner board
comes on line. As you may be familiar, the Minnesota Condominium
Law requires that a certain number of homeowners are elected to that
board at certain phases in the development of the project. We found
that it is very helpful to us and to that association to have a strong
effective homeowner board in operation, particularly during the last
phase of a sell out of a project. At that point in time, we generally
leave it up to the homeowners to determine who is going to come in
and manage their property and in most cases they will go to a pro-
fessional outside manager.
Steve Yurick
eI� when would you begin construction of the first unit?"
We'd like to begin construction of the first unit very soon. A
selling season is very critical to the success of any project. The
sooner we can begin, the more successful that project will be. We
have a little less concern about that matter in phase one than we
might typically have in the other market rate sections and I think
the reasons being obvious from all the studies being done, it may
not matter when that particular phase is started, it should be very
successful. But, to actually answer the question, I guess originally
we had anticipated beginning construction in July. I do understand
that that is physically impossible to follow the whole process that
has to be done from the time of selection of the redeveloper to the
time that would start so again, if we are selected we would like to
keep in close contact with the City and do whatever we can to speed
up that process and start as soon as possible.
Is Steve Yurick
'Please describe specifically your redevelopment experience, including
the name of the project and the City where the project is located".
As Arkell Development Corporation, we have not done a redevelopment
project. We again look to the experience of team members we have
put together. In addition to the experience that I was able to
gather in my initial years at the Knutson Companies where Knutson was
involved with the City of Minneapolis in an extensive development of
the downtown area. The Towers was a part of that, the River Towers
for the elderly was another part of that. I was with Knutson for
those two particular phases and I was involved in the application
processes to the City and in the marketing process of those units.
Steve Yuruck
e1"Ta) n would you begin your condominium presales and how would you
presell?"
We typically begin our condominium presales with approximately 30 to
60 days prior to putting a hole in the ground. It would vary from
project to project. In this particular case, especially for phase
1, I would think that's exactly when we would start. There is already
a certain degree of enthusiasm being generated throughout the com-
munity for this particular development and I think being able to capi-
talize that enthusiasm will only benefit this particular development.
We would presell those units probably, and I say probably because
' quite honestly we have not put together a detailed market program on
this , but I would say using various community resources exclusively.
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Soliciting the assistance of the churches, soliciting the assistance
of other community organizations that can pass the word and tell of
the availability of this type of housing to other members of the
St. Anthony community. As we would proceed into phase 2 and phase
3, we would get into the more conventional types of promotions, such
as advertising in the newspapers, radios, and billboards. As is very
common in this particular end of the real estate business, referals
are a very strong part of the sales market and we're no exception to
subscribing to that principle. We'd like to encourage referals when-
ever possible and will make every effort to do so.
Steve Yurick
Item °iiave you read the contract for private redeveloper's agree-
ment and do you agree or disagree with all of the items?"
There are some items that, rather than say disagree with, I would say
we would like to approach the HRA to negotiate on. Those items being,
the amount of the letter of credit, depending on the proposed take
down of the plan; the handling of the demolition costs on the existing
commercial site.
Steve Yurick
Item 9, °how long is your offer open, when would you be willing to
enter into the redeveloper's agreement?"
We would like to enter into the redeveloper's agreement just as soon
as we can. If we are selected, we would sit down and negotiate it
post haste. The sooner the better and everybody will really know
where they stand. As far as how long our offer is open, typically
when we submit these we leave them open for 30 days and I think we
would continue with that policy.
Steve Yurick
Item 12, 'have you reviewed the design guidelines and will your final
design conform to those guidelines?"
On that question, I'd like to defer that to Gary.
Gary Tushie
Yes.
Steve Yurick
Thank you Gary.
Steve Yurick
Question 12a, "what will you do if 202 is not available?"
The concept there is to market that project probably with some redesign
as market rate condominiums.
Steve Yurick
Item IT—,'are you willing to make changes in any phases of the development?"
Not only are we willing, but we must say, that depending on the market
conditions, it may be demanded. I think that as we proceed into the
development of this project, we'll probably see some things change
from what we are talking about today. What they are, I guess your
guess is as good as ours.
Steve Yurick
ow id you arrive at your offering price?"
0
We came up with a figure of $2,800 for every unit as a price to
include in our sale price. We felt that in the price range that we
want to offer these units at, we had to do everything possible to
minimize the costs that went into it. So, rather than taking some
percentage that everybody uses, we tried to do exactly that. We
tried to minimize the items that went into increase the sale price,
in essence. There's just no matchable way you can come up with the
number we have. That's the number we came up with when trying to
minimize those costs.
Steve Yurick
"If there are several additional questions for which responses are
necessary, would you be willing to work with our redevelopment
consultant to answer these questions?"
Certainly we would be.
(Sundland) Questions from the Board?
George Marks
(HRA) You have a very impressive array of companies that you brought
together for this team, and I was wondering if you could elaborate
a little on your experiences of working together, the various members
of this team and past experience that you have.
Steve Yurick
OK. Let me start with our design man, the architect. Gary Tushie
and I have been trying in essence, to put together a project for some
time. We have talked many times in the past on other project areas,
trying to put something together. This is the first time it has
clicked for the two of us. We have been very impressed with their
company's background around the country and and locally with what
they do in the field of design and what they do in trying to keep
things from a cost standpoint within reason. It isn't just a design
for doing this, but a kind of approach. They are generally aware of
cost factors that have to go into a project.
Rothchild Financial Corporation. They are currently financing our
new development project in St. Louis Park. We are in the final stages
of closing approximately two other condominium developments in the
Twin City area with the assistance of their financing and their
arranged financing. We have been working with them about a year and
found them to be very helpful to our needs.
Kraus Anderson - this would be the first time we would be working with
the KA group and I guess to be quite honest, we felt we needed a name
contractor to get involved in a project of this magnitude. We are
not contractors ourselves and we need that type of experience, that
type of expertise that Kraus Anderson provides in order to make this
a viable project.
(Sundland) Yes, Mr. Krier?
(Krier) Is Arkell going to be the people to enter into the agree-
ment or Kraus Anderson and Arkell entering into the redeveloper's
agreement? ,
0
C]
0
John Arkell
Both of us,
book.
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it's a joint venture. I believe that's stated in the
(Sundland) Any questions? Thank you very much. We're going to make
our decision February 22, I'm sure we will, for tentative status.
If you have any summarization you'd like to offer us at this time, let's
hear it. If not, thank you very much.
(Arkell) I'd just like to thank you for your time and consideration
for giving us the opportunity to present it to you.
(Sundland) Thank you very much.
.•
ST. ANTHONY HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
INTERVIEW OF PROSPECTIVE DEVELOPER.-
(KNUTSON CONSTRUCTION CO.)
FOR THE KENZIE TERRACE
REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT
February 8, 1983
40
Sundland
Before we start, take a few minutes, I have a prepared statement that I
• would like to share with you. We appreciate the opportunity to meet with
you this evening, developers, for this interview. Over the last few
months we have solicited proposals for the Kenzie Terrace Redevelopment
Project in accord with the adopted plan, -which was recommended by the
Planning Commission and approved by the City Council last summer. The
purpose of this meeting is to .interview two redevelopers who have re-
sponded to our request for proposals. This is a formal interview and
the proceedings will go on such as this.
(1) Each developer will be given a half hour to present their proposal.
That half hour will be precisely timed by a clerk.
(2) At the end of the half hour session, redevelopers will be requested
to answer questions which the H.R.A. has prepared to deal with their
particular proposal. Also, any. questions which members of the H.R.A.
Board feel are appropriate will be asked at this time. Question-
ing will take place for one half hour.
For the people who are here, I wish to express my gratitude for your
attending the meeting here tonight. This is an accumulation of a great
deal of work, as you who were on the Task Force and Planning Commission
know.1 I want to recognize each of you for your tremendous amount of
effort that you have put into this project and ask for your continued
assistance and support over the implementation period. However, because
it is important to maintain a high degree of fairness and formality in
the interview process, I will not be entertaining any questions from the
• floor tonight, only from the H.R.A. Commissioners. This does not mean
that we do not value your opinion or that your questions are not pertin-
ent. It is only a means of creating.a high degree of fairness in terms
of chosing a particular redeveloper. We want comments from the public
and we want your individual comments concerning these proposals. As
such, I would like to invite you and the general public to put your
comments and questions in writing and forward them to Mr. Childs by this
coming Friday. That would certainly be helpful to us.
Over the next two weeks we will be reviewing the proposals and on Febru-
ary 22nd we will be announcing our decision as to which redeveloper
we intend to work with. You are all invited to the February 22nd H.R.A.
meeting.
Once a redeveloper has been chosen, that redeveloper will be given
temporary status for a period not to exceed 90 days. At the end of
90 days, the redeveloper will have entered into a formal agreement with
the H.R.A. for development of the area. During this 90 day period,,the
Planning Commission and the Task Force will be heavily involved in areas
of their concern.
With this, I wish to begin the interviews with an introduction of the
redeveloper to the Board, which consists of myself, Chairman Robert
Sundland, Clarence Ranallo, George Marks, Richard Letourneau, Richard
Enrooth and I think.you all know Mr. Childs, Mr. Soth, our attorney, and
• Mr. Krier, our consultant. I'm pleased to introduce the Knutson Company,
construction company, and the people who are present to present their
proposals this evening, Mr. John Curry, President, Mr. Tony Vavoulis, and
Mr. Bruce Knutson. Mr. Curry I will leave the floor to you at this time.
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John Curry
I can assure you we are not going to take the 30 minutes in introductory
• comments'. Am I correct that all of you have received the proposal that
we had submitted before, so that information was received ahead of time.
(That's correct).. Again, just to more clearly indicate, I just want to
take a few minutes to indicate what we intend to do. It is that we
intend to cover just briefly some of the significant things included in
our proposal. Basically, what we intend to do, is that Mr. Tony Vavoulis,
the man with the curly hair back.there, is going to explain briefly the
proposal. Tony would be ourproject manager on this project, the man
responsible for working closely with the City, resolving all the questions
and seeing that the project goes forward.
Sitting right in front of him is Mr. Bruce Knutson. Bruce would be the
architect on the project. He's had considerable experience with this
type of project. As a matter of fact, this team, that we're talking to
you about tonight that we are proposing, has just completed a project of
178 units, elderly project in Richfield, a southern suburb, and we are
proposing a program somewhat similar as the important first step to
getting this whole redevelopment situation started, which you were talking
about for Kenzie Terrace.
The other member'is, I'm glad to see you here, Art. Art, I think, came
out of a sick .bed to get here tonight. He's been having the flu bug
that many of us have encountered in the last few weeks. Art represents
our mortgage interests and is very familiar with the subsidized housing
programs as well as the other programs. All of us represent the team
that we're talking about on this. We have worked together before. We
• are not all the same company, although you might say we're all of the
same family. Not all the same family either. Bruce is a part of the
family, but not a part of the company. He operates independently, and
we do projects sometimes with Bruce, sometimes without him, so that is
the group.
Let me just give you a.brief background of what we're bringing to you.
The Knutson Construction Company, which I happen to be president of, is
an organization which has been in business a long time, it's been over
70 years in Minneapolis. During that time, as an organization, it's been
involved in all types of construction projects and development projects.
The company as an organization that was heavily involved in the develop-
ment of the Gateway area. More recently, we have been involved in the
development of many housing projects, and particularly we are devoting
considerable emphasis to housing with emphasis on the elderly. As we
are all very much aware, and I put myself in this category, we are an
aging population and all communities are faced with some of the same
problem that their community is aging. You have many people who have
grown up, not grown, but lived in their homes and all of a sudden they
are becoming empty nesters. One of the things is that they have no place
to go. This is one of the problems that we are very familar with and
wish to address. Fortunately, there's a synogism here that works well.
If you can find something that is desireable for these people to move
to, with the type of proposal we're going to be talking to, you free up
all these homes for younger people to move in. By so doing the type
is of proposal we're talking about, initially in the first stage, you're
creating an additional tax base for the people in the type of home
-3 -
facility you're providing for them, is a living facility and at the same
• time freeing up for further tax.base for younger population to move into
the other.
Briefly, that is the type of program we will be talking to you about.
These are the people that will be presenting it to you and I can just
say that they are a group that is experienced, has first-hand knowledge
of dealing with this. Rather than my taking any more time, so that we
don't run over the 30 minutes, I turn it to Tony.
Tony Vavoulis
alai nc y%u, John. What I would like to do is to get into a little more
detail of the type of project we're talking about here and the entire
scope of it, and also the approach we're taking on this project. In
our initial.review of the St. Anthony/Northeast area, we saw several
characteristics. Basically it's a very stable area, it is in good
condition, it's well maintained and like several other areas in the City
they have a.fierce devotion to their locale and want to maintain
residence in that area. We also noticed that there are some basic
housing needs in the area. The. .location that is being offered in the
redevelopment package, in reviewing -it, it also has some good character-
istics. It is very well located as the community of St. Anthony is.
It has good access to the overall metropolitan area as well as within
it, the various commercial aspects of the strip there, the Kenzie Terrace
area strip there. In conclusion, it's a good area for development. In
looking at the number of units we are proposing, it's 400-425, as
broken down in our proposal. That, at first blush, looking at it is an
• awful lot of units for any proposal, any area to absorb, no matter what
it's characteristics. What we feel has to be done in this type of
proposal, it has to be broken down into several different market groups,
as well as staging it over a period of time.
Our recent experience over at Lakeshore Drive is a new group that a
number of developers are now looking at. It's a market rate elderly,
which, up until recently, when elderly housing was talked about, it was
almost exclusively subsidized housing. That is another group that is
also being directed in our development proposal, but that is in phase 2.
And then there is, I guess the more broad group, which is just general
market rate housing that there be no particular restrictions on age. We
would try to design it that it would be attractive to all ages. We
do not expect this development to be heavily family oriented. The housing
needs of the community in regard to that would be taken care of with
people moving from their current.place of residence into this development,
as was our experience of the Richfield project. About 75% of the people
moved into that project within a 2 mile radius of that site and over 85%
of those.people that moved into the project were homeowners. So, we've
also taken that one.further in looking at who they sold their home to
almost exclusively was first time home buyers, young families. The group
that many housing efforts are looking at for supplementing their com-
munity. And, as St. Anthony has experienced, Richfield has experienced,
and really the overall community of St. Paul/Minneapolis is having a
problem with is the population is reducing, the individuals per household
is going down. That, in simple.observation, is the community is getting
• older and alternatives for that older population need to be developed.
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What we got involved with at Lakeshore Drive in Richfield was a large
• section of the population, which turned out to.be waiting for an
opportunity to stay in their community and still maintain ownership and
maintain all of those advantages that home ownership brings with it.
We would be approaching this project in three phases. The first phase,
which is the most important:we see, is the type of project that I spoke
of. You would have to be 55 to qualify to purchase into the facility,
it would be 125 units, it would be market rate. The price range would
be roughly $60,000 to $90,000.. I guess I should start off with all of
these figures and numbers and totals that we're talking about at this
time are a proposal. We are looking to firm up, analyze, evaluate and
mature this overall proposal in the next months and ultimately years
to come. We do not consider ourselves, even though we have had one
very successful project recently,- to know everything there is to know
about either a particular community or market segment. We have what
we feel is a very good educated guess at this point and we intend to
spend the next months in regard to phase 1, maturing those guesses that
we're making at this time. That means that this proposal for phase 1
may be modified slightly in number of units, in size of units, mix of
units and in.fact, the -overall design that we develop may change around
within the context here. We do feel the total number of units has to be
in this range, however. We do not foresee feasibility forourtype of
project going below, I'll say, 120 units. We've got 125 here, it would
be very difficult for this type of facility to go below 120 and still
function and provide the services that are integral in this type of
• project.
This type of project does have services and support within it. In
looking at this overall market segment, we're often confronted with the
older adult that, I don't know what the current term is, someone who
is over 55, over 65 or over 75, someone who qualifies to move into our
project, has a lot of unique needs. I guess in this particular com-
munity, want to stay in the community first off. They have got houses
that they oftentimes have raised their families in. They have certain
physical limitations, sometimes severe, sometimes not severe and often-
times they have, as much as anything,,psychological limitations of their
home and concerns in that regard. In order to satisfy those needs, their
alternatives are few. Going to a nursing home is just too large a step.
very few people who moved into Lakeshore Drive were ready for that type
of step, but going to a facility that didn't have any support or level
of support services was not making a proper transition for them. So,
what we have got within this building,it starts off in a very important
area, is a 24 hour security/emergency response system. That is really
the core of a lot of things that developed in this building. You have
a management staff that is responsible for maintaining the security in
the building. Someone is dressed and on their feet 24 hours a day, not a
caretaker type of unit that you would call and request assistance in
whatever hour of the day, but so you have 24 hour a day support services.
That just in itself, creates an umbrella of security. Our experience
has shown that that, almost as much as anything, is almost a psychological
type of security that answers many of the people's needs and many of
• their family's needs. That is very important. We get oftentimes in the
management office at Lakeshore, families calling up and saying, my mother
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hasn't answered her phone for three days. Normally, that would require a
• drive from wherever son or daughter is all the way over to this facility
and the response has been quite often, I can see them in the community
` room, they're playing cards with their neighbors. That particular item
is very important. Also, in regard to playing cards with their neighbors,
is the socialization that develops in a building like Lakeshore Drive.
It's been open for roughly 4 months and within the first 4 days, there
was a bridge club set up and they.were having 'groups of people getting
together. The need for socialization, particularly in Minnesota, in
the slippery conditions that develop over the winter days, oftentimes
make people that are unsure of their footing locked into their house
for quite some time.
So this type of project, clearly is something that is needed in many
areas. It is also needed, we feel, in the St. Anthony area. Phase 1
is that type of facility.
Phase 2, the first stage to that is complimentary to that. It is pro-
posed,to be a 202, a subsidized type of elderly facility. We see these
2 working hand in hand, or would have the opportunity to work hand in
hand with some sort of shared services, possibly a food service program
in one building and being available for both. There has been many
subsidized projects built'over the years. There is a continuing and
ongoing need for that. It is mentioned in our proposal that this is a
very competitive project. I think the City here is very aware of that.
There was a proposal on the first site and it was unsuccessful. We are
hoping that working with non-profit, we would have to, or is a require-
ment of this program, that we would be successful next time around.
If we're not, we would have to make some sort of modifications in the
overall program.
Another aspect of phase 2, which would be moving almost concurrently
with the 202 proposal, is a market rate type of housing project, general
housing. It would also be, at least•at this point in time, a condo-
minium type of ownership. There are a lot of things going on in the
financing world that may make variations on this possible. I guess in
light of that issue, in most of our detail in this proposal, you can
clearly see us directed toward phase 1. Phase 1 is the major item that
we can get our teeth in because it's close at hand. We are hopeful that
that can get going and get in the ground in 1983. That's going to be a
tough job, but we hope we can do that. After that, we will be getting
a lot of familiarity with the community and phase 2, as I mentioned, may
take some slightly different shapes and forms, based on what we have
learned. Phase 3 is even more a victim of that because it is so far out
in the future. our perception now is that it would be about 100 to 125
units and would again be directed at the older market, at the nester
market. Again; after we have gone through phase 1 and phase 2, we're
going to be a whole lot smarter and should be able to direct our efforts
more exactly at that market area.
I guess what I'd like to do now is have Bruce give some architectural
definition in this. We also, as mentioned, have Art Peal from our
• mortgage company with us. Just a quick word on the financing. I'll hit
the high points. We do intend to finance this in a rather traditional
manner. We will just be working with our mortgage company. We will be
taking the lending package to institutions around and getting financing
as
• for it. We intend to finance the project, at least at this point,
100%, as was our experience at Lakeshore Drive. So, I guess you could
say, that's the one liner for financing. Detailed questions on that and
Art, I'm sure, can fill that in.
Bruce Knutson
This very quickly, so we don't run out of time for your questions and
answers, I'll address more specifically phase 1 and how we approached
it architecturally. The basic massing of the building, we tried to pull
away from Kenzie Terrace in terms of where the major part of the units
would be, there's a lot of traffic on that street and as the commercial
is developed, there'll probably be more traffic. So, as a basic concept
we put the unit as far away from the terrace as can. Also, we do not
want to encroach on single family residences behind. what we've done
in terms of providing 'a transition phase, is to bring our service, our
parking, all.the noisy aspects to the site, in off of Kenzie Terrace.
The only contact with the residential area would be a service lane
in the alley, which would be like garbage pick up.. The other thing
that this provides in that kind of a•shape for the building is by keeping
the vehicular traffic oriented in front of the building in the center,
it allows us to provide pedestrian type circulation in the back side,
allowing for landscape, berming and screening between the alley and
residential area, mobile home area and some commercial in the future,
but allows.a nice private area around the building that would be basically
for the people's in that project.
Carrying that down to phase 2 and 3, using the same concept, keeping the
• vehicular input to the site down the middle and allowing green space
as a buffer between the multi -family and the residential on the other
side so that you have definition between the two spaces for nice land-
scaping and pedestrian related kind of details.
Going into the design of the building itself, we have essentially four
basic units and these are all covered in your booklet so I'll just touch
on them quickly. Standard one bedroom units, deluxe one bedroom, breaks
into two different categories and two bedroom units. They help define
and create the geometry of the building because our experience in
Richfield was that, if you look .at type B units, which are one bedroom
deluxes, we found in the market in the Richfield project, that people were
excited about unusually shaped apartments. I guess they lived in boxes
most of their lives and wanted something more exciting.
As Tony suggested, that as the marketing goes on for this project, there
may come a few more bends or kinks in the building depending on what the
market is looking for. In Richfield, we went through several building
designs, changing the unit mix, changing the angles of the building to
respond to what the market was, but staying within the same number of
units that was projected for the project. As you can see, the building
has lots of corners, lots of interest for the units and generally it's
been accepted very highly for the market and has been very successful.
The building has a main entry in the middle, the social programs that
• Tony addressed, the office space, hobby and exercise and all those kinds
of facilities are in the middle on the first floor. In addition, the
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main
7 -
main community space would bump off the backside, onto the private area
adjacent to the residential area. This slide is a projection from up
in the air of what the project would look like from the Kenzie side.
I'll give you back to Tony or John, awaiting your questions.
John Curry
I would like to mention one thing, that he did hit on. We have worked
together before and we do have this recent experience of Lakeshore
Drive and we learned an awful -lot of.things about the market place and
about each other and how we'work together and what has been a very
successful relationship. The technique of working together and the
pecking order that takes some months to peck together has been worked
out and we finished that project with a great degree of efficiency.
That was 178 units. It was from,ground breaking to the first occupancy
was 11 months to the day. That is, we feel, quite an accomplishment.
We intend to do those types of things again-. I guess the type of thing
I'm talking about is being efficient. You've got to be efficient in the
market place today or you end up either not providing a product that
isi:acceptable or losing money or both and we intend not doing either one
of those.
I'd like to add one thing. I think that one of the things that we have
commented about, that we'd like to leave with a thought that we hear,
is that we're looking upon ourselves as providing some buildings. We
• would like to think upon it as to market and do what has been talked
about here, you've got to provide a program. You're dealing with a lot
of people who have some very deep concerns and deep interests and you
just do not provide a building, you've got to provide a program and
I think we do address ourselves to the broader aspects of the whole
community needs in our proposal which we made. I think it would be well
for Tony to stay here because he's going to be able to field most of the
questions.
(Sundland) The H.R.A. is ...thank you very much, gentlemen. The H.R.A.
has prepared several questions which we'd like to discuss here in the
second half of the interview. We've written these out and will present
them to you for your comment at this time.
Tony Vavoulis
(Knutson -Co.) You'd like me to go through these and address them one
at a time?
(Sundland) Yes.
The first one, I'm going to have Art join me on this one. "Have you been
involved in a Section 8 Elderly 202.2ld3 elderly cooperative in the
recent past? Please describe your involvement.
We've been involved, I guess, in both a construction standpoint, a
general partner standpoint and in financing. Art, why don't you hit the
202 aspect of it.
0
NO
Art Peel
As -1m y indicated, we have been involved as a sponsor mortgagee on the
• various types of programs. As a consultant on the 202 in the last 5 years,
we've done 13 202's. We've represented a number of non -profits, ranging
from the archdiocese to the Jewish federation in Minneapolis to a number
of Lutheran nursing homes in outstate Minnesota and we've had a high
degree of success in terms of achieving our goals in the.202 program.
Our goal simply being, providing 100% of the financing for this type
of project. I would like to go a little bit deeper than what your
question asks, and that is what's happening with the 202 program in
general.
I think one of the advantages of this, proposal is that phase 1 is putting
in an elderly project that will offer dining facilities and the like.
One of the things that I don't have to spend a.great deal of time with
with this Council is the fact that Washington is cutting back on funds.
HUD is experiencing that also. Because of that cutback, we're seeing
less and less go into the 202 buildings going up around the state. I
mentioned the Jewish federation. .They broke ground 3-3'h years ago
and that project has dining facilities for all the tenants, they have a
great number of community spaces. I'm working on 3 right now that will
not have anything that approaches what we did 3 years ago. The reason
for that is just the cutback in funds. So, from a selection process,
as we all know from last year, the 202's were extremely competitive
and I think that if a non-profit applicant went in and showed the type
of program that they could take advantage of, that Tony is discussing
in phase 1, would be a leg.up in terms of going back three years, but
• not laying those dollars out on the part of the federal government.
So, I think in terms of staging, it's critical that a 202 would go into
stage 2 from a selection process from HUD. Is there anything else?
(Sundland) You see, in phase 1 when you discuss the project, you're say-
ing specifically then, you are delivering the need of the 55 and up with-
out the 202 financing?
Art Peel
Knutson Co.) That is correct.
Tony Vavoulis
Knutson Co.) The second question that we are to address is "it is
unclear as to how we would be purchasing the property. Would we
please explain in terms of the schedule".
Our basic intention in all of the parcels is to purchase, actually close
and pay you for the land at the time just prior to construction. So,
we would be getting going through all the maturity of the concepts, the
developments, the markets, the building and then moving towards, Art
would then have to be working the finance packages. The reality of the
project would have to depend on everything coming together and we would
then be closing and purchasing and paying for the land at that time,
which would happen just prior to construction. Our hope in phase 1 and
there is a schedule in the proposal, phase 1, it says land acquired
towards the end of October of 1983, if we can meet that, we would certainly
like to go towards that kind of time schedule. Does that answer that
satisfactorily? That answers it, OK.
S=
Tony Vavoulis
• (Knutson Co.) Have we read the contract for private redevelopment,
the redevelopers agreement, do we agree with all the provisions of that
\ contract?
Tony Vavoulis
(Knutson Co.) We have read it and we agree basically with the contract.
We are looking to negotiate some of the points and the next question that
you have in regard to the letter of credit, I guess that is one of the
items that we are particularly sensitive to. The developer's agreement
had a point of not to exceed, I_guess we would need to be talking about
that and with regard to what our obligations would. be. Clearly, we
would not be able to post a letter of credit for the full 25% of all
your costs that you would be incurring in the acquisition of.phase 2.
That would not enable us to perform business as usual in either phase 1
or our company in general, so that, I guess, is a particular item of
negotiation. Also, how the developer's agreement is structured in regard
to phase 1 and phase 2 would also be something,that we would like to
talk about more. It talks about it all at once. We are very sincere
about moving forward.on the entire project, but everything is based on
the success of phase 1. Phase 1 has to be successful to enable phase 2
and I'm sure you understand that and.we would have to get some basic
agreement on that going forward. Is there any further questions on that
subject?
Tony Vavoulis
(Knutson Co.) Question # 6 is will you be using a housing management
corporation for the homeowners association and who do you plan to use?
Tony Vavoulis
•(Knutson Co.) Yes, we would, the Knutson organization would not be the
managing entity in this area. We have found this area an area of great
specialization and we admit at this point that it is not our area of
specialization. We have not come.to any agreement at this time with any
management organization. We currently, the way we did it on Lakeshore
Drive, was that prior to occupancy, roughly 6 months prior to that, we
on behalf of the homeowners association, is the role and responsibility
that we have as being the developer entered into an agreement with the
Health Central management group and.they then are acting as the manager
on Lakeshore Drive. They have that contract. All of the employees,
management employees, are employees of the Health Central organization.
They are not employees of Lakeshore Drive condominiums. That was some-
thing that we felt was very important that they be responsible for the
manpower because manpower can be a major management problem in itself
and we don't want to add that to the resident's concerns, particularly
because of its nature of being an elderly project. Certainly, at this
point, Health Central would be the leading candidate as far as our
conversations, but we do not have any agreement other than a good working
relationship that we developed in Richfield.
Tony Vavoulis
,Knutson Co.) What will we do if 202 financing is not available?
Tony Vavoulis
Knutson Co.) I addressed that briefly before. Not being available and
not being successful are both possible resultants. If we were simply
not successful and there was financing, I think we would probably try
again the following year. If it just did not develop or Washington
• eliminated it, of course, which is a possiblity or did not make it
available in this geographical location which is also a possibility,
we would just attempt to proceed with our other aspect of phase 2,
_10 -
which is the current market rate, and the other ultimately phase 3,
I believe, although I didn't do.cash runs in that regard, we would
still be meeting your basic needs of tax increment financing in that
area. If it is not available, we just clearly cannot do it. It is,
as I mentioned, a different market segment. It would be difficult to
just simply add 60 units to the market rate housing. It may affect our
physical design, Bruce's construction, but as far as impacting greatly
the number of units we would be building in another market type of
housing,.it would not affect that and we.would attempt to just move on.
How Washington, the programs that are coming out of Washington and pro-
grams that can and cannot be done, sometimes quickly and sometimes at
unusual times, so we can be guaranteed that things change in Washington
and programs change. If something.is not available in one area, there
may be another opportunity in another area and we would keep our eyes
open.
Tony Vavoulis
nu son o.) Have you read design guidelines and do you plan to reflect
those guidelines?
Tony Vavoulis
(Knutson cc.) I guess that is in regard to the more architectural aspect
and Bruce, why don't you respond.
Yes, we have read them. Bruce did address those. One particular area
that I picked up in reading the design guidelines, that in regard to
transition areas that existing between the existing residential, the
commercial, the busy streets that are around and you've got to certainly
• develop transition areas. In the first phase we have.a great deal of
underground parking taking care of most of our needs in that regard so
we don't have large open areas of pavement and bituminous and that area
even as such, is broken up somewhat with plantings different geometries.
Yes, we are aware of the design guidelines and certainly we will be
working with them. I guess in a broader context, design guidelines are
something to work from. There are other areas of desires of the Board,
of the Council, the community at large, and our attention is to develop
and build a project that reflects the needs of the community. It's
really the only way you can market something. Gone are the days that
you can shove something down a group's throat. It's got to meet the
general agreement of enough people to sell it and in this large a
development, 400 units, you've got to be pretty clean going on all those
various areas. I guess that reading the next question, answers that one.
Tony Vavoulis
nu son o.) Are you willing to make changes in the basic design of
your project?
Tony Vavoulis
nu son o.) Certainly. All of what I said in the previous question
applies to that.
Tony Vavoulis
7—RUT-so-n---Co.) The next one is "how did you arrive at your offering price"?
Tony Vavoulis
nu son o.) I guess we arrived at that trying to meet the minimum
requirement that you stated and trying not to break the back of the
• project. It's very difficult to put a project together today with the
costs of construction and financing and everything else. You're always
looking for places to cut down the costs. I would be delighted to have
lower than what we are offering price in the project. That land price
is passed along dollar for dollar plus financing costs and other things
to the eventual buyer. We would like to be offering this project for
less money and this would be one place to look. I guess we tried to make
it enough to meet your needs and keep it low.enough to meet the market
needs. That's where we came from on that one.
Tony Vavoulis
Knutson Co.) The last question is "there are several things that are
not clear to us and our redevelopment consultant will be in contact with
you for some written answers. Would you be willing to provide additional
information"?
Tony Vavoulis
Knutson Co.). Again, certainly.. We understand that this is an interview
and oftentimes things that we say result in more questions than what
we have answered here and they may not have come up tonight, they might
come up tomorrow night. We're willing to.work on this project. If we
do get selected, we look at this as a partnership. we've got to be
good partners, or we can't achieve our common goals. Are there any
other questions?
George Marks
HRA) Yes. I've got a question that has to do with the pedestrian
amenities. I couldn't see on the site plan here on this proposal, how
would it affect the rest of the community and if there are any other,
like sidewalks that are needed, maybe adjacent to the property, would
you go into that.
Bruce Knutson
• (Knutson Co.) Sure. The presentation requirements were more of a broad
scope, we really didn't.get down into that. Basically what we do, as
I said earlier, is I try to generate kind of the public side of the
project and the private side. So, in terms of public access, both vehicular
and pedestrian, there would be a link at this point and I don't know if
there 's a planned semiphore or lights or whatever. We lined up the
driveways so that there would be a controlled intersection presumably
that would be where a pedestrian would cross Kenzie Terrace. That would
also be the public pedestrian lane to the building. The vehicles would
come up to the main entrance at this point and the pedestrians , pre-
sumably if there would be a bus stop here, that would be where they would
cross. In addition, there is a secondary pedestrian circulation which
would be around the back side of the project. Again, this is the com-
munity space and particularly in projects for older people, we like to
provide meandering spaces and that would be a five or six foot wide
concrete walkway, if you will that would.go in and out and it would have
a lot of plan in it and we would break it so that every maybe 50 yards
there would be an area that would open up with seating, maybe an area
for the garden club could plant, you know each 5 or 6 people would
have an area that they would plant and there would be a seating area
around that area. What would occur, coming off the back or side entrance
points, around the back side of the project, maybe not with a link, again
that's something we work with with the homeowner's association, sometimes
they prefer not to have any kind of a public link to the private yard,
so I wouldn't want to say right now if that would be connected to the
public sidewalk or not.
r
That basic concept would go on to the second phase. Again, your public
pedestrian access would occur in the middle, with the private areas
going around the backside. And again, the sidewalks would break up into
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• small areas where people could congregate and talk and maybe there would
be an area where they could barbeque. Again, this is a tough scale to
address those kind of details. In the guidelines, it was talking about
the scale of, of addressing the lights and in all of our projects we
always have controlled lights and it doesn't fall off our project and
on the pedestrian level, rather than having a general highlight, we
prefer the small like 42" high which would put direct light on the
pathway, let's say, without a lot of wear on the project so that's how
we address that detail.
George Marks
RA ne of the things I was thinking of was the lower part of the
project, for example, I wanted to walk someplace north, .....
Bruce Knutson
nutson Co..) Again, the public access would come along tied into the
driveway system and again there are areas here for the garden plots for
the garden club or whatever and so it wouldn't be a rigid system, but
it would meander through there with a lot of landscaped areas around.
George Marks
HRA It would connect in all directions?
Bruce Knutson
Knutson Co.) Right. We probably wouldn't connect, unless it was a
very controlled connection, to the commercial area. I think on a housing
project you want to actually want to control the amount of off site
traffic that comes into it. The older people are very sensitive about
who comes into their building and they really have a strong identity
• that that's their building. Any other questions?
Bob Sundland
TH—RA-T--I--Tiave no other questions. Thank you.very much, gentlemen. Could
you leave your boards, your displays? If you don't care to leave them
up for the next presentation, you can stack them up here, if you'd like.
John Curry
w%u13Zike to add one final comment, I speak for the organization, that
we're very proud of the talent and ability of this team we've put
together to bring to a project like this. They not only have a lot of
talent, they have a lot of caring.and we think that's very important
in a project such as yours and some of us in the organization our role
is more that and they never let me forget that I pick the category
that this goes into and that's my role, just to provide input of that
once in a while.
(Sundland) They bounce it off you to see if you like it, huh?
John Curry
An�t7ey don't pay much attention to it after that.
Thank you.
Thank you.