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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-03-11 TranscriptionIowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Zcitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:00:00] [MUSIC] I'm going to call the City of Iowa City work session to order for March 11, 2025. It is about 4:06 PM. And the first item on our agenda is clarification of agenda items. Hearing none? We're going to move on to information package, which is num-item number 2. We'll start with February 20. [00:00:54] 1 would like to ask a question about IP2, February 20, the memo from the grant specialist, the, uh, American Rescue Plan update. I was curious about the, um, expanded the remaining expanded um, dollars in that ARPA funds. And what, if anything, uh, our professional city staff has thinking about the current federal administrations going back on some of these? This is -is this funding that the city has actually received or that we get reimbursed for once the projects are complete? [00:01:26] Uh, the ARPA funds have already been received and they've already been fully obligated. So, uh, we feel very confident in this particular grant source, not all of them, but this particular one. [00:01:40] Yeah. There's no deobligation concern. [00:01:43] No. [00:01:481 Well, we're going to move on to Information Packet February 27. [00:01:52] 1 had, uh, comments and questions about IP4. Uh, first comment, this is the annual comprehensive financial report. First comment is congratulations to staff on their certificate of excellence on, uh, their procedures in accounting, regardless of whether it's good news or bad news, we have to be able to trust whatever that news is, and that's a good way that outside people give us a nice- a nice indication that our staff is doing great work and good -good, uh, thank you for that. Um, just a couple of things, and maybe, I don't know if Geoff if you can or somebody else can speak too, but, um, there's kind of sort of a mixed bag, if I'm interpreting this report, correct, one of them, talking about the economic recovery since COVID 19, and then also talking about some of the economic headwinds or challenges. I was wondering if you could maybe shed a little light on a couple of those issues. [00:02:48] Yeah, are you mostly focusing on the -the statistics section there? [00:02:53] Yes. Page 1 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychannel4.com/city-council.htm]) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:02:54] Yeah, so when we talk about the -the headwinds with recovery, just remember, I think the most important thing to remember is the property tax is our primary revenue source for many of our operations, not all of them, but many of them. And during the 20 2021 time frame, we didn't see a lot of development activity. That's not unique to Iowa City. There was just a general economic slowdown as there was a lot of uncertainty in the world. Um, and property taxes have about a two year lag. So when we have, um, lower, uh periods of building activity, that means we're not adding to the tax base at that time, but you don't really feel that pain, if you will, until about two years later. So we're in that 23-25 range where we're seeing low growth from the lack of building in that time. And that makes it tough just to keep up with status quo operations. So we generally tell you that we need about 4% per year, just to keep up with status quo. That's to keep the same staffing levels, benefit levels, all those types of things. And, uh, we've certainly hit a period in which we're not, um, making that mark right now. We have seen a recovery in those building permits the last couple of years, uh, starting to look more like pre COVID times. But again, we won't feel that for another couple of years. Uh, the other, uh, headwinds really deal with the 2023, uh, state legislative property tax reforms and some of those changes. Um, we're required to- we lost two of our property tax levies, one that supports the library and the other our emergency levy. Those are phased out through 2029. So we've already had to shed some of our -our property tax levy rate, and we have about $1.5-$2 million worth -left to cut out of that levy rate until we can reach the the um, 2029 levels that the state has set. So kind of a combination of -of lower revenue production, and at the same time, pressures from the state or mandates from the state to reduce our property taxes. [00:05:13] Thank you. [00:05:16] Any other items from February 27? Moving on to March 6. Hearing nothing, we're going to, uh, move on to the next agenda item, which is number 3, University of Iowa governmental updates. Welcome. [00:05:39] Hello, everyone. I've got a couple announcements for you guys tonight. Um, first things first last week, we hosted five alumni for um, alumni Senate. These were alumni from the University of Iowa who had served in either the undergraduate student government or the graduate professional student government. So it was just some time for us to network, hear about their career paths, how student government impact them, how things on campus have changed, how things in Iowa City have changed. They mentioned, Oh, one bar that used to exist down here, there was, like, multiple stories. They all miss it very much. Um, our renters guide is actually done now. It's currently live on our website, due to some time constraints. This year, it is very pared down, and we also probably won't be presenting it in council, but I really encourage you all to go look at it. Um, we've been in contact with our lovely nighttime mare to see about getting some of our promotional flyers put up in some bars in downtown Page 2 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Iowa City, just to make sure that our students can get home safely. And last but not least, on the 26th of this month, student government is going to Des Moines to meet with some legislators and advocate. So- [00:06:45] Great, thank you. And wishing all those students the best during, 1-1 would call it midterms, I guess, um and safe travels during spring break next week for those that are traveling. And our nighttime mayor is here, Joe Riley, so happy to have him- have him in the building. Thank you. We also wanted to acknowledge that, um, Matthew Monsivais is here, and so I wanted to just present this certificate of appreciation from the city of Iowa City to you for your thoughtful contributions during the 2024 through 2025 year of service as the city council liaison and alternate liaison from the University of Iowa undergraduate student government USG, and for demonstrating your commitment to the student participation on this fourth day of February 2025, because that was your last day. And so I want to thank you for all that you've done. And I'm going to ask, council, that we quickly come up and take a picture with Matthew. [APPLAUSE] [BACKGROUND] I'm going to move to item number 5 on our agenda just so that we can get that complete. And this is council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and, uh committees. [00:08:46] Uh, February 25, there was a SEATS Paratransit Advisory Committee meeting. Just as you're reminded, the ARPA funding ended in 12 December 6 for that. Still seeing about 500 and 550 seats, uh, rides each weekday. Um, they are also having troubles with their electric buses, so looking for some support with that and also having challenges with staffing. So finding bus drivers and electric buses that work in the cold there's a challenge for them. Um, also, TripConnect came and talked about that program, which think we've talked a lot about, but just for those who don't know, TripConnect um, is service that's a point to point service that you can schedule ahead. It's for people who, um, need to find, uh, travel to their work or to childcare during a time when the bus service is not operating. Uh, let's see. Additionally, I guess, last night, the 10 was the comprehensive plan meeting. Councilor Alter and I were there. We got a great 90 minutes of, uh, discussion about basically community statistics. Um, the process is working well. They'll come to city council to present. [00:09:57] 1 believe it's in May. [00:09:58] Yeah, May. And then the next comp plan meeting is, um, not until July for the larger group. Anything about that meeting? [00:10:05] Um, I think just that they are starting phase 2, which is to put the word out and get community input. Um, they're entering into that. And just as a side note, the thing that was so fantastic about the presentation last night was, um, really seeing how the -the overlays of, um, different statistics actually all Page 3 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. feed into the ways in which, you know, the city, uh, needs to think about land use in the future, as well by looking backwards and just seeing sort of current state, as well as in the past, in terms of everything from market numbers for houses to amount of renters, the type of housing, um, income. But then, um, the demographics of people and, um, it was just- it was a fascinating presentation, so. [00:10:59] Yeah. [00:11:01] For the rule committee, we met uh, last week, and I think the Climate Action, uh, Commission, they need some kind of, like, really minor change. Uh, they just want to amend the first sentence of the Article 4 for membership, and to read the chairperson and the vice chairperson will be elected annually, but we added December in December and from the commis- of course, from the commission membership. Also, they amended Article 4, membership Section H, absent to read the three consecutive- it used to be unexplained absent, but now it will be- I guess we took out the unexplained. It will be absent without, uh, let's say notification. That's it. And it was quick. [LAUGHTER]. [00:11:55] 1 actually have a question because, um, I attended a board meeting, but it was not an assigned board. [00:11:59] Is it better for me to wait until just council updates or? [00:12:04] Yeah, so you can wait till council updates at our formal meeting. Alright, great. Anything else? Hearing nothing? We're going to move on to item number 4, which is 21 South Linn presentations and discussions. And we have two of our colleagues that are gonna recuse themselves, uh, Councilor Alter and Councilor Moe. Alright. We're gonna move forward with our discussion, and I'm gonna welcome our city manager, Geoff Fruin, to get us started. [00:12:43] All right. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Excited to be here again with 21 South Linn on the agenda. Um, but before we get started, some late breaking news that'll, uh, alter a little bit how we, uh, move forward tonight. Um, let me give you a little bit of context and background before we jump into this. So from the outset of this, uh, from the outset of the purchase of the property that we made in August of 2023, we've pledged to try to be very transparent with the development of the RFP, very transparent and fair in the selection of a preferred development team. Uh, right now, you can go onto the project website, which is icgov.org/21 South Linn. And you can actually go back and watch those December 2023 presentations. You can find public input information, the RFP document, the full submittals from all three of the teams, and the staff analysis on there. So just for the public that's watching, all of that information is out there. Now the last time you all met was February 4 on this topic, that is, was Page 4 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,[/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. February 4 at the work session, and you invited all three respondents to present their proposals in person here tonight. Uh, earlier today, we received an update from two of the respondents, Salida Partners and Iceberg that they've decided to merge their responses into a single proposal. Um and I guess in the- in the spirit of that transparency and fairness, we just want to, uh, say that staff has not reviewed any of the details behind the merge proposal, but we understand that it's combining aspects of both of those proposals, which, of course, are available on the website. Uh, a detailed analysis of that merge proposal, similar to what was conducted with the original, uh, submittals, is warranted, uh, as it relates to the stated RFP requirements, but particularly the financial aspects of the project. Uh, the backing information of the merge proposal should be provided publicly, uh, just at that same level of detail as those three initial proposals, and doing so will not only inform you but keep the public informed through this process, as well, and help us meet that pledge to be very transparent through this process. We did reach out to the third group, which you'll hear from tonight, the Grand Rail Urban Acres OPN team. Make sure that they had a -a comfort level, uh, presenting tonight, knowing that there was, uh, change a slight change in the plan here, and they did indicate that they were comfortable proceeding tonight. Uh, so the recommendation for, uh, tonight for you all, is to receive two presentations, not three, uh, and limit your questions to those that are seeking clarifications or just improving your understanding of these proposals. I'd recommend that you not wade into selection tonight and that you wait till we have some of that full public information and some of the staff analysis available for you to lean on and for the public to -to be able to review and provide comment to you all, if they so choose. [00:15:53] Um, if, uh, um, uh, after the conclusion of the presentations tonight, um, what we would do, uh, going forward as staff would ask for, uh, the necessary kind of background information on the merge, uh, proposal, uh, so that we can run that analysis. Um, if the, uh, third team, the Grand Rail Urban Acres team presents anything new, we'd ask for information to support that, as well. We'd make that, again, information public, and then I suggest you carry on with your selection decision, uh, either April 1st or April 15th, and, of course, you can take as much time as you want, but, uh, we're just trying to make sure that the public and you all have all of the information that you need and that the- the selection process has- has been transparent. So we are excited to move forward. It's a little bit different plan, uh, to have 2% instead of the three, but I wanted to give you, uh, that background. I'm happy to answer questions, but if you're ready to proceed, we did randomize the- the order of presentation, and the Salida Iceberg team will be presenting first, followed by the Grand Rail Urban Acres team. [00:17:06] That all sounds good. A quick question. I know we had originally discussed having each presentation being 20 minutes long time, followed by 10 minutes for questions from the council. Is that still the- the plan to - in order to have. [00:17:19] Page 5 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. I would recommend keeping it at that 20 minutes, um, and we will have a little bit extra time if the council wants, uh, to expand their 10 minutes a little bit, but the- the teams prepared for 20, and I'd suggest you keep it at that. [00:17:33] And Geoff, yeah, just like for the public, you know, we're saying that we're going to have only two present. Can you just explain why? Because for the benefit of the public, because, like, everybody is expecting, like, three, and now it's two. [00:17:47] Yeah, I'll have to let the Salida partners and the Iceberg teams talk about what drew them together because, um, I'm not- I'm not- I'm not up to speed on- on that, either, but, uh, that's essentially what we have here as two of the teams, um, have connected and- and merged into one. [00:18:04] Okay. Yes, Geoff, for the benefit of the public. Thank you. [00:18:09] All right, so we- who's going first through the random. [00:18:14] Iceberg Salida Partners. [00:18:16] All right, we're gonna invite you all up at this time. You know, Kelly, do we have a timer so they can see it? So welcome, and happy to have you all here. Better start once you say hello. [LAUGHTER] [00:18:45] Hello. [00:18:461 Okay. Let's start. My name's Steve Long with Salida Partners, and here with me. [00:18:51] Jim Bergman with Iceberg Development. [00:18:54] And we'll get to the rest in a minute here, but we can explain a little bit what's been going on. Um, Jim, Riley, um, and I were partners in the redevelopment of the ACT property, that 400 acre property. And after the last week, we submitted independently proposals, and after the last work session, er, and again, listening to the work session, we, um, realized that we each had our own strengths, and I don't Page 6 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:llcitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. know if it's weaknesses, but definitely strengths. I'd say Salida Partners was heavily focused on the benefits to the community as a whole, and, um, Iceberg was definitely, uh, affordable housing focused, and that's Jim's background. [00:19:42] Yeah. That's what I've been doing for 35 years. So obviously, my project was focused in large part on the affordable housing component. [00:19:50] So we, um, decided to start talking, and, um, we feel it's best for the community to merge the community benefit and the affordable housing benefit. And we have a strong, uh, partnership. We actually merged the two architecture teams, which is, uh, um, I don't want to say unprecedented, but, um. [00:20:13] Unusual. [00:20:13] Unusual. Working with us, uh, we're all putting aside our own, uh, um, I don't want to say egos, but, um, there's none of that- none of that involved. This is truly for the community, and we've had a good time the past, uh, week or so talking this through, and we'd like to discuss it more, um, as we go forward with the presentation. [00:20:36] There should be an icon on there, Steve, the bottom, er, left starts with Salida, I'm sorry, middle of the screen left. There we go. [00:20:44] That's fine. [00:20:50] 1 can just move it up. Is that better? Yeah, that's much better. [00:20:54] Yeah. [00:20:54] You're the closer, here. How do I get to say it? Where's the view button? [00:21:16] Hit that. Right there, right up one. Nope, up right there. Page 7 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https:././citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:21:19] Jeez, thank you. Oh, thank you. So, we, um, literally merged, um, the two projects here. There's- there's a lot of similarities, and we'll go through the, um, the architects. So I believe in staying in my lane. That's their lane. So they'll talk about the differences. And just a few weeks ago, the state of the city, um, you guys said it best, and we truly believe in that. So I'm going to introduce the team here. It is- it's- it's growing. It's getting larger, but we have, um, like I said, Jim from Iceberg. Skydeck Capital is the family that's working with us to fund the project. They're not able to. They have their annual meeting today. Simeon Talley with Community Development Strategies. Riley Hogan with CBRE and Iceberg. Dan Drendel from Slingshot Architecture, Steve Miller from Slingshot Architecture, and Shive Hattery is represented by Mark Seabold. In addition, we have commitments from the Englert Theater, Western Home Communities, which is a senior housing provider, ACT for housing space, the Housing Fellowship to own or manage the affordable housing, Stories Project and Smart Lam is our mass timber company. We're going to have Simeon takeover here. [00:23:05] Okay, once again, my name is Simeon Talley, and I am here in my role with Community Development Strategies, which was as part of this team, a Community Development consultant, and, uh, kind of talking about, um, some of our community outreach efforts that have been ongoing, uh, from the beginning and continue, uh, to happen not only to the stakeholders, a part of this team, but to the broader community as well. So I want to just sort of state from the outside that we listen, uh, a lot during the public engagement, um, period that the city conducted. And then we conducted our own more focused, er, focus group, which is this is a picture of some of the folks that we convened at Merge, um, to really, uh, flash out some of the ideas and some of the things that were expressed, um, through the city's, uh, public engagement community survey. Um, and some of our, uh, takeaways, um, were, um, we were looking to, uh, get clear on what's missing downtown, um, how to bring more people downtown who aren't already coming, and we wanted to maybe stress test and get more specific on right size retail. And just take a little bit of a step back. Um, we started this meeting off by asking everyone to talk about a memorable- memorable experience that they had in downtown Iowa City and almost everyone to the T talked about coming to downtown for one thing and having an unexpected serendipitous interaction or experience with another, whether that's coming downtown for a music event and then meeting friends, whether that's going to dinner, um, and stumbling into an arts festival, uh, whether that's attending Mission Creek Festival and learning about, uh, an amazing new artist that blows you away, and that's sort of the beauty, and I think the thing about downtown that makes us special, that makes- that makes us unique, and we thought to ourselves, how can we continue to incorporate that serendipity, um, that unexpected interactions and experiences when you come for one thing, but you're likely to, uh, experience something else. And so that informs this project in this- in this building, as well. Uh, some of our key takeaways, um, we validated right size retail, and we'll get to that and flesh it out a little bit. Um, our arts community and arts organizations in the- in the programming, um, and the creatives that we have in Iowa City, it's special. It's something that Iowa City does differently, and downtown Iowa City does- does differently than anyone- anyone else. And that's an Page 8 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:llcitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. asset. That's our- our value prop. That's something that is differentiating from other communities, and the public understands it and wanted to see that reflected, um, in this proposal. And then, uh, just to kind of close this section out, um, what we've done, uh, in merging, uh, our two teams is try to marry, uh, community input, really listening to the community, and incorporating that into the development. Um, the city's objectives and, uh, what is a viable project. And so as y'all stated and kind of defined and outlined to us and what we'll kind of get through, um, in this presentation, uh, your goals are active and engaging ground floor uses and supportive of the small business culture in Iowa City, a mix of market and affordable housing options, high quality construction, leadership, and climate action, and increasing the taxable valuation of the property. So we'll sort of- everything will be rooted in helping the city, um, meet those goals. [00:26:14] Hello again. This is Steve Miller from Slingshot Architecture, and just walking through the first couple goals here, um, is driven by, uh, how to get active engaging ground floor uses and supporting the small business culture of Iowa City is really, um, driven by how these users come together, um, through the floor plan, so which I can walk through real quick. Um, so the- the anchor tenant of this ground floor is really the- the venue that the Angler wants to have on this site, which is, um, kind of inspired by the mill and fills the void that the- the mill had, um, or has left in its absence, um, where the community can really come together, um, and this entire dining and bar area along Washington in the corner of Washington and Linn here is activated by that, uh, transparent dining and bar space, and- and then behind it, there's a- a two story volume that is the music venue and performance venue, uh, that steps up over the ramp and has- and has the ability to open up onto the courtyard, which I'll show you in just a second in a section diagram, but, er, you can see on the second floor plan on the right that that two story volume, um, expands up, and there's a mezzanine and the green room and, uh, backup house offices, uh, support spaces for the Angler is there. And then they're also interested in using this, um, shared- what we're calling a shared third space as, um, space for artists, co working, uh, an artist resource center they- they're exploring, and, um, so that would be, uh, under the Angler's purview as well. And so then at the top of the stairs that you would enter from the commercial lobby on the ground floor, you'd be able to get there or go into stories Project, which has kind of its initial 4,000 square feet footprint on the second floor with a, um, interactive, uh, projection room- double height projection room on- on that floor, too. Um, let's back to the first floor, uh, further activating the public realm here is four micro retail spaces which are about 500 square feet each, um, which would be, you know, fitted out and have shared restrooms and just really accessible, easy for local entrepreneurs and small businesses to be able to move into. Um, er, and then also just up note the shared mechanical and trash strategy for the alley, that's where we'd have a- it's kind of getting in the weeds, but wanting to clean up the alley, um, and have a shared trash strategy for the businesses along there and get some of the dumpsters out of the alley. Um, I need to get rid of my- so this is that section I referenced. You can see the- the venue space that sort of steps up with the stage and backstage and then green room over the ramp as it, uh, descends under- to the underground parking. And you can see how the venue and the mezzanine space have the ability to open up into the courtyard. Page 9 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 202S (audio and video recordings can be found at https:./.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:29:391 Do you have something? [00:29:40] Of course. [00:29:41] Yeah. So this is a rendering, looking at the front of the building and specifically kind of that in between space between the existing building and the, um, ground floor and second floor, um, Billy's uses, which Billy is like a riff on Bill Angord's name. You can also see a private balcony that's up here that's part of the stories project. So very open and engaging in, um, what's happening on this ground floor level. So by opening this up, we're really kind of celebrating this mural and not only that, but, like, the, um, exterior character, just the downtown grittiness of Iowa City and some of those older brick buildings, we're activating the first and second floors with that community living room space with the community theater that could be open for all kinds of different events. And really, you know, by using a lot of glass, we're- we're- we're reflecting or we're making that mass timber structure kind of visible. It's just- it's a warmer and it's a much more, um, natural setting or natural material to be using when, um, when building a building, and that can be witnessed both from outside and inside. Um, again, you can see all those same traits here. I think what we're, uh, showcasing in this particular rendering is, um, the way that these- these walls are very porous, they have lots of openings in and out of them. So when the weather's nice, you can open the space up. There's lots of glimpses inside so that you can see each other moving around, and it's just connecting and activating, um, the ground floor to the street, and that happens on the inside, too. You know, the interior spaces, as Steve was pointing out in the plan, there's no real hard walls in between them, so you're kind of stumbling into stories and- and across the line into, um, into the Billy space and having those types of interactions that Simeon was talking with. And that openness, I think, both from a glass fronted building, you know, seeing what's going on there at all levels in this activated space, as well as, uh, the way the plan works, it's just- it's welcoming residents, families, uh, visitors into the space with long hours. I mean, this will be open from, you know, early in the morning until late at night. I think that's. [00:31:42] I'm talking about the micro retail quickly. [00:31:44] Saving that time. [00:31:47] So yeah, this is just a view of Linn Street, those four micro retail bays. And you can see the- the lobby entrances on the left under the kind of aluminum mass in there. But, um, so I mean, this really speaks to some of the- the goals that the downtown District had in their letter to- to you all, um, about right size retail. Um, and then, you know, the- the micro retail unit on the right has the ability to kind of interact Page 10 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,I/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. with the- the alley, as well. Um, and then, um, just noting the shared trash strategy there. So I'll keep moving. [00:32:26] So stepping into contextual architecture and urban scale, the way that we come into this is really thinking about, um, what the- what the urban fabric of Iowa City is, especially in this district, and the taller buildings as we add density, uh, to this district, the- specifically the taller buildings that interact with the public realm directly to the street frontage. Uh, currently, and we're proposing to expand this strategy, um, really highlight, uh, wayfinding in the public space of the downtown, the pedestrian mall, the park gatherings, the film scene, the Hard Alley, the expansion of performance entertainment that we're proposing as part of this project. So really the articulation of the- the corner of this- of this building can be another one of those, uh, way finding places in the city, uh, that really signal public space and public event in the fabric. And that relates really directly kind of one to one with the history of the city, and around the turn of the century as City Hall was on this site, uh, the same thing was happening at a different scale, right? At this time of, uh, the history of really every city, the taller points in the city were church steeples and city hall, clock towers like this, and- but it's still the same method of thinking, right, where these taller elements are where people come together. They're signaling, uh, public space and public activity. And, um, so there's lots of stories to tell about that, but I love to talk about it for like an hour, but we have 20 minutes. So, um, as this comes together in the building form, right, the articulated corner, more articulated, um, corner reveals then the- the- the transparent public space that we've been talking about. And as those, um, both the micro retail and the event spaces, uh, both really sync up with their context on the edge, a three-story on Washington and a two-story mass that- that really is at risk of getting dwarfed, but this project really engages that two-story mass with the micro retail. And then what happens then is we get lots of points of entry, lots of perforation on the ground floor, um, that really becomes the- the heart of this project, uh, the entries to living, the entries to retail, the entries to these community spaces that are all just activating the street, um, and making it really vibrant place that's really both adding density, adding public wayfinding, and successfully stitching into the fabric and the height of the historic context at the same time. [00:35:05] And I think just quickly, um, this is just a diagram on how the program really lays out where that first floor is that community living room, Englert, uh, micro retail spaces. Second floor becomes that third space as part of Englert and then partial second and third floors become the stories project or the areas allocated for them. So again, they're visible from the outside. And then our fourth floor would be, uh, office space for ACT. And then I think Steve went through the housing. [00:35:32] Yeah. Everything- everything above that is- is housing, but there's, um, you know, our initial proposal had just all affordable housing for seniors and, um, here in the work session and also just responding more directly to the RFP of a mix of market rate and affordable housing options. We have a much more diverse mix now. So Level 5 is our studio units, which were, um, initially targeted for the international Page 11 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:./.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. writing- writers workshop to be able to rent while their writers are here, but also the Englert has expressed, um, interest in housing it for artists and other, uh, local arts nonprofits. Um, and then the three levels above that are affordable housing for 55 plus, which are 33 units. And then, uh, one level above that is 12 units of non age restricted affordable housing. So that's 45 units of permanently affordable housing. And then Western Home is more of a market rate, senior living community that is interested in having one floor, which would be 10, two bedroom units, and then the Top 2 floors, we have 20 units of, uh, one and two bedrooms at market rate. So that's a total- 91 total residential units ride into downtown. Which transitions spec to you? [00:37:00] All right. Here we are again. Um, yeah, so the downtown impact, we're going to be bringing, weather it's for right now, it's ACT. We're three years out probably from completion. Um, so more jobs downtown, more employees Englert Theater expanding to their next phase with a smaller venue and a community living room. The Stories Project, which has been getting a lot of traction lately, and then a mix of 91 residential units. Um, 50% will be permanently affordable. [00:37:37] Uh, And I just briefly, the, uh, the, uh, you know, one of the a- one of the aspects that has followed through within this design is using mass timber as- as- as- as a sustainable way to build buildings. It's highly recognized as an icon of sustainability. Uh, this would be the tallest mass timber building in Iowa and probably Top 10 nationwide, and really just exhibiting IOC's leadership in climate action, it's safe. You're actually adopting the building code that allows this project, uh, later tonight. Um, it's got less carbon to manufacture, less carbon footprint, and it's only adding, like, 1.4% to our overall building cost. That, along with all kinds of other sustainable strategies, we plan on incorporating into this project. [00:38:21] So 27 seconds here. Um, our estimates right now, we have estimates from two different construction companies, is just under 42 million, uh, proposing to purchase a land for two million. Total project cost just under 48 million and a TIF request of 9000000/15 years, which is 60% of the TIF, so it's going to generate about $1 million a year in tax increment, and we're proposing 60% of it go to the project. [00:38:511 Thank you. [00:38:52] Um, thank y'all. So we're going to switch over to questions from the council. [00:39:07] 1 had a design question on the first and second floors. I was trying to- I don't- I'm trying to look out on the slide. I don't know if you want to flip it back to that. I was just wondering, my question involves, uh, elevators and accessibility, um, and maybe it was on there, and I was trying to absorb all of it pretty Page 12 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at httl2s://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. quickly. So- but if you could kind of, uh, kind of go over where those would be and what that would look like. [00:39:29] Sure. [00:39:31] Get there. [00:39:32] Sorry. [00:39:33] Almost there. [00:39:34] And would you give council a two -minute warning, please? [00:39:36] Yes. [00:39:39] It'll be 10 minutes. Yes, sorry about that. You got a couple extra seconds. [00:39:44] So, um, that we're splitting the commercial and residential lobby, so there'd be two elevators here for commercial or for the residential going full height, and then this elevator would just be for those first floor- four floors. Is that the V in the diagram? I'm just trying to put x, sorry. You're not seeing Xs- the big Xs? [00:40:041 You're not seeing my mouse up there. [00:40:05] Sorry. Now I'm seeing. I understand. I just didn't know what those were. So thank you. That answers my question. [00:40:15] I'd like to hear a little more about the TIF and what- the details that we didn't hear, if you could, please. [00:40:26] Page 13 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at httl2s:,[/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Sure, we're proposing. So we've worked with the assessor and estimated the value to be around a million a year in new taxes. We're proposing that 60% of that, I mean, there's so 40% or $400,000 a year would continue to go into the cities and the schools and everybody. And for 15 years, 60% would be to pay for essentially the permanent affordable housing and some of the community benefits. And then after the 15 years, would be a pretty dramatic increase. [00:41:04] What the city receives in tax revenue? [00:41:06] Yes. [00:41:071 Okay. Thank you. Not in the TIF subsidy? [00:41:091 No, no, no. That's it. [00:41:11] Want to make sure. [00:41:11] And we also we've been working with impact used to be called Impact 7G, looking at Greyfields and Brownfields tax credits, workforce housing tax credits. We're looking at other options to bring that number even further down. [00:41:26] Can you please go back to the affordable housing section? [00:41:33] Which? This one? [00:41:34] Yeah. I think your the first proposal was Tech. This is not Tech, right? [00:41:421 This the 33 units of 55 plus will be light tech, yes. [00:41:47] But I just, like, I don't know. Somebody told me that we cannot mix affordable housing with, like, uh, for regular people and the senior together. Page 14 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,/,/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:41:56] The- hun here's our affordable housing guy. [00:42:00] Yeah, you can mix them. We'll have to condo the building to separate the 33 units out as a separate condo, but you can mix it. [00:42:08] Okay, okay. As long as you separate them. And when you say affordable 12 unit, like, what, like, the percentage of the area median income you're looking at? [00:42:20] It'll be an average of 60% of the AMI. [00:42:24] 60% and below or just add 6%? [00:42:27] Well, it'll average 60%, so there'll be some below, and there may be some above. [00:42:31] Okay. And you said it was philosophy for the studios. [00:42:43] That's been changing the last week. When the International writing program lost a lot of their funding. They had initially proposed to rent 40% of the units for their writers. Now we're proposing, and this is the way real estate projects work. Things change to do studio lofts, like in the five to 600 square foot range, so they would be affordable, as well, but also possibly we've talked to the Englert about possibly using some of those units to house some of their visiting artists as well. [00:43:18] And the 12 unit, are you looking for two bedroom, three bedroom, one bedroom? [00:43:24] Uh, I the whole building? [00:43:26] For the For the 12 unit, affordable housing. [00:43:29] Page 15 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:.Z.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Those are currently one bedroom, but they could be. We could add two bedrooms because the plumbing is set up below for some twos. Sure. [00:43:38] Okay. [00:43:39] The Senior Affordable is a mix of ones and twos, the Li Tech. [00:43:43] 1 just want to death. I just wanted to briefly chime in that all the affordable units will be managed by the Housing fellowship here in Iowa City. So they'll be locally managed properties- affordable properties. [00:43:57] So I'm going to just say that this is a lot of information to take in, and I'm a bit frustrated that we didn't get information ahead of time, to be able to be fully engaged with the changes. So I'm going to be very front- upfront about that. Now, transitioning, as we have to do a lot. I have a few questions because we went from slide of Partners and the other partners there, you know, with a purchase of $1, you know, TIF, 800,000 a year for 15-20. And then with iceberg, at one point, you know, you had a seven to maybe 9.6 million dollar gap. And then 24 million was the estimated cost. So there's a lot of information here to try to digest into a 10-minute, and I don't know how much time I have left. Five minutes? I'm not taking all the five minutes I have colleagues, but so just trying to go to the numbers here, and I appreciated the question about TIF. And you're looking, and I was happy to hear that you're looking at other funding opportunities because a part of my thought process, just looking at, you know, the mixture of housing options, yes, there is definitely, you know, the affordable units, which, you know, oftentimes that's a challenge. But we have some market rate units, as well. I guess I'm going to want to know a little bit more about that and how- and also the all the businesses that will be there and how they plan to be a part of the contributing financially to this, it seemed like a big ass to me for the city in this moment to - with the gaps, and I believe the purchase for the property will be $2 million is what I remember. Um, again, this is just a lot to take in, but I think my message is, I'm going to be interested in learning what y'all present to the city so that we can dive into it more. I know our staff is gonna do, you know, re- evaluate things and, you know, present that to us. But but, yeah, I- I- I would like to see a little bit more. I'm gonna be looking at the financial part of it quite a bit to make sure that we're exhausted all the opportunities. Last question I have Jess is about the bar space. Is that going to be open past midnight because of our drinking establishment and 500 rule- 500 foot rule? Do we know if it's going to be past midnight if you're planning to have the bar open? [00:46:56] I'd have to talk to someone from Englert, but we haven't discussed that. [00:47:00] Page 16 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/.Icitychanne]4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Okay. Yeah. Well, there is a 500. [00:47:03] It's pretty close to other bars, so. [00:47:05] Yeah. [00:47:05] Yeah. There is a 500 foot rule, um, that in this moment, it wouldn't be able to be open past midnight. So, right. Great. Thanks. [00:47:16] Is there a time still? You want to say something? [00:47:19] Well, just to comment a little bit about your we understand the frustration and- and one of the things that we were listening to and trying to figure out was, can we meet the goals that you guys set, and the goals that we have to make a project that we know is viable economically in the future? And the one thing that occurred to us when we looked at both of our applications is, I had a lot of affordable housing, but the affordable housing is good and bad, especially when you're talking about TIF, because it does not generate a lot of increment, has a special tax character. [00:47:54] And so even though I was doing a lot of units, I was not generating a lot of increment. Their project was generating more increment, so we looked at it as a more holistic approach of how do we generate increment, leave some of it on the table for the city that frankly would have been more than I could have ever, um, created with my project, and yet keep enough on the table for us to make the project viable. So that's a large reason why we combine the efforts. [00:48:23] We got two minutes left. All right. [00:48:25] Um, just on the, uh, since this project is requesting TIF, we have the updated TIF policy. I think I heard someone say lead silver as far as sustainability, but then we skipped past a slide with a lot more information. So very quickly, mass timber all 12 stories. Okay. And can you speak a little bit about just, like, the amount of glass and surfaces and how you would commit to, um, exceeding the energy code by at least 25 percent. [00:48:57] Page 17 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,[/citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Go back to that slide. And I think, you know, at this point, these are goals and their expectations, and - and through architecture and through engineering, we will figure out a way to meet those goals and make sure it meets those lead silver standards that are part of the city's you know, TIF agreements. [00:49:11] But when we're looking for leadership, like, what- what can you tell us that's more than just that bare minimum? That was most of the discussion that we had and, [OVERLAPPING] [00:49:18] The mass timber thing is really big. It's a big deal. I think going all electric always, especially in Iowa, is a fantastic piece. Um, you know, utilizing, um, natural local materials, low carbon materials, low VOC materials. A lot of daylighting is especially important not only for sustainability, but for wellness. I mean, all of these things- all of the things that we were doing to open the building up to the public also help us, you know, achieve some of our sustainability goals. The- the trick will be making sure our mechanical systems can be efficient enough to, you know, provide the right tempering in the building and- and meet the energy goals. But I think with the combination of strategies we can come up with, we can certainly do that. [00:49:58] Do you have anything else to address to. [00:49:59] Just to sort of to address that. Um, the proposal reduced the amount of glass significantly. Just do that also help with the cost of the construction, put the cost per square foot. [00:50:12) Thank you. Thank you [00:50:13 ] Alright. [00:50:16] Thanks to the combined teams for their presentation. Alright. So we're going to just move right along. We're going to have 20 minutes again for grain rails, so thank you. We'll let you get your computer started. Welcome. [00:50:42] Good evening or, good afternoon. Mr. Mayor and fellow council members. My name's Mike Bales. I'm a member of the Bales team with Urban Anchors Real Estate that would be working on this project. Um, I also wanted to, um, introduce one of the partners, uh, Jake Evans, Bonner of Grand Rail Construction and Rob Becker of Axiom Consultants. Page 18 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/,/citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:51:06] And, hi, I'm Sophie Donta with OPN Architects, and also with me from OPN Architects, we have Toby Olson and Zack Ryder. [00:51:17] So, um, obviously this is a long process, and there's a lot to look at. So what we're going to go through is how we viewed the project, um, talk about our financial viability, what we believe our strengths and differentiators are, and then also talk about some alternative ideas that we could propose within our team. So one of the things that I believe makes our team the most unique is that we're all local. Um, we kind of put a little, um, chart together that showed, um, the partners, the teams, proposed tenants and subcontractors and suppliers, and they're all within the Eastern Iowa area. So, Sophie is going to talk a little bit about the design and how we came to the size of what we are proposing and why we feel that's the best for financial viability. [00:52:25] Yeah, so you guys saw in the last presentation, um, in ours as well, this is the City Hall that used to stand on this site. You can see the buildings next to it, um, that are still standing. And this is kind of where we started, uh, as a starting place, uh, with this lot, you know, three story brick building, red brick and limestone, traditional kind of a look. Um, and we knew right away we wanted to do a brick building as well and kind of reference these materials, but do it in a modern way. And then as we started thinking about values for this project, you know, these are some of the values, um, that we see when we think of Iowa City and things that we wanted to incorporate into it. But we also did a lot of reading and a lot of listening to your values as well. Uh, clearly, a lot of thought and effort was put into the RFP, but then also into some of these other plans that date back over a decade that address downtown and address this site in particular. Um, so I won't read every single quote on here, but we did go through and really try to make sure that all of the stakeholders' voices were heard as part of this process. And so here you can see kind of a comparison. This is the 2012 downtown and Riverfront crossings. Master Plan actually addressed this site specifically. And what that plan was calling for was kind of a lower base to align to the adjacent buildings, um, and line up with the senior center across the street and then step back the taller portion of the building and build up from there. And we really agreed with this approach for that site, facing the senior center across the street, and then the rest of that block kind of being at that three story level, um, to propose a three story massing and then step backward, um, and go sort of building up from there to the six stories that we have. And then as we looked more at design, um, really, we started by just kind of walking around downtown. You know, our office is right over on Clinton. We spent a lot of time just looking at buildings along the PED mall, um, and starting to look at the little details, um, that make these buildings and kind of create the character of Iowa City. Um, so looking at archways, unique detailing, depth in the facade, references to nature and brickwork, these are all things that don't, unfortunately, show up very well on a rendering, but they're really make or break for the experience of the building down at the pedestrian level. Now we kind of want to look a little bit more specifically, go inside the building, um, and look at some of the tenants and the options that we're looking at going Page 19 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at httl2s://citychanne]4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. forward. So as we started talking with potential tenants, we were really, um, overwhelmed by the amount of enthusiasm for this site and the amount of interest, um, and are really excited about the possibilities of what these different groups can start to bring to downtown Iowa City. So as you saw in the RFP, our original proposal was a six story, um, four floors of commercial and two floors of residential, kind of lining up with the tallest building on the block right now. Um, but looking at the amount of interest that we got, we're also considering going up one or two stories to, um, possibly an eight story version that would kind of align with the ecumenical towers across the street. So you can see, kind of across Lynn Street that three story datum line and then stepping back as you go further through the block to kind of mirror what's across the street. So this is kind of our baseline, uh, section, our starting point, uh, doing something that's daytime and nighttime publicly accessible, the entertainment venue, um, and event space/cafe on the first floor, looking at office space on two through four and then residential on five and six. But then after looking at all the interest we got, you know, this is kind of the composition of the building if every tenant that wrote a letter of interest does end up moving into the building. Um, so we look at the Engler Venue cafe and kind of that third space on the ground level, um, ACT on two and three, and then 4, 5, and 6, the Stories Project, and possibly the city of Iowa City with access to an outdoor terrace, and then looking at residential on the upper levels. We're also open to looking at options if there's a priority to make the building more residential in proportion and increase the number of housing units. We could also look at options, um, that have more residential in proportion to commercial. If there's one kind of takeaway from our team, um, that we want you guys to have, it's that we're flexible, um, and we're adaptable. We're willing to work with you to design the best building for Iowa City. Going into floor plans, um, we'll kind of start at the bottom. We have one level of buried parking. Uh, we put the parking access off the alley because that is what zoning for this lot dictates, um, and tried to push it as far from the studio 13 entrance as we could. Um, that being said, we also looked at another layout for parking that would come off of Lynn Street kind of round the corner. If we wanted to keep cars out of that alley and really make that more of a pedestrian access, if the city was open to that, we could look at that, as well. Um, skipping up to levels 2, 3, and 4, we wanted to lay these out, um, as open and flexible as possible with a central core so that you could have one tenant taking two floors. You could have eight tenants on one floor. It can subdivide and change overtime to respond to the market. Um, and then looking at level 1, um, we kind of started with that Englert venue, um, with kind of 18 hour activity. We've had some great talks with them about activation during the daytime, um, the ability for that cafe space, um, to kind of spill out onto the sidewalk and to do all of the glass on ground floor as folding walls, say, during jazz fest, that could be your- your rain venue or have that sort of indoor outdoor space, um, going during the day. We also looked at an option where they go up to fourth floor with the outdoor terrace, and we could look at the first floor, um, having those smaller retail spaces along Washington and then the Stories Project lobby along or other way around. Micro retail along Lynn, um, and Stories Project entrance off of Washington. Um, and so we're looking to explore some of these options with the tenants as this moves forward, um, and becomes more concrete. And then to touch on the housing a little bit, we really envision this as kind of a mixed income vertical community, um, where every unit is getting their own garden plot. There's access to kind of a shared backyard on the roof, um, and the opportunity for residents to really start to build connections and form kind of a neighborhood within this building. Um, right now, um, we are Page 20 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https:llcitychanne]4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. looking at 1, 1.5, and 2 bedroom units, um, but we've laid it out such that they could be combined to look at possible three and four bedroom units, um, if that was a desire as well. We are also proposing, um, sale of the units to the housing fellowship so that would be managed by them as permanent affordable units. [00:59:18] So picking up on that, with the- with the RFP process, the community input, um, the feedback we've heard from city staff and other people, the biggest thing is, how- how do you- how do you make it all fit? How do you make it all fit, and how do you make it financially viable? So we looked at two concepts originally. The first was the -the original concept that we have put on the proposal. We also looked up to a 13 story tower. And what we realized pretty quickly was for that to be financially viable, it would require TIF. It would require more incentives. And so, one of the things that, you know, we have to look at is not only, um, you know, this is- this is a city plot of ground. So the city has to look at it from being good stewards of their money. We have to be able to look at it and say, would we do this project? And so when we went through everything, we kept it at the lower level because that allowed us not to be subject to external financing incentives. To be able to go local with the financing, we have a letter of interest from Hills Bank, um, with our local team, we're here every day. Um, we're able to start work on day 1. Regardless of who's selected, there's going to be a period of time where the final design is worked through. I can only imagine there's going to be a lot of dialogue between the staff, council members, still- still more city input. There's going to be a lot of different aspects that go into the final design of whichever projects selected, and we're here. We're here, ready to work. I'm an Iowa City native, lived in Eastern Iowa my whole life. Um, all of the team we have is based in the Iowa City, um, corridor area. The other, um, factor is in our proposal, we put a three million dollar purchase price. However, I can't tell you definitively today what prices are going to be in two or three years. So we have to put a RFP together today for what we're going to bring to market in two or three years. So if I have to use today's pricing, then a three million dollar purchase agreement is what we can do. However, as we go through this and as we work with the staff and through the process, that purchase price could increase. Now, again, it's got to make sense, right? It's got to make sense from the city's standpoint. Obviously, they want to recoup as much money as possible, and we have to make it financially viable. But those are some of the factors that go into it. Same with if these are rental units, same on the commercial rents. You know, we're using numbers today to project into the future. Um, the other, um, factor is we have the ability to adapt to the market conditions because we're not- this isn't a specialized type of construction, and Sophie or Rob or Jake can talk a little bit more to that, but it's more conventional. It does meet or exceed, um, all the requirements of the RFP, but because it's more conventional, we're more adaptable and flexible. [01:02:55] So the big question that I think is before, um, the council on this project is you've already made the investment, right? The ground's already purchased. You paid 4.5 million. [NOISE] So now the only question that remains is, what is the return on investment? So with that being said, um, there's different components to this, and taxes are one. Real estate taxes are one. There's a lot of other tax base that Page 21 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/,Icitychanne]4.com/city-council.htm]) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. goes into a particular project like this. And with affordable housing, um, so- sorry if I'm just a little nervous. [LAUGHTER] Every once in a while, I get like this and it just- it's always fun. It's always fun. So let me just tell you that. Um, I don't think this is the right spot for a ton of affordable housing. I- I really don't. Um, myself, I'm a product of Iowa City affordable housing. Um, from third grade- I'm sorry, from kindergarten to third grade, I lived in Mark 4, which is, um, now, and I just blank, but Feather Ridge. And then from third grade through high school, I lived at 1946 Broadway Street Apartment A. So I am a child of affordable housing and the initiatives of the city. I'm fortunate enough to now be an investor in multiple businesses and multiple projects employing over 200 people. It just doesn't seem to me that affordable housing should be jammed into downtown. Why not take that money, reinvest it back in the community, work with a viable project that will work on the corner. We can fill it, we can finance it, take that money and use it for other things throughout the community. I think that's a much, much better, um, use of the funds. Now, if it's a city's prerogative and the city's desire that it be downtown, we are happy to work on that. But I can't propose projects unless I'm being honest. And that's how I feel. So with that being said, senior housing, is there an opportunity for that? Absolutely. City offices, I believe, because you've already made that investment, if we know the city wants to be there, we can condo it out. We can rent it. There's different ways that we can make things work to get the city the best return on investment possible. So, um, the previous presenters already went over several of the tenants because we have several of them in common. But as far as the financial viability, we feel our project stands alone when it comes to that, so. [01:06:02] All right. All right. Any other comments you wanna make before we go into council questions? [01:06:111 1 think we'll leave extra time for questions. [01:06:13] Great. All right. Awesome. [01:06:15] Real quickly on the, um, I guess, we'll call it the base model. Um, you'd mentioned two levels of residential. Did you have- and you've mentioned some various options, but do you have a ballpark of how many units you're thinking of in those? [01:06:29] Twenty. [01:06:30] There were 20. [01:06:31] Page 22 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/,/citychannel4.com/city-council.htm]) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Twenty. Okay. Maybe I just missed that. Thank you. Twenty, yes. [01:06:45] And you- you talked about also the number of the bedrooms. I think you mentioned some of them. Can you just talk about that again? [01:06:54] So the way we conceived it is one and two bedrooms. Um, we can- I mean, obviously, we can be flexible and change that to three or four bedrooms that's gonna reduce the- the number of units, but, um, as conceived in our original, er, proposal, it's one and two bedrooms. [01:07:11] But those are not affordable, right? Because you- you said maybe affordable housing not supposed to be there. [01:07:17] There- well, within our proposal, we had, er, four units that we were, um, working- we would be working with the housing fellowship, um, on affordable, um, programs through them. All I was saying and not very eloquently today, was that I just don't think that's the best spot for them. I- I think you could take that money and you could put it elsewhere, and you could do more, in- in essence, making a down payment on- on even more. And- and so, again, we've got the ability within- in our proposal to make, um, at least four affordable housing units. [01:07:56] Okay. And for the Rita, it seems you- if you're thinking that way, are you- what about the small business space? Are you thinking also like some affordability for, like, er, starter, a small business? May- because renting downtown is really expensive, also. [01:08:161 It is. And again, I don't wanna be disingenuous. I mean, we're showing micro retail and- and different, um, you know, spots down there, and it all- it all depends on how we can make it all come together, um, to bring the overall cost of the project down. So in other words, if we can- if we can work with the city and- and they take a space, if OPN takes a space, if ACT takes a space, you know, now we're filling everything up, you know, can we get those at a- at a lower value? That's always something we can look at, but it's definitely not guaranteed until you get all those other pieces into place. [01:08:54] Yeah, understandable. [01:08:581 Page 23 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Thank you for a proposal that doesn't request the TIF. I do wonder, just, again, my question relating to sustainability factors and how you're approaching that since you don't have those guidelines of the- the TIF policy that we were hammering on in the last proposal. [01:09:17] Yeah, so, um, in the RFP, we are targeting lead silver, um, looking at efficient building systems, looking at possible PEV on the roof. Um, these are things that OPN has a lot of experience with. Even internally, we've kind of raised our own standards with specifications, um, looking at decarbonization, um, looking at low and no VOC materials. Um, so, for us, it- it kind of comes with the territory on any building we design, but these are things that are built into the project and the pricing of the project. [01:09:47] You mentioned traditional materials. Uh, I don't remember what for the height, depending on the height, are we talking just timber construction, er, concrete, steel? Which- which traditional materials were you- were you planning on, I guess? [01:09:59] Yes. So if we stay at six stories or below, we have options, um, concrete, timber, steel. If we go up to eight, it would be a steel building, um, with masonry facade. [01:10:13] And when you mentioned the 20, uh, affordable housing, is that what- if the story is- like if the building is eight story or six or. [01:10:22] Um, the six story, any of them would include 20 units, four of them, at least, um, affordable, sold to the Housing Fellowship. [01:10:29] Sure. [01:10:30] And if it was the eight stories, which would be somewhat, um, the same height as Ecumenical Towers, that would all be market rate, that additional two stories in theory. [01:10:44] Um, no. Um, as- as we go up, we can carve out some affordable on each side. One of- one of the things that was presented to us, and again, part of my thinking on the affordable housing was that, um, apparently, other affordable housing units downtown, um, struggle very mightily when they don't have parking. Um, and that seemed to be a concern to some of the feedback that we got. And- and that's one Page 24 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,[/citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. of the other, you know, limiting factors in having, um, potential more affordable housing units down here, at least in our opinion. [01:11:19] So the question is the two additional. [01:11:22] We would get two more per floor. [01:11:24] You would do two more market rate per floor. [01:11:27] Two more affordable unit per floor. [01:11:30] Got it. [01:11:30] Yep. [01:11:31] It's all right. [01:11:31) It's four of them. [01:11:33] It would be eight. [01:11:34] Total. [01:11:34] Total. [01:11:35] But the rest of them, which is, I think 12, is that's like, students housing? [01:11:42] Page 25 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/Icitychanne]4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Would the rest of the units be student housing? They would be- they would be open to the- to the market either whether it is- whether we rented them or whether we sold them. So then it would just be whoever applied or whoever purchased. [01:11:55] It's not furnished or anything, right? [01:11:59] It's not. [01:11:59] It's not going to be furnished apartment. You are not gonna furnish them. [OVERLAPPING] [01:12:02] These are not- we would not plan on them being furnished apartments, no. [01:12:06] Okay. [01:12:08] 1 heard you mention that you might be open to the opportunity to do three and four bedrooms. Um, can you just speak a little bit to that? [01:12:18] Well, again, just because of the design of the building, I mean, we can- we can play with the walls internally and- and look at that. One of the big things is, um, when you go to three and four, I mean, traditionally, downtown, that's- that's student- student housing, um, and so it's- it's easily done. Then we just have to look at the numbers because you have to figure out 'cause part of our proposal was I broke it down between, okay, here's a scenario if we rented all the units, plus have the affordable. Here's a scenario if we, um, sold all the units, plus the affordable, and how does that work? So to decide, like, what the mix would be, we would have to look and see what those would yield, and have to do a market analysis on a three bedroom unit downtown and what we think that could either rent for or sell for. So as far as structurally, it's just moving walls. As far as, you know, what you would do and how that would be- how that would be reflective on the project, we'd- I would have to do more analysis on that because, again, I can't think of any downtown apartments or condos, three or four bedrooms that aren't student living. So I don't know that I'd have real good comparables to- to do that analysis, but we could get that information. [01:13:43] Did you have- did you have a photo of or any- any graphics on where the parking could be if it was on Linn Street? Page 26 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [01:13:54] 1 can kind of point it out here. So where it is now, it would exit out the right corner. So instead of exiting onto the alley, you'd go on to Linn, um, kind of directly to the right of where it is now, that entrance, and you'd come in sort of facing west and then turn. [01:14:14] Got it. Okay. [01:14:17] And I'm sure there will be a lot of conversations on parking that the staff will, um, go through. There's a lot of debate on that, but all right. Any other questions about my colleague- colleagues? [01:14:33] Do you have any idea how much this going to cost? [01:14:41] Yes. [01:14:42] Yes, we do. [LAUGHTER] Not directly in front of us on this table, but, yes, we did a cost analysis. I believe it's in our RFP response. [OVERLAPPING] [01:14:52] Can you just tell us like estimate, like around. [01:14:55) Forty. [01:14:57] Forty. [01:14:58] Yeah, about 40 million. [01:15:051 Thank you. [01:15:06] Page 27 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,/Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Yep. And then, um, I know I'm supposed to be asking questions, but-, er, um, but your comment about this is not the right spot for affordable housing, um, I just have to tell you that, um, in our community, we believe that everybody belongs everywhere. [01:15:27] Of course. [01:15:28] And we should try to figure out how to make it possible for people to live no matter where it is in the city. So I'll just leave that at that, and I probably should have formed it in- in some type of a question, but I wanted to make a comment. [01:15:40] No, that's a- that's a- that's a fair comment question. And I- and I guess, like I said, I didn't say it very eloquently. I- I- more to the point, what- what I was trying to say, um, was that if we- if we took some of the return from the money, the- the city gets back for- for anyone purchasing this ground, and takes that, and- and- and uses it in different areas, then we could get more affordable housing. So that's what I was trying to say. [01:16:11] 1 totally understand your logic. It's been used a lot. Yes. So not arguing there, but thank you. [01:16:17] Yep. [01:16:19] Yeah. Just to- to make you feel good on that, that's true. Uh, you know, 1-1 did like I asked before to have Phi and Lou instead of affordable housing in Downtown. So we can build somewhere else because I know for most likely the people who need, you know, like affordable is families, and most likely families is not- they need three bedroom, four bedroom. I don't think they will be in downtown. [01:16:46) Thank you all. [01:16:47] Thank you. [01:16:49] All right. Well, thanks to the two presenters today. And, um, so, I guess, I would just probably advise us to- if there's any, you know, clarification questions for staff or amongst ourselves that we want staff to Page 28 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at httl2s://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. be aware of that we have that discussion now, otherwise, um, given positions or opinions on the projects, I would just advise us to hold off on at this juncture. [01:17:22] Yep. [01:17:22] I'll just say I'm looking forward to seeing the sort of comparable- the staff report that we got that was comparing the different projects now with the new combined project. Um, just, and I know that that's the plan, but just saying that I'm looking forward to seeing that. [01:17:40] Yeah, I just want to say thank you. It seemed like you guys put a lot of work on that, so thank you for the hard working. Yeah. [01:17:49] And I'll say what I said last time, if we had two street corners. [01:17:52] Yes. [LAUGHTER] [01:17:55] Just a question for staff. Do you have any sense of how long it will take to kind of digest and then get back to us that comparison? [01:18:04] Um, I'll- I'll probably just need to talk with the merge team a little bit to see how long it'll take them to - to pull it together. I- I would be hopeful that, um, certainly we could meet the April 15th agenda. Um, I think we- we could meet the April first if we were able to get the information pulled together pretty quick. So I don't think it'll take too long. So our next step, just so everybody is clear, our next step will be to reach out to the slide iceberg team and just kind of detail everything that we're gonna need to- to revise our staff report and get that out to you. Um, as soon as it's ready, we'll put it in the next, uh, packet and make sure that you can have a discussion on it. Uh, we'll advise the teams, uh, that- when that discussion will be so they can be here if they- if they want to be in case you guys have any clarifications or questions? And again, the ultimate goal is to work towards that, uh, preferred, uh, development team scenario, state. And I'd like to- I'd like to think we can get there in April or May, but, um, er, certainly want to make sure that you feel comfortable that you've received the input that you need from the community and that you have all the information from staff and the teams. So just urge you don't- don't rush into that decision, make sure you have everything you feel like you need, but, uh, I think we're getting, uh, pretty close here. Page 29 Iowa City City Council Work Session of March 11, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https://citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [01:19:32] One thing I will say that was a little, um, illuminating today was, um, of course, I think we've all known that that was the City Hall, um, at one point, and so I guess my personal thoughts are, it would be a great opportunity to somehow acknowledge that in- in this process. And I'm not saying that that has to be offices, although, uh, the city has needs for that, too, but, um, some way commemorate that. So other than that, I have no other comments, we're gonna be adjourned for our work session. [MUSIC] Page 30