00:00:08,070	Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the, uh, July 11th, 2024 meeting of the Bismarck Renaissance Zone Authority? He Um, but is Dustin with us by Zoom? Or any members with us by Zoom? Hello. Wayne’s on vacation. Dustin is on Zoom, uh, but he might have his Mickey.

00:00:33,370	He is unmuted, but we cannot hear him at the moment. OK. So we have a quorum you hear me? There he is. Hey. Are you driving? Uh, not at the moment. I’m parked at New Salem. I was running 45 minutes late getting back to town. OK, no sweat. All right. Yeah, why would you come back from New Salem.

00:00:59,630	Doesn’t know where the party is? Yeah, it is. We’ll, we’ll ask Dakota Media Access to turn, turn you down a little bit. You’re coming in pretty hot. So again, today is July 11th, 2024. This is the time and place of the Renaissance zone authority’s monthly meeting. Uh, we do have a quorum.

00:01:16,070	First item of business will be to consider the minutes of the June 13th meeting, move approval I submitted. There’s a motion to approve. Is there a second moved and seconded. Any further discussion? No corrections, changes, anything like that? All in favor say aye, a motion.

00:01:36,770	We’ll move on to the regular agenda, which is a request for Renaissance zone and or downtown design review approval, the Malloy Law offices at 319 North First Street. Isaac is going to walk us through that. Yes, thank you, Chair Christensen and authority members. So our first regular agenda item today is sort of a 3 in 1 project for your review.

00:01:57,570	It is a uh uh new construction product being requested by First North LLC and a. Commercial lease renaissance own product being requested by Malloy Law PLLC. The new construction would create a two-story law office at. 319 North First Street, of which Molloy Law PLLC would be the sole tenant.

00:02:21,970	First North LLC is also requesting Downtown design review approval in conjunction with their new construction project. The adjacent land uses to the uh project area include restaurants, auto service, a salon, an office, and some land that is currently either vacant or dedicated solely to parking. The existing conditions of the building are shown on the screen and they were also included in your packets.

00:02:43,500	The application involves the planned demolition of the existing structure to help facilitate that new construction, more on that in a moment. The applicant provided us with a number of renderings, both interior and exterior for our review today and the estimated project cost for the new construction is between 800 and $900,000 which exceeds the minimum level of investment of $150 per square foot required

00:03:10,330	for eligibility. I will note that in the agenda packets, you know, I put the estimated project cost as 8,850,000 just because that that was the nice middle ground of the 800 to 900. Which was the technical range that was provided to us. Just want to make sure that that’s clear.

00:03:26,970	Um, I’ll just go through some of the other elevations provided here. Again, this is also in your packets. And then some of the renderings that were provided, which are not officially required for Downtown design review approval as that is primarily exterior, but it’s always nice to look at some pretty images, we won’t say no to that.

00:03:50,230	So then This is where we get into the interesting portion. Uh, city staff have communicated with the applicant that the Program is in the middle of some changes to our development plan, as you know, this board approved the changes to the development plan and uh I believe last Tuesday the city commission approved those changes as well, but hasn’t

00:04:10,430	been approved yet by the other boards, so it’s not final yet, but it’s still, uh, it’s getting there. And of course those changes could impact how some projects experience the uh property tax exemptions. Staff initially met with the applicants for this product.

00:04:31,900	On February 16th where we described the new system to the applicant as it was described in the letter of intent between the city and the county, and we then communicated this again around the time of their formal application, a little more recently here and we have done this, of course, with all inquiries for the project, uh, for the program and this specific uh project is involving a demolition.

00:04:52,230	It is the first project to involve a demolition and immediate new construction since these changes are in process. Staff, as you can see on the screen before you and also included in your packet are proposing a baseline building value of $0 given the current blighted condition of the existing structure again shown here and the provision in the amended

00:05:15,630	development plan approved by this board and the city commission, which states that the authority can adjust the baseline involving demolitions while considering certain provisions including uh the whole portion is there.

00:05:36,430	But I want to highlight the uh item number B there, demolition of buildings presenting a hazard to public safety, clear blighting impact, or other evidence of poor conditions should not be discouraged. That’s one of the things that this board has in their power to adjust that baseline value for your consideration.

00:05:58,330	Staff have received certificates of good standing for both of the applications, the new construction and the lease, they are separate applications, but we have certificates of good standing for both of those. And the public has been notified of this request via publications in the Bismarck Tribune on June 28th and July 5th and 51 letters were mailed to nearby property owners on June 28th as well.

00:06:18,030	To my knowledge, staff has not received any public comments prior to this, uh, meeting regarding this project. And as a cumulative result of all the findings contained in the staff report, City of Bismarck staff find that the proposed Renaissance zone projects would not adversely impact the public health, safety or general welfare and are generally consistent with the Renaissance zone development plan, comprehensive plan, and Bismarck code of ordinances and

00:06:38,500	relevant state law. Therefore, staff recommends approval of the new construction renaissance zone project at 319 North First Street as a full property tax exemption on the value of the new.

00:06:59,900	building for 5 years for First North LLC and an exemption from state income tax on income derived from the location for 5 years for Malloy Law PLLC and finally staff recommends Downtown Design review approval of the presented designs for 319 North First Street with the standard condition that any substantive revisions to the approved design for the new construction would be reconsidered by the DDR committee prior to implementation.

00:07:22,170	And one last thing I want to note before I uh see if you have questions for me at this time is there is a slight typo that you might have noticed on the agenda page itself where it says the staff recommendation is approval with conditions.

00:07:42,270	The staff report is correct, originally, as we were crafting these documents, that was before we had received the certificates of good standing, so there was going to be a condition for approval with receiving those prior to going to city commission. We do have those.

00:08:03,230	Um, I may or may not have updated the staff report and missed updating the agenda and by may or may not, I mean I did so with that, uh, does the authority have any questions for me at this time? We member Guy, by the way, glad you could join us. Yeah, it’s busy downtown, that’s good.

00:08:20,230	Um, would the authority members like to take to act on all three in one fell swoop, or would you like to break them down individually or? OK, so we’ll separate the design review at this point and deal with the first two. That’s fine. And this is not a public hearing, the Renaissance Zone projects would be a public hearing. The design review technically would not have to be a public hearing. OK, so we’ll do that then and then come back to you with questions or comments if that’s OK.

00:08:34,770	So we’ll open the public hearing. This is a public hearing on the item of the Malloy Law Office project at 319 North First Street. Is there anyone wishing to appear? On that request, the new construction request or the lease request? As a public hearing, if anybody would like to appear. Welcome, come on up.

00:08:53,070	State your name for the record. Good afternoon, Comm.. My name is Mike Malloy. I’m the owner of, uh, First North LLC as well as Molloy Law, PLLC, uh, I believe, uh, staff did a great job with presenting the project to the, to the authority, um, just from our perspective, we’re really excited about moving back downtown, um, I

00:09:13,700	think it’s gonna be a good project for the area. Um we are looking to hire some more staff, so we are going to bring in some more employment as well to the downtown area and just really clean up the area which I think the city has been making efforts.

00:09:30,300	To to to really revitalize the area where this project is, is uh being proposed and we would ask approval for, uh, for both applications, uh, we do have members here from, uh, Paramount Building, uh, to, uh, answer any questions that you may have as it relates to any of the um uh building materials or timeline or anything of that nature, uh, as staff pointed

00:09:52,170	out the, the, um, The current site is an eyesore, um, and I believe We just got confirmation today that the tear down will likely be occurring within the next week, I believe, or uh by no later than I believe July 22nd of 2024. OK. Any questions of the applicant? Anyone? If not, thank you for your comments.

00:10:16,100	Thank you. Um, any, anyone else wishing to appear? Kate from the Downtowners. Yeah, uh, authority members keepate from the downtown I just wanted to again give our support to this project we’ve been working with some of the other property owners on this full block, including the former Budget Insight, Aes, which is the Mexican restaurant that’s gone

00:10:37,300	into MIM, um, so this is kind of one of the last pieces of property on that full parcel that we’d love to see redeveloped, so it would encourage your support. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions with Kate? Thanks, Kate. Anyone else wishing to appear? If not, we’ll close the public hearing.

00:10:54,030	Um, does anyone have questions of Isaac at this point? So you need to come back up, or is there a motion? I’ll make a motion to approve both items as presented. Was there with the noted corrections from Isaac. There you go.

00:11:14,100	Second, it’s been moved in 2nd, and is there any further discussion on the matter? Hearing and seeing no further discussion. Sandra B, if you’d call the roll, please. Authority member Greg Zenker, yes. Joe Fink? Yes, Kirsten Dvorak, Dustin Gavrilo. Yes. Nancy Guy. Yes, Chair Christiansen. Yes, that motion carries, and then we’ll Move on to the downtown design review request.

00:11:41,670	Um, Isaac and or the applicants or maybe we should ask for a technical advisor, one of whom is present. For for input, feedback, comments, questions. With him. Uh, yeah, I, uh, don’t have any like major comments or questions. It’s looks pretty straightforward approval from my perspective, good enough. Anyone have questions of Isaac? Our staff If not, what are your wishes? Move to approve 0 2nd moved and seconded.

00:12:09,930	Is there any further discussion? Dustin, you’re getting all this? Yes, I am. Glad, glad you’re still with us. So it’s been moved and seconded, if there’s no further discussion, we’ll call the roll please, Sandra. Authority Joe Fink. Kirsten Dvorak Dustin Gavrilo. Yes, Nancy Guy, yes, Greg Zener, Chare Christiansen. Yes, that motion carries. Thank you.

00:12:36,630	Thank you, Malloy and Company and everybody that’s looks exciting. Although the the photograph that was up showed a picture window that I think it’s gone now when I drove by today, but. Hopefully you saved that might have some historic, historic value. Yes, Joe.

00:12:56,430	I’d like to see if the applicant can come up for a second and just kind of explain what impact this Renaissance zone approval is going to have on the project you’re proposing like you be willing to do that, Mr.

00:13:10,800	Malloy? Give us your, your thoughts on the program, in other words, and he was wondering what would you have done this project with the yeah, the impact that this that this has on on your decision to do the project where it’s at, like, you know, we were, we were mainly looking to get back downtown and or back down to the downtown area we used to have our office on Third and Broadway at the Logan’s on 3rd Building.

00:13:29,000	We moved up north and just for convenience purposes, um, as far as, uh, uh, myself and our other attorney going to. Um, uh, court proceedings, it’s going to be really helpful from that regard from a financial perspective, um, I think it’s gonna benefit us quite a bit, especially with um the idea of bringing on uh uh new attorneys, new younger attorneys, um,

00:13:47,130	there’s a high, high cost to bring them on and to have this uh uh exemption in place from a financial perspective, I think it’s really going to help the business out, uh, as we, as we expand, uh, into the downtown area, but um, yeah, the, the, the program has been, um, it’s been really Easy to work with

00:14:03,730	through uh through Mr. Johnson, uh, the application process has been pretty straightforward and clear as relates to what is needed. So we are, like I said, we’re very excited about getting back downtown. Is it, is it safe to say that it weighed heavily in your decision to do this project, the benefits of the Renaissance.

00:14:21,430	I’m not trying to put words in a lawyer’s mouth. I never do that. It, it did, it did. I mean, um, uh, obviously, you know, the investment that we’re making is it’s it’s substantial, you know, and as a, as a small business, you always worry about, you know, what happens if, you know, the phone stops

00:14:39,500	ringing or if we don’t, don’t get any clients so that it is, it’s gonna be a big help to us as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you, we appreciate what you’re doing. That’s great. Thank you. Um, Kate from the Downtowner is next on the agenda if you wish.

00:14:54,070	This could be one of our shortest meetings, which is fine. July, right? And Comm. Zen Zenker can get out on the golf course or the river or just. I just had a couple updates for you all just in terms of uh some things that are happening downtown and as Mr.

00:15:13,030	Withham will know, uh, there’s a tenant in the, or a tenant coming to the Treswell building, Insomnia Cookies, um, which should be a good after golf course snack, probably. Um, we’ve also got a few folks that have moved into some of our office spaces downtown, if you guys are aware of the Prince Hotel, um, has, I would call professional services group that moved into the.

00:15:31,900	Southeast, uh, corner of the building, um, and, uh, they’re still looking for a tenant on the north side of that building, but they’ve got them firmly in there. Uh, KLJ is fully moved in and um taking about 2.5 floors on the walls. I called the Wells Fargo building, uh, the Grand Pacific Center.

00:15:49,630	Um, we’ve got some tenants that are looking at or um. Pretty close to signing some LOIs at the Cowen Building as well, which is great. Obviously you guys know about Joe Mo House, the, the Vietnamese place it was on your agenda last time, um, just kind of south of. Jimmy V’s.

00:16:10,100	Um, so generally we’re seeing things picking up, which was really nice, um, even in the office user space, which has been good, we’ve had, um, I think I can say, I think they’ve announced an agency Mab who is moving uh their entire operations downtown they’ll be in the Quality title building. Um, and they’ve been moving in mid-July and they’ll be in as well. So the office user market is actually doing.

00:16:29,430	OK, much better than it had been, um, and I think what we’re seeing a little bit is Users that have a smaller footprint and they’re looking for a new space, so they might be hybrid working.

00:16:43,230	Don’t need as big of a office space, but they are choosing to put that kind of smaller footprint within the downtown, which was great. The parking ramps are pretty full because of that, which is nice, so probably start need to start, continue to. Have those conversations on another ramp. Sanford is still um very much invested in the downtown.

00:17:00,330	They are expanding their same day surgery, which you all know, uh, because it went through design review, um, and I still gonna do that heart hospital at some point. I don’t know what the timeline is there, so, um, all signs are, are Pretty good. I would, I, you know, knock on wood.

00:17:16,870	It’s chugging along a lot better than it was probably the previous, you know, 18 months or so, even though interest is still kind of high and interest rates are still kind of high, supplies are high, labor is high, but um people are sort of finding. Some ways to do some things, which has been really nice. So if you have any questions for me, I’d be happy to answer questions with Kate. Thank you, Kate. Thanks.

00:17:30,700	I would add They poured another massive slab of concrete this afternoon in the depot parking lot, so they’re getting close to getting that, that part of the project, uh wrapped up, so, um, Isaac has a question for us regarding um Kate mentioned the Joe Mo, uh Vietnamese cafe.

00:17:52,200	And uh there was there was some questions from staff that Isaac would like to bring forth was purely coincidental. I did not prompt her to set me up for this, but, uh, as you uh likely remember at your May meeting, we saw the Renaissance zone application for the Jomo house at 5:15 East Main Avenue and as part of that discussion, there

00:18:11,430	was some talk of whether or not they would be painting a portion of the mansard roof and all of that, and you, uh, at that meeting as the authority gave. Authority to staff and the technical advisors to administratively review some of that rather than requiring a formal downtown design review, um.

00:18:32,700	So now we come back with another question and we’ll see if we can get this back on the screen here shortly. So this was provided to staff for the building permit portion of their project and there was some debate as to how much of this would actually um take place, and, of course, is different than what was initially said, but after

00:18:54,570	speaking with the applicants to a degree, they said the primary purpose of this rendering here was to show the Uh, colors that they had described for that mansard portion of the roof above and less so focusing on the shown changes to the assembliage of the storefront down below.

00:19:11,170	So what staff is asking for at this time is just a little more direction and guidance as to whether or not the authority would like to grant us the authority.

00:19:28,170	I’m just trying to see how often I can say authority here, uh, to continue to review some of this administratively or if this would trigger in your eyes a full, uh, downtown design review requirement. Before the board and that would have to be at the next meeting. This was brought to our attention after the packets went out, thus why is on the other business and we just wanted to make sure we were uh processing this in a timely manner.

00:19:45,330	This Guy Um, Isaac, do you have a picture of the original storefront that we saw? I do, and we have a nice little comparison here or a rent. Or a rendering of what was in our packet that they said the fruit was going to look like.

00:20:08,170	They, they were not proposing anything specific at that time and that’s how this first came about because there was some discussion about them painting that mansard white, which then you gave us the authority to just review that administratively.

00:20:27,500	So we are asking if this still, if, if, if it either still falls within your original direction, if not, do you want it to, do you want to expand that direction to us? Or see a full downtown design review at next month’s meeting, and I would also refer to David for his input. I staff brought this to the design review advisor’s attention as well. So they’re uh aware of this as well.

00:20:44,330	I have a question is, is the white background they simply are painting the, the standing seam metal mansard white that is the information they have provided to us, yes. From a very Pedestrian point of view, it looks a lot better than the what’s there today, but uh.

00:21:02,270	What are your thoughts or wishes as far as does having staff handle this with David’s input David I’ll just give you guys a little bit more background detail and sort of the conversations that happened, um, amongst the staff and the designer view, um, advisors, uh, we, we asked the applicant to provide some visualization just to kind of confirm where they were painting, where they weren’t going to be painting, what colors, um, the rendering that they provide.

00:21:27,300	was actually probably went above and beyond what we were asking for, I think an annotated photo would have actually probably served the purpose, um, but then it does, it did sort of trigger like is this really your intent cause there’s more here than just paint, um, and then it also triggers some questions about the materiality of that upper uh mansard roof, um, the

00:21:49,370	what’s depicted in the rendering, it appears that there’s an additional material that’s. Being applied to try to create that frame, um, so there’s some questions around is that really what’s going on, um, so, and how is that happening so I think if this rendering is an accurate depiction of what they wanna do,

00:22:11,530	um, I think that probably does trigger design review if the intent is really just to do paint and this is there’s some extra embellishments here that maybe aren’t part of the intent, I don’t know, um, then maybe not so.

00:22:31,330	Uh, but based on this rendering, um, my point of view is that this would trigger a full design review, so. To the consensus around the table as opposed to to delegating responsibility to staff and David, OK. Richner. So, um, Well, If this isn’t what they’re depicting and it simplifies it, I wouldn’t have a problem with staff and technical advisors, but if this is really what they want, then I would, I would concur, so.

00:22:53,770	Maybe you get a clarification as to really that’s really what they want or does does does it, does this delay their Project or just the exterior portion of it, so Chair Christensen and authority members, it would not delay them from doing any sort of strictly interior construction work, um, but anything on the interior that

00:23:17,230	would be uh necessary to work in conjunction with that exterior portion that could cause some issues if we are upholding the guidelines for design review. Is there a representative of Jo Mo House here today or not? I do not believe there is. I spoke with him.

00:23:35,600	Along with some members of our building inspection staff in a meeting on Tuesday. There was. Some, um, Explanation that yes, not all of this would be done, but there is at least some of these changes that would likely happen, for example, and I, I apologize for not having the image showing this, but on one of their building plans, they, you can

00:23:55,700	sort of see on the existing image there’s actually 3 doors there at the moment. They are proposing to remove the middle door, which is shown more or less in the rendering, so they are proposing that at least the rest of the changes, it is uh. perhaps a little unclear at this time how far that goes.

00:24:16,030	So Joe Mr. Chair, I don’t, I don’t remember seeing them other than the interior and what we improve like. It’s pretty frustrating to approve design without a design to approve. And we’ve gone this a few times where, you know, we wanna, we don’t want to delay a project. Uh, unnecessarily, uh, but that’s why we’re here.

00:24:39,000	We do, we need to approve the design, so my, my opinion would be, yeah, give us a design to look at and approve and bring it here. OK, everybody’s clear on that, Dustin, and you want to weigh in at all? Or maybe I, I’m good with that.

00:24:57,630	I, I think if David thinks that it needs to come back to us. Then go with it, but otherwise let them take care of it. And I’ll just recap my kind of recollection of. That this was not a design review application when it first was approved cause it was represented as we’re just gonna paint some stuff on the outside, so, um.

00:25:19,030	So if that remains the scope and if the direction is if it’s just paint then. Staff can approve it. I think it’s unclear at this point whether or not that there is more to it than that, um. But I think if it is, there is more to it than that, then that’s where it needs to come back.

00:25:34,030	We can hopefully get that on the next month’s agenda, hopefully. Any motion? Um, no. OK. discretion of the authority to the next meeting, speaking for myself. I like it’s quite an improvement over what what’s there all right, all right, um, so that item will be continued to the next meeting. Thank you.

00:26:00,200	Anything else anybody else have any other business? I see other folks in the audience. Is there anybody that wishes to add anything to the meeting today? If not, And if there’s no objection, we stand adjourned until August 8th. Thank you,