00:00:07,000	All right, good morning, everybody. um, today is the appointed time and place for the Bismarck Parking Authorities may 2025 meeting. I see that we have a quorum present. So we would open the meeting with consideration of the minutes of the April 10th, 2025 meeting. He changes corrections, comments.

00:00:30,130	If not, is there a motion to approve in the minutes or second. Second by Jake on favor, that motion carries. We’ll move on to the regular agenda, starting with the financial statements. And typically we ask management if there’s anything. Extraordinary or unusual, they’d like to point out and then uh see if the members have any questions of management, Jeremy. Yeah, Mr.

00:00:54,630	Chair, authority board members, um. So April financials here just to um to note that your to date amount on our total income, we are off, um, slightly off under budget, about 2% on total amount, um, that’s mostly used, uh, because of, uh, user volume, uh, decrease at the, um.

00:01:19,130	3rd Street, surface lot, and then some user, um, decrease at 3rd Street ramp, uh, some of the federal agencies have with their cutbacks had, uh, reduced, I guess, uh, some monthly employees there.

00:01:35,730	So, uh, so not substantial, but just keeping an eye on that and I think through the year, uh, that’ll even out, uh, just with increased user base, especially a 6th Street ramp, uh, and, uh, Galleria and arcades, so, um. Nothing, uh, overly uh substantial or off on the expense side of things, uh, item to note on your insurance, you’ll notice a negative amount there that is the, uh, confirmment refund, uh, from ENERF, um.

00:01:57,370	And then our reserve account. 2,962,876, uh, and that combined with our checking, we have 297,440 in in checking, so total operating balance 3,260,000. 316. Thank you, Jeremy. Any questions? Anybody have any questions? Slowly but surely, on our way to pay for cash for the next ramp, right? Keep it up. 3, 260. That’s good.

00:02:32,830	Um, I, well, I guess we’d, we needed a motion to approve the financials, please. proof. Is there a second? a second. All right, moved and seconded. Any further discussion? If not, call the roll, please, Sue. John, Josh Todd? Yes. Jake? Yes.

00:02:57,900	Jim? Yes, the motion carries her on to item 3, which is an update on parque Repairs timeline. Jeremy. Oh, yep, Mr. Chair, the 34 members, um, been in communication with, uh, restoration systems of Minneapolis, um, we have a pre-construction meeting on site scheduled for May 20th, um, their construction timeline, um, is they would like to start the beginning first week of June and they’ve allotted themselves

00:03:21,470	a 2 month time span for the entire project. I don’t think it’ll take that long, but they’ve built in, uh, some residual there in case if there was any hiccups.

00:03:37,530	Um, so completion by mid August, so that’ll be, give us plenty of um leeway and time so we’re not disrupting for street fair in September. OK. Sounds like a plan. Any questions on that item? Are you ready? OK? We’ll move on to item 4.

00:03:59,400	Uh, if you recall at the last meeting we instructed Jeremy and asked him to reach out to local architects, engineers to see if we could get some, uh, Idea what it might cost to have some conceptual drawings prepared of. Potential future parking ramps, not knowing what the site might be for such a parking ramp or ramps. And uh we did receive 3 proposals, um, basically on an hourly basis, if you will, uh, to put together a couple uh architects renderings.

00:04:18,570	And, uh, everybody has a copy, I believe, got them by via email. Um, well, that Jeremy take it, but they just, uh, for the public, the uh, the three proposals, um, we’re kind of all across the board cost wise, uh, JLG architects, uh, proposed, uh, To provide two conceptual site plan studies.

00:04:40,000	For ramp projects locations with a target of 500 stalls, mixed use to confirm pros and cons to optimize the ramp layout functions and flow. And then one concept or rendering from the preferred site plante to build excitement. Um, they estimated it would take them about a month, uh, to put that together and their cost proposal was $200.

00:04:59,200	Lump sum Um Second one was from uh Endeavor North Design, which is Cole Johnson and uh Nate Hacker. Um They had basically the same. proposal was a little bit, thinner, they didn’t specify, I guess the number of conceptual drawings, but I think you asked for two, didn’t you? So, uh, their proposal was a lump sum

00:05:26,000	of $1500. To provide that work. And then the last one was from uh James Devine J2 studio architecture. Um, their fee proposal was not to exceed $6000.

00:05:47,300	Um And that was uh according hourly with a not to exceed fee and expenses would be on top of that, the estimated $500 for printing expenses. Um, and again, the purpose here would just to see what we could be looking for and looking at if we were to actually hire an architect or an engineer that would have to be a totally separate process and go through the. The formal RFP or RFQ. With the city to do that.

00:06:06,370	Jeremy, you want to add anything to my succinct summary there, Mr. Chair board members, so I did reach out to 6 different architectural firms, so we did receive the 3 bids, um, back, and um JLG architects, uh, of course, the lowest bid at, uh,, $200.

00:06:26,370	Um, the way they explained it to me is that they have a, a, a community giveback program, uh, so that’s, uh, the reason for the substantial discount on that, um, and then Endeavor North Design um had mentioned too that their fees. uh, the bid amount lump sum that they gave was a reduced fee from their normal, um, Uh, cost that they would normally bid out.

00:06:45,630	So, um, I think J2 Studios, I think that was, you know, that’s probably more of a market rate, I think, um, and that’s why they’re, you know, of the bids we received were why there was a substantial difference there’s.

00:07:07,730	Questions of Jeremy? Me? Jeremy, when we reached out to the architects, did we define what the selection criteria would be, how we were selecting an architect is it based on uh the fee is it based on a work approach? Is it based on experience? Did we kind of define that for them.

00:07:23,900	Um, I didn’t give any specific parameters as far as, um, like point system or how it would be be decided other than just that if they would give a bid for up to 2 renderings, uh, and just generic renderings, um, and not a specific site plot or specifics uh defined area.

00:07:43,500	And if we were to choose one of these 3 today, it’s no guarantee that they would end up being selected as the architect for a project. Oh We just needed a place to start trying to figure out, wrap our heads around what it would look like to have another 500 car ramp with main floor, uh, commercial. Or Of type space.

00:08:03,300	So is there, is there a reason we’re defining Uh, main floor commercials that something that we want, um. Question that based on the arcade ramp we’re having trouble filling the main floor commercial in that ramp. Are there other are there other solutions that we’re not thinking about, maybe it’s a wrap around commercial use or residential or something like that.

00:08:21,470	I think all those would be open for consideration when we get to that point, yeah. Um And Kate, do you recall, I mean, when, when, uh, when we built the 6th Street ramp, there was discussion about do we or do we not put main floor commercial space in the decision was made not to put main floor commercial space in the 6th

00:08:36,470	Street ramp just because of the location. Across from the Memorial Building and the bell which are not in use during the day, there’s nobody there. we felt it would be difficult to lease out a shoe store or whatever, or any kind of retail in that space.

00:08:51,830	Um, but subsequent to that, and maybe Isak can answer this question as well. Did we modify the downtown plan to require You know? Yeah, Chair Christianson authority members, um, after that 6th Street ramp and, and the 6th Street ramp, we, we kind of wanted to get done quickly as well.

00:09:07,830	I think there was discussion of having some commercial space in it, but the funding mechanism, um. There were some discussions happening around that, so I think we just wanted to get that one done, but then after that, um, all the, the ranch was in the, the downtown district would need some sort of mixed-use component, um.

00:09:22,900	I would say we kind of learned our. Quote unquote learned our lesson from that. It wasn’t always. It was a timeline issue as well, you know, to get that one done, but yeah, so, but it could be, wouldn’t necessarily have to be like main floor commercial.

00:09:38,470	It could be a wrapround or it could be some other kind of mixed use, whatever form it might take. But my question was, and Isak, are you still here? Be behind the column over there. Thank you. Is it, is it laid out in the downtown plan now, the development plan that we have to have an active. Flo and future ramps.

00:09:56,470	So, uh, Christiansen and authority members, there are preferences for ground floor active uses such as retail of particularly along what are called signature streets in in the downtown plans that would be 5th Street and Main Avenue.

00:10:16,170	Um, there have been conversations though about whether or not um requiring it in all locations along there is perhaps the the best use of, of that space or if other options such as uh residential or things like that would be. uh just as beneficial or, or if not more beneficial. So there is some flexibility there, but there’s at least a preference along, uh, those streets. I think we all favor of that.

00:10:32,000	I mean, that’s what most cities do, right? Have Active main floors on their parking structures or hide the parking structures behind the An active so if it was located on Rosa Avenue. would be more likely to be. Required than if it was say a block north of Rosser.

00:10:51,000	Right, I guess it would just it would be location dependent. That, that is correct. It would partially be location dependent based off of like the the Downtown streetscape standards and things like that. OK. Other questions of Isak, anybody while we got him up there? Thank you, Isak and Kate. So I guess uh.

00:11:07,900	The action here today, if you want to do it, would be to select one of these 3 and. Turn them loose for a month and. You know, it’s kind of loosey goosey by Jake’s standards of. Defining it, what their work product is supposed to be, but. Well, maybe another, Route to considers were early in the process and I think um.

00:11:27,800	We should be collecting as many ideas as possible and get as many smart people to the table as possible, um, good, good things come from good ideas. So I, I’m wondering if we select all three of these architects.

00:11:50,170	Have them go through their design exercise as a way to generate an abundance of con concepts, encouraged them to uh. Create some creative concepts, unique ideas, see what they have for concepts.s design professionals are community are thought leaders in our community. I’d love to see what ideas they have. OK.

00:12:07,400	Being or we could set a budget and go back to them and say we will pay X. It could be a design competition where we set a ceiling on it and the one that we select gets paid, however we want to do it, but I’m, I’m kind of in favor when I look at the, the aggregate total of all three of these prices, it’s

00:12:22,870	actually less than what I was anticipating we would pay one consultant. Um-hum. So, I was, uh, appreciate the, the reduced fee that I think even J2 Studio provided, I think all three of the firms provided a fair price.

00:12:43,630	It might be difficult to agree to pay all three what they proposed, the, the lower two might say, wait a minute. Um But maybe we look at a, at a budget. Of X I mean, I, I like your approach of getting more, more input from more intelligent people on the topic, um. And we don’t have to do anything if we don’t want to.

00:13:02,570	I mean this, this just came up as a discussion last month. Uh, the, the mayor’s Uh, parking ramp task force for lack of a better word, meets tomorrow and, uh, we’ll be discussing this topic there, I’m sure.

00:13:25,770	Um And at that, at that committee level, we have received Quite a bit of input and feedback from uh large general contractors that build parking ramps on costs. Again, not knowing where or what the site’s going to be, you know, just to give us an idea for a budget. Uh, Precast versus cast in place.

00:13:42,770	Um So I, you know, I guess I’m open to, uh, To Jake’s idea, but I think we need to level at some level the playing field if we do that and make it fair to the. We go back and say, Up to $2000 per each or something like that.

00:14:03,100	What will you, what, what can we get? is that Reasonable approach or we’re going to get anything? We know we’re gonna get a couple of proposals. Thoughts, so this would be off that topic, but what is the with the mayor here in attendance today, what is the thought process of the city being. A landlord.

00:14:26,630	And Being in competition with our building owners for tenant space. What is the city’s? thought process on that. I, i.e., the parque, which dates to 1969. There was quite a bit of controversy then to be competition. But Think we have to look at what The aesthetics are. And that’s probably more important than.

00:14:50,200	For the city then Whether or not we’re competition directly. Honestly, We’re not gonna, by doing something with some kind of space, whether it’s retail or residential, it could be apartments, frankly. Uh, I don’t know that many people would want made for apartments in downtown Bismarck, but they might.

00:15:13,670	I think, I think the city is more about the aesthetics, what the, the ramp is going to look like and how it will fit. We’re not gonna, it’s not gonna add that much space. In office space, trust me, there is an abundance of office space right now in the city. I personally I’m in a building that’s probably got somewhere on.

00:15:34,470	45,000 square feet still available on it? But it’s a good question. It’s a valid question. And as I said, um, that was a big issue in 1969, 1970 when the arcade was built. Um There were other issues as well. They created a special taxing district district. I think it’s mostly about the aesthetics.

00:15:52,030	I think it’d be nice to have something on the main floor that didn’t look like a parking ramp. But I don’t think the city wants to be in competition with private industry necessarily. It just Maybe it’s the Just as the nature of the beast in it. OK. Thank you, Mayor, for the input. I think everybody agrees.

00:16:13,730	Aesthetics are important to these big structures. Other questions or thoughts could we the picture renderings till after the committee meeting. Sure, and then that would give a little more input from that and then we can make a decision here. Yeah. Cause I think if I speak for the task force.

00:16:30,100	The task force would like to get moving on this. True. And so, You know, I don’t, I like Jake’s thoughts. My recommendation would be to say. $500. is what we pay to whoever of the three of you is willing to put A room rooms forward, that probably, you could go to 1500, you could take the middle bit and say that’s the number.

00:16:55,030	And if you want to be a community participant, you’re gonna jump at it. That probably gets us to that will do it. Good point. OK. You said there were 3 that you sent it up to 6, sent it to 6.3, 3 responded, yeah. OK.

00:17:14,000	I mean, we could send it out to all 6 still. I, I like the idea of extra input from. Guys have done it before, so I think it’s very smart, so. Well We sent it to 6 and got 50% response. So we go back to all 6 and say we have a budget of $1500.

00:17:35,230	For one or for all 6, I, I guess I’m. I don’t think you’re talking about enough money here to break the bank. Right. One way or the other. I would be inclined to say you got 3 responses, so say to those three, we’ll pay each of you $1500 provide us two renderings.

00:17:54,500	If you don’t want to for $1500 that’s why it’s their choice, right? OK. I think that’s where Jake was headed anyway, in the concept. I mean, I don’t, I get it, we could probably afford the entirety of the budget. You could probably, well, I don’t know that I would want to say we’d give each of them 6 grand. I think that might be. Re.

00:18:10,400	I’d be, I’d be fine with the $1500 concept. I’m sure the folks at JLG would be smiling. I just made an extra $1300 but so be it. We do. I’ll make that motion to authorize Jeremy too. Uh Solicit two drawings for a maximum of $1500 all three respondents. Is there a second? No second. John Seed it.

00:18:39,100	Further discussion. All right, Mr. Chair, if I may interject is so is the motion just only these three or should I reach out to all 6, just the 3. If the others weren’t interested. They may not have capacity. Yeah, true. There’s a lot, a lot going on out there.

00:19:02,530	If I may, Chair, too, this might change the conversation a little bit, but I, so, um, one of them did actually I put a deadline of May 5th, uh, a day later, I did receive a late. Inquiry saying, did I miss the deadline? Sorry, I didn’t respond earlier, so there was one other one that may have been interested, so.

00:19:20,370	But I only received the 3 bids. I think, I think the 3. Um, I think they’re all adequately qualified and Some of them, in the case of J2, they designed the 6th Street ramp and JLG has extensive experience around the state with raps, so.

00:19:42,870	I’m not sure about need and coal, but they’re all qualified, so I’d go with the 3 that responded. Like that was your emotion. OK. Further discussion? Um, I, I’m wondering if we could. Provide additional design direction for these folks, um, you know, we talked about that ground floor commercial.

00:20:05,570	Do we take that out of the requirement and, and then just encourage them to come up with ideas or How do we wanna handle that? I, I think. Design professionals like direction a little bit of uh parameters, and we also wanna make sure that when we receive these concepts from each of them, it’s sort of an apples to apples comparison.

00:20:22,730	So do we need to refine the scope a little bit of, of work. Isak? Isak probably has some city guideline input, so, uh, uh, Chair Christiansen and the 30 members, I just have one thing to add as far as the ground floor uh retail, I double checked the ordinance, which is why I have my laptop with me here, uh, and it does say that

00:20:40,830	ground floor of multi-level commercial parking structures shall have retail sales and services when they are located along signature streets such as Fifth Street between Kirkwood Mall and Avenue A and Main Avenue between Washington Street and 7th Street.

00:21:03,230	So along those Streets it currently says that you know they shall have it, uh, other streets, you know, optional, optional. Why don’t we, why don’t we have the, the response that goes back to these three, say, uh, in accordance with section, whatever it is you just quoted as the Downtown section 14.

00:21:20,930	Uh, I can get let Jeremy know exactly, but I will also note just so that everyone is aware in case you are not already that the city is in the process of redoing our zoning ordinance from the ground up, so it’s possible that this will change, uh, it’s not anticipated to be done until maybe December of this year.

00:21:38,100	So depending on the timeline of this, they could be you’re talking 30 to 60 days here, so you know. Well. But in terms of when work would get started on an actual structure, it could be possible that they would be under the new rules and not the current rules, can’t guarantee the new rules would not require ground floor retail or things like that, but trying to make the, make it

00:21:53,470	clear that it’s possible the rules might change and we can encourage them to use their imagination too, I mean, to give us some ideas. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re not, you know. And with the caveat, I mean, subject to the, the downtown guidelines.

00:22:08,470	And that this is whoever we select is not guaranteed that they’re going to become the architect of record for a project. You should make that clear. That we have to go through the formal process for that, OK. Good discussion. Anything else? If not, call the roll, please, Sue. John, Josh. Todd? Yes. Jake? Yes.

00:22:28,170	Jim? Yes, that motion carries other business, item 5, other business ate from the Downtowners and the park board and the Renaissance Zone Authority. I’m tired already. The Golf Association members, Chair Christiansen, yeah, just a couple quick updates and especially for Todd, so Todd, I, uh, walked around with the traffic engineer.

00:22:53,200	Do a bunch of things yesterday, but I did ask about 3rd Street. The majority of that project is gonna be, um, that construction project on 3rd Street south of Main Avenue is going to be a panel, concrete panel replacements, so it’s not the full surface, it’ll be the chunks on the panels that they’ll be replacing and then um some ADA

00:23:10,470	curbcut situations, um, and that I think goes all the way to expressway as well, so it’s a big stretch, um, but that’s the project, so I know you’ve asked a couple of times about that, um, I wanted to mention there’s a couple of larger buildings that are under contract.

00:23:25,400	They haven’t been, um, purchased yet, but they are in that due diligence, uh, period, which is great. So um we’re we’re waiting on a couple of those to maybe be finalized, which would be fantastic for downtown, um, Jeremy mentioned the, the, uh, 3rd and Rosser lot.

00:23:42,900	And that’s where Tidal team, I think, was renting quite a few spaces. They’ve obviously purchased. What was the come go location, they’ve taken that building down, um, I think parking there temporarily. They’ve started to um put some renderings together for what, uh, a development on that site would look like. Obvious, they own the building to them.

00:24:00,630	East of that. And so I think they’re going to find a way to kind of combine those two buildings together and get all their people sort of in one location because they’re sort of spread around the community.

00:24:14,170	Um, I will remind everybody, and I will do this until September, that street fair September 12th and 13th. I know it’s a big, um, It’s a lot going on for the parking authority and and happening downtown during that, uh. Event which will be great, um. And then we have Renaissance on authority today.

00:24:33,630	Excuse me, but we’re, we’re seeing a lot of either leases being picked up, um, there’s just been some really good movement in the market for us, um, for downtown. Probably the only thing that is kind of holding us back a little bit. It’s just uncertainty on construction prices and materials right now, um, if you’re doing a new construction project.

00:24:52,300	Lumber, steel, um, It’s just, uh, I don’t know if anybody wants to quite jump in yet until they really know what what it’s gonna be, but the longer they wait too, usually the more expensive it becomes.

00:25:11,000	So there’s a Internal battle with, with some developers, um, looking at spaces, some really good, uh, conversations with some hotel folks, um, that are interested in the community. And then, um, if I’m sure you all watch all of the city commission meetings, but, um, the city commission had a, it is good TV. Um, the city commission has special.

00:25:29,170	Special meeting, um, about the event center, so a lot of things happening there, but you know, one of, one of the things that the city is looking at is, you know, an amenity development, um, either on city property or near city property, um, at the event center. So I think there’s a lot of good discussions that are happening in the background there.

00:25:44,100	Um, so in general, there’s a lot going on, which is, is great, um. We’re, we’re, we’re quite busy. We’re having a lot of inquiries. We’re talking with a lot of developers, um, helping them probably with some. And financing types of things, so it’s been fantastic. It’s been a good few months.

00:26:00,770	Good news as always. Welcome. Questions of Kate while we have her. Anybody? And Jim, you, you got maybe got lucky on your uh lease space space opens next week, uh. Olive oil store at 416 East Main, the former GLG space they’ve been gone for a year, but And the empty, yeah. Yeah.

00:26:20,470	And hoping to hear news, hopefully from across the street on the depot. But I’m not hearing anything, but they’re going to be doing a lot of events out there this summer. I think at least once a month, um, and then some free events. This weekend is the Mac and Cheese Festival.

00:26:33,470	They’ve, they’re going to bring into the downtown. It usually was up at the Community bowl, um, The TR library to, to, yeah to,, so, um in general there’s just been some, some good activity and good energy and anybody any questions for me? I’m happy to answer anything. OK.

00:26:55,830	Do you have a line walk coming up too? June 12th is the walk, um, and then after our next meeting? That is a Thursday, so you should be ready to go? Uh, yeah, we’ll remind you. Um, and then obviously Mother’s Day, we’ve got Sisterhood Saturday, which the boutiques do when we have a progressive flower bouquet, uh, walk this weekend, so you get a stem at each location.

00:27:15,200	It’d be pretty fun. Things are coming back to life. OK, thanks, Kate. Um, other business for the good of the order? Anybody have anything? You think from the Peanut gallery over there? No. Um, if there’s no, if there’s no further business and if there’s no objection, we stand Adjourned until June 12th.