Redevelopment Commission - Regular Meeting

evening. Welcome to the City of Charleston Center Redevelopment Commission for Tuesday, July 1st, 2025. Please note that this uh recording is being streamed by Under Production Multimedia this evening. So, everyone would please Begin the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Do a roll call vote. Determine form. Bonita B here. Bobby Brooks here.

John Spencer here. Eaton is absent and Derrick Holmes is also present. We do have a quorum. First item up this evening is we have a presentation by Todd Paxton with 1210 Market Street. Todd, welcome Todd. Oh, thank you. Good evening. Todd Paxton. I'm one of the members of 1210 Market LLC. We purchased this property. I believe I sent pictures. pictures and they're probably the next page on that. Yeah, they and they have that.

Got it. One. There we go. Um, former residents backs up. Is that the American Legion? American Legion. American Legion across from JC. Uh, potential development coming in across the street.

One of the first commercial properties as you enter town there on this side of the uh, school property. Lot of parking in the back, about 12 spots. and we purchased this property. It's been sitting for maybe a decade. I don't know. Mike Sandber used to own this for a very long time. And Mike's just a good dear friend. He said, "Please do something with this." And we worked the deal out. I think it was January. We're like, initially we wanted to move our office in there for real estate uh team, real estate sales team to which we've since made some changes internally. And now our office today was in our first day in Jeffersonville. So I'll take free rent uh when it comes to that. So this building about 1,200 square feet with a basement about 900 feet basement, some crawl space, but what we're looking to do is uh deploy about 70 to $80,000 of capital into this. We've gutted the inside. We just ripped out all the wiring. It's going to need new uh wiring as well. So we're asking for the facade grant uh to assist with windows and roof that uh our windows have been ordered. Uh roofing and new doors. We're going to make the doors 36 in wide for handicap. The plan is to pour a concrete ramp on the front to make it handicap accessible for more businesses to drive here in Charleston because, as you know, uh there aren't many commercial spots available. Uh just today, I had two offices reach out looking for office space here in our town and they like to be within the the main strip here. So, that's what we're looking to do. Uh deploy uh or market this to uh businesses uh to to come back to Charleston. Happy to answer any questions. And thank you for hearing this.

What was in there when Mike had was that the building with the tax office at one point in time or cat was in there for a cat? I've never go to the property. I've never gone to the property to the studs. Okay. This one we did. I don't know. I don't I mean I should remember tax. I'm not sure. Yeah. But something with that parking lot in the back. They had to something. Have you got any interest so far in the subject property?

Yeah, two I talked to a concrete company today that wants to have office space. I don't know if a couple locations here on the square are suitable enough for would be suitable for office personnel but maybe not a truck or two. Um and then another real estate kind of investment fund. So, and that is with zero marketing, minimal marketing and with rent rates continuing to rise and we're seeing $30 a square foot in in the ballpark. So, down there we would be, you know, half of that. So, that make it affordable for a business as well, whether it's an upstart, a franchise or, you know, somewhere in between.

Did you say how many square feet is this facility? 1,200 on the main level, call it 800 in the basement, but that's just for mechanics. Yeah.

Would you be opposed to a sign or signage in the front that's facing Market Street for their property for a potential ten? That's the plan. Who, you know, okay, ABC, right? But let's get a plan together, get the property usable, and then when it comes to staging and marketing that last 30 days and tenant procurement, we'll have that marketing up front. Absolutely. Whatever that looks like. I would like ideally uh to the to the left of the picture. You can see some trees there. Um we'll reach out to Duke and see if they can clear up some of the pole to pole uh trees that they have blocking the view. right now a sign wouldn't be quite as visible coming from uh the hospital end of town um just because of the overgrowth of trees there. Absolutely. Yes.

And as you know it made it to your package because Todd submitted to the city. Tony reviewed it. Tony Jackson reviewed it. Planning office sent it to our office. We reviewed it to make sure that it complied with your policies related to the facade grant and it does. So, um, Mr. Paxton is asking that you would award a grant for up to $10,000 or 50% of what he actually expends and submits that information to us for reimbursement. It was around 21 something just for this. Yes.

Roof, roof and windows. I'm not sure if doors were included. Doors were not on here. We added doors later. Okay. Down spouts and windows. Yeah. Gutters, spouts, roof, and windows. Yes, ma'am.

Which that puts you over the amount that you can get. So, it's great that you can add doors, too. I mean, I think that it's a place that, as we know, has been sitting there a long time without any real uh any aesthetic benefit for Charles Town. So, if if we can clean it up and and make it look better, we being Todd company, I I think it makes sense to to invest a little facade money in it. I mean,

that's that's my take on it. I agree. I like it as well, especially have an ADA compliant ramp installed. It's a lot of, as you can see there, there's going to be a lot of concrete. We've got, we believe we have the right company to handle all that. I think that's important. I mean, I had in my H&R block for this building originally. Like that that's not a big space. They just need a two or three offices and restroom, kitchen, reception. That that would work well. And then as those thoughts come about like there's a lot more of these service type businesses that whether it's a franchise or local there lot of possibility for the right person right business to come in.

I make a motion we I was going to ask for a motion. I make a motion we approve the facility grant for uh the up to $10,000 as it complies with Todd's request in the packet. Motion by John. Is there a second? Second, second by Bobby. Is there any further discussion? Ask for a vote to approve. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Passes. Thank you, Todd. Thanks, T. Thanks for coming. Thanks a lot. Appreciate your last time.

Moving on to the approval of the minutes. You provided a copy from the June 3rd, 2025 meeting. Ask for a motion to approve the minutes. I'll make that motion to approve the minutes. Have a motion. Oh, second by John. Any further discussion? Ask for a vote to approve. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Motion passes. Next item is claims. Provide a copy of the claims for the previous month. And Jill has one addition to add to those claims for an invoice from HWC Engineering. for the amount of

4,900 4,900 and that is um an invoice for the FAP master plan that they're under contract to do. Make a motion we approve the claims. I'll second

with the addition motion in a second. There any further discussion? Ask for a vote to approve. All those in favor, please say I. I. Is there anyone sign signed up for public comment? No one signed up for public comment. Uh brings us to the next item, the consult report from the weekly group. I'll highlight a couple things. If you all have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them. um the comprehensive plan just to give you an update on that. I know that the the team attended founders week on a Friday night at the family fund night and seemed to have gotten some good input from that. So that's good. The second steering committee meeting is August 6th um in the afternoon here to kind of go over some of the public comments and such. Um there's also I think a a survey that they're going to uh do. So um we get you some information on that and to help promote people you know responding to that online survey. Um and then as you may have noticed in your uh claims docket um last year the commission participated in uh giving some funding to the summer works program and so that was in there again this year and I know the city has utilized that program. Uh mayor if I may ask you how many interns do you have? I've met one of them uh through that program.

I want to say right now this summer we have about eight or nine. Um, I know we have one with our media director, one with wastewater. She's um, they love her. She actually chose our wastewater department is what she chose because she's going to be a civil engineering department at UML. She might get a head start in that. Um, we've got, I think, three out with our landscape team, our grounds team. There are two or three over in the parks department and then there are I think one or two out doing our storm water survey documenting where all of our storm water um lines are and drains. So got quite a few. You also got your um first installment of tip revenue which was a little bit more than $1.5 million if you noticed that in your fund report. So So that's good. Does anyone have any questions?

No. Good reports. Thank you, Joe. Uh, old business. First item for old business is we have the High Street High Jackson Road Parkway. Is that roundabout? Yes, I got that. Sorry. My apologies. I had the wrong street. So we have uh Andy from uh United Consulting here to give a presentation of where we where they are in that process and then we'll talk about uh next steps. Welcome Andy.

Thank you guys. Yep. I'm Andy Alson. I am a project manager here at United Consulting. Uh we are a civil engineering firm up in Indianapolis who are contracted to design this roundabout at H Highjacks and Christian Parkway. Um I brought with me Jeremy Richardson back there. He's our vice president and department manager as well. So the big guns, somebody to keep an eye on me down here. But next slide, please. Uh just I I brought a map here to show you exactly where that roundabout is. Um it is going to be between uh some some development there. There's a shadow connection there on the northwest side uh and it connects to the recently constructed Christianity Parkway on the southeast and then Hij Jackson Road there runs southwest to northeast. So we will include four legs of this roundabout. The fourth being that stub that will go northwest towards future development as it comes. So, uh, I included a preliminary layout there that we had we had, uh, sketched up there. Um, just to kind of give you guys an idea of what that looks like from an aerial. The the Christian Parkway Road is is not constructed in the aerial, but uh, we do have, obviously, it is constructed now. Um, so that that is approximately where that is. Uh to give you a quick status update here, the preliminary plans are approximately 50% complete. Um and so what that means is we've got like line and grade established. So we've got basically the the layout of the roundabout um laid out on on paper. We've also established the elevation, the profile of the roadway. Uh we were asked to include a uh vertical correction on the hijaction. If you've been out there, you might have noticed it goes up and down quite a bit there. And uh there's a bit of a sight distance issue. Uh so if you're coming up over the hill a little too fast, you might

you might have an issue seeing what's on the other side of it. So we've actually included a cut of approximately 5T in that location. So the road will be about 5T lower than it currently is. Um that means Christianity Parkway also will be lowered down to to meet that as well. Um obviously we've got the roundabout laid out. I've mentioned that already. Uh we've centered that on the intersection trying to reduce our impacts to the adjacent parcels. Um the uh expectation is that the land will be donated from the developers. Um we've worked through the drainage concept. Uh and I what I mean by that is that we have an idea of where we're where we're planning on taking the water. We've coordinated a little bit with with Josh Shelman there to who's running some of the development out there um to talk about where to take the drainage. Um and on that note, I've got another exhibit here. Oh, this exhibit shows you the uh difference in profile grade. Um that's just a snippet from our plans to try and give you an idea of of scale there that we're about 5T lower than the existing is. And one more. So, here's a drainage uh exhibit that I prepared for you to just kind of show, hey, we're taking all the water in the each quadrant and and continuing the existing pattern that's already out there. So, we're not making any changes to it. We'll be capturing the water in the curb and gutter and then piping it out to roadside ditches and then letting it perpetuate perpetuate uh the existing pattern. So, there are existing culverts crossing hijacks on the southwest and northeast of the project. uh we will not be making any modifications to those. But I did want to mention that the uh culvert in the southwest corner there uh is I'd say underperforming. It's a little challenged in the existing condition. So it's something to keep an eye on in the future as as the development continues in this area. You may need to uh

investigate doing some detention and and there's plenty of area to do it on either quadrant of this roundabout as well. uh the souththeast northwest corners in particular have plenty of room to do something like that. Um I just wanted to bring that to the attention of the committee here. So one more please shows the existing culverts. Uh we we've began our utility coordination as well for this construction project. Uh that means we've we've sent out initial notice letters to the utilities as well as verification letters just to say hey we know you're out there. Just wanted to confirm, you know, you're out there as well. Uh, we began our early coordination with Clark County RMC who will have, I think, two or three overhead pools that we'll have to relocate as part of this project. And the number you were probably most excited to see, our estimated construction cost is right at $3.1 million for this preliminary stage. So, I have another slide on there. Uh, I've included our next steps moving forward here. Like I said, this is our preliminary plan, so we're at about 50%. Um, the stages that we're looking at next would be continuing our state environmental documentation. Um, so summarizing potential impacts to wetlands or streams, anything you may have in the area, we we'll take a look at that. We'd like to continue our geotechnical investigation as well. That will really help identify how much rock is in the area. uh it we have to account for that because it's a different um pay item. It's a little bit more expensive to excavate that rock if it's out there and I know there's plenty of it out here. Um and then also we'd like to continue our utility coordination as well. Uh that means identifying where the conflicts are. We've already identified some of them with the RMC and developing a work plan to make sure they are out of the way when it comes time to actually do the construction. So, those

are the next steps that we're going to be having in these projects. So, any questions or applause? You sent that you sent that out to us, right? We had it. You sent that out to us in advance. I did. Um, well, yes, I sent it out yesterday.

Just to kind of get you up to speed. So, uh, do have an agreement with United for the complete design of this project. it's broken out in phases and so uh due to circumstances outside of the city's control anyone at city um I think we had initially anticipated paying for this out maybe community crossings money which has been changed somewhat during the last um during the last uh budget session

and so not exactly sure right now where we can get that money that we're going to need. Um, and but there's also a point as Andy said that there's already work ongoing that would be good to finish that work and not have to start over. Some of this like the environmental you would have if we don't finish it the way we're going now, then we would have to start over. Pay for that again? I'm assuming. Yes,

I'm assuming I have to pay for that again. Um, so, uh, I've asked them asked Andy and Jeremy and Bob to get me an estimate of what can we do to move these things forward to get additional information without expending money that we're going to have to expend again later. And so they gave me a total of about $35,000, which are elements within the phase two of their budget in their contract. Uh that includes it finishing out the environmental the geotech that we talked about and then finalizing utility coordination especially the environmental utility coordination once you start you need to finish that or then you have to start over. So um we don't want to stop the progression of the project but we also don't want to move forward if we're not sure where we're going to get that money and hopefully in the next few months we'll have a better idea. So, this will allow us to maybe get to the point where we can find out if we can get the rest of the money.

I I think it'll get us to the point to where we won't have to redo anything that's already been done uh and finalize some of the things that were started in phase one. Uh which once we finalize the environmental, I'm just going to look at you and tell me if I'm wrong. Once we finalize environmental, unless you drastically change the design, then that's finished and we can move forward from there. The geotech will help inform what else needs to be done as part of the design and the utility coordination. Get that all nailed down. Unless we have to do something drastic again and go outside of that, then that will be done. Won't have to go back and do it again. So any delay would just more likely affect the cost. Right.

All right. And I would just I would just add on that the environmental documentation. You don't want to sit on this for about 10 years either. There's a there's a duration there that those things expire as well. So I don't know, right? And and I don't think anybody's intention is to sit on it that long. We don't are not without if we did move forward with all of phase two, then that's money that you're spending without knowing if we can move forward with the construction.

But these are things that are advantageous to get to a stopping point so that we don't have to do anything. So, I guess we're looking for a motion to approve the approximately $35,000. How do we want to do we want to word that as 35,000? And then phase two of the design, I think, is what Joel alluded to. So, you could do you could make a motion to approve uh phase two um of United Consulting's design in an amount not to exceed 35,000. Okay. I make a motion to complete phase two of United Consulting's project and not to exceed $35,000. Have a motion by John. Is there a second?

I'll second. Second by Medina. Any further discussion? No further discussion. I'll ask for a vote to approve. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Motion passes. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thanks, folks.

Thanks for the update. Appreciate it. Next item, little business is 501 Market Street demolition and parking lot construction. Um, I think last uh last meeting I handed out kind of a schematic of what the parking lot might look like. That's not been finalized. John, I don't think you saw that. I don't know if I sent it to you. So, I got here. Sorry. and I can send it out again. Um, it's not finalized. There's some tweaking that that we need to do uh on that, especially in those hard landscape areas from the corners. Um, but what I'd like to do because we have a a a specific time that we need to get this done within now, July 1st and October 1st. Um so and at one of our subsequent meetings that we decided to put those together those projects together both the demo of the building and then the construction of the parking lot. Um American Structure Point is who you've hired to do specifications for that project. Uh they said it would we can do it in that time frame if we start in this month. So, what I would like to do is just ask for your authorization to advertise for bids. Once they have everything ready, I'll send it to you all for review. I don't want to put anything out the bid that no one's seen, but I also don't want to wait until the August meeting to get that started because we'll need to advertise for bids, receive the bids, and get people started on that. So, um that was my objective tonight is is that you would give me an authorization to advertise for bids. Ask for a motion to approve the authorization of the advertising for bids for 501 market street. Make a motion.

Motion a second. Is there any further discussion? For a vote to approve. All those in favor, please say I. I.

I. Motion passes. Thank you. Last item of old business. We have the Madison Street Green Alley improvement authorization to advertise for events as well. It's somewhat the same situation. We're not under the same time frame. Uh and the time frame for the other project, by the way, was just in the time period that city's not having events that might need to utilize that parking lot. So, this is the sweet spot right now where we don't have to use where you don't have to use the parking lot. Um in Madison Street and Green Alley, um the same situation. The plans have been prepared. Um, actually Matt has reviewed bid specifications. So, uh, I would like to talk to HMBB a little bit further about the plans they sent out. Um, just to make sure that we're all on the same page, uh, but not wanting to wait until the August meeting to advertise for bids if we are at the point where everybody agrees there. I think as far as Madison Street and Green Alley, we have the u buyin of the residents on both streets for the design that's been done. So that was an important piece of that as well.

I want to make a motion we authorize putting out for bid the project green alley Madison Street. We have a motion by John. Is there a second? Second. Second by Bobby. Any further discussion? I ask our vote to approve. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Motion passes. Moving on to new business. We have a Shadow Lake lighting agreement.

We've talked about this on and off. Um and Ross Brown Todd prepared an agreement that would be between was in your packet that would be between the redevelopment commission, the Board of Public Works, and then the Shadow Lake Development Association. Um what I would like to do is get the uh redevelopment commission's approval in the dollar amount that we would commit to paying for those lights on these papers. Do you want to look at mine?

I got it here. I just didn't have it. I thought I did. Here it is. So, u Thank you, Matt. $133,827 was the estimate from the RMC to provide the lighting that was laid out in the um laid out in what I sent to you, which is along uh Christianity or Shadow Lake Drive. U and then from 62 all the way out Christianity Parkway as well as that might be it. And the reason that cuts off where it does so it is from from what the public rideway is going to be uh somewhat short of where the roundabout is there on Shatter Lake Drive. It's the intention of um that developer to turn all that over and that would be public right away. Um as well as then from the roundabout to highway 62 at Christian Parkway and then from Christian Parkway to High Jackson. Anything to the right of that on Quality Court is a different electric service. That's Duke.

And they uh have at least indicated that they don't want to look at those lights until development starts on that side. So once development starts on that side then we can uh request uh information from them on how much that might cost and whatnot. Now, the commission, while the commission can use tiff money to pay for the installation of the lights, you can't use your tip money to pay for the lights, the ongoing maintenance, and the utility bill for that. That's why the board of public works has been lifted. Matt's dying, I'm sure, to do that. So, I'm sorry all over here. But um but you cannot pay for that. It's why the board of works is is involved. Um and they can uh put in place the mechanisms to collect that money to pay for that or I think the agreement says that they will build that to the shadow lake development association.

Yeah. So basically um redevelop commission can pay to finance public improvements which these street lights certainly are but um you all cannot pay for or use tiff revenues to pay for um operating or maintenance expenses. So, I guess what I'm asking for the commission to do if you feel comfortable is to um agree to the the dollar amount as was stated in the estimate. The redevelopment commission would pay for that. Um with that, then we can start filling in the blanks of that agreement and then take it to the other uh bodies as well. Each uh group uh parall has reviewed this already before it came to you on behalf of the board of public works. The Shadow Lake Development Association has also reviewed it and given us their feedback. Um, and so all of those things uh are incorporated in the agreement that was sent to you.

You know, was broken down into three phases. Do you think all three phases will be done at one time or I haven't had that discussion with anyone, Derek, but will. My thought is it probably will as long as those lights won't be in conflict with anything else that might be going on. Uh I'm thinking more of Christianity Parkway from the roundabout to Jackson. I think everything else there from 62 then Christian on Christian Parkway the roundabout Shadow Lake Drive is pretty much set. But I will ask that question. I don't know the answer to that question.

So the figure in that part A of the installation of street lights, did you repeat that amount? You said 131 133 827 and that's just adding all those three sections together in that estimate from that email. I would like to comment on that that we talked about that um today and you know that by the time See that is an estimate. So it could be less, it could be more. I hope that it's less. So that is an estimate.

So the so the agreement though So if we make a motion with that amount and approve it, any additional amount would have to be approved or are we saying that the the amount could exceed 133827? From the way that I understand, the commission says this is how much we will pay for those lights. Okay. If the commission if the cost exceeds that, then either the board of works or the development association picks up the difference. That's what I read in there.

Yeah. So, if the commission's intent is to pay for the installation of lights, whether it's less or more, say it was $150,000, then uh just to get your thoughts on what what you would like to do. I guess if it is more than whether you would want to pay or if there's a maximum amount that you would like to pay for those lights, then at least we can get that and get that settled and then work that out through the process. But if but if we stay here, if we approve an amount 133827 and I know this goes forward then the agreement goes forward to try to get everyone else's buy in.

For whatever reason, that's exorbitantly more, you know, We say, "Okay, so it's 200,000 parts of Yeah. $200,000." And we say, "Okay, we want to help with that because we can we can amend this." Yeah. Okay. So, so there's no risk. There's no risk. I mean, I may slow down a little bit the process, but there's no risk in saying this is how much we will commit for, no more now, but but we can reinvestigate. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that was the possibility. So, I make a motion that we uh approve paying $133,827 uh for the installation of the street lights as is projected at the moment. We have a motion by John. Is there a second? Second.

Second by Bobby. Any further discussion? Ask for a vote to approve. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Motion passes. Thank you, everyone. Jill, um, do you also want them to make a motion to approve the substantially final form of the lighting agreement? Um, or do you expect this to go before the redevelopment commission again? Um, whatever you suggest, Matt. I don't expect it to come back since they're the big question, I think, is how much each entity was going to have to pay. And so I guess my question is do we execute this prior to uh getting the I'm assuming we would execute it prior to see installing the lights.

Uh yes. So yes, whatever you think is best. So I think I I would also recommend that um a motion be made to approve the substantially final form of the shadow lake lighting agreement. Do we also give the authority to execute it outside of a meeting? Yeah, I recommend that be also part of the motion. I've got it. That's it. Ask for a motion to approve what Matt described. Nice. Is that specific enough? That works. Okay. Oh, it's all recorded.

Have a motion by Bobby. Is there a second? I'll second it. Second by bonita. Any further discussion? Ask for a vote to approve. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Motion passes. Thank you again. Is there any further discussion this evening? I make a motion wejourn. No further discussion. We'll ask for a motion to adjourn by first by John. Second. I'll second. Second by Anita. All those in favor, please say I. I. Thank you. Please sign.