City-County Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening, I'd like to begin the meeting of the Metropolitan Economic Development Committee. My name is Vapa Osele, I serve as chair, and I'd like to ask my colleagues to introduce themselves, starting at my far left.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Derek Cahill, District 23.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Brian Delaney, District 2.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jesse Brown, District 13. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nick Roberts, District 4.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ron Gibson, District 8. Thank you, Chairman Osele. Andy Nielsen, District 14.

Thank you, Chairman Osley. Kristen Jones, District 18.

Thank you, Chairman Osley. Levi Robinson, District 1.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maggie Lewis, District 5.

All right, very good. Let's begin this evening with proposal number 124, which approves an additional appropriation of $42,000 in the 2026 budget of the Marion County Recorder's Office, the County Recorder's Perpetuation Fund, to be used for property fraud and veterans' honors advertisement. We'll begin.

Good evening, thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon or good evening, council members. My name is J.R. Ryder, the Chief Deputy Recorder, Marion County, sitting in proxy today for Recorder Faith Kimbrough. So as you alluded to, last November, November 17th, 2025, we uh there was an ordinance that was adopted so that we would be able to invest a portion of our cash perpetuation fund into an interest bearing trust indiana account in partnership with the marion county treasurer's office that money 100 of that interest money will be used or is being used for advertisements such as billboards, Indigo, bus ads, radio and TV promoting the property fraud and also the veterans honors. So today we're seeking an additional appropriation to increase our 2026 budget by the 42,000 just so we can have physical access to those funds.

Any questions? Thank you. Any questions from members of the committee? Councilor Gibson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Deputy, for being here. And I really appreciate that you guys are doing something to honor veterans as a veteran. I appreciate you doing that and look forward to supporting the proposal.

Thank you. Very good. Any additional questions from members of the committee?

Yes, Councillor Brown. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. So am I correct to understand that this is basically a one-time fee to get you up and running? And then the goal, at least, we never know how interest accounts will do, but the goal would be that it takes care of itself moving forward?

Great question. So the interest, which is about $3,500 a month, equates to $42,000 for the entire year. So we have that money already.

we just need access to it so we have to have an additional appropriation to the budget does that so it's an appropriation meeting it's moving the money for you to access it yes got it so this is an additional taxpayer expense at all got it very good any additional questions from members of the committee seeing none is there anyone in the audience with an interest in proposal number one two four all right seeing no one i'll entertain a motion All right, it's improperly moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. And the motion carries. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is proposal number 127, which directs the city county council to accept for the record the 2026 submission for the 2025 calendar year of the tax increment finance district financial report pursuant to IC 36-7-15.1-36.3. Is there anyone who will be able to speak to this? Please.

Good evening. My name is Jake McVey with the Office of Finance and Management. With me is one of our budget managers, Jenny Carter. I am using the technology to pull up our presentation. So if you bear with us, we'll get started in a second. Does that work?

Good evening, counselors. As Jake noted, I'm Jenny Carter, budget manager with the Office of Finance and Management. I'm here today to present the TIF district financial report for the 2025 calendar year, a copy of which is included in tonight's packet. Before we discuss the annual report, I'd like to briefly provide an overview of what tax increment finance, or TIF, is and how it generates revenue. TIF is an economic development tool that may be used to remove redevelopment obstacles that are not likely to be overcome via normal operations of private enterprise. Examples of these obstacles include a lack of public infrastructure, environmental contamination, and rehabilitation of existing structures. TIF uses increased assessed value or increment generated by redevelopment to pay the cost of removing these obstacles. This slide shows the life cycle of a TIF with the gold color triangle represent the increment generated from the increase in assessed value due to redevelopment. The city receives this increment to pay debt service costs and other expenses related to economic development projects within the TIF area. Units are required to file a report annually with the mayor, the unit's fiscal body, and the Department of Local Government Finance, or DLGF, by April 15th. This report includes financial activity associated with each TIF, along with other pertinent information as required by Indiana Code 36-7-15.1-36-.3. Tonight, I'm here to formally enter this report into the council record. This report includes statistics and summarizes the revenues, expenses, and fund balances of each TIF in 2025. Statistics in this report include the establishment and expiration dates of each TIF, their outstanding debt, and the number of parcels and assessed value associated with each TIF. In total, 51 TIFs were active in Indianapolis in 2025. These TIFs saw revenues of $157 million and expenses of $217 million for a net position change of $60 million. All expenditures, whether debt service payments or one-time transactions, are approved by the Metropolitan Development Commission. This information is also available at the DLGF's Indiana Gateway TIF viewer website. The URL to the viewer is included in today's PowerPoint presentation, which is also included in today's meeting packet. Are there any questions?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question about the reporting of this. I know you have to submit it to the Department of Local Government Finance by April 15th. Is this the normal cadence for when you submit that? I had a couple really ardent constituents who were looking for it to be presented to the council much earlier than this.

To answer your question, yes, this is the normal cadence in terms of our submission. Historically, we would present to the Metropolitan Development Commission in the fall on the full report and a breakdown of the expenses and TIF

tip allocation areas this is the first time in which we're presenting in uh to this committee this report okay thank you one more brief question knowing we have a packed agenda so i noticed looking through that some of the fund balances were negative it seemed like and some were zero so can you briefly talk about like when a tiff drops off the list that's reported and what those negative amounts mean like how that's taken care of

um the negative amounts those are specifically developer-backed bond tiffs and part of the agreement part of that is a timing issue we reserve the subsequent debt service payments but we do not report expected revenue so there's a little bit of a timing issue there secondly in if there is uh not sufficient increment in those bond tiffs our agreement with those developers is that they pay the variance as far as there being zero balances and some there are some tips that are newly created it takes a couple years for increment to be generated others we did have a few tips that are expired have expired recently as well

thanks very much very good any additional questions uh from members of the committee is there anyone in the audience with an interest in proposal number 127. um madam uh council our actions on this needs to be what we just need to accept the report all right It's been moved. Is there a second? All right. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed, nay. All right. Very good. This is very quick. This next item on our agenda is proposal number 164, which approves the statement of benefits for Zima International Inc., an applicant for tax abatement for property located in an economic revitalization area defined by IC 36-7-15.1-26. Is there someone here to speak to this proposal? Thank you.

to get set up. Please. The project, Xenia International is here to present information regarding the proposed project located at 6900 English Avenue. The project is in the Irvington Brookville Road allocation. In accordance with the MDC policy, the city county council must adopt a resolution approving the statement of benefits from the MDC. excuse me, on the request of seven-year tax abatement. The statement of benefits reflects a anticipated investment of 42.8 million in personal property and will create 350 new jobs by end of year 2033 at an above average wage. The project is in District 20, Warren Township, and is supported by Council Hart. We're here to request approval of the SB1, And at this time, I would like to turn this over to Zima, Representative, to provide more information regarding the project.

Thank you. Good to meet you, Mr. Chair, Councilman.

My name is Tom Tate. We'll go through the quick presentation real quick. Go to the next slide. We are Zima International. We do business as Dandy. So you'll hear me talk about Dandy. It's more of a legal entity structure. We are a full service dental lab. So if you've been to the dentist and then you need something made, the dental lab is the company that sits behind it and does the manufacturing. bridges, aligners, dentures, pole dentures, partial dentures, clear aligners, implant systems, etc. We're the manufacturer who supports the dentists in delivering the satisfaction to the patient. My name is Tom Tate. I am the global head of manufacturing, quality, and training. I've been with the company about four years. The company's about six and a half years old. I'm also a native son. I'm laughing because I think I watched moot court be debated in this room. I'm a North Central alumni, so either yay or I'm sorry, depending on who you are. And I'm glad to be here. I'm also here with Jacob. He is a global head of real estate for us, whether it's building a mega factory in Indianapolis or finding new office space for our sales team in London. Jacob leads our real estate efforts globally, and then as well as Amy from Cushman and Vincent from Loft as well to present our proposal. Dandy, as I said, is about six and a half years old. We currently work with about 9,000 and growing dentists all over the world. We average about less than 1% of churn for those practices on an annual basis. In the six and a half years, we've delivered two million smiles. I prefer that than getting into the individual products, which nobody cares about. Including about 100,000 digital dentures for patients who need quick dentures for emergent reasons. We are, in the first three years of our business, we were a network of labs. So we would partner with local manufacturers in country to try to find ways to quickly get the products to the patient. We learned that those labs couldn't grow with us as fast as we need to or deliver the quality that we needed. So then we started insourcing manufacturing. We built two facilities in Utah and then another one in Carrollton, Texas to kind of prove out the insource manufacturing and vertical integration. It has proven out, but it's not, we're kind of full. And so the plan is to invest in what we're calling our gigasite here in Indianapolis as we drive towards massive automation and global scale delivering from Indianapolis all over the world wherever our dentists would need us.

So as Top mentioned, this will be our first fully automated manufacturing facility in our network. It's actually in a park that we are working in partnership with Lauf to build the facility out in. What this facility will position us to do is improve the quality of our product and the time that it takes to actually manufacture and get that product to dentists. We're launching operations. We'll have our TCO hopefully early July and hoping to launch operations this fall. so really speeding towards a finish line there with construction next slide We're not only expanding in Indy, we're expanding globally. So our manufacturing is all domestic, but we're launching in markets on a global scale. So just this year, we've launched in the UK, France, Spain, and Australia. Even since this deck was made, we've added Germany and Italy to our network as well. So looking to expand quite a bit globally, and that will be supported by our domestic manufacturing and the technology that we'll build out in our facility in Indianapolis.

And Ireland as of this morning.

Oh, well.

Ireland as of this morning.

Good evening. So as Tanya said, we're here to request your support with approval of the SB1 that we submitted. Our building is in a TIF allocation district. We are in Councilman Hart's district. We've had some great conversations with him, and in a minute we'll talk about the 5%. where we agreed to allocate that to you but we are in district number 20 in the warren township just a quick note on the address you know this is part of the greater law development so the now that the building is coming online it does have its own address at 429 fin tail drive here in indy

So just a summary of what is on that SB1. So we are investing $42.8 million worth of machinery and IT equipment into that facility. Over the next several years, we'll be adding 350 net new jobs. This is a net new facility for the company, so we'll be staffing from scratch. And the average wage for those positions is just shy of $25 an hour. We are hoping and we are planning for most of the positions to be filled by Marion County residents, so over half should be local folks that will be staffed in this facility. Like I mentioned, this is just a little bit more detail about our ramp, so we won't have 350 folks in the building this year. We'll start with 50, but over the next seven years, we will scale up to 350, adding about 75 heads a year over the next several years. I will not reiterate what Tom said. We are a dental lab. As you know, the three things that I want to touch on are we're headquartered in New York City. We have our headquarters downtown at the World Trade Center. This will be our first manufacturing facility and office space in Indianapolis and the cornerstone of our automated manufacturing initiatives. The company currently has four full-time employees in Indianapolis with an average salary of about 160K, and we only hope to add to that number moving forward. Quick summary of the development details, like I mentioned, Loth is the general contractor that we're working with to build the facility out. In the next three weeks, we'll wrap construction, and we're hoping for that TCO on Monday, July 6th. And then we'll scale and launch our operations over the following months, hoping to have sellable products coming out the door by October of this year.

All right, so bear with me as we go through these. I know I wouldn't be able to read it that far. So when we look at the estimated tax savings over that seven year period, we're at about 1.85 million. The taxes paid during that period would be about 1.35 million. And then the year after the tax abatement expires, we estimate those tax liabilities to be 367,724. And again, this is just on the personal property itself. 5% of that tax savings is 92,628. And the conversation we've had with Councilor Hart is that the first 10,000 of that 92,000 will go to the Cumberland CDC, which will help fund a study on what to do with the asset. The remaining 82,000 will go towards funding improvements and things needed for the Penzey Trail.

So why Indianapolis? Not because I'm from here. It's because we did a detailed search nationwide. It ended up being Tennessee, Louisville, or Indianapolis. And ended up here, one, because of the incredible shipping networks that you guys have, access to both UPS and FedEx. in close proximity, which is very important to us as we try to offer right now five day crowns, but soon to be three day and potentially even overnight. We also have great relationships with the business partners of EmployIndy to try to find key members. And also the high density of talent for medical device manufacturers and engineers in the city were some of the big reasons that brought us here. It's just a high density of talent in the industries for automation that we need to support facility at this level. And so the ask or the need, I'll read this one verbatim, is we respectfully request your approval for a statement of benefits in SB 1 in the amount of 42,800,000 in accordance with Indiana Code 6-1, 1-2, 1-2 subsection K. It is submitted in conjunction with a 2026 year real and personal tax abatement resolution for the Metropolitan Development Commission to project development and TIF allocation area. With that, here's Jacob's contacts and mine as well. And if you have any questions, we'll open it up.

Very good. Questions from councillors? Councillor Nielsen. Thank you, Chairman Ostlie. Thank you all for presenting this. Very familiar with the site as the Brookville, Irmington TIF, actually, allocation area sits in District 14. And actually 97% of the residents who live a half mile radius of your property live in District 14, so very familiar with the site. So I'm going to be honest, I'm a little confused. why we're giving $10,000 to the Cumberland CDC, given that's like four miles from the location that you were building your facility or the facility's being built. And I guess in line with that, I'd love to see how the rest of the 82,628 is being used for improvements in and around the site or for the neighbors who are nearby.

so counselor thank you for the quick i'm sorry thank you for the question um as far as the 82 000 it has been sliding we've been working with dpw specifically adding waterfalls signage for the trail and then also the maintenance and upkeep of the actual trail itself so that 82 000 go goes towards that the 10 000 was a request from counselor hart to um essentially do a study for the blighted area in that area to see what we can do to what can be done to help in that in that area did you have any other information no that that was it just one point it was it the counselor's request and

since we assumed he knew what was best needed that's what we were in agreement no and i understand that mr chairman i can follow up yeah i can understand that i can just say that there are like three cdc's that are physically closer to um the area in question who have been doing some really important work for revitalization on the southeast side of Indianapolis, on the east side, Irvington Community Development Corporation, Southeast Neighborhood Development Corporation, who are isolated in this area, and nothing against excluded cities, but Cumberland's gonna be an excluded city next year, too. um so i would think strategically they would want to use that money for development of the city of cumberland as an excluded city and not as development for um marion county so i appreciate you sharing a little bit more i'd love to hear more on where the money the balance of the money is being spent so that these inclusivity payments are actually in the allocation area or they are nearby to benefit the residents who would be near this development. I think this is a great development, but I do have concerns with the abatement. So thank you for answering the questions. Thank you, Chairman.

Very good. Council Gibson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So this is a personal property abatement, correct?

Correct.

Is there currently a real? There is. Okay, and that's totally with MDC or will it come back to this body as well?

I'm sorry?

Is that before MDC or will it come before this body as well?

I think they are fully approved.

Sorry, Vincent Ash, Loft Development Group. We're located at 10 West Carmel Drive, Carmel, Indiana. We're a developer for this property. For those who, MEDC members who were on the commission last year, we actually approached and got approved for a eight year property tax abatement for the entire site to potentially start building out, well, to start building out spec buildings on the site. Underneath that approval, our goal was to invest about $110 million into four different buildings, this being the first one. And we committed to 200 jobs overall. Hearing from Danny themselves, they already are over committing on that with 350 themselves. And we still have two to three more buildings to build. So from a jobs perspective, the development is far succeeding expectations of what we thought initially. And overall, when you count other companies that are already on the site, like Monarch Beverage, as well as ABF Freight, ABF is not receiving any tax abatements. When the property's fully built out, we'll probably expect over about 1,500 jobs total.

Good. Mr. Ash, correct? Yes. Now, on the real property abatement, is there any exclusivity there as well?

There is an exclusivity abatement. How much? That's about $300,000. So we work with Councilor Hart, one, to support a number of different things. So one, we are supporting the Walker Career Center for talent pipelines and workforce development. There's about $300,000 that's going towards a forest preservation fund, and there's about $50,000 that's actually going towards the study of Washington Square Mall. I don't know the details of what was being discussed with Councilor Hart, but I can imagine, to Councilor Nielsen's question, the $10,000 that he's looking at for blight and redevelopment project is probably along the same lines of the Washington Square Mall, which this Cumberland CDC is the fiscal agent for.

Very good. One more question, Mr. Chairman, if I could. This construction is almost done for this site. My question to you is did you have any MBEs involved in that construction or any union labor?

I don't know I don't know that off the top of my head I have to give my construction team to give you more details but I'm happy to make sure that administration could follow up with that like I would assume we don't perform any of our work we always we sub it out so I could I could get all those details and get those to you but I don't know that off the top of my head sorry I would appreciate if we can get update on it mr. chairman thank you very good any additional questions

Thank you very much, and thanks Mr. Chair. Along those same lines as my colleague, I wanted to ask for these new jobs, average wage looks great. Do you have a minimum wage of any of these new people, and what is your company's stance towards unions?

Minimum wage, do you know, Amy?

So I don't remember off the top of my head, but I know when we were preparing the deck, it asked how many were under 18, and none of ours are under 18. So I don't want to speak out of turn. They're over 18.

That's correct, yeah. What was the second part of the question?

Sorry, yeah, do you support the formation of unions within a workforce?

within our workforce. We don't have any now. I'm not sure if it's a topic that's come up, but happy to if it does, we'll entertain it.

Good. Any additional questions from members of the committee? Seeing none. Is there anyone in the audience with an interest in proposal number 164? Seeing none. Members of the committee? All right. Motion's been properly moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, nay. All right. Hands up with a nay. One, two, three, four, five. What is our tally? What is the tally? Let's do this again. Nays with their hands up, please. That's fine.

Councillor Osley? Councillor Osley? Yes. Yes. Councillor Brown? Councillor Cahill?

Cahill, aye.

Councillor Delaney? Aye. Councillor Jones? Nay. Councillor Evans? Councillor Gibson?

Yes.

Councillor Lewis? Lewis, nay. Councillor Nielsen?

Nielsen, no.

Councillor Roberts?

Aye.

Councillor Robinson?

Nay.

We have five nays and five yeas.

Madam Council. That does not pass. We need a majority to pass.

Very good. Recommendation then.

It doesn't pass.

you can move it forward to the full council with an do not pass or a tie vote recommendation and have the full council vote very good thank you um i want to say thank you and um we'll make that determination thank you thank you all right on the next i'm going to ask from members of the committee as we did at our may meeting i will ask the DMD staff to read all the proposals at one time. And if there are any that any member wishes to call out, that that member call it out for additional questioning at the completion of that. Members of the committee? Do I have consent? All right, very good. So DMD staff, we could begin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. My name is Ashley Miller and I serve as the principal program manager for community development at the Department of Metropolitan Development and oversee the payment in lieu of taxes or pilot program. I'm joined tonight by my colleague, Beth Neville, who is administrator of the Community Investments Division, in which our pilot program is housed. Additionally, developer teams for each project were asked to attend this evening, so they stand at the ready to answer any project specific questions that you may have. Tonight, we will review updates we've made to the pilot program effective with the 2026 application cycle. We'll then walk through an overview of the 2026 pilot projects and discuss what's next for these prospective projects should they receive council support. In your packets, you should have a summary spreadsheet detailing all of the projects under consideration, along with a copy of the proposed pilot ordinance for each project, and a copy of the template pilot agreement and community benefits agreement we would finalize should these projects receive council approval and low income housing tax credits. First, a review of the process. Pilot applications were due on March 31st. We evaluated the applications in April to determine if the projects would meet threshold requirements as well as any policy priorities that would warrant a higher application score. The higher the score, the greater the proposed pilot discount and property tax savings. Based on the assessment, DMD calculated pilot discounts for 21 projects. After receiving the support of each project's district counselor, those projects are now before you today. Before we dive into this year's crop of pilot proposals, I wanted to take a moment to talk through what stage of development these projects are in. It's important to remember that the projects before you now are still prospective. They have not yet been awarded tax credits. Previously, you would have seen these types of projects later in the development cycle after they received a LIHTC award and were prepared to close on their financing. DMD is bringing these pilot proposals to council for consideration now in advance of the state's summer LIHTC application window closing at the end of July. Council approval would allow DMD to issue a pilot commitment letter that helps the project score additional points on the state's tax credit application. However, not all of these projects will ultimately receive a LIHTC award. DMD will negotiate terms of pilot agreements only with those projects that are awarded low income housing tax credits by the state in which received council approval. And depending on the type of tax credit deal, the LIHTC application can be extremely competitive. To the left of the dotted line on this chart, you'll see the number of LIHTC awards for Indianapolis projects based on the deal type over the last few years. On the other side of the dotted line, you'll see the breakdown of the proposed projects that are seeking pilot support this year. 9% projects, shown here in red, and which offer more tax credit equity, are usually the most competitive. Over the past several years, there have been two to three 9% projects awarded in Indianapolis. This year, 11 of the projects seeking pilot support are pursuing 9% credits. In 2022, the state created its own tax credit to assist with affordable housing development. Since they began awarding these types of credits, Indianapolis has seen between one and two projects awarded. The gray bar is on the chart. This year, there are three projects pursuing the 4% state tax credit. Finally, while 4% bond projects are not awarded competitively, projects must score a minimum number of points on the state's tax credit application. In the past, we've seen between three and four projects successfully score the points necessary to earn a 4% bond award, shown here in navy. This year, there are seven projects applying through this round. As you know, the state awards LIHTC to projects all over Indiana. A pilot commitment from the city helps projects score points, strengthening the LIHTC applications of Indianapolis-based projects, which is why we're here before you this evening. With that context in mind, we'll shift to reviewing the proposed projects currently under consideration for a pilot ordinance. There are 21 projects in this round from eight different council districts, as you can see on this map. They're broken down by the type of deal that they are pursuing. And as I mentioned before, if you have any questions about a specific project, a representative from each development team should be here to answer your question. As a reminder, all projects under consideration are affordable housing projects that committed to meeting the following requirements. They will be instituting low barrier tenant screening policies. This includes things like not screening out applicants based on misdemeanors or felonies older than five years, with a few exceptions for violent crimes and sex offenses, as well as not screening out applicants for evictions older than 12 months. They must have an eviction prevention plan that demonstrates the steps that they will take to utilize eviction only as a last resort. Developers must provide housing stabilization services. These would be services targeted to help people stay housed, offering education on lease requirements on a regular basis, offering education on maintaining a rental unit and referring to community partners when folks need help. This is really the operationalization of their eviction prevention plan. They also must provide services specific to a special needs population, as defined by state statute, if that's applicable to their project. And we require they identify a service partner with expertise in serving that population. Developers must offer to report only positive rent payments to at least one credit bureau to help tenants build credit. Tenants do not have to participate, but developers must offer the service. Developers must have property management who have dedicated on-site presence during key hours, during the week and on the weekend. And developers must be willing to accept applicants with a voucher or other housing subsidy. All projects must receive design review approval from our city architect. And the developer must be in compliance with any community benefits or project agreements they may have with the city. Should a proposed project receive council approval and receive tax credits, they must submit documentation 90 days before they would like to close on their pilot agreement demonstrating compliance with these eligibility requirements. This is a screenshot of the spreadsheet in your packets in which you previously received electronically. As we share takeaways from this application cycle, that it might be helpful to orient you to the spreadsheet which contains more granular data about each project. Columns A, B, and C are repeated on every page. So you can identify data associated with each project as you make your way across the columns. Columns A through K provide the basic details for each project. The developer name and contact information, a description of the type of project, whether it's a rehab or new construction. The deal type or which tax credit round they're applying in. The proposed pilot discount, which would be the maximum tax savings they would receive if approved. The total development cost and the number of units proposed for rehab or new construction. Beginning with column L, or the percent of units dedicated to permanent supportive housing, all the remaining columns represent our scored policy priorities, which informed the pilot discount amount. All the proposed projects are multi-family rental developments. As opposed to TIF or tax abatement housing projects, these projects are all affordable housing. In every project, the average area median income across all units would not exceed 60% AMI. As you can see on your spreadsheet in column G, while the majority of the projects would use their tax credits for new construction of affordable housing, there are seven proposed rehabs of existing buildings. Also of note, four of the projects are proposing to rehabilitate former Indianapolis Housing Agency properties. Those are marked with an asterisk on your spreadsheet. The projects range in size from 30 units, the smallest, to 321 units, the largest, with an average of 116 units per project. Based on the review of the pilot application, each project received a proposed pilot discount, which are listed in column I. The standard pilot terms, 15 years of savings with a 3% escalator each year would apply and all projects will provide a minimum of 30 years of affordability based on the extended use agreement they enter into with the state. We'll now spend some time talking through the score priorities that resulted in the proposed pilot discounts. The more priorities projects met, the higher their score and they were therefore eligible for greater property tax savings. The purpose of the scoring was to ensure that the highest quality projects received the highest discount. If you turn to page two of your spreadsheet, we'll start with column L, or the percentage of units dedicated to permanent supportive housing. Projects with 100% PSH units were eligible for a 90% discount. That's the highest. The three projects that scored in this category had to demonstrate that they were enrolled in the Indiana Supportive Housing Institute, which provides rigorous training for development teams intending to provide permanent supportive housing for households exiting homelessness. PSH projects provide intensive case management and wraparound supports. And so DMD feels it makes sense to offer them the highest level of operational support through the pilot term. In column M, we have the average AMI across all units of a project. DMD prioritizes projects that offer deeper affordability than would otherwise be required for a LIHTC development. The average AMI across all units of a given LIHTC project is no more than 60% of the area median income. DMD awarded points for projects that had an average AMI less than that amount, or projects that offered deeper affordability. For the 13 projects that scored points in this category, the average AMI across all units was 50%. Meaning that on average, the units would be accessible to households earning no more than 50% of the area median income. A full 10 percentage points lower than what would otherwise be required for a LIHTC project. For a family of four, this would equate to an income of no more than $55,150 a year. Next up, column N, DMD prioritized projects that set aside at least 20% of the units for special needs populations, which are defined in state statute and include individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, the elderly, among a few other identified populations. In addition to the three 100% PSH projects we discussed, there were six projects that committed to setting aside 100% of their units for senior citizens. And one project that plans to set aside 25% of their units for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Column O contains the percentage of units with three or more bedrooms. DMD prioritized projects that included more of these types of units, which can better accommodate families in need of affordable housing. 48% incorporated three or more bedroom units. On average, these projects proposed over a third of the units in their development would have three or more bedrooms. Column P notes our preservation category. DMD awarded points to projects where the property's income restrictions were expiring or had expired within the last 12 months. One applicant fit this criteria. Columns Q and R contain the staffing data. In addition to the threshold requirement to have limited staffing onsite during certain key hours, DMD also prioritized projects that would have more robust onsite staffing. All projects committed to having onsite property management at least 20 hours per week. And over 71% of the projects also committed to employing on-site staff dedicated to resident services coordination. On the resident services front, projects could opt into five different resident service outcome categories. The more categories opted into, the higher the points scored. These are reflected in columns S through W. All proposed projects committed to providing services to improve residents' economic mobility and financial stability. All but one proposed project also committed to dedicating services to promote community health and wellness. 76% of projects, or 16, committed to helping improve food access for the residents of their property. 38% of projects committed to providing youth enrichment services. And 29% of projects committed to investing an amount equal to 1% of their project's total hard cost to a community investment. such as public infrastructure, sidewalks, trails, bus stops, or to a non-affiliated community-facing organization. Regardless of the category of services the project opted into providing, they will be expected to provide a minimum of two onsite services per month throughout the term of their pilot agreement. By reviewing each application's scored criteria, we were able to recommend a not to exceed pilot discount for each project, which are listed on the spreadsheet and captured in each project's respective ordinance. Based on this committee's recommendation, projects would next be considered by the full council at the meeting in July. If approved, DMD would then provide pilot commitment letters conditioned on the project receiving LIHTC and fulfilling the obligations to which it committed in the pilot application. Projects would then have those letters to include with their LIHTC applications before the state's application round closes at the end of July. LIHTC awards are generally announced by the state no later than November. DMD staff will provide updates to this committee on projects that were awarded tax credits each time we bring new prospective projects to you for consideration, provided announcements have been made by the state. And as it so happens, the next LIHTC application round opens in November and closes at the end of the year. If we receive any pilot applications for that round, we would be bringing those to you for consideration in November, following much the same process we have here tonight. Should a proposed project receive tax credits, they must submit documentation to DMD 90 days before they would like to close on their private agreement, demonstrating compliance with the eligibility requirements, including the project's low barrier tenant screening policies and its eviction prevention and housing stabilization services plan. We will also be looking for documentation supporting the scored priorities they opted into. To that end, we will be reviewing the final project's unit and AMI mix, staffing plan, service partners dedicated to any special needs populations, if that's applicable to their project, and their resident services plan. Projects will have two years from passage of the ordinance to execute pilot agreements or the ordinance sunsets without additional council action. With that, I thank you for your time and consideration of support for these potential affordable housing projects, and we'd be happy to answer any questions.

Very good.

Questions from members of the committee? Councilor Cahill.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Two projects with a question, I guess an opportunity for On Proposal 183, Washington and State Centerline, this is the one that I believe has 25% of the units set aside for intellectual and developmental disability. We had one of those come through recently and I appreciate in a lot of cases where the spreadsheet has distilled some of the community benefits, but specific to that one, do we have information on is there, I know residents can choose their services provider, but is there a similar partnership with one of the service providers to come on site, or how does the intellectual disability, developmental disability community get served in that specific one?

I think we have someone from our door here to speak to that.

Thank you.

good evening i'm brian khan with ardor house incorporation so we have a partner village of marichi they operate an idd property for us out at the fort ben and they would do the services at this property for us okay perfect thank you and one more uh i would like to give because i think this compressed format when there's somebody with a unique history we've had

Pilots, I guess, get into the media before, I'm sorry, I'm almost out on your project. Okay. And the specific to, so Hannah Commons phase one was a project that had a significant uh they they had a ton of impd call outs it is a challenging population to work with when we take homeless people put them into permanent supportive housing and i think that is the right obviously solution we've we've looked at a lot of transitional housing but a lot of people need permanent supportive housing but they also it has to be done a specific way because they otherwise result in a lot of police calls so i we i while this is in councilor muscari's district the nearest it's basically across the street from university heights that's in my district and i wanted to give more for the media benefit that they came in and did a really good presentation explaining what's going to be different in phase two what went wrong in phase one why they they do have it under control now it was not under control in the beginning but why phase two is going to be different so that they have that opportunity to share that with everybody so if they would if there's somebody here from them.

Good evening, I'm Michelle Strauss Salinas and I work for the developer. I'm here with Kelly McGough, the president of Southeast Neighborhood Development, who is also a co-owner and co-developer. So your question was, how are we going to approach this project differently? Lessons learned from Hannah Commons are obviously going to be a big part of that answer. They're creating a plan right now, so it's not something I can hand you, but I know that Jennifer Disbro, the Vice President of Adult and Child, who is the service provider, She sat with the police department and went through all of those reports and said, what specifically happened? Was it well checks? Which there was a lot of well checks. People coming off the streets are sick. So how can case managers be better prepared to address those type of issues? Like I said, that's part of the plan that they're working on right now. Another piece of it was, Just like arguments and little things like they're playing their music too loud. So how can we better address those issues with maybe overnight security or staff that are extended hours. And so that's what we did with Hannah Commons. We brought in security, we had staff with alternating schedules, and it just really took care of it.

Excellent, thank you. And I will say University Heights was completely satisfied with with that answer I think it's a lesson to be learned as we continue to build more permanent supportive housing out to how to learn from what didn't go well the first time but that I think you have it under control now and so I think from that perspective phase two I think will be will be a better better start than phase one did and everyone was satisfied with your presentation so thanks for coming tonight and thank you for repeating thank you thank you Mr. Chair

Dr. Roberts. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I don't really have a question, more of just a general comment. I am so blown away by the amount of projects we have here. I mean, this is as much in one meeting as we typically have. And maybe even the two and a half years that I've been on the council and some other people have been on too. And we all agree that, or most of us probably agree, our city is at a massive housing shortage. we need to be aggressively building to meet the demand that we have so i just really can't applaud enough for all this so kudos to dmd and the team there obviously they're probably specific minutiae of each product we could dig into but just as a general theme i love just this sense of proactivity and this sense of just really meeting the need that we have a lot of these specific populations for because this is all over the city there's a lot of again diverse projects here and this is really going to be huge again we have to be growing as a city and over the last you know however many years we've not been growing to the rate of our suburbs but if we had this every month we'd definitely be growing to the rate of our suburbs so i give credit to the whole team for making this happen thank you additional comments from from yes council nielsen

Thank you, Chairman. Just real quick, and maybe you said this, DMD, in the presentation. So for the PSH supported units, do, and I don't need to call up any of the specific developers. Do they already have the rent subsidy or otherwise the support to pay for the ongoing rental expense, whether it be a voucher or a rental base assistance?

Yes, so the projects that are currently the permanent supportive housing projects, those 100% permanent supportive housing projects, the three that Ashley had mentioned, those will be receiving project based vouchers from IHCDA. So those rent subsidies will come as part of that.

So if the projects are not awarded the state incentive, what will happen then to the, right, they've secured a huge hurdle, right? They've secured the voucher, they've secured the rental assistance. What happens if, okay, that project isn't seen favorably by the state? Could you walk us through that? What would happen to the actually securing those vouchers?

Yeah, I think that's a really great point to highlight. So even those permanent supportive housing projects that went through the institute, which is kind of like the preeminent permanent supportive housing development pipeline within our community. They still have to compete at the state to get those tax credits. If they do not receive them, they are eligible to apply again in the future. And those project based vouchers, IHCDA is able to re-pivot into wherever they kind of see the priority within the state. That may or may not be within Indianapolis if they don't secure those tax credits, if that helps kind of clarify.

Very good. Councilor Delaney.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have State Senator Jackson here and I was just wondering which project she's here to support and just wanted to thank her for coming and acknowledge her presence here.

Very good.

Thank you, Councilwoman Delaney, Mr. Chairman, President Lewis, and all council members. I'm here supporting proposal 179. It's actually my Senate district, Councilwoman Allen's district. It's supported by Congressman Carson. He helped get $1.6 million in appropriations for this project. And thank you, DMD, for listening for our project. I do have our co-developers here, Flaherty and Collins. Julie, Alexis with us today, and Ethan. And so it's going to support senior affordable housing, 55 and older. As you know, the most unhoused population by 2030 will be seniors. And so that's what we're doing. It's a 52-unit project. And so we're asking for $13,000 a year for 15 years for the project is what we're asking for. Thank you for the opportunity. We miss you guys. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I wanted to second everything that Councilor Roberts said, totally agree, and thank you for your help in getting the affordable housing crisis addressed as much as we can while trying to get the limited funding available through the state and federal government. You've described this before, but partially for, I guess, audience listening at home and partially just remind me of the specifics. I know some of the kind of like annual check-ins to make sure that some of these requirements, the pilot agreement, As I understand it, it's basically, if something's not working, if residents aren't showing up to some of the offered services, then the developer has a chance, or the operator has a chance to pivot and find different services in conjunction with the MD and with the residents. Is that correct, or could you just very briefly describe how that process works?

Yeah, that's correct. They would be submitting annual reports. I believe they're mostly due in early February. And then they're reviewed for compliance with the agreements. If they're finding that residents are not participating, something we're going to be incorporating going forward is having them submit the results of a resident survey to try to make sure that developers understand and are aware of the needs and interests and wants of the residents so that if they need to pivot and offer different services that maybe are of more interest or more helpful to residents, they do, and we would encourage that so that the services being provided are really what residents are looking for.

Awesome. That's how I remembered it and just wanted to say thank you on the record for that. I think any efforts to increase kind of resident democracy and tenant associations is great, so thank you for doing your part. Council Gibson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, DMD, and thank you to the city. It's outstanding that you're really focused on affordable housing. And I believe that your efforts will help, especially when we think about how market rate is increasing so much. And I believe your efforts will help with more affordable housing to help level that rate in terms of making housing come down a little bit, if you will, from the market standpoint. But I am very pleased that seven of these proposals are in council district eight. And of that seven, four are rehabilitation and three are new construction sites. And I'm really excited about all of them for that matter of fact. But the one that will stand out to me most is your efforts to improve units formerly owned by Indianapolis Housing Authority. primarily Twins, Hills, Blackburn, and Beachwood Gardens, Hawthorn Place, and even 16th Park. Is Vitus, is that right, Vitus, are they here?

Yes, Vitus is here tonight.

I have a question for them. On the rehabilitation units, I know I'm very pleased by the amount of the units, but I imagine most of those units are vacant now, are not occupied. Can you kind of explain how much of an improvement the rehabilitation would be in terms of those public housing projects?

Hello, everyone. Thank you. My name is Brooke Kim. I'm here with Vitus. It's a great question. So right now, across the seven properties, they are approximately 50% occupied. We purchased the properties January 15th, so we've owned them for about six months, not quite. And we have been working on kind of sifting out who are real residents, who don't have leases, and kind of just getting a handle on all of the files. So there will be a full rehabilitation on all 1,000 plus units. But before we do the tax credit rehab, For two of these properties so three of the properties Beachwood Sixteen Park And Hawthorne will most likely be a little bit later on in our timeline So we want to make sure that we're fixing up the existing units there, you know, a lot of them are in squalor Need trash outs and things like that. So in the meantime, we have done full trash outs on all of the units We have done Roughly $3 million in immediate needs. We've got about $3 million more to do. We are trying to turn, just got my notes right here, about 300 units before August 30th so that we can get units rented up so that we have new residents in there. So that even those properties that won't be closing until maybe spring 2027 still are getting residents that need housing in the door. I'm not sure that totally answered your question.

Very much, and I thank you for your time and your efforts. And I really believe that what you're doing is significant in terms of improving housing. And again, my hat's off to DMD and the city. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

All right, very good. Before I open up the floor to the audience, I would ask Madam Clerk, for the record, if you would please read out the digest or some abbreviation of the digest of the proposals that we will be voting on. Yes, or an abbreviated version of it.

Proposal number 166 approves payment of lieu of taxes as provided for in IC's 36-3-2-12 for an affordable housing project being financed in part with low income housing tax credits pursuant to section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. As amended, known as the Laurelwood Apartments and Robey Terrace, consisting of approximately 231 affordable housing units for low income residents, located at 3340 Tatewood Drive, 1455 South Bencroft Street and 1327 Riley Place, District 19.

Madam Clerk, did you start at proposal number 165?

Yes. Proposal number 165 approves a payment of in lieu of taxes provided for in IC 36-3-2-12. Of approximately 34 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 5935 West 56th Street, District 5. Okay, proposal number 167, approves a payment in lieu of taxes as provided for in IC 36-3-2-12. Approximately 40 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 2880 East Hannah Avenue, District 19. Proposal number 175, approves the payment in lieu of taxes, the Drake Apartments consisting of approximately 30 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 3060 North Meridian Street, District 8. Proposal 176, approves the payment in lieu of taxes. 42 of the International Code, known as Beachwood Gardens, Hearthwood Place, consisting of approximately 321 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 2915 North Graham Avenue at 5244 East 32nd Street, District 9. Proposal number 177, approves a payment in lieu of taxes. known as Cornerstone Apartments consisting of approximately 186 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 3802 and 3810 North Franklin Road, District 9. Proposal 179, approves the payment in lieu of taxes known as Grassy Creek Commons consisting of approximately 42 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 3601 North Middle Foyer Road, District 15. Proposal number 180, approves a payment in lieu of taxes. Known as Union at Aster, consisting of approximately 241 affordable housing units for low income residents. Located at 14371533 Salcee Street, 14221528 Asher Street and 219 Cohay Street, District 18. Proposal number 181 approves the payment of lewin taxes. are known as Bakery Living consisting of approximately 116 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 1331 East Washington Street, District 18. Proposal 182, approves and payment of lewin taxes. known as Sherman Lofts, consisting of approximately 51 affordable housing units for low income residents, located at 3737 East Washington Street, District 18. Proposal number 183, approves of payment lieu and taxes. Known as Washington and State, consisting of approximately 56 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 1702 and 1726 East Washington Street, 12, 16, and 20 North Walcott Street and 15 North Senate Avenue, District 13. Proposal number 184, approves of payment in lieu of taxes, known as M22 South, consisting of approximately 48 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 17 West 22nd Street, District 12. Proposal number 185, approves of payment in lieu of taxes, Apartments consisting of approximately 155 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 1621 North Park Avenue and 1061 and 1064 Broadway Street and 546 East 17th Street, District 13. Proposal number 186 approves a payment of lewin taxes known as Damien Center PSH consisting of approximately 40 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 1438 East Washington Street, District 13. Proposal number. 168 approves the payment in lieu of taxes. Known as the Holcomb consisting of approximately 204 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 1545 Van Burn Street, District 19. Proposal 169. approves a payment in lieu of taxes known as the Emerson Place Apartments consisting of approximately 92 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 2110 Emerson Knoll Place District 8. Proposal 170 approves payment in lieu of taxes. Known as the Hope Side Senior Housing consisting of approximately 70 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 1915 and 2005 East 25th Street District 8. Proposal 171, approves of payment in lieu of taxes. known as Twin Hills and Blackburn Terrence, consisting of approximately 307 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 2210 East 36th Street, 3091 Baltimore Avenue and 3038 Hillside Avenue, District 8. Proposal number 172, approves the payment in lieu and taxes, known as the Judea Senior Village consisting of approximately 32 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 3969 Meadows Drive, District 8. Proposal number 173, approves the payment in lieu and taxes. Consisting of approximately 32 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 3219 Orchard Avenue and 1927, 1946 and 1950 East 32nd Street, District 8. Proposal 174 approves a payment in lieu of taxes. known as the Ritz on Illinois consisting of approximately 100 affordable housing units for low income residents located at 3404, 3432, 3434, 3438, and 3444 North Illinois Street District 8. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Does anyone in the audience wish to speak on any of the proposals just read? Those are proposals 165 through 177, and 179 through 186. I don't see anyone. Members of the committee? Councilor Gibson? Please.

Mr. Chairman, I move that we send, I guess it's 21 proposals for pilots to the full council for final adoption.

Motion's been properly moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. That motion certainly carries. Thank you, DMD, for your amazing work and to all of those out here who are supporting affordable housing. Senator Jackson, is there anything else that you would like to say this evening? All right. Thank you. Is there a motion for adjournment? All in favor? Aye. All right. Thank you. We're adjourned.