Community Development Block Grant Committee - Abolished 5.11.2017 - Regular Meeting

To the city of La Crosse. Welcome to those joining in person and those those online. We've jumped right into our agenda with approval of our minutes from our February 26 meeting. Entertain a motion to approve and second. A second by Ed and a or sorry. Motion by Ed and a second by Gus. Any questions or comments on the minutes as presented? Seeing none. All in favor of the motion, aye or thumbs up? All opposed, same sign. Alright. Motion carries. Thank you. First agenda item tonight is 26 dash zero three zero four, discussion and possible action on an update to the public market documents through a city RDA partnership. And I'll welcome Julie to the podium for a summary and some discussion.

Julie, welcome.

Thank you. Good afternoon. So just to give some background on this item. So back in about 2017 and then leading up to 2020, the RDA, in partnership with the city, did some predevelopment work on a public market project. So the RDA specifically oversaw the completion of a feasibility study, a site analysis, and a business plan.

And then shortly thereafter, the world kinda shifted on its access with the whole pandemic thing. So this got pushed back on the back burner for other high priority projects and other things the city had needed to focus on. So and then just kind of in part pre kind of flash forwarding to today and in part due to mayor Chandel's interest in this project, we're kinda dusting things off and and revisiting it. So I was tasked with kinda with doing that and working with my intern, Ethan, who's been incredible on this. We spent the last several months kinda researching a lot of other Wisconsin public markets, also similar ones that are elsewhere, and looking at things like success rates and how they funded their market structures, including, like, the city involvement, challenges, impacts, all sorts of things.

And and also to to just better understand what would be the next steps for La Crosse to maybe move this forward. We've met with multiple Wisconsin markets too a couple of times asking those questions about, you know, the good, bad, and the ugly. And what kind of became clear through those conversations is that there would be a need to update the feasibility study in the business plan. It has been some time, and there's been a lot of changes in the world. Additionally, something we heard repeatedly that there really is a need to to have a person or an organization potentially dedicated to the project, like a role that was dedicated not just to be an add on to someone who's already maybe has a full plate, but somebody could own the process, build the concept, oversee oversee some of these feasibility studies, business plan things, not necessarily doing it themselves, but the process to get those updated.

And so, of course, that requires financial resources to move that forward. So we looked into a possibility for that. And so TIT11 was one of the resources is an urban renewal project that this would be eligible for, and there's availability of funding currently. So this concept might sound somewhat familiar because it really started to sound a little bit like the River Point District project and kind of a similar relationship that has been created with the role that Jason Gilman has. And so the idea was to maybe have somebody be brought on that could facilitate this project but on a lesser amount with a lesser time commitment and lesser amount, meaning less funding needed.

So the purpose of me coming today is to give you the update and to get feedback from the RDA and the interest in participating in a project like this. The next step would be that we would bring forward if the RDA was wanted to partner on something like this again and kind of renew this project, we would work as staff to bring forward a resolution at an upcoming meeting that would further specify the dollar amount that would be transferred from TID the TID. Of course, this would all have to go for counsel for approval as well. And then just specifications on the the duties and the expectations of what the money should go towards. And then there would be an agreement drafted to between the city and the RDA if that resolution were to all be approved.

So that's what I had to share today. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Julie, thank you very much. And just for historical context, public market, as Julie mentioned, has been discussed in this body just as a, I think, a concept and then for for community feedback. Right? I think this this body has generally given its support to this, but I think the point of today is to confirm that support, right, to to, as Julie mentioned, confirm that we are interested exploring avenues for our public market and and, as Julie mentioned, a partnership with the city through appropriate review processes, So as Julie mentioned, do you have any any questions related to current process, current state, or what we may anticipate in the next weeks, months. Councilmember Chasm.

Julie, could you maybe, for anybody that might be even listening, as well as the committee, go into maybe kind of a timeline of what this might all look like?

Yeah. So the public market in general is a pretty big project. So many communities, it takes years to get something like that off the ground to get the capital needed. As extreme example, I shouldn't well, I shouldn't say extreme, a large a longer timeline, the Madison public market took almost a couple decades to get to where it needed to be to get the funding. The Green Bay market was had a much shorter timeline, maybe like, I think it's five or seven years with COVID in the middle of that as well.

So it is something that wouldn't just happen right away. And I think this first step, what we're looking at is the next possibly two of just that predevelopment of work of determining does this still make sense? Does it make sense right now? What would it require? And that funding piece would be a big portion of it too. You know, where would the money come to fund not only the capital that would be needed for it to get off the ground, but what would the operation look like? And then also the operational component of, too. What entity would oversee this? Who would be responsible in getting that work? So the overall project, I imagine, would be, like, probably four or five years, best guess.

But what we're looking at is this immediate one to two years to get it in place to to the next take to the next step.

Julie, you mentioned 11. Can you explain how that may contribute to, you know, funds over time?

Yeah. So TID 11, that TIT actually, the expenditure period ends in October, so we would need to make this transfer, have this agreement in place before the TIT we reach that date in October. TIT 11, though, will be active for the following five years, so it doesn't actually close till 2031. This the market is anticipated to be within the TID 11 boundaries of that that TIF can serve, and it does qualify as an urban renewal project. So kind of similar to what we've been doing a little bit with, I think, the funds that have been contributed for Jason's role.

We've been utilizing the same sort of mechanism for projects and to have somebody oversee a project. I anticipate that the if we were to get this going and this fund I'm envisioning right now, we'd be talking about, you know, utilizing those funds in the next couple years, but we would have access to them if need be until 2031. Of course, this would all be on council approval, and, potentially, the contract would say you have until an earlier date to get these funds expended, and then they're they're no longer available to the RDA.

Thank you. Members, additional questions for Julie? I don't see any other questions. Maybe just for this group. Do we have kind of general general agreement that we wanna continue to pursue?

Thumbs up from Phil. Thumbs up from Julie. Okay. Yes. We have, I think, just absent a formalization agreement to move forward. Again, understanding that it would go through the additional review and certainly formal legislation.

Absolutely. And when I bring that resolution forward, you know, you can you can add to it. That's the point of when it comes forward at the agreement as well to fine tune what it will look like so it works for the RDA and the city.

Great. Thank you so much. I'll switch to the next agenda item 26 dash zero two eight seven, a presentation on the proposed River Point District Park Plan. I believe we have some reps from the parks department. Welcome you to the podium. If you could introduce introduce yourself, it'd be great. Welcome, Shane.

Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Dan Trisone, the city parks department deputy director. I'm here to update you on the, the park space development, we've been working on now. So, I understand, I mean, we've got a lot to unpack here. A lot happening at the attachments on the agenda. So I kinda talk through what our thought process was behind this and then maybe answer any questions you may have after that. Little background. As you all are all aware, this this property was transferred from RDA to the parks department purview last year. At that point, we were tasked, with assisting the planning department developing this space, as Parkland, for this development.

Since then, we've agreed to a contract with a landscape architect, not just landscape, I guess, an architectural firm, and kind of pushed us forward to where we are today with this master plan, if you will. What we when we began discussing with our architect, we gave him four main goals to kinda focus on and that we wanted to see back in their initial concept design, which we're which we're doing today as a, again, as a concept. And I'll read those four goals for you. The first being connectivity, connecting the existing trail that we have coming from Riverside Park to the north end of this development and allowing that natural flow of pedestrian, bicycle traffic, and just people through, through the space. Second being low maintenance and sustainable.

Low maintenance is is a priority for us and not just this place, but most of our parks. As we continue to grow and expand and the budgets get tighter, it's important that we, consider maintenance and the needs going into each of those spaces. So that's something that we reiterated again and again through our public input sessions to the public and then to our architect and is maybe not so much in this design, but as we as this design continues to develop, you'll see more and more of that the maintenance issue taking place. The third goal was to complement the development and the existing park system. Obviously, I kinda touched on it already, but be something that people want to enjoy, want come down and and move throughout the development and and be able to access other places.

And then the last goal is to enhance and highlight the natural beauty of the site. It's not a secret that this is one of the most beautiful spots on the Upper Mississippi, and we want that to don't wanna take away that that view and that opportunity to recreate in those areas. So those are the goals that we gave the developer design, and this is kinda what they came back with. And before I I go any further, I I wanna emphasize that what you're looking at there is is a concept. I this was in front of the park board last week, and they approved the concept with the understanding as I kinda spoke to them as much as I'm speaking to you that this is our starting point.

Before a shovel ever hits the ground on this project, we will be back in front of them for approval on a multiyear, multiphase type concept that would be financed or not financed, but funded individually through each phase through, you know, however that may be. But so this isn't this is by no means a final plan, but this is our starting point for discussion and and design. Let's see. So as far as timeline goes, right now, I believe we have $2,000,000 requested in the 2027 capital improvement budget through TID funding. We worked with planning department to develop that, and that's gonna kinda be our starting point for this phase one.

So after we get through our our meeting cycles this year, we'll we'll kinda put pen to paper on this phase one with our architect and and come back and and hopefully have something ready to go in in 2027 that we can see shoveling the ground, so to speak. So I yeah. Again, I know this is a lot to take in. What everything you see on paper probably won't be there, but it's it's a discussion point, and it's a thought that we had to put in front of, not just the boards and committees, but the public, for their for their reaction on it. So with that, I can take any questions that you may have or try and explain a little further what what the, ideology is behind any of the the concepts.

Dan, thank you very much. Members, questions for Dan on the concept? Just maybe one question I have is I I see the the gas easement noticed noted on the concept. Any particular challenges with that or any other parts of the public space that you know you need to

address moving forward? Particularly on the gas easement, yes. Not so much necessarily for this plan, but we have been in discussions with the marina as well. And initially, that would have been a great spot to have or host the marina sites or, you know, slips. But with that gassy gas easement, we have a lot of limitations in that space. It basically has to stay open for for access utilities.

Thank you. Council member Janssen.

Dan, could you address potential flood issues in that area?

Yeah. That's that's a question that the park board brought up as well. And a lot of the the flooding would be more on the the southern edge of this, and we we experience this right now with our trail coming from Riverside Park into this area. Oftentimes, it is flooded, and we noted that with our architect and asked them to hey. You know, we gave them the flood information, the flood data, and just make this something that's sustainable and expect flooding because we're gonna see this area is gonna see water, if not annually, every other year, you know, typically. So yes. And and that's gonna as we continue to develop that, we're gonna look at, you know, natural plants and stuff to kinda mitigate some of those flooding issues.

Thank you.

Ed, go ahead. Dan, on this concept, how many years are you looking at with this being booked? You know, it's you said you have a budget of 2,000,000 for 2027. How long do you see this to build this park, basically?

Yeah. That that's a great question. It's tough to answer at this point because we haven't it's not fully developed. And then each phase is gonna build probably build into something else. And one thing I mentioned to the park board is once we have a plan like this out there for the public to kinda see, it might it may build excitement where we have private donations come in or, you know, developers wanna kick in towards something like this as well. And that's gonna then, you know, speed up the process, if you will. So I don't have a I don't have a great answer for you on that. If I had to kind of put a guess to it, I mean, we're talking it could be up to ten years. Would I would I would just throw a guess out there right now. But phase one, you said you'd mentioned I I should comment that the 2,000,000 that we have requested right now is not approved yet.

We need to go through the plan commission and the common council yet this year to get that approved before we can, you know, get moving on in 2027 with phase one.

Other questions for Dan on the concept? Julie, go ahead.

Thanks, Adam. Given the this community's passion and love for our marsh areas, I am curious about, the boardwalk that's represented here. What sort of, environmental studies have taken place? It's not a small it is a small area, so any sort of disruption there. You know, I'm just wondering what, what have we looked at, and how are we prepared for the public's comments on that either way?

Sure. Another similar comment or question was brought up at the park board meeting. And and we've met with friends of La Crosse River Marsh. We actually have a meeting on the table next Tuesday with the friends of La Crosse River Marsh and our architect to kinda start honing in on this phase one. And one of their concerns that the the Friends brought up was the same that you brought with the with the boardwalk and kinda removing some of that natural area. And and I agree. I I think, you know, our direction to the architect at this point was put it all out there. We can always easier to pull back than to add once you have something developed or something kinda organize your thoughts organized. So we did. We we put it out there fully knowing that a lot of this is probably gonna be retracted.

But great question, and that's gonna be something we talk about next week in in the months to to come.

Thank you.

Dan, I don't see any other questions. Thank you. Thank you for the work on this. We look forward to seeing you back here with some additional concepts and feedback. And, obviously, people are using it now. I'm looking forward to seeing it be even even better in the future. So thank you. Appreciate it. So we'll do agenda item three twenty six dash zero two five seven, an update from MSP on Lot 6. And I see Brian joining us online. Brian, welcome. We'll turn it over to you.

Thank you. Can you hear me?

Yes. We can. Welcome.

Alright. I'm gonna share my screen here. Let me know if you can see that.

Yep. We can see it.

Thank you. Great. Well, thank you all for having us. My name is Brian Wolsey. I run the development department at MSP development, and I'm joined by Katie at Rinke, who's our architect. And so she and I will be talking about our progress to date on Lot 6. So just to a little bit of background for the committee. We signed our option our six month option agreement on December 17. Mhmm. And per our contract, we have to provide schematics and massing of our concepts by April 1.

So that's just a couple days away. So we've been scrambling or I should say, Rink has been scrambling to get this pulled together. But I wanted just to share, you know, the evolution. I mean, we all know development is an iterative process, and so we had this idea that we shared with you last year, which was that we thought this was a great site for seniors. And, specifically, we were our first our thesis was really that this could be a great spot for active seniors, you know, 55.

And so the first thing that we did once the agreement was signed was we engaged Tracy Cross, who's a market research company. I think the city's actually used them to do some of their housing studies. And that study said that, actually, we could only support a 100 units on the site. And we we spent a lot of time as a development team and with Rinke to to think about other adjacencies or other compatible uses with with that active senior crowd and came up with a lot of challenges with marrying the the needs and wants and desires of a active senior crowd and other elements of care. Our sister company, Heritage Senior Living, operates 15 senior care campuses across the state of Wisconsin.

And in those campuses and our, you know, our biggest campuses, we do a little bit of everything. We'll do independent living, assisted living, enhanced care, and memory care. And we started to think about this site for that, knowing that we could reach a higher density, which was a goal and of the RDAs and and and start to think about that. And and Tracy Cross, you know, said, look. I I think that that market is actually stronger and could support more density than your active senior concept.

And so that's that's what we're here to present today. It's a little bit different, but I think and it it's really a new look for heritage. I would say, you know, our campus model is typically a 120 to a 150 units, but they spread out over, like, four plus acres. This is two and a half acres, so it presented a bit of a design challenge. But we really think so much of the site and, you know I mean, just this presentation about the the parks right in front of us and, you know, the community and all of that is so exciting.

We wanted to see if we could make this work. It was a it was a interesting challenge for us, and I know for for Marinka as well. So I just wanted to provide a little bit of background there on how some of the evolution here and some of the things that are different tonight than what we had talked about in the past. So with that, I'll unless there's questions, I'll kinda do a page turn, and Katie and I will go back and forth here. So just at a high level, I'll just give, we've got some acronyms here.

So MC is memory care, EC is enhanced care, AL is assisted living, and IL is, independent living. And so, you know, importantly, although these these communities need different things, there are systems and ways that we provide services like food service and, you know, some of the amenities, some of the management that aren't unique to everybody. And so, you know, those things we tried to put in a convenient place that we can kind of serve everybody. So we'll we'll kinda talk about that, and it'll become more obvious, I think, as we get a little bit further into the into the presentation. But a couple other things I just wanted to call out here is that one of the unique slash beneficial aspects of a campus like this is that the parking requirements are much less than they would be if we were building a an active senior or a market rate project where you're typically going to build one and a half parking spaces per unit.

So, you know, under this product type, we can get away with less than one to one. And so and and, actually, a lot of the parking is dedicated to staff as well as the residents in independent and assisted living. So so that's one thing I wanted to point out. I just wanted also to point out this, you know, kind of the middle section that you're looking at here behind drop off, which is the kitchen, which will serve everybody, all the communities. And then the other thing that I wanted just to to call out and and to, you know, get feedback from the RDA tonight is that Lot 6 doesn't include this little sliver over here on the East Side.

And as I as we've learned, this this was intentional. This was, think, something that Rinka, in their master planning role for the city, had designated as a view corridor and to provide those views to, you know, developments further back, you know, not to do anything vertical on that site. And so we've not although we've not built on the site, we we looked at you know, this is a kind of a game of Tetris. You kinda lay out all your things in the adjacencies and how are things gonna work. And when you're operating, you know, food service and, you know, medical facility like this, you know, there's a there's a fair amount of, you know, deliveries that we receive.

And so instead of parking trucks on the street or, you know, trying to create a loading dock, which is difficult with the the size of the site that we have, we've designed this loading I don't know what you wanna call it, Katie, like, drive lane so that, you know, a box truck could pull off of the road, and we could take the deliveries, then they could, you know, move move on their way. So that that that would be one of the thing. I mean, obviously, there's a lot to talk about tonight, but that would be one thing that I think is we know it was outside of our land. And so we're asking for some feedback and maybe permission to, you know, design it in that way because it really, as we've thought about the loading, we feel like this is the best approach for, really, the neighborhood, but also the project itself. Excuse me.

Katie, are there other things you wanna mention here before I flip to the next page?

Yep. I think a couple things worth noting are the relationships of the the IL walk ups, the yellow zone, those having connections to the streets. So independent living, having certain household types that would wanna have that access directly out for family, friends, you know, dogs. And then also the wing on the right hand side, the memory care wing, having that, isolated with courtyards, so they can have good views on either side. And then the blue on either end of the MC wing text, that is access for daylight.

So trying to make the most out of the area and also have some privacy for the the MC, zone. So locating the pieces with the most street level exposure and view corridors. Thank you.

I think this does a good job of what we were looking at before is the 1st Floor in this. Now you're you're coming up a bit, and this, I think, does a better job of helping to understand that there's really two structures that are built here, and some of that has to do with the licensing requirements for memory care and enhanced services that are different than the construction types of independent living and assisted living. But I think that the concept that Renka came up with is there's a lot of transparency. There's a lot of connectedness, you know, between the buildings, and it functions as one larger project even though the massing really helps to create this interesting scale that that you have a smaller building and kind of tucked into a larger building.

Right. And the rooftop amenity that you'll see that has access, there's opportunities for shared amenities and then also private amenities for the different levels of care. So there's kind of three of these outdoor courtyard areas at different levels and different exposures. So there's, you know, opportunities for views in in multiple locations.

And here we're going up to the 3rd and the 4th Floor, which is only on that, the IL AL, building.

And the opportunity with that would be views of the South and Southeast downtown having to look over the MCEC Building massing. So, again, just a different vantage point.

Alright. So here's the cool stuff. I buried the lead. So, Katie, what how do you wanna talk about this?

Sure. So this kind of shows a different you know, it's not intended to be designed. This is more intended to understand massing and how the volumes interact with the context and also, different, exposures. So the walk ups that we talked about for the independent living, you'll see those sidewalk connections on the left hand side of the page off of the greenway. We have this kind of welcome hospitality, drop off court that will be welcoming and have several different locations for different areas of, lobby and then also exposure to a lot of the shared amenities like pool and some of the support spaces.

What we like about this is there's also the a lot of the back of house is kind of pushed back in a way. So we have really lit corners, accentuated accents on the corners that we can, you know, design at a later later date. But we feel that this this view kind of shows the two pieces nestling together, working together, and also not overcrowding the site, like the the relief that is pushed in at each of these main sides. And this is another view, not, you know, selling the design of the the building, but just exposing the the opportunities for shared spaces, amenity spaces between the volumes and how they face the the adjacent neighbors on the on the lot.

Yeah. And I'll just point out that we've got this drive lane that's been laid out here on this extra triangular portion of the lot that's not part of our Lot 6.

Yep. So minimal site surface parking mostly concealed in the in the in the back, and then we have, you know, activated street fronts where wherever possible.

So with that, we'd love your thoughts and feedback.

Brian and Katie, thank you for the for the overview. I see Jason's hand. Actually, I was gonna see if maybe he has a a some insight on I think my questions are related to conceptually, both for you, Brian. Are there other similar developments you have, especially in urban areas that have the same concept? Then maybe Jason, more broadly, how does this fit with other urban land design? Maybe Jason, I'll start with you first. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to just remind the RDA that this is not the first time we've seen a proposal on a multifaceted senior care. Originally, if you recall, Merge Development had options on lots 1 And 8, and they were proposing something similar to this, but then some things happened and they decided to not renew that option. So this is not a first relative to multifaceted senior care.

The second thing I would just note is just that the PDD zoning does not, in any way, discriminate against this type of housing. Our housing is very broad and flexible, and in fact, you could argue that we've expected generational housing and a variety on the site from the very beginning. One thing I do know about senior housing development is that there are various benefits relative to economic development with senior housing, such as aging in place, demand side stability because you've got these places are obviously popular with an aging population, they're typically full, you get a lot of visitors to them, and that can improve a development just in terms of that stability in occupancy. Another thing I would note is just that there tends to be ancillary services, some of which Brian pointed out, and employment related to these facilities too. So they're a little bit different than your typical, type of housing.

But as Brian was explaining this development to me and the synergy between the Driftless, which they've already built in this site, that is something I think that is remarkable too, that they've got adjacencies there with very synergistic types of uses. So just a couple side notes that I wanted to make sure the Redevelopment Authority was thinking about. Thank you.

Thank you, Jason. And to reiterate the question to Brian, either your own developments or even just other concepts you've seen where you have a variety of senior living options from, you know, independent living to to memory care. I've seen them interact in some pretty interesting ways in other markets. Any do have any examples that either MSP or others that have that you are aware of that could maybe help inform this project moving forward?

Yeah. Our you know, we've been in this business for twenty years. Our first campus was built in 2000 and 2005. And and those have evolved over over time. And over the last, you know, ten or so years, more and more of our campuses look like this because somebody might move into independent living thinking that, you know, maybe the other spouse would need some cares, and then you can, you know, move into assisted living but create community.

And then, you know, if you need enhanced care, you know, up to thirty two hours of services, you could be in that area. And so we've seen that this is the most successful type of product in our portfolio. So we have 15 properties across the state of Wisconsin, and six of them are this campus model where we're providing all four of these services. And the occupancies are the highest in these types of communities. So that's one thing.

I would say was there a I think there was a question about urban you know, like, this urban design. You know, we I think our most urban campus is probably in West Dallas where we've done actually a similar thing where we did an affordable senior independent living, and then we did an entire campus. But even that and that's a very if you know West Dallas, it's a very urban area, but even that isn't as dense as this. And so, you know, like I said, I I think, you know you know, MSP and the folks that run Heritage were excited about this opportunity because, you know, you know, these these communities that work, they should be a place that, you know, the residents wanna be, of course, but also that people wanna, you know, come visit that it's it's on their way to, you know you know, other things that they enjoy doing, and they can they can pop in or they can, you know, take their family member out. So, you know, we we like the connectedness to all the amenities and everything that's going on here.

And I think Rinka has done a really nice job of, you know, doing what needs to be done. There's a lot of different things you're thinking of, parking, you know, the relationship to, you know, services that we're gonna be delivering here, the construction type, the licensing. And, you know, I'll tell you the the eight the heritage senior living folks are really excited about this this model. If if you looked at our website, you would see that they all look very similar. This doesn't look like that, and I think that that's exciting for us as well.

Thank you. Councilmember Jensen.

So I've had several clients over the years move into similar facilities. In this particular case, if someone moves in and they don't need assisted living and then their needs change, do they actually change apartments, or do the services just stick with them?

Yeah. We've designated the top two floors as independent living, and then assisted living is on, you know, levels two and then that part of one. And the licenses go in in particular areas, and that has to do with construction type and service delivery and things like that. So, yeah, you would, in some cases, have to move throughout the campus to receive depending on the level of care that you're receiving.

Members, other questions for for Brian and Katie on this planned update? K. I see none. And I I just wanna wanna thank you for coming back with the the evolving concept and and certainly that you did your due diligence and are able to, concept this plan. I as the ask is to continue to work working with, city planning staff and with Jason on on this plan, and we look forward to walking you back again in the future.

And and and may I ask, is there any objection to us continuing to plan around the the triangular load in a lot that we would program as loading?

I'm just looking around at the at the members here. I don't see any noticeable objection here. Okay. Council member Jansen. Yeah. One second, Brian. Thank you.

I'm I'm curious. So this would be people trucks dropping things off during the day, or is it a morning early early morning type of thing?

Yeah. It's probably I don't I don't know the exact I could I could get you the exact schedule, but, you know, the it'd be trucks that are delivering, you know, materials for, know, housekeeping and for the kitchen. I mean, we do a lot of, you know, meal prep and food delivery and things of that nature. And so, you know, it's probably a few trucks a day that are delivering supplies to the to the facility.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Again, we, we do not have any objection at this point, of of moving forward, but, certainly, we wanna make sure that we're, following your oh, I'm sorry. Gus, go ahead.

Sorry. Something just occurred to me. That that boulevard there with all those trees has Jason, those tree cells below there, is that gonna affect the the the landscaping in that portion if we were to build a, you know, the grade down for a for a driveway at some point? Because I know that there was a whole lot that went went into Yeah. We'll that. Place.

Right. Yeah. Well, we will have to coordinate, the landscaping and streetscaping. It looks like they've got the loading area, you know, bending around with a single driveway, so it it isn't full pavement and access. It's a single singular point of access. But, Tim Acklin brought up a good point too that the stormwater calculations for the entire development and the calculations going into the vault anticipated a certain amount of green space on these common areas. We'll have to account for that too as part of the part of the change.

Thank you, guys, for that question. So, yeah, council member Janssen.

My only concern would be the precedent that we're Other

comments, questions? Okay. Brian, Katie, we'll look forward to welcoming you back and certainly for some more specifics as we proceed. So again, Mo, thank you for joining us this evening.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

We'll go to the next agenda item, agenda item four, twenty six Dash0288, an update from Ryeke and Cowboy Jacks on Lots 11 And 12, including the subdivision plans and feasibility of building on Lot 12. And I had wanna welcome representatives from Reyke and Cowboy Jacks to the podium. Again, welcome back.

Thanks for having us here tonight, guys. I'm Lee Haramza with Reiki Properties. I have Bill Albright here with CapFest and, Cowboy Jacks behind me. I'm gonna make my speech kinda short and sweet. I'll pass the torch off to him in a little bit. The reasons I wanted to be here tonight is I wanted to update you guys on Lot 11. Lot 11 is, we are just finalizing plans. We just got the unit types and models kinda all figured out. We are exactly at 60 units. We have ample parking.

I I believe we actually have a couple surplus parking on the site, which I know is always a concern on these, dense unit or dense slots. We're nearing a CSM. I think it's being sent within days here, for you guys to sign off on splitting the the apartments from the actual cowboy jacks. That was step one of of many that we had to do, and I think that got clarified in the last meeting. You know, we've got our TIF application submitted.

And as far as the apartment construction goes, the residents, we are still looking at a July, start date if everything goes properly, expecting to exercise the early access agreement to get on there and start flagging stuff and and doing some minor dirt work. Another reason why I wanted to be here tonight was to talk last I wasn't here at the last RDA meeting. I had a member of my team speaking, but you guys kinda left it at Exploring Lot 12. So this was if you remember me when I came in here, we discussed Lot 11 And 12 as as a as a whole. The objective was to get a multi mixed use on sites on the Site Lot 11, which we have done, and now just the parking has to get discussed.

So we were at an exploration stage of that. We dug into it quite heavily. We've called the excavators that were even on-site digging your guys' storm structure down to how many rock teeth they used on their buckets chiseling out that concrete. Few things I wanted to explain, though, is is the the challenge of Lot 12, before I, pass everything on to Bill. So imagine so the the soil boring showed that this concrete starts anywhere from seven to nine feet, goes to 18 to 20 feet.

So it's a nine to 11 foot deep chunk of concrete, the length of a football field. And so you can imagine what that would do when you're removing that big of a chunk of a concrete. Just the s just the sheer excavation alone, what it would take. We had our structural engineer, Northland, out of Duluth, look at it. We had our architects look at it, because I think where we left it off at the last RDA meeting was maybe trying to get some type of a structure on here.

And everybody said the same question, why? It it is really difficult. We felt like we were kinda putting a square peg through a round hole. So getting back to the excavation of this concrete monolith, that is not to say that you don't run into any contaminants. So when they're the 300 to 500 dump trucks, they're hauling concrete out of here. If they run into contaminants, this is managed by the DNR. Those have to get disposed of properly. So not only do you have known excavation costs, you have unknown costs too. So is it one load? Is it 200 loads?

So it just became really, challenge. It got it kept getting more and more challenging. The the piers that would be needed for a structure on this Lot 12, to give you an idea, so we have about 35 foot crushed aggregate piers. They're the less expensive of the geo piers that go underneath your building. This site calls for concrete piers.

So imagine, you know, we're 35 foot deep crushed aggregate piers. They're calling for up to 75 67 to 75 foot concrete piers, whatever structure you put on. So it's it's almost four or five times the cost to put any structure on this site. So that's just kinda some of the things we ran into. And, you know, I know I kinda was negative on the news there.

Some of the and one other thing I wanted to mention, I do wanna talk about it, whether I talk about it now is at some point, we have to separate, Bill and I, with his development, which involves Lot 12. I just wanted to talk about it because we we knew the most about it at the time. And I don't know the logistics of it, but splitting the option agreement. So Bill would take over the option agreement Lot 12. We would stay on Lot 11, what we're doing now, just logistically and and ease of use.

You know, fortunately, the the silver lining to this all is if you wanna go to the next page, Tim. So that's Lot 12. Sorry. This is Lot 12 as you're looking. I think we showed an overhead, but we went up and took some drones of it.

Lot 12 kinda borders the marsh. It has the bike path in between separating it. As you notice towards the east end, it gets pretty narrow there, and that's kinda why we were we were trying to push a structure. So we had that challenge also. Next slide, Tim. Thanks. Here's a here's the pictures of the concrete monolith. This was done by Braun Intertek. This is the geotechnical report. If you can kinda see on the one satellite image, it shows where the borings were taken.

That'd be right where that's right where Lot 12 is. And if you look at the picture to the left, it looks it kinda outlines the green concrete monolith. That's not completely accurate. It just kinda encompassed from their borings that they took at the initial development borings. But when we got the borings for Lot 12, they were every single boring hit the concrete monolith and contaminants.

And then below the contaminant or below the concrete monolith, you had, poor soil up to 75 feet. You know, going back to Lot 12, so we kinda just said, okay. We're in exploration phase. What can we do with this with this lot? So I know the parking lot wasn't a great idea or didn't rub everybody the right way, but we thought it would be you know, it meets overall the development.

The Lot 11 And 12 meets the density requirements. Lot 11 And 12 fully satisfies the density goals, staying true to the original vision of the PDD. The original vision called for 26,000 square feet of footprint density. With cowboy jacks and us, we're at a 37,000 square foot density. It also activates the transition to the waterway and the park system.

Bill has even hired on ISG, who is the architect involved in the park system. So to try to blend the two together, it it would just be easier to use the same company for that. And and Cowboy Jack's, you know, they deliver a high quality, attractive building. So it's not just a, you know, a run of the mill suburban restaurant. They got full masonry on all their buildings. They look really nice. They got different facade attributes. If you've seen them, they they look nice. It's it's something the development would wanna have. So I just kinda wanted to explain my three things there.

So, I'm gonna pass it off to Bill, and, I'll answer any questions you guys have for me right now.

Lee, thank you. Members, questions for for Lee on on '12? Councilmember Johnson.

I no question. I just want to thank you for coming forward and re explaining all that again, and I think you make a very strong argument.

Okay. Thank you.

Bill, I guess we'll welcome you for an update too.

Thank you, and thanks, Lee. It's good to be back. So after the last meeting, we were tasked, like, with Lee to explore possible building sites on this lot and then to make it look like it like it flowed with the development. So during this time, you know, this this is much more than a parking lot. To us, it's innovative landscaping to support the marina.

It preserves the viewing corridor. It's we're exploring sustainable energy right now with Ethos to be able to either put some canopy type solar on it that could benefit cowboys and benefit the city through other facilities within the park. We're working with Paul Nielsen with ISG to look at some foraging type options with the landscaping. That's becoming more popular around the area. It's smart use of a challenging site.

Without this, we would not have Cowboy Jacks or any restaurant in that location, whether it's us or whomever it may be. You cannot get that type of a restaurant and this type of a use without parking, and this is a this is a great opportunity. I think, you know, with the geotechnical, you know, data showing what that monolithic is, I think it's it's the highest and best use of that of that location. It matches the original plan for Lot 12, like Lee said, with the density between the Lot 11 and Lot 12. And what Cowboy Jacks brings and and and what we brought to the city of Altoona, I've mentioned this in the past, they have a a development that that that they did called River Prairie.

We were one of the first ones in, and it takes a use like ours, a proven destination to generate traffic. Last time I was here, I I discussed that we bring over last year alone, we had a 178,000 tickets that went through cowboy jacks. Now, that's not people that live that are living in the area. Those are people coming into our area to be able to explore the park, use the area, and it's gonna generate a buzz and energy for this development. Because right now, it takes time to generate that.

There's other commercial uses within there. Lee has them in his building. And to have that type of foot traffic within this development, to use it to drive to walk the streets and to drive in there, you're gonna get more uses within this commercial by bringing a facility like ours. I think that the that, you know, currently, Cowboy Jacks, over the last eight years within out the the city of Altoona, we we have been the best of in numerous categories, and whether it's outdoor dining, whether it's, different types of of of events that that we have there at Cowboys. But over the years, we continually are are voted the best of within the Chippewa Valley for numerous awards.

So I think it's a great opportunity for the city of La Crosse, great opportunity for us. I mean, we're excited to be down here. And since this has been discussed, and it actually was in the paper a few weeks ago, I have received numerous calls and excitement about us coming to to town. Now just so you guys are aware, we're a licensee of cowboy jacks. We are not owners of other cowboy jacks.

We own the one in Altoona. So whatever is going on, you know, other facilities. What we what happened was was when we ended up going to the the city of Altoona, we visited a few rooftop bar areas because we like that type of a of a jive atmosphere with with the waterfront, and the same will go for here. So we found a Cowboy Jacks over by the Twin Stadium that had a really nice atmosphere, really neat rooftop area, so we asked them if we could do a license agreement with them. So we have their name, and they helped us with the design. So that's kind of our connection with Cowboy Jacks, but it's not franchise. It's a licensing agreement, and we own the one that we have in Altoona, and we would own this one.

Bill, thank you very much. To your comment on highest and best use, maybe the question is for Jason and for planning. Is there agreement that based upon the evaluation done that what's being proposed is highest and best use for that for that plot of land or that that parcel?

For Lot 12? Correct. Well, we so we've heard from two different developers, Nick Rausch and Lee, that this site was gonna be infeasible, you know, from a cost standpoint because of the cost of these 60 to 70 foot geo piers. And and the excavation of the concrete to get it out of the way would be, extremely expensive. So I think this is a solution.

If you look at the original Rinke illustration or master plan, it showed very low density on Lots 11 And 12. And in fact, on Lot 12, it only showed a single story, single building with half of the lot being green space. So what we're really doing is we're shifting the building volume over onto Lot 11 with the support infrastructure on Lot 12 to make that happen. And as Lee pointed out, we're exceeding the expectations of the master plan by 10,000 square feet because originally, I think it was twenty twenty seven thousand. So so that's how I would answer that question, I guess, relative to and best use.

The other thing that I would just note is that when when Rinke was meeting with the city about these sites, one of the concerns about having a monolith of just housing housing was that it would be kinda dead, you know, during the day. So Rinka said, you know, you really need activation of the interior of the site along the parkway with uses that would have some excitement and synergy synergy with the the outdoor recreation, and that would create that kind of vibrant vibrancy on the inside of the site. If people were off to work during the day, there would still be things going on on the site. And so those are, I think, some of the observations that I've made as I've waited through this with Bill and and Lee.

Thank you, Jason. Members, questions for Bill and Lee? I don't see any questions right now. I guess my my ask is to continue to work with Jason in planning, especially on what you mentioned for some of the options on the on Lot or Lot 12. I'm sorry. Particularly for view shed sustainability and for even solar options for that matter too. Any kind of benefit we can get to not only Lot 11 but for the site of RA would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much. Agenda I'm sorry. Yes. Go ahead, Lee. Can you use your mic? Can you turn the microphone on the side?

Thank you. One of the questions was about the one of the reasons we were here is to transfer the option agreement to split it, basically. So at some point, I'm no longer needed for Lot 12 because it's it's Bill's kind of development. It's it's the missing puzzle piece to his development. So are we able to figure that out at this meeting, or does that have to be

We are not able as we have sent notice for action at this meeting, I don't believe.

What I what I would suggest is just that we draft the agreement accordingly, bring it back to the RDA for your approval, and and merge that with design evolution that they're preparing so that, you know, we we see how it all works together, and then the option agreement is designed accordingly. Thank you.

I hope that's understandable. I just we don't wanna go against meeting rules and certainly the actions of the meeting. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Council member, Johnson, go ahead.

So, do we need to make a motion to direct Jason to move that direction?

I think we can, yeah, let's formalize that, at least to help us prepare for the April meeting.

I would move that staff move forward with developing that agreement for the division of the lot.

Second. A motion on the floor and a second by Phil for that request. Any questions or comments on that motion by members? Okay, seeing none. Oh, Council Member Jensen.

I just want to be clear. In full support of this. And I'm thrilled to hear Bill talking about how they're going to make it more than just a parking lot. I think that is extremely important. So thank you.

Seeing other questions or comments on the motion, we'll take a vote. All in favor of the motion, signal aye or a thumbs up. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Okay. We'll move to agenda item five twenty six dash zero two nine zero. Consideration of possible action on the planning option agreement for Lot 1 with unwind. As you recall, we did have visited us last month for their conceptual plans. And so this this is really to formalize the next phase of their development.

We do have members of Unwind here joining us. No obligation to speak if you don't care to, but wanna at least offer that. Any updates? Thank you. If you can use the microphone to introduce yourself. Thank you.

Yeah. I don't really have much for you. We're just starting to get going with the architects and Braun Intertek and all everybody with the geo peers and everything. I guess we're ready to start spending some money on it, but just wanna get the agreement locked in.

Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate your updates and and certainly the progress made on on on both sides. Members on this item, again, we do have a, option agreement. We'll take each each option agreement individually based upon agenda item. So Any questions or comments on the option agreement as presented? Seeing no questions or comments, we have a motion on this item. We have a motion for approval for Allot One. Do we have a second? We have a second by Gus.

Questions or comments on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion, aye or thumbs up? All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. We'll move to agenda item six twenty six dash zero two nine one. This is the consideration possible action on planning option agreement on Lot 2. Similar question. Questions or comments before any motion? If no questions or comments, do we have a motion on this item?

Motion to approve.

A motion by Phil for approval. A second by Gus for approval. Questions or comments on the motion as presented? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion, aye or thumbs up? All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Agenda item seven twenty six dash zero two nine five. It's the, project manager update for River Point District for March. Welcome Jason back up to the podium.

Thank you, mister chairman, and good evening, Redevelopment Authority members. I've I've got just a a pretty brief update tonight. Some of the things I've been working on over the last month include just coordination on the Lot 11121, And 2, which we've all heard about tonight. Also, Ryeke Development is working with some of the major employers on workforce housing needs. And if if you're not familiar with workforce housing, it's generally defined as 80 to a 100 per 80 to a 120% of the gross median income in La Crosse County, but it's a it's a critical need for employers when they're attracting and retaining talent.

So by having them connected with these developers, we can better understand what the needs might be as they're they're interviewing people and and so forth. The La Crosse Chamber, helped me, put together a database of, human resources contacts across major employers in the area, and we've given that to the developers, to help coordinate that. Also, I alerted three sixty Real Estate that they should be on next month's agenda because their option their six month option is or the extension, I should say, is expiring in May. So we are doing an update from them relative to the spring start of that first building their site. I've also been coordinating on commercial tenant prospects with a number of different developers.

We I had a meeting with, Morrissey Hospitality today, which is a a large company that, represents hotels, restaurants, and other, businesses. And so we we we continue to plug the developers in with these opportunities to make sure that if they do have commercial space, those commercial spaces are getting filled. On the renter equity front, we have interest from several of the developers in the development. I've also got interest from several financial management companies. I've got another meeting with Northwestern Mutual next week.

I met with Edward Jones a few weeks ago and, Trust Point and others. And now I'm meeting with large employers. So I met with Mayo's team yesterday. I have a pending meeting with QuickTrip and the university. And the idea is that renter equity the renter equity program can also be used as a workforce housing incentive because employers can match the renters renter developer investment so that after the vesting period, the renter has some equity built up.

And then I've been helping Brian at MSP too with his questions relative to the presentation tonight. And then we've also been I've B Vision's videography on on Pearl Street to do a video this year for the the the ULI conference, but they they just released a whole bunch of really nice aerial drone imagery that I I sent a link to Andrea on that we can get out to you too. I wanted to make you aware of that great imagery that they are. And then I've been coordinating on this energy system work that Bill Albright talked about with Ethos Power in Viroqua. We we're looking at different ways that we could put in solar to help benefit not only the parkway, and I'll be setting a meeting up with the park staff and and Ethos Power on that, but also to help reduce energy costs for some of the developers in the development.

And then last lastly, just ongoing telephone inquiries from developers and investors, and we still do get people inquiring about available land. So those are just sort of a snapshot of the work in the last thirty days. Thank you.

Jason, thank you. Members, questions for Jason on this month's report? Also, I had a chance to talk with the first person who's gonna be moving into the Reiki development. She's very excited and is looking forward to walking to work. So good good progress there. Thank you, Jason. We'll move to the last agenda item, the 26 dash zero two eight six, the monthly financial update for the redevelopment authority. You did have this month's financials attached to your packet. Tim's available to answer any questions you might have. Any questions for on this month's report?

K. I see no questions. Tim, you're off the hook. Will adjourn us in open session for tonight. I'll look ahead to April. Thank you again for all of your engagement and your questions, and we will see you all next month. Thank you.