Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning. Morning. Good morning. As soon as we call the order, we're going to introduce ourselves and then we'll start everything. Hi there. How are you? Welcome to the group. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Can I can I call the meeting to order? Not yet. Yes, we're all set. Okay, great. So, call the meeting to order. Confirm we have a quorum. 8:34 am. Um, before we do anything else, I would like to formally welcome our two new commissioners, Trisha Martin and Vivy Neta or Netta. Netta. Bob. Someone tell me if I'm pronouncing it right. What happened to Bob?

Is fine. Needa. Okay. I jokingly say whatever gets me off the phone faster. Yeah, I know. My spelling of my name gets interesting, too. But anyway, we lose. Did we lose Bob? Oh, there you are, Bob. I'm sorry. I'm right here. I have a very I started three this morning. I'm a little Anyway, um Denise, I've got you in the in the corner. Would you like to introduce yourself to every to the new members?

Good morning. I'm Denise Robu. I am the executive vice president and COO for Gman York. We provide um advisory especially economic development advisory to the town of Bloomfield and have done so since 2014 and before. So we recently um worked on the town center plan. Um so if you've got haven't gotten a chance, please take a chance and look that up online. And we assist John and Linda and the town manager as they see fit and Bonnie and very well. Thank you. And Denise, you do also have a lot of retail background, which is would be interesting to Trish, I would think. Yeah.

Okay. Uh, my name is Bonnie Burkowitz. I'm chair of the EDC and I've been that for quite a few years. I've been on and off and on since the 1980s. Um, I live in Bloomfield. I'm part I am the third I was the third generation with my husband of the family that ran Copako Shopping Center and uh have been uh very actively involved in economic development and some other things in the interim since we sold the center quite a number of years ago. Rebecca, you want to say hi so they know who you are?

Hello, my name is Rebecca Jones. I'm the uh building and land use recording secretary. So I'm kind of the one in the background doing the tech and the minutes. So hello. Hi. I'm Dave Driver with I'm sorry. Go ahead. Dave with Gman and York. I've been doing economic development for about 40 years. Um I help with the real estate and business community in uh Bloomfield and I do whatever Bonnie and Denise tell me to do. Oh, sure. Yeah, it's famous last word. Thank you for that, Dave. Be that as it may, uh, Sadi.

Yeah. Hi. Uh, this is Siddik Abdullah. I have been on the commission for about eight years now. Uh, excellent group and I'm learning a lot from them and professionally I am a professor currently at UHAR and uh my semester this semester the schedule is tight. So I might be leaving the meetings uh around 9:30 which I you know feel sorry about but I have to go to the teaching schedule too. So very very nice meeting the newcomers you know especially Trish. Uh it's good to see you on the board and Vivian you know very nice we didn't get to see your picture right now but uh you know very welcome and uh this is a great group and you know you will enjoy the meetings here thank you

Sadique you're what you your specialy what kind of a professor are you what you teach what do you teach Sadique so we know that I'm teaching um generally I teach economics and finance this semester they assigned me the business data analytics. So, it's a new field and uh it's interesting. So, I'm enjoying it. Great. And Sadik has been a very very loyal consistent member of the of the commission and um we appreciate the academic approach because it is a little different than the hands-on that most most everyone else has. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome, Linda.

Yes. Good morning, everyone. I'm Linda Lauraniano. Uh Trisha um Martin. I' I've known Trisha since she uh right before um you know finding her she f she found her location here in Bloomfield. We were very happy to have her. Um I'm the assistant director of building and land use. Um and I just uh kind of focus in zoning and uh uh pre-development um approvals through the commission. And um I also assist John Coleman, the director. So I'm very happy to be here in this group and uh I'm here to assist in any way that you need help with related land use. Thank you,

Bob.

Uh yes, excuse me. I'm Bob Ferger. Uh I've been on the commission I guess this is my seventh year I believe and I'm I'm vice chair for the last year uh along with Bonnie. Uh I'm an attorney uh of about 50 years experience uh but also very active in the arts and I joined the commission with a specific mandate to uh bring arts to the town of Bloomfield in an active way. I'm uh chair of the Bloomfield Art Commission and through that I uh have the pleasure and privilege of knowing Vivian uh longer than some of you, not very long, but Vivian's been a member of our art commission for the last year. Uh and very very uh enthusiastic, helpful joining in and uh really was very interested in joining the EDC. asked me about that and and here we are. So, uh, welcome Vivian and and Trisha.

John,

good morning all. I'm John Coleman, the director of building and land use. Um, as Linda alluded to, we handle land use, zoning, building. We staff uh a variety of boards and commissions including this one, the TPZ, the zoning board of appeals, uh the inland wetlands commission. We staff council committees uh and we handle economic development and um and staff this organization uh which uh welcome to Trish and and Vivian. I think you're going to you're joining a um a very um active group who have a a real interest in where this town goes on an economic development basis and have been u very um very helpful in guiding that over time and um been a welcoming group. Um I think I'll leave it at that at this point.

Okay, maybe two more introductions and we'll get to our new members. Justin. Good morning everyone. Justin Lef Fountain. I am the senior vice president of planning and economic development with Coleman York. Uh as Denise and Dave have already said, you know, we help the town whenever we can with their economic development and planning activities. Um and in a past life several years ago, I was actually in John's seat. I was the director of building and land use for the town of Bloomfield. So I have a pretty good knowledge of what's going on. And um you know I'm always happy to help and I love working with you guys and I love working with John and Linda. So happy to be here and Brad. Brad

Dar I was on mute. Um my name is Brad Seft. I'm executive vice president and CFO for Gman and York. Um as everybody's probably mentioned, sorry I'm a little bit late, but everybody probably mentioned uh Gman York has been a consultant for town of Bloomfield for over a decade. Um we've really enjoyed that relationship. Uh my background is mostly in uh market and financial feasibility analysis. Um so we help the town analyze a lot of the the deals that come before um the the economic development committee. So excited to meet everybody. Okay. And thank you Brad. And now on to our new members. Trish, would you like to uh give us a little background?

Hi. Thank you. Um yes, my name is Trisha Martin. um the owner of TJ's Burritos here in Bloomfield. Um November 1st will be a year um since we've been here, but um I grew up here. Um my grandfather owned the house on the corner of Tungstus and Mills. Um he worked for the town. My aunt worked for the town. Both my dad and my grandfather were on the fire department in town. Um so I kind of feel like I'm back to my roots and I'm happy to help um the town and the community wherever I can. Thank you, Trish. And welcome. and Vivian. Not last but not least. There we go. Can y'all see me? We can. Okay.

Hi, Vivian Neetta. Um I am uh as I mentioned earlier, resident of Bloomfield. Um I work uh for CT State um very specifically at CT State Capital, but I um work um as the director of digital marketing promoting uh the community colleges. Um in the past, I'm a fan of TJ's. I was just there a couple weeks ago and I'm going there on Sunday. Uh but I um in the past I've done um a lot of arts and culture work. Um also some economic development. I used to work for the city of New Haven helping to fuse arts and economic development. And I am just uh happy to be part of this group.

And you were a very persistent candidate. We was a long hall, Vivian, but we got welcome. Thank you. Okay, on to business. Um, Rebecca, I'm assuming that the the earlier um minutes just have not been transcribed yet. Is that why they're not is that why they're tabled? Yes, I'm working through them. Um, and I just received some documentation for the um live um meeting that you had um on the bus tour. So, I I will definitely have those to you by next meeting.

Okay. Um, and um, I did check Robert's rules of order, which was really interesting. I had always assumed that if you were not present at a meeting, you cannot vote on accepting the minutes. And according to what I read in Robert's rules of order, that is not the case. If you believe that you have read the minutes and that they seem to be accurate, that you are able to vote, which means that we will then have a quorum because if our two new members could not vote, we would never be able to approve those minutes. So, when you get them, uh, Trish and Vivian, please review them. If you have any questions, give me a call or a text and I'll be happy to answer them for you. Okay. On to approval of the minutes June of June 10th. Has everyone had a chance to read them? And if so, I'll entertain a motion to approve.

So moved. Second. Okay. Uh, any comments, questions, corrections? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the minutes of June 10th, 2025, indicate by saying I. I. I. Chair votes I. Those are approved. On to the minutes of July 8th, 2025. Uh, entertain a motion to approve. So move. Okay. Second. Second.

You know, the newbies can can um jump in here, too, just so you know. Okay. Any comments, uh, deletions, corrections? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the minutes of July 10th, 2025, indicate by saying I. I. I. Chair votes I. Approved unanimously. Great. Okay. Now, on to the really interesting stuff. Uh, John, do you have any old business to bring up? No, I don't. Okay. New business is Mr. butler with us. Yes. Let me promote her or please do. Yeah, I think um

Paul, you with us? Yep. It just takes a minute. Oh, okay. He should be. He's a panelist now. So, Paul, if you can hear us, you you can speak. And uh can't see him yet. This camera is there. Paul, welcome. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. We're very interested in hearing something about this. Again, we have a couple of newbies in our on our commission right now. Maybe you want to give them a little background about who you are and what you are presenting today.

Sure. So, my name is Paul Butler. I currently live at 713 Bloomfield Avenue which is the apartment building across from town hall. Um I we moved to officially moved to Bloomfield in seven years ago but prior to that I uh purchased a property on Jurro Mav to make uh turn into my medical office building which I nicely renovated and eventually knocked down after I renovated it. Um, what happened was I I came to town hall I think in 2012 and talked to Tom Hooper about building a small apartment building next to town town hall at 700 Bloomfield Avenue and he said, "Paul, is there any chance you do something bigger? The town really wants more feet on the street." So, uh, came back a year and a half later and had, I think, 24 single family homes, uh, under agreement, and that was the be beginning of the good, the bad, and the indifferent in Bloomfield Center, right? Um, a lot of people have embraced it, some people haven't. U, originally when Heirloom Flats came to be, there was not a design review commission in town. I I think it's great that there is now a design review commission in town because they've been very active in the second and third buildings and you can probably see the difference from an architecture standpoint. But I do have to say there was a group in town um again good, better and different that met with the developer of heirloom flats. So I so I sold the underlying land for heirloom flats. I wasn't the person behind the construction, but I I set up multiple meetings with a handful of architects in town. Um, and they heirloom originally was going to be a brick building and the people that were active in town felt

that wasn't appropriate. I think because more the owners of heirloom, future heirloom were were making the building look more like a mil brick building. and you know was told them very strongly that you know this is not a mil town it's a farm town. So I think there was that was unfortunate there was a disconnect when that was designed. Of course I' I've talked to hundreds of people that love the look of heirloom flats and I probably talked to hundreds of people that don't like the way it looks but that's in the past. The good news about Flats is in 2026 it'll between taxes, property taxes, um, excise taxes, um, real estate taxes, there'll be $2 million of new revenue for the town of Bloomfield just for that one building. So, the interesting part of the tax mill rate in Bloomfield, and I know there's a lot of things going on with with that with the reevaluation, but they've actually really hit the apartment buildings pretty hard. Um, I believe Dr. New York, I talked to Don Holland and it's if you look at the numbers like so, it's 210 unit apartment building. I think it's 207 in class flats. Some of those are studio units, one bedrooms, two bedrooms. Uh there's probably more studios in one bedrooms than there are two bedrooms. But the average property tax per unit is almost the same as a single family house in Bloomfield. So you're talking about $6,500 per unit per apartment building in Bloomfield. And if you look at every I know it's expensive in the term of in the scheme of what it costs to live in in certain parts of town, but uh a one-bedroom apartment in heirloom flats is right now $2,200 a month, which

sounds sounds very expensive. It is expensive for a lot of people. Uh the average one-bedroom apartment in West Hartford is closer to $3,000 a month on the apartments are building in the center. And the two bedrooms in West Harford are closer to $5,000 a month. And the two bedrooms are about 2,800 to 3,000 in heirloom. And in our new building, the two bedrooms are more about more likely 2600. The one bedroom is 2100. And the reason why I'm saying this is West Hartford property taxes are $5,500 a unit. Bloomfield are $6,500 a unit. So if if you if you look at that and say, "Well, the income is 40% lower." It's it's a really big ask. And I think what's going to happen and it sounds like you have other presenters coming down the road. Um because of because of that, the good news for the town is wow, we have $2 million flats coming here, which just helps, you know, support the property tax base for the single family homeowners who some, you know, a lot of them are on a fixed income and uh you know, they're upset about the property tax situation. So what we have going on the good the good news is we have you know two other buildings that are be coming on the tax roles uh in the next few years and all of a sudden you know the center of town might be 4% of the of the property taxes in the center in in in the town itself. That's what's going to happen. It's going to we're talking eventually in the next, you know, six or seven years, you're going to be three and a half$4 million of property taxes just just from the apartments. And there's a lot of and from a consolidation standpoint, you take five acres of land uh and you bring in $2 million of property taxes. So what happens is you you really need to include the car excise taxes because whether people are moving from Bloomfield into these apartments or

coming from outside of Bloomfield, you know, if if you're a single family homeowner in Bloomfield and we have a lot of people in Bloomfield that have moved into these apartments, they've sold their homes. Uh well, someone else buys their homes and and and they have a cars at the at the new house and these people have moved into the building and now they're paying the car excise tax. That that's a big number. It's a big number right away. Um so I think This is going to be a big education process, I know, over the next five or six months. And I know today's a day that is going to, you know, determine the next four years or two years of the future of the town. Um, but I think I think whoever gets elected, if if if we really spend a lot of time talking about the economic benefits of whether it's a tax leveling agreement, a tiff, uh, you know, tax leveling sounds probably better than the tax abatement. Uh, but you know, the point of heirloom flats would never have been built without the tax abatement. When that property was purchased, it sold for less than the value of the tax evident. Uh that's and you're talking about over $und00 million that's been investment invested just in the Bloomfield Center from these apartment buildings. Uh it's I I don't know of a better economic bet and and then you know other towns because they've been more prodevelopment have been able to keep their tax increases lower and and Bloomfield's done I think overall a good job. I mean, it's it's hard. You know, costs are going up everywhere and now I'm going to turn into a politician, which I'm not. So, I'm not going to go there. So, it's it's a very difficult situation, but I think your commission

is incredibly valued to bring future, you know, increases in t in the tax base so you won't have to overburden a lot of current people in town. So do but we do hear you but what we really would like to also hear is about the new development. Sure. Time restraint.

Sure. So we so I was actually I kind of have was pretty much done. So um one thing that you I want to be aware to start is it's already approved. Okay. So two years ago that apartment building was approved. it was approved for, you know, size and scope in the um, you know, special development district. So, that was accepted by town planning and zoning. We work closely with the neighbors and now we're working with not only Gman and York. So, I is Don Poland still with Gman and York. Yes. Okay. Because I' I've been working with Don over the last five months about how how can we make this a true public private partnership? So, what we're trying to do is is use some form of a tax leveling agreement to improve the center of town. Uh, now I'm I'm hopeful Linda is going to be able to help me with this slideshow because I've never done it and the person that was supposed to do it for me had to leave town for a family situation. Linda,

if you're ready. Wonderful.

Okay. So this is this is a current view of the of the center of town. Um the so what we're trying to do is we're trying to bring when you're coming from you know the southern part of town into Bloomfield driving north on Bloomfield A. We're we're so on the left of Gab on the corner at the light where Gab Road and Bloomfield A intersect. We own the eight houses six houses along Bloomfield A two houses on Gav Road. We have approval for a 210 unit apartment building. What we want to do is improve the center and tie it in kind of like Philly Park is on this other side. So currently the town owns some land. So if you visualize coming in from Cottage Grove, you got the light of Gab Road and you know you took a right you go down that school but right there on the righth hand corner there's some pictures on the plan that's just the town takes care of it and knows it. What we're proposing, if we can work over the next few months, is to take that over in like a 100red-year lease and work with the beautifification committee in town, landscape both sides of the streets and make it a real welcome center to Bloomfield Center. Uh we could add some signage if designing view and the town powers of be want it. Welcome to Bloomfield Center. Or we can just or not. We just make it look as nice as we can. Um, Linda, can you just scroll down one?

Sure. Thank you.

Okay. So, this if you look at the the far left side where it says number one, that's actually the corner of Gab Road and Bloomfield Avenue. So, a couple things we we'd have to do if everyone embraces this. So, this is not going to be an easy embrace. Uh I I know um there's been a lot of complaints in town, especially in the center uh with dogs causing problems in neighbors yards with all the dogs that are now in town. There's I I I think it's over 60% of people in Flats have a dog. I I don't know what the number is in in the new building, but it's significant. And some of the neighbors have not been happy about dogs walking by. But if if you look at number three on this map and number six, we're proposing a public dog park and public parking. Um so if you live three miles away and you want to bring your dog to the the dog park, you can come over here, park your car in the area number six and use in use the dog park. Now our plan is to hold money in trust and the building owners will keep this up so it will not be a burden of the town of Bloomfield. This land is actually currently Eversource land. Uh we have an agreement to have an easement over that property and build this from Eversource. Um that was a fun three-year project, but we're we're finally through it and we now have the rights to, you know, build a public we're calling it a public dog park without the town of Bloomfield having to pay for BRT. And that's our same thought on the corner on when it says number one and also across the street on Gav Road where right now it's showing just three trees that currently exist. Um, our plan is to take care of that, not have not not be burdened with the town, but we would work with I have a meeting with the beautifification committee in a couple weeks uh presenting to them and

we our plan is through this process if we can make I think everyone in town most not everyone is not going to agree but get a decent amount of people to agree to a point where we can we're proposing $50,000 to be put in a trust. that can be for a forever trust like the the library and 4% of the money can be given as the beautifification every year where they can improve other parts of town. There'll be visors for this part of town which we will take care of other parts of town you know they can they can use that money for funding and I think I think it'd be a nice thing long term if a big developer comes in looking to do things this is how you know some set aides and more money could go into some of these funds uh similar to what the state just did with with preschool where they're putting money separate outside the fund which doesn't affect the long-term tax And then we're also proposing $25,000 to the arts and we're trying to we're looking at different areas. We are going to go in front of the the arts commission in town. It sounds like one of your board members is is involved in that. Um so it's so so to continue on. So the by adding this public parking, okay, it's it's forcing us. So I don't have to do this. I just I we don't have to we can just we can build the building and make it look nice. Um but I we do there's been a lot of talk about originally it was a tiff but public private partners what can we do for the town? What what public improvements can we make and work together to make this happen? So if you look on number two it's a full sidewalk from Gav Road. The people in Gav Road like to walk to the center of town. So, they're going to have an option to all the way around the building to pick up a sidewalk um which will now connect to the town. Currently, there's there's not a sidewalk along

Bloomfield Avenue in that area. It starts uh at the corner of Jerome Way. Uh we're also going to have a walking area back by one uh where it says number one in the back. We're, you know, work with wetlands on that. But but currently we own 717 Bloomfield AB which is the the brick building we're renovating at the corner near the library. When we acquired that, there's an easement in the back of those properties where we can connect from the library hopefully eventually all the way to Gav Road for a walkway back along Washbrook, which which which still we still need to talk to the other owners in the back of those other buildings, but I believe we can make that happen. Uh, which would be a nice, you know, walkway for for everyone in town. So, we've been talking about that for about six or seven years and we've given the easements there's already easements in place for 717 and 713 and this is going to be an additional easement in the back. Um, so from a and then the area number one is really a public park. Um, so working with design review, it's still not this is still not finalized, but we're trying to beautify the corner, let it be a public spot, and uh just make it a grand entryway to Bloomfield Center. Okay, Linda, I know your time constraint, so we'll go to the next slide. Thank you.

Okay. Okay, that this is just the parklet. It's about a I think it's close to a quarter acre on the corner there. And that's going to also one thing about the building I need to to discuss is if you if you went over there now, you'll see that all the backyards significantly drop below grade. So, we're going to be able to have this building lower than normal because of that grade. So, all the parking and the pool inside is actually going to be about 15 feet lower than the road at Gav Road and Bloomfield Avenue. So that's just visualize that's going to be set back into the ground. Um, next slide, please. Thanks for doing this, Linda. That would have been a big problem child. I couldn't.

This just shows a rendering of a signage. If if if you want to have some type of signage there, we obviously will work with the town. uh if they don't want signage there, then we just won't have a sign there, which is fine. Um so this is the left side and this is before we this is working with so far design review. Um we've probably met with them four or five times over this and also uh maybe seven times going back a couple years, but we haven't met with beautifification. So what we're trying and one of the things we've worked on and I've learned from the past is along the edge of the roads at least for seven or eight feet you don't want to have any tall plantings because it really causes problems with people coming out of Gab Road and a few other places. So you really want to keep that clear for sighteline for traffic. Okay, next slide. Okay, that's so that's the beginning stage is showing what we might be able to do on the right side of the street. Again, that's just a a rendering of what can and can happen. I think we're going to need to plant some taller things there also, but it's just showing how you can pick up both sides of the street. So, we would actually put in a new water meter pit. Uh the apartment building would pay for the water. We'd set up irrigation in that area. Uh and really try to beautify the entryway to the building. Okay, next slide. Okay, just another another angle. It's show it's showing the the walkway. Um, so that would be in New England, it's really hard to do actual brick pavers. So this is this is a concrete color sidewalk. So the frost tees in the winter time don't cause problems. But this would again come all the way down to it would start almost at Washbrook in the back on Gap Road and loop all the way down and connect in front of uh, you know, where the Eversource lands end on the other side of of the Earth. Next slide. So this is from closer to where the dog park area would be. So it's getting

closer to the dog park area. Just taking a look back on the on the way up on the way up the hill because there is an incline there. Next slide. Thanks. So the Okay, so this rendering I guess they haven't fixed it. Geez. Sorry about that. So this originally showed parking along Bloomfield A. Uh oh, I'm sorry. No, this is part of the building parking lot. Yes. So, what this is really showing is a significant uh landscape. So, you won't be able to see the parking on the regular parking. Uh there is also a we we designed a bul bus shelter that'll look similar to the feel of uh Philly Park. Some of the light wood and and roof that would match. We kind of want to tie those two together. But again, this is we still have more meetings to go. It's it's a concept. And there again is is that um the bus shelter and I guess the the wood part is is in the dog part itself itself. Uh so next slide right so I guess that's number three. I think we have a picture of that somewhere else. So that's the dog park area and the parking in the back. What I was alluding to earlier, which I never finalized, finished was because we have all this public public parking, you know, if we go forward with being able to do all this with the help of some type of public private partnership, then we're going to need to build some parking underneath the building. And the cost to build parking on a building is about $25,000 of parking spot. So, we can e either we we do have this easement uh forever source for parking either way. The question is is you know do we have public parking to allow anyone in town to come over and use the dog park and or they can come and park and walk walk through the town. They can you know hang out and park at the corner. Um so there's pretty extensive again I know you're time limited so going going back and happy to come back in front of you again if you want. Uh decorative stone walls. We're going to redo that traffic

signal. It's going to become a four-way traffic site on Jerome Way and Jerome in Bloomfield Avenue. Currently the timing seems off. We weren't involved in that traffic light at all. So we have done a traffic study and people will be coming in and out of this apartment building only on Bloomfield A where Jerome Way is. The the neighbors a few years ago really wanted to avoid traffic coming on Gav Road. So there's only an emergency entrance for ambulance and fire off of Gav Road. There's gonna be a gate there that will not allow uh public access or even tenant access. Next slide. Okay. And there's just a depiction of the fencing. Oh, there's that cabana look look roof. That's a similar feel for so people that are at the dog park, they can sit in shade while their dogs play and run and hopefully hopefully get along. Um it's worked in other towns. So, you think of a bad dog, but there's there's not not as many bad dogs as you think. And I think usually when people have dogs that don't get along with others, they keep on a leash. And uh it's worked pretty well in other towns. That might be the last slide. I'm not sure. Nope. Oh, there's just another angle. So, this is the the visual of the entryway to the apartment building. So, this is currently what we have for the apartment building itself. We're trying to match the lights, street lighting that's similar to the Philly Park and we're trying to decorate. Some of the stone work also is very similar to what they've done at Philly Park where they've built stone walls and I think they have blue stone on caps on top of the walls at Philly Park. I really like the way Philly Park came out. So trying to pick up a little There we go. That's what I was talking about. So that's a similar feel of Philly Park in the

Yeah. So, I heard on CNBC the other day, 30 years ago, 28% of US households have dogs and now it's 47%. It's just incredible how many people have dogs. Sorry about the cat lovers of the world, but um people have a lot of dogs. I I don't know what the number for cats are. I have no idea. There are more cats than dogs, by the way, Paul. Are there really? Yeah, because those people with cats have multiple cats, but anyway. There you go.

All right. Dogs get way too much way too much glory, I guess. Huh. Wow, it's quite the presentation. Um, I'm gonna just ask one question and open it up to the commissioners. When I saw this originally quite a few years ago, it was a step down design. Um, you've changed it so that everything's consolidated in one building. What's the height of the building? How many stories? Uh, it's it's going to appear to be about three and a half stories. Uh, but this it is going to be five stories, which is loud in this, which is what the other other buildings are. Correct. Well, no, that's what heirloom class is, but yes. Okay, that's what I'm referring

buildings are five stories from ground up where this is going to be it really is subterranean. So, you're going to come back and if you go and see this the slopes of the land and so it's turned into this because of design review. So, we yeah, I think we went to design review four times before we received approval, maybe five. And I've been there twice since then as we evolved the landscape plan. So, they're actually our engineers are now working on the actual grading plan. Uh, so design and review can see exactly what it's going to look like down Gab Road and down Bloomfield Avenue and make sure um it's it's very appealing. So, that's that's what they're working on now. So, that's we should have something back from the engineers in the next week or two actually.

Would you like to start? Uh, you're muted. You're you're muted.

Very happy to hear Paul's presentation. Uh this is very exciting. Sounds very good. Uh I can only impatiently wait for it. So um good luck. I think that would be a good addition to the center and uh people at Gapro would be also I think happy now because they had some reservations about this project. I think they should be satisfied with all the uh you know the care he's taken. So thank you very much Paul for your presentation. Good luck to you. That's a good addition. You've done good job already you know providing housing to a lot of people. Uh and uh just look at the prices if you can. I know it's it's a difficult question but but that's that's where I am also you know I would be interested. Maybe I want to move into those apartments. They'll give me a break.

Thanks, professor. Solicitation within the commission city. Thank you. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you very much, Bob.

Uh yes, I'm very very impressed, Paul. Have been with your work all along. We've been talking about you in a good way for a couple of years. Uh it's uh it's impressive and uh very very thorough. I think it can be done and definitely will in improve our town and our center. I'm almost half tempted. It's been in my mind for a while to say uh how did you choose Bloomfield and why did you decide to develop here when so many other places uh offer opportunities as well? But obviously it's working for you. My my last comment, having just recently paid my taxes as a a homeowner of a a big old house, is I I know that the uh the taxes that are charged, apartment buildings do get passed along to the tenants in in their rent. Uh, but I appreciate uh spreading the uh the tax base a bit with more uh uh commercial properties. Uh I'm very much in favor of commercial development because our taxes as homeowners are are astronomically high. We're on a phase in now, but they're going up over the next couple of years, even more dramatically than the apartment buildings are. So, thank you for paying those taxes. Trisha,

thank you. Trish, I think it Yeah, I think it looks great. My mom actually lives on Gab Road and I know she would be happy. I think it would be a good asset to the community. Thank you. Yeah, we did work with those neighbors very closely for a while. So, it's nice. And and Vivian, no, I don't have any questions. I'm just taking it all in. But it looks the renderings look, you know, day one and seeing all these renderings, it's very exciting. Oh, it's a lot. Now, this is I know

about the tax. Yeah. Also to learn like, oh, we're bringing $2 million in, but it's it's very exciting. One thing about the taxes we have to be aware of and I don't know John if you want to address it but historically we have been very the town's been very fortunate in that our percentage of commercial versus residential you can correct me John 6040 7030 uh and I think it started with Sigma in 58 that was the beginning of really having a good strong commercial base and that's one thing that changed during rebound so if you want to just have a quick couple minutes to comment on It's true there the with reval there was a shift because um value of commercial property declined the value of basically single commercial property I think in it also includes apartments but single family two family three family all increased uh and so there was a shift of about four or 5% um so it's much more um the the the 6040 split does not exist anymore more so that the single family residential in Bloomfield sort of got a double whammy. They're you know the good thing is that their values went up which everyone you know so their property values increased significantly by and large across the board. Uh that in that in itself increased um their taxes but also their shareh so that they're they're carrying a larger burden of the overall tax than they did before. And that's going to, you know, that's projected to continue for at least the next couple three, four years. You know, Brad or one of the or the folks at Goldman have more specific analysis of that, but and it varies from town to town obviously, but Bloomfield had been

fortunate that um the uh non-residential was carrying a significant portion of the tax and that's now shifting the other way. Would anyone from GMA New York like to make any comments? No. Okay. Um Denise, anything?

No. I think um John said it, you know, correctly. Um when you look at a lot of the other towns that we work with throughout Connecticut and in New England and other parts of the country, Bloomfield does have currently a commercial base that is much larger. Um you look at smaller towns like Summers, Middlefield, they have really have a insignificant commercial base and the burden is you know almost 90% or more on the the residential owners. So Bloomfield in this respect is very lucky

and and this we have always and this is going to be I think I'll give you an editorial comment. I think this is going to be the big fight that's going to go on politically for a while because there is a certain nostalgia for what the town was. Having lived here when it was like that, I will give you chapter and verse about how you really wouldn't want it. But um be that as it may, uh I think that this is how's the fact that we have Oh, I one quick question, Bob. Paul, demographics of who you thought were going to go into the apartments and who came into the apartments and what you're projecting for this new development.

We we thought it would be 90% young professionals. Uh it's turned out to be very different. Um I would say the uh I I believe it's 15% people are 55 and older. Uh I think it's about 15% people that are 40 to 55. Um and then the rest younger professionals. Um so yeah, and a pretty large mix of Bloomfield residents have have come in also. Um it's really nice to see. They built really nice communities. If you know, people really went inside some of those apartment buildings and spent time in the community room. Uh it's people with wheelchairs that are best friends with people that are 30. It's pretty cool. Are they expecting that in the new the new building as well?

We are. That's what's happening in in all the buildings. It's it's very very very similar. Yes.

Thank you, Denise. Bonnie, I think um when we did the town center plan, we specifically went into heirloom flats and we met in their community room with their residents and the ages ran from, you know, newly out of college all up to retirees and people that had moved into the area from other parts of Connecticut that chose Bloomfield to move into after they were empty nesters. It it kind of surprised us to see that it was that and just the people the community that was within that building for the people that lived there and how they talked about being able to walk around the neighborhood and how they loved walking around the neighborhoods and the houses even with their dogs, Paul, they still love walking around. But it was it was very eye opening when we did that. So,

and I think the other thing is you found Denise is that they um is that the majority of the residents enjoyed Bloomfield Center even in its present condition and lack of choices that they are taking advantage of all the choices there not just going to the more well-known locations but apparently are you know are utilizing all of the various um retail and um and commercial um uh offerings that are in Definitely. I did hear um specifically from the manager of Gistlers on how much when o heirloom flats did open how much their business increased. So that people are walking throughout that part of town. They're going not only to the larger restaurants like Republic and Carbones and that, but they're going to the smaller restaurants too and frequently frequenting those restaurants in town and the small businesses.

Just a just a small anecdote. I remember when I was still working in Bloomfield, I had a retired woman come up to me one day and she was talking about how she lived in heirloom and she just loved it. She was absolutely in love with it. She had downsized from a different house in town, so she was local and she just relocated right to the center of town. She's like, I can walk. I walked here, you know, to town hall. Uh, and she was thrilled. So, uh, they're they're popular. The residents really really love the places. That's another version of aging in place. [Music] the community written by maybe not aging in your home. So, yeah,

Paul, thank you very much. Um, please come back to us if you want uh, you know, when you're a little farther along and give us the update and we will, um, you know, give you our opinion. I think right now you see it's a pretty positive one.

Thank you. Yes, I I would say in the next few months I'd like to come back and look for a recommendation to work with going and York on a finan from the financial standpoint and hopefully recommend that we go forward once go and York agrees with what we're looking for to make it you know a true public private partnership that economic de you know your your comm commission agrees that the extras we're putting into this project is a benefit to the town. When you're farther along, we will be happy. Uh oh. When we're Is that me? When you're farther along, we will be happy to hear and to make recommendations.

Thank you very much. I appreciate everyone's time. Thank you very much. Thank you, Paul. Thank you. That was pretty exciting, I think. Okay. Uh the next is 871 Blue Hills Avenue, which I believe is the old Blue Hills Drive-in. Is that correct, John? That's correct. And is there someone here to make a presentation to us?

Yes. Jeff Cementa Cementana. I never pronounced it properly. Jeff is um is an is a uh represents the developer has represented them all through the process. Um they have received um their approval from TPNZ and wetlands some time ago. Uh they are now um have before the town council a request for a tax agreement uh because they have volunteered from the beginning and have in their project a 10% affordable um component um of their so they're it's about 164 unit development. The re they're proposing 17 of those units be uh for affordable. Um, as you all know, it's proposed to be developed on the old drive-in cinema site on Blue Hills Avenue. And and I can tell you that the u that the staff and the TPZ and the wetlands commissions have all been very enthusiastic about the development. We think it'll be a marvelous addition to the town, a really exciting and tremendous addition to the Blue Hills area and a catalyst for the revitalization of that area to go along with the street trade program and and probably generate a lot of additional development over time and take a site that's been dormant and vacant for uh almost 60 years and paying only $12,500 in taxes and make it a viable uh partner of the of the town the town. But I'll leave it to Jeff to um to present um their actual development proposal. Um he's been through this I can't count how many times. Um but um he represents the organization well and I and obviously is more than welcome to answer questions.

Thank you, Jeff.

Uh well, good morning everyone. Um as John said, I'm Jeff Smatana with the United Group. Um um and we've been working on this project uh on Blue Hills Avenue for a couple of years now with some excellent support from uh John and Linda and others uh in the town. And uh I really enjoyed your previous uh discussion with Paul Butler. Um, a lot of the um points that attracted us to our community uh apply very much to um to our proposed community and why we find it a very attractive and uh upand cominging place where we think a project like ours could do quite well and we think also there's a lot of synergy actually within a project like uh like Paul's and some of the other development. Um, if I could, uh, I have a PowerPoint presentation that kind of takes you through the project and why we're interested and what we're involved with. If I could present that, uh, would be a good way to just kind of take you through our project.

Hey, Greg. Okay, here we are. Okay. Um All right. Do you see um do you see the image? I do. Yeah.

Okay. So, what we're proposing um is what is is um popularly called active adult um senior housing. And it's um I'll describe to you a little bit about through this what what that is. It's really a little bit different than what Paul Butler was talking about where he's attracting some 55 plus people. Um we're we're looking at residents um that are still very active, still very independent, but are looking for a level of services and some other amenities that you wouldn't find in a in a very nice apartment project. Um so we can I'll go through and talk to you about this, but um the entity that we're working with here is UBH uh senior. Uh it is an active adult project that's uh um restricted at age 55 plus. There are 64 apartments plus we also have 24 town homes and as John mentioned we have 10% of our uh units that are affordable. And the United Group has been around for over uh 50 years. We're a diversified development company uh based in Troy, New York. We develop up and down the east coast. Um uh but and we're currently very much focused in in uh in New England. We feel that the demographics work very well for our active adult community. So, we're um looking for more and more opportunities to develop here. Um so, uh United Group's a substantial uh company. We've developed over $4 billion in real estate over our uh 50 years. We have an excellent team that has worked on this project. Uh QPK Architects. Uh we've worked with them on multiple projects over many years. They're very um they're based in Syracuse, New York. They're an excellent um uh design firm. Uh BL Engineering is the site civil firm. You might be familiar with them. They have a significant presence um uh in central Connecticut, greater Hartford area.

They've done multiple projects in um in Bloomfield and they've given us a a real high level of uh civil engineering and other services. And we also have a couple of other entities that work on the project. We have United Development that does construction management. So, while we hire a general contractor to do the work, but um uh our construction management group oversees that, interacts with the town and make sure the project uh proceeds on budget and uh on schedule. And then also, um we're generally long-term holders on these properties. Um so, we have our own management company, United Plus Property Management. Um and um they're an ex I I work on the development side. They're an excellent resource to me because they uh they fill these uh projects up, they rent them, they lease them, they manage them really well. Um and they're the entity that'll be uh present in town over the long term that uh um uh that that people will be interacting with. Um and in terms of our overall development experience, we do a lot of active adult. Um we do um a fair amount of uh market rate multif family as well. Um we do mixed use, some commercial mixed in with residential, straight commercial and we have quite a bit of experience with various forms of affordable uh housing as well. And um and as I explained, we're we're fully uh integrated in terms of uh that we do development, we do construction management, we arrange our own financing, and we do our own property management. Um these are several current active adult projects. We have uh the Worcester project uh um is 123 units on the west side of Worcester. Uh we just started moving in residents in the first

phase of that project a couple months ago um and are looking to move in the next phase. Um uh next month uh Steuart Florida's um uh 150 units. Um we do a lot of work in Florida in the southeast. Uh we have a fully approved project in Ashlin, Massachusetts uh uh that we hope to start either later this year uh or early next year. And just to again see the scope of um our services, uh you can see we're mostly up and down the east coast. Uh we work in about six states. Uh the management company um gets a lot of recognition. You see, this shows they were last year selected as I manager of the year, which they were very proud of. Um it's a really nice recognition. They do a lot of excellent work and um uh they'll do a great job of operating our project here. And um as we're proposing this project to the town of Bloomfield, some of the things that of course your commission is very familiar with is you know what are really the impacts of of new development and what are the considerations that need to really be u u reviewed when looking at new opportunities. So with our project um you know we were outlining what are the what are the economic benefits. So it's a huge capital investment over $70 million. We pay substantial permit fees close to a million or over a million dollars. And something else that happens with our projects our residents um will generally come from the community where we are based. So unlike just multifamily market rate where you might come from anywhere in the say greater Hartford area, most of our residents identify with this community currently. So we'll get 75% of our

residents will come from about a five mile radius. So most of these folks are home currently homeowners. So they will be selling their homes, downsizing and moving into our community. So, in any of these any of our communities where we really have a shortage of uh single family homes, we help to facilitate uh home sales. So, our residents might be in their early 70s. They could probably stay where they are currently for a while longer, but they don't really have an opportunity of someplace to live even though they would like to maybe get out from under the burdens of home ownership. Our community gives them an opportunity. they can sell their home and a new um a younger family or something could could uh then uh transition into those homes. So, I think that's a really good benefit uh especially in the northeast. Uh and as John mentioned, this site uh has been vacant for over 60 years. Um it has some specific challenges associated with it that uh where we fit better than other uses. I'll talk about that in a little bit. So, we think this is really an ideal fit. Um, we are long-term holders. We're going to be an uh an employer here. We'll have a full-time staff of about six people, uh, real estate professionals, um, that will, uh, be on site, uh, property manager, assistant manager, leasing manager, lifestyle coordinator, maintenance manager. Um, we pay good wages, we invest in our people. Um, so, and also, we'll be looking for local people to be working here that know our prospective residents. uh we've embraced uh some local business goals. We like to to work with local businesses in terms of encouraging local firms to um to look at how we can work together and also we will be generating quite a few construction jobs and it is a desirable use. It's senior housing specifically to that to that age group where I think all of us know senior housing is is in a is a great need. We're providing that

affordable element and uh we provide this supportive community where we are um although we're not a uh assisted living or we're not we're not providing services ourselves, our community provides a supportive environment so that we're so our residents can maybe find what they need um in our community. So not reaching out to other local services. And also this is a a gateway development where as you're entering the town um along Cottage Grove Road or coming up Blue Hills Avenue, our project will be visible and I think it'll be a very welcome welcoming development. Uh kind of an iconic project in that location and um certainly enhancing the tax base. Um project pays a little over $12,000 a year. So we'll be paying um u substantially more than that. uh we don't impact schools uh because we're uh primary seniors. So that's another benefit. We're paying taxes but not uh utilizing your um school system. Um and again in our supportive community there could be a reduction in overall impact to other services. And um we do feel like our community is the highest and best use for this specific piece of property given some of the limitations and other um proposals here that really haven't worked out. And certainly in terms of being a s sustainable development uh we're we're an all-electric building. We've uh incorporated numerous uh green building design features. Uh we have very efficient uh mechanical and operating systems and we will have on-site um EV chargers. Uh we have uh proposed to the town um um you know again it was interesting what Paul had said earlier in terms of how kind of new construction you see this in a lot of communities where you have a

surge of new development where it it kind of gets out of whack with existing properties where like like Paul had said where an apartment is paying as much as a single family home per unit in property taxes. So, um, that has kind of evolved over over the last couple years while we've been involved kind of understanding where we thought we would be in terms of taxes and seeing where now they might be based on where the town is. We reach out to the town under the um under the the town's current um uh tax abatement um policy uh which is basically structured under the state's 1265b and allows um you know up to 10 years for multif family and um our project is fully entitled um uh by the town and um by the TPZ and this is the location um other uh property. Um if you can tell from this map, we're basically at the intersection of Cottage Grove Road and uh Blue Hills Avenue. Some people may remember there was a drive-in movie theater there uh many years ago. Um as I said, it is a gateway into town. Um will be visible. It is a mixeduse area, so our use uh um fits in in well. Uh it's a convenient spot that's certainly accessible from multiple directions and um uh should be well connected to other communities or other uh parts of the community in uh in Bloomfield. This is the specific site. Um it's a little over 10 acres. Um the um the drive-in movie screen was in this kind of northwest corner of the site. And the site is kind of shaped that way. Um, and we've kind of developed our site to or our our uh our

buildings to work with the site in that way. Um, the um it's multiple buildings. I can show you the floor uh uh the site plan. Um and we uh did um uh work through TPZ and and um and planning uh to get all of our approvals um uh to proceed now with our with our development. So this is our our site plan. There are three apartment buildings. Uh these two larger buildings are basically mirror images and a smaller building that uh presents out here on Blue Hills Avenue. We have a standalone clubhouse that I'll talk about. And then we have um six townhouse buildings at four units each. So, 24 total uh uh buildings. We have a very nice outdoor amenity area. A large part of our community is really engaging our residents in multiple types of activities. So, our indoor and outdoor outdoor amenities are a large part of the lifestyle that we're providing. Um, another benefit really with our use is that we we're less impactful in terms of cars and parking and traffic. So, we're a little over a one:1 parking ratio. Much of our parking is under buildings. So, we are preserving green space and also generally our residents are not u peak time travelers uh so they're not impacting the roads. This is a challenging intersection and also we do have a shuttle bus as well. So, uh there are a lot of benefits um to our community. Uh this layout um you know, we like the way this has come together really well. Uh we can use our underbuilding parking. We can have this not an outdoor amenity space and have a nice walking uh pedestrian friendly community to drop people out of their uh

apartments and into um our active um programs that are going on. Um so we've um worked with a variety of architecture. The in the upper right are these town homes. The upper left is our uh our apartment buildings. Um each unit has a balcony. Um a lot of uh very nice apartments. And then our clubhouse. Also looking for sort of that town hall sort of look. And um the property will be very um very well landscaped, very efficiently laid out and also accessible throughout in terms of inside our buildings and throughout the uh the site plan. And um what we're looking to do, as I said, we're we're looking to attract residents um out of their single family homes. And um and again as as Paul Butler was saying and he was a little surprised how the profile of their renters has been a little different than what they expected. Um but we really see that that um for a variety of reasons. Um, one for us specifically, you know, for years we rented to the Eisenhower generation and now we've really transitioned where we're really right in the middle of the Boomer generation and it really has changed our approach our um, uh, features uh, somewhat in our communities. Um, the boomer generation has different expectations. um they're a little more uh amanable to renting as lifestyle, but on the other hand, they don't want to be compromising in terms of their quality of life. Uh our residents are renters by choice. Um renting is potentially appealing. They like the idea of getting out from under the home maintenance and um home repairs. They don't want to compromise

the quality of life. They don't want to reduce their their housing quality. They want an active lifestyle. They want socialization. Uh but while they're still independent, the idea that there could be some supportive uh network is appealing. Uh they do like the idea of aging in place once they move. They don't want to be moving again in a few years. So, what we provide are a whole number of features designed for these residents that are in-unit features in terms of um very nice one and two-bedroom apartments that are open floor plans, 9 foot ceilings, full kitchens, stainless appliances, walk-in closets, full-size washer dryers, um ceramic tile bathrooms, just really nice balconies. So, someone that might be moving out of or thinking about moving out of their home could walk into one of our apartments and say, "Oh gosh, this is lovely. I could certainly live here." And then the uh buildings themselves certainly are fully accessible. They have trash shoots and provide a lot of convenience. And then in our clubhouse, there are a lot of amenities that I'll um speak about additionally, but people really want that lifestyle. They also like the outdoor activities in terms of um uh things like botchi and pickle ball of course is all the craze uh gardening plots walking paths um and then also this lifestyle that we've providing we've kind of organized under what we call our sun program our senior umbrella network uh that takes all these programs and and organizes them in ways that people can conveniently take advantage of them. And uh we also have transportation. We have a shuttle bus uh that takes our residents to multiple functions and events. So this is the this so sun program that we've branded. Um

uh we've been doing senior housing for, you know, 354 years. And about 20 or so years ago, uh, Michael Eusselini, our our CEO, kind of really thought about what what really appeals to our residents about what we're providing and really organized it in these categories and created this senior umbrella network. So, we're giving them services that focus on health and wellness, community and friendship, fun and recreation, education and lifelong learning, safety and security, convenience and economies, and then finance and legal. So this whole constellation of services really work well together to really support their their lifestyle. The program has won national awards um for um as a management style program and it's the program is really this is our clubhouse. This is the floor plan of it and we like to say it's a purpose-built clubhouse. So each space helps to support different programs that we're providing to our residents and spaces provide multiple uh programs over the the course of a day and the week. Um so there's an indoor pool, uh there's a fitness center, a yoga studio, uh a salon and a spa, a multimedia room, um a golf simulator. We have a large great room where we do multiple events, a beastro bar, and then our management offices are there as well. We also have a dining uh room that people can utilize if they want to have a large family event. I think do Thanksgiving dinner, have a baby shower or something. So, it serves a lot of purposes. And what we're really looking to do um is engage our residents in many ways. So, for example, you might come over in the morning for a yoga class, uh say come back in the afternoon for a bridge game, and then you're back in the

evening for um for a happy hour. Um so, it really we is designed to draw people out of their apartments, come together, take advantage of our um uh programs. We have a lot of outdoor features. There's an outdoor kitchen, a patio area. We like to do grilling uh do parties. Might do a tailgate party um uh on a Sunday uh uh for football. Um might do um uh parties for um an anniversary, do casino night. They do a lot of activities to really appeal to um to residents and promote that uh lifestyle. And these are um these are images of uh our the Worcester project just to show you a current project of of um how it looks and might appeal um similar in some ways, multiple buildings, a central clubhouse um and um just the indoor features. You can see kind of the indoor uh layout, open space. uh years ago when we were first designing senior housing and over 20 years ago really, we were kind of making it up as we went along. Um we talked to residents and what would they want and you know the big problem was you know you know what what do you do? Uh

where is mom where is mom going to put her dining room table dining room set so she can host Thanksgiving dinner. Um, but now these days you can't give away a dining room set. You know, we found that, you know, that's really not a good use of our of our space. So, they're really more open and flowing um, and really designing the kinds of features that our residents really are looking for. You know, each bedroom provides space for a king-size bed. You're not going to move out of your home where you've lived for, you know, 30 years and been um, uh, sharing a king-size bed. you're not going to downsize. So, really understanding uh what people really need, walk-in closets so that people know they can have all their um uh all their belongings well accommodated. And these are some of the amenity spaces. Um this is from different projects that we currently have. Um so you can kind of see they're kind of fun spaces. The pools um they're not really lap pools. It's more things like Aquaize and um a little physical therapy that people do in the pools, but that's very popular. Although grandkids uh come and play in the pool as well. Uh the media room, uh we do films and uh people watch shows, but also we get a lot of presenters that come in. Um some college classes that uh part of our lifelong learning uh but also maybe a trust and estate advisor may come in. So those spaces are often used for that. Uh fitness centers are uh you have uh really excellent equipment. Someone might be, you know, running three miles on a treadmill. Someone else just might be involved in a sitter size class that uh you know, just gets them going, sitting in chairs, playing some music, and just getting the blood flowing. Um you know, the salons are very h very popular. The spa spaces we use for like

massages, but also we bring in outside medical professionals um that might do um uh hearing tests, eye tests, flu shots, um do some uh wellness counseling and then we connect our residents to wellness providers in the community. So if they have a need, they already have connected relationships. And then also we have our our shuttle van as well. And um we did um submit an afford our housing affordability plan to the TPZ. It's a very comprehensive program of how um we will be managing and operating our 17 affordable units. Uh they're provided at 80% of AMI. They're distributed evenly throughout our community. Um so they're equally representative of uh by location and unit type. uh all the amenities are available um that are available to any resident most and those those programs are all without an additional charge. Um and also something um with these affordable units is that um the town really administers this or establishes the policy. We manage it uh and report to um the TPZ. um preferences can be established for things like um um town residents or it could be say healthcare workers or teachers or uh veterans or something like that. So that's something that we'll be working with TPZ to establish if there may want to be some preferences for those affordable units. And again, just speaking about the site specifically, um, you know, you can see that it's, uh, quite vacant here. Uh, it's been that way for, you know, uh, 50

60 years. Uh, I think due to the traffic here, other uses like retail that you might consider here just really don't work because, um, that the you really can't get in and out of the site particularly well because we're a low impact traffic uh, community. I think our our our use here works much better, but certainly here you can see how visible this site is as you come into town. So, we feel like it's a a significant benefit to providing our our use uh in this location. So, again, just talking about some of the benefits, it's uh you know, $72 million investment. We do impact u home sales. Um the National Association of Realtors provided some estimate of the um that each home sale produced something like $135,000 in downstream economic benefits or something like that. I don't know if that's the right number, but there's no doubt that an active community that's selling homes and having families move in and people improving their homes certainly generates positive uh economic activity. So again, I think we're facilitating that uh here in town and we'll our uh fees, building permits and other permits we'll be paying to the to the town will be over a million dollars. And we're filling some substantial needs in terms of uh senior affordable uh and and really um meeting needs of current residents where they can really age in place. And also um the jobs we we do invest in our um uh in our employees. We give them

opportunities to grow. Um we bring them together for um uh conferences and um training sessions. So people all over the country are coming together to share their experiences and um us to provide continuing training. And I think from this location also we'll we'll be well connected to all aspects of the um of the community. Also describing some of the sustainable and green features and then also that we're um um paying significant taxes and um really impacting the town. And then um you know finally I think as the way we approach development and I think there's this project in sign in this um site represent is we do embrace these ideas of smart growth. You know it's a list of features that the uh EPA had established um a number of years ago that you know you should be looking to repurpose existing and and blighted sites. Look to preserve open space uh create a sense of place in each development. be efficient with your design and provide housing options. Uh try to locate in mixeduse neighborhoods. Uh so there's a variety of activities. Uh you know be very efficient uh in your design and um uh always uh strive to have significant stakeholder engagement which we certainly have had here in town. And then also providing transportation options which we're on a bus line, we're in a good location and we're also providing um transportation. So, we think uh in many respects it's going to be a um a really positive uh contributor to um to the town of Bloomfield. So, as um John had mentioned initially too, we are currently um um speaking to the town

about a um getting a proposal approved under their um uh tax abatement policy. Uh there's been a lot of discussion obviously as you know in town about uh taxes. Um so we're hoping that our proposal with the town is positively uh considered and approved. Um and you know would appreciate your you know thoughts and comments and um you know on our project. Hey thank you. That's a very impress two impressive uh presentations we've had tonight. I have one quick question. I'll open it up to the commission. What are the rental prices going to be?

Um, so our rents because we have full uh services, you know, we're generally, you know, 25 to 30% above market rate and about 50% under independent living. So, our rental apartments um will start um uh in the uh one-bedrooms apartments will start at about uh 26 $2,700 and uh two bedrooms will start at about $3,200.

Then the affordable housing is 80% of that or 80% of what the the average cost is in the area. They're 80% of the local um uh AMI and where they activate. Uh it's a local you look at the local community. Uh HUD provides what those local rates are. Um and that's how those are established. There's a very specific uh process for how those rates are calculated and how residents qualify. And you don't have those at the moment. Any any guesstimate what they're going to be? I um based on current rates of course that changes and also yeah

um uh what you do is you take that AMI you apply the 80% you take out a a utility allowance and then that provides a net rent that I think under the current is something like $1,600$1650 or something like that. That's for the onebedroom. Yes. And um I think like $18 or $1,900 for the two bedroom. Okay. That's

well it's a I'll tell you um we may not be getting commercial development. We certainly are getting housing development and it is needed both in our community and in the state and region. So and the idea of aging in place I think is a is going to be a very um attractive option to people in the age in the area. Commissioners who would like to make a comment please let me know. Nobody. Bob, anything to say there? You're You're muted, Bob. You're

okay. Can somebody help? Bob, you're still muted. We can't hear.

Linda, can you unmute him? I'm trying. I'm trying. Okay. Thanks, Rebecca. If you're a host, you should be able to unmute.

Okay. How's that? Can you hear me now? Yeah. Okay. For some reason, when his uh display went on, uh anyway, uh I was curious. Uh you mentioned you're doing work in Stewart, Florida. Is it the same kind of thing? I owned a home in Hope Sound, which for everyone's information is next door to Stewart. So, uh, are you doing the same kind of thing there?

Uh, it's Yes. Uh, very similar, a little bit different. You know, lifestyles in Florida are different than New England. We do outdoor pools there, obviously. Um and and the those residents tend to be a little older in Florida um than in any of our communities uh because it's perhaps a little bit easier to stay at a home um uh in Florida. But yes, very similar in terms of amenities and whatnot. Um and but I would say our our residents uh in the northeast tend to be a little bit younger. Thank you. Um, Trisha Vivian.

Um, I I don't have any questions. I I think it looks great and, you know, I think it's something that's needed in the town. Thank you, Ben. Vivian. Yeah. No, no questions at this time. I'm just really interested in the project and it seems like it's obviously thought out um considering the generations and how people approach kind of aging in place. So, it looks like it has everything. It's It's not the the it's not an inexpensive place to live, but you're right, Jeff. In but in comparison to any kind of assisted living. It's a it's much much less expensive. Yes.

And that's exactly right. Um and it's um you know and certainly you've had some beautiful um new apartment development in town and you've seen what class A apartments uh rents are and um uh and that's in large part a function of just construction costs that all of us are really wrestling with. But what we really try to do so people that are in that age situation are maybe looked at other options. Uh like for example what's generally called independent living includes usually includes meal plans and we find our residents really don't want a meal plan. They like preparing meals. They like the variety. They like to travel. So uh so what would that's really the only other option and we find that we can be 40 to 50% less expensive than that. So when people really look at what's really out there, uh I think we find that um you know, our residents find this um uh very attractive. Our um I think our Worcester project will serve as somewhat of a a good uh comp to uh to Bloomfield. I think our resident profiles will be very similar. Our leasing there has gone really well and the residents that are living there are really enjoying it. So, um you know, we try to be as competitive as we can and give as quality a lifestyle as we possibly can.

And the big uh one big um benefit to this is opening up the um the housing market as people move. I mean, that that is huge. And I I I don't know if anyone really appreciates you if you read more and more articles about it. There's just like a my generation just won't move. If we won't move, then the people behind us can't move into our houses. So, this may be uh this may may help housing in general in town. What do you want from this at this point, Jeff? You've sort of thrown an awful lot at us. Um and you're welcome to come back once you have more of a proposal on the tax abatement. Um well maybe John can speak to that but um we have a proposal into um into the town now and my understanding was this was um um having a recommendation um from the economic development commission was a um was a requirement for that. So, if um and John could speak to this better, but if that's something that you would be prepared to do today, that would be um helpful for our process.

John, we just really need to know what we're recommending the town do. I mean, there's one thing to recommend the project is something else to recommend the tax payment program. Yeah, the policy requires that it be um be referred to you guys for review and Okay. um and comment. Uh so I think it would be useful if the if the EDC could, you know, could comment on supporting the project. Okay. Um and obviously um you know that you think it's an important addition to the community as the as the council weighs um its decision on the actual tax agreement.

All right. So we don't have to get into the finances. You just want to know from an economic development point of view if we think it'd be an asset to the community. Correct. Um folks, how do you feel about it? Uh just just real quick, Bonnie, if I could. Um so yeah, the the policy says that you guys have to uh refer back to the council. Um so I would recommend so the council meeting is on Thursday. So I would recommend that you do talk a bit about the details of the abatement itself. Um, and then you have to take that vote to uh to refer back and we don't know what it is. That's the whole thing. So, we need to hear about it.

Right. So, I know Brad is here as well, so he could talk about some of that. I hate to throw Brad on the spot there, but he has some of the details that he can talk to you guys about. He's in with me because his internet went down. I was gonna say Brad looks a lot like Denise looks a lot like Brad, but anyway. Okay.

Yeah, I could download my computer. I could initially explain what we're suggesting and then if Brad could sort of join on it, but what we've and we've been back and forth quite a bit. Um, basically under the current policy, what we wanted to do was propose um a program that conformed to the existing policy. And there's been quite a bit of um discussion uh with town council as far as what their what their uh authority is or or you know whether uh uh recommended policies are rigid or not. Um, so we so that I think is is still going on and John and Brad can maybe speak to that. But what we've currently proposed is a seven-year um abatement that starts at 75% and burns off. Um what that does with senior housing um our uh lease up is much more protracted than it would be under uh a market rate project. So a market rate project of our size would be um fully leased uh uh you know in nine months or 12 months. You know we're more like 20 to 24 months. So it takes us longer because again people have to sell homes. Seniors are much more circumspent circumspect buyers. You know with a market rate apartment you might see them two or three times. We see our people 18 to 20 times before they sign a lease. So this kind of gradual ramp up um really does help us uh stabilize the property and um get it in a very good place. And also just as has been as was discussed earlier, uh the property taxes really are uh currently as they stand, they are a challenge and they really ended up being higher than where we had projected them to be when we first started looking at

this uh two years ago based on previous projects. And now there have been newer projects that have come in at a much higher rate. So, that's why we're here, you know, looking for that proposal um or or that recommendation based on the proposal that we've made for this 7-year um uh abatement. The town has come back and asked us to maybe consider some other um features, maybe do additional affordable units, which that's an ongoing discussion. I think our preference would be to try to focus on a qualifying plan or proposal that that fits into the current program. Is that the same program, John, that um uh Heirloom Flats uh used to bring the Unison into town?

It's um not entirely. After Heirloom Flats um um project is theirs was done for all three projects at at one time. Um the policy was changed um um to uh to some degree. Uh but um the present policy um is is um you know basically up you know and it's also going to be modified again soon to be more because it all basically aligns with what the state statutes was and the state statutes have been revised a number of times since the policy that's now in existence uh is being used. But what they're proposing basically is within the framework of the existing policy and um it's been you know and and um the provision of affordable units uh in many respects is is what's driving the request um because that um there's less revenue uh and there's only a you know there's only a level to which they can they can drive the other rentals up to before before they become non-competitive. Uh so there has to be this propo, you know, this partnership. Uh if if the town wants to see this development, I I'm just a little uncomfortable asking the commission, especially with two brand new commissioners on here and with this being the first time we've seen the proposal for us to make a recommendation. If we had seen it in advance, then we've been able to review it and then we talked about it today, it's one thing, but this is an awful lot to absorb and then comment on, I think. Bonnie, I do believe they need it to go to commission tomorrow night.

I know. I know. And I And so, and I think we can um Brad can speak to the the economics of it and Jeff can also and Justin can chime in. Get a better understanding.

I think the feeling is it's a positive project, but there's there's being a positive project and then is asking the the community to pay for it. Bonnie, I I wonder if we could uh shape the discussion and a recommendation perhaps to a a general sense uh subject to learning more about the finances and the taxes. A general sense that we feel this would be a positive project for the town that uh this kind of development is a good idea. but without committing our commission to um uh specifically backing the economics or the taxes.

Denise, would that apply, do you think?

Um I really And Justin, please chime in and John because you know more. I do believe you need to have at least an overview of the specifics and know that it does at this point as John has said it conforms to the current tiff uh tiff sorry current tax abatement structure that is allowed by the town um what Jeff has um submitted he's gone back and forth many times between the subcommittees for the town council and the town council itself Um, Jeeoff, it's been going on for a few months now at least, going back and forth. I know that. So, I think if if we can speak to that and give you a a good feel that it does conform, that you might be able to structure that in a way that it does fit for tomorrow night's meeting to satisfy Jeff's needs.

I think Denise is right with that. I think it does need to be specific to this for council to take action. Um, and I think the there there are two important overall things to remember with this, and then I'll let Jeff and Brad talk about some of the specifics. Um, you know, as as Jeff mentioned earlier, right now the property takes in roughly 12 to$13,000 a year in taxes. Um, even at the lowest at the start of this abatement, it would be significantly significantly more than that. And they'll talk about the details there. Um, and the other thing to remember is because this is an age restricted development, there is really no net negative impact on the the tax burden for the town because there's no students that are going to be coming out of this. Um, but in terms of details, I'll hand it over to Brad and Jeff.

Okay, Brad.

Yeah, I would just say we've been working with Jeff or I've been working with Jeff over probably about the past nine months with uh multiple iterations of this tax abatement deal. Um, it's kind of gone back and forth with the finance committee. um with different requests, but each time you know Jeff and his team have been very forthright and have provided the different iterations not only from a a development cost perspective but also from an operating proform perspective. So we've had a pretty good look at all the financials um and they've been very forthright in presenting those financials. So, um, the multiple iterations that we've run with the latest one being the 7-year tax deal that Jeff had just mentioned, um, it's a significant net positive. As Justin had mentioned, the current income for that property is between 12 and 13,000 annually. Um, even with I believe the the initial year is a 75% of B.

Yes. And then it scales down and it scales down to 45. Any guesstimate what it would be? Yes. Brad, any guesstimate for the first year what it would be, the first year would be over 200,000 of net positive income based off of the current income of that property. And how does it decrease? It's 75 and then what are the increments after that? Jeeoff, I don't have that in front of me. Do you know? It burns off 5% a year under our proposal. Correct. And then we ultimately and of course we ultimately get to full tax so at the end of seven years. So uh um

that doesn't make sense. Correct. So at that at that eight year after it's burned off, you know, you're looking at well over a million dollars in annual income from this property. So you're saying it's 75% and then it goes down 5% for eight years. So it never really gets to zero before for seven years. It gets to zero at year eight. At year eight, it's pays full taxes. And also, I think one thing that that Jeff has brought up and John brought up um throughout the meetings is it also brings in significant revenue in permit fees. And I John, correct me if I'm wrong, but it it'll bring in equivalent to about 50% of what you currently bring in in fees.

Yeah, it's going to bring in about a million bucks. And I would note that um all of um Paul Butler's projects got 100% abatement for seven years. No sliding scale. I I know that. But that's why we're not doing it anymore. John, you and I both know that. So, um

Okay. I would only say to the to the commission that, you know, this I I don't know of a project that I've seen in town that's any better quite frankly than this one in terms of what it does to the area, the quality of development, quality of the developer. You know, to me, quite frankly, this is a no-brainer. Um, it hasn't been for others. Uh but I think that if um I think um that if the project is unable to go forward um that one it'll be a significant loss to the to the town directly but also will send a message to the development community uh that I don't think is very positive.

I I hear you. I don't disagree with anything you're saying. Um Jeff, you unfortunately get caught up in sort of some of the machinations of what's been going on with this commission. So to have to be given something like this at the very last minute is a is a bit disconcerting. On the other hand, um if I read the room correctly, there is very strong support for the project and for the quality of the project. So, I'm Bob. I'm willing if you want to come up with something that you think um states what we're being asked to do but doesn't uh you want to try and come up with a um

well uh without putting it in formal

uh language yet and other people can have input something like it is the the sense of the uh EDC having uh had the presentation and the uh without putting them on the spot, but uh it is on the record on the uh recommendation of the soundness of the project by town town staff. They have looked at it, worked with it for a long time that uh it is the sense of the economic commission that we would uh support this project subject to the town and the town council negotiating the the specific details of the economics and and tax uh tax arrangement. In other words, a a support uh uh including the uh recommendations of town staff that the economic commission believes this would be a sound project and good for the town.

Okay, anyone got that down in writing? Um Vivian and Trish, I know again this is a lot to be thrown at you. Any comments at all? I know Trisha, you said you like the project. Vivian, any comments at all? Vivian's not on for some reason. Oh, she hasn't. Okay. Yeah, I know Trish Trisha is is on. Uh, she Yeah, I agree. I agree with Bob. Okay. Um, I'd like someone to help me with this motion. Anyone want to take it on? Justin, maybe? Yeah. I was I was just Yeah. Okay. Um what's the

I would start that something like seeing as it conforms with the current tax abatement policy in the town. Does Justin and go? Yeah. So I think something like um as this proposal is in conformance with the tax abatement policy for the town of Bloomfield. Uh, the Economic Development Commission supports the application of um Jeff, what's the official name of your group again? Sorry, it's UBH Senior LLC

supports the application of UBH Senior LLC. Um, with the understanding that the town council will finalize the details of the tax abatement. No, I think we should I that's good but let's at the beginning let's add that um we strongly support the vision of the project and the op the objective of the project and then go into you know perfect yeah because I think there is strong support for what you're doing Jeff is just it's it again it was a lot thrown at us this morning so I just want to make sure we don't

overstep what we know we're talking about uh do we do we kind Can you try that one more time and let uh if Rebecca could read that back if Yeah. Yeah. Um I was only able to get catch a portion of it, but what I can do um hold on. You know, let me let me try typing something out while we're talking and then I'll share my screen. Yeah. Okay, that would be good. Well, um Bonnie, if I could just add um

Sure. And I appreciate your your sentiments are really right on and I apologize in some ways for catching you a little bit um uh uninformed or unprepared but we have been actually talking about this for quite a while and um uh really initially we we uh broached the town about early in the year with this and as you know better than I do there's been a lot going on in the town in terms of tax considerations and we really looked a lot that, you know, what was really the appropriate timing where we could put together a a reasonable po proposal that could be considered in its right context. And so we waited um until some of the other um tax matters in the town were um not necessarily resolved but has sort of um uh gone through their process. And then once we got directly in this process, it it really went in many different directions. Our regarding this policy really very different than what the standard policy was. That was our original proposal. And then it went very different to looking for more. They asked us to look at more affordable units and more years. And then people said that that uh that didn't conform to the policy. So it couldn't really be agreed to. And u we've gone through multiple meetings on this. So it has extended beyond what any of us really thought it would. And frankly from our perspective in terms of us trying to get our project closed and going forward, we're running out of time. So, um, just given this the last couple of months how, uh, it's gone back and forth, um, we it was realize that we did have to come to you folks and and at least get you into the loop and discuss what we're proposing and we appreciate the professional manner which you're receiving this. It's really good of you to at least look hard at it. Um but

again I apologize that we're we we are catching you a little uninformed but uh we got it it uh there were some here that got away from us. Yeah Jeff just so you understandably don't support the project the process leaves a little something to be desired but be that as it may happen. Justin what you got there? I'm gonna share my screen here. Okay. And considering I wrote it in about 30 seconds, there's no pride of authorship. So feel free to

That's simple. Um you did Bonnie at one point you had strongly supports. I did strongly supports the vision. Yeah. So instead of wholeheartedly endorsing Yes, probably. Yeah, you got it. No, I mean I I personally think it's a great project. I really do, Jeff. Just so you understand. Thank you. Um I am not sure I can make the motion as chair. Can I? Yes, you can. You can.

Okay. I would like to go ahead, Bob. Uh, I will move this motion uh as it as it is written uh to uh adopt this motion in writing uh as a recommendation to the uh town council. Finally, I hear a second from another commissioner. Trish, you there? I second it. Thank you. Um any further discussion? We actually Oh, yeah. We do. We don't have a quorum, but we had we had when we started. So, if I understand it correctly, we can still pass this motion. Is that correct?

Yes. Actually, Robert's rules of order say all all we've looked into this in other commissions. All those present That's what I thought. Yeah. Uh may vote even though they don't constitute the quorum of the full commission. That's what I thought because we have one to start. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Okay. Passes unanimously and good luck. And um could we have a copy of your presentation, Jeff? And also, Paul, so we have them for for our own uh files. We can look at them again. Certainly.

Great. Okay. And may may I suggest and understood very much Jeffrey uh what you've gone through you've been working all along uh and the town was working through some of its issues with taxes that um excuse me as a policy for this commission we'd request that these things be brought to us uh more in advance so we have time to absorb them. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Bob, I would just note that it wasn't Jeff who was controlling the timing. It was more It was more No, no, I I wasn't suggesting I wasn't suggesting that. I was saying he was working in the background. No fault on his part. Right.

But but frankly, he was waiting till other things in the town cleared up for him to bring it forward to us. That's all. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome to stay, Jeff. You're welcome to go. Same with you, Paul. Thank you so much for your time and thank you for choosing our community and hopefully you will be a part of it very soon. Absolutely. That's the plan. Thank you. Thank you all.

Okay. I just have I'm gonna if you guys can give me a few more minutes. Um this was an awfully long meeting and we have more things to go over, but I have I have a concern. Um, I would like to talk about the Graanby Toby um, Mosy area, but I think I'd like to postpone it to the next meeting. In the meantime, just give people a chance to think about it. The next meeting is problematic. I am going to be away um, October 8th through the 25th. Is there any chance Bob I I don't have my notes. Are you available on the seventh meeting? Yes, I am. Okay. Um Trish, are you available on the 7th?

Yes, I am. All right. Um can we uh tentatively schedule our next meeting on October 7th and postpone the whole DA part of it until then? And in the meantime, uh Linda, either you can reach out to the other uh commissioners or I can do that and see if they're available. Sure thing. on the agenda. I just want to let you know that under adjournment there um it says next meeting I did put the special meeting October 7th. Yeah. Oh, you did you did do it. You I did I just got that far. Okay, that's wonderful. Okay,

Bonnie, I'm gonna apologize. I have to leave. I have to be in Bloomfield at 11 o'clock on site for a walk through. Okay. So, have a great day and I look forward to uh discussing our Toby Graanby did with everybody and getting their opinion. So, thank you everyone. Thank you for the help, Denise. Yeah. Okay. Um I'm going to try and very quickly go through this. Um read the two consultant reports at your leisure. If you have any questions, let's bring it up at the next meeting. John, anything quick that you want to report? Uh, no.

Okay. Does anyone have anything else they want to talk about before I try to get this meeting? No. Okay. Okay. Uh, thank you all for the involvement. Paul, if you're still here, thank you very much for for your presentation. Um, exciting stuff going on in town. Uh, uh, Bob, you want to remind everybody about the food truck and drum festival on Saturday?

Yes. I don't want to take too much time. Uh the art commission is participating in the food truck festival uh occurring this Saturday uh in the center of town. And uh attend the festival attend the festival anyway, but we'll be having a drum circle sponsored by the art commission and it's 4 to 8:00 p.m. And this is hopefully to eventually kick off the uh the drum festival that we held about 20 years ago. Okay. Next year. Next year. Right. Okay. Motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Second.

There you go. Okay guys, see you on October 7th. And it was a great meeting and thank you for um staying around a little longer than usual. Thank you. and share with you all.