Economic Development Corp. - Regular Meeting

out, but the two on the sides and the one in the back of the room are currently working. Ms. Boggs, will you please call roll?

President Heinz? Here. Director Campos? Here. Director Hammonds? Here. Director Thompson?

Here. Okay, we're doing things a little out of our normal order. We're gonna start with executive session. In accordance with Texas government code section 551.071, the board reserves the right to retire into executive session concerning the items listed on this agenda to consult with its attorney. In addition, a board may convene an executive session on any of the following items with any final action being taken in open session. A, deliberate issues regarding economic development negotiations in accordance with section 551.087 of the Texas government code. One, generator. Two, green 16. Three, project shoot. Four, project thread. Five, project icon. Six, project casa. Seven, project sherpa. and B, deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property in accordance with Section 551.072, Texas Government Code 1, New Braunfels Sports Complex, Lot 3, Block 1, SS 14.62 acres at New Braunfels Sports Complex, Lot 2, Block 1, 3.45 acres. And we will convene an executive session at 4.04 p.m. Ready? Okay, we are back from executive session at 5 p.m. with no action being taken place in executive session. And then we are on to item four, approval of the minutes. Move to approve. Second. I have a motion from Director Austin, a second from Director Campos. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Minutes pass unanimously. Item five, citizens communication. This is a time for citizens to address the board on issues and items of concern not on this agenda. There will be no board action at this time. Seeing none on citizens communication, we'll move on to treasurer's report.

President Hines, we're gonna recommend that we come back to the treasurer's report after Mr. Warner arrives. Perfect, thank you, sir.

So we will table item six and move on to seven. Public hearing, discussion, and possible action. A, public hearing, discussion, and possible action to approve an expenditure of up to $2.4 million, $2,400,000 for additional construction costs of Castell Avenue phase one, call street drainage improvement pursuant to 501.103 of the Texas local government code.

Scott McLaughlin, the Assistant Director of Transportation and Construction Services. Tonight, I'm doing a follow-up action item on a presentation we brought to you last month on the Castile Avenue Phase 1 Coal Street Drainage Project. So this project fits within priority number two of your strategic priorities, so planning and infrastructure, making those thoughtful and strategic investments in our infrastructure. And the Coal Street drainage project definitely fits that. So as a reminder, this project is phase one of the Castell Avenue improvement project. And so really, the project started as a way to increase the drainage flow off of Castell, taking the drainage flow off of Castell, taking it down Coal Street and into the Comal River and as you can see there from the exhibit to reduce that 100-year flooding flooding on Castile and so while we have been developing the projects there's opportunities to also pair it and combine it with some of the other efforts that we're doing downtown with right-of-way enhancements and And so we're also, as well as doing the drainage, also enhancing pedestrian walkability, doing the underground utility conversion, doing some enhanced landscaping, and really making this street a complete street that we'd like to model in other portions of downtown.

Sorry to interrupt you. I do want to apologize for those that weren't here when we started the meeting. We're having an IT issue, so our screen is not working behind us, but there are two on either side, and then there's one in the back. So I apologize for that.

That's all right. So as I mentioned on this next slide, there's some of the detailed scopes. So we are reconstructing the full roadway. We're building new curbs to work with the drainage, doing those bulb outs to enhance the pedestrian Then we're also doing several utility improvements. I mentioned the underground utility conversion is probably the biggest impact above ground that you'll see. But in the meantime, while we're having it torn up to do the eight by 10 drainage box, MBU's taking the opportunity to replace water and sewer. And so replacing the sidewalks on both sides. And so, as I mentioned, really an enhancement to the whole right-of-way as well as providing that core function of getting making those drainage improvements for Castell and So the action tonight is coming for additional construction funding. So we bid out the project this spring. We had brought original construction funding requests back in 2024 at $7.2 million, and we went into some of the history of that last time. And so now we're coming back asking for an additional $2.4 million to cover the gap in the construction cost between what was funded a few years ago and what our bids came in at. And so EDC also funded the design at nearly $650,000. And so just to touch on it quickly, we had some, that $7.2 million was based off of the 60% design. There was reasons we needed to move forward with that funding on the utility underground. And also just knowing that this project is complex for a pretty narrow right-of-way, all those things that I mentioned, getting that put in there. So there are constraints that the contractor has to work through, complexities of working in a smaller area that has to maintain access to residential homes and businesses, cost escalation, and then the construction administration costs to manage the project. If y'all move forward with approving the additional construction funding, the expected schedule is to begin construction fall. Really we're targeting September is the timeframe that we're looking at right now. This is a joint bid project with MBU, so it does have to go through their board for approval as well, and then getting out of some of the heavy tourist season as well before we start. So that happy to answer any questions y'all might have on the project.

Are there any questions from this board? Thank you, sir. Thanks. At this time, we will open up to public comment. If anybody from the public would like to comment on this item, please step forward and state your name and whether or not you are a city resident. Seeing none, we will close public session, public hearing.

Do I have anything from the board? I move to approve the expenditure of 2.4 million.

I second the needed funding. All right, I have a motion from Director Austin and a second from Director Campos. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? All right, item A passes unanimously. Item B, public hearing, discussion, and possible action to approve an expenditure of up to $1,400,000 for the final design of Ampo green multimodal improvements pursuant to 505.152 of the Texas Local Government Code. Welcome back.

Thanks. Again, Scott McClellan, Assistant Director of Transportation and Construction Services. So this item is one that we talked about a few meetings ago, talking about upcoming projects that fit within the strategic priorities. So again, as the last one fit within priority two, this one fits as well. So again, focusing on thoughtful and strategic investments in the infrastructure. And so this project that we have for consideration tonight is the AMPO Green Multimodal Improvement Project. So this project, as we've been trying to do, is leveraging the EDC funding that you all have to go after some federal money. And so this project is one that we were successful on getting that MPO money. to pay for the 80% of the construction costs, but we do have to pay for final design. And so the action tonight is to approve $1.4 million for final design of this project. So touch on it quickly, this pedestrian and ADA improvements. on Green Road, New Braunfels, and then also Hunter Road. So there's a mix of 10 foot and six, 10 foot shared use path, and then also six foot sidewalk. And really the focus is trying to stay within the existing right of way. So as we get into final design, we'll be able to refine that a little bit more to know exactly where we can fit in the 10 foot shared use paths, what we expect to be able to fit some on Green and Hunter. And then the six foot sidewalks are filling in gaps on all those roads as well. So there's some existing sidewalk on Green Road, some existing sidewalk on Hunter Road. So it's filling in those gaps, making improvements. And as you can see on the map, the limits of that We're also looking at working on the alignment of the green road and rock road intersections. If you've been through there, the skew of the roads is challenging, but then there's also the railroad that goes right through there. And so looking at making improvements, some improvements to that intersection. We won't be able to make, make all the improvements that were kind of constrained by the railroad right there, but trying to make some improvements. And then bike lane enhancements as well. So there's already bike lanes on Green Road, but trying to enhance that as really a multimodal route. So we're working on designing the Common Street project right now really is a 23 bond project. That's really kind of the vehicular path. And so trying to get the cyclists off of Common, get them on Green as a safe way, safe alternative to ride in on Common Street. And so then it ties in with other projects that we've got going as well. Again, looking to fund $1.4 million of final design. As you can imagine, it's a complex project. I've got some pictures. These are the areas that we're talking about going through. These are sensitive areas. These are areas that we have to do lots of community outreach, business outreach to make sure that we're still keeping the character that's there in green, working through the various regulations that we have to, with it being an MPO project, we do have to go through the TxDOT project development process, so it just takes a little bit more time and effort from the design team to go through those, but ultimately, being able to leverage that into, like I said, an 80% construction match, of $5.4 million that we received. So hopefully a good investment and an exciting project that we're definitely excited to get going on. I have the schedule there, so once we, if you all approve the funding, get started with final design this fall. our construction let date as i mentioned it's it's based on text dot they slotted into their letting schedule so right now we're scheduled for 2031 but if we can get final design started and underway and complete we can apply to get that move forward as well so that's the that's the goal but once we get into final design we'll we'll be able to better understand that and then at some point we hope to come back and be able to ask you all for the construction match as well in the future so So with that, happy to answer any questions y'all might have on this project.

Any questions from the board on this project? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Cohen. I will open it up to public hearing on this item. Seeing none, I will close public hearing.

I'll entertain a motion. I move that we approve the expenditure of up to 1.4 million, much needed project. I'll second.

All right, I have a motion from Director Campos and a second from Director Elrod. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. McClellan and your team for this is much needed project and what a great use of funds to be able to leverage the AMPO funds and really appreciate Gary Ford, all her work he's done on that TAC committee with AMPO as well that helped deliver these. Okay, item C, public hearing discussion and possible action to approve an expenditure of up to $1,200,000 to generator for a multi-year entrepreneurship incubator project pursuant to 505.102 of the Texas Local Government Code. Mr. Packer.

Good evening. So first slide shows the strategic priorities. And I felt like it's probably a good time to pause and think about what grows a strong community and economy. And there's this general principle in economic development that we use, which is that You're gonna get more jobs and feel better about it by working with the companies that are already here than recruiting elsewhere. That's why we do job hiring events. That's why we do workforce initiatives. That's why we meet annually with with dozens of companies to figure out how they're doing, what their needs are, and a really important sector to invest in is entrepreneurship. In terms of formal entities in this community, Spark Small Business Center has done a commendable job of having no barriers to entry, counseling for anybody looking to start a business. They help people get bankable, They help people take an idea that might have happened on a back patio or in the garage into something that has a real plan for execution. But there are companies that need more advanced help, and that is definitely no criticism of the average small business, but there is a sector in the economy that can grow fast and create outsized outcomes and jobs and revenue. And so the project before you is an opportunity to do that. I had the privilege of working kind of in entrepreneurial ecosystems in the past where what you see is you see some real energy begin to grow and materialize around entrepreneurs. This particular opportunity, The way I'd put it is that if the problem statement is we need a formal effort to invest in companies that can grow quickly, then you have to think about, okay, so what's our solution to that? And while I do feel we have some significant and successful entrepreneurs in this community, I feel like this is an opportunity to bring in somebody who has expertise in that space that can They can build upon that expertise we already have and do three things. Number one, identify the companies. So what companies, what founders have an idea that can grow quickly? Number two is to mentor them and coach them. What is before you, I'll go through the agenda, but it's an intensive multi-week period where they're bringing outside experts into the community to help invest, breathe life into these companies. And third is to connect them to capital. Okay, so identify the best opportunities, help them get the idea better, and then connect them to funding so that they can grow. Some really important details here is it's a free program. Wanna pause a little bit to talk about the difference between dilutive and non-dilutive programs like this. There are a lot of incubators, accelerators that may be free, but they take stock in your company. That's dilutive. In this case, there is no cost to the program, and there is no equity taken out of the business by the program. What they do is they work with the companies, they help them grow, get the plan better, and connect them to capital. While doing five company cohorts twice a year sounds small in some ways, Think about the cost of a service where somebody spends seven weeks with you helping you create a successful company and then connects you to funders at the end. And so in my view, it's an opportunity to take 10 very measured, reasonable $40,000 bets a year. So this is the program you'll see that's a seven-week deal that ends with a pitch night where investors, local or elsewhere, are brought in to participate in that. And here's all the intangibles, or at least the requirements of the project. The core of it, as I said, is it's two five-company cohorts per year, but there's many additional things that would be in the program requirements that I think are intangibly very meaningful. Many programs like this are based on bringing companies to your community. These are companies that want to be here. Secondly, they'll employ one full-time employee in New Braunfels that will run the program. They will be in the community, of the community. They'll occupy a physical space with a sign on the street, I hope. They'll host networking events, office hours, lunch and learn series, and then of course that core program will deeply invest in a handful of companies. So you'll see kind of a visual representation of what that looks like over three years. You'll see the kind of the expectations in terms of seed capital rounds and series A rounds and job creation. What I thought's more helpful is show me what you've done. And so here's a couple of examples of programs in other communities at different time horizons. So you'll see our friends in Round Rock have just finished their first cohort. And it's only five companies, but you're seeing that they've already added an additional $600,000 funding into those companies. So that's capital that was raised in excess of the cost to run the program per year. Huntsville, Alabama has served, suppose that works out, to five years of the program with 10 cohorts. And you'll see here that 242 jobs created, 14 million in funding, and you'll see once again that dilutive, non-dilutive funding. So this is what a sample program can look like after a five-year time horizon. gulf coast you may say well we're not rocket we don't have rockets or nasa or uh... university of alabama huntsville uh... and the the gulf coast is the uh... i believe it's the coast of alabama and you'll see there five cohorts a hundred thirteen jobs ten million and nearly in funds raised and and you can see the annual economic or the total economic impact and then um... where I got lost, y'all. Oh, this is, is this Madison? I think we lost a header somewhere. Either way, and then here you can see another example. Here's the Madison, Wisconsin example, I apologize. Clearly a unique community against, you know, with the flagship state university in the community, I think, once again, what we're talking about here is companies that can grow, companies that can grow in sequence with the identity of a community that are already here, just need to be invested in and coached. So that's the program. I know at the previous presentations of this, we've had a representative, a generator here to go into more details on how they operate. Certainly happy to get any questions answered from that front or answer any questions you have right now.

Any questions from the board? I like this program. The only question I have is, is there really a need for that here? Do you feel like there's a number of companies that can grow? to the extent that you've indicated on these statistics?

Yeah, I do, I do. I think it's a really good, reasonable question. Here's what I know, is that strong entrepreneurial communities happen in places people want to live. One example I'll provide is a local company that's received seed funding called PackMule. So they make luggage racks that go into the hitch on the back of your truck or SUV. That company was founded out of passion from somebody who wants to live here and grow a company here. And so I think that's an important prerequisite to answer your question with a yes. We also have good proximity to Texas State University and other institutes of education. I think another thing that is very worth pointing out is that both proximity to San Antonio and Austin, but also the advantages that being here specifically in that lifestyle brand space When you think about the heritage of entrepreneurship in this community, whether it is our tourism destinations, our food and beverage, our many other things, I see it as a reasonable decision to make to invest in companies that have that potential and may choose to be elsewhere if they don't have the resources here.

Years ago, I used to have this long fight with the chamber because All we were interested in was bringing in tourism. And I've always thought that I would like to have my kids work here. Most people want their kids not to go away to Detroit or Houston or even San Antonio and Austin. And this seems like a good program to help develop good jobs here. Is that your recommendation?

Yeah, it is, sir. I think it's also, I think it's good for the soul to invest in not only the companies that are already here, but the companies that haven't happened yet that are just looking for an opportunity.

Can you go back to that round rock slide, please?

Is that the closest?

Yeah, and so just round numbers, 400,000, creating 46 jobs. I like a little healthy competition. If we can compete with them, that's 8,000 a job spent by the EDC to help recruit that. And that was it. They've just done one year, right? Yeah.

Yeah, correct. And the first cohort just concluded.

Parable City and one year in.

Yeah, when we've been learning about this over the last several months, this seems to hit a lot of things, but I have kids coming, they're starting a new professional world, and that's what I started thinking about immediately, and then the investment. So we're always kind of trying to do analytics on House per job, job retention, job attraction, things like that. I think this hits a lot of boxes. It's a more sophisticated, or it's a higher level of sophistication that we are able to provide right now through SPARC and that next level, I think it's pretty cool. Yeah.

Question or comment? I know it's a three-year commitment. And I'm sure there's gonna be some metrics that we'll evaluate along the way. I think, should we move forward as best we could, we allow ourselves some outs, respectfully, if this doesn't work as intended. And that may be something you can't evaluate until after a year or 18 months. And I know that there's people on the other side that are counting on that agreement, but I just think if there's a way that can be incorporated, it might be wise.

Yeah, Larry, I agree. I do want to say that I can be really skeptical sometimes of programs like this. And if the number one metric is raise awareness, then I'm not sure what we're accomplishing. But what you see here is really specifics. I think putting some reasonable expectations around termination of the agreement should it not meet expectations would be a reasonable thing to do.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. We will open this item up for a public comment. Please state your name and whether or not you are a city resident.

Can that be seen, that slide be seen?

Yes.

Sorry, not a little bit.

Good evening, and thank you for letting me speak to you tonight, fellow EDC board members. My name's Julie King. I'm a resident taxpayer. I am strongly opposed to this expenditure of taxpayer money from a Madison, Wisconsin-based consulting firm selling a canned program specifically targeted to mid-sized cities. I feel like I have some personal context to add to this. Having been a mentor at one of the very first startups in Houston, Texas in 1999, and having served as a mentor and training person for over 14 years, I additionally served at LaunchSA as a mentor there, which is held in their library. So I know the buzzwords of pitch deck, exit strategy, cohort, and all the other sort of standard jargon used by folks like this. And I actually, I just don't believe that this particular venture and this expenditure is gonna be successful in New Braunfels. And I have five reasons, if you will permit me to go through them. The first is, what does this say about the confidence in our chamber? We already pay $600,000 of taxpayer funds for economic development for a no-bid contract, and fostering small businesses is their job. If this curriculum is so incredibly vital, put it on the chamber's to-do list. they should develop the programming identify the local investors and assign an employee to run it instead of using taxpayers funding a brand new full-time employee second and he this was mentioned before new broncos already has a spark generator spark already provides much of the same personal mentoring and programming if we absolutely must spend tax dollars on this concept Why not direct it to our existing resources? Why write checks to a Madison-based consultant? I also looked at the May 21st presentation that was shared here tonight, and I looked a little bit under the hood. Lots of metrics about women of color, BIPOC. I think one of the largest assumptions that's incorrect here is that you can grow a company to scale without giving up equity. There's a $50,000 benchmark number in here, and I just think it's a flawed assumption from the get-go, from my personal experience. The cohort scale thing of six businesses is good and bad. One, you get personal attention. Bad, you are going to have... people who are going to drop out. It just happens. They can't make the weekly meetings. They can't make the one-on-ones. And at the end, you've got two people that you intensely provided contact to. I don't think it's a big enough program, the beta test, my personal opinion. It doesn't scale, to use the buzzword. And another comment about this, because they've obviously shot this. It's already in San Marcos. We don't have a university here. In Houston, where I served for 14 years, we had the University of Houston, we had Rice University, lots of professors and research spawned businesses that were successful. This generator, their biggest and most impressive numbers are from Madison, and they've already talked about that. And they've talked about San Marcos, but San Marcos has Texas State. We do not. We may get a major university, but currently we do not. And my last point has to do with market forces. Look at market reality. If this initiative is so viable and highly profitable, it would have already been funded by the private sector. That's what they did in Houston. They went to Halliburton Shell and said, you fund our program. And they did. They didn't ask taxpayers to do it. We're not lacking 1.2 million in capital here in New Braunfels. In fact, there are many, I would guess, wealthy real estate and business investors here. If this program were such a guideline, private investors would have already adopted it. What a consultant knocks on the door with a wonderful opportunity, I think you should ask yourselves, why are we so lucky? Quite often the answer is simple, because the private sector took a pass. $1.2 million of taxpayer money is real. And I believe that what happened on Saturday was a wake-up call that the citizens of New Braunfels may have other priorities they deem more important. That's not to disparage the program. That's not to say it can't be done. I just don't think it should be done at this cost for three years right now. In closing, and you're probably going to wonder where that came from, and if you read it closely, blank is your one-stop resource for no business advising, training and referrals, business startups, existing services are available to any resident, whether you're a serial entrepreneur or this is your first time starting. Our advisors are available to help answer your questions. Where did that come from?

That came from SPARC.

Thank you very much for your time and attention. I respectfully request that this be removed from and not approved. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. King.

My name is Richard Kelsheimer. I'm a resident of New Braunfels. I guess I've been in business for over 60 years. I did financial planning. So I know a little bit about what goes on with a business owner. As I understand it, I think April Ryan mentioned the fact that we have a business incubator facilitator here in the New Braunfels area. I've not had any dealings with him because I'm retired. But I think the first thing that this needs to have a little bit more deliberation and thought behind it before you spend a million two on the project. I'm not saying it doesn't have value. Obviously, I think it would have some value. But as far as being able to find money for a business that has a successful idea, there are a lot of resources that are available out there, government resources that you can use to develop a business plan for yourself through the Small Business Administration and to help you provide presentation to the proper people. If you have a successful idea and something that will work, I guarantee you, you won't have a problem finding the money for it. It's just a matter of knowing where to go and how to find it. And I think the Small Business Administration can help you with that and help any business owner that wants to. The other thing that I don't know if it will be of use to, and that is to the local businesses that are already here. I don't know how much interaction there's been, but there are business owners here that have small businesses that deserve to have an opportunity to visit with some people, there's no question about that. This generator might be able to help them, so I'm not being disparaging about the program itself. The other thing is is that I've had a lot of businesses that I've talked to that have done similar things, and the one thing I can never get from them is a commitment on their part to tell me what it is that they're gonna guarantee me in terms of their performance and accountability. And if a company's not willing to tell you what it's willing to guarantee you that it can do with its program because of its background and because of its experience, then I think you need to do a little bit more research. I think there are some businesses in looking at this I believe that they said they had the incubator in Bernie. I think they had the incubator in Seguin, San Marcos, which are in shirts is another one. All of those could probably give you some pretty good idea of how the generator program is working for them, what their problems have been. And I just don't think there's been that kind of research that's been done, that they've shown me, which is true with a lot of the programs. And that is that I think that you, as an advisory board, deserve the right to be able to have that kind of input from those other places. And obviously, they saw some value in it. All right, and it may be doing a great job, but talk to some of the business owners. Talk to the people that put it in place and get that feedback from them before you go out and spend $1.2 million on the project. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying it's a bad project, And I know that we're probably limited on time. I don't wanna keep you any more than that. But if you look at this, even the way that it was worded in the presentation, it says that in this example, it says it can help provide, catalyze the community mentorship network conviction and capital to bridge startup ideas with opportunities with over 400 cohorts. What is a cohort? What is that? Another example that is in here that they use, and it's elevator language to try to make you believe that confluence is implications for New Braunfels, confluence. What it really means is it's flowing together at one point. Why don't they just say it's flowing together at one point or these three points flow together? They're created to flow together instead of the confluence. Okay, and I honestly, people that are looking at this program, evaluating the program, they need to have something that speaks to them personally. And it's always been my, the way I communicate with people is to communicate with them personally. on the basis of a fourth grade level education. If you can communicate with somebody on a fourth grade level education, then you can probably get and get them to understand what you're trying to tell them. And if you look at the G-Beta New Braunfels program and the things that it provides in there as well, I think they have things such as ongoing conference series, lightning rounds. What's a lightning round? Corporate innovation network. What's that? Monthly deal flow emails. reboot programs. What are those things? I mean, so anyway, bottom line is, is I think it takes a little bit more consideration on your part before you decide to spend a million two of a citizen's taxpayer money on this.

Thank you, Mr. Galsano. No, you've had your time. Thank you. Anybody else would like to speak? Okay, we will close public hearing. Any additional comments, questions? I've got a couple of questions for Mr. Packer. We've heard a lot of questions and concerns from residents about incubators in other communities. I know you all have vetted other incubators. Do you wanna discuss why you think this is the best option for this community?

Yeah, there's a variety of reasons. Number one, I will say we evaluated their primary competitor and the cost of that primary competitor was more than twice what this cost is. And there was a key difference in that primary competitor and that they would bring companies that are not from here to your community and put them through coaching and with no expectation they stay. That program operates in Cedar Park. And there are reasons why somebody would use that. Additionally, we evaluated what the cost would be to generate this type of infrastructure organically and locally, much higher. And the last thing I'd say to that question is that I pay attention to what the actual output is. and the output you've seen in these programs and these communities is real.

Thank you. There's a comment about private sector incubators. What are your thoughts on On private sector incubators, I mean, Halliburton and Shell are wild to bring up here. I don't think we've got any multinational companies here that can fund it.

Well, we certainly, you know, I'll agree partially with the concept of needing the private sector to step up in an investment capacity. And I have a lot of experience working with private sector companies. entrepreneurship support initiatives from Capital Factory to SKU to the Army Futures Command and several of these other entities. And what you see is that There's no one model. There's ratios of when the public comes in and when the private exclusively handles it. But this idea of dilutive versus non-dilutive, and you'll see at the end of the seven-week program, most of the funding is dilutive, right? They invest in the companies. They connect them to additional investors. So I guess to answer your question, President Hines, you know, there's no one model, but... But what we see is a very reasonable first step. And then to have that expectation that to really have a solid working entrepreneurial ecosystem, you do need those private sector firms to participate, invest, and take us to the next stage.

So if this is successful, it could lead to a private sector version of it as well. As we know, competition is good.

Yeah, and I'll give you an example of something that I think is needed. I think there's private sector capital ready to go there. They just need some support kind of all getting together. We've got so many kind of highly respected restaurant entrepreneurs in this community that would love to pour back into other businesses. And so that's not necessarily what we're talking about tonight, but I think when you start thinking about things like angel investing or mentorship, I think entrepreneurship is something that requires that expertise to take companies where they need to go. Hope that answers your question.

Yeah, and San Marcos, they may have one similar, but it's not the generator, correct?

Yeah, San Marcos does not have a generator program. They did just recently announce, and I might get this slightly wrong, but I believe they most recently announced some sort of aerospace incubator. I think that's right.

Okay, thank you, sir. I have a question. Mr. Campos. I think a good point was brought out. Would you explain the difference between a program like SPARC and a program like this one that you're recommending?

Yeah, I'd say, I mean, first of all, if you're not doing SPARC, I'd have a hard time saying you should bypass something like that to do something more that's... different. There's no barriers to Spark. There's no qualifications that your business plan is even a quarter baked because having that resource is just fundamental to a good economy. I guess what I'd say is that a good example might be if a company would go to Spark to launch a I'll use an example that's used often as a hallmark of Spark's success is the Two Tarts Bakery went through Spark. I think that's the appropriate resource for a business like that to go through if they started selling their product across the country. to scale to manufacturing and packaging and branding and marketing, that's when they would go to something like this.

It's just a totally different program.

It's a totally different program. In some cases, it could be a next phase. In some cases, it could be a greenfield.

In town, I... work with a lot of small businesses and Spark is really good at that very initial stage, like just very early on. But we've got a lot of businesses that are entrepreneurs that have kind of grown past that, that there's just not a lot of resources at that level from what I see, so.

Yeah, and I mean, one of the things I think of is how many residents of this city graduated from Texas State? and what percentage of the faculty at Texas State live in New Braunfels? And so, well, trust me, I often, when we're benchmarking, I make sure we intentionally, there's lots of challenges and opportunities we don't have because of the lack of that tier one university in our community. But I do think that that's another reason why entrepreneurship is just a really good opportunity. I think the idea that somebody would come out of that university in whatever capacity and choose to live here and create something special is pretty high.

Any other questions or comments? Thank you, Mr. Bracker. I'll entertain a motion.

I think this is a good project. And our job here is simply to make a recommendation to the decision makers. And I would ask that we approve this. We have a motion from Director Campos.

I'll second that motion. And a second from Director Austin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Item C passes unanimously. Item D, discussion of possible action to approve the first amendment of the purchase contract between Mildred the Bartels Gerald D. Voges and New Braunfels Economic Development Corporation, and an expenditure of up to $10,000 to extend the project feasibility period pursuant to 505.102 of the Texas Local Government Code.

Thank you, Director Hines. Jeff Jewell, Economic and Community Development Director. This amendment would extend the feasibility period for the property that the EDC currently has under contract, which I'll show in a little bit here. But again, this project fits under priority two, which is planning and infrastructure and making strategic investments in planning processes, as well as public spaces and other initiatives in the community. Just a little bit of background, the EDC purchased the 16 acres highlighted in pink here back in 2016 for a planned expansion of HD supply. That expansion was not ultimately pursued and so the question that the EDC was facing at the time which was what happens to this property? Does it go back out into the private market? And I think there was a consensus at the time both by the EDC and the city council that this property should be returned back to some kind of useful state and provide some level of community benefits. And so after that, there was a process where the EDC hired a consultant that worked with the city council as well as the EDC to kind of establish a vision for that future property. During that process, the additional acquisition of the adjacent nine acres was identified as an opportunity that would enhance the overall project. That property was placed under contract in last summer. And the feasibility for that project period is coming to an end. There was an additional 90 days that was put forward back in February that extended the feasibility through July 24th. So the funding summary, that the EDC's approved $101,800,000 for the initial purchase option and due diligence costs associated with it. After the 270 days initial option period, that July 24th date I mentioned, $25,000 of that option will be released back to the sellers. And so the amendment would extend the option period for two 90 day periods for a total of $10,000. We're recommending this contract extension because it allows for further consideration of the project by the City Council, as well as the Economic Development Corporation on the proposed project expenditure for that land acquisition. Ultimately, that project expenditure for the land acquisition has not been approved by either the EDC or the City Council, only the right to option it and purchase the property at some point in the future. And so depending on that feedback from those governing bodies, it would allow for additional public engagement for a process for the future of the property with the next steps going into an exclusive negotiation agreement with preferred developer and then ultimately a development agreement. So if approved, the extension would be considered by the city council in July and looking to approve an exclusive negotiation agreement with a developer sometime in the August, September timeframe. With that, I'll answer any questions.

Questions or comments from the board? Thank you, Mr. Jewell. We will open up this item to public comment. Seeing none, we will close public comment. We'll entertain a motion from the board.

I'd like to make a comment before we. Oh, yes, please. We are already committed to this piece of property and the value of the property has increased substantially. and the property that we're considering is contiguous to this property, am I right? Correct, yes sir. And that gives the city council an opportunity to decide what to do with the value that we have here. I move that we accept.

I have a motion from Dr. Campos and a second from Director Hammonds. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Passes unanimously. Item six, treasurer's report. Mr. Werner.

President Hines, apologize for my tardiness earlier, completely my fault on the start time of the meeting, so. All good. Thank you for that. Starting with sales taxes, again, as we continue to, I'll say on board, sales taxes coming back online from HG Supply, we're seeing some pretty significant increases as anticipated, as expected in the overall city budget. That figure for the month of April was 39.5%. INCREASE OVERALL, BUT AS YOU KNOW, AND AS WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO SO IN THESE MEETINGS, THAT DOES NOT TELL THE FULL STORY. WHEN YOU REMOVE THAT H.E. SUPPLY REVENUE, THE NET INCREASE WAS ROUGHLY 15%. AND AS WITHIN YOUR TREASURER'S REPORT, YOU CAN SEE WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE CURRENT TO CURRENT ADJUSTMENTS, THOSE FIGURES ARE KIND OF ADJUSTED DOWNWARD A LITTLE BIT. BUT AGAIN, STILL A STRONG MONTH AS WE KIND OF, AS YOU SEE IN THE GRAPH. Go into the time of the fiscal year, we will certainly start seeing the impacts of tourism on our overall sales tax collections. Fiscal year to date, sales tax collections are up 18.9%, again, very much reflective of those sales taxes with HE Supply coming on board in mid-November of this fiscal year. Looking at your projected revenues, again, very little change from the update from last month. The one thing that I will mention for you is that, as a reminder, the loan repayments looking out to fiscal year 29 and fiscal year 30 still currently include that airport loan. I know you took action on that last month. However, the city council has yet to take action on that. I think we're looking at the first meeting in July for the city council to take action on that. So once that, once and if that has been approved by city council, the adjustment will be made to your projected revenues. Again, since we met last month, no projected changes to your current commitments. Again, you may remember that last month you did take action on a couple items pertaining to some additional Alamo area MPO pedestrian improvement projects. Those are slated for city council approval on Monday. So if and when the city council does approve those, again, this will be adjusted as well by the time we meet next month. Again, we added this new exhibit, if you will, to your treasurer's report that breaks down forecasted costs. Again, this table will certainly start to change as we get closer to the end of the fiscal year and have more certainty on the shifting of these various project expenditures. And then wrapping that all up, again, just taking your projected revenues, your projected commitments or expenditures, and projected reserves. This illustrates, again, what's anticipated to occur with your reserve over the next several years. This, of course, changes, of course, as the EDC and city council approve additional expenditures. With that, happy to take any questions.

Any questions? Can you go back to the slide with the projects, please? Yes. I think it's important to point out that this EDC board has state statute of what it's allowed to do, quality of life project and business retention, primary employers. If you look, a vast majority of the projects are quality of life and infrastructure. I think that long before many of us were on this board, that's what this board was done. That's why it was created. So I'm happy to see that we were able to take sales tax, I don't know the number, but a large portion comes from guests in the summer, and we're able to provide value to all of our citizens.

Yes, sir.

Any comments or questions? All right, and with that, we are adjourned at 5.53.