Community Development Authority - Regular Meeting

all right I will call to order the Community Development Authority meeting of Thursday January 30th uh I think Anna you know who's who's online and who's in the room so we don't need to go through the rooll uh we have a few items on the general business today the first is the approval of the minutes meeting held on December 18th uh that would been in our packet I'll move to approve thank you move to approve any comments or questions or a second second thank you Mike Mr chairman yes uh can I vote on the I believe everyone is here were you in attendance yeah well then I think we should vote no no not NE but I think just generally tonight true do we is he an alternate tonight or not an alternate Sarah are you on Zoom speak now please I think you're not an alternate we go all right so we have a motion in a second uh all those in favor to approve the minutes say I I I I Mike DWI is on Zoom okay and Tara did I hear you say I yes you did the motion passes thank you all right next on the agenda is uh the discussion action on developers agreement with new land Enterprises for the Fox Bay theater um I am reminded that you gave me a list of a schedule no that's no reason Sheldon you want to kick things off I think Sheldon was going to give us a an overview of the request and then we're g to hand it off to you yep okay and here's Chris welcome back Sheldon thank you excuse me thank you for the opportunity uh to be here Mr

President the members of the committee um for their uh we're here before you tonight and I I hope it's not uh too redundant to the conversation we had at at the village board meeting uh just not not that long ago um I should note that I don't know think the minutes reflect how cold it was the last time you all met and so we we'll have to mark that for the record um at any rate um new land Enterprises my name is Sheldon oerman I'm the CFO and uh the Personnel responsible for the Fox Bay theater building and um you may recall uh we had been in front of this committee a couple of years ago in 2022 uh as we presented a a sort of big comprehensive strategy in terms of how uh we intended to kind of revive the Fox Bay theater building you will remember the retail spaces on the street have really always thrived the city Village has done such a great job with the retail environment on Silver Spring Drive uh but the experience of CO as was hard on everybody was particularly hard on occupancy in that building and so in addition to the office spaces which were had been vacant uh for a number of years up upstairs in the building the retail spaces suffered as well and without belaboring all of the points the reason we're here tonight was we lost the Fox Bay theater operator the Fox Bay cinamon and Grill during covid and um came back to you in 2022 with sort of a plan on how we were going to try to revive uh the rest the building at that time we had a conversation and you were able to help us work through a solution to attract Northwestern an office of Northwestern Mutual um who has since moved into the third floor of the Fox

Bay theater and we called that really phase one of what was a a comprehensive plan to try to figure out how to to get everything back on track there very prominent building in the heart of the business district um at that time uh we heard very clearly from this group the village board and the the residents in the community that uh figuring out how to get the Fox Bay theater space back open was sort of Paramount um if you will and um at the time it was almost a little bit difficult to get through the bird in the hand and the deal we had because there was so much passion and interest for the theater space but we didn't have a solution unfortunately um new landh after hearing that um really spent some time trying to understand what that space could be would be usable for in the future and open the the the the the floor to all takers all ideas um had a couple of folks from around the community suggest they'd look at operating the space as a theater um and uh where were unfortunately unable to pull those things together and in the course of the conversation started to understand that the business of movies has indeed changed and that it isn't for better or worse I guess than anything but was changing prior to co but since co uh going out to the movies wasn't necessarily a sustainable business depending on how exactly that was executed and what we could see from the market is that the these big large uh movie theaters with a reclin seats and those sorts of things were were maybe viable but three a three screen small Cinema in the heart of downtown wasn't going to work on its own what we heard was that it was critical that the space still be used as a common uh a place GA

a place to share a common experience a place to um get to know and meet and be with your friends family and neighbors and so we got to work trying to figure out what that would be open to Nationwide search for uh an operator for the space to meet all of those requirements and really took as many ideas as we could find the the focus started to narrow as we talked with potential operators for live entertainment um the bar restaurant space as you know is very uh attractive high high demand in terms of what the village would like to see happen on Silver Spring Drive as far as bar and restaurant space but the other 15,000 F feet of that space needs a purpose and and a use and the best thing we could do is find a way to use that space to get create common entertainment experience for the residents in the the community and certainly others from the area we hope will also choose to join the question before us then became what to do with the second floor space which you may recall was tiered seating in a movie theater as well and if it wasn't going to be a movie theater what indeed would it be and we found ourselves with the a solution to level out that floor if we wanted to make that square footage usable and then try to figure out what we could also do with that that was in fitting with what the objective was I'm happy to say that we're here we came to the Village uh village board to introduce a solution to that an opportunity that we think is really remarkable in terms of what it can do for that space and uh their team and our team has worked very very hard to try to reuse as much of that existing infrastructure as we can that's available um in terms of not relocating the kitchen reusing where the restroom spaces are um but really having to solve

a number of things to make the space usable again including uh making those restrooms uh accessible the space doesn't have any Ada accessibility doesn't have any Life Safety Systems Etc and so um what we've done is put together a a proposal a request for some uh development assistance from the village if we can find a way to make that work in order to figure out how to close a financial gap between what uh new land is proposing to invest in the project what the tenant is proposing to invest in the project and really what the whole project will ultimately cost using round numbers we've submitted documents in in your packet um the project is expected to cost about 7.53 million in order to fully execute a large portion of that is very special equipment for the uses in the space kitchen equipment audio video equipment Etc all of which we expect the tenant to uh to contribute the funds for and uh the hard cost construction as it relates we we've broken those out in your packet a bit um hard cost as it relates to converting the space is somewhere over four and a half five5 million by the time you sort of work through all the machinations of that stuff and new land is prepared to put in two I think I've submitted their two and a half million dollar uh to the project the tenant is prepared to put in 3.7 we've asked the village to allow us to apply for a WDC CDI Grant which we think can cover $250,000 and then we're making a request to the village for the last million of assistance um and we've had great conversations with a number of folks at

the Village because the use is different than what the movie theater was uh in its current form uh it's empty space it's been empty for four years and so we've gotten very used to the idea of it sort of not generating traffic and so we've gotten good questions and have tried to build a parking plan to answer concerns about parking to make sure that we aren't uh creating a parking problem or traffic problem in the neighborhoods we do understand that the business district would see more cars parking in it than usual but again one of those sort of perfect storms these us the hours for this use are in the evenings and weekends when the business and evenings on weekends when the businesses aren't as busy currently um and we hope that business traffic increases we expect that this is going to to be a catalytic use for the neighborhood and are also working through additional parking capacity and we'll have to deal with that when we get to the plan commission we had also heard very clearly that there'd be a concern about sound coming from the building because movie theaters certainly they use Amplified sound and that's probably pretty normal but when you hear live entertainment as a venue you sometimes you think of standup comedy or you think of you know a small small AC capella group or something and you're also not thinking a lot about the noise but when you think of a live entertainment venue sometimes you think about concerts and you think about speakers and you're you're you recall your first concert experience and how maybe your ears were ringing after the end of that and so we heard very clearly that there'd be concern about that especially because we're very close to uh important piece of residential property in the neighborhood and so we've done some preliminary testing don't believe we have a problem with sound Escape the building at all but have also agreed to hire third party Engineers to make sure that the sound

that that's anywhere uh outside of coming from outside from the building to the outside um within 5 feet of the property is no more than the sound of an ordinary conversation which is somewhere around 65 DB and an engineer will do that and verify that the same way we're looking at the parking uses and then ultimately there's a genuine you know question and concern about the number of people coming in and out and making making sure that um we're careful and thoughtful about what it means to have a few people a handful uh more than a handful of people leaving the space uh moving to public parking lots one of which of course is right behind the building and it's an active alley uh I think we consider it really sort of a street back there considering how many vehicles go back and forth and so um we're prepared to address lighting questions and lighting concerns traffic control making sure that that that's being monitored the team from the tenant is has proposed to to place people outside at e each entry to make sure the patrons are are not creating noise when they go back to their cars or anything abnormal than a conversation maybe talking about how great the show was on their way and then to also wander through those areas and make sure that any trash that might have made its way out of our venue doesn't get left around uh the neighborhood and that that gets up as well and I'm sure there are other questions about uh what we could what what's going to come up in the process we're very much looking forward to working in in Partnership um what I'll do I guess is is leave you with um we've taken very careful look at this uh from a property owner's perspective um what we do with the space matters you know I will say equally to us as it as it does the folks who live in the village um

this needs to be a legacy uh this is a legacy opportunity to do something really remarkable maybe as remarkable as whenever the first time the theater was built and created because it created a thing that people are are remember it's nostalgic people remember their shows they remember taking their families out to that space and we hope to be a part of making that uh a new a new set of memory in the space and making that viable we understand that that has to be done well executed well it's going to be met with a handful of criteria we're prepared to honor and keep those commitments because uh one it's the right thing to do obviously but it also preserves the right for that use to stay in that space and it preserves if it's not executed properly it won't be patronized and if it's not patronized it's not likely to do well either and as a landlord more than maybe anybody else we care very much about that and so um what I'm here to to share with you one is of course our request for assistance and uh a thank you for your kind consideration but also to let you know that we're committed to this we we've done the underwriting we've done the homework as much or more than anybody would have expected we would do we believe in this operator this operation this team they've been very receptive when we took our first set of concerns back back and we thought we had thought of everything clearly we did not think of everything and we got some really great feedback in the course of um not only early conversations with the folks at the Village but also after the village board meeting and um I think you'll you'll find us to be receptive to getting that done if we can figure out a way to make this happen and so our goal tonight was to introduce the request to you kind of re reset that stage and then

make sure that we're here and available to answer questions that you have um I didn't plan to run through uh much of the tenants concept we kind of hit a few of those things during that village board meeting but Adam from the tenants team is here as well to make sure it's not just the landlord's answers to your questions thank you think next we're gonna have Kelsey talk through a few points of the application but also the role of the CDA Etc yep yep absolutely so thank you Sheldon and president Buckley um so as president Buckley said I'm going to really focus on where we're at in the process as well as what is the role of the CDA in regards this project um so this is actually our second meet U meeting focused on the Redevelopment of Fox Bay theater into a live entertainment venue bar restaurant on the main floor as well as a flex event space on the second floor the first meeting was this past Tuesday uh January 21st which included a pretty comprehensive presentation um by the perspective Ive operators uh so a recording of that meeting is available on the website which I encourage you to watch um and then the CDA members uh participating this evening we're also encouraged to watch or attend that meeting as well for background information and preparation for this meeting uh the next meeting it um that we will have after this one is with the village plan commission and that's scheduled for Monday February 10th at 6 o'clock um during that meeting the plan commission will review the conditional use permit for the Argo which includes valuating important Community topics such as parking noise safety in their General operating plan um public comments related to any of those topics will be most impactful during that plan commission meeting on February 10th as this is the body who will evaluate those concerns the meeting this evening with the CDA is really focused on the developers um incentive which Sheldon

spoke about um because this group this group is charged with diving into the numbers to determine if the requested incentive is needed if it's an appropriate use of tax incremental District funds and then also how an incentive could be structured um historically the CDA has looked to fund projects that further the strategic planning efforts in the Silver Spring business district by contributing to projects that otherwise may not occur and that will achieve specific funding outcomes uh the proposed project um again that Sheldon spoke to is 7.53 million total cost and newand has identified a funding gap or a request of the village of $1 million um we've started to analyze this request um at a staff level and as we've done that we've really focused on three primary areas that I want to reassure everyone about uh through any incentive no funds would come from the general tax levy paid by single family Residential Properties there would be no impact on the tax levy as a result of this project and the village will not issue debt to fund an incentive to Fox Bay any incentives to support this project would come from a special taxing district on Silver Spring um called a tax incremental District or a tid um a tid is an economic de development tool available in Wisconsin that uses increased property values within a specific District to fund improvements within that same district that would not otherwise occur Fox Bay is currently located within an existing tid on Silver Spring uh so funds from that District that have been generated by increased property values on Silver Spring could be used in this case for the incentive that's being request requested another option that the Community Development Authority could explore is the creation of a new tid that could um include Fox Bay and that incentive um could be used for this or that those dollars could be used for this incentive as well as potentially future Redevelopment projects if they were located within

that District um so important questions for everybody in the in this room is how are we going to safeguard The Village or Safeguard our funds um so any developers agreement would be structured to the best of our ability to safeguard those funds um likely a portion of the incentive would be paid when the renovation is completed and would be structured as a loan that would convert to a grant after a set number of years of successful operating um the remainder of the incentive could be structured to be paid over time and would likely be tied to the increased value from the property as a result of the um the renovation so essentially they would be paying addition property taxes and in return that incentive or those dollars would be essentially returned back to them um to be invested into that project um the CDA um this evening and potentially in future meetings will be tasked with analyzing the Fox Bay Redevelopment request against the goals and priorities of the Silver Spring business district and if the development meets these priorities this group will work to identify an appropriate contribution level for the tid and the best funding mechanisms so hopefully that was at least a brief overview I mostly just really wanted to clarify CDA versus plan commission um because I know um those topics are really important and so this group really focusing on the finances and the plan commission focusing on those other areas parking noise op General operations things like that thank you um yeah what what was important about that was just to delineate uh the the the different meetings that we're having this meeting tonight is mainly discussing ing the um the T tid District the funds that are there uh and the request that being made uh from Newland and the Argo operators um versus comments that could be made as you said more impactful F at the plan commission

meeting uh with that I think firstly is are there any questions from the board that they would like to ask about this request outside the perview obviously the next step we'll do is a close session meeting and so you know are there are there any questions that you have that are germine to the public uh about this project and about the financing okay hearing none so far at least that I think we were going to go to public comment okay uh in that case so this is kind of the moment for there's number of people here who are obviously interested in uh this project and this is the time for you to talk about um you know anything you'd like to ask or or mention uh if you'd like to come up to the podium and state your name and address you have a sign in sheet I'm Mark Ziggler uh I'm 62 years old uh I lived my whole life in Whitefish Bay uh I went to ha wife F High School um I wanted to speak briefly about the the Fox Bay Marquees sign um I feel that the Fox Bay Marquees sign should stay as it is as a wiish bay tradition and a historical piece uh I am 62 I have lived in wiish Bay my whole life my parents' home was is 4908 North Marlboro across from Kill Square Park the sign is part of our history and should be preserved as the tower on Whitefish Bay High School which they're working on right now which will look

exactly the same um a tower is being preserved exactly as it always has been and the PS mansion in Milwaukee history is important it's who we are as a community please keep it the same PS it is a wiish bay historical landmark sign um Bitz Geralds in wiish Bay has the same name as when I was a a child my father was a doctor at St Mary's hospital and I used to go in there from day one and and it has a a different management but they kept up the tradition of calling it fitzgeralds and I think that the the sign um as like Fitzgerald's should remain the same um I can't imagine driving into Whitefish Bay and not seeing the sign Fox Bay can you thank you thank you it's it's just such a tradition it's always been there um I think it should stay the same they're using the Marquee right now um as they advertise the movies um to advertise this new company and I think that that's the way they could um advertise for the things and the events that are going to take place um after the renovation all right but yeah I would it would break my heart to not see the fox Bas sign it's in very good condition I have noticed that recently

they've relit it and um that really B brought a big smile to my face to see that sign lit up again and I'm sure that I'm not the only one in white Bish B who liked that thank you thank you Mark anyone else like to say a few words sure please come up and I guess I'd also say if anybody wants to go after um you can go to the other Podium and line up after me line up a non- deck Circle could you state your hi everybody I'm Kate valious 700 East Henry Clay Street right down the street here um resident of White Fish Bay for 25 plus years um so for financial purposes because I know that is what we're trying to focus on this evening um I know that a lot of other businesses on that street are concerned about contributing for businesses more on the east side than businesses on the West Side um the Thursday night shop street and shop or sip and Shop whatever they're called um are very popular events but I've heard from many businesses each time that there seems to be fewer people traveling west of um Santa Monica and most of the business for the village stays east of Santa Monica around the corner the question I have is from the support of those businesses west of Santa Monica is this equally divided in helping this project or how how is it potentially going to be done did you mentioned that there's the

tid though which is the tax the business tax division so how how is it determined that you know what bit like winkies and syndic and do they contribute more based on their size based on their volume do the smaller salons contribute less the boutique shops out curiosity well first it's property owners and not individual like boutiques and whatnot um but you you are correct that the the larger the uh the the higher the assessment of each property dictates just like your property taxes uh dictates the the tid contribution so for example I think sendex is number one yeah and and the Fox Bay might be number two on the Block two or three maybe not sure close Jamie um you know e so there's probably I think there's only like 14 properties up and down the tid and so each one contributes in a manner that is um you know compared to their assessed value um you have a good point that uh most of the business activity does occur to the east of Santa Monica um it and and as a our CDA has met a number of times to talk about you know how do you activate Silver Spring now we we just talk about Silver Spring and not East Silver Spring and West Silver Spring right um but you're correct that like the center of it is is definitely to the east of of Santa Monica yeah because there are some very very good businesses sure west of Santa Monica that somehow get just you know they they're just not thought about and the only the only thing that people really think about is east of Silver

Spring and we go up to liell so sure I would say that in the history of the CDA um we've given grants to you're have to refresh my memory um we've given grants to Fresh Coast dance which is on the west side we gave a grant to uh uh trouble in Suns before they Clos before they Clos um that might be it I'm I'm just trying to Quick Collective the Creator Collective I'm not did we the health oh the norer wellness Collective yep yeah there's a y three different grants and Eric's of course has left which is unfortunate but but we we never they never asked for a grant I'm not sure they were I think when they started business the grant program wasn't in a in a at the time so there's there's three that I we can come up with quickly that have been um you know granted funds to the west of Santa Monica and there aren't that many bus you know Property Owners to the West there probably only three maybe four something like that oh and for most of that stretch you can only have your businesses on the south side of Silver Spring right because you're never you're never because of the church in Dominican yeah yeah so that's never going to change right no I understand that I understand that and they're not they're not taxable either so there's there's nothing coming right the ones on the North side yeah yeah yeah yeah um the other question is from a business standpoint what would this potential development do um to long-standing places like the bay that's a great question um I I I assume I mean I one can only guess that

having uh one two three four 500 different people throughout the week Fridays and Saturdays uh coming to live events that all the restaurants on Silver Spring will do better because there'll be more foot traffic there'll be more um people you know trying to get a drink trying to get uh dinner yeah um so I I imagine that the the folks at the bay are really excited about this I hope because they'll their their business will definitely increase from this right okay and now you have other questions not related to financial but I'll save those for for next week okay thank you very much thank you my name is Holly Rosenberg I live at Lakeside Towers 5800 3D Avenue Apartment 519 in kosia Wisconsin I would like to say to Sheldon I familiar with St Charles Illinois I'm originally from Chicago suburbs Niles Illinois uh I have looked on the website I have seen the great things that have been done for Arcadia and if new Land Development can do half of what it did if what it if what it if new Land Development could do half of what it did for St Charles Illinois to breathe life that would be a wonderful thing to breathe life into this community um I grant I realize it's a smaller Community than St Charles Illinois but if it could breathe life I'm I'm very hopeful for it and Mark I agree with you I like the name Fox Bay theater I have been coming to White Fish Bay for fun um errands for four years and you know it feels like home It Feels Like Home even though I'm not from yeah I'm not from White Fish Bay I'm you know

from I live in kosa and I'm originally from Chicago suburbs but when I like to see that it's comforting the Fox Bay theater I like that but I don't know realistically if it has a a good ring a good catch it doesn't say Fox Theater that's why I think it would work because it just says the fox Bay Fox Bay I meant Fox Bay yeah well I don't know you know think that it's doable well well the gods will the gods will determine that but uh I I sincerely uh support this idea and as I say uh I have looked on the map of where St Charles Illinois is which of course I know where it is and I see all the towns that are breathing life from the Arcadia Theater and I'm hoping it will do the same for White Fish Bay all right thank you thank you for the comment all right hi I'm Anderson I live at 5715 North Lake Drive just a little history on the sign um it was the fox Amusement corporation that purchased the land in the 30s so hence fox b so that's where the name comes from also there was a survey a historic survey done in Whitefish Bay in 2010 2011 and the building was determined to be uh eligible for listing on the national register of historic places due to the style of architecture the art modar style so there might be some historic tax credits available and I don't know if those have been explored thank you any other public comments anyone else okay sir he uh it's Billo I'm here two hats on I guess uh I am a resident of w bsh Bay 5055 North

Berkeley Boulevard resident here for about 13 years and uh but I'm also uh president and COO of Mandel group who owns uh bman place and uh wanted to just call your attention that you you some of you may know some of you may not but uh uh both um Sheldon and Adam have been great as far as their Outreach with our residents the uh there's some people here kind of the citizens of Bowmont uh as they call themselves and uh it's as a developer one I I'm really encouraged to see the Outreach um by both groups uh to the residents to hear hear them out I've seen that they've they have adapted their plan already by removing some windows that were on the North side um they are um my understanding is that um uh is that the uh all the exiting will be done through the main main uh doors along Silver Spring um ideally uh we'd love to see something where the entrance is coming also through Silver Spring but I understand that that there's uh there may be uh operational issues with that um but you know to the extent that the um concerns of the citizens of bont uh can be addressed we are very supportive of this I'm supportive of it personally I'm supportive we're supportive of it as Mandel group uh we think it would be a great addition to um uh to Whitefish Bay and I actually used to sit on the The Village bid and so I do think that this um this would be beneficial not just for the east side of silver silver spring

but there'll be some spill over for the west side as well thank you thank you any other members of the public going once oh well you I didn't give my present address like the other people did I brought up my my address for I GRE up I am still a resident of wife but now I live on Henry okay well we'll fix the record okay thank you any other members of the public okay well that kind of concludes the discussion part of the developers agreement for the Fox Bay theater the next agenda item yes is uh going into Clos session which does mean we're kind of done with the public element tonight um the next piece would be someone could make a motion to go into close session uh as dictated on the agenda so move thank you dick do I hear a second thank you Mike all right we have a motion in a second to go into close session all those in favor say I I I uh any opposed motion carries thank you all right so we are now going into close session thank you for coming tonight um we will adjourn back into Open Session later thank you um and there there will be minutes on our website as well as the end of the meeting as well if anyone would like to watch that hey thanks Mark thank you Joel gave me a copy as well thank you he could be he had mentioned calling in I think we'll check maybe after let's

do a you pause the [Music] recording now all right it is now 8:24 and we have come out of close session and now we just need a motion to adjourn uh thank you dick do I hear a second second thank you Mike all those in favor say I I I any opposed we are adjourned thank you sorry two and a half hours 824