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10/12/2020 Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes October 12, 2020 City of Clearwater Main Library- Council Chambers 100 N. Osceola Avenue Clearwater, FL 33755 m ap ® e Meeting Minutes Monday, October 12, 2020 9:00 AM Main Library - Council Chambers Community Redevelopment Agency Page 1 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes October 12, 2020 To ensure public safety and comply with the Governor's Safer at Home order in response to the COVID-19 virus, the Clearwater City Council will hold a public meeting on Monday, October 12, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. using communications media technology. Pursuant to Executive Order No. 20-69, issued by the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis on March 20, 2020, municipalities may conduct meetings of their governing boards without having a quorum of its members present physically or at any specific location, and utilizing communications media technology such as telephonic or video conferencing, as provided by Section 120.54(5)(b)2, Florida Statutes. Roll Call Present 5 - Chair Frank Hibbard, Trustee David Allbritton, Trustee Hoyt Hamilton, Trustee Kathleen Beckman, and Trustee Mark Bunker Also Present: William B. Horne II — City Manager, Micah Maxwell —Assistant City Manager, Michael Delk—Assistant City Manager, Pamela K. Akin City Attorney, Rosemarie Call — City Clerk, Nicole Sprague — Deputy City Clerk, and Amanda Thompson — CRA Executive Director To provide continuity for research, items are listed in agenda order although not necessarily discussed in that order. 1. Call to Order— Chair Hibbard The meeting was called to order at 9:02 a.m. using communications media technology. 2. Approval of Minutes 2.1 Approve the minutes of the September 14, 2020 CRA Meeting as submitted in written summation by the City Clerk. Trustee Hamilton moved to Approve the September 14, 2020 CRA Meeting Minutes as submitted in written summation by the City Clerk. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. 3. Citizens to be Heard Regarding Items Not on the Agenda Kathy Flaherty submitted an eComment regarding the functions of a CRA. The City Clerk read the comments into the record (see page 9). Page 2 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes October 12, 2020 The City Attorney said all CRA expenditures are done consistent with the CRA Plan, which is extensive and detailed. The city complies with the Plan. The City Manager said the City Commission at the time established clear priorities, the Commission did not direct him to ignore blight in the CRA. He said staff has not ignored blight in the CRA. CRA Executive Director Amanda Thompson said the CRA pays for community policing. Two additional officers are dedicated to the CRA district. She said the City cannot force property owners to take CRA grant funds for eligible property improvements. The City Attorney said the Downtown Development Board is a separate legal entity from the City and has its own taxing authority. The money that comes to the CRA is TIF and the CRA contracts with the DDB to provide certain services for the DDB. 4. New Business Items 4.1 Approve a Community Redevelopment Agency contribution of$305,000 to be set aside as a commitment for the Minimum Local Government Areas of Opportunity Funding that is required for Blue Pierce, LLC, as Successor-in-Interest to Blue Sky Communities, LLC, (Blue Sky) to receive a basis boost in the State of Florida's Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) for an 81-unit affordable housing development project at 610 Franklin Street; approve the First Amendment to Agreement for Development and Purchase and Sale of Property (Amendment) between the Community Redevelopment Agency, the City of Clearwater and Blue Pierce, LLC (Blue Pierce); and authorize the appropriate officials to execute same The purpose of this item is to request that the CRA Trustees amend the current development agreement with the City of Clearwater and Blue Pierce, LLC to reduce the required local government contribution from $747,000 to $610,000. Amending the agreement requires the approval of both the City and the CRA. The City Council will consider this item on October 1, 2020. The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) issued RFP 09-19 on August 17, 2019 to redevelop the former Fire Station 45 site at 610 Franklin Street as a housing tax credit project. The 2018 Downtown Redevelopment Plan calls for a variety of housing to support a range of incomes including market rate, workforce and low- to moderate-income rental units to meet the unmet housing demand for a diverse workforce in the Downtown Core, employees in the medical field at Morton Plant and the hospitality industry on Clearwater Beach. The RFP invited qualified applicants with previous experience and financial resources to develop a minimum of eighty residential units under the Florida Housing Finance Corporation's Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. Staff reviewed three qualified proposals and recommended Blue Sky Communities Page 3 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes October 12, 2020 as the winning proposal on September 18, 2019. Blue Sky Communities proposes to construct a 9-story, 81-unit housing development with a two-story, 81-space parking garage and ground floor commercial space. The unit mix is 30 1-bedroom, 47 two-bedroom and 4 three-bedroom units. This is a mixed income project with 16% of the units at 30% AMI, 69% of the units at 60% AMI and 15% of the units at 80% AMI. The developer anticipates future residents having $216,000 in new disposable income after moving into this project. The total development costs are approximately $22,000,000. This includes a purchase price of$2,000,000 from the CRA and a loan from City/CRA of$747,000 at interest rate of 4%. After entering into the Agreement for Development and Purchase and Sale of Property (Agreement), Blue Sky submitted an application to the FHFC under RFA114. Blue Sky's application to FHFC was unsuccessful; however, the Agreement contained an option for an extension of one additional year for Blue Sky to re-apply in a future RFA, which was exercised in accordance with the terms of the Agreement. The Amendment provides updated information regarding FHFC's 2020 Application cycle. Following approval of this item, Blue Sky will submit an application in response to FHFC's Request for Applications 2020-202 (RFA202). The minimum Local Government Area of Opportunity Funding amount has been reduced by the State from $747,000 in 2019 to $610,000 for this year's RFA. The CRA's portion of this new match is $305,000. If more than one firm submits an acceptable application for a project located in Pinellas County with local government support of$610,000, then FHFC's selection becomes akin to a lottery pick; only one project will be awarded tax credits. Applications for RFA202 are due on October 20, 2020 and FHFC's selection is expected in March 2020. If Blue Sky is not successful in this round, the agreement will expire, and the property will be available for new redevelopment proposals. Approval of the amendment and contribution is recommended. APPROPRIATION CODE AND AMOUNT: There is funding available in the Housing-County R2010 project fund. In response to questions, CRA Executive Director Amanda Thompson said the agreement will expire March 2021. Staff will come back to the Trustees if Blue Pierce is not awarded the tax credits in order to discuss what is desired on the property. The City's contribution was recently reduced because the State recently lowered the minimum required local government contribution rate. Trustee Hamilton moved to approve a Community Redevelopment Agency contribution of $305,000 to be set aside as a commitment for the Minimum Local Government Areas of Opportunity Funding Page 4 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes October 12, 2020 that is required for Blue Pierce, LLC, as Successor-in-Interest to Blue Sky Communities, LLC, (Blue Sky) to receive a basis boost in the State of Florida's Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) for an 81-unit affordable housing development project at 610 Franklin Street; approve the First Amendment to Agreement for Development and Purchase and Sale of Property (Amendment) between the Community Redevelopment Agency, the City of Clearwater and Blue Pierce, LLC (Blue Pierce); and authorize the appropriate officials to execute same. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. 4.2 Authorize the CRA Executive Director to prepare an agreement for the development and sale of the property at 306 South Washington Avenue for the purposes identified in RFP 53-20. The purpose of this item is to select SP Clearwater WFH LLC as the winning respondent for RFP 53-20 and to authorize the CRA Executive Director to prepare an agreement for the sale, development and grant funding for the project. The Community Redevelopment Agency issued an RFP for the redevelopment of its site at 306 South Washington on August 17, 2020. The request called for a mixed-use or apartment development with a focus on workforce and market rate housing, the opportunity for shared parking to serve surrounding restaurant/retail businesses, construction to begin in 2021 and ample outdoor amenity space. There is currently a lack of rental supply for employees in the technology industry downtown, at Morton Plant Hospital and on Clearwater Beach who earn 80% or higher of the area median income. Building shared parking on the South Washington site is key to preserving existing greenspace on the CRA owned site across the street on Pierce Street as well as supporting commercial uses on the ground floors of APEX 1100 and The Nolan apartment. The CRA received responses from the Housing Trust Group, LLC and SP Clearwater WFH LLC. The review committee read the proposals and listened to presentations from each respondent. The projects were ranked on Developers Experience and Qualifications, Legal and Financial Feasibility, Ability to Meet Redevelopment Objectives, and Proposed Timeline for Construction. The committee ranked SP Clearwater WFH LLC as the first choice and recommended moving forward with requesting authorization to negotiate. While both applicants have significant experience with affordable housing and presented attractive architectural proposals, SP Clearwater WFH scored higher for the following reasons: Page 5 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes October 12, 2020 - More detailed proposal including construction cost estimates and ability to begin construction in 2021 - Ability to source local financing, not dependent on the state 9% and 4% tax credit program - The provision of workforce rental housing above 80% AMI - Long term affordability through a partnership with the Pinellas County Land Trust - Significant research into the market and financial feasibility of the project SP Clearwater WFH is proposing to construct a 171-unit mixed income apartment development, a 275-space parking garage with tenant amenities including a pool, dog walking area, two playgrounds, exercise room and community room. There is a mixture of 1-bedroom (725sf) units and 2 bedroom (925sf) units. There will be 18 affordable units at 80% of AMI, 49 units at 100% of AMI and 104 affordable units at 120% of AMI. The building will include high efficiency HVAC, Energy Star rated windows, low flow toilets and sound deadening construction. The parking area will include a dedicated Uber/Lyft area to support car sharing services as well as ample bicycle parking. The current proposal calls for 40 public parking spaces, however the CRA will negotiate to increase this number and the developer has indicated they are amenable to that. There are two aspects to this proposal that provide long term housing affordability. First, the developer proposes that the CRA sell the land to the Pinellas County Land Trust who will own the underlying land in perpetuity. The land trust will then provide a 99-year lease to the developer. Second, the rental rates are set by the AMI established by Pinellas County and cannot increase more than 1.02% per year. Typically, market rate rental amounts increase more than 1% per year. SP Clearwater WFH has presented an in-depth proposal. They have conducted environmental studies on the site, a market analysis to show the proposed rental rates are achievable for this project and obtained preliminary approval for construction financing from Neighborhood Lending Partners. They have already received a construction cost estimate from Wichman Construction to provide an accurate overall project budget. The overall project cost is $38,436,995. The table below shows the sources of funds and how they will be used. SP Clearwater representatives Peter Leach and Brian Hammond provided a PowerPoint presentation. In response to questions, Mr. Leach said a 1,500 sq. ft.-room will be set Page 6 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes October 12, 2020 aside for scooters and bicycles that will also provide electricity to charge electric scooters and bikes. The project includes 20 wall chargers for electric vehicles in the garage. He said the project meets all of the green standards required of the Florida Housing Finance. The parking garage has a large roof area that is being considered for solar panels to run the project's exterior lighting. Mr. Leach said the project includes 2,000 sq. ft. of amenities designed to meet the requirement for exercise room, party space and tv room. The construction will be mostly prefabricated, if the project was all concrete, it would be really expensive. Trustee Hamilton moved to authorize the CRA Executive Director to prepare an agreement for the development and sale of the property at 306 South Washington Avenue for the purposes identified in RFP 53-20. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. 5. Director's Report CRA Executive Director Amanda Thompson said the Holiday Extravaganza will include four scheduled movies at the CMA lot and at the Economy Inn lot. Staff is close to securing a Ferris wheel and additional lighting. She said staff is working with the library to provide make and take holiday craft kits for children. The Downtown Development Board ballot is due tomorrow. Staff will be presenting amendments to the DDB ordinance in November. She said the DDB approved$50,000 towards the Back to Business grants and have provided over$50,000 to the Downtown Clearwater Merchants Association to assist with programming needs. The Cleveland Street Lighting Project idea, which was brought forward by 3 downtown advocates and business owners, is on hold awaiting a quote for design services; staff hopes to set up site visits for the designers who will be able to explain the technical requirements of different options. The project area includes Cleveland St. from the water to Missouri Avenue. She said Station Square Park will need investment at some point. The design of the park does not allow for pedestrian flow through and there are currently no active uses for the space which has created a dead zone. Some type of programming or change will be needed to bring activity to the area. She said an updated strategy with the requested metrics will be presented in November or December. She will also request guidance for a survey to be conducted in the CRA. She will be launching a Call for Ideas with Amplify Clearwater this week and clarified that the CRA has given a grant to Amplify as part of the capacity building to assist event producers with the City's special event process in combination with getting co- sponsorship from the Parks & Recreation Department. Now that Florida has moved into Phase 3 of re-opening, staff will be actively soliciting new events Page 7 City of Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency 6. Adjourn Attest u.- City Clerk City of Clearwater Meeting Minutes October 12, 2020 for the downtown to enjoy. Letters will be sent to property owners late October or early November regarding the opportunity zone advertising campaign with information on what the CRA is doing to market the area, locally, regionally, and nationally. The meeting adjourned at 9:53 a.m. ,o ..ATEAN. 9�ir4i .. ?ORATE r ..•• jy 1,4,44 FLO'B\CIsto qiniss 0`' Community Redevelopment Agency Page 8