Print VersionStay Informed
MINUTES/FLOOD RESPONSE COMMITTEE
Monday, November 17, 1997 - 6:00 p.m.

Members present: Hafner, Bakken, Polovitz.

1. Proposals for commercial appraisals of downtown voluntary acquisition properties.
John O'Leary reported that the city council authorized staff to acquire properties in the central business district which were sub-stantially damaged in excess of 50% as a result of the flood; the focus of the acquisition process will commence on the corner of DeMers and 4th Street.

Glassheim reported present.

He reported that the purpose of focusing our efforts at this loca-tion is to allow for the plans to proceed with the development of the corporate center on that intersection. He stated that staff contacted all the major known appraisers in the region (distributed copies to committee) and solicited quotes for the appraisal of these properties.

Carpenter reported present.

He reported that the appraisers in Grand Forks and the region are extremely busy between Grand Forks and East Grand Forks and so it will not be possible to proceed with appraisals on all of the pro-perty in the entire central business district on the acquisition or target list; however, it's really important that they proceed with appraisals and acquisition in the 4th and DeMers area because unless we tie these building up soon it will jeopardize the pos-sibility of developing that center this year. He reported that a meeting was held on November 7 in their office and the first paragraph of the cover memo is a listing of the people attending that meeting, the upshot of the request was that they were looking for appraisals for approx. 6 parcels in the corner of DeMers and 4th and asked people there about their interest in doing an appraisal on those buildings and timeframes that were involved. He stated they also asked them to submit proposal if any of the firms were interested in taking the lead on the appraisal, because if you had one company, one appraiser who would be the clearing house for all the comps and would save all the appraisers a lot of time in looking for comps and rental structures, on sales histories life, and made sense to have one firm who would be in charge of that and would serve as a data bank where other firms could go and obtain that information without recreating.

He reported they received this bid tabulation from appraisers involved, there was no minimum or maximum on the appraisals in terms of how many they were asking any company to do, asked them to submit a quote on what each appraisal would cost and when they could get it done. He reported that in response to that they received a letter from Appraisals & Real Estate Research, Inc., Joan Johnson, and her letter is attached; and she would propose a
MINUTES/FLOOD RESPONSE COMMITTEE
November 17, 1998 - Page 2

fee for $7500 to be project coordinator and to coordinate all the appraisals that we are proposing to do and in addition to that, a flat quote of $1500 per appraisal on the 43 parcels that were involved. He stated that there are 5 or 6 of these owners who have indicated an interest in selling their property for the taxable value and those 5 or 6 would be referred to the city attorney's office for processing and that will reduce the total number of appraisals. He reported that after reviewing the quotes that they received from the various companies, it's staff recommendation that we accept the quote from Appraisals & Real Estate Research, Inc. in the amount of $7500 for the base bid as being lead firm and $1500 per parcel for the parcels involved. He stated that she also indicated that she would try to get initial appraisals done by the middle of December and latter part of December at the latest. He reported that Mrs. Johnson has assembled a team of people that would help her with that as stated on page 1 of her letter and listing of people who would help her with the appraisals.

Mr. O'Leary reported that the initial six would be done immediately and the balance of the 43 Appraisals Research would commence work as time allowed; that the six are 323 DeMers (also 319); 15 South 4th Street, 20, 18 and 16 South 4th Street and 407 DeMers Avenue. He reported that there are other appraisals being done on various parcels and some on the 12, 16 and 18 North 4th Street and on 402 DeMers but not by the City.

It was moved by Polovitz and Bakken to accept the full bid from Appraisals and Real Estate Research, Inc. that includes a team of six appraisers put together by Joan Johnson, that the bid includes the cost of $7,500 for the Appraiser Project Coordinator and $1500 per parcel based on 43 parcels, with total cost being $72,000. Motion carried.

1a Matter of purchase of 6 parcels in the Central Business Dist.
Mr. O'Leary reported that there's substantial urgency in acquiring these six parcel so that they can proceed with the cor-porate center project, that all of the buyers that are involved are interested in looking at an appraisal, they want to know the fair value of the property, that he visited with Mr. Swanson about the possibility of tieing up the property to give the tenant group who are involved in this project some assurance that this project will proceed and one way to tie up the property is to negotiate a pur-chase agreement with the owners of these 6 structures and purchase agreement would say that the City would purchase the property at either the appraised value or the taxable value, whichever is highest, and then proceed with development of strategy to develop those four corners. He stated that the appraisals won't e done until December or later but could go ahead with the purchase agree-ment prior to that based on proposed value or taxable value and that could be done in a very short time; and he is inquiring whether Flood Response Committee would do that and if so to
MINUTES/FLOOD RESPONSE COMMITTEE
November 17, 1998 - Page 3

authorize staff to proceed.

It was moved by Glassheim and Carpenter to authorize staff to offer the highest of the taxable value or market value on the six parcels (323 DeMers Avenue, 15 South 4th Street, 20 South 4th Street, 18 South 4th Street, 16 South 4th Street, and 407 DeMers Avenue), and to execute a purchase agreement. Motion carried.

2. Matter of change orders from Congressional Resubdivision No. 1,
Proj. 4680 and Congressional Resubdivision No. 2, Proj. 4675. Curt Siewert, Urban Development, reported that these projects were housing subdivision in Richard's West and what has happened is that the project started late and conditions not the best, under-ground conditions turned out to be in worse condition than antici-pated and it's been recommendation from engineering department not to proceed with paving this fall because sanitary sewer was so deep and soil conditions are so bad and have gone out into the roadway, and because of time of the year, not getting compaction that is required to hold up underneath the street section, and request would be to cut out more soil material and add deeper depth of aggregate, from 18" to 24", because when thaw goes out the road doesn't disintegrate and be unable to use the base to pour the concrete next summer. He reported that the sanitary and storm sewer and water on both projects are about complete, North Con-gressional should be done in two weeks, and south end is all done. He reported that they have foundations in on both sites and need to get access out there to service the houses going up and that there are two change orders, one for each site.

Mr. Grasser reported that the concept is to recoup infrastructure costs within sale of the lots, no direct special assessments but basically calculate those development costs into sale of lots, and costs passed onto the ultimate property owners.

Moved by Polovitz and Glassheim to recommend approval of the change orders, Project No.4680 in the amount of $86,533.00 and Project 4675, $114,873.90. Motion carried.

It was moved by Carpenter and Glassheim to adjourn, motion carried.

Alice Fontaine
City Clerk