Committee Minutes
FINANCE DEVELOPMETN STANDBY COMMITTEE
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - - 4:00 p.m.
City Hall - - A101
Present:
Christensen, McNamara, Gershman.
Absent:
Glassheim
Civic Auditorium Redevelopment
The Committee discussed that proposals for development of the Civic Auditorium site have been received, but none of those had been accepted by the Council. Hoover distributed a draft RFP that could be used to solicit new proposals for the development of the site and stated that they also will need to get final approval from Council to proceed with bids to demolish the Civic Auditorium.
The Committee discussed pros and cons of the City demolishing the building and bringing the site to a developable state versus having developers include the demolition as part of their development proposal. Hoover commented that anticipated cost for demolition would be around $300,000. He added that the demolition, as well as the redevelopment of the site, could be an eligible use for some of the allocation from the Neighborhood Revitalization funds that the City has been awarded. Hoover continued that we could solicit the bids for the demolition of the Civic and would not necessarily have to proceed with the project, but then would have the information in case the most preferable proposal would require the City to do the demolition.
The Committee discussed the timeline that they would prefer getting this project moving and that the RFP process could take too long to allow a developer to get in the ground yet this year. Following discussion, consensus of the Committee was to authorize staff to contact developers and solicit proposals which should come in based both on a developable site and including the demolition of the Civic. Committee Members encouraged staff to contact developers within Grand Forks and also to look to developers from outside the community, for example Fargo, Minneapolis, etc., as there have been some very nice developments done in downtown Fargo and would be nice fit to see something similar here.
Motion by McNamara, Second by Christensen, to authorize staff to: (1) solicit bids for demolition of the Civic Auditorium to bring the site to a developable state; and (2) to invite developers to submit, by July 15, redevelopment proposals for both a prepared site and an unprepared site. Aye: All. Motion Carried.
Meeting adjourned 4:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sherie Lundmark
Admin Spec Sr.