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Home My WebLink AboutBID Minutes 1-17 Downtown Business Improvement District Board Meeting Minutes January 18, 2017 Attending: Mike Basile, Erik Nelson, Eric Sutherland, Ileana Indreland, Susan Neubauer, Jeff Krauss, Chris Naumann Absent: Jolee Berry, Eric Bowman Public Comments: None Minutes ACTION: Erik Nelson moved to approve the minutes from November as presented. Eric Sutherland seconded the motion. All voted in favor. Finance Report Chris presented the financials as of January 18, 2017. He noted that revenues were tracking as expected with just over $73,929 received, but the 2nd installment of the assessment in the amount of $60,000 had been invoiced on January 1, 2017. On the expense side of the ledger, nothing unexpected to report as all expenses were on budget. Chris reported between the checking account and CDs, total cash equaled $87,106. The board had no further questions about the finance report. Executive Directors Report Maintenance Program Update Currently, we have two part-time maintenance staff—one concentrating on the garage cleaning and the other overseeing the rest of downtown. Below are the maintenance statistics comparing year-to-date figures from this year (FY17) to the statistics from the same period last year (FY16)--July through December. FY2016 FY2017 Total Ave/mnth Total Ave/mnth Difference Trash Emptied 1747 291 1561 260 -186 Recycling Emptied 255 42 186 31 -69 Graffiti Removed 212 35 227 38 +15 Intersection Cable Anchor Repair Project Montana Crane Service began performing the prescribed improvements on 11 building anchors October 2016 and completed all the necessary repairs and maintenance in November 2016. The Downtown TIF District has funded all of the work involved from the original structural analysis, to the anchor work, to the follow up reports prepared by Kerin to document the work completed. Building Project Updates Lark Addition (corner of Grand and Main) 4 story building with 28 new Lark hotel rooms. Construction began in December 2016. 5 West Building (northwest corner of Mendenhall and Tracy) Construction began on October 2016. First floor businesses scheduled to open in April 2017 and the upper floors completed in June 2017. Etha Hotel (old Armory building) first phase of foundation work complete. No date for when construction will resume. Willson Residences (old East Willson School) being redeveloped into 18 residential units with underground parking. Partial completion scheduled for Summer 2016. Rialto Theater under construction to be completed by August 2017. Black & Olive Apartments new design/site plan before DRC 1/18/17. Would like to begin construction in March 2017 and be completed in May 2018. New Businesses Update • Jam Fusion Restaurant—opened December 13, 2016 • Union Market— Mendenhall/Rouse…Service Elec (south) opening date unknown • Squire House—Element Hotel restaurant is under construction • F-11 Space—vacant • Headroom Space—vacant • Reflections—vacant Planning Updates In this section I will provide update about several ongoing City planning processes. Transportation Master Plan www.bozemantmp.com Consultants: Peccia & Associates (Helena), Alta Planning (Bozeman) Timeline: September 2015 (kickoff) through September 2016 (adoption) Update: Draft plan available in July 2016 UDC Revisions http://bozeman.net/Projects/UDCCodeupdate/Home Consultants: Makers (Seattle), Leland Group (Portland), Studio Cascade (Spokane) Timeline: September 2015 (kickoff) through March 2017 (adoption) City Vision & Strategic Plan Consultants: HDR Timeline: March 2016 (kickoff) through October 2016 2017 Community Plan (City Growth Policy) Update Consultants: City release RFP for consultants January 2017 Timeline: October 2016 through late 2017 Discussion and Decision Item City Commission Downtown Policy Discussion Chris provided a brief update about the City Commission’s downtown policy discussion on Monday November 28, 2106. He said the discussion went well with a detailed staff presentation regarding the long history of downtown planning efforts including: 1958 B3 zoning designation; 1995 Urban Renewal Plan; 1998 Downtown Improvement Plan; 2009 Downtown Improvement Plan; and all the related and subsequent code revisions. Chris said he gave a 10-minute overview of the 2009 Downtown Improvement Plan. The commission asked several questions of both the Planning staff and Chris. In all, Chris thinks the discussion was positive and reaffirmed decades of thoughtful and intentional planning to densify and improve downtown as Bozeman’s commercial, cultural and social center. Flower Basket Size Upgrade As previously requested by the board, Chris provided an financial analysis of upgrading all the 14” baskets to full-sized 18” baskets. Oak Gardens quoted $90 per 18” basket with liner and has offered a $25 credit per 14” basket. Thus the 18” net price would be $65 totaling $4,420 to upgrade all the 14” baskets. The board agreed as discussed at the last meeting that upgrading all of the baskets at once was the best course of action. Tenant Mix Next Steps Chris provided the board with the following memo outlining some of the issues regarding tenant mix downtown. The board has been discussing the trend of retail spaces being converted to restaurant businesses and why this is happening. The board suggested contacting other downtowns in places like Bend, Fort Collins, and Boulder to get learn of their experiences with tenant mix. It was also discussed that we should consider how to attract a grocery store in preparation of Heebs relocating. Chris also mentioned that he was looking into options of gathering more pedestrian count data as a way to help retailers better understand optimal hours of operation. BID Board Memo RE: Downtown Tenant Mix Cause and Effects Possible factors contributing to retail-to-restaurant conversions: • High lease rates favor higher margin business types (ie. alcohol sales) o Retail maintained margins: 42% -__% o Restaurant maintained margins: • Unlike retail businesses, food service is not subject to on-line competition 2017 BID FLOWER BASKET UPGRADE 90$ 25$ 65$ 68 4,420$ purchase price of 18" basket and liner net purchase price of 18" basket and liner quantity of 14" to 18" basket upgrades total net purchase price credit for 14" basket "trade-in" • Relaxation of parking regulations…3000 foot exemption o Restaurants have the highest parking requirement thus a change in use from retail to restaurant most likely would have triggered a parking requirement before the 3000 foot exemption. Next Steps In order to reflect on our tenant mix much less consider options to alter it in some way, we must first quantify downtown’s current vertical land use. So the first step is to establish downtown’s base line tenant mix. Utilizing best practices and in coordination with the City GIS Department, the BID staff will collect business type—aka “land use”—data for each floor of each building in the Business Improvement District. This will be accomplished by directly observing and recording the necessary information into a database using parameters that are defined by the City GIS system. Thus, the data collected can be integrated into a GIS layer represented in a variety of mapping tools. Once this baseline tenant mix data is recorded we can begin to analyze what is located where, compare the quantity of different uses, and contrast our tenant mix with regional and national averages. **Meeting was adjourned at 1:05pm**