2.26.25 Redevelopment Authority

uh welcome everyone to the February 26 2025 meeting of the Fall River Redevelopment Authority uh first item of order is where uh uh Lewis gonal is leaving the board we're gonna miss him and he's done a great job here uh Ben heidleberg is is been sworn in and be replacing him and we're going to miss leis he's been a lot of fun and gone through a lot for five years actually

which went fast I think but uh miss you anybody need to oh we we thank him for being on our board he did a great job and uh he was always there when the board needed him and he did a fantastic job and I want to thank everyone for allowing me to be part of this great team I wish you the best of luck I think he still owes me lunch

though I was trying to get out of that I'm G owe you two after this list you can double up you can have the Linc is going into the ser

well I just want to say that I want to thank you for all the work you did with us on CD Pier I was glad to print some photos for you of you the lieutenant governor at the groundbreaking and I want to thank you for serving on the Pleasant Street in Flint neighborhood task force that we had that Joan is on and we'll miss you on that and really wish you well in your

next Endeavors and thank you again

awesome you're on

TV I'm sure we'll see each other again we will thank you was a pleasure and it's not like we're not going to see you yes you're going to see me thank you take care take

care see you absolutely he said something about not holding his breath I don't know what that means next meeting can somebody move over here it's kind of long SL in the middle we sign t Okay uh person went to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting to any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recording or

transmission are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible right did you roll call John Ericson Ron rusen Joan madas Ben felberg ke thank you also joining us SAR page executive director John coffin legal councel Ken administrative consultant and Karen Martin project manager um we want to welcome uh Ben felberg who's this is this first meeting and um

we're looking really looking forward to working with Ben and getting your perspective on what we're what we what we do and um we we have a lot to accomplish looking forward to working with you yeah I appreciate the opportunity um born and raised in fall over currently reside here it's a city and a community that you know I hold near and dear to my heart um commercial lines insurance

sales producer for Hub International I've been there for about five years prior to that I was working for safety insurance which is a regional insurance company based out of Boston um graduated Northeastern University um is very grateful for the opportunity and look forward to contributing to this board awesome welcome welcome well spoken thank you I want to be I would to sound that

good and we also appreciate that you serve on the United Way board and the nextg board of the Boys and Girls Club so you bring a lot of board experience which is great appreciate that are you on that as well I'll be chairman of the board next this April I both on board and girls he's yeah both on boys girl he's on it's a different it's not the board it's a subp part of the board

we're trying to bring the younger generation into our board oh okay but their groups uh raised a lot of money at our last November uh meet and we have our biggest Galla and a lot of the we call them our young pups old the young pups I got my yeah they did they did a great job and uh we're looking forward to working with them and having them eventually come up

to the board and ser on a board it's a great cause um does anybody have any questions the Open Session minutes from uh January 22nd meeting if not I a motion to approve those minutes motion to approve the uh opening minutes for 12225 second second John Erikson yes Ron Ren yes Jo madas yes benberg yes and ke yes thank you um you guys have warrant which Joan has gone through we've got a total of dispersements of

13295 133 if there aren't any questions on that I'll I'll I'll request a motion to approve that warrant motion to approve the warrant for February 2025 of a total of 132,00 95133 second second John Ericson yes Ron rusen yes John madas yes fber yes an ke yes thank you uh next item um the amendment uh of Karen's employment agreement um anybody have any questions on that if not I'll entertain a motion to approve

to authorize me the chair to sign this amendment to Karen's uh employment agreement motion to add the amendment to the employment agreement with a pay increase of 5% over the country addition vacation days and I'll put in she's welld deserved for thank you she is second she is second John ER yes Ron Ron yes madus yes thank you thank you thank you um next uh Karen's GNA talk about the cathodic protection on the steel

sheeting at the uh City Pier yes so we are um moving right along with getting that into um uh final form so we can get it out to bid I just sent off today the draft kind of front end of the specifications to the fa engineering for them to start incorporating into the specification package we're still on target to have that um advertising out on the street April 2nd we're having a

pre- bid meeting on site April 9th and the bids will be due April 17 and we're hoping to bring to the April board meeting um a proposed contractor and get that on board and rolling um in early May so um so we'll just be fine- tune in the specs over the next couple of weeks and um I think we have everything ready to be put into all the proper the central register the notice

in the paper and all of that on time and scheduled in the queue for March so um that looks like it's going to be um on track to be um to be worked on coming this um this spring I will keep you posted I'll probably in um in the April meeting I'll probably talk a little bit more about how um the prices are going to come in and so forth so there'll be a little

more in details on that how many contractors have you don't know you don't know I mean I'm I'm going to um prior to um just as it's hitting the street I'm going to probably make a bunch of calls and let people know that it's out there you know pick up the plans ins specs and you know join us at the pre-bid meeting want to try to get as much interest as possible so perfect

yeah has anything um happened on the North Northfield since the last meeting um so Northfield the biggest things there is we have a a much clearer Direction now with the permitting um Bader is working now on getting um they're doing minor mods for the um um dingy do and the walkway at the Northfield point and then we're putting in um uh notice of maintenance for the revetment work so the permitting is um

well underway and then uh we're continuing with the the finalizing of the design I actually met with the point Gloria Condo Association last night the property manager just to talk to them because um I've I did I've been in some discussions with d white about what their schedule looks like for Paving the Shar use path and doing all the work out in front of City Pier and obviously we

don't want to impact any of that work as we're going to be going into the Northfield Point potentially later in this year um and into 2026 so um we um myself and um two people from beta Bill the project manager and Eric the landscape architect met with the board last night to get um approval to come in off of Deval through their driveway and come in um over their property just at

the end of the driveway to the left of um of their building and then come right on that way we can bring a truck in with like the stone and any materials and then be able to haul material out that way too um we're going to work with John to get a memorandum of understanding um once we get a little bit more definitive on what that construction schedule looks like um but they were very very excited

about the work we we laid out what was was going to happen out there um and you know as you guys had seen in the um previous meetings so they were happy about that they seem very eager to be a good neighbor so I don't think it's going to be any issues with that um and so that's going to also be incorporated into the bid documents so the contractor knows the constraints with which they

have to work and how they have to access the site so Bill and the team are continuing to finalize those documents so we're we're still underway there the caveat to all of this is the grant money to do the work so um the big one grant that we had applied for that was going to cover the new moing fields and the dinghy do itself um we've we've had we've had discussions with the State Rep of the

fish and wildlife um he is confident that if the grant is funded we will get the money the question is with all the craziness that's going on in Washington with grants is will it be funded usually they hear around this time about the funding but they have laid off according to um our state our state um contact they have laid off a significant amount of the staff in Washington so that will slow

things down so I don't know when we will receive notification of that grant funding either one way or the the other so we're kind of in a a wait and see with that kind of portion of the work um the Cort Economic Council which is the the grant we're going to apply for to actually do the um revetment work and the improvements to the point itself they there's nothing published on the um

on the The cport Economic Council website saying the grants are definitely going to open in June but from my communication with our contact at The cport Economic Council it appears that they're still on target to at least have the grant applications going in June and they'll notify Us in August of any awards so we're planning to proceed with that as of now anyway and we'll just keep you posted as the grant um

information rolls out so um so we're going to be kind of phasing the work now so there's going to be a couple of there's going to be at least two um bid packages um one will be for the dingy docks in the um the moing fields and then the other B package will be for the revetment improvement work at Northfield point so that's been a little bit of a change but um but we're still plotting

along with that so you haven't seen any resistance from the point gloryia people everybody's positive or everybody's very positive about what's going to go on right there they're very happy about it they want to get rid of they don't like the chaining fence and they think like making that making you know like putting the Moorings out there and making it look like a real Waterfront is is exciting for them that'ss good

yeah um the next item is um this that I hin Holden's experience this is's um addition now I didn't send this to you because we looked at this last meeting but we weren't ready to vote on the addition so cins is

um so um as they had originally told us when um we approved their original plan they expected to put an addition on the back and it's going to be an 83,000 square foot expansion and I've gone back and forth with Jay Hutchins and their engineer and they are not asking for any exceptions from the uh covenants and that's somewhat more uh predictable because they already did the whole front part based on the um

Covenant so uh this is a lot smaller than the original building which was 200 square feet 200,000 square feet at $20 million and this expansion will bring about 85 additional jobs um so if there's no objections or questions on that I'll entertain a motion to approve the uh proposed expansion at 615 Innovation Way with no exceptions to the covenants requested motion to approve the expansion at 615 innovis

way we don't have to add nothing to that right with no exceptions to the covenants requested no with the Cs second second yes Ron yes Jo madus yes yes and ke yes thank you was that 85 additional full-time jobs yes just by this expansion oh no I'm sorry was it 70,000 squet uh the plan showed 71,000 I think but they increased it to 83,000 oh okay and um no it's at the uh new facility

the new facility will bring another 20 staff and the one that they recently completed brought another 60 jobs okay so he said it's 80 to 85 in total in that new facility perfect that um truck stop there um seems to be pretty busy yeah I started going there you're talking about neon yeah Neon that's always busy and now they're clear cutting I don't know if you've been up there they clear cutting across the

street yeah lot of action going on yeah so they get now they're getting about 70 Acres or so ready for development it's going to take a while they got a lot of cut and fill to do there but nice yeah whose land is that that's vmds that's the land that we sold to them yeah so we sold them about 91 Acres I think there was 20 acres for freeze pack maybe I foret I clear cutting the

the freeze pack land actually they clear cutting 90 Acres including the freeze pack land there's no Turtle isues they've taken all they've taken all um precautions to relocate um any endangered species that are there as part of their me but permitting they had to do that first before they could move forward with that cool um I learned recently that freeze pack is bringing a 100 employees and

they're really impressive company that's exciting in good uh anything on Flint her oh the urban renewal plan um well I've continued to work with the um task force uh from the Gateway cities developers Network and we had a really great meeting with um the chief of staff of lieutenant governor and they're very interested in helping us reduce the amount of mea review of urban renewal plans and so they are not sure it's

going to require legislation which we had uh thought might be the case so that was really good news and then to give you a little update and people who may be watching um we have been working for a long time on plans for the Pleasant Street uh part of the Flint neighborhood and uh the Flint neighborhood down to Alden Street and that area and so it's a serious focus and we developed a

revitalization plan and um Joan and Lewis were uh both on the on the task force that worked on that with a number of other people and um we have the uh revitalization plan finished we finished an urban renewal plan and we sent it to meepa which stands for the Massachusetts Environmental Protection act and it's their office that we sent it to and they do a really extensive review that's new

a new process which is really really uh challenging for um our organizations and organizations like ours because we never had to go through that much review so we um are in the process of revising our urban renewal plan and responding to mea and we're just hoping we can get through this quickly in the meantime there are good happening in the Flint um uh the Community Development agency has

uh really taken on the task of helping a a few businesses um Revitalize their storefronts and it's really extensive Stark Architects designed some really beautiful um new facades and storefronts Gilbert's Jewelers White Rose Bakery Nelly um and a few others and and so we're hoping that that program will be able to continue but it used ARA money and that money is gone so um so that's one uh good step that's

helping really make Pleasant Street more look um more uh give it more curb appeal and make people want to walk the streets more than uh they do now with so much vacancy and uh the other great news is that the mayor's office applied for a program called love your block which is uh funded by Bloomberg philanthropies and that and they got the Grant and with that they worked hard to

hire um someone who gets called a love your block fellow and uh recently Gloria Sadler was hired and she's doing a great job because she's lived in the neighborhood for a long time knows lots of people and just is really committed to it so it's really exciting work with her and um the other night we went to a traffic Commission meeting together because there were concerns about quick

aan Street which has come up in lots of our public meetings and uh some residents were asking for it to be made one way and so um the traffic commission agreed they would study that which was the request would you study because there's a well on both ends um between County and Pleasant Street there are lots of challenges to get on and off of quickish and to Pleasant or to County so anyway I was

really happy about that because it felt like finally there's some residents asking for things and we're out there advocating and looking at improvements that we we needed to work on for a while and having somebody playing that role that we always envisioned we needed is going to make a big difference which way is the one way going is it going towards Pleasant or towards uh they're proposing uh toward Pleasant because

their concern is that um County when you go from uh quick aan on to County it's very hard to see cars coming and there have been uh big tractor trailer trucks trying to go through there and it was interesting people on the commission said oh well we don't have a record of lots of accidents there and we're not sure and there were lots of people at the meeting and they said oh no no it's

a very difficult corner so um so we'll see what happens with that but there will be other streets we need toing uh attention to and we'll be working on that s just from my understanding the program that you referenced for Pleasant Street the revitalization program you mentioned a few small businesses is that the full building or would that the revitalization just kind of renovate the

small businesses on the first floor it's just renovating the first floors and these are buildings that are in good shape not the building that are really struggling and uh the second part of that plan that we envision in our documents um is to help the uh owners of the buildings get more tenants in the second and third floors because often you have businesses on the first floor and then

vacancy above and those apartments really need renovation to be rented so so that's kind of one of the next phases we'll be working on Wall Street so the master plan uh a final draft has been completed and we have Ken and Dan and Karen and I um ready to review it we meet next week get them comments on the master plan and um we'll see where we go from there we just got it so we haven't

well we had reviewed an early draft and said and asked them to make some significant changes and now we'll review this one anything from the state on our uh will discussing those issues in executive session thank you North downtown Sarah so I'm hoping Johnny adds to this but the north downtown uh work is going well there are really interested businesses and a good group of people coming to the meetings and they put

survey and the survey that Karen uh Johnny and I all responded to asked um some really good questions about what would you uh prioritize as beautification projects and then it asked what would your organization support of these beautification projects so we said here are things we think we take to our board but we don't know you know we can't make any uh real significant statements on

that but the priorities that were identified are removing litter hiring someone to do that uh and definitely lighting uh was lighting and picking up litter were um tied for first place then putting in flower beds and light pole banners were the next to another that was ranked High I don't know what's going on with my throat May me explain to John what you mean why you say update of North

downtown area tell them which area we're talking about I don't think uh John I what we're calling downtown and there is a um effort to come up with a better name and so one idea that seems to be suggested is the historic downtown because it is a his it's part of it's the downtown historic district and it starts um at the um beginning of North Main by um city hall and we're including down to

about um the Y and it goes up to purchase Street and it goes over to Troy Street up near um Bedford to Troy and that's kind of a funny um uh map but we want to include Troy Street because of the Arts efforts that are going on there and um purchas Street and North m in that area lots of restaurants that are really interested in having this help to really um increase their business and they're

really interested in working together and in working with this group so that's um really promising when we were working similarly in the South Main Street area we didn't quite there wasn't a concentration of restaurants like this that you know can work together or want to work together and it was challenging and this feels very promising we also have uh Viva Fall River has moved their

um their store and their um kind of welcoming center for the city there and there's a big patio that will be lit and we have a stage like area for the summer and lots of activity will happen there so the the piece about lighting is North Main Street it's quite dark at night and going from for example going from dunny's up to purchase street is really dark and so the idea of getting lots of

activity going in that area it will hugely help to have more lighting and so that that's one of the priorities that we need to look at that should that you need more lighting you maybe need to increase the Luminate the luminares that are out there CU they got I think there's enough light poles there I just don't think they have the proper lumination that's there yeah it looks it

looks at night I I took I was looking for a video I took but I can't find it but looks like Jack the Ripper could well but don't forget it looks that way because everything's closed too usually there's a lot of ambient lighting from storefronts and activities and everything else right so you don't have a lot of buildings that are have activity levels right so you don't have that light falling into the street or

into the sidewalk so you know I think before we start talking about well before they start talking about new lighting they should at least take a look at how they can brighten what they currently have and then maybe you know there's nothing that prevents somebody these building themselves from doing some up lighting and making their properties a little bit more appealing from a aesthetic indidual standpoint I

mean that was the thinking it wasn't looking at the city necessarily to do it it was thinking about what the businesses do what you know a lot of areas where you have um lots of restaurants it's true in Providence it's true in a number of cities sometimes you put lots of the um string lights Garland lights in various places and that um can be very expensive if you're running it across the whole

street but it can be affordable if you do it in front of businesses or something so there are lots of options and they haven't decided what options to pursue we're just at the kind of getting getting ideas out that can get researched and money can be applied for because preco uh dunnies used to have a block body on that street and it was very bright during that block body I don't know what they did differently

there if it was their lights or they brought all the lights in I remember I think it was a combination of both some lights going across that little Alleyway or that street and they own both buildings the same person so it's uh I remember being well lit when they had like t-shirt sales they had a girl with a snake they had a few activities going on uh sake it was snake yeah take a

pictures where your snake I don't know was anything but they had and it was a nice little it was like it was done once or twice a year it was a nice little event but the the side cuz I know I've come out of D and head up towards St James it's dark and that one ear before you get the Viva for River uh that is a one dark a because there two tall

buildings and I don't think there's any lights in between here I don't remember being any lights I think there I think there's one light I think it's I thought the L at the parking lot where Jerry dunnan's building is I think it's like I don't know great but I thought there was one I'll check out next time I go there yeah said there's a lot of energy in that group and there's a lot of good

ideas yeah and um Nick had that idea about those um track the trash units that are like recycling trash things that the some the company like puts them there for advertising and I think empties in once a week or something that that was kind of a cool idea yeah to put one in front of loens are they like the ones that um the solo ones that uh that's they're probably almost the size of this desk

they're attractive looking things are they covered like you open up a thing and yeah you kind of like you put the trash in and then it like kind of crunches it it's almost like a uh a solar disposal I don't think they were solar I don't think these are crunching ones the thing that's different about them and they're being used I think in l and other is where he showed us pictures

I think they're paid for by advertising on the trash container which seems a little surprising but they showed you know these containers they're very attractive they're just black rectangles and there are two slots for either trash or Recycling and I guess there's an easy way for them to empty them because they come to your city and empty them and paid do they not have Barrels in that

area huh there's no Barrels in thata they were all saying that folks from there were all saying they're full all the time I yeah I don't know I well they're going to talk about it with the city if they go I can I just be honest with you I think everybody has a responsibility in this and I think property owners have a responsibility of keeping their sidewalks clean and the city has a

responsibility in having the trash barrels picked up and I think if barrels AR picking up I'm being picked up I think they should be calling to have those picked up because I know on South Street they pick them up on a regular schedule so I can't imagine that's not happening on North Main Street but I just think it's things like that I think they just need to communicate a little

bit better yeah you know and you know it's like it's like property like in front of the charity web I make sure that my guy you know the building maintenance person sweeps that every morning right it's like it's part of being a good neighbor your streets right and I think the more people that do that the better it is right and those are the types I think and that are helpful to

curb appeal for an area from from viva for River to I would say seeing jeames it's always clean I don't see trash hanger on there no I don't see I spend a lot of time there's a lawyer there I go to all the time there's aaba I go there all the time and it doesn't seem to be messy in that area at all like I'm not going like I if I see trash I have to

pick it up I can't stand sometimes the the trash issue is on trash day if it's windy yeah yeah right cuz that happens yeah it's like a wind tunnel down there so it happens you'll have trash but weren't theying not talking about that spot but weren't they talking about more on North Main Library Library isn't that where they was talking about with the trash carels that's what I took away yeah I

think so it was just an idea thrown out there they were going to go to the city and talk about it and see if it was anything I think I know the the the um the stuff on the uh those trash BS you have to put go out to bid for those because they're using not buying them you put them on city property yeah just there there's a pro because we looked at that in the past

it's advertised and they're making money on them right they you know they're keeping them clean but I think because it's on city property there's going to be some sort of bid procedure in order to do that is the main objective for that area cleaning up that area revitalizing it is that to assist the existing businesses bringing more consumers to the existing businesses it is we bringing in new business as a

whole well I think it's to deal with vacancies too you know that the Pleasant Street area and South in North Main Street have some vacant storefronts and it just makes it not the most vibrant area so it's really to vibrancy to bring people down make it a place you want to go and that will support present businesses and future ones that could occupy vacant storefronts and um you know the building

that Monty Ferris owns um the old um it's an old bank at the corner Bank in um North M that's going to be redeveloped and that will be a huge yeah cuz that building stock right now it's on stock on Main Street and on Bank Street yep right and then you have the unfortunately you have the omry that's St right so and I think some of the other thinking is Bank five is part of this

Bank five is making a huge investment in renovating their building and so to have an active effort to make that area feel more vibrant feel safer more appealing um is also U consistent with what bank five was trying to do I'm not sure the library is lit at night either right they have outside lighting that they turn on they do but it's not as you said it's not strong light did is it on I was

there the other night it was on two small poles that go like yes there two small poles in the front entrance there's not many overhead lights I don't think I think just again increasing your wattage makes a difference right and even if you backlit that building back lighting is cheap on that is relatively cheap speaking you can just uplight the there's a beautiful building right you

can UPL that and it can go with there's some very good programs for LED lighting which you can use 15 watts to give 60 watts yeah so that can be also used too yeah the new bank is very nice the banks going to make a big difference that's going to be lit that's going to have a big impact there and the W is up lighting like the W doesn't UPL Library could do something

to all those all those buildings are architecturally 884 where Monty's built Monte Ferris is building and that's on a historic register that's a historic building you can do something with that the library you can do something with s was just bought by Bank five I believe what's that s b by bank so going to start making a drivethru over there so going to do some that building is kind of like empty too

yeah so I think there's you know I think it all come together Drive yeah um let's see where are if if there's no further matters for the Open Session the chair makes a finding that open session would have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body purpose of the executive session is to approve the executive session minutes from January 22nd 2025 and discussed strategy with respect to a

potential real estate transaction for property located an Street Fall River and the Deval Street Corridor Fall River I'll entertain a motion to enter into executive session excuse me and we will not return to open session motion to move to Executive session and not returning second second John Ericson yes Ron R yes Jo darus yes Ben felberg yes and ke yes thank you