Tax Increment Financing Board 10 23 23

to order the October 23rd meeting of the tax increment financing board um pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting and may transmit the meeting through any media attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived and are deemed acknowledged and permissible I'll call you

back that was one of the members trying to get in only kidding um I'd like to call the rooll next I'm here Seth Aken here Linda Pereira here Sean kadim here Joe camarra here sorry guys all right Richie Gonzales yeah Frank Mion here uh citizens input hearing none I'll ask for approval of the March 24 2023 minutes Mo second second any discussion on the minutes hearing none approved um all in favor

I uh we're going to go out of order a little bit we'll take item number seven uh tax increment exemption request for 66 Troy Street um Mr fola sure thank you uh good morning and uh thank you for the tip board convening this Monday morning um well today we got three uh tie agreements that are coming before the tip board for consideration collectively they represent uh more than $43 million of uh

private investment within the city uh for the creation of uh market market rate units um the project I'd like to discuss with you today is the Tie request for 66 Troy Street um you may previously uh recall that uh the Tiff board and the city coun uh actually the Tiff board and the council actually approved an August 2021 uh tax increment exemption uh for this particular project uh but the project never moved forward

you know due to various reasons um primarily the the H DIP program no longer being available or EO dhcd not accepting HP applications so since from 20021 to uh 23 um the project has now expanded from 27 to 36 ma rate units uh which will be incorporated uh at the Troy Street facility um it is anticipated that all of the units will be um 100% market rate and the time

frame is that they would like to get going sometime during calend the year 220 uh 2024 uh for the actual construction of the project itself um in this particular instance the estimated private investments just about 10 it's just over 10 million actually 10 estimated to be 10,735 uh $362 um in your package you have the draft uh tie agreement um and it's draft because there's going to be some

tweaking that's going to be necessary to it so when I prepared this tie uh draft tie agreement as well as the other two we used um the data that was available to us from Patriot Properties in terms of Base data you know base values I think Richie's got some um additional um information on that to share with you this morning so before the before any of this goes to the council um all the

correct numbers will be inserted into the draft and then once the council gets it it'll be a more complete package in terms of uh the actual valuations but what we do and what historically has been done with all Thai agreements uh to date is that the um Tiff board and subsequently subsequently the city council adopt a a a 10-year tie agreement in which um during the first 5 years during project

stabilization um the developers awarded an 80% uh tax exemption on the new value that he's created and then for the last the next 5 years it's a 20% exemption so over a 10-year period it actually reflects a 50% uh average uh exemption over that period of time as you know we've done a number of these and these um this is in keeping with the other ones that have been approved and

I'm hoping that the Tiff board will uh also allow this to move forward with that Pro proposed tii schedule um that's being presented today and subsequently we will be submitted to city council upon your approval and recommendation uh we have the developer here with us uh Anthony cadero I think everybody's familiar with all the project that Tony's been involved in you know Tony singlehanded singlehandedly has

redeveloped that whole area around Pleasant thir and um Troy Street uh as well as coml landing on the wall on the waterfront and I think seen his projects knows the type of work that he's done and it's all been um professional and an added bonus to the city in terms of uh the development of mocker housing so uh we happy to answer any questions you have any questions Seth so on the last

page or second last page there's an estimated monthly rent of $1,900 um it says here there's going to be one bedroom and two bedroom units that is that a one bedroom unit or is that just an aggregate estimate there's 36 units so that's an argate okay yeah and we actually had a study done had a conversation with can sorry Seth but we're averaging about 1875 to 19 and a quarter so it's probably a pretty close

sure it's a real number great um there's probably going to be questions about the lack of affordable units for for percentage if you could just speak to that that' be really helpful I can like like like you know so I go back 40 years Seth right I'm not displacing anyone I I'm creating new housing go down I'm not taking a multif family and moving affordable housing out and creating market rate which is what the

market will pay I'm taking a male that survived the historical fire back in the 1900s I'm taking that historical building that I developed back in 1999 and created commercial uses we know now where commercial uses are in our city and I'm trying to redevelop that building and bring in some beautiful windows and make it what it was back in the 1900s I'm trying to create a vision that

Ken and I go back 40 years about can we create a downtown Fall River that goes dark after 5:00 and creates some vibrancy to be honest with you my biggest thing is how do I keep the dog pox that I'm creating and make you know walkers for groomers and all that other stuff happening and I and I see that taking place my last project set was the garet workers building that was vacant for

almost 15 years that building was should have been torn down no heat no electric no nothing 14 years you know what that does to a building and so we have PID to make that building work right it was supposed to be a gym on the jel and I can go on and on and on but we delivered 15 units it was rented in 14 days and we created people that are new

to the city that hopefully we can create some Synergy with commercial uses that's my goal Ken and I often talk I'm 62 almost and question why why why why just came back I mentioned to the members of the committee we came back from Georgia enjoyed a great trip but the city has so much potential that we're St to finally realize it I just want to be a part of that one more question yeah in the

Garment workers building how many of those units are being rented by people that were from out of that came in from out of town 80% great thank you sir and 80% and it's crazy again I'm not displacing anyone because I'm a product of davry right um 18 15 years I think I showed Frank and others um 1,800 $0000 for a studio and these kids are coming in with 1,200 maybe I'm sorry 120,000 of income

140 we're just supplementing supplementing the housing that's existing in the city and I mean why not right we're so close to Providence all the communities we heard for 30 years so I just think it makes sense if we can build a basis of people living in that area I wonder what happened with um you know coffee houses and micel brw and whatever that sure no I appreciate it thank just just to follow up on that

point because I think you know there is an uh you know some misinformation on a lot of these projects as Tony has indicated his project and the other two that are going to come before you as well there's no displacement these are all new additive housing opportunities to to the city uh mocker rate additives and you know typically those are that's a constituency that's going to have more

disposable income that they can spend within the city and support restaurants and support gas stations and support markets and support everything um but you know I and I always get back to this point we all need to keep in mind that 28% of for's housing stock is subsidized the state averages 10% we far exceed that so if you're going to have a healthy Community I'm of the opinion that you have to have a balanced

community in terms of lwi income middle income and higher income and so Fall River is presenting itself as a very desirable location for mocker rate housing primarily because of our location uh the ability to get two and from places relatively easily the city itself is still a gem people you know when they come in here they're surprised about the quality of restaurants and a bunch of other you know amenities that

the city has to offer so you know the the mocker housing pushes here and commun rail is also driving some of that expansion any other discussion points no I know he has plenty of parking around that building too so we do I guess then uh I'm looking for a motion motion approve second and a motion second any further discussion I'll call the rooll Frank masion Mr chairman uh due to my

affiliation with firstto County Economic Development consultants and I'm also a client of Mr Cero's Insurance Agency I must recuse and abstain from voting um Richie Gonzales yes Joe camarra yes Sean yes Linda yes Seth yes myself yes motions approved down one next item on the agenda tax increment exemption for Sanford spinning Mills okay great I know that the uh the owners of the

property text that they stuck in traffic so I'm not sure if they will make it or not um however again uh this is a proposal that's coming before the tip board for uh consideration this is the rehab of um one of the glow Mill uh AB properties located um you know at 206 Glo Mills AB it's one of the former dur Duro properties um to put in context it's right behind the cus school and

across the street from Ashworth Ashworth brothers that has been recently converted to mocker rade housing the project is on excuse me the historical uh register um this one is a relatively large project uh where they're looking you know to to uh create I think it's 90 is a 93 units um with the within the project itself all parking will be on site for this particular project they've already gone

through well they've submitted a a site plan review uh application to the city um and so they're moving forward getting some of their um their ducks in a row in terms of uh financing again you know in keeping with um past practice we're asking for the same sort of exemption that was just recently awarded to Mr cadiro where the first five years of the tie would represent 80% exemption on new

value that's being created um and then it would be 20% on the remaining five for an average of 50% over that 10-year period again this is a significant project in the South End of the city uh adjacent uh to like I said the cus um the Duro Mills have been vacant for a number of years um I know that from the city perspective that's always a concern for vandalism fire and squatting so

having this Mill repurposed for this type of use will not only result in a new constituency of people locating in the South End of the city but it will also help protect you know a rather large uh Mill itself you know this particular property is 110,000 ft so this is one of the larger ones uh overall project cost for this is about $28 million so it's not it's not cheap

moving it forward it's going to be a significant investment for the rehab of this property again this is a draft proposal uh excuse me a draft tie agreement that you have again it doesn't reflect um what may be the accurate base values to which um Mr gonzal will be providing me you know after this meeting for incorporation into into uh the ti agreement itself all these tie Agreements are the same there's no

change of language between all three of them so if you read one you've read them all you just got to incorporate the new the project names and the uh the number of units and the private investment um there in this particular instance um there is um some taxes owed on the property uh that was supposed to be cleared up either this week or last week with some um project refinancing uh so in this particular

instance what I'm asking is the board uh proved this conditional upon those taxes being um those taxes being paid and that the project is current with the city before we bring it to the city council so by the time it gets to the city council all those taxes will have been paid and it'll be a project that's that can move forward uh if the for some reason the taxes are not paid then the

project will not be bought brought before the city council for consideration happy to answer any questions I don't know if any discussion points Mr Comm how much do we in taxes um I think Mr Thomas has that information the um this both this is only one of them right age 20 22 yes okay yeah so between the two classes they ow $39,100 71 and tax title I spoke with them last week and they were coming in

last end of last week to get the refinancing so they were going to produce that information for us if not they were going to sign an installment agreement either one of those satisfies the provisions of 14-4 the city ordinance that requires them to either be on an agreement or current on their taxes and um I think on the uh 221 um which is one you that's before you I think it's probably about 24,000

of that but we have a policy in the city that if it's in the same name you have to pay all your taxes we don't allow you to cherry pick so that should be resolved by the end of this week so the treasurer's office would support K's request that it be approved contingent this is the attorney for uh how are you sorry that's okay an accident on good morning this is Attorney Stacy Nell

uh she's representing the uh the property owner good morning any other discussion points so just Mr um so just in terms of taxes that would be paid if this is approved here prior to the council yes yeah so nothing will go before the council until that tax liability is satisfied but rather than delaying this and having reconvening we'd like to get these things moving forward the now that I should have

mentioned earlier the Housing Development Improvement program uh tax credit uh program has now been reauthorized by the legislature so for instance ini this year is $59 million of tax credits available so in order to tap into those potential tax credits um as part of that application procedure the city the developer must have a tie in place and they also have to go through Parts one and parts two of the application

procedure which which will now force all developers to come up with a much more documented um approach to for their projects everything from a commitment from Bank financing to historical tax credits to environmental analysis all these other things will be necessary for that H dip application with the tie is also a part of that so we're just trying to keep momentum moving forward so that we don't hold things up

I know that Mr uh Thomas attorney Thomas said that they have you know they're going to be coming in and catching up on their taxes or they're going to be put on a payment plan if they're put on a payment plan and they don't follow the rules of the pment payment plan what happens to the tie so I'd rather have them pay it all up front which I think

it's their in it would make me feel more comfortable that's their intention but this happens common very if you do any any board whether it's a zoning permit or whether it's a planning board or even a milk license um if it is under an agreement there is language put in the license that it's contingent on the agreement staying current and if the agreement isn't kept current it defaults

it okay and if there's a default we will not bring the HP application forward okay if that but maybe attorney Rance will speak to that so um the owner is plan plan to do a refinance um this week and part of that we've already requested the payoff and the mlc and the full liability should be paid in full hopefully this week thank you you're welcome anything further I do want to

say that's a very hot area in the city of PA River if you look at Ashworth lofs I drive through there we have a ton of military families living there because of the rents on a quidnick island are literally pushing them up you see cars from Washington Indiana Illinois in the parking lot and I asked about it when I did a tour of the inside and they said it's a lot of military families because

of the rents so that's a good thing again new money into the city of Fall River to spend on uh our restaurants and stores very positive and I hope we can get this done any further discussion I'm looking for a motion in a second second I have a motion a second any further discussion I'll call the role Mr Marion chairman due to my affiliation with Bristol County Office of Economic

Development our sence as we are today I must abstain from the vote okay Mr Gonzales yes Mr Kamara yes Mr kadim yes M Pereira yes Mr Aken yes and myself yes one exstension unanimous congratulations thank you thank you next item to come before the tax increment Finance board is a request for dery trust limited partnership 84 North Main Street Mr fol yes thank you so I think everybody's somewhat familiar

with this property uh this property is um the old Bank building which is located uh directly across the street from Bank five on a corner of Bank in North Main uh there's one correction in a letter that you have before you rather than 20 one-bedroom residential units there will actually be uh 22 so it'll be an increase of two additional units uh that's going to be uh proposed for for this this project again uh this

is one of the historical buildings within the downtown historic district uh was constructed in 1887 and expanded back in 1905 and 1933 um you know it's really significant from a historic standpoint and it represents a neoclassic so detailing uh throughout the uh facade of the property itself um BMC dery trust was the actual bank that was actually located there uh in this particular instance we're look

at approximately of $8 million investment um for the project is actually $8.4 million uh the project is moving along quite rapidly I've seen some detailed drawings on the apartments that'll be located there um there there is ample a street parking um that in and around the area that um Mr Ferris has uh secured or owns uh the project has received approval from the zoning board of

appeals so the next step in his process to draw this project to conclusion is to go through the tie process um with the Tiff Ward city council and ultimately have an H dip application approved um for the project itself um just to just so you know how these things you know you look at we look at 8.4 million and all the all three of these projects are all um will all

receive historic tax credits so for easy math purposes and you can apply it to all these projects so you will get each of these developers will get a 20% tax uh federal tax credit for this these projects uh on qualified expenses so in this this particular instance you might see close to $1.6 million in tax credits on this plus a state tax credits of say another 15% so that gives you another

million or so so right there you're at you know you're close to taking $3 million right off the overall cost of these projects and that's typically how they cash flow so having these projects cash flow is based upon these historic tax credits and then if you had an H step tax credit on that that could be another million or one up to 2 million you know so that gets you to four maybe $5 million and

instead of having an $8 million project you have a 3 million doll project at the end of the day and the developers sell off these tax credits right so you sell them off at 85 to 90 cents on a dollar and that's how they they they raise revenues to offset some of these expenses so and so in addition to rehabbing these buildings we're also preserving them for different uses which

I think is also an important Point here uh to the best of my knowledge there aren't any outstanding taxes owed on this building um again we will adjust the uh the base values in accordance with the information that Mr go Mr gonalez gives us but once again here we're asking for the same exemption schedule that was previously granted representing 80% of uh exemptions on a new value crat over the first 5 years

20% on the valuation over the next 5 years so over the 10-year period it's a 50% average uh eval uh tax exemption for the particular project this project is significant as are the others this one here is right on North Main Street and it's been vacant for a number of years so I think this will be a nice addition to that section of North Main Street as the city continues to uh to move forward

happy to answer any questions wasn't that one of the first or the First Bank in Fall River I think it was I'm not 100% sure but if it wasn't the first it was amongst the first right they a heck of a vault in there they do the inside is gorgeous I've been in that building a couple of times and the F the first floor of the building itself is going to

be uh maintained for uh commercial use so the residential be above so that's ni so we're generating activity on first floor with the residential above which I think is important for our main streets anybody else have any comments or concerns all right I'm looking for a motion in a second motion second I have a motion a second any further discussion on dery trust Limited hearing none I'll call bank I heard

it our office is very busy and we will continue to to be here Mr Gonzales yes Mr Kamara yes Mr kadine yes Mrs Perera yes Mr Aken yes myself yes okay any new business to come before the board hearing none any old business to come before the board hearing none motion to adjourn second all in favor oppos thank you all appreciate it