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Home My WebLink About6-22-22 LDFA1 JOINT LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE AUTHORITY (LDFA) City of East Lansing, City of Lansing, Lansing Community College, East Lansing Public Schools, Lansing School District and Ingham County Meeting Minutes June 22, 2022 LEAP, 1000 S Washington Ave, Lansing, MI 48910 Attendees: Ben Bakken, Dori Leyko, James Tischler, Jessy Gregg, Jon Laing, Luke Hackney, Richard Pugh, Brian McGrain, Teri Bernero, Thomas Fehrenbach LEAP Staff: Katlyn Cardoso, Harrison Leffel-Jones, Joe Carr Recorded by: Katlyn Cardoso, Harrison Leffel-Jones, Joe Carr q Call to Order & Roll Call Vice Chair Tischler called the meeting to order at 7:30 am. Harrison Leffel-Jones conducted roll call. Members Present: Members Absent: Ben Bakken Brian McGrain Dori Leyko Jessy Gregg Jon Laing Luke Hackney (arrived right after roll call) Richard Pugh Teri Bernero Thomas Fehrenbach James Tischler Charles Hasemann David Washburn Derrell Slaughter q Approval of LDFA Meeting Minutes MOTION: Fehrenbach moved, seconded by Bakken, to approve the April 20th and May 19th minutes as presented. All in Favor. Motion passed unanimously. 2 q Interlocal Agreement Carr presented an update on the SmartZone renewal process. East Lansing has approved components of the application and Lansing is scheduled for approval of remaining documents on 6/27. Lansing’s public hearing was last week and no questions or concerns were raised. From there, the renewal application is off to MEDC after 6/28 and then Treasury for final approval. The interlocal agreement is the last outstanding document for the renewal application. MOTION: Luke Hackney moved, seconded by Jessy Gregg, to approve the interlocal agreement as presented. All in Favor. Motion passed unanimously. q 2022/2023 LDFA Budget The LDFA budget has been approved by both city councils and ready for adoption by the board. MOTION: Luke Hackney moved, seconded by Jim Tischler, to approve the budget as presented. All in Favor. Motion passed unanimously. q LEAP Services Contract Leffel-Jones introduced the services contract from LEAP. Bakken expressed support for the contract. MOTION: Ben Bakken moved, seconded by Brian McGrain, to approve the LEAP services contract as presented. All in Favor. Motion passed unanimously. q Updated LDFA Bylaws Carr introduced the updated bylaws. This is a revision from the bylaws of Dec 2014 which were updated to better reflect board composition and existing function. After today’s discussion, any changes will be submitted for approval at the Oct 2022 meeting. Fehrenbach noted an update needs to be made to the public act notation. Leffel-Jones said LEAP would share updated version of bylaws when additional changes have been made. q Other Business o Tischler Resignation: § Tischler has submitted his resignation for the board effective June 30th of this year. His workload has changed and with the change with LEDC and in consultation with the mayor there will be another rep for the LDFA SmartZone. § Tischler stated that it has been a pleasure working with everyone and wishes us all the best as we move forward. o Gregg officially welcomed Leffel-Jones to the board meetings. o Programs Committee § Fehrenbach asked if the programs committee had met and Gregg confirmed that an initial meeting had taken place to begin exploring programming gaps and to determine where LDFA could step in. § Carr spoke about a discussion of a submission portal option for the public to be able to submit programming ideas to the board, with the committee given the power to review and decide which proposals may make sense to bring to the larger board. 3 § Hasemann, Washburn and Gregg were in attendance at this meeting. Gregg expressed desire to have greater regional conversation through the programming committee and getting those outside the board involved in the conversation around how the board can best support the regional ecosystem. § Leffel-Jones added context about a process document he is working on for the submission portal and noted that a submission survey has been developed in the Startup Space platform. § Gregg said it would be helpful to understand how funds can be utilized, what’s off the table, etc. o TIC Report § Jeff Smith reviewed LDFA Tenant Report (TIC occupants), noting some are virtual but that the TIC is back to a reasonable level of occupancy. Pandemic occupancy was about 38%, lowest mark ever had. Anomaly is Konnech, which occupied a standard office in the building and is an early-stage software company in election tech industry and is using TIC to accommodate large influx of interns—slightly larger than normally seen in TIC, 25 employees noted are not all in TIC (maybe 10-15 in TIC). § 50-50 split between MSU and non-MSU companies! § 70% of tenants are physical tenants. Allum noted that virtual tenants should be an aspect of program discovery/gap analysis and Gregg noted virtual tenants are an opportunity to access external markets. § Smith noted that having high-quality common denominator resources are an important thing to explore—green screens, podcast rooms, things companies in the tech space can leverage but can’t use at home. § More than 500 companies have been seen through TIC and fewer than 1/3 have failed—what can we do to connect those dots further? § Fehrenbach proposed hosting October LDFA meeting at TIC. q Public Comment There was no public comment. q Adjournment: There being no further business before the Commission, Chair Hackney adjourned the meeting at 7:59 am. Respectfully Submitted, Joe Carr Vice President, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Team Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP)