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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMACIA Meeting Minutes 7.26.24 ti § 1 Andy Schor,Mayor Michigan Avenue Corridor Improvement Authority Board of Director's Meeting Friday, July 26, 2024 — 8:30 AM Foster Community Center 200 N. Foster Ave., Room 211 Lansing, MI 48910 Members Present: Yvette Collins, Scott Gillespie, Joan Nelson, Laurie Baumer, Elaine Barr, Jon Lum, Tim Daman Mayoral Designee: Members Absent: Facilitator Present: Alex Watkins (LEDC) Public Present: Gloria Trevino (TheraPLAYoga), Jennifer McKinstry, Creative Canopy Professionals Recorded by: Yvette Collins Call to Order/Roll call Chair Lum welcomed everyone and called the MACIA Board of Directors meeting to order at 8:33 a.m. Approval of the Amended June 21, 2024, MACIA Meeting Minutes -Action MOTION: Baumer moved to approve the Amended June MACIA Meeting Minutes to correct the misspelling of the word 'decipher.' Motion seconded by Barr. YEAS: Unanimous. Motion carried. Approval of the FY2023/FY2024 MACIA Budget—Action MOTION: Collins moved to approve the FY2023/2024 Budget and establishing the FY 2025 Budget. Seconded by Gillespie. YEAS: Unanimous. Motion carried. Block 2000 Facade Update Watkins confirmed a breakdown of the project was shared with the city's design committee. Feedback was received and shared. Notes shared by Watkins is added here: 1 Alex, It appears the project is a mixture of facade improvement, signage updates and maintenance scope. I don't see any major options to reduce the overall cost other than breaking out the maintenance items or approaching it in a phased manner. The phased option is not preferrable to me as it would merely accentuate the aged look of any portions that were left unaltered. Overall, it seems a worthwhile project to pursue and provide some funding to. I just don't know that the overall cost can effectively be reduced to the available funding amount. Let me know if you would like additional input or discussion. Thanks. Matthew McGaughey, AIA, NCARB President mcgaughey()mayottearchitects.com Direct:517.657.3290 Cell:517.214.5730 Office:517.323.0577 Good morning everyone, I agree with Matthew that the 2000 block is definitely a mixture of maintenance and facade improvement. Probably it is actually better categorized as major repair. If anyone has walked by you know how much deferred maintenance has gone by over the years, even on the more well-kept buildings. All things being equal, I absolutely think it is a worthwhile project and should be funded. Because these buildings are in such rough shape and/or have been altered so significantly there likely is not any way to bring the costs down so I think MACIA & partners and the Mayor have to decide if they should take a phased approach starting with the property owners willing to put in the most money to share the burden, or cut their losses and move on to different projects. Or possibly break it back down to individual property owners applying for the facade grant with a 50% match as The Avenue did. We could also explore a partnership using the FIP grant and MACIA's TIF money to go above 50%. I think this reinforces the point that the Fagade Improvement Grant may need to be restructured to give more money to `transformational' proposals. Andy Fedewa Principal Planner Department of Economic Development and Planning 316 N. Capitol Ave.,Suite D-1 I Lansing, MI 48933 P: 517-483-4048 1 E:Andrew.Fedewa@lansingmi.gov Website I Facebook I Twitter Instagram f i I{ l fl Andy <>e.M9jyuf 2 Lum noted there are similar concerns that we've all voiced here. Gillespie believes we can find some cost savings but may be overwritten by other costs. Baumer says she's confused that there were no applications based on what was discussed before. She believes part of the decision before was how much money could be put in. The piece that is missing in this process is what businesses put in and MACIA's match. Watkins said the businesses could no longer apply because the $100,000 is no longer available for them to apply. Watkins broke out the design committee's comments again. Lum says what Laurie is saying is that we need the application to assess what each business owner is willing to match. We have some business owners who are willing to put in money. Lum reminds MACIA that a portion of money (i.e. the ARPA dollars) has to be spent by the end of December. Baumer asks who makes the decision about whether the project proceeds as she doesn't believe it is the design committee's decision. Watkins shared that the $100,000 that the administration is putting in is because they want to see the whole block done. At some point MACIA must make the decision to divvy up the funds among the rest if we don't have any individual businesses to do their part. Gillespie put forth "I don't know if I need to make a motion or decide a way forward. The CIA must see if anyone is able to put in any money and going forward. Lum offers that we have to set some deadlines for the business owners and tell them what we need them to contribute. Baumer offered that MACIA needs to get an application from the businesses that reflects their signed commitment. Gillespie says there has already been discussion about what the individual businesses are willing to put in. Lum offered that 1 don't think we need to do a straight 50-50. The CIA could divide the funds equally besides the project costs and change the numbers depending on what level of commitment we get from each business owner. Lum suggests a redistribution based on what business owners are committed to the project. Gillespie explains the way it's broken down by property and how it was allocated to each one based on their percentage of the overall total. Lum suggests that members of MACIA go back to the businesses. Have them sign off on the commitment of what they are willing to put in towards the improvement. Lum asks, can we get the commitments by next meeting. Baumer asked Gillespie if he could take the original sheet and get information. Barr thinks it will be worse or a different response because of the Michigan Avenue construction. Outlook is different from what it was 3 -4 months ago. Probably going in at proportion is probably the way to go. Gillespie says he is willing to have a conversation with all the owners with someone else from MACIA. Baumer says she will join. Gillespie will have Jen in his office arrange his office get dates with business owners, Baumer will join and Watkins said Kahlea will join as well. They will do a synopsis with a few different outlines to share before the next meeting. Lum asks if part of this we will get those people who are committed to get sign off and get a physical sign off on it. Gillespie will work to get out to everybody a week before the next MACIA meeting so that the authority can review it. Gillespie will send it to Watkins for him to distribute. Marketing Efforts Update Jennifer McKinstry from Creative Canopy shared her updates regarding marketing efforts. The first update was regarding the wayfinding signs. Wayfinding signs are going out for production. Watkins confirmed the signs are portable and he shared the locations where they will be installed. 3 The signs will be placed on Saginaw, Oakland, and Kalamazoo. There are 12 signs. Collins noted there are some existing wayfinding signs that businesses have put up. McKinstry noted she made trips to businesses on the avenue. She made it from 127 through Soup Spoon. She had lots of interesting conversations with the businesses. She provided an update on the order for social district cups. There was a lot of discussion around if the cups should be disposable or not. The consensus was that disposable was the best option. McKinstry is working on postcards. She also suggested MACIA look at doing something about weeding along Michigan Avenue because it looks so bad. There was discussion about that. Nelson suggested Jennifer call Ethan Schmidt from Allen Neighborhood Center (ANC) as Ethan organizes neighborhood clean ups for ANC, so he might have ideas. McKinstry posed the idea of putting a mural on the side of a building and she suggested she has a muralist in mind who could lead a volunteer effort. Gillespie suggested she could send a quote to the business owner for the building. McKinstry talked briefly about Sign Toppers. Sign Toppers will be coordinated with the final completion of Michigan Avenue construction is complete. Sign Toppers will be added as a future agenda item. Watkins shared information regarding other CIAs design topper designs. McKinstry suggested she has a guest (a representative from Main Street in Brighton) to join the next MACIA meeting regarding what worked or didn't work. McKinstry suggested a social media campaign that is cross functional for the different businesses. McKinstry shared that in her door-to-door meetings with businesses she heard owners who are struggling and have questions about how to get financial help. She suggested that we provide resource information through a resources tab to various organizations on the website. The CIA will have to put items with costs associated with it, as a budget amendment. Regarding the postcards - go through the city. Jennifer says lots of things to be done before we meet again. McKinstry wants to add places not exactly on the Avenue. MACIA members shared that businesses must be 500 feet from the center of the Avenue. There was discussion about getting Sparrow contacts for McKinstry. Lum gave contacts at Sparrow (John Shaski) and Resurrection (Mandy Bolter). Other Business There was discussion regarding having Eric Helzer (Advanced Redevelopment Solutions) evaluate MACIA's TIF plan, identify the action plan and provide recommendations. MACIA will need to be on board to request an RFP. Public Comment A member of the public left and vocally displayed displeasure with the meeting before leaving. Gillespie had suggested she join the meeting as he understood her business was having some difficulty with the construction. Daman suggested he might have a contact for her through Ingham County ISD and that he would provide it to Gillespie to share with her. Adjournment Chair Lum adjourned the Michigan Avenue Board of Directors at 10:05 a.m. 4