06-27-2008 EDAMEDA Board of Directors
Meeting Minutes
7 AM Friday, June 27, 2008
Members present in bold print:
Members
Tim Ulrich Diane Gordon Steve Jansick
Casey Stotts Jim Haugen Mike McGraw
Staff
Miles Seppelt, EDA Director
I. Call to Order
Tim Ulrich called the meeting to order at 7:01 AM.
II. Approve Agenda
No action
III. Review Meeting Minutes
A. May 23`d Board of Directors
Marc Vaillancourt
M /S /P: McGraw, Gordon to approve the May 23 d EDA Board minutes as written.
Passed unanimously.
B. May 21St Finance Team
M /S /P: Vaillancourt, Jansick to approve the Finance Team minutes of May 21 St
as written. Passed unanimously.
IV. Review May Financial Statements — EDA Director
• In operations, cash available is $33,598
• The EDA's 1St half levy check has come in, amounting to $69,558.
• Rental income amounted to $500 for the month.
• Professional services expenditures totaled $15,101 — this was for SEH's
work on the preliminary plat for "Energy Park"
• Under Dues & Subscriptions there was a $250 expenditure for the EDA
Director's membership in the National Business Incubator Association.
• The Industrial Park loan fund has a total of $96,785 in cash available. All
loans are performing as required.
• In the Downtown Revolving Loan Fund there is a total of $432,098 in cash
available. This will be reduced by $130,000 as the loan to Jeff Haag is
disbursed for his downtown restaurant project.
• The EDA currently holds $631,507 in mortgages downtown.
• For the year the EDA has received $41,502 in loan repayments and has
disbursed downtown grants totaling $23,430.
• The MIF Loan Fund has $23,400 in cash available with notes outstanding of
$179,817 and $165,804 to Warrior Manufacturing and Customer Elation,
respectively.
• A disbursement request of about $70,000 was submitted to DEED for the
Customer Elation loan.
M /S /P: Vaillancourt, Gordon to approve the EDA Financial Report as presented.
Passed unanimously.
V. Director's Report
A. Cenex Project
• Final approvals are now finally in place so we are ready to demolish the four
buildings on the property.
• An RFP for the demolition work will go out today and we will have proposals
for that work back by July 18tH
• Demolition should occur 2 -3 weeks after that.
B. Customer Elation Call Center
• The parking lot was paved earlier this week and landscaping is going in
today.
• The company has started hiring and is very happy with the number of
applications they've received.
• Operations are tentatively scheduled to begin on July 7tH
C. County EDA
• One -on -one meetings with all county board members have been completed.
• Next step is to get added to the agenda of the next county board meeting to
present the proposal and request that an exploratory committee be appointed
to formally study the idea.
D. Customer Elation MIF
■ Payment request # 2, in the amount of $70,000 has been submitted to
DEED. Once the city receives it we will disburse it to the company.
E. Recognition Event Recap
• Although attendance was less that what we hoped for, the event overall was
a success.
• Mr. Virgil Goebel and Mr. Emanuel Albrecht were honored for their role in the
formation of "Hutchinson Growth" and the EDA gained some positive media
coverage.
F. Company "X" Update
• Discussions are under way with a company that is looking for a 5 -acre site on
which to build a 50,000 square foot manufacturing facility with room to
expand.
• We are in the process of providing information requested by the company.
VI. Business Incubator
■ EDA staff continues to work with Ridgewater College to develop their
"Ridgewater East" building into a small business incubator.
■ Although the names are tentative at this point, the plan is that the building itself
will house a number of economic development related agencies and a small
amount of physical incubator space and be called the "Ridgewater Business
Center."
■ A region -wide incubation & business assistance initiative will also be launched,
possibly called "The Alliance for Entrepreneurship & Innovation."
■ The idea is to provide a full menu of business assistance services — everything
from assistance on how to write a business plan to training for executives,
managers & supervisors and everything in between.
■ It would be the ultimate "one- stop- shop" for businesses looking for ANY type of
assistance.
■ There is some preliminary discussion about the possibility of moving the EDA
offices to the Ridgewater Business Center as part of this initiative. The EDA
Finance Team considered this option and decided to take a "wait- and -see"
approach.
■ At present, a lease has been developed for the incubator and the business plan
is being written. A visit to the Owatonna Business Incubator is planned for June
25th
VII. Development of "Energy Park"
• The next step in the development of the new industrial park is pulling together
funding for construction of the needed infrastructure.
• A presentation on the project was made to the City Council this past Tuesday
and in the coming weeks the Council will be determining priorities for city
infrastructure projects.
• EDA staff in the meantime will be writing a grant proposal to the "Greater
Minnesota Business Development Public Infrastructure Grant Program" in an
effort to obtain $250,000 for the project (the maximum grant allowed).
• Installation of water & sewer lines could take place as early as this fall if funding
becomes available.
VIII. Jorgensen Hotel Loan (Jeff Haag / Tom Daggett)
■ Jeff Haag & Tom Daggett are making additional improvements to the historic
Jorgensen Hotel building; the entire first floor will now be renovated and leased
out.
■ In addition, their original $130,000 loan has been paid down to $84,329 so, per
program rules, they are eligible to borrow the difference of $45,671 to finance
these improvements.
M /S /P: Jansick, McGraw to approve a loan in the amount of $45,671 to Jeff Haag &
Tom Daggett for improvements to the Jorgenson Hotel building, subject to all
downtown loan program and documentation requirements being met. Passed
unanimously. Tim Ulrich abstained.
IX. Grant & Loan Applications
NONE
X. Other Business
A. Discussion of membership in Community Venture Network
■ The Board discussed EDA membership in the Community Venture Network
(CVN).
■ EDA Staff met with CVN to review the reasons why Hutchinson was not
planning to renew its membership. These were:
o Many of the companies being presented by CVN require substantial
amounts of equity investment, which Hutchinson does not currently
have available.
o Also, many of the companies presented tend to be software &
service related, whereas Hutchinson is more of a high - technology
manufacturing center and is looking for that type of company.
■ CVN indicated that they have heard similar concerns from other member
communities and will be shifting their marketing / recruitment efforts to focus
more manufacturing companies that can be financed in a more conventional
manner.
■ CVN also offered to keep Hutchinson as a full member at 1/ price for one
year, so as to monitor these changes as they take place.
■ The Board discussed this offer and concluded that Hutchinson can simply
rejoin next year if the changes are made. EDA staff will monitor CVN for the
next year.
M /S /P: Vaillancourt, Gordon to not renew our membership in the Community
Venture Network.
B. Update on redevelopment of former Pet Clinic Lot
• About 5 parking stalls will be added on the alley side (west side) of the lot
towards the end of July.
• EDA staff will be working to pull together a plan for the final redevelopment of
the lot over the next month. Potential partners could be the City, the
Hutchinson Downtown Association and others.
XI. Chamber Update
■ The 1St annual Hometown Golf Challenge is scheduled for Monday, July 28tH
■ "Fishing in the Midwest" will be filming in the Hutchinson area this summer and
will air in the first quarter of 2009.
■ The next Marketing Mixer is scheduled for July 16th from 5 to 6 PM.
XII. Set Next Meeting — July 25th
■ Both Diane Gordon and Steve Jansick indicated that they have a conflict on July
25th and so would not be able to attend the meeting.
■ If needed, the next meeting date may be shifted to better accommodate
everyone's schedules.
XIII. Adjourn
With no further business to attend to, the meeting adjourned at 8:08 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Miles R. Seppelt
EDA Director