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Home My WebLink About5A EDA Update4646 Dakota Street SE Prior Lake. MN 55372 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT MEETING DATE: January 24, 2013 AGENDA #: 5.a. PREPARED BY: Casey McCabe, Community Development Specialist PRESENTED BY: Dan Rogness, Community & Economic Development Director AGENDA ITEM: EDA UPDATES DISCUSSION: Introduction The EDA held its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, December 17'. The EDA received an update of EDAC activity and discussed the following items on their agenda. i. Business Venture Fair Update (Consent Agenda) ii. Technology Village Update (Consent Agenda) iii. EDA Bylaws Amendment iv. Downtown Property Acquisition Opportunities V. Fiber Optic Report Histo iii. EDA Bylaws Amendment The EDA reviewed a proposed amendment to the EDA Bylaws which would in- crease the EDA membership from five to seven members. While reviewing finalists for a position on the Economic Development Authority, City Council members discussed increasing the size of the EDA from five to sev- en members. The Council felt, given the caliber of the applicants and recogniz- ing that additional members could represent added resources for accomplishing economic development objectives, a seven member EDA may be positive for the City of Prior Lake. It was also noted that the statutory term of EDA office is six years, not four years as currently stated in the EDA Bylaws. The EDA requested the City Attorney draft EDA Bylaw amendments addressing the expansion from five seven members. The proposed amendment will be re- viewed by the EDA on January 22, 2013. If the EDA recommends approval, their recommendation will be forwarded for City Council consideration in February. iv. Downtown Property Acquisition Opportunities During previous meetings, EDA members asked City staff to evaluate acquisition opportunities in the downtown area; specifically the acquisition of the Profession- al Building on Main Avenue. At the December EDA meeting, the commissioners asked city staff to contact the broker /owner of the Professional Building to inquire whether the owner is open to having the EDA complete an independent appraisal on the property. In addition, staff should inquire as to the owner's acceptance to an offer based on the EDA's appraisal. Since the EDA meeting, staff has contacted the property owner and his response was that he would allow an appraisal, but only after the property is under a signed purchase agreement. Therefore, the EDA would need to execute a pur- chase agreement for the asking price, and then include a contingency that states the purchase price is conditioned on an independent appraisal supporting the purchase price. If the appraisal supports that price, or something close to it, the EDA would be obligated to proceed with a closing (assuming other contingencies have been satisfied, such as a property inspection). The EDA must be comfortable with a purchase price of $499,000 since the owner is not interested in a lower offer. This value appears to be far above the fair market value, at least in relationship to the county's estimated value. In addition, the EDA does not currently have access to the amount of funds necessary to ful- ly acquire the property. Staff recommends terminating any further discussions on the purchase of this property due to the high asking price. V. Fiber Optic Report Andrew Cohill of Design Nine, Inc. attended the EDA meeting to present his pre- liminary conclusions of a second -party review of the June 2012 Fiber Optic Re- port completed by Lookout Point Communications. Mr. Cohill presented a PowerPoint presentation that reviewed the fiber report with recommendations to reconsider various parts of the report. For example, Cohill felt that the report did not give enough attention to the challenges associated with a local 65% referendum vote, nor to the fact that incumbent providers would like- ly file one or more lawsuits if the city proceeded with Triple Play broadband ser- vices. A final written report for EDA review has since been submitted by Design Nine. Conclusion Updates of EDA activity related to the status of the above listed topics will be presented to the EDAC during the January 24, 2013 meeting. ISSUES: Update only. FINANCIAL None. IMPACT: ALTERNATIVES: Update only. RECOMMENDED Update only. MOTION: