A bill for an ordinance authorizing and approving an amendment to the St. Anthony Urban Redevelopment Plan to add the Sloans Block 9 Project. Approves an amendment to the St. Anthony Urban Redevelopment Plan for the Sloans Block 9 Project to authorize the use of property tax increment financing (“TIF”) to provide funding for development to include approximately 176 units of income restricted permanently affordable senior and disabled housing, up to 20,000 square feet of ground floor medical office and clinic space, 6,500 square feet of senior activity center, a publicly accessible 5,000 square foot amenity deck and 125 parking spaces in Council District 1. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 1-24-17.
13 Ice 13 Ice Council 56 has now been approved. All right, Madam Secretary, we've got onto Council 1257. Yes. All right, Councilman Espinosa, will you please put Councilor 57 on the floor? Yes, Mr. President. I move that council bill 57 be placed upon final consideration and do passed. It has been moved in second. It published here for council 57 is open. May we have the staff report? The circuits. You made. Hello again. Tracy Huggins, the executive director of the Denver Urban Renewal Authority. And Mr. President and members of council, this is a new and separate public hearing on another project, but it is all related to the same urban redevelopment area that I just described, complete with its history. So with your permission, may I go past those slides as opposed to having to repeat them again? You have all of my permission. Thank you. So with your permission, let's. Fast forward to. Slide. Four. And again, I'm now going to ask that you you don't you don't have the same this presentation. It's a continuation of the one that you had previously. So we'll work as long as you put it up on the screen. The and forgive me for being presumptuous because I have now added to the list of previously approved projects. BLOCK three. Mm hmm. And now the project that we are bringing forward, is that on block nine? Yes. With again, within the same urban redevelopment area. And this project area is the the portion of block nine. Again, BLOCK three was the entire block. This is just a portion of block nine, generally fronting West Colfax Avenue between Quitman and Perry streets. This Sloan's BLOCK nine project site has had several previous uses, including a used car lot, a cell phone store in the Yeshivah School dormitory. This is a picture of the former used car lot, the cell phone store and the dormitory. I do, just as I said in council committee, want to be fair to the owners of those properties. They did not look just like that before they were closed and and boarded up. But you can see just how quickly properties, once those uses have been taken away, can begin to change on the site. And this is all. And those those private previous uses have since been demolished to allow for the development of the BLOCK nine project. And the BLOCK nine project is also known as Vida at Sloan's Lake, and it will include a new 217,000 square foot building consisting of a seven story tower with 112 units of senior rental housing at 60%, ami a five story tower with 64 units of senior rental housing with affordability at the 30, 40, 50 and 60% AMI levels. A 20,000 square foot community health clinic on the main level and a senior activity center and rooftop community amenity space. There will be 125 parking spaces. 109 of those will be below grade with 16 spaces above grade and on the surface. This is a very busy slide and but it is intended to show the unit count the levels of affordability. If you can see this slide, you'll see on there that there is a section that says V to 9%. A section that says V to 4%. And then the total. The reason for that is this project was successful in applying both for 4% and 9% credits from again, from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. Lot of information on here. And there are representatives from D who are here who will be able to speak to this. But the long and the short of it is that there are 175 tenant units. All of these are one bedroom units. There is one unit that is a two bedroom, and that will be for the the project or the site manager. And again, you can see that the rents here are for those persons at between 30 and 60%. Am I included in here is a footnote that says although the AMI thresholds show a mix of up to 60% AMI, in reality the household served by senior and disabled subsidy are at or below 30% AMI. So this is intended to be a project that is a very deep level of affordability. As I mentioned previously, this project was successful in procuring low income housing tax credits from from Chiapas. They are also bringing other forms of assistance to this. Even with that, they still have been able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Urban Redevelopment Authority or the Urban Renewal Authority that there is a $5.5 million financing gap that is expected to be addressed through property tax increment generated by that broader seven block property tax increment area as the project is to be undertaken, owned and operated by the Denver Housing Authority. The property will be largely tax exempt. Therefore, we are not requesting council to approve a property tax increment area for this project. Instead, the property tax increment generated by the redevelopment of blocks one, two and four a gain of approximately $850,000 per year will be used to reimburse VHA for eligible expenses over a period not to exceed 25 years. Again as council found the urban redevelopment plan to be in conformance with comp plan and its applicable supplements. We are also needing to make sure that any project continues to meet those objectives of the Urban Redevelopment Plan. Again. I would prefer not to have to walk through all of those components which this project is in clear conformance with the Urban Redevelopment Plan objectives. So instead of going through each of those, what I would call out is that there is a different finding here as opposed to the project, the BLOCK three project, which is the encouraging of high and moderate density development where appropriate, including structured parking. As you can see, this is a fairly dense development on this site. I will, however, go through each of these legislative findings because I do think that is a key component in making sure that we have met the requirements under state statute. So we are asking that council find that the Black Nine Project is located within the Saint Anthony Urban Redevelopment area and that it will promote the objectives set forth in the Saint Anthony Urban Redevelopment Plan. Again, need to find that a feasible method exists for relocation of displaced individuals and families and business concerns. At this point, there are no residences or businesses on the site. Therefore, there are no requirements for and for us to undertake relocation. Written notice of this public hearing was made to all known property owners, residents and owners of business concerns in the entire Saint Anthony Urban Redevelopment Area on January 13th of 2017, which again is at least 30 days prior to this public hearing. Statute requires that no more than 120 days have passed since the first public hearing before City Council on the Plan Amendment. And tonight is that first public hearing. Statute also requires that two years must elapse before council consider can consider an amendment to the plan. If you previously failed to approve the Urban Redevelopment Plan amendment for this project, same as with the BLOCK three project. This is the first consideration by Council of an Urban Redevelopment Plan amendment for this project. Finding that the project is in conformance with the Denver Comprehensive Plan. We also took this plan amendment to Planning Board on January 18th, 2017, with the same result where Planning Board voted unanimously with one abstention, to find that the proposed amendment to the St Anthony Urban Redevelopment Plan conforms to the Denver Comprehensive Plan and its applicable supplements. And a letter to that effect has again been submitted to you as part of this hearing. The Saint Anthony Urban Redevelopment Plan, as amended by the proposed amendment, will afford maximum opportunity consistent with the sound needs of Denver as a whole for the rehabilitation or redevelopment of the same art scene at the new Urban Redevelopment Area by Private Enterprise. Again, the Denver Housing Authority will be the developer of the BLOCK Nine Project, and their mission includes the provision of affordable housing for special populations, including the elderly and the disabled. We must find that city and county of Denver can adequately finance and agreements are in place to finance any additional city and county of Denver infrastructure and services required to serve the development within the Sloan's BLOCK nine project area for the period during which incremental taxes are paid to the authority. And again, the plan allows for such cooperative agreements to be put in place between the city and Duryea to address those additional infrastructure and services needs should they arise. And the Urban Renewal Authority has notified the boards of each other. Taxing entities whose incremental property tax revenue would be allocated under the plan and has in an agreement has been negotiated governing the sharing of incremental property tax revenue. So very similar to what we had discussed previously. There are as a result of bringing forward this amendment after the applicability of House Bill 1348, we now are required to enter into agreements with those three taxing entities. Those, again, are Denver Public Schools, urban drainage and flood control. And this out of South Sloan's Lake metropolitan districts. Again, we we have already negotiated an agreement with DPS, the school funding agreement, where we will be paying DPS in total $2.5 million over ten years from the property tax increment generated from blocks one, two and four. And again, they're scheduled. Annual payment will be made in priority above any repayment to block three or block nine. This is probably a good time to say that the remaining amount of the property tax increment coming from blocks one, two and four after we've made that annual schedule payment to DPS, is expected to be generally applied 5050 between BLOCK three and BLOCK nine. Our goal is to try to repay those obligations at or about the same time. Since there is no additional student impact contemplated from the BLOCK nine project, DPS was willing to accept the previously negotiated agreement as full satisfaction of the redevelopment impact from the St Anthony's Urban Redevelopment area, including that of BLOCK BLOCK nine. Similarly, we noticed urban drainage and flood control of the of the BLOCK nine project. And again they concluded that the BLOCK Nine Project would have minimal impact on their services and have determined that there should be no change in the way that the property tax increment from blocks one through seven would be addressed, even as we are using a portion of that for BLOCK Nine and similarly for the South Sloan's Metropolitan District, same agreement is in place that we have already agreed that any amount of incremental property taxes attributable to the R.M. Levy will be paid over to them upon receipt by URA. We are so pleased to work with the city and DHL on this on this exciting project. It isn't very often that we have a public public, public partnership in in the works here. That is exactly what we have with DHS being the developer, bringing forward the much needed affordable housing for this special population in this area, as well as being successful in bringing back a medical presence on this site following the departure of the of the the hospital. So, again, happy to answer any questions. I realized I went through that fairly quickly, but so much of it would have been a repeat of what I said previously. Hopefully I didn't miss anything. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you for the condensed report. Government can get something done. That's awesome. All right. We have two individuals this evening speaking, Cameron Bertrand and Ryan Tobin. Cameron, you're up first. Mr. Bertrand Excuse me. Hello again, everybody. Cameron Bertrand 1145. Gillard Street, Denver. Also here again, as the property owner, I would just echo what I said previously about everyone's help and seeing this come about. It's particularly nice in this instance where we're using tax increment to bring forward this level of affordability but also bring health care back to the state. I just echo what Tracy said. This is something that was set forward as a goal by Denver many, many years ago. And being here tonight is a is a nice feeling. I would I would add two things to this. One is I would think, Darrell, one more time for the Main Street coalition, which was an EPA grant that they got in Denver got and those funds were really instrumental in bringing about this project. On the early days, when it wasn't sure would happen. I think they have been unfailing partners in a complex, long conversation. And finally, something that you may not know, but the dormitory that was on this site previously was housed, the kids from the Yeshivah Haim Torah Jewish Boys School, and they've been in the neighborhood for 50 years this year. And this project enabled them to use the proceeds from the acquisition of that building to build a new dorm and recommit and stay in the neighborhood for another 50 years. So oftentimes projects like this can have a disrupting effect on the historic members of a community. And in this case were not only able to add almost 200 units of new affordable housing, but we were able to keep the folks who've been there recommitted to the neighborhood. So I think that's a nice add to this one. Thanks. And again, to the question. Yeah, thank you. Mr.. Ryan Tobin. Thank you, Mr. President. Ryan Tobin. 2515 Lawrence Street, Denver, Colorado. Here on behalf of Denver Housing Authority, as you heard, where the developer of this fun project. But as everybody has mentioned, these projects don't happen overnight. So we're very excited about narrowing in on actually closing and breaking ground on this, which will happen sometime in July. So we still have our work ahead of us, but this is the first big step for us to make our advancements forward in this program. And so we're happy to be here. Excited about the project and delivering that in the Sloan's development, because it's an amazing area for us to be a part of. We always look at having affordable housing solutions within the context of larger developments that are happening so that we do have that affordability that happens within these neighborhoods. And this is a special one where we're able to boast almost 20% of the total units that we'll be meeting that 60% and below EMI with our participation in this project. So I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Tobler. All right. This concludes our speakers. Are there any questions for members of council? All right, Councilman Espinosa. I do have a question just because, Cameron, you touched on it, but it's probably it's really a question for all of you. And I don't know. I mean, I don't expect you to answer. You have the solution now, but there is a historic Orthodox Jewish family tradition. Do or or, you know, tradition of resonance in this area. And one concern with all of this new development in the size of the units to what Councilman Lopez was saying before, is that our new housing isn't doesn't captured the size of households that those Orthodox Jewish families are. And my concern is there is a 50 year history of the yeshiva there. Do you guys, through developers, do DHEA have the tools to do housing preservation for those sorts of family units and family sizes? You know, if you don't have the answer here today, I'm challenging you guys to be willing to sort of come back to my office with those ideas, because that's a conversation I've had with the Orthodox Jewish families in the community, along with the sort of historic Catholic families, the larger Catholic families in that community. And so as development is pushing for, you know, putting greater and greater pressure in there, it's it's not promoting those sort of households. And it becomes a real difficult equation for the development and subsidy teams. But I do I don't have those answers. And so I'm throwing it out there for you guys to consider, because I do want to see the issue there in 50 years to be thriving as well as it has for the last 50 things. Sorry, it's not really a question. Rhetorical. I guess the public here for Council Bill 57 is close, comes by the council because when as often as we can I'm so sorry I asked that question, but I didn't want to put it in my comments. But once again. Yes. This this was a I'm not going to deny this is a step above and beyond what I think. You know, ESG and company came in here a bit off, you know, bit off, you know, for this redevelopment to figure out how to capture additional development outside of your seven blocks and to then bring both health care, deep affordability for seniors, which there is a large senior population in this area. So once again, this is using all those resources that we have as a city, using the the skill set the master developer has to to sort of bring entities together and actually get the outcomes that really sort of, you know, help create can maintain the diversity of this neighborhood. So I, I just want once again, I want to commend you all for what you've done and the outreach that you've you've had and throughout this process. And so, again, Cameron, Ryan and Tracy, thank you, guys. Happy to say thank you because when. Espinosa Councilman Creech. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to add my thank you to this team. This was a very long conversation. And I guess there's two milestones that I want to just note, which is one. Urban renewal projects in Denver had long included some affordable housing through the advocacy. A lot of this council, not by policy but by advocacy, including from Councilwoman Ortega and her first terms in council before these terms that she's serving now as well as other champions. But it was a newer tool to actually use it to finance entirely affordable projects in this way. And Mary Crest is an example of one of those up and also in Council District one. And I think this is another great example where there used to be this feeling there's just not enough increment created to fund an affordable housing piece. But you know, both with a little bit of flexibility in the in the state law and with these larger sites being able to bring an entire affordable housing project to bear as part of a mixed income community rather than just a few units as part of a building is a really long trajectory. And in a just, you know, for those who may be newer in council, I just want to note that this is a more recent phenomenon and it's a big deal because it brings you a much larger quantity of units. And that's what this that's what this vote tonight represents, is, is, is 176 units. You know, it's not 17 or, or a handful that we got in the inclusionary approach. So so I just wanted to note that and thanked her for the work that they've had to do to kind of get to this different model rather than , than thinking about these as how much increment is generated right here on this parcel. Right? So, so it took some creativity and flexibility and then to the development team, you know, Cameron this we talk about block nine as if it was a neat block just waiting to be purchased. Right. And that's of course not what occurred here. There were many parcels owned by different owners. And for some of us, we felt really strongly that this site would not be complete without more than what was on the seven blocks that you had. And we pushed you and we we we asked you to do more. And you did. You went out and and you saw the opportunity. And I think that I hope and I believe that you saw that we that this complemented the entire site. And so it wasn't just because council was asking and because the community was asking, but there was a value to having that Colfax piece completed and and bringing together the entire Colfax frontage. So so I think there is a win here for this entire community in terms of the wholeness that it has with this. There's certainly a win for the seniors and the disabled folks who will be seated here. And you once asked me, do you realize how much work this is? And let me just publicly say I acknowledge how very difficult this was to get to this day. And I appreciate the effort as I know the community does, because much of this, you know, is coming from the residents of the community who were seeing change. They were seeing gentrification, they were seeing displacement. And they wanted to see a significant outcome here. And this is one piece of that. We know that some of these residents will come from the north side and west side, you know, where there may be other redevelopment activities. So it will be a chance to keep some folks in a nearby community. And that is I just want it for our residents and our public who say, how are we doing things to help displacement. New housing can be a tool to fight displacement if you have a place to bring folks who may be getting redeveloped into a nearby neighborhood. And so that's that's what this project represents as well. So why don't you make sure that was on the record for our residents who are always asking that question and just to say thank you to the entire team as well as DHS and OED. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman, can each councilman do. Congratulations, community? This project is going to be great and special. We couldn't do without the partners, you know, with our door and the Denver Housing Authority. It is just unbelievable what our partners do for our city, you know, and especially Dura Joshi, you and your staff bring in that expertize and the support. I don't know how we would do without you. It's just fantastic. And the whole role that the Denver Housing Authority plays for our whole city, it's just, just very, very rewarding. And we appreciate everything that you're doing. Congratulations on this project. I'm looking forward to see all the affordable housing like councilwoman initiative. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman new Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to seriously add my profound thanks to be able to sit through two public hearings without having to beg, connive, encourage. An affordable housing component is really a wonderful experience. I know it was difficult to put all the pieces together, but certainly addresses maybe the most profound crisis our city faces. I would echo what Councilman Espinosa and Lopez were talking about in the need for larger units. And I would encourage can I beg plead that you do what you can in that direction because it is important to preserve these communities. But for what you've done here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. I think that begging, conniving and pleading happened to three years ago. Thank you, guys for how hard you guys have worked on this. It's exciting to see this project come to fruition and with that kind of secretary. Raquel Espinosa. Hi, Flynn. Hi Gilmore. Herndon Cashman. Kenny Lopez. All right. New Ortega Sussman. Black Clark. Mr. President. I please close to voting and announce the results. 3913 EIS Council 57 has passed. Congratulations. All right. On Monday, March. Oh, yeah, that's right. We got a we got to do 58. Councilman Espinosa, will you please put the companion Bill 58 on the floor?