Main Street Conference Room

DULUTH DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Main Street Conference Room April 21, 2015 MINUTES

Present: Rob Ponder – DDA Chairman Maxine Garner – DDA Secretary Ron Osterloh – DDA Vice Chairman Pam Smith - DDA Member Bill Weaver - DDA Member

Absent: Greg Lindquist –Treasurer Krista Ganley – DDA Member

Staff: City Manager James Riker Economic Development Manager Chris McGahee Economic Development Specialist Will Corbin Asst. to Mayor and City Manager Kim Jackson Finance Manager Ken Sakmar

Council: None

DDA Chairman Rob Ponder called the April 21, 2015 DDA meeting to order at 6:39 p.m.

Minutes: Chairman Rob Ponder requested approval of the minutes from the meeting of March 17, 2015. Maxine Garner made a motion to approve the minutes; Pam Smith seconded the motion. All voted in favor.

DDA Financial Report: Ken Sakmar reported that the DDA Budget is $42,364.55. $34375 Is committed for the EOP contract and that leaves a balance of $7989.55 with no earmarks on funds. This is through the end of the fiscal year, no actions needed.

OLD BUSINESS Eddie Owen Report: To date there have been 61,906 people who attended an event at Red Clay. In March there was -$1500 with $39,000 in Revenue and in $40,000 expenses. 18 Shows in March. 2,449 people that visited in March. Average 136 attendances per show. Dashboard Report. Dashboard event was held on in March28th. 300-400 people came thru, it was from 7-10pm. This was as event that drew many people from outside the community and with word of mouth has put Duluth on the mind of people that would have not normally visited.

NEW BUSINESS

CPD-C Report: CPD-C just met and approved the Dreamland design and materials. Also approved the Espresso Theory blade sign and tabled the town green facing sign until they receive more information. They approved the Eddie Head banner being moved and professionally installed on the back of Red Clay. American Threads presented a preliminary idea for their signs but they needed more information to approve anything.

1 | P a g e The Block 90% Plan Set Review: A meeting was held last Friday to look at the plan set (utilities, engineers etc.). There were some changes of interest that we are working through. It is currently at Gwinnett County being permitted. We may need to have special call meeting in may so please send your May availability to Chris McGahee. We will have several meeting that will be critical for this project. No action needed.

Block Demolition Update: The bids for demolition were received and staff is reviewing them. We will be making a recommendation to council at the next meeting. Final day for tenants is May 31st, then period of asbestos which was included in demo bids. No action needed by DDA

Residential RFP Report: We have been taking RFP for the 20 acres behind City Hall and we closed on the Dennis Taylor property so we have what we need to move forward with this project. Will Corbin is leading the visitation process for developers, they have until May 8th to view the property. May 22 nd is the deadline for the RFPs. WSB Visited today to do a news story on our new development projects. We are getting a lot of positive press. The Atlanta Business Chronicle did a article on this as well. No action needed from the DDA

American Threads: Will have a pop up tent inside their new building for Art Week to introduce themselves. They plan to grand open in May after Barefoot. This will include their Corporate office, retail store and shipping center. They have a 3 year contract for this location at this time. No action needed from DDA

OTHER BUSINESS/DISCUSSION/PUBLIC COMMENT

James wanted to let everyone know that the fountain has been re built and will be turned on again in a few weeks. It has had a pump house built, re sealed and other work done this winter. Also, we have done a lot of work on town green to get it ready for event season. We contacted Gwinnett Medical Center to see if we could get them to post signs on the hospital property announced that they have progress coming soon, recently acquired by GMC, future expansion of GMC etc. We have not heard back from them. The events are out for this year, take a look if you have not seen them yet. We have a new marketing strategy, so those will be marketed a little different this year.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business, Maxine Garner made a motion to adjourn the regular session of the DDA at 7:19 p.m. Ron Osterloh seconded the motion. All voted in favor. The meeting closed at 8:32 p.m.

______Chairman, Rob Ponder Secretary, Maxine Garner

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