[Music] this is the consideration of approval of amended and restated Festival Marketplace ground lease with lap 7 Development LLC for development of a two-story building to operate a micro Brewery in tap room along with accary Food Services hi there hi how are you good I'm Lena doer downtown transformation manager um I actually have the developer Brandon Lodge that I'll introduce you to for some brief comments at the end of this I also have um Wade with Prairie Artis ALS here um that will also be able to speak to um the end user um of the first floor so just as a reminder in January of 23 um we had received two submittals to an RFQ that we had um put out in is that right 23 okay that we had put out at the end of 2022 I thought I had a typo um we had a selection committee that would looked through the applications um the responses that was made up of the Ed the central Edmund Urban District board downtown Edmund Business Association um The Edmund Economic Development Authority the city of Edmund Parks and Recreation and the City off City manager's office um both of those submittals were interviewed lap 7 development was selected um and we began lease negotiations shortly thereafter in May 23 city council approved the festival Marketplace ground lease for development of a micro Brewery which is Prairie oton ALS um in a tap room with lap 7 development the original lease in the original lease the construction was slated to begin in January of um 2024 as that did not happen the city did send a default letter to lap 7 Development LLC and since that time we've been working together um to amend the lease oh just as an FYI and Brandon may pull this up later this is the um layout of the site um once the construction is completed just so you can see where the building will take place so the lease terms now with the amendment um we are going to start construction no no earlier than November 11th 2024 this allows us to avoid this year's Farmers Market um it will be completed no later than the end of July of 25 um the building will be now two sto with an estimated 6,000 square ft um the first floor obviously is still going to be the tap room and the brewery um and the second floor is to be determined still um the rent will commence as soon as this lease is approved as opposed to when construction is complete um it is $12,750 annually for 5 years and then will'll increase um 10% each subsequent 5year period plans will be submitted to the city for review no later than September 1st of this year that will make sure that will help me make sure that we're staying on track for construction to begin in November of um 24 and then no additional extensions will be granted um construction activity will not negatively impact the farmers market this year no parking has going to be deleted this year or any other year um I wanted to show this was the first submitt um of what prair was going to look like I wanted to show how much extra space um the Second Story will take so it's got to just be an increase 10 ft um so it is consistent with our downtown master plan for a healthy vibrant walkable Urban neighborhood full of people living working eating playing shopping and learning um the festival Marketplace continues to be that hub for downtown Edmund um and it's actually this this development is going to activate the area um especially during the nights and the weekends and the months that the farmers market is not um taking place so right now I have any any questions I did want to address we've gotten a lot of um comments via email um we also met with the Farmers Market vendors last week um on Friday and I met with some of them out in the field um with the developer um on Saturday um so I just wanted to clarify one more time that this is not going to take away any parking even during construction is not going to take away any parking um it will decrease the use of the alley in between the the Shaded structure and the building um but that will most likely be open before the farmers market begins as construction will be interior at that point um just also um you know we are building a a parking garage um it's got 216 spaces that will hopefully be empty on the weekends because no city employees should be working um so then that's not you know incredibly far away from the farmers market so that will be available we also as Andy mentioned earlier we're going to have 50 parking space in the MH house parking lot or MH house parking garage that will also be available um I know that councilman Robbins checked with the police department regarding safety in this area um it has been a concern of some people there were no notable um incidents in the area even though there is a frenzy Brewery just right across the street um so I we don't anticipate any additional safety issues um one of the comments was about the length of the lease the long-term lease is 25 years um you know when when you're doing large scale development it's really difficult to get financing in place if you have short-term leases ground leases are typically 25 years so it's not an unusual length of time for for a lease in one of these instances um I know the art is very important um to the area um oh I'm going to get her name wrong Kentucky Daisy go me um will not not be affected by this um it won't be in the construction zone and it's certainly not going to be anywhere near the building within reason 10 feet I think is in between it so um I will introduce Brandon Lodge if he wants to come up and and say hello Lena real quick oh yeah the storage building yes um so we already have a storage building purp purchased um since construction was delayed a little bit it went out to Mitch Park um I am working with the parks department now to find alternate Solutions um I know that there's a desire to have something a little bit larger than what was originally purchased um thankfully we have a little bit of time you know we have until November to figure that out but but there will be something there there will be something there perfect no problem sorry any more questions for me before I step away uh the rent the uh $12,750 per year that was the same as the the first one contract that was in default that hasn't been adjusted it has not we have a land lease the land um under lease is still 4,000 ft give or take um I didn't we're not leasing the building he's purchasing he's building the building so the land lease is the same okay yes sir I'd seen some emails about lighting do you want to talk about lighting or sure I haven't safety by the railroad tracks yeah railroad tracks are inherently um dangerous dangerous so um I haven't looked into lighting I have no problem doing that with our public works department and our engineering department um I'm hopeful I haven't talked to Brandon about it but I think there's probably going to be exterior lighting on the building that will help with Lighting in the area um if not I'm sure we can figure something out just a reminder on the on the train situation this is before I got here Andy there was an evaluation by Kimberly horn about I say train overpass Train's not going uh pedestrian there you go there you go um that was designed we don't currently have funding for it but the idea was to mitigate as much as possible pedestrian traffic at grade level is that correct okay and I don't know if maybe you or Mr Lodge can expand on you you you said you don't believe there would be any ill effect in the alleys do we know that or we just guessing so the alley that I was speaking of is the alley between the farmers market and where the building will be that will be closed during construction um I will let him speak to that but the alleys that go north south um won't be affected at all okay um I will say I've had discussions with staff um recently about putting some um speed pmps bumps are those the words um speed bumps in the alleys to slow folks down just yeah to to keep traffic from from flying through there and I know that we're looking into that right now so so if those if that was the alley you were referencing we're looking into that as well okay you I don't know if you me to go by and I have some my questions will come in after Mr LOD speaks Mr Mayor councel thank you for uh taking the time to let me come up here and talk about this uh Brandon Lodge lap 7even development um Lena went through the history of the project so I won't take a whole lot of time doing that um the first version the single story version single tenant um version of this project got derailed like a lot of projects have Lately by interest rates and Rising construction costs um with only 4,000 square feet of of footprint there's there's not a lot of area to spread that cost over um the only solution that I could come up with was to go vertical and double the area of leasable square footage without necessarily doubling the cost of the project um there's still a one slab One Roof one set of utilities that has to come to the building but I've got twice the area um that I can lease out uh this project already required top-of-the Market rents to make it work financially um getting a second floor tenant to do the same thing and pay the same rents was a was a tall order it also uh increased the price of the project significantly this will be a 3 million ion Dollar Plus project by the time it's done fortunately I was able to find uh a an operator for the second floor and a new partner for the building to come in to help me uh help me do this um and so between the three of us that are here tonight we represent the ownership and the full tency of the building uh for both floors these will bring two kind entertainment uh sales tax generating Concepts to downtown Edmund and as Lena mentioned it will activate uh that parking lot area uh during the off times of farmers market during the evenings etc etc um the only other thing that I will say and then I'm I'm happy to answer any questions is that on on the slide up there it said 6,000 square F feet the project will be about 8,000 square ft it'll be two 4,000 foot plates um the original project was 4,000 ft this one just Stacks another box on top of it um one of the things that we did do in the original version we had something like a 20 foot clear height in that Tap Room which is just huge it's a very you know a lot of volume in that building in order to help keep cost down and to keep the over overall size of the building down we reduced uh the Prairie Tap Room down to 14 feet clear height with 12 uh going on the second floor um so it'll still be a very nice um beautiful building with plenty of room and volume but it'll be commensurate with everything else that's around there in downtown it'll be a couple of feet taller than the rail yard across the street and pretty significantly shorter than the uh the outdoor portion of the rail yard that uh the overhang portion um aesthetically you want to tell about the brick yes that was the other thing that was important in this original project that we've we really really tried to maintain and have maintained in this two-story project is that this will still be built uh with structural masonry um which is what we initially wanted to do um it's how all of the historic buildings that people are now rehabbing it's how they were built it's why they're still standing um this is a longterm ground lease but this building will be around 150 200 250 years just like the the old historic buildings that we have downtown right now that have been rehabbed and and reused so this will be um along the same uh lines of those buildings as well Council any questions for um are you able to say the second floor tenant what type of business that is going to be I hate to say I hate to say it publicly um this is a public hearing I know it is I know and I know everyone wants to know and I do have the tenant as long as as no one like holds my feet to the fire too hard on this it's it's going to be an entertainment venue it's going to be golf simulators and we're still working on what the programming of that is uh a good friend of mine has a concept in Bricktown that's done extremely well it's a lot of fun I go there quite a bit on date nights with friends it's a it's a fun fun use and so we've got the operator uh for that I think it's helpful to know the type of thing you have in mind um yeah based on some concerns that people expressed that sounds like a wholesome thing yes yeah it'll it'll be along the lines of of the other projects that I do I mean every project that I do I I do it because I want to go to it I've got four kids I take my I have to take my kids a lot of places um and so the places that I go and and that I build and and the projects that I do I want them to be familyfriendly and I want them to be places that I want to go hang out and am comfortable taking my kids thank you okay thank you so the my area of concerns of this is that um one of the things that's unique about this is that we own the land City of Edmond owns a land and uh just for the record if people don't know I did vote Yes for the initial one because it was a smaller footprint um 3, 4,000 square ft and all that now what's in front of us today and we we had an idea of what it was going to look like in scale and structure what was going to go in there but what I see in my documents here is that um on or be or before September 1st 2024 um lab s will give us drawing site plans floor plans elevations and other uh documents uh illustrating fixings and describing the scale size and and the character um of the improvements necessary to submit a building permit well that's several months from now and when the first application came in we we had all that stuff basically we we knew it was going to be there and plus it was a smaller smaller footprint uh if you remember I will repeat it again that um I when I did cast my yes vote it was because there was guarantees that there was going to be no impact to the farmers market um and just to remind everybody our Farmers Market was crowned basically the best in the state this month and um I'm not comfortable right now thinking that this is not going to affect that because one when I look at our goals here we want familyfriendly things to bring downtown uh some of the other events we brought downtown um Farmers Market is started that expansion uh so I do I do have that concern um I have the concern even with the 25 years now of that because we own that piece of property and I remember I was at an event this this winter down there and they said hey we have like over 3,000 people down there it's familyfriendly and the businesses stayed open and all that and so there's other ways to me that can be activate that if if someone feels that area needs to be activated more that it is is for that I do like the the parts in the contract that uh there is no extension it's if you can't do it this time but I'm not there um right now then um so those are my main things is that I can't see in my mind how this is not going to affect the activities not not only what the farmers market is doing right now but any potential other potential activities that are coming on um from this our horse carriages and and all the other things that we were bringing downtown from the familyfriendly um and so right now I I'm not in support of the amendment um yeah I I I think that uh I I would I would recommend I would love for the city to pull back and say hey let's let's regroup uh let's look internally what we have going on down there um uh and then I know that we're trying to increase density but we have the rail yard across the street that's been eban and Floy we're going to have the the the new residential coming in uh but to me right now after this the [Music] initial application didn't get done I I I pulled back my support of this project yes sir thank you Mr Mayor I share a lot of your thoughts I uh I was asked right after the first of the year if I was in favor of amending the contract and I said no I'm not I read in the staff memo the city sent a notice of default to lap 7 LLC in January 24 and have since been working together to amend the lease I haven't had a conversation with anyone about the the new lease other than the questions I've posed uh via email uh to the staff uh so I'm not sure quite sure that's accurate I haven't been working together to amend the lease I have not uh I haven't been asked my opinion about it other than the initial time right after the default so uh Mr Lodge I called you Saturday to tell you I was going to vote no and I explained why and um I do have a question though uh do you have any idea of the anticipated revenue from this project annual revenue total sales from it yeah I it would be an educated guess sure I would think that each concept would do a mill ion dollar or more in sales okay and I think that's what the farmers market does in 25 weeks 26 weeks somewhere along in there uh that's that's been it was about yeah they they were telling us the other day at the farmers market meeting that they did about a million in Revenue so it takes that parking lot from a million doll Revenue generating deal to a $3 million Revenue generating deal you want to look at it that way uh I don't but you can um I just want you to know I appreciate your efforts on what you're trying to do I don't appreciate the the two-story and you've known that early on uh it's not questioning your abilities or your vision for downtown Edmond or your projects it's just something that I I don't believe we should have amended the contract I thought we should have started over and tried this process a new uh I don't know how tonight's going to turn out but I wish you luck if it passes and uh if it doesn't perhaps you can reapply and we'll go from there thank you are we go ahead Mr I was just gonna say you know I have tremendous respect for you know my fellow members of city council I think one of the great things about it is we all have different lens that we view things and different life experiences and different boards that we've served on um uh different points where at with different family and stuff you know I look at downtown when I first got here and it wasn't even a passing thought to go there past 5:00 um now I have relatives who come in uh even a older brother who's hard to impressed sometimes if you know how that works and you say hey we're going to go downtown and there's such amazing things uh that are happening there consistently and there's an energy that's there I didn't um and I think about you know uh I know there's at least one golf similar concept down downtown and and I've gone there specifically with my my friends and family and peers and stuff when I was first elected I mean all of us we do this for for love of you know our city um sometimes we get proposed stuff in like moral equivalence like this is you know this is righteous or this is unrighteous this is terrible or whatever I actually think this is the sort of friction that's created when we're growing as a city and the conversations we want to have and I actually think that it's not a flaw in the system that we're having this conversation today but a feature of what what it is that we want to do and I see it as an opportunity for our our city um to enhance this better and I and I was looking at the agenda I remember when I was first elected I mean I'm W one and I'm new to everything and um there was a project with the city cter complex and the court Municipal Court that had already been approved by my former city councilors with you know all the information had and they said yes and I immediately got a call from two or three very well-known established senior folks that had served in very good leadership positions over many decades far than I got to and said Herd on herd's going to go away and you better do something about that and it's all because of that downtown deal and I had to work through and I was scared to death because we love her on herd and we go there and there's vendors that supp so one of the differences that we have now is Miss Lena doer I'm lucky that I'm the first I think I think there'll be others maybe in other WS but we have a specific person who's uh you know downtown that is you know boots on the ground eyes on that's working uh specifically with all of our uh folks uh that are there and uh after getting the feedback particularly on her unheard myself and others we looked those leaders in the eye and made them a promise and said you know we'll do everything that we can not to close this street and we'll move forward and we've been good to our word on that um so I think when when people say say hey I have a concern here the reason why they feel that anxiety because it's a concern and I don't discount that and another reason why someone says well this is a great project and I say well yeah to me it isn't black and white it isn't wrong or or right it's what we're doing in creating and I like what we're seeing in creating and I think we can definitely create something in W one downtown uh that both enhances over time our Farmers Market but then also creates other opportunities and and flows effectively um so def want to hear from all the others that are here but I have a different perspective after getting the feedback that I got yeah I agree as an Edmund resident I I I love the farmers market I don't want this project to negatively impact it in any way shape or form I think that this project won't negatively impact it I think it'll positively impact it I think that uh a lot of the the residences that are coming in the apartments that are about to open up the the Lark that's going in the other town homes that Matthew Myers is doing along herd Street the reason that those are coming online is because as councilman Robin said there there are things to do in the evening and during the day there are restaurants and there are places to go and Concepts that people want to visit and consequently they want to live near them too they want to live in these walkable uh uh neighborhood communities and the the way that you give them that is that you give them in very close proximity uh residential uses and Commercial uses the more residents that live in downtown Edmund the better off the farmers Market's going to be those people are all within walking distance it's very parking is not a concern because they live a block and a half away the more people we can get living in downtown Edmund the better it is for the farmers market the better it is for the businesses that operate down here and and the the the uh the momentum will perpetuate itself and it will keep going and growing and as long as we have these conversations like we're having I think we can grow it in a way that benefits everybody um I live here I my kids go to school here I spend my money here the last thing I want to do is make enemies of anybody around me I don't want to disrupt the farmers market I don't want to to it to go away I don't want to be an enemy of the farmer's market I am here everything that I'm trying to do at least from my perspective is a benefit to downtown Edmund otherwise I wouldn't be taking the time and putting the effort in into doing it um yeah that's it when we um visited this time a little over a year ago about this concept coming down there um as you recall one of my main concerns was the farmers market and how do we not interfere with their business how does a construction not because construction sites can go crazy and we were assured as we are now that that construction won't stop until it's over with and then hopefully it'll be interior brother the time it starts correct correct we will get inside as quick as possible hopefully by the time next year's Farmers Market starts and then there's nothing going on and of course another thing that was a big concern last when we originally approved this and I received some emails was about the storage and there will be another storage shed made available um another thing just personally for me was aesthetically um I was really drawn to masonry of the original building and I think it goes beautiful with the downtown Aesthetics um and it's not any bigger footprint correct it's just going up correct and you're going to take some out of the ceiling height in it so it's not going to go exponentially up correct and um you know some people talked about a morality issue in drinking and they don't drink well well don't drink but I still go down there and enjoy myself my husband likes to have a beer we don't drive drunk um but having the family aspect of the thing upstairs um golf simulator even and I'm not going to hold you to that whatever it is it's fun it's fun for kids to do things and we like to take our Grands down there and have fun um I'm excited about that I would love I wish you could have brought a picture of what it would look like the two story version I Lena and I discussed that and you're I was I'm waiting because we have not designed the second floor well you know that we're going to hold you to the aesthetic yes the original drawing it'll be the same type of same type of of uh project I mean there'll be another box stack stacked on top of that one same type of a structural masonry those were the three main things that I was emailed about and um I know we keep talking about the farmers market but we love it we love our vendors we love the people that run it um it's important to us and it's important to the city and it's an amazing Farmers Market as me talked about received an an amazing award this year I was well I'm not shocked because it's that great of a place and it just keeps growing and I and to help those vendors support them um for either um occasional income part-time income or uh councilman Robins was telling me some it's even their full-time income and I'm a huge small business supporter and especially a a local business supporter so that's important to me um I I believe you've answered the questions that were sent to me adequately and I'm I'm super happy that that Lena got them together and that they visited with them I'm glad that you sat down with them that's important to to me and had it not happened I probably would have asked you to do it anyway that's just something I like I think it's important to have good neighbors when you're uh developing and um keep up those neighbors while you're developing have a clean construction site it's going to have to be because it's right in the smack middle of our downtown admin area and um anyway that's all I have to and as a followup to that you know something I would ask for I don't know if you've committed to it but if like Council Moore says if this goes forward would you commit to during the construction phase a monthly meeting with those stakeholders whether they be business or or or or the for Market vendors to meet with you and construction for and on site to be able to address any challenges opportunities or things that are going well that you want to continue or you know things come up is that something that you would commit to yeah we discussed that Saturday morning when we were walking around the site um and someone had brought that up and and I said that that would be fine um I'm more than happy to to meet with whoever is interested in what's going on there and and show them what's going on the meetings that we had with the vendors at the farmers market were good um I had been in discussions with with Emily and and some of the farmers market folks but I hadn't spoken with the vendors it was a good opportunity to speak with them um it gave me the opportunity to kind of relay on to them you know who I am and and why I'm doing this project I got to tell them a little bit about about Prairie and Prairie's uh willingness to open their Tap Room for Farmers Market vendors on Saturday mornings before their normal hours of operation and to collaborate in any any way you know whatsoever that will benefit the farmers market they have a massive social media uh following just blasting out an Instagram message saying hey come see us at the farmers market this morning will reach I don't know how many tens of thousands of people um and so it it gave me the opportunity to talk with them about that that this we we want to see this as a collaboration not not any type of of rivalry or anything where there's any type of friction going on did you have anything I think a lot has been said and I agree with a lot of the statements that have been said um my concern um in looking at the amendment and and had an opportunity to speak with Mr Lodge um a couple months ago I think but that we have the the timelines that are strict um and that the rent will start if depending on how the vote goes tonight if we approve this agreement then rent payments will begin right at that time um there's not going to be extensions and you know working around when the farmers market is open on construction to be the least disruption um but I I too I feel like it's just going to bring more people probably walking to that area going to the farmers market um as Stacy said councilwoman Peterson said the actual footprint is the same so it's not taking up any more area in that um uh on the ground but it is going up not doubling in height um we certainly have other buildings in the area that are already approved and going up that are much higher than this one um I think it's going to be incredibly beautiful um and and enhance the downtown area I think we get more people coming there the more people go to the downtown businesses I know sometimes they get concerned about parking but I really think in the way this is going people are walking more and with the 50 spaces in the one parking garage we've got more spaces in the other um we've got more overall parking spaces more people but more people walking I feel like it's going to be a really good thing for all the stakeholders the Farmers Market vendors the downtown businesses um sales tax revenu so we can fix our roads um that everyone wants fixed um and so yeah the the rent payment starts if we approve this today um no extensions um we work around the Farmers Market opening time for construction and so those were those were my concerns um I thought it was a good project when I pr passed it before I still feel like it's a good project even with um the change in height and honestly I kind of like having something else in the structure that um uh doesn't involve alcohol um and and is a familyfriendly kind of thing so I support it still before uh this is the public portion and I'll we'll have the public come up and something just hit me while I was sitting here is that you know we keep talking about the farmers market itself the market itself the that's happens on Saturday and all that but also in my mind there's something else that's lost it's the the whatever other capabilities that are there in that building that in that space when the farmers Market's not there Farmers Market's there Saturday but we have other activities that happen throughout or potential activities that has the potential to be lost so that's one point but then also I've heard the Commerce about the Aesthetics of the building and I I didn't see in the contract where do we get to approve the Aesthetics of the building is it is that right there is that we are going to do okay well what I see here is this and I'm then then I'll stop for now is that the Hands-On that we would normally have for a a a contract we're not going to have that on this this this is basically we're going to tell the the applicant here that you can go do basically what you want to do and then at the end of the day we we're going to take it and and by the way the contract reads to me and so uh I that that just increases my concern especially since this is our land this is the city's own land this is not this is you you map 7 didn't go out and buy this land This Is Our Land so enough of enough of my soap box so thank thank you sir unless you have anything else I want to open it up for public comment right now no the only other thing I will say is that it is the city's land it will also become the city's property right and after the end of the lease extension so that that is a you know three plus million dollar asset that the city alone by then it'll be who knows what point being though it's it's an empty piece of of land right now and it's going to be incredibly valuable to the city in the future uh just from not not just from a sales tax revenue generating perspective but from an asset perspective when the city takes ownership of it so just in point of reference the next I'm not being factious here the next eclipse is in 24 years oh are you going to this this lease is over in 24 years because it's already it's including the first year right that we've already okay thank you sir uh welome this is is the public comment portion please come down uh introduce yourself when I recognize you and then we'll get through this if as efficiently as possible yes ma'am please come down and introduce yourself thank you my name is Lydia Lee I am a resident here of Edmund I'm a taxpayer and I'm also sort of an activist I thought it was interesting to listen to um mayor Davis and and councilman Moore and I appreciated their positions on this I'm a little concerned about the rest of you but uh hopefully what I have to say here might just change your mind and hopefully you will listen carefully to what I have to say last summer I began wondering about this city partnership going on at Festival Marketplace and I talked to some friends and some downtown business owners and they all without exception expressed concern about this partnership I got to wondering how this city lease happened um and and so I went back and watched some of the City Council meetings um I also made an open records request to the city of Edmund last summer and again last month month I spent hours going through those documents and my concerns continued to grow the background on this slide ladies and gentlemen tends to act like this just started in January of 2023 the emails that I obtained under the open records request show that in May of 2022 Brandon Lodge was referred to the City by Janet yell with a specific statement that he was interested in doing something at the festival Marketplace the documents also show that City officials met with him had lunch with him visited the property and discussed what he wanted to do there on May 20th 2022 Andy Conor confirmed in an email that he Janet yel Scott Rigby and Randy in all met with Lodge to discuss this project and it noted that maybe they ought to do a some sort of a a process to to make this official so so staff began drafting an RFQ at that time in August of 2020 not August of 2022 excuse me Conor sought the help of Janet yell again to pretty up that RFQ and asked her to add all the Neo mosquito stuff uh happening downtown in the meantime the city is continuing to look at the lap 7even proposal and on September 8th 2022 a memo was drafted by a city official or city staff member to send the concept review of The Brewery to the urban board for review the member the memo noted that lap 7even was currently in negotiations with the city on the terms of a ground lease 2022 in September four days later the item appears on a city council agenda for approval of an RFQ now during that meeting and I watched the meeting again there was only one vague reference to a comment that oh one person had contacted us but it didn't you know didn't have any effect of it the extent of the meetings and the discussions with lap 7even were never disclosed to the council or to any member of the public the RFQ was issued on November 1st 2022 on that day Randy in emailed Mr Lodge and made asked him to make sure he saw that RFQ now my knowledge is City City staff didn't reach out to any other potential bidder but he did to Lodge Lodge also emailed City staff a couple of times during the RFQ process until at some point he was told hey wait a minute we better go through the official government route and and send your questions to to the person named in the RFQ before the closing of the RFQ I'm told that a city staff member reached out to Bob Weiss and asked him to submit a proposal because apparently they hadn't received any other interest from anyone else Mr Weiss joined with sha o Grady to form a what was called the Spearman group to submit a proposal however they were without the knowledge and the background of those discussions that lap 7even had been been having for over six months with the city of Edmund due to time constraints they submitted a letter saying hey um it was an abbreviated response but they offered to do a number of things that would complement the surrounding businesses in downtown now a committee was formed to evaluate the bids the committee was made up of Conor ya Stephanie Carroll and Jared Prince keep in mind that ya is the one that brought Lodge to the city in the first place and Conor is the one that went out and met with him several times prior to issuing the RFQ the bids closed on December 15th 20122 with only two proposals you and you guys are aware of that um log in the Spearman group prior to the interviews that the committee was going to do with those two um biders on December 29th Conor wrote an email to Randy an and Ken briyan dudes keep this between us for now but assuming it's the Brandon Lodge thing on January 11th 2023 Jared Prince another member of the committee sends an email to City staff stating that will likely Greenlight the brewery now keep in mind this is before the interviews took place that's three out of four of the committee members clearly showing a bias towards the lodge Brewery concept before the spe group had even been interviewed on January 24th 2023 coners emailed the council indicating that the committee recommended the lodge proposal because the Spearman group provided very limited information he indicated that they were impressed with the presentation by Lodge and that they would move forward with negotiations he failed to indicate that Lodge had over for seven months at that PO point to form his proposal as well as significant discussion and input from City staff in watching the City Council meetings in both 2022 and 2023 there was never full disclosure to the Council of these prior meetings or prior consideration of the lap s proposal ladies and gentlemen these emails speak for themselves now as you also know from the emails you probably received on this as well as a recent nonoc article many citizens in this community have expressed the opinion that this process the RFQ and the lease agreement were unfairly handled and that there were preferences that favored lap 7even from the GetGo the documents that I received clearly indicated that the these concerns appear to be valid as a result I urge you to listen to the citizens and terminate this lease if you are uncertain I want to add a little bit more information to support why this lease should be terminated immediately I question how you can amend a lease that is in default and it is Undisputed that this lease is currently in default the the terms of the lease provided that construction must start on or before January 1 2024 the city manager had the option to extend it he didn't uh but the only way to do that was as a result of a force meure um which is essentially items beyond the control of the of the individual the lease specifically states that delays or failures resulting from a lack of funds will not be permitted as as uh a reason to offer an extension the city provided notice to lap 7 that it was in default in January and there was no extensions the lease goes on to set out the terms for default clearly this is in default and the lease also says the city only has two options in the event of a default one is termination two is the city can take over construction and complete it amending the lease is not one of the options provided in that lease now two other issues will deserve some some Merit here first is there's no no indication how the rent amount was determined I've watched all the the videos of the City Council meetings I've gone through these emails there is no discussion on how this 12 750 was determined I don't know if you guys were provided any information but it's certainly not public information that I've been able to determine the new proposed lease amount is also the same as the old lease amount and and what kind of concerns me is there's a a office or a building right over here on Broadway that is for rent right now by Price Edwards it's 1,800 square feet and it rents for 36,000 a year not 12 and this lease is not a 25e lease it's a 50-year lease it's 25 with five additional terms for a total of a 50-year lease there's a 10% increase each year after five years but even 10% on this amount is not is not important enough to Warrant this and especially since there's no dis discussion or disclosure how this amount even came to pass ladies and gentlemen the citizens of this community deserve transparency we have a process that is deeply flawed we have a process that quite frankly smacks of preferential treatment and unfair bidding City staff should avoid even the appearance of impropriety and of all the emails meetings assumptions and less than impartial Review Committee leads me to one conclusion this was not a fair bidding process the lack of sunshine that has been shed on these determinations should give all of us pause and mayor that was my uh Eclipse reference for the day but in all seriousness given the terms of this agreement it should be terminated immediately and if you want to pursue a new twostory larger product project issue a new RFQ make it fair make it transparent and do this right I urge all of you to terminate this lease and not go forward with this process thank you please please please we don't no is there anyone else in the audience can I ask a question mayor or we not doing that what's your question sir I was going to ask a question to Miss Lee if I could but if not I won't it's up I don't know if that's how we do it actually well I'm I'm happy to answer it but go ahead and ask your question I mean I I mean she's not on trial oh I I know she's not on trial I just um I just I obviously what you've shared here today you want to have an effect I just want to note that you know I'm the ward one city councelor I own one piece of property that the bank lets me stay in as long as I keep paying them the mortgage I don't own any businesses as a matter of practice if somebody calls me emails me reaches out to me I respond within 24 hours tops and in fact if I don't I start getting like a little bit anxiety I was coming home the plane which I came home from a conference today when I hopefully will fly back tonight or tomorrow morning I found one that I hadn't responded to and I did I might not have all the answers but I always try to get back to folks you have my cell phone number I have yours you have your email I just did a search here I've asked you questions about can I get feedback on this do you want to participate in that here's the news thing this is the first time I'm hearing this from you I understand that so when I weigh out you know we have vendors who have invested and and done things and they have their businesses also I believe that Mr Lodge has you know is a member of this community who's invested different things I'm just I'm I'm utterly just confused as to why you would detonate this on me to like right now with all of this in a big speech when I think everybody in this room has my cell phone so as a matter of practice what I would say thank you for the information but the way I like to be communicated with is just like everyone else has but you're right you can speak in a public form but you put us in an interesting spot where you know how to get a hold of me but you decided to make it I don't have a question I just I'm just perplexed at how you're communicating with me but go ahead okay thank well I thought it was appropriate to convey this information to the full Council and I only found out that this item was on the agenda last Thursday or Friday now true I had the documents I've had the documents for a while that I was mulling over but I wasn't even sure I was going to do anything with them until I saw that this lease was being amended and decided to come and convey my concerns to the entire Council because I think the the entire Council deserved to hear it thank you ma'am in the back please come down and introduce yourself um I'm Mary Lou gram live here in Edmund uh I have a different perspective than any of you and it's probably the least valuable um I'm the artist who did kenduck Daisy uh she's very special to me and building a two-story building next to her um is going to diminish her a great deal and she is our statehood celebration of 100 Years of State hood and it's sort of like cutting her off at the ankles you know she's going to go real short as the building gets real tall beside her so I'm I'm not comfortable with that I also appreciated what has been mentioned that the um it it has been in default this agreement and it seems to me like The Honorable thing to do then it is in default start over now I preferably would like to see something more family oriented there than a brewery um at a what should be is State site and so that's really pretty much all I have to say about it thank you thank you very much ma'am please come down Sarah and introduce yourself yes sir my name is ba Weiss uh ownable fellows downtown and the Spearman group that was referred to in this very passionate speech that we just heard um since my name was mentioned I thought i' better say a few words um have you ever been in a situation where everybody's right we're we're here tonight I mean every comment that the Council made you're all spoton is exactly right the comments that that she made about the process was spoton everything that Mr L said is 100% accurate you guys have a tough decision to make tonight because we have a situation where everybody's right and so you got to figure out how you want to move forward but I want to say something about Brandon Lodge I don't know the man I met him for the first time tonight or I mean I saw him speak so I know who he is but I know what he's done for downtown Edmond I know that he puts his time his money his sweat his ideas to work and while I'm not a big fan of a another Brewery because I'm a big fan of spreading out uh different types of businesses um but the fact is what we have five pizza places downtown Edmond where all seem to be making it so maybe there is room for another Brewery but I don't want your decision to to be based on all the different emotions that's coming out today you you have a tough decision and and my R uh response to the RFP I had two days to put that together two days but it was came to me and the reason why I did it is because we didn't want to have only one RFP or or one response to something as important as this it was a great idea that that Mr Lodge brought to the city that says hey you have a piece of land that's non it's called a non-producing asset you have something that you own that's not making any money let's put it to work he came up with this idea he developed it he should be getting gold stars he shouldn't be raped over to colts for for trying to do it nothing was done um behind the scenes nothing was done to to get something done before anybody else that was the process that happened our process was flawed you you heard it and it was 100% correct so however you want to handle it is right but this man has a good idea and he's willing to invest his money and his time into this city into downtown Edmund and I am invested in downtown Edmund um so think about everything you've heard tonight because it's all over the board and you five people have a very important decision to make thank you thank you thank you sir anyone else in the audience yes sir please come down and introduce yourself uh Mr mayor council members uh my name is Bryce Thompson um I do a lot of different things but uh I think the most appropriate way to introduce myself tonight is uh I'm the owner of the patriarch and driving down here I started thinking and it hit me almost exactly 10 years ago I stood right here pitching the city council and the patriarch Mr Mayor you were there and similar to tonight there was a lot of concern and there was a lot of people for it there a lot of people against it and we spoke for quite a while and uh Mr Mar if my memory serves me correct I believe it was you um it was right after the city had uh invested a ton of money to do a third party consultant to come in and analyze down town what do we need and all these things and uh your comment to some of the negative or Reason no maybe not negative I I I don't think it's it was probably more of reasons why we shouldn't instead of reasons why we should and and you and you stopped and you said we have somebody standing here doing exactly what that report told us our number one need was and instead of trying to help him get it done we're trying to find ways to shut it down and patriarch won that night four to one my one no vote several years later uh apologized to me she came up to me at an event and she said she got it wrong she did not understand it but she's so grateful the patriarch is here today um that place is very special to me it's hard to explain but there is a piece of my soul in that business um and although I do disagree with what people have said to me over the last few years I because I do I do not believe this but I have had a lot of people over the last 3 or four years tell me that patriarch is the reason was was the thing that pushed Edmund to get it started to where it is today to having multiple breweries really cool restaurants they would not have come 10 years ago and the reason patriarch came is because it was Stephen and I two guys that live in Edmund we love Edmund our kids go to school in Edmond this is home and we want to do something for our community so as the owner of patriarch I am adamantly for this I think this is I I it's buildings aren't built like this anymore like the and and this idea I get that it's easy for all of us to stand here at a Pulpit and talk about small business and talk about taxes and talk about all these other things but as somebody standing here that owns a construction company along with several other businesses uh business is hard especially right now and especially in the food and bed industry like they there's not people looking to open new places there are actively shut more more places are shutting down than opening and so I feel like as a city we have an opportunity to build an amazing building with the type of tenants we need to meet the long-term Vision downtown Edmund and instead of finding reasons why we shouldn't and the issues that uh I'm not up to verse on all the issues of how we got here but sounds like there were some I I get that um but I I just think this is a no-brainer and then I will close by this um to Echo the gentleman that spoke before me uh I have also known Brandon LGE personally for several years and like me Brandon loves Edmund his kids go to school here he lives here he and I matter of fact and our buddy Drew years ago started a group to get together once a month to talk about how guys of Our Generation can what can we do to help Edmund specifically downtown like we've been talking about ideas and things for years because not for our own benefit or make money because believe me these deals ain't making money so it's like it's it's more about a passion to see what we can do for our city and so I would just add lastly that I stand 100% with Brandon on his character on his intent and what he's trying to do for the city of edman and we need more people like him and um I think this project is a way to attract people like him thank you thank you sir is there anyone else yes sir please come down and introduce yourself good evening Council my my name is Charles moles I live here in Ed lift the microphone sorry um I've heard a lot of discussion tonight and I just wanted to make two brief comments one is it's never too early to do the right thing and it's never too late to make a mistake I don't think we have a question about Brandon how good a person is or anything or how good the project is I think our question is how we got here and it appears to me how we got here is a very flawed process we've got a a lease that's in default the right thing to do is to go back and do this process correctly you can still end up with this beautiful building you can still end up with this wonderful business but the message we want to send everybody in the country is Edmond is honest upfront and we do business correctly and on that go grounds I think we need to take a step back throw this lease Out start over and do it correctly and while we'll all benefit from it in the end thank you thank you sir anyone else in the audience please come down and introduce yourself sir my name is Drew dargan dargan excuse me um I'm an Edmond resident uh kids live here uh also work in real estate development and investing and my business partner and I have um significant land Holdings all around downtown Edmond we're very invested in the community and continuing um this incredible path that specifically downtown Ed Edmund has been on since the patriarch showed up so um something I'd like to say that I just don't think everyone out here understands is and Bryce Bryce mentioned it briefly but it is incredibly difficult to get these projects down the line it takes years and years and years and money is expensive and labor and materials are expensive and um it's rare it's something that we see a lot in downtown Edmund and in Edmond as a whole but it's rare to have residents of the community whose kids go to school here my wife's the principal at Red bu Elementary we're all fully invested in this process and then we're spending our own time and money and sweat to try to bring something great to the city and again to to Echo what Bryce said it these these aren't millions of dollars worth of deals here for guys like Brandon and and Bryce and myself Brandon spent a long time working on this and for all the um comments that Miss Lee put out here I think that another thing that's important to understand is in order to bring special projects to this community people like Brandon and myself and Bryce we spend a lot of time in communication with City staff with jet eeda with all kinds of different stakeholders because that's the process you've got to go down to start to get some things happening and momentum happening Brandon didn't do anything wrong Brandon did everything right here aggressively pursuing a project that he believes will improve the community in downtown so um you know if there's things that could go better on the city's in with process that's something that you guys ought to think about addressing but you know um you've got an opportunity here um to have a very very special project and I can speak for my friends and family and Edmond everyone is thrilled at the prospects of prairie coming through uh I think that the farmers market will be much better off as well as all of these projects that have been coming out of the ground and over the next few years will continue to come out of the ground um tbling this and delaying it time creates all kinds of issues and challenges and um I think it would just it would be a real missed opportunity if something went um the wrong way and Brandon wasn't able to to stay on track with this project and Prairie wasn't willing to make the commitment to downtown Em which I think is a is a big get and that's not even talking about the second level so um I strongly encourage you guys to approve this um I believe 100% in Brandon he's a close friend of mine he's a great guy and he's doing everything he can to make a great impact and he's already done it at the ice house just a stun throw from here so I urge you guys to uh to approve the amendment thanks sir is anyone else in the audience can I say one more thing yes sir just real quick about the process um and the ice house project just as a matter of Education um before the ice house project started my first call was to Janet ya and Randy Y and the reason was that I was interested in that property another developer had come along purchased that property and tried to do a development there that development did not happen it failed failed because of parking too much parking was required all of the uh additional buildings had to be torn down and the cost was just too high to turn all of that property into a single restaurant which is what was going to happen in the ice house building my first call when I was interested in that property and the opportunity that I saw was the fact that there was a massive piece of grass just south of where the ice house project sits now it was EXs rideway of Highway 66 and Edmund Road I thought that presents a wonderful opportunity what if the city of Edmund will work with me to build a parking lot right there then I can redevelop all of those buildings and turn them into taxpaying generating uh uh deals for the city of Edmund and that's exactly what I did I had no idea what that process was to do that I just called the people that I knew who could tell me how to do it so I called Janet and I called Randy and they they started the process that was a yearlong process to get that incentive approved to the city of Edmund and there is not one doubt in my mind that that project is absolutely impossible if the city of Edmund ises not partner with me on the parking lot it's impossible okay so should I have kept that idea to myself or should I have and waited for someone to come up with it or should I have gone to the city of Edmund brought my idea and let them implement their process and then I go through it I went through that process and now the ice house project is over there it's fully leased it's generating a lot of money there's a brewery over there that's an anchor tenant go over there on a Friday night especially on decent weather and see how many kids are there it's the most family-friendly place on Earth next to Disneyland but I I'm just telling the a lot of a lot of the comments are made out of ignorance and a lot of them impune my integrity and I don't appreciate it and none of it true everything that I did was above board I did not have 6 months to sit here and figure out this project the project was figured out when I brought the idea to the city I sat around for six months and waited for the process to unfold to do what I needed to do I didn't start spending a bunch of money until I knew that I had won the RFQ then I started spending the money with the Architects to do design and that's when we found out that by that time interest rates had gone through the roof construction prices had gone through the roof single story project doesn't work so I could have packed up my bags and gone home or I could beat my head against a wall and try to figure out how to make a two-story Project work and bring two High Caliber tenants paying ridiculously high rates to be in downtown Edmund at a time when businesses are closing all over the place like Bryce said so I wanted to just bring that up at the end because a whole lot has been talked about this process there's been articles written on it it's made me look bad I don't like that everything I did was by the book above board I went to the process exactly how I was told to go through it and now I'm here trying to make this project work if we don't want the project let's not do the project but I think this is good this is good for the city it's good for the farmers market it's good for attracting businesses and residents to downtown Edmund and I'm ready to do it so let's do it or let's not but let's figure it out and get going yes Janet Janet y Edmund Economic Development Authority I want to address a couple of things first of all in my job it's typical for people to bring me ideas Economic Development ideas it's it's my job for me to vet those ideas talk to City staff go through a process to see if it's something that needs to be taken forward or not project delays I can look around town and name probably on two hands the delays in projects that we have had all over town including the ice house including the rail yard including Integris and mercy on I35 um I just think that um the the amount of investment that Brandon has made in the ice house again he's talked about it a couple other people have talked about what he took in a field over there and made it into some Revenue generating property which is another thing that's important in Economic Development when we look at the opportunities that we have in this community I think that's very important um when we talk about the process that we went through specifically for this um this project um Andy Conor and I did put this together and the uh reference earlier that I was supposed to pretty it up I took information from our existing downtown master plan that we had the at the time I took the priorities from that so we would have something to base anything that we were going to look at off of that I advertised it here locally we advertised it I advertised it to the Commercial Real Estate Council of Metro Oklahoma City I advertised it to the Urban Land Institute of Oklahoma it was widely spread throughout the metro area I did get a call from Bob Weiss a few days before I encouraged him to go ahead and submit and uh and response to this I know Bob I knew that that he's a good businessman and that he could have good ideas and now we never want to go through a process and have just one project to look at but there was never anything predetermined we were looking at a process that uh was open to a whole lot of people so I just want to reiterate that um when we look at this this is exactly what we do in Economic Development people bring me projects people bring me retail ideas and it is just the process that we go through to vet these things and to see if we take them forward or not I think this is a good project I stand by the process that we went through to get us here and enough has been said about Brandon I think he's he has put his money where his mouth is and he lives here thank you thank you anyone else please introduce yourself sir hi I'm Robert black Edmund uh resident and business owner uh thanks for giving me the chance to speak thanks Brandon for being here this is a this is a tough topic you know Bob said it said it well this is a in my opinion you guys have a lot of correct things to have to try to decipher um I wanted to comment a little bit only because uh you know I made some public comments that were produced in story about this and I want to kind of clarify for you all in and in this room sort of what I've learned having done that and then kind of come through the other side if I can um first of all just so you know Brandon's a friend of mine and I like Brandon a great deal we've known each other and worked together a long time um uh we're working together currently on a project so uh you know the perspective I have I have a lot of different hats here uh in Edmund I'm a farmers market vendor I'm a business owner I'm a resident Etc and so um I kind of have a lot of different perspectives I wanted to share just a couple of things with them specifically about the process and part of that is what I've learned over the last month or two after having given some public cont comments and I thought it was relevant after the last few speakers had a chance to to visit with Lena I actively sought out you know some counsel about the process I am still and was ignorant of the RFQ and RFP process and so I spoke to Brandon I spoke to other developers in our community I spoke to some of you all I spoke to Lena because I wanted to learn more about it because from where I said it also felt I'm going to use the word disingenuous on the way that the city handled it nothing that I thought Brandon did felt in disingenuous just to clarify that this my comments were directed at how it was handled from the city and I want to share why I think that is that okay so going back to 2022 and 23 as this idea started formulating percolating and Brandon was doing his work with Janet and eeda which I appreciate uh in my opinion and I'm I'm in danger of giving opinions here but I guess I have the the public for to do that it seems to me that as Edmund has been this place where Economic Development and activity didn't happen for a long time there maybe was a certain way that rfps and rfqs went or that City business got done in part because we would take whatever we could get we needed to grow this city right um maybe that's why when this process came out it felt like to me that this was a done deal before it came to a vote before it came to an RFQ and I don't think that has anything to do with brand what Brandon did I think he followed the process exactly as it's laid out as it's intended to and I think probably in all shess to the staff the staff was just doing what we've always done and the council is doing what we've always done but I can tell you I will share firsthand experience that when this process came out as a local restaurants or someone who's in the the food and beverage business and I want to Echo it it is a damn hard business and small business is hard in general but it's a really hard one uh it was broadly considered that this was a done deal and so someone like me who actively builds and and creates new businesses shouldn't bother submitting to the RFQ and and that did make it feel disingenuous why do we have an RFQ process why do we have an RFP process if it is predetermined right and so I want to share a little bit of context about that I've shared that with some of you in this room and I'm sharing it publicly that was the perception that I felt based on a comments from from people in the city but also in some of the meetings that I said in in the downtown Edmund Business Association meetings as the ideas were produced by uh Ken and and Andy and and and Randy and the and the team were were introducing the ideas to downtown stakeholders it felt this ingenuous from the beginning so I want to conclude my comments by saying a couple of things number one Brandon's done a lot of work on a really tough project and I really like him and I really like what he's doing for the city and so I just want to Echo as a friend of Brandon you know that for for anything that might feel like this is something that's imputed him in some way I hate that because he's a great guy I want to share that number two I want to challenge the city to think about how these processes go forward in the future regardless of what happens tonight at the vote and to think about how the RFQ and RFP process can go better next time because this one didn't go good and so that's all my comments thank you very much sir any other comments come down and introduce yourself sir my name is Leonard Scott tonight I'm going to speak for the elders everybody here about n making money including all you all you all want to make money you want to make money you make money what about the elders everything you build increases the property taxes everything and you realize the property taxes they have to wait a year so they come back in the next year and they get you and oh by the way the property tax is so high they can only go a certain amount and then they get you again the next year and again the next year just kind of like our water bill and like our electricity and our fire and everything else in this town is more expensive I took my grandchildren to uh McDonald's cost me $40 for three hamburgers and french fries in the shake that's the reality folks your elders are on fix income and they're not in with all this property taxes and all this up stuff you're forcing the elders out of downtown Edmond because we can't afford to live that those poor people down there where you built that big parking garage down there you looked across the street at the people that live there folks you guys start thinking about the whole community and that includes the elders that you're forcing out of this community thank you sir anyone else well Council what would you like to do on this item we've heard a lot of Spirited conversation tonight um this is item 9 C make a motion to approve we have a motion to approve from Council Romas we have a second from councilwoman mug is there any other discussion call for a vote item pass 3 to2 thank you very [Music] much