Peoria unanimously approves $57.1 million Fulton Hotel with 140 rooms, 50 apartments

the holders now looking at the camera good evening everyone may have your attention good evening everyone six 601 actually p.m on Tuesday February the 14th 2023 Happy Valentine's Day I'd like to call the meeting of the Peoria city council to order I'd also like to welcome everyone in our city council audience as well as our listening audience at wcbu I'd like to welcome the audience watching by cable channel 22.

Madam clerk the council mics are open please call the roll mayor Ali council member Allen council member sir council member Graham council member Jackson council member Jensen council member Kelly council member Euler council member rickenback here council member Rick Regal and council member valpulla President we have a quorum present Madam mayor great thank you please join me everyone and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance thank you and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Madam clerk before we proceed I'd like to read a notice to our Township electors pursuant to Public Act 095-0761 if you desire to have an item considered on the agenda at the annual town meeting to be held on Tuesday April the 11th 2023 at six o'clock P.M you are required to bring a specific request signed by 15 or more electors to the clerk no later than Wednesday March the 1st any group of registered voters May request an advisory question of public policy for consideration by the electors at the annual meeting by giving written notice of the specific advisory question to the Township Clerk in the same manner as required for an agenda item under subsection B of section 30-10 of the Township Code and Claire we are at proclamations we have three proclamations today the first Proclamation honors Black History Month whereas the city of Peoria celebrates Black History Month and recognizes that people of African descent have been a part of our community since 1773 when Gene Baptiste Point disable purchased land here according to historian Romeo B Garrett and whereas historian Carter G Woodson in recognizing the need to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of black Americans develop negro history week in 1926 and this expanded to become Black History Month whereas since 1976 every U.S president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month February was chosen primarily because the second week of the month coincides with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass Lincoln was influential in the emancipation of slaves and Douglas a former slave was a prominent leader in the Abolitionist Movement which fought to end slavery and whereas the theme for this year's Black History Month as chosen by the Association for the study of African-American life and history is black resistance and whereas this month is a time for all Americans to reflect on the rich history and teaching of black Americans whose contributions to our economic cultural political and Social Development are vast and whereas the city of Peoria is proud to honor the history and contributions of black Americans in our community throughout our state and our nation now therefore I read Ali mayor of the city of Peoria Illinois and on behalf of the Peoria city council recognized February 1 through March 1 as Black History Month in Peoria Illinois thank you our second Proclamation recognizes the central Illinois chapter of Society of women Engineers for National Engineers week and we have Kade Diallo and Christy Lee thank you ladies for being here thank you good evening my name is Chris okay I'm going to read the proclamation first and then then it'll be your turn whereas the Society of women Engineers sui is that correct sweet founded in 1950 is a non-profit educational and service organization that is the driving force that established engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women and whereas sui empowers women to succeed and advance in their aspirations while receiving recognition and credit for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders in our community whereas the central Illinois section of sui comprised of 220 members has focused on Outreach professional development advocacy and work-life integration for the past 30 years and whereas in 1951 The National Society of Professional Engineers created National Engineers week to draw attention to the contributions that engineers make on our society whereas this year National Engineers week will be held February the 19th through February the 25th the central Illinois section of sui will partner with the Peoria Riverfront Museum on February the 19th 2023 to celebrate National Engineers week with an open house for students from elementary school through high school with an interest in science and math several professional societies will also participate now therefore I rediale mayor of the city of Peoria Illinois recognize the central Illinois section of the Society of women Engineers for their support and advocacy of national Engineers week in Peoria Illinois foreign city council my name is Christy Lee and I am president-elect of the Society of women Engineers Central Illinois section and I'm here with Cade Diallo who is co-chair of our Outreach committee the Society of women Engineers was founded in 1950.

our mission is to empower women to achieve their full potential in careers as engineers and leaders to expand the image of engineering and Technology professions as a positive force in improving the quality of life and to demonstrate the value of diversity inclusion the central Illinois section founded in is now 260 members strong members come from Peoria Bloomington Springfield Champaign Decatur and surrounding communities and we collaborate with Collegiate sections of sui at Bradley University and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign we have a strong executive board and our various committees including professional development work-life integration advocacy Awards and Outreach plan multiple events throughout the year to enrich the lives of our members and to make an impact in our local community last year our section awarded a scholarship of two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars for a college student who resides in Central Illinois each year we continue to raise money to increase our scholarship endowment so that we can help more young women in Central Illinois pursue careers in engineering and Technology to learn more about our section please visit us at centralillinois.swee.org or connect with us on Facebook thanks to the financial support of caterpillar and sui program development grants our Outreach committee has connected with thousands of girls and boys in our community through different events to promote science technology engineering and Mathematics now today we'll talk a little bit more about our Outreach initiatives in the area thanks Christy good afternoon or good evening everyone my name is Kade Diallo and as stated earlier I'm currently co-chair of the Outreach committee for the Society of women Engineers Cicero Illinois as part of Outreach we do our best to inspire students in our community in regards to science technology engineering and math both well known as stem just to name a few last year our suite participates and volunteers collaborated with the Peoria Dream Center the swedenex program at Liberty the 4G camps and other 4-H programs and we even co-hosted the stem boot camp with the nsbee organization although most of those events will carry on in 2023 we're once again starting the year off strong with engineering day at the Riverfront Museum in caterpillars Visitor Center and admissions will be free to the public for everyone this year so we will have multiple Hands-On activities for students of all ages to inspire their creativity and hopefully Inspire them to go into the stem field we'll be having different activities from creating flashlights with popsicle sticks and batteries and keychains and buttons to working with Magnetic slime and understanding how potential hydrogen levels also known as pH levels work so please if you can stop by on Sunday February 19th from noon to 5 PM at Riverfront Museum in caterpillar Visitor Center and say hello to our awesome volunteers majority of which are from Bradley University thank you thank you Miss Lee Miss Diallo thank you for your leadership and and inspiration and encouragement for girls to go into engineering I'll try to bring my granddaughters to that event on February the 19th our last Proclamation goes to Peoria High School football team [Applause] after the proclamation we're going to hear from head coach Thornton Tim Thornton I don't think Mr dunphrey is here today is he okay so we'll hear from Coach Thornton and we'll also hear from councilman grab who brought the proclamation forward foreign we are here tonight to honor the Peoria High School Lions football team as we recognize the success of their remarkable season and whereas Lions have long been recognized in works of art music and literature as symbols of Courage nobility strength and Valor as animals that coexist in groups known as a pride lions are renowned for protecting their territory and looking out for the safety and well-being of each other whereas the Peoria Lions experienced 12 victories and only two losses during their 2022 season with an outstanding average of 53 points a game they Advanced over Morris and lost by one mere point with a score of 45 to 44 to state champion Nazareth Academy their season concluded with the 2022 ihsa Class 5A second place title they are indeed the pride of the city and whereas these student athletes demonstrated hard work commitment dedication determination and teamwork throughout the season on and off the field it is important to note that every Varsity starter for the past 13 seasons has always been academically eligible to play whereas the Peoria High School football program boasts an impression impressive Legacy of athletes who continued After High School including 24 current professional and Collegiate football players whereas athletic director Brian dumphrey Head Coach Tim Thornton and assistant coaches Jeff Roper Ben Mahan ASA Lewis chip Bates Jeff Bloom Montel Burton Aaron Montgomery Juan O'Neill Dave Pfizer Maurice Montford Damaris demarvis Dixon Corey Scott Eric black and Daryl Smith were all instrumental in leading the Peoria Lions to these achievements now therefore I read Ali mayor of the city of Peoria do hereby celebrate and acknowledge the successes of the Peoria High School football program Coach Thornton uh thank you so much for having us we appreciate this recognition a great group of kids that we had this year super proud of them it was read in the proclamation the number was 24.

we've uh with this group we've added eight more and we've got so that puts us to 32 and we've still got about six that are still trying to decide where they want to attend and uh be college students and college student athletes as well so this group added to the Legacy and um where obviously we're extremely proud of them and it was a fun group to have and thank you all so much for having us great take a moment and tell us your names I'm sorry can they take a moment and tell us their names sure come by say your name and then just slide out that way have you guys go around that way Cortez of course yes Irby Keegan D4 come on Ferguson it was Thornton Trail Barry Hill Kenzie tell me Jamir Fuller Isaiah Walker brother Mitchell Braden Mall AJ Roscoe okay Lawson good Martin Malachi Washington Dominic Batista Landy newbie wholesome Ricky Hearn can you Rutherford to Juan Smith nice here Chambers Ricky Porter Ashton Jenkins a boy Kevin Roberts I am atheno Fuller council member grab Thornton I'm going to have to give a midnight confession although it's not midnight yet I'm a proud peuria High alumnus I attended Peoria High I won't say what years and then I was hired to come back as a social studies teacher I won't say what year but you oversee one of the greatest football programs in the state of Illinois and I know greater things are going to come and your part I don't need to tell you of a great Tradition at Peoria High School which remains one of the oldest ongoing Public High School West high schools West of the alleghenies and we're so proud of the tradition that Peoria High has established through the years and you're continuing to carry that torch and I want you to know that this community supports Superior High Lions both by word and by deed with some 20 million dollars being spent to upgrade facilities at Peoria High School in the past 12 years that is a tremendous commitment on the part of our city and your high school may be residing technically in the geography of District 2 but we have councilman rigenbach children come to Peoria High from his district every one of our council members here it doesn't matter what the boundary lines are we're all proud of you and when we had Notre Dame soccer team here we were all proud of them so this does not this isn't anything that's defined by boundary lines our pride for the period High Alliance and for the excellent job you're doing thank you mayor [Music] thank you again so much we put Peoria on our test and we throw the skyline on our helmet and we represent for everybody as well so whatever we can do we're going to create that uh create that ownership of the city with our kids and create that membership and that that family so we appreciate you thanks foreign [Applause] we are at the approval of the minutes councilman spoiler thank you madam chair and woman I moved to approve the minutes of The Joint City Council and town board meeting held on January 24 2023 as printed seconded by council member Allen any questions please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Claire we have one town item 23-032 is a request from the town officials to approve the January 2023 actual expenditures and to approve the February 2023 anticipated expenditures for the town of the city of Peoria Mayor Lee I moved to approve these as outlined seconded by councilmember Jackson any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at the consent agenda 23-033 is a communication from the mayor and Corporation Council with a request to approve the Declaration of local state of emergency 23-034 is a communication with request to approve the low bid of Audubon in the amount of 167 600 for the prospect Arcadia traffic calming with an additional authorization of Sixteen thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars for contingencies for a total contract Award of 184 360 dollars 23-035 is a communication with request to approve a purchase with rarig Pacific company in an amount not to exceed 43 320 for 702 new 95 gallon garbage carts for replacement in inventory 23-036 is a communication with request to approve a resolution in support of tax increment financing requesting the Illinois legislature to support tax increment financing in its present form to promote Economic Development and revitalization throughout Illinois 23-037 is a communication with a request to concur with recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to approve a resolution approving an annexation agreement for the property located at 9601 North Allen Road Peoria Illinois 23-038 is a communication with request to adopt an ordinance partially abating the tax heretofore levied to pay special service area property taxes on the Peoria Sports Center special service area in the amount of 191 thousand dollars 23-039 is a communication with with a request to adopt an ordinance partially abating the tax heretofore levy to pay special service area property taxes on the holiday and property tax special service area in the amount of seventy three thousand dollars 23-40 is a communication with a request to adopt an ordinance abating the tax heretofore levied to pay principal of an interest on General obligation corporate purpose bonds of the city of Peoria Peoria County Illinois 2007 series a and 2022 series a 23-41 is a communication with request to approve the Labor Day picnic at Riverfront Festival park on September 4th 2023 sponsored by Peoria area community events Inc subject to their filing the necessary permits and approval as required by the city code 23-042 is a communication with request to approve the sign application to move a class E1 private club over 200 liquor license subclass 3 beer garden with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for Creve core Club of Peoria doing business as Creve Coeur Club from 456 Fulton Street Suite 186 to 212 Southwest Water Street Suite 3 contingent upon the issuance of all appropriate permits and a certificate of occupancy with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve 23-043 is a communication with request to approve the site application for a class B1 restaurant 25 Food liquor license with the on-site consumption in retail sale of alcohol with the subclass 1A 2 A.M closing hours for Pioneer University Roadhouse Inc doing business as Richards on University at 7805 North University Street with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve 23-44 is a communication with a request to receive and file the Springdale Cemetery Management Authority annual budget from 2020 2021 2022 and 2023 and 23-045 is a communication with request to receive and file the month ended December 31st 2022 unaudited financial report and that concludes our consent agenda are there any items to remove from consent council member Kelly thank you madam mayor 23042 please thank you council member rickenback thank you madam mayor 23-044 yeah thank you councilmember grant merrily after council member Kelly is has completed his input on 23-042 I have a few comments I'd like to make as well thank you the other items to remove from consent can I get a motion to approve move by council member record seconded by council member seer any discussion please cast your ballots on the consent agenda Ocean passes unanimously animal Clerk 23-042 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to approve the sign application to move a class E1 private club over 200 liquor license subclass 3 beer garden with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for Creve Coeur Club of Peoria doing business as Creve core Club from 456 Fulton Street Suite 186 to 212 Southwest Water Street Suite 3 contingent upon the issuance of all appropriate permits and a certificate of occupancy with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve and on your desk there is a handout with the Liquor Commission minutes thank you council member Kelly uh thank you madam mayor Mr Corporation Council I'd like to ask you um I am a member of Creve Coeur Club um is it proper for me to abstain from this vote yes and thank you councilman you and any other members of that club that are also members of the council should abstain from the voting and debate on this matter thank you thank you madam mayor thank you council member Grant well it was lucky that I decided I wanted to speak to it as well manager I'd like to thank you and your staff for the continuation of progress in fully utilizing taxpayer owned buildings downtown and all the council members have helped with this the Gateway building and now better use for part of the river station building another beautiful asset historic building in our downtown I'm wholeheartedly in support of what we've been doing to make these buildings work for our taxpayers fixing them up making them a credit to our downtown period is moving thank you manager I move to prove is there a second seconded by council member Jackson another discussion please cash your ballots motion passes with three abstentions Seer Kelly and Euler Madam Clerk 23-044 is a communication from the city manager and finance director comptroller with a request to receive and file the Springdale Cemetery Management Authority annual budget from 2020 2021 2022 and 2023.

councilmember rigenbach thank you madam mayor Mr manager or perhaps this would be more appropriate for finance director cratty but when you look at this report on the last page there's a section other income and under operating subsidies by the city of Peoria it's a bunch of zeros we all know that's not the case so perhaps you could just um explain for us what the city's contribution to Springdale has been um thank you councilman yes the um per the agreement that we have for the management agreement for Springdale Cemetery the city is responsible for providing uh sixty thousand dollars of capital funds a year uh in lieu of depreciation so we provide that that's a line item in the budget that you approve every year in addition as part of the general fund if there's operating losses of the Springdale Cemetery uh the city is responsible after the city of Peoria or the county of Peoria and the park district pay their proportionate share then the city is responsible for covering the rest of those operating deficits so the the number at the bottom I think is somewhat misleading it should show where they talk about other income the amount of contributions that the city has made both from a capital side and from an operating subsidy side then that bottom line would be zero another way of looking at it is that our contribution is roughly about the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year in support to Springdale Cemetery thank you Mr manager I just wanted to make that clear for any casual observers of this document that the city is fully vested in our community to Springdale thank you with that I would move for approval is there a second seconded by a council member Allen for discussion let's cast your ballots council members here sorry motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at first readings 23-046 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to receive and file a first reading of an ordinance amending chapter 3 subsection 52 of the code of the city of Peoria to create the class NP liquor license Mr manager uh thank you I'm going to turn it over to our Corporation Council who's going to describe this one okay command mayor yeah smaller not-for-profit organizations have approached the city and we've been in discussions uh with those entities and um councilman Allen has been a champion of this set of ideas smaller not for profits we're struggling with the cost of the f licenses which allowed entities to have up to 15 days of events within a 12-month period at 150 for each one day event smaller entities found this to be cost prohibitive and it was impacting their uh more modest fundraising raising efforts the class NP license would allow up to six events on a 12-month basis for 150 for the first event which is the same cost for the class F's license events but then each subsequent event up to the sixth event would be fifty dollars each and would allow more modest fee for these smaller organizations to approach the public with their fundraising needs and wants and have those addressed at a lower cost thank you thank you Council council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor I want to say I thank you to Corporation Hayes attorney Torin and Deputy Corporation Council kapuska and also Deputy clerk Miss Trina bonds and then former police officer Kevin slavens we started this conversation late summer um about you know just being contacted by some of our smaller not for profits that doing great work in our community that want to host events and may want to have liquor at their events but the 150 dollar price was just a little too steep for them and so we came up with an opportunity that will allow them to still pay and we'll still be able to generate some Revenue but it'll be a savings to them so for the example under the current ordinance if you were to do six events it would be nine hundred dollars if we approve the new modified ordinance it would be 400 so it'll be a cost Savings of 500 for those not for profits and so this is an opportunity for us to uh support our local not for profits also continue to keep generating revenue and continue to keep enforcement when it comes to the licenses that we distribute under our liquor code so again thank you so much for everyone and I look forward to Future discussion income so this would be a receiving file at this any other discussion uh council member Kelly thank you madam mayor I'd just like to uh thank uh councilmember Allen for his work on this I think this was a a very good idea the uh the only thing I wonder about it wouldn't get in the way of my voting for this next time um there is no upper limit to uh The not-for-profit Entity is that correct Council Hayes so under the NP class you could have up to six events a year on under the F class you can have up to 15 events per year those are the limits thank you I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear if you have a very very very large not-for-profit they're still under this new rule right uh I think any not-for-profit that had a limited ambition of how many events per year could take advantage of the sixth event limit without regard to the size of the not-for-profit okay thank you thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member seer thank you madam mayor move to receive and file seconded by council member Allen in the other discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at regular business 23-047 is a communication from the city manager and assistant city manager with a request to receive and file the American Rescue plan act business grant program supporting biotech startups Mr manager uh thank you I'd like to turn the floor over to assistant city manager Kimberly Richardson to talk through this proposed program she's worked very closely with councilman Bill pool and I'm sure he'll have some comments as well thank you Miss Richardson thank you thank you mayor and Council actually I would like to start with councilman about Pua because this was a concept that we discussed and he has very much more experience in and to speak about the Biotech Industry and what we're trying to accomplish with this particular Grant and I can then follow up with the particulars of the grant to kind of talk about how we're going to administer it um council member first of all I would like to thank the city manager Uric assistant city manager Kimberly Richardson and Chris Reddy from the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council so these are the three people they helped to crystallize this idea of providing support for the biotech setup in Peoria so the ultimate goal of this initiative is to see how Peoria can attract and support talented people and businesses so we have some amazing institutions right in Peoria we have the College of Medicine we have the USDA we have the OSF cancer center and we have the Unity Point and educational institutions like Bradley and ICC so these places are doing cutting-edge research and creating new technologies that can help create new companies in Peoria so if you wanted to support entrepreneurship and innovation in Peoria we need to make sure that there is enough money to fund these startups this is the foundation of any Innovative economy and we wanted to and we wanted Peoria to be the place where entrepreneurs across the country get the funding and they can make Peoria their next destination so the incoming Cancer Center can very well act as a magnet to attract more biotechs to the city so I would say by taking this Innovative approach to Economic Development we can attract more businesses and make it a destination for healthcare innovation this out of the box idea will give enough push for The Economic Development Council to scout for budding startups that could make Peoria their next destination thank you madam mayor you're welcome thank you one thing is that what we've recognized with our arpa funds this is a a once in a generation opportunity to really Infuse uh and test pilots and projects that we couldn't have done with the type of resources that we had previously being untethered by uh regulations and other forms of federal funding guidelines and so having this program and what we're doing in economic development in the economic development department is we're looking at different ways of funding small businesses and startups outside of the normal uh programs that we've always had in place what we learned from the wise program was that we wanted to be a little bit more targeted and intentional so this is the first program where we're doing that targeted uh granting and so with that this program is between fifteen and thousand fifteen thousand to twenty five thousand per business this and this is a business that is either looking to start their business in Peoria or also existing businesses that are looking to stay within Peoria and identify a location that they would want to begin their business in the goal of the program is also to look at areas where we need investment in and so we're talking about this program is going to be targeted in the Medical District as council member vapula mentioned the central business district and the West Main Street area we identified those areas because of proximity but also as we have a continued ongoing conversation about how do we look at our downtown and look at how to to expand the types of businesses that are are in that downtown this is a great opportunity to utilize those vacant vacant offices and other storefronts with this program um lastly I would like to say this will be able to assist in lease or mortgage assistance so if they're looking to lease uh their um office space or uh research space or purchase the building this will be their assistance operational expense and or other business costs related to the newly opened location we will continue to look at other ways that as we are trying to spend down our funding on other targeted programs that could support businesses throughout the city any questions I'm here to answer at this time council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor I want to give kudos to assistant manager Richardson manager yurich and then my colleague councilman Dr Vel Poole on this um many times we're asking the public with our American Rescue plan act funds what are you doing to invest those funds in order to receive dividends later on down the line because we know at some point these funds are going to run out these are soft funds and I think that this is the perfect example of that of how do we invest in the Biotech Industry and possibly lure some of those maybe small startups who can become large and we know Peoria is a headquarters City so I definitely applaud you all for having the innovation in the foresight and thank you to Dr councilman Dr valpulla for Lending your expertise on this matter I noticed that looks like the timeline for this is January 1st through December 23 of next year is the goal to resume the program again in 24 as we continue into the the back end of our arpa funds that would be the likelihood we want to see what the interest is going to be right now we want to keep the timeline tight because as we we learned with our other grants when you give too much of a um an open uh process we end up having to turn people away so we figure having a tighter timeline would give us a better idea of how to assess moving forward absolutely and I'm a novice to the Biotech Industry so can you maybe provide some insight of how are you marketing this to those uh startups in this industry that could be eligible for this grant so once we have this conversation tonight that will be our next phase is looking at how to attract and market so I don't have that today but as soon as that is developed we will share that with the council and again we're also wanting to make sure that as we're doing this identifying and hopefully um you know with targeting the areas that we can identify we also want to include some properties that can be a part of that marketing awesome sounds good thank you so much thank you madam mayor council member Kelly thank you madam mayor uh and I would like to Echo uh council member Allen's remarks regarding this I think it's a wonderful Innovative program um is there a fund inside the arpa funds uh that this is drawn from or is this open-ended until we maybe hopefully run out of arpa money I mean is there a a certain amount of money that's that is uh projected to be budgeted for this program yeah you have a part of our designation that the council approved early on in the budget process we have a small business program so that's coming from that pot of funding and this is just one of the many programs that we'll be utilizing that fund to support I want to say we have about 900 000 that's allocated out of that fund to support small business initiatives and other programs that we are currently using for that fund is our commercial rehab and facade program and also we're utilizing that fund to support ongoing programs that we have already in place for the city thank you thank you madam mayor you're welcome may I get a motion to receive and file moved by council member valpulla seconded by council member Kelly any other discussion thank you for your leadership on this councilmember valpulla please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-048 is a communication from the city manager with a request to approve a Redevelopment agreement with Fulton Hotel development and on your desk there is a handout of an ordinance approving the Redevelopment agreement Mr manager uh thank you madam mayor this is a Redevelopment agreement that comes before you from Fulton Hotel Development LLC that LLC has been formed by Keith Weinstein of Greystone Realty to redevelop a project site that includes the Sully's building and the ICC pearly building the existing structures will be demolished in a mixed-use development will be constructed on the site the project would include a hotel with 140 guest rooms a residential Lobby meeting conference facilities swimming pool and a fitness center 50 residential Apartments a restaurant related bar facilities and some convenience retail the total project is estimated to be over 57.1 million dollars with roughly about a quarter of that being qualified to eligible expenses the city would reimburse the redeveloper 100 of its qualified Redevelopment costs for the remainder of the life of the Tiff but only out of the tax increment that's generated on the project site the properties are included in the downtown conservation Tiff which is planned to expire in 2036 so if the hotel opens in 2027 that would be nine years of reimbursement with the nine years of the Tiff it's unlikely that all the reimbursement expenses Redevelopment expenses would be reimbursed out of the property taxes paid in the Tiff uh there's been a lot of talk about this hotel being our project in this Redevelopment agreement being very similar to the pure Marquette and I want to make it very clear they are two completely different projects the pier is a project that where the hotel was connected to the Civic Center and the city granted the redeveloper 29 million dollars and then gave a seven million dollar loan to complete the project here all of the Tiff funds generated by property taxes paid by the project would be reimbursed to the developer after Construction so I want to make that very clear and if the development doesn't proceed and no increment is generated there is no increment to be generated or distributed to the redeveloper the city would also as part of this Redevelopment agreement extend the hospitality Improvement Zone Business Development District to include the project which is consistent with all of our downtown hotels that includes a one percent sales tax in hotel tax that's used to reimburse hotels and hoteliers for the capital expenses that they incur on the in their projects and in their developments if the development doesn't proceed and no hotel tax or sales tax is generated there is no hotel tax or sales tax to be redistributed to the developer the city Niagara parking deck will be available to users of the project in accordance with the contract which will allow for 140 parking spaces for the hotel and 80 smart parking spaces for the 50 residences the redeveloper will pay to the city a parking fee equal to three dollars per occupied room night on a monthly basis with a three percent escalator built in the residential apartment tenants would contract directly with the city or its agent based on our usual and customary practices and those costs would be applied from time to time as as normal deck users would be so if the our monthly charges go up those charges would go up if the development proceeds the Niagara deck will be nearly full without the development it will stay in its current form which is roughly at about 30 percent capacity there's three Milestone dates built into this Redevelopment agreement the developer has agreed to completion of the construction plans by April 1st of commencement of construction by January 1st of 2025.

and construction completion by January 1st of 2027.

if the developer doesn't meet those Milestones they can ask for and the council would have to Grant here on the floor of the council a six-month extension to those Milestone dates so that's something that Council would have to approve if after those Milestone dates are not met or if the developer doesn't meet those Milestone dates as extended the agreement shall terminate upon written notice by the city to the redeveloper lastly Sully's building has been recognized and identified as a contributing structure in the downtown Peoria historic district and is recognized on the national register of historic places the Tiff act prohibits reimbursement for certain costs if they are used to demolish remove or substantially modify a historic resource however there is an exception to that prohibition which provides that such prohibition applies unless no prudent or feasible alternative exists the developer has submitted a documentation to us that represents that the structure's obsolescence and disrepair is such that there is no prudent and feasible alternative other than demolition for this the Redevelopment agreement as it's laid out puts the risk of that compliance with the Tiff act onto the redeveloper including the fact that the city shall have no liability to the redeveloper if it is determined that the redeveloper is not entitled to that Tiff reimbursement payment and in that event the redeveloper is responsible for reimbursing the city for any payments that we may have made to the developer in short the risk of demolition is born entirely by the redeveloper in conclusion the proposed Redevelopment agreement is completely different from the peer Marquette Hotel project and with reimbursements to the developer happening after completion of the construction the risk of the development is borne by the redeveloper not the city and I'd be happy to answer any questions that Council may have I know that that we also have representatives of the the redeveloper here Mr Tom leiter is also here in the audience as well council member Kelly thank you madam mayor just a matter of clarification the Pearly building currently is uh tax-free real estate I'm sorry real estate tax free it is has value but it is tax-free will it start at zero it will not start at its real value or at least uh the land I I know the building's going to be torn down but we're saying that the land value is zero since since the the Pearly building is owned by a public entity and that assessed value is zero the base value and it was operated by ICC when the Tiff was established in 2013 the base is zero for purposes of that so all total the the total value base value of the assessed value of the two Parcels the ICC pearly building and the Sully's building is about fifteen thousand six hundred dollars is the total assessed value between both buildings but that's only one fifteen thousand six hundred dollars no sense I'm sorry you'll have to act smash match safely about that okay um but that's only the Sully's building correct yeah okay um okay and we're sure that that's the way it would work it's it's the way it's worked in the past thank you Madison thank you Mr manager thank you madam mayor welcome I'm going to ask the representatives of the project to uh come forth and if you would um uh tell us your affiliation your name and affiliation and any additional insights that you want to provide tonight uh thank you madam mayor and members of the city council my name is Tom leiter I'm an attorney here in Peoria and I'm pleased to represent the developing entity here Fulton Hotel Development LLC and first of all I'd like to say that this is a serious project it has been under development for several years the developers have invested millions of dollars literally and committed millions of dollars both in the development of architectural plans engineering plans Contracting with professionals professional management companies market research companies and have a contract to purchase the ICC pearly building and in that purchase agreement they also have committed substantial earnest money deposits which are at risk in this project so it's a serious project and has been vetted by professionals they have engaged the services of Commonwealth hotel management company out of the Covington Kentucky as the management partner they have employed Hotel Leisure advisors to do feasibility and market research the most recent report which I received today is a 2023 report a January report that supports the feasibility of the project they have committed to the Hilton Hotel chain to make this a Hilton Garden Inn the flag of the hotel and the hotel is different in many respects from the fair market as Patrick stated but it's different in the marketing aspects of it as well it's considered to be a select service Hotel not a full-service Hotel like the pair Marquette or the uh the Sheraton product it's a limited service Hotel it does not have a ballroom but doesn't have convention facilities it has some meeting rooms it does that it has a restaurant but it's intended to hit a price point that is different than a full-service Hotel now Patrick mentioned and distinguished this project from the pier Marquette and the commitment that the city made to the Pere Marquette uh we really shouldn't even be discussing this in the same uh conversation because it is so radically different uh the developers are not seeking any money from the city there is no risk to the city in this project that's an important thing to point out the benefits to the developer in this will be the use of the tax increment financing District so that taxes the incremental taxes paid by the hotel would then be reimbursed to a certain extent to the developer over the period of the Tiff so that's the benefit that the developer gets from the city but that does not place the city at any risk financially or any contingent risk there is simply no risk I'd also like to point out that it has been pointed out that the Pearly building is a non-taxable property currently so there's no tax being generated by that property uh the the use of the parking deck that's it's a beneficial thing for the hotel of course because there's an existing partner back there and that capital investment does not have to be made by the developer that's that's a helpful thing and it's one of the reasons why this property uh was identified as a as a site because we have access to it under utilized parking facility but the hotel is paying for that benefit the negotiated rate is three dollars per occupied room night now that's significant because from the developer standpoint it's based upon Hotel occupancy really not even uh parking lot use for purposes of budgeting marketing and so forth the hotel is willing to pay three dollars per occupied room night and many of those occupants may not be driving a car they're if they're here on business they may not have a car to park in the deck but they're still willing to pay and it helps them in budgeting and it's a it stabilizes the the revenue from the standpoint of the budgeting process and marketing uh it's possible who knows what will happen here it's possible that the hotel would choose to actually include that cost in the room rate so that it would not appear as if the occupant and the guest at the hotel has to pay extra for the hotel in a similar fashion to a Suburban Hotel where they where the parking lot is owned by the hotel property and they're not charging for parking so that's a possibility but in any event the city will be getting the three dollars per occupied room night on a monthly basis so in conclusion I would say the project is a serious one has been well planned the feasibility has been established through by professionals uh management partners are involved in this that are well recognized management hoteliers and there is no risk to the city that really sums it up and I think it's what we call referred to commonly as a win-win frankly I'd also like to point out that the uh that the developers committed to putting in all of the public investment and infrastructure from Fulton Plaza to Main Street there are going to be requirements for new Paving sidewalks probably utility relocations that also include some of the Niagara alley improvements and there's another alley in back of these properties but the the developer and the plans that will be ultimately submitted to the city for approval will include all of those expenses at the Developers expense and not the city so the developer is willing to make public improvements which will enhance the entire Frontage from Fulton Plaza to Main Street thank you thank you for that summary we may have a few questions for you the member of seer thank you madam mayor thank you Mr lighter for being here this evening just a couple questions how many years left on the current TIF district and a lot of these tips District have extension can you talk to us about the extension with the the developer qualify for the extension under revenue from the extension from the Tiff well I believe there's approximately uh nine or ten years left on the Tiff maybe I can answer that yes for you Mr Ryder the the Tiff expires in 2036 and the the only process the only mechanism by which an extension of the Tiff is granted is by an act of the Illinois General Assembly so the city council would have to make a determination just like we've we've done in the past with other tiffs this Council would have to decide if they want to extend a tiff and then they would have to work to get legislation introduced in Springfield we would have to generally as our practice is right now get the sign off on all the taxing bodies that would be affected to agree with an extension of the Tiff in order for that to go forward that bill it doesn't have to be passed by the general assembly and signed by the governor and that would provide a 12-year extension on the Tiff um but one other thing I want to point out with extensions like that it doesn't mean that there would be 12 additional years of qualified Redevelopment expenses that would be paid once the qualified Redevelopment expenses have been exhausted there's no more reimbursements to the developer as I mentioned earlier there's probably roughly a quarter of the costs in this in this proposed plan that would qualify as Redevelopment expenses because most of the construction is new construction which is not eligible under the Tiff Act so what that means is that once they've met that full requirement we're going to calculate with the project how much they're actually eligible for reimbursement once that's met there's no more reimbursement that would come once the Tiff is concluded there's no more reimbursement that would come from that either thank you madam mayor council member Rodrigo thank you madam mayor um question for uh Mr leiter and then I've got a question for uh city manager York Mr letter you happen to mention I believe a Hilton Garden Inn and and was going to be maybe the flagship that was going to be um at that hotel that's proposed if everything goes forward as as proposed is that correct I'm sorry I didn't hear all that um you had mentioned a Hilton Garden Inn was was right now the thought process was that would be the brand that would be at the proposed hotel if everything would go forward as as outlined here that that is the current plan that this would be flagged as a Hilton Garden Inn and those arrangements have been made at this point of course it's still early in the game but that was that's the plan that would go forward as a Hilton product and and that kind of caught my eye um in I guess the process because as we continue to Market ourselves as a conference destination and be able to to Market ourselves for everything from the Civic Center to even our other entities that have ballrooms and things here one of the things that I think comes up a lot of times is um what affinity and we've got some wonderful properties that are under bonvoy uh group both currently downtown we don't have anything under the Hilton brand so that I think brings something in those and a lot of companies are tied to those rewards programs and try to have people stay there so what I'm hearing is this is an alternative to to what we currently have and so it's an additional enhancement what do you say I would say yes and these are these kinds of things are taken into account by the professionals look at the market it does give distinguish from an existing product that exists here in this market and that's the sort of thing that the professionals Hotel Leisure Associates have looked at in their marketing great thank you um city manager can you tell us how long the Sully's property has been um not doing business I guess I I think it's probably since 2014 or 15 and that area there is was when operations ceased I I think that's about the time frame and from what from what we've seen from the condition of the building and from your communication um currently the building as is is is is unusable and probably not remotable I you know I think that's that's certainly the the representations of the of the developer and um you know with without having anyone actually active in the space um it certainly does uh cause it to to continue to deteriorate over time um you mentioned that this deal obviously is is different than the pair deal and and so talking about the deal that we have in front in front of us to be able to consider tonight one of the things is the length of the Tiff District that is remaining in our earlier conversations you know we talked about that right now if everything would hit on these Target dates we're looking at about nine years there would be Tiff eligible dates that they could pay back is that correct that that's correct I think we're looking at if assuming that that the Milestones are met and that construction is completed by um January 1 of 2027 then you're going to have those those years the the taxable years of of uh reimbursement would be about nine years that they would be eligible for for that reimbursement period until the Tiff expired so would it be safe to say that even though we have some contingency dates placed in here that I guess the setup that you've created here would behoove the developer to be able to I guess hit the ground running as soon as you can on this project because the sooner he gets open the longer he can participate in those Tiff reimbursements absolutely the the I think that that the incentive to open up you know and get construction started and completed is really with the developer one of the things that you know I've talked about on other projects is where the developer gets paid and traditionally I'm I'm one of those that thinks the developer gets paid less when everybody else not not in the front of the project and it seems the way that you structured this that really is how this is the developer gets paid once this gets opened and for the subsequent years is that correct that that's correct from the city's perspective you know however that's structured with the the construction and financing and and how that that's structured within the the developers hands is with him and his bank I mean this is ultimately how we reimburse our Tiff reimbursements come out after the fact so after the project is open and and construction is completed then those reimbursements would come forward but we're not cutting a check the day the hotel opens those payments are coming for whatever the remaining part of that tip whether that be nine years or seven and a half years or whatever's left correct so so after we collected the well after the county collects the property taxes and those distributions are made into the Tiff account we would then the finance department would work to make sure that the redeveloper was reimbursed and and the redeveloper as part of the agreement has to has to state that here's the qualified Redevelopment expenses and they would submit that form to us asking for that reimbursement which is what we do in all of our Redevelopment agreements um and I guess one just question thought process um the closer you get to the end date of a tiff maturity how I'm assuming it's less likely to be able to be picked up you know if you get three years within a TIF deadline uh probably you've missed that window of opportunity to be able to to really have it take effect is that correct yeah I I think that you know as your window gets gets shorter with when within the conclusion of the Tiff um there's there's less opportunity to recover all of your Redevelopment expenses that are part of the project thank you thank you madam thank you council member Jensen uh thank you madam mayor um Mr later I want to thank you and and uh Mr Weinstein and the group for bringing this forward I know city managers been involved as well um I mean it's clear that we are in desperate need of investment in this block or a couple blocks in the city with Sully's having been vacant for at least eight years as well as the ICC building being empty so um I mean I commend Mr Weinstein for sticking with the project I know he's been trying to put this together for a number of years I do have some questions um and I know Mr lighter you and I discussed this firm earlier today can you talk about how the feasibility study shows that there is a need for additional hotel rooms for the city because I know you know because of covid and other things we've had a lot of vacancies in our hotels downtown so I think the public and myself were concerned as to whether or not we really need this hotel uh first of all I'm I'm not personally an expert in these areas but uh the developer has hired experts and the company that has done the most recent market feasibility study is a company by the name of Hotel Leisure advisors and they they study that I received actually today or yesterday it's a it's a within this past month uh concludes that this particular product uh this hotel in this location this flag will sustain itself through an occupancy level that they determine uh is appropriate I think around 70 percent might be the number that is is used by them and they distinguished this product from the other hotels the convention type hotels and their conclusion the expert conclusion is that there is a need for a hotel of this type and that uh can't really compare a convention Hotel to a hotel of this type you know we've actually seen I mean we observe a new hotel construction in East Peoria just across the river for example and some of those hotels might are perhaps comparable to this so there there's clearly a demand for new hotel rooms I believe is the type of hotel rooms uh that distinguishes this and so that that is the conclusion that professionals and and I I know that the management Partners Commonwealth and so forth have agreed that yes this there's a need for this and there the the willing to put their money there I guess as a follow-up I don't know if um Mr Uric knows it's my understanding that maybe the um um the tourism organization has also done some feasibility studies on the need as well in the Civic Center for I think that the the convention and visitors bureau has been monitoring our our hotel occupancy in the region and and you know they're pleased to report that that our occupancy has been going up um you know as I think Mr lighter said you know East Peoria had a had a Suites hotel that opened up in 2021 in the middle of the pandemic and I you know I mean I think that it shows that there's probably um some certain uh amount of demand for hotels right now within the region and I think that that that's something that um the market will bear out the private Market will bear out whether or not you know this is warranted and I think that that's something that um well you know it certainly uh going to go forward I don't believe that the city's at risk in terms of approving this development it's just as if this was uh instead of 140 Hotel Beds and 50 Apartments it was 190 apartment unit building and we were putting that here I mean it the developer has a certain amount of risk in in terms of putting that type of investment together so on that same note can you talk about the studies that have been done that showed that the city needs more residential units downtown and what that number is yeah absolutely we've had through the Downtown Development Corporation they've had a number of studies that have been performed that have looked at at the demand for residential units in the central business district in the warehouse District Tracy cross was one of the studies we've had done recently and it shows that we could absorb 200 units a year of new apartments in downtown in the warehouse District so I think that that absorption rate you know this adds to that mix We we've got some interest still in the warehouse district and and there's there are units that are under construction right now so this certainly will help to add to a a different type of new construction of hotels versus the renovation of warehouses that we're seeing in the warehouse district and my understanding is we're almost at 100 occupancy for what for the residential units that we do have available in the warehouse District in downtown we are we're doing uh very well when it comes to residency and and in our occupancy of of our apartments in downtown in the warehouse District so hopefully we'll we'll be able to see more products coming online soon okay and I do have um you know I'm going over time but a couple questions about um the status of the building and it's um historic um designation from what I read the developer hasn't has the developer talked to the state and the national board about whether or not this prohibition is going to be waived for the demolition costs and things or where is that at I guess I could address that councilman we were aware when we embarked on this that a contributing structure within the downtown historic district uh has certain limitations with respect to Tiff reimbursement for certain specified costs uh of such a building and you can't get reimbursement for demolition for sure however the statute this is a state statute issue it's not simply a permissive thing from the Department of historic preservation historic preservation agency this is a matter of law because it's built right into the Tiff statute and it says that uh that prohibition or that limitation applies only if there is no feasible uh alternative to demolition and that has been interpreted to be basically an economic decision uh whether it's it's feasible or not and knowing that we employed James Kemper Kemper Dominica architects last year early in the summer to conduct an evaluation of this property and its alternative uses and whether or not it is a candidate for rehabilitation and those Architects concluded that it is not feasible to rehabilitate this building and that information has been provided to the city the analysis done by James Kemper architect it's very detailed it goes through the cost associated with rehabbing the total investment that was people would be required and also takes into account the marketability and the market value of the building once that investment is made and it's obvious when you look at this report that this building is not a candidate for rehabilitation and therefore qualifies for the exception in the Tiff statute but have you had any discussions with the the state or the Federal organization that has to approve that uh well I'm not sure there's nothing in the statute that requires them to approve it okay it doesn't it doesn't give them the right to approve or disapprove okay so the the statutory language is uh as I've said what it is if if the building is not economically feasible for rehabilitation then that prohibition doesn't apply the statute does not say that some agency has to approve it now would we like the agency to review it and and agree with us yes we would uh we believe they will when they see the facts when they when they do that analysis but uh and the agreement the Tiff agreement that we have uh negotiated with the city puts that risk on the development and yeah I understand that I guess I'm just concerned that that the developer hasn't taken that step yet to go to the the state agency you know and that could that can take I know with my experience with historic preservation um commissions it could take months if not I mean it could take a year so this could slow down the project and then what happens if they say no you can't do that then we would have a uh we'd have to deal with the agency that took that position and that would be the risk of the developer we're so confident that that conclusion is going to be sustained it's a it's a question of fact and not judgment it's it's it's not a judgment issue and it's not a matter for the discretion uh of the agency to decide if it's if they agree or don't agree that doesn't mean that we're going to get into an argument with it we don't intend to get into an argument with them but it's a factual analysis so Hayes did you want to interject here sure just if I could add assure your concerns and experiences with the state historic preservational office and I requested I informed Mr lighter of our concerns and have with his acquiescence reached out to the state historic preservation office for input and guidance on this and he's agreed and we've agreed to cooperate in that process going forward so the state historic preservation office responded to our inquiries and has indicated that they will likely undertake a review and help assist with that determination on the eligibility of the Tiff reimbursements and so that's a process that may have some hurdles fortunately given the timeline of this we have time to go through those previously in my experience there's been a period of marketing they may recognize the period of of idleness to satisfy that or may require a period of marketing in order to arrive at that outcome we think the developers incentivize to seek that in order to reimbur get reimbursed or at least be eligible for the reimbursement and the demolition cost um these are not impossible or insurmountable elements but they take some time unfortunately this project has some time involved that where we could do that sort of collateral to all the other efforts that the developer will be making and developing the construction plans for the business thank you so and thanks for that response um so I assume I shouldn't assume but the city's not going to be doing any reimbursement until it gets the the okay from the state that it it is excluded from that Prohibition in fact none of the reimbursements are due until there's a certificate of occupancy for the building and so that's when they first become eligible for any reimbursements so there might be some increment collected before that on a partial assessment or something but those they're not eligible for reimbursement until the building's open to the public okay thank you good questions council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor uh just a couple of questions um just making sure that I understand um the the tax um I guess forecast so Mr manager once the county receives the property taxes generated from the asset um it is then um sent to the Tiff correct it it's sent to our finance department their distributions that come into into the city they're deposited in the Tiff account and then the the funds that are generated from the specific Parcels in question would be segregated by our finance department just for this and then reimburse them uh for the life of the Tiff and so during the life of the Tiff while we're reimbursing the city will receive the one percent HR a tax and then the three dollars for the parking as well too so it's at the essentially the only additional income we'll receive during the duration of the Tiff so so on this no so so the additional one percent is the is the business district tax for the hospitality Improvement Zone business district that's reimbursed that's charged by by the hotelier on guests of the hotel or people patrons that are buying things in the hotel and then that's collected by the city and that's reimbursed to recover costs Capital costs that have been incurred by the hoteliers okay there is still the state sales tax there's the the city sales tax the County sales tax all those sales taxes are still collected and dispersed to all the taxing bodies so that all the other taxes that we have are continued to be collected and dispersed the developer is only eligible for that one percent to be used to offset Capital Improvements the the parking revenues what we've agreed to is the three the three dollar parking discount off of our current daily rates of three to of six dollars and and that would be charged to every person staying in the hotel whether or not they have a car or not in our parking in our our parking structure but then that's going to be you know paid um you know at that point in time on a monthly basis by uh the hotelier is going to be remitting that back to the city so that's the cost for the parking and that's really probably the you know one of the areas where where there is really the only kind of subsidy that's really built in for us in sending this development to go forward everything else is kind of buy right and this asset will still be required to pay all standard fees including the storm water utility fee you're still going to have to pay stormwater utility fees still going to have to pay property taxes which is where this reimbursement comes from they're still going to have to pay Hotel taxes they're still going to have to pay their state liquor taxes and the taxes to the city so all that's still going to have to be done building permits all of that still going to have to be paid for and I know that is still early but do we foresee any type of disruption to any of the small businesses that are surrounding this asset during construction uh I think you you know as we look at construction there's probably going to be some disruption um when we get to the point where the buildings are demolished or buildings are constructed but it's not unlike what we've seen with the the construction around the the OSF headquarter project um you know I think people will be able to to work around that and and you know we'll certainly try and make accommodations for those businesses that are impacted yeah absolutely I definitely want to just bring them to the table a lot of them have weather to storm during covet and so but this will be a bonus to them as well too so very exciting stuff thank you thank you madam mirror come councilmember Jackson thank you madam mayor I just had a cup one question and maybe a an observation or comment well um this sounds like a very exciting product a project of Mr Lightner and uh you know after uh what almost a decade of having or more those two buildings empty uh it will be it's exciting at the prospect of bringing in a brand new tenant who's going to do something new from the ground up I had one question about the amenities convenience retail was that what kind of retail are we talking about very modest it would be it would really be uh something for the hotel guests that you see commonly in a hotel where they have a little shop of some kind where there's a little retail sales so it sounds like it's small scale then a small scale okay it's just it's just basically a convenience thing for the hotel guests but of course it's available too for other residents downtown and there's nothing here of course now so it's something new it's not it's not driving the project okay okay well the reason I asked I mean you know one uh we've got another hotel down if the pyramid cat with a still a bottom floor full of space that was originally uh planned for retail so I was just kind of wondering about the extent of the retail this would this would be basically a space within the existing Hotel where they would sell Sundries of various kinds you know snacks things like that um and just one other question I don't know if you can answer this Mr leidner I know there were some plans Road Redevelopment plans for Fulton Plaza does this project in any way shape or form impact that I'm Mr manager do we know anything about that or well I I think that Mr leiter mentioned that that um the the redeveloper is interested as he builds out his construction plans and possibly looking at opening up Fulton Plaza that that will be something we'll have to discuss with the the developer as it goes forward thank you thank you madam mayor welcome I'm going to loop back to council member rock regal and then turn it over to council member grab to wrap things up here thank you madam mayor um city manager question because I think councilmember Jensen um had some really good questions here uh on timeline and if they're r d sort of um going through agencies approvals and or disapprovals that may come up um and and I think that's an important piece that that she brought up in the agreement as we have it here and you've mentioned this before this six-month extension they are able to at any milestone if notified prior to the Milestone be able to ask for a six-month extension on that Milestone correct that is correct and that's unqualified so if all of a sudden this gets caught up in some state agency um that that then and we go past that extension period Then can you talk to us about what happens with the agreement certainly so so what it would mean for example with the completion of the construction plans if that takes they need a six-month extension they can request that and then the council could approve that six-month extension of uh the time to get the construction plans completed so from April 1 of 2024 to then October 1 of 2024.

same thing when it comes to the approval of commencement of construction that's the second milestone that could be extended until July 1 of 2025. and then completion could be extended to July 1 of 2027.

after that time period if that's not completed Council has the right to end the Redevelopment agreement it obviously you know if we're talking in the real world if there's construction that is commenced and there's construction that's going on it's not likely that we would do that we would just there's likely something that Council would have a conversation with but let's say that that there has been no construction plans submitted there has been no start to this work we get past that second work it doesn't look like their start to the work the council can make the determination that they want to stop this from going forward that's that is entirely within the right of the city council to make that as part of the agreement okay and and and I I think councilmember Jensen and and she's work obviously with our legal department uh for years and so I think that her questions are very valid into you know what what happens if um and thank you for that answer I think we've got a project here in front of us that has little risk for the city especially as this TIF district is moving forward and it has some hard milestones in here which are to be honest pretty tight looking at development timelines things have to move pretty quickly to be able to do that and I think in talking with with Mr lighter and with the developers they've they've planned for those things and I think that they are ready to to move on this and if something Falls way there the city has very has no risk really financially in this from what I'm understanding from you and what I'm seeing here is that correct okay with that it's also a nice private investment that helps really continue the Resurgence of our downtown and I for one believe that Peoria's future for downtown has has great possibilities and we have been sort of stomached by two years of covet but we've got to look back what has happened before that and even during that and I think that our future is bright we we see what's happening at the Civic Center we see what's happening at our restaurant locations down there they they're begging for investment to come down to be able to continue that Resurgence that they've all believed in and this with the residential component as well as the hotel component really ties the two together which is is of Interest we don't we don't have those two components really coming into the same complex before um so with that I would request to adopt an ordinance approving the Redevelopment agreement as outlined here in front of us with the Fulton Hotel Development LLC second seconded by council member grab additional discussion council member Grant Mayor Lee I would like to give the privilege of the floor to Anthony Carter who would like to address the council in reference to this potential Redevelopment agreement thank you for waiting so long Anthony I appreciate it oh I appreciate the chance to speak uh like you said my name is Anthony Carter I lived downtown since 2008.

and keep hearing about how it's going to get better and so um I'm here to represent my friends and neighbors over at Twin Towers place and of course the residents of Twin Towers place are that we don't object we're excited for continued growth in the downtown Peoria area however there there are some some concerns which don't appear to be adequately addressed in The Proposal before the council and the other concern is that the current downtown residents have not had any hadn't we haven't had any chance to provide input so I'd like to do some of that now regarding visibility uh the height of the structure proposed as presented looks like it will be a high-rise over twice the height of the adjacent structures Twin Towers place we're proud to be the centerpiece of the iconic Peoria Skyline and we prize our views in in the area and would like some assurance that this development would be limited to a more reasonable height similar to the buildings immediately adjacent to it and we request that some effort be made to maintain and preserve our beautiful views of the river before you consider obstructing them by placing a large building directly in front of our community regarding the infrastructure the addition of residents and hotel guests will increase demands on the streets public right-of-ways and parking there's no discussion of any improvements to infrastructure or a funding mechanism to offset the additional demands on the existing infrastructure regarding security criminal activity and vagrancy in the downtown area should be addressed to assure the safety of all residents in downtown this location has been a hot spot for homeless camps there's no mention of what steps are being taken to address those matters and finally in regard to the agreement terms this Redevelopment agreement provides very favorable terms to the developer in an area with a 55 percent Hotel occupation occupancy rate one of the lowest in the state we question why this project is deserving of a hundred percent of the Tiff increment when other projects in the warehouse and other Tiff districts near downtown have historically been limited to 50 percent of the Tiff increment despite likely greater need shouldn't the city retain some benefit of the increase taxes to support the public infrastructure downtown The increased strain on parking structures and other infrastructure downtown could benefit from that Tiff money in this particular case the project is also receiving the bdd tax incentive providing even more funds to the developer and apparently nothing for public infrastructure where will the funds come from to maintain the infrastructure in light of the additional demands placed on it we appreciate growth in the downtown area but believe there should be more discussion on the needs of the area where these projects are located prior to the agreement being adopted and I thank you for your thoughtful consideration [Applause] thank you very much for your input and we are addressing the infrastructure issues downtown and security issues I believe in August we're going to begin work on converting atoms and Jefferson Street two-way streets to bring back the Vitality for our downtown that's been lost I believe that as you drive down Main Street you will see a change in elevation from Jefferson to Adam so while it might seem to be enormously High compared to the Twin Towers it is at a lower elevation this has come up before in my 23 years on the console and we had the some of the other buildings constructed downtown if we were to say that no building could conceivably block the view of anyone living in any one of our buildings downtown this would put the city of Puri in a straight jacket and that can't be done what I'm hearing from people who live downtown people who have invested Millions downtown is that it's time to get our city moving again and that's why I seconded the motion with a great deal of Pride and I asked the council to approve this tonight councilmember valpulla thank you madamir I just have one clarification question uh maybe city manager you can address or anybody can address so basically what I understood was the um the competition concerns were addressed and I understood that the differentiation between this hotel with the peer Market and I also now realize that this is going to be in the budget through mid-range Hotel so can you just throw some light on the apartments as well so are they going to be budgeted apartments or high luxurious apartment or mid-range Apartments the 50 that we're gonna build uh maybe maybe I can ask Mr lighter if if he could answer my understanding is that these are going to be market rate apartments that that are going to be going into the to the project uh yeah the apartments 50 units which are planned uh are certainly market rate Apartments because they'll be served with amenities that most apartment buildings don't have uh they have the access to the restaurant facility in the hotel the other amenities that are within the hotel the fitness center the swimming pool and so forth so these are these apartment units are certainly going to be market rate or if not slightly higher than market rate because of the amenities associated with these units so these units are going to be somewhat distinguished from the normal unit that is that exists in the in the city but the market researchers believe that there is a market for that that is a literally a full-service apartment unit that most would have or the the reconstructed apartments in the warehouse District don't have those types of amenities so I would say that these units are going to be Market rates above market rate slightly above market rate council member Euler thank you madam chair and woman I've agonized a little bit over this one over the last few days um debating a couple different things first of all it's somewhat abnormal that we would approve an RDA at this point in the process normally it's a lot further along and on some of these other boxes have been checked and we know that we're a lot closer to a shovel ready project and so it makes me a little bit nervous tying up a property that could go on to some other use the other thing being that we do live in the shadows of the pier Marquette Hotel situation even though most of us weren't here at that time it has affected all of us but this is a very different project from that um significantly from the standpoint of financial impact to the city we're not outlying anything to make this happen and so you know and looking over the plans here and discussing it with the developer a couple things really stand out to me it's the fact that we've got a parking deck that isn't utilized that costs us significant amounts of money every year to maintain and financially subsidize and this is an opportunity to use those spaces at a monthly cost to cover the cost of these parking Decks that we talk regularly about the fact that we don't have the money to maintain the developer has committed to putting money into our infrastructure that we would normally be paying for and he's taking that cost on himself which would be against the um I guess what I would see his usage of Redevelopment expenses is not only are we saving money and how he's handling the project but we're also deferring maintenance and capital investment costs assuming this project goes through and just to reiterate again there's no direct City investment the only way that the developer gets paid is if the project gets completed the sales tax levy is adjusted the revenue is collected off of those sales tax dollars and the qualified expenses are turned into us so at no point is there any Financial investment risk to us that we put the taxpayers at risk for so that makes me favorable towards the project from a Downtown Development Corporation standpoint not not speaking on behalf of the corporation but in my capacity as a member and its Vice chair our Focus has been on how do we start to revitalize the downtown business district and I think this could be an integral part of that assuming that the pro process is completed having more residential living in downtown is a key part of that and as the city manager mentioned we've completed studies on it showing the vacancy rates in the business district and a big solution to that is going to be residential living and some of the currently commercial properties and I think that this will show us how res mixed use residential living works with commercial in a downtown business district area so this will be an important test bed case for that a couple things that I also want to mention from the financial standpoint I heard the question about the hundred percent um the difference in that compared to other developments is that they start earlier on in the Tiff District process so the increment that they have the ability to collect is over a longer period of time in this case with a potentially only nine-year usage of the Tiff District the hundred percent for those nine years still comes in at less than what many of the developers in other parts of the city have gotten with smaller increment numbers because they've had 20 plus years to collect on them however I do have extreme concern with timeline and wanting to make sure that this stays on timeline and that we are not committed to this for the long haul this property is an extremely important piece of a vision for the downtown business district and it has sat vacant and unused for far too long we have OSF across the street who has invested tens of millions of dollars in this area and to have this piece of property hung up for a decade more waiting on things to go through is not an acceptable answer to me either so I will look very unfavorably on extensions to the timeline because if it doesn't look like this is going to go through then we need to get this property moved on to its next highest and best use and as I told the developer today I definitely will never be in favor of any stock Gap funding for this project the only incentives will be the increment that's made off of that property and we will not get into a situation where we're trying to fund something at the end of the day so at the end of all those comments I will be voting in favor of the project and hopefully we'll will be watching thank you development we have a second no more discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously ma'am Clark 23-049 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to approve a resolution providing for the surrender of the s-net trademark Mr manager uh thank you madam mayor I'm going to turn it over to our Corporation Council Mr Mayor as a members of the council know the s-net trademark was uh subject of a lot of discussion last year one of the uh issues that occurred was that the city received the assignment of the trademark from Mayor Lee on March 10th 2022.

since that time this City's legal department had struggled with regard to perfecting the recordation of that assignment with the patent and trademark office there are a couple evolutions of naming issues that were corrected by staff at the direction of the Japan and trademark office in late December the city received an additional notification that there was an issue with the recordation of that interest so um the um on review of those materials uh subsequent owner interest was revealed uh favoring uh Brandi Bryant who is marilee's daughter Marilee did not recall having included her daughter as a subsequent owner hadn't informed staff for that um in the interim I have uh discussed this matter and consulted with uh patent expert attorney and I've come up to a recommendation after consultation with the members of the council as well as the mayor and Miss Bryant and that would be for the city to surrender its interests have Miss Bryant surrender her interests and if necessary Mayor Lee would execute a surrender I don't know whether that will be required and that's why that's that way in the resolution we would through my office retain appropriate counsel to handle this matter so that there would be no additional disruptions with regard to the regardation or the surrender of that interest I would put the city in all parties in the position that the trademark had never been requested of the patent officer granted that was arrived at after consultation with many of the members of the council who expressed that there was likely no further interest in the city proceeding with that s-net trademark in any way in the future this would allow the city to conclude the matter finally with regard to all issues and move on without deferring that issue to further maintenance maintaining a trademark requires some vigilance and some additional filings on a five-year basis there are some alternatives to this but this was the central set of thoughts that I felt expressed as best I could the interests of the councilman obviously there are some divided views on this about how best to proceed from here my recommendation and what's reflecting in that resolution is my sense of what gathers the most from all the different viewpoints on how to resolve things from here as Mayor Lee will be absenting from this vote and debate she may answer some questions but I'd be happy to answer any of your questions as well thank you thank you Council councilmember Euler thank you madam chair and woman a Corporation Council can you please outline what those alternatives are that you referenced in your commentary sure the city could proceed to attempt to properly record the transfer to the city and then completely hold this Miss Bryant has indicated she would accommodate that request as well that does not address the central set of questions from the councilman about what are we going to do with this thing and a couple very direct questions of how do we dispose of this if we do perfect that the other option is to do nothing if the city did absolutely nothing the trademark would expire in about three years we would get a notice that it was expiring and that if we didn't do anything it would automatically expire that's assuming that nobody else including Miss Bryant did anything so we could do absolutely nothing going forward as the Corporation Council I don't like the idea that the city would be getting legal notices and not responding so rather than be accused in the future by somebody with an alternative Viewpoint I felt that presenting an outcome that would create finality would be the best way to resolve this so that doing absolutely nothing is an option perfecting the Train the transfer the assignment from mayor Ali by resolving the subsequent ownership interest is another option or surrendering the item entirely as long as Miss Bryant and if necessary mayorally Cooperative with that is a third alternative and that's what's encompassed in the resolution thank you one more question do you believe that any of these Solutions bear additional legal or Financial Risk I think the way to resolve any risks most immediately would be to execute on the surrenders there are some limited expenses by retaining competent Council to do that I would insist on that from this point given some of the input from the council members about where we find ourselves so I don't want to rely on the lawyers in my department any further I don't want to rely on my own very limited experience in this Arena I think it's time to hire specialty Council so there's some legal exposure to cost there but I think this is the way to completely resolve any future risks nearly immediately upon the surrender documents being filed thank you council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor Corporation Council Hayes do you have within your budget uh to properly acquire outside counsel yes as a regular part of the business practices of the legal department we retain outside counsel for any number of legal matters and that's uh within the authority of the legal department to in this instance to to select and retain counsel for that purpose if Council wants input on that that would be unconventional but be happy to entertain any input Council would have thank you yeah thank you um I'm in favor of this resolution I think it's best to Sunset this matter so with that being said I'd like to make a motion for approval thank you is there a second councilmember Jackson I am seconding the motion okay that's what you're like okay further discussion council member grab um Corporation Council uh what is the benefit to us uh proceeding with the surrender if you could just repeat it again we're not lawyers yes that's my next life each time we move forward with attempting in another phase to resolve the transfer requires us to pay a filing fee with the patent and trademark office there's no filing fee for the surrender item so in that regard it's less expensive but because we're retaining Council we'll be spending some money on that I think as I mentioned legally resolving all issues now by surrender uh relieves future Council of the obligation to figure out what's going on here and relieve staff of the burden of maintaining the trademark which takes some effort and in the future some expense so again providing finality to this and moving on was why I formed the resolution the way I did and that's after discussing it with each of your colleagues on the council thank you council member Kelly thank you madam mayor Mr Corporation Council the impression I had as to how this issue is going to be resolved is perhaps mistaken here's what I thought was going to be happening that mayor Ali and Ms Bryan would transfer their ownership of this trademark to the city and the city would surrender it first of all am I correct in did I misunderstand something along the way or was that at least one of the options so um half and half uh when we when I originally approached this issue was to perfect the transfer to have Miss Bryant transfer the interest of the city but I spoke to each of the members of the council and one of the dominant inputs was let's finish this thing what are we going to do with it how do we get rid of it and that chorus shifted the issue from perfecting the transfer to achieving the surrender as soon as possible and so that's how I satisfied as best I could the middle of all the issues between all the inputs and that's why there was a shift from the transfer to the surrender and all parties if necessary would surrender it just to completely surrender that trademark nobody would own an interest in it the world would be free to adopt those ideas but the parties involved in this would no longer be involved the ordinance reads as well as mayor Ali if necessary that does not say that mayor Ali surrenders it now the reason we're in this fix is that the mayor had this trademark it was thought to be it was it was thought to be a bit of a problem the mayor was convinced to transfer it to the city the city would presumably surrender the interest then we got a problem with another owner Ms Bryant okay so what happened to the idea of bringing it into the city surrendering it and it's over instead of the city surrendering its interest Bryant surrendering her interest and the mayor if necessary the patent and trademark office will determine whether the as yet unprofected recordation would require the mayor to execute a surrender or not by executing the surrenders we achieve the outcome with the lowest cost to the city in in pursuing the transfer we have to pay additional filing fees this was the way to Short Circuit issues to get all of the ownership is interest discarded in the city out of this issue along with merrily and and Miss Bryant without any ownership interest existing for any of those three parties with regard to the trademark at the lowest cost to the city um first of all I as you recall want to get out of this as cleanly and as efficiently as we can does the city currently have an interest in this trademark yes the mayor has assigned her interest in the city to the trademark the issue is recording that interest appropriately with the Patent Trademark Office if if it's not recorded is it ours I would defer to outside Counsel on that matter and I'd be happy to pursue the answer to that question the guidance to me was to achieve the outcome of nobody holding this any longer executing surrenders would be the quickest way and the least expensive way to that outcome now as a matter of property interest the mayor's assignment is still exists and is something that the city could pursue if necessary but it with this set of Alternatives it's no longer necessary and the only reason that clause in there with regard to the mayor executing a surrender is out of an abundance of caution if the patent and trademark office takes that position all right but if this hasn't been recorded yet can we surrender yeah that is the city for its his for its part that's been the guidance of the attorney that I consulted with that would resolve the city's interest to surrender yes I don't know that does you say that you don't know if the city has an interest I didn't say that I don't know if the city is an interest I said that the city has the assignment from the mayor as regard to the property interest the city holds that as it relates to the mayor's interests we don't hold that property interest as it rates to Ms Bryant's interest as yet I understand and the city I think is entitled to surrender its interest I think the patent and trademark office and so does council thinks that they'll respect that but if not out of abundance caution so that all issues are resolved and so we don't have to come back to the council again in the future that's why that Clause is in there and I apologize if it's causing confusion or concern on your partner thank you thank you madam mayor council member reagenbach thank you madam mayor um Corporation Council could you just I think you said this probably more than once but there's additional fees in order to perfect the assignment which we thought we had done you would need to have an additional application fee of some sort is that correct that's correct if we pursued the path of Miss Bryant assigning her interest to the city there would be a filing fee for that and what was the dollar amount I think the filing February for that is about 160 dollars and you you've told us you're not the expert on patent law per se perhaps but would that be a cleaner way to do that to perfect that ownership before we give it up I mean it that I I was prepared to to move forward with this surrender but with the questioning that's going on it seems like it's getting a little cloudier so um that is another way of doing it it is a more complex path it will take more time likely more attorneys fees and more filing fees so if that's the preference of the council to pursue it in that fashion I'd be happy to to come back with an amended resolution reflecting that but what I am struggling to do with a series of conversations in a matter that I've got limited legal expertise is to drive give my best and simplest advice to this body so I'm happy for any direction at this point in time and I thought that the solutions presented were the simplest to get to the outcome so so the the action before us would surrender our interest in it and Miss Bryant has already signed to surrender her interest in it and if necessary mayor Ali has agreed to for Miss Bryant has not executed any documents Ms Bryant has not executed anything because when this issue came up I started Consulting with Council and I have not received clear Direction on how to proceed so she has not executed anything she has indicated her willingness to execute a document my direction to resolve these matters as quickly as possible thank you by improving this theoretically all three parties would surrender their their state to it correct yes thank you thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member seer thank you ma'am mayor just a one question for city manager Mr Hayes do we the city own any other trademarks beside them assuming or I should not assume but our logo I believe we have a trademark on our logo that we have that's it I think that's it thank you madam mayor any other discussion as Council Hayes indicated and for obvious reasons I'll be abstaining from this vote please cash your ballots motion passes with one nay Kelly one abstention Ali 23-50 is a communication from the mayor and city manager with a request to adopt an ordinance amending the revised 2023 biennial budget in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for matching City funds for the Bloomberg public art Challenge and on your desk there is a handout of of a partner list this manager well Madam Mary would you like to take this item and talk to her back in late November 2022 I received an email from miss Patricia Harris who is the CEO of the Bloomberg philanthropies Foundation and she was inviting all mayors of cities of 30 000 or higher to apply for a million up to a million dollar public Arts challenge Grant of course you know um Michael Bloomberg who was the former mayor of New York thank you New York uh after he left uh he's very also a very wealthy man he um has set aside money to help economic development for cities Innovation for cities to ways to address Civic issues for cities and in fact the city had a Bloomberg grant for Innovation a number of years ago with Anthony Corso as kind of being the lead on that anyway this challenge it was a short it's a short turnaround I started pulling together a coalition of art artists and arts organizations to try to brainstorm on what would be our public our Civic issue what would be our public art type of opportunity for Peoria we brainstormed and came up with some a strategy and it took a while to come up with a coalition and a strategy but you some of you may remember John Morris CEO of the Peoria Riverfront Museum speaking at the Thanksgiving luncheon and he talked about Peoria being a city of gratitude that really stayed in my mind and on my heart when we started talking about a Civic Civic issue to address with a public art challenge so what we ultimately came up with uh was being concerned about mental health issues in Peoria the mental health issues of adults but especially the mental health issues of Youth in our community we looked at the community health needs assessment and saw that there are many youth as well as adults suffering from depression suffering from isolation attempted suicide or thoughts of suicide and we wanted to use public art as a means to try to uplift our community so the title of the project is called city of gratitude supporting mental health through public art and the Coalition there's another yellow sheet here it's been an updated list of collaborators that have come together and support of this project public aid art project which is a two-year initiative that we would actually immerse our community with expressions of gratitude appreciation thankfulness gratefulness the grant requires the Grant application requires that the community have a cash and possibly a in-kind match so we started exploring the possibilities for a match for the grant of course the match is only used if the grant is funded the Gilmore Foundation stepped up with the 000 cash match the Peoria Riverfront Museum committed 25 000 in an in-kind match Unity Point Health Central Illinois committed 20 000 in an in-kind match the Peoria Park District 15 000 Peoria Public Schools 10 000 and then there's a correction to Family Court it should be 5 000 rather than 10 000 that's listed on the sheet but the the match if we can get the city to agree to a fifty thousand dollar cash match it would bring our total cash match to 75 000 and our total income match to 75 000 for a total local match of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars or fifteen percent of the requested Grant amount again uh this is to make us competitive in in terms of having uh 15 of the total Grant supported locally but I'd like to you have some detail there there's a lot of excitement around this potential project it's a two-phased approach where applications are actually due tomorrow the application is is written hopefully we can include a City match in that application but there's a two-part they will narrow the applicants down sometime this spring and then there's another application that takes place for the finalists in the fall so I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have councilmember Jensen um thank you madam mayor I guess I question where is the 50 000 gonna come from in our general fund we have uh funds set aside for contingencies and this would just come from there so um this is money that that we could build it's um this is a a budget amendment so we're asking for your approval it would require two-thirds vote but this would allow us to go forward with that remind me how much we have for contingency about ninety thousand dollars okay so this will take more than half and then again any other if we come back to you later in the year with another budget amendment we can take that out of our reserves so and again because it just like a budget amendment here it requires a two-thirds vote of the council to go forward with that thank you as the financial report showed today we we have 54 million dollars in the general fund fund balance or good shape thank you council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor uh council member Jensen answer asked my question about where were the fifty thousand dollars coming from so thank you for asking that question um this is very exciting I think as Peoria has continued to make his imprint as a hub for art culture uh fashion in the last couple years and so I think this is a step in the right direction so appreciate uh the innovation of you looking into this Forest mayor and I'm excited to support this thank you thank you so remember Grant back in the early 2000s under mayor ransberg the council had a number of briefings about what's required to have a vibrant City and we were inspired by the work of Richard Florida who wrote the creative class book and it says that when a community ceases to Value the type of thing we're talking about here tonight mayor uh it's like the canary in the coal mine art allows us to express our deepest fears as well as our deepest aspirations as a community I think it's an excellent use of our money and I wholeheartedly support it and if mayor ransberg could be here tonight and there he is right up there again I've been pointing to the mayoral pictures now for the past couple of meetings he would be very proud to see that we're continuing along these lines thank you mayor thanks for your work on it so we're right under a deadline to have it in tomorrow right thank you would have brought it to you sooner but we didn't have it we had three weeks before between Council meetings we just didn't have it together enough council member Jackson thank you madam mayor I just want to Echo the sentiments of my colleagues um I I was I I my question has been answered too I'm assuming uh with this list of local if we were a recipient with these folks uh design the art would they what would they actually design the art exhibits that are listed all throughout be involved in the the process in terms of activities events um there's a an artistic team that consists of artist Preston Jackson artists and curator Bill Conger Rama Suresh and then a Bradley Professor whose name I can't say right now but those are the four artistic team members then there's an implementation team and there's 26 collaborators and this could grow the list of collaborators were not locked in to just just that list well I think it's a wonderful program and I hope that we are one of the recipients thank you madam mayor thank you council member Rodrigo thank you madam mayor um I think I'm going to be another one of those echoing the same sediments here really uh really excited about what you've done here and put together and I think you talk about the the partners that are coming together with the in-kind and the the dollar there but I think when you look on the back side too there is a long list and I would encourage others that may not have it in front of them to be able to see this long list of Partners and you say that that's also going to be growing I mean this is not only are you unifying groups that come together to be able to help make this happen um fifty thousand dollars towards a million dollar Grant if awarded that that's huge but I think that the collaboration that you've done up to this point about finding the subject matter it actually matters for our community and can help unify us around a common cause that is extremely important for our community as we look towards our future as well and for the benefit benefit of our whole community well done and we will we will wait till that November date to be able to hear the positive feedback that we're going to be getting on this grant sure thank you thank you council member Kelly thank you madam mayor and kudos to you for uh uh bird dogging this project this is this sounds wonderful I I and I certainly hope it goes forward I have a question um the city of gratitude supporting mental health through public art is that our name or is that the does that come from Bloomberg the city of city of gratitude would be Peoria city of gratitude that that's a wonderful name that's a wonderful name thank you madam mayor thank you very much we have a we have a motion on the floor Madam clerk do we have we have motion no we do not councilman Rodrigo sorry I know I met a mayor I'd be happy to make this motion uh to include our um our fifty thousand dollars in for a matching Grant on this and we look forward as a community to hear the positive feedback thank you very much seconded by council member valpulla any other discussion please cast your ballots Ocean passes unanimously thank you very much something councilman Graham uh mayor I was just going to say it requires eight but obviously we exceeded expectations so great thank you I'm Clark 23-051 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance amending existing special use ordinance number 15194 for residential cluster development in a class R3 single-family residential district to build a duplex with waivers for the properties located at 5723 and 5727 West Woodbriar Lane Peoria Illinois council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor uh I would like actually to make a motion to defer this item uh to our next meeting in two weeks on February 28th uh The Villa Grande homeowners association the engineer um and the developer are still working through some things but I'm very confident that we'll have this plane landed by our next meeting in two weeks thank you welcome seconded by council member sear any other discussion please cast your ballots to defer motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-052 is a communication with requests to concur with recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance amending existing special use ordinance number 15194 for residential cluster development in a class R3 single-family residential district to build a duplex with waivers for the properties located at 5731 and 5735 West Woodbriar Lane council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor this proposal was also housed in the Villa Grande homeowners association right next door so I will be making a motion to defer this item as well for our next meeting February 28th Thank You seconded by council member sear any other discussion please cast your ballots to defer motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-53 is a communication from the city manager with a request for the following a to adopt an ordinance to approve the Redevelopment plan and project for the proposed Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park this business park tax increment financing District B adopt an ordinance to designate the Redevelopment project area for the proposed Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park Tax increment financing district and C adopt an ordinance to approve a tax increment allocation fine allocation financing for the proposed Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park Tax increment financing district and we'll need separate motions on all three Mr manager please uh thank you at at this point this is the adoption of the Tiff and I'd be happy to turn it over to councilman Sierra this is the fifth district so thank you very much Madam mayor uh finally the last step put this great project that's happening in the Fifth District I want to say thank you to city manager and Mr Hayes for all their collaboration and obviously to school district Dunlap School District it was a great uh a great time I guess to get together and really uh really come up with a great deal for the fifth district and for the city of Peoria I'm looking forward to see what kind of development we'll have in the future so with this Madam mayor on item 23-053 letter a move to adopt this ordinance the ordinance for the Redevelopment plan and project seconded by council member Rick Regal any discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously note that councilman Allen had stepped out I think you still have time to vote on item a h motion passes unanimously um councilman sear thank you councilman Allen um item 23-053 letter B uh moved to adopt this ordinance the ordinance Again seconded by council member Rodrigo any discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously council member Seer thank you madam mayor last item uh item 23-053 letter C moved to adopt the ordinance again thank you by council member Rick Regal any discussion council member record Madam thank you madam mayor and uh while I think that we've had council member Sears say a couple of thank yous to everybody else I think a uh thank you goes to him I know that this took a lot of time to be able to come up with a resolution on this as well and so thank you for your work on this so um with that I will happily second all right any other discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously okay thank you also Mr manager for your work on that initiative you also Council Hayes for your work on that initiative Madam Clerk we are at unfinished business 23-17 is a communication from the city manager and director of information systems with a request to receive and file an agreement with crowdstrike to provide cyber security technology in the amount of fifty nine thousand one hundred and six dollars and two cents uh thank you just for uh for Council I think we you know the nice thing about this is that the state of Illinois has approached us and said that they'll pay for this item so we don't have to act on this contract um this is part of some of their cyber security work that they're doing so at this point what we'd just like to do is just receive and file this item and we'll move on and get a motion to receive a file move by council member Kelly seconded by council member grab any other questions or discussion please cast your ballots oh Allen Allen motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 22-293 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to adopt an ordinance amending Article 19 operation of a cannabis business of chapter 18 licenses and miscellaneous business regulations of the code of the city of Peoria I'd like to ask the manager is there any time urgency associated with this or could a deferral could we consider a deferral on this till the 28th I I think if it I don't think there's any pressing time uh need for Council to to come forward with discussing this item this evening so I think if council is of the opinion they'd like to defer this item for two weeks we could certainly do so okay uh Council Hayes thank you very much Madam clerk I would just encourage the council members to reach out to Deputy Corporation Council on these issues if you've got input on the suggestions the two items were presented today for ordinances for discussion and so I'd ask you to read the communication and please reach out to Chrissy so that if we need to adjust issues we can do so for the next meeting thank you very much council member Euler thank you madam chair and woman would there be any objection to 30 days I think we've got a lot of things to work on for the 28th so I'd like to kick at 30 days and deal with it then thank you okay so I'll move to deferred until the first meeting in March is there a second Ed by council member Kelly discussion councilmember Allen uh thank you madam mayor um I think deferring it is appropriate um I think there's some some nuances though I think that we need to have um especially regarding you know the potential of how many we're going to allow in the city and things of that nature regarding dispensaries and licenses and things of that nature and I don't know if a standard meeting may be the appropriate setting I think maybe an executive session may be appropriate just so that way we can really dive into this and really provide appropriate direction for our legal staff so that was just my input on this that I think maybe an executive session would be more appropriate so that way we can really dive into this see where we land as far as consensus discussions and things of that nature and then possibly give you Direction because it seems like I know we've been kind of kicking this can and I'm sure you're ready to get it off the road thank you I don't know that that would fit the criteria for executive session uh Council you're right on point mayor okay that's correct okay okay so we have metal clerk we have the motion yes we do it was moved by councilmember Euler and seconded by council member Kelly to defer for 30 days 30 days okay any other discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk we are at new business is there any new business councilmember regenbach thank you madam mayor I just wanted to um thank our Public Works staff and particularly city engineer I'm klaufenstein for her work on the prospect Arcadia traffic calming that we approved earlier um we talk a lot about speeding and how we can control traffic flows and I think this is a good example of um some creative work on her her part and the part of the engineering team that she oversees using bump outs is one of the ways that we could do this um on Prospect so just appreciate the the focus to helping um calm the traffic in a very critical area thank you councilmember Jackson thank you madam mayor well I I'm just kind of following uh a suggestion by my colleague council member Seer and especially uh over the last uh I would say two or three weeks I have received uh quite a few letters uh from people inquiring about the situation on Capital Improvements at the Civic Center for the rivermen uh what have we decided uh council member sir had said something about a discussion uh where are we on this Mr manager uh thank you yes I think that that um staff have been working on looking at some options with regards to financing some Capital Improvements at the Civic Center um that would include uh the ice plant um we I think at this point in time would like to come back to council with a discussion for the the night of the 28th to have that conversation with the council in full thank you welcome council member grab council member thank you thank you mayor and um this is just a reminder that the Glen Avenue reconstruction project will soon commence and we will be having another final public meeting before its commencement at Concordia Lutheran School next Tuesday one week from today at 5 pm at 2000 West Glen Avenue where Concordia Lutheran School is now this project will impact both residents and businesses along Glenn Avenue between West War Memorial Drive and North University Street we'll have more information about the construction sequence and we'll have any entertain any questions that might be important to be answered by having the contractor at the project managers the engineers and more there so that's just a reminder this is a very important Corridor in our city we have the money to do the infrastructure work I'm thrilled so this is the last public meeting before the commencement of this project thank you welcome council member Jensen um thank you madam mayor I just had a follow-up question to councilwoman Jackson's question the discussion next week um proposals or options for the rivermen will that be a policy session or are you just coming forward with some agenda items um I think at this point in time staff's trying to work to come back to you with a recommendation okay I guess I thought we were having a policy discussion I think we certainly can but we'll come back to you with a a firm recommendation and then Council can can certainly react and and take that and talk through the options okay nothing will be final okay certainly it's up to council to decide okay thank you council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor um I misspoke last time I meant policy session not executive session just for the record thank you okay thank you stand corrected council member seer thank you madam mayor uh just a clarification number one I'd like to say thank you for to my colleague Miss Jackson and Ms Jansen for asking the question Mr manager clarification from you please uh when you say staff I want to make sure that I understand that and our constituent understand that we had meetings city manager Madam mayor Mr rodrigold myself that correct yeah it's a little bit higher than staff I just want to make that clarification thank you very much we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council okay we have Mr Jesse McGowan Jesse McGowan Jr 707 East thrush there's another one in there was a another sister asking me to address this issue in there too man I don't feel that would be allowed or not you do it within your five minutes you can I mean for his request this is mine for his I can't do a separate one for someone anyway not here uh I'll go with mine first this is something I bring I provide about every 10 years that uh I think the city council should adopt a policy of allowing if necessary if someone wants to after the citizens that is addressed do you want to respond to that the policy snare as you can't and the reason about is going Bank on my second question the issue that I have tonight can only be solved by you all I can't go back to the administration because uh Joe and I we work very well together by the way it's not an anti-jo-doodle not an anti-wricket box I brought this to both of them they disagreeing with me on it and only you all can solve this is concerned that Tiff we have a neighbor of mine participated until before this time he's trying to participate a rule that was established we had the exceptions to that rule but they're not being allowed anymore it's going to cost this neighbor mine three thousand dollars more to participate in the Tiff because we came up with the policy that uh a smaller contract or no other contractor can get in the money up front we used to allow that but we stopped doing that and the reason why we were allowing that is because there were small contracts have been frozen out because they couldn't afford those five to ten thousand dollar windows that they have to put the deposit down on that's why we said well we'll give them some money the homeowner could get the money out front on a case-by-case basis but that wasn't in the writing so now that case by case basis not been observed in a more so either he hasn't paid the extra threat Thirty One hundred dollars uh he don't get the windows put in the the comp the two window companies both reputable they want deposit the other one says they send them to the citizen have to a construction company this question construction company said Yale we'll do it without the deposit but we're going to have to charge you an extra 30 to 100.

that's not right and the second thing is the smaller contractors when we first came up with this Tiff because it's one of the things that I was most adamant about smaller cut changes can't afford that so that's why we put that in for the smaller contractors now smaller contracts are not participating in the Tiff when I brought that to Tim the other day I said Tim this is with smaller contractors are not being frozen now they've been frozen they can't participate them said well Jesse we don't have any small Bernard contractors Jim that's the point we don't have any problem with another contract participating because of those reasons but not so much the contract is this homeowner should not this man has a real job he should not have to pay attention he goes from 30 for 400 700 to 7 800 dollars simply because we are strictly at Heritage ruling rather than doing that on a case-by-case basis this is why I need someone on the council to step in and say look here we need to do something about that that's not right so you can't say let's go back to Joe because Joe Joe and I worked good on almost everything except this tell me that we're good on a lot of things except this I just cannot see this man haven't paid an extra three thousand dollars and I think there's something y'all should step in and make a comment somebody say something tonight hey look here don't tell me to go talk to Joe because you're out we've talked today so who's going to handle that if the Box should stop with you all I said don't stop there where does it stop we're going to do it this way regardless that's fine if you're gonna do it that way let it be known that way we can you know we can make it and as a part of the interview process for this upcoming at large city council race you know we have to be a part of the interview today so but until that point though this man he tried all the last year and because that same reason he's turning two because it's going to get two more contractors this year he's got two more this year for the 47 and the 78.

so do you say paid the 33 000 I just said go to hell or whatever y'all want to do thank you next we have Michael P Olson back in your excuse me my name is Michael P Olson I live by with my wife Lori at 1025 West Teton Drive Peoria Illinois uh I have to just tell the council when I was coaching the original one of the original teams in Peoria the Peoria blades Pete bartlesbanion was our captain some of you Elder Statesman and women might remember Pete he was our city comptroller and we would practice that we didn't get to practice at 10 in the morning or we all were working we didn't get to practice at seven at night we let the kids practice first and then all of a sudden we get to practice at about 11.

and Pete would show up about 11 30 I said Pete you're killing us he said well yeah I just got on that budget meeting again down the city hall so now I know how it really works he was telling me the truth anyway which I if you know if you knew Pete he was he was he's he's my dad sometimes gets a lot of credit but Pete was the original Mr Hockey in Peoria and did a great job but I just like to say I moved to Peoria in August of 63 60 years ago from Escanaba Michigan with my mom dad and four siblings my dad took a job in engineering with Caterpillar tractor company out at Mossville all of my family loves Peoria love it we have and when we grew up in a great City Escanaba up on anybody I've been up to the up I mean it's just well I said it's great it's great June July and August it's a little rougher right now but uh I'm sure Mr Shear can go along with that too growing up where he grew up but we got a lot of chance to skate anyway but anyway um and and we all still reside in this area we were raised here and we raised our families here that is why I'm addressing the Council of Mayor and staff this evening the quality of family life in Peoria has always been very strong in our community the city the park district the schools I taught 37 years in Peoria schools proudly at Bergen Richwoods and Central loved it loved every day never thought I went to work one day in 37 years the hospital has always made Peoria family oriented place to live I do not want to see our city lose a 41-year staple in our community that provides good affordable family entertainment and inspiration to our young people and it's inspired a lot I think we have four right now kids playing on our River and team that grew up through our youth program uh the rivermen was the is definitely the impetus of that the Peoria River professional hockey team has provided this to our city for the last 41 years since 1982 in our beautiful Downtown Arena and it is a beautiful Downtown Arena and I always thank our city council at that time in the uh late late 70s when uh they they okayed the arena and I can remember crawling around it and 80 with Pete and my dad and some other people just couldn't wait to see it come about and it sure did um but the rivermen need of leash and they need an ice plant for the arena portion of the Civic Center complex ASAP the team is honestly on the at the 12th hour the rivermen organization is run by a very competent and fan fan-friendly staff our coach John Gee trudell is the driving force of our Riverman team our Mustang he also works with our Mustang Group which is a junior group 16 to 20 and he's a big leader in our youth group he'll work with any kid at any level the team needs to make commitments to the southern professional hockey league that were due on January 15th of this year the league has granted the rivermen an extension to get the following three items we need a commitment to play in the 23-24 hockey season that will only be predicated on a lease for from our Arena which needs which obviously needs the ice plant to make to make that lease possible dates to make a home schedule for 28 home League games we've been in the playoffs every year for eight years we get another two or three so we're talking 30 games and you know we need probably 32 dates when it's all said and done when when the President's Cup last year and in first place this year um now so we don't we don't lose another strong entity of our Peoria as author Brad Meltzer I read this about a week ago stated quote leadership is not about being in charge you know and I've been in charge of things whether they be teams or whether they be organizations I work on about three or four different boards in the city and proud to say I'm president of one of them but leadership is not about being in charge it's about taking care of those in your charge and that's what two people do you do it every day I heard it here tonight tremendous and I'll finish up here real quick please take care of the people in our community that enjoy and love our River and hockey [Applause] I know this guy does too and I look around I'm sure many many other do too but thank you very much for your precious time I mean that sincerely in concern we have had 41 years of pro hockey in Peoria let's all do let's all do what needs to be done so we can make so we can have 41 more years of pro hockey at the Civic Center thank you thank you [Applause] next we have Renee Waller selfie space LLC swallow hello and thank you very much for having me here and letting me um Come and Talk um so my name is Renee Waller and I started selfie space back in August of last year um I love downtown and I'm really excited to be a part of any revitalization that is happening downtown so I have great memories of military balls and concerts and things like that um but uh as a woman as a veteran a single mom starting a business is rough right I don't have 57 million dollars to go on a spend on a Redevelopment project but I invested everything that I have in downtown I redeveloped a little tiny space and made it something beautiful it was a dump before literally commerce was dumping Furniture in there that they didn't want to get away get rid of um so um starting this I really didn't feel like I was supported when I was going through the beginnings and trying to connect with the Small Business Development Center I just felt kind of blown off and ignored so I've done a lot on my own and I've done a lot of connecting and reaching out and really trying to build connections because that's what I needed help with I'm not an elite person I'm just a regular mom a worker like any other maybe a lot of different women who might want to start their own businesses and so I hope I set an example for other women who might want to as well I don't get callbacks when I reach out for help and before I go to any extremes to stay in business because I want to be here for the next five years I wanted to say hello and invite you guys to my space and to see it so I hope to be here and um and continue to be business in business and provide something fun for folks to do it's a small event space with a selfie Museum inside of it and has incredible art inside and all kinds of fun stuff so thank you all very much for your time and maybe I'll see you sometime soon thank you thank you our assistant city manager uh Kimberly Richardson yes she came by yes you've met her yes okay she's over our economic development team so okay thank you um yeah and she um mentioned that I needed strategic Partnerships right there I wholeheartedly agree with her that I would like to have strategic Partnerships and so when I mentioned that I have trouble connecting with people and don't get callbacks or don't get help that I need that was a part of that me trying to reach out and make those connections and those strategic Partnerships with folks in the community who are able to do that so thank you again yeah thank you Miss Waller okay okay next we have Eric Emmert is Eric still here then we have Brad Salisbury Mr Salisbury thank you mayor and city council for giving me this opportunity to address a topic that I think is well known on everyone's mind here and that is the ice plant in the future of the Peoria rivermen my name is Brad Salisbury I reside at 1393 Woodland Knolls in Metamora so no I do not live in your city but I did live in your city for seven years when I first moved to Illinois and I continue to shop I continue to spend money I attend events I support support small businesses in the city of Peoria I'm encouraged by the comments that I've heard today both here and in the media that there is a plan being worked to keep the rivermen in Peoria and it seems to address the need for the ice plant at the Peoria Civic Center the river and hockey provides a family-friendly affordable entertainment option for residents of the city and the region a functioning ice plant is critical to the future of the team and continuing a 40-year tradition of hockey in Peoria but this is more than just a mechanical system that needs repair this is about quality of life in the Peoria area the city and the region the rivermen players and staff are members of this community and some make Peoria their permanent home they help with fundraisers they visit schools they raise the spirits of sick children in our hospitals and they coach youth sports jewelry rivermen do more for the city and this region than only the revenue that's brought into this Peoria Civic Center on Game Nights hockey brings people to Peoria who would not otherwise be here they might be job Seekers they're players their players families their residents in nearby towns and people within this greater region that might not have the ability to go see hockey in a bigger Market as hockey fans we're counting on you to help prioritize replacement of the ice plant and can keeping the rivermen in Peoria keeping that tradition of minor league hockey alive professional hockey in Peoria was a major deciding factor when I moved to the area and accepted a job at Peoria not had hockey I probably would have accepted a competing offer the friends that I've made attending games 17 years ago when I first came to the area are still my friends today sports teams can unite a city they can bring Pride to a region they Foster a sense of family and they can bring in Revenue so I ask you to please continue to work with all the parties involved to help find a way to replace the ice plant and keep the Peoria Civic Center a viable and still affordable venue for hockey and other Ice Sports in 2023 and Beyond thank you thank you [Applause] our last speaker is miss Emily Hageman I'm short sorry my name is Emily Hageman and first and foremost I just want to thank you all for giving us this platform to speak tonight we have a lot of people who are willing to come out in support of the rivermen I wrote in an email just last week about my frustration with the rivermen not having their contract renewed now I know you guys aren't the final decision makers on the Peoria ribbon stain in the Peoria Civic Center but the people who are are appointed by the city and your voice has significant pull within the PCC my husband Al kegman is the current captain of the Peoria ribbon and has dedicated the last 10 years to the Peoria rivermen organization he works with the Peoria youth hockey associate Association almost every night um and a good chunk in the summer too he is constantly out in our community he is a living breathing example of what kids could be if they work hard enough um I could brag on what this man does for hours because it's Valentine's Day but he is one of the many people associated with the rivermen that make a significant impact on a large chunk of the people in and around Peoria I'm one of the founders of our Facebook group called save the rivermen this morning councilman Seer posted in our group that the rivermen are saved we cannot thank you all enough for the time we know has been dedicated to this project I got some really great replies from Council Members Greg of fellow uh dean of students uh Euler and Ellen and Rutledge so rock regal so thank you so so much for doing that for responding back to me the only issue I see with this is that we do not have a contract which is what we truly need for the rivermen to be saved I know that tensions are high between the PCC and the Peoria rivermen organization the Peoria Civic Center stayed as much in the radio interview with the Greg and Dan show we know this last hurdle is going to be great and the only way our Peoria rivermen can truly be saved please don't stop working to keep them here we need your voices to pull through for us I want to end on a quote that came through during the president cup Rally from mayor Ali last year rivermen are a staple of the community both on and off the ice rivermen are a vital part of Peoria's downtown entertainment experience bringing countless memories to people in and out of Peoria thank you again for allowing us this platform [Applause] Adam Clark we do not have an executive session so we're at adjournment can I get a motion to adjourn move by council member Euler singed by council member Kelly please cash your ballots Kelly motion passes unanimously thank you for your service