A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, June 25, 2019, at 7:28 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.
President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright led in the Pledge to
the Flag.
The roll call was taken with 13 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderman Gidge and Alderman
Clemons were recorded absent.
His Honor, Mayor James W. Donchess, and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also in attendance.
COMMUNICATIONS
From: Lori Wilshire, President, Board of Aldermen
Re: Special Board of Aldermen Meeting
There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication and placed it on file.
PRESENTATION
Status update on the Performing Arts Center with Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development.
Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development
Good evening, for the record Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development. |’ll keep my comments brief
this evening because | know you have a lengthy agenda ahead of you. So! am going to just dive right into it.
There is a communication that was submitted into your packets and the document that | am reading off of is that
communication. So to give everybody just a brief highlight going right into the architectural design, we are
continuing the design. We have concluded schematic design with the majority of decisions made and we have
begun design development which will last approximately 8 to 12 weeks.
We are approximately six weeks within design development, but | will also note that we have taken a little bit of a
pause right now and we are trying to get back on schedule but there is going to be a slight delay before we enter
into the next Phase which is Construction documents. | don’t know exactly how long the delay will be; I'll Know
more after tomorrow night. But as of right now it looks like it is going to be a 2 to 4 week delay.
At the meeting in May the architect and design team presented an update as to how the current design in
unfolding and the initial cost estimates. There is going to be a need to make some decisions in the near future to
bring down the costs. The design team highlighted a pathway forward to achieve the targeted budget of building
and demo of $12.5 million; but to do this tradeoffs are going to be necessary. But nothing would affect the
guiding principles of the design. The Steering committee continues to meet almost every other Wednesday
unless noted the meetings are in Room 208 and we go from 5:00 to 7:00; the next meeting will be tomorrow night
and there will be a continued discussion on the design.
Relative to New Market Tax Credits, we are in the process of putting together the legal structures necessary to
carry out the transaction. We are doing it in advance to position ourselves as best as possible for project
readiness. One of the major components in the process for securing a New Market Tax Credit; the legislation
just passed that | am referring to. As previously noted, 8 out of the 12 CDE’s that we had solicited, 66 responded
with some form of interest, but most noted that it was very early for them and they asked for us to follow up. Last
month, there is typo in the communication that says “last week” it should read “last month” 2018 New Market Tax
Credit Awards were announced and we are actively outreaching to new and already engaged CDE’s where we
are trying to seek an allocation.
