WEBVTT 00:00:00.386 --> 00:00:08.168 - So we're all here because we want to say Seminary Point. You all heard the call and you answered it. 00:00:08.168 --> 00:00:16.103 - A little bit about us before we begin. My name is Bryce Green. I'm an organizer with Democratic Social 00:00:16.103 --> 00:00:24.039 - South America. I've been organizing for about eight years. And I'm also a graduate student, a graduate 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:29.278 - union organizer at Indiana University. I'll pass this off to Sarah. 00:00:30.914 --> 00:00:38.351 - Hello, I'm Sarah St. John Wolbert and I am the Housing Solutions Director at Habitat for Humanity. I 00:00:38.351 --> 00:00:45.714 - bring over a decade of construction experience to this project and I am honored to be presenting to 00:00:45.714 --> 00:00:53.739 - you today as a Bloomington Homes for All volunteer. My name is Matthew Joseph. I'm a resident of Bloomington 00:00:53.739 --> 00:00:59.998 - and a member of Bloomington Homes for All. I'm currently a therapist at Centerstone. 00:01:00.258 --> 00:01:06.427 - But my previous life was in entrepreneurship and business. I got a degree from Kelly and ran a few of 00:01:06.427 --> 00:01:12.657 - my own businesses over the last decade. So it's very heartening to see so many people here to show up, 00:01:12.657 --> 00:01:18.947 - you know, municipal policy meeting. But I mean, that's kind of one of the reasons why I've stuck around 00:01:18.947 --> 00:01:25.419 - in Wilmington. The community is excellent. They're engaged. And there's always some people doing something 00:01:25.419 --> 00:01:27.838 - to try and make it a little bit better. 00:01:27.970 --> 00:01:33.802 - So give yourselves a round of applause. That's the first step. OK, so a little bit about how 00:01:33.802 --> 00:01:40.260 - this presentation is going to go. We're going to be talking about Seminary Point, property, what makes 00:01:40.260 --> 00:01:46.594 - it important, and how it relates to preserving old blooming, this cultural feeling that you all know 00:01:46.594 --> 00:01:52.990 - and love, and how it relates to the housing and commercial crises that we're facing right now, we all 00:01:52.990 --> 00:01:57.630 - know about them, and how our plan will mitigate and address these crises. 00:01:58.178 --> 00:02:04.391 - And the solution that we hope to talk to you about is about a cooperative nonprofit model. We'll be 00:02:04.391 --> 00:02:10.728 - talking a bit about that. And of course, deconstruction and financials, proving that we have done the 00:02:10.728 --> 00:02:17.003 - due diligence to make sure this project is feasible and the numbers work. And then we'll be wrapping 00:02:17.003 --> 00:02:23.341 - up our vision and the next steps that the decision makers and policymakers can take to make sure that 00:02:23.341 --> 00:02:25.950 - we can save seminary pointing. All right. 00:02:28.610 --> 00:02:36.766 - So who are we? Who are we? We are Bloomington Homes for All. We're a collection of advocates in Bloomington, 00:02:36.766 --> 00:02:44.773 - Indiana. We are Bloomington Homes for All. We are all volunteers here. And we've tapped in with a national 00:02:44.773 --> 00:02:52.481 - network, the National Homes for All group. They're all dedicated to supporting policies and supporting 00:02:52.481 --> 00:02:56.222 - advocates who are pushing for affordable housing. 00:02:56.482 --> 00:03:01.880 - not only taking our local expertise, but we're also getting this national expertise to put together 00:03:01.880 --> 00:03:07.333 - to make this thing happen. And on the local level, we built a, quite the coalition of groups, Avalon 00:03:07.333 --> 00:03:12.731 - Community Land Trust, and we're gonna talk a bit more about how they fit into all this. Bloomington 00:03:12.731 --> 00:03:18.400 - Cooperative Living, some people live there, some people in this room live there, including myself. NASCO 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:23.582 - Properties, which is the North American Students of Cooperation, they're a properties division, 00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:29.457 - They have, we've been in contact with them and have been getting some support on that front. And then 00:03:29.457 --> 00:03:35.270 - Democratic Socialist of America, a local activist group that's pushing for making housing a human right. 00:03:35.270 --> 00:03:40.806 - And the policies necessary to realize that right. And so we do quite the coalition. And the team on 00:03:40.806 --> 00:03:46.452 - the ground has been working on this. It's about 20 people who have been meeting multiple times a week 00:03:46.452 --> 00:03:52.542 - to talk about these issues about significant points, to talk through the politics, to talk through the policy 00:03:52.866 --> 00:03:59.836 - And they're together, they kind of form a mosaic of experience, construction experience, business experience, 00:03:59.836 --> 00:04:06.300 - finance experience, government experience, you know, organizing experience. And there's a great group 00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:12.827 - of people. And honestly, if you have done anything to help with Bloomington Homes for All, if you want 00:04:12.827 --> 00:04:15.678 - to, please raise your hand. Yeah. All right. 00:04:15.874 --> 00:04:23.516 - Give yourselves a round of applause. So what is Seminary Point? Seminary Point is that property just 00:04:23.516 --> 00:04:31.234 - north of the downtown Kroger at the corner of Second and College. It's home to four buildings. Two of 00:04:31.234 --> 00:04:39.027 - them are mixed use developments. One of them is fully residential and one of them is fully commercial. 00:04:39.027 --> 00:04:43.870 - And it's also near the Hopewell development. It's Caddy Corner. 00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:50.898 - to this new affordable housing development that's going up there. So if our plan actually complements 00:04:50.898 --> 00:04:57.691 - this other plan that's been going on. And it's also a critical piece of real estate. Not only is it 00:04:57.691 --> 00:05:04.891 - downtown, but it sits actually on the B line. And so it's part of a critical, one of the most nice trails 00:05:04.891 --> 00:05:11.887 - in Wilmington, one of the critical walkways and pedestrian traffic centers. So it's a really important 00:05:11.887 --> 00:05:13.246 - hub of real estate. 00:05:13.698 --> 00:05:20.410 - And the commercial spaces include My Sister's Closet, Blue Tip, Friendly Beast, Jess Warehouse, and 00:05:20.410 --> 00:05:27.458 - formerly Artisan Alley. I mean, how many of you guys have been to these businesses, right? Like, there's 00:05:27.458 --> 00:05:34.304 - almost everybody. It really underscores why it's so important to save. But a lot of people don't know 00:05:34.304 --> 00:05:39.070 - that this facility also includes 29 units of super affordable housing. 00:05:39.426 --> 00:05:46.690 - And when we say super affordable, we mean it. I mean, the rents there are between $400 and $700 a month. 00:05:46.690 --> 00:05:54.023 - I challenge you to find it if you're remotely close to that downtown in that location, or really anywhere 00:05:54.023 --> 00:06:00.941 - in Wilmington. But right now, there are 17 current residents, including the commercial tenants. And 00:06:00.941 --> 00:06:07.998 - the leases are set to be ended on August 31. Now, originally, these leases were set to end on July 7. 00:06:08.258 --> 00:06:13.827 - The whole fraud group has been working. We've been pushing. We've been advocating. And after months 00:06:13.827 --> 00:06:19.619 - of work, the leases were extended to August 31. So that's a very positive development. So yeah, I mean, 00:06:19.619 --> 00:06:25.411 - these buildings are really nice. It's also the location where we had the block party. I'm going to keep 00:06:25.411 --> 00:06:31.147 - asking people to raise their hands. How many people were at the block party? Yeah? It was a good time. 00:06:31.147 --> 00:06:36.828 - It was a good time. And we raised. We smashed our fundraising goal, which was excellent. So thank you 00:06:36.828 --> 00:06:37.886 - all for your help. 00:06:38.402 --> 00:06:44.469 - We also have the full residential building with eight units. Now, unfortunately, we looked at the, 00:06:44.469 --> 00:06:50.781 - you know, the structural assessments of these and talked to contractors, and this is the only building 00:06:50.781 --> 00:06:57.032 - that is not salvageable in the long term. There's been a lot of talk about, oh, seminary, why are you 00:06:57.032 --> 00:07:03.405 - saving seminary coin? These building, this building, people think of it as one building. You know, it's 00:07:03.405 --> 00:07:05.182 - not even structurally sound. 00:07:05.602 --> 00:07:12.835 - But three out of the four buildings are, and there's only one that is not. We'll be talking more about 00:07:12.835 --> 00:07:20.208 - that in the construction section. And yeah, then there's My Sister's Closet. This venue has been serving 00:07:20.208 --> 00:07:27.581 - Bloomington women for quite a bit of time. And then there's Jess Warehouse. Get a picture of Jess. Yeah, 00:07:27.581 --> 00:07:32.286 - Jess Warehouse, Blue Tip, and also has six residential units here. 00:07:32.802 --> 00:07:39.142 - So this is a pretty important part. And as we can see in the room, a lot of you guys have enjoyed these 00:07:39.142 --> 00:07:45.604 - businesses and services and agree that they would have disappeared. So what's the situation with Seminary 00:07:45.604 --> 00:07:51.823 - Point? Right now, Seminary Point is owned by something called the Capital Improvement Board, the CIB. 00:07:51.823 --> 00:07:57.980 - The CIB is an intergovernmental body made up of county appointees and city appointees. But they have 00:07:57.980 --> 00:08:01.150 - one job, and it's to develop the convention center. 00:08:01.506 --> 00:08:07.962 - a big convention center that's going up right down the street, and associated projects with it. They 00:08:07.962 --> 00:08:14.482 - own Seminary Point because they want to build what's called a host hotel, a hotel that will be mostly 00:08:14.482 --> 00:08:20.874 - linked to the operations and function of the convention center so that people can book whole blocks 00:08:20.874 --> 00:08:27.330 - of places. They need a hotel to make the convention center work. But they all seem to agree that the 00:08:27.330 --> 00:08:30.654 - best spot for a hotel is actually this other place. 00:08:31.298 --> 00:08:38.424 - College Square. I mean, you guys know where College Square is. It's right across the street from the 00:08:38.424 --> 00:08:45.972 - Atlas Bar. It's right at the corner of 4th and College. And so this building is, this property is actually 00:08:45.972 --> 00:08:53.027 - vacant. There's no one who uses this building. And it's just a big parking lot. And the parking lot 00:08:53.027 --> 00:08:59.518 - is only being used right now for staging for the convention center. So the CIB members, the 00:08:59.874 --> 00:09:06.637 - Most of the city planners, they agree that this would be the ideal location for a host hotel, which 00:09:06.637 --> 00:09:13.738 - raises the question, why are they building it at Seminary Point? Well, currently, the elsewhere is owned 00:09:13.738 --> 00:09:20.568 - by the city's redevelopment commission, the RDC. This body's made up of three mayoral appointees and 00:09:20.568 --> 00:09:27.939 - two city council appointees, and they manage the city's inventory of properties for the purpose of directing 00:09:27.939 --> 00:09:29.630 - and having a steady hand 00:09:29.986 --> 00:09:37.071 - over Bloomington's development pad. So they can make deals with developers who want to use these properties 00:09:37.071 --> 00:09:43.630 - for the betterment of Bloomington. But they own College Square. So why have there been some sort of 00:09:43.630 --> 00:09:50.387 - repealment? That's a long question. There's actually a very long history of this. A seminary point was 00:09:50.387 --> 00:09:53.470 - actually purchased by the county back in 2010. 00:09:53.634 --> 00:10:00.629 - when I was 12 years old. Yeah, and it's been held for 15 years. It was held by the Commission Center 00:10:00.629 --> 00:10:07.555 - Development Corporation. One of the reasons that this area has been able to stay affordable is that 00:10:07.555 --> 00:10:14.481 - it was taken out of this private landlord market, and it was actually run by a state body. And they 00:10:14.481 --> 00:10:21.822 - deferred maintenance because they felt like they were going to be destroying it any day now for 15 years. 00:10:21.954 --> 00:10:30.663 - But all this meant that there was little upward pressure on the race. And so it was kind of about the 00:10:30.663 --> 00:10:39.287 - accidental socialism on the calendar. We need more intentional. So that was the state of affairs for 00:10:39.287 --> 00:10:47.826 - quite some time. The Capital Improvement Board, the CIV, you might be overwhelmed with the acronyms 00:10:47.826 --> 00:10:50.302 - here. There are quite a few. 00:10:50.466 --> 00:10:57.503 - but hopefully this slide will help guide you. But the CID has been asking the RDC to swap that land 00:10:57.503 --> 00:11:04.822 - for a while, but the RDC has refused because of concerns about the relative values of these properties. 00:11:04.822 --> 00:11:11.860 - The College Square property is appraised at a higher value, was purchased at a higher cost than the 00:11:11.860 --> 00:11:19.038 - cost that was used to purchase the Seminary Point property. And so city officials were concerned that 00:11:19.138 --> 00:11:25.518 - by swapping properties of such different values, it would actually be a major subsidy to the Good Vision 00:11:25.518 --> 00:11:31.777 - Center outside of the food and beverage tax that was designed to service the Good Vision Center. Which 00:11:31.777 --> 00:11:38.036 - is a totally understandable state of affairs, totally understandable position. But I think many of you 00:11:38.036 --> 00:11:44.537 - guys have seen over the last few months, just a few weeks ago, the city council actually voted unanimously 00:11:44.537 --> 00:11:47.454 - to support a letter to the RBC saying that they 00:11:47.650 --> 00:11:53.978 - have less concern about the subsidy if that was going to be used for affordable housing. And recently, 00:11:53.978 --> 00:12:00.367 - actually, the mayor came out. This was actually a few days ago. We were very excited to see this. Mayor 00:12:00.367 --> 00:12:06.511 - Perry Thompson came out and said that she was interested in finding a way to support or to save St. 00:12:06.511 --> 00:12:12.655 - Mary Point and preserve it as affordable housing. So these are all extremely positive developments. 00:12:12.655 --> 00:12:13.822 - One of the holdups 00:12:14.114 --> 00:12:21.200 - is that the CID believes that given all the negotiations that were rejected in the past, that the burden 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:28.016 - is no longer on them to submit a response to the RDC's proposal for College Square. And that's their 00:12:28.016 --> 00:12:34.765 - position. And the RDC has said, well, the only way that you're going to get this property is if you 00:12:34.765 --> 00:12:41.581 - go to the proposal. So there's kind of a stalemate there. So Wilmington Homes for All is proposing a 00:12:41.581 --> 00:12:42.526 - solution that 00:12:43.010 --> 00:12:50.465 - It kind of meets these two groups' interests where they intersect. We're proposing that the CIB actually 00:12:50.465 --> 00:12:57.636 - does submit a proposal to the RDC. But it's not at that $7 million price point that they had. It's a 00:12:57.636 --> 00:13:04.807 - sale or a proposal to receive College Square at a nominal fee on the condition that the CIB transfer 00:13:04.807 --> 00:13:12.830 - seminary points into a nonprofit cooperative tasked with preserving the long-term affordability of the property. 00:13:13.218 --> 00:13:21.032 - And then we hope that the RDC accept this proposal. And we actually have found a community developer, 00:13:21.032 --> 00:13:28.768 - a community land trust that is willing to receive the property if this plan goes through, the Avalon 00:13:28.768 --> 00:13:36.582 - Community Land Trust, ACLT. And so this is what we're proposing, you know. It's basically a land swap 00:13:36.582 --> 00:13:42.174 - minus some steps, maybe a little bit more. It's essentially a land swap. 00:13:43.106 --> 00:13:49.274 - So these are all the key stakeholders that are in this, and hopefully this will help, you know, relieve 00:13:49.274 --> 00:13:54.908 - you of the anxiety and have to keep track of all of these different sorts of community bodies, 00:13:54.908 --> 00:14:01.016 - city bodies, and their abbreviations. But that's what we're proposing. So without a solution, we might 00:14:01.016 --> 00:14:07.065 - end up in a situation where there are actually two hotels developed. Someone buys a college square to 00:14:07.065 --> 00:14:11.454 - develop a hotel, and someone also gets seminary point to develop a hotel. 00:14:11.682 --> 00:14:18.663 - In any case, the businesses, the tenants, the community spaces there, that would be a lottery. No more 00:14:18.663 --> 00:14:25.576 - friendly beasts, no more units of affordable housing, no more of that, just a hotel. And I think that 00:14:25.576 --> 00:14:32.490 - many of us in this room and many policy makers agree that this is less than the ideal outcome that we 00:14:32.490 --> 00:14:39.674 - want. So I'm going to pass it off to Sarah to talk a little bit about why seminary point is so important. 00:14:39.674 --> 00:14:40.894 - Thank you, Bryce. 00:14:41.858 --> 00:14:49.801 - So why should our community care? I'm a lifelong resident born and raised here in Wilmington. Saving 00:14:49.801 --> 00:14:58.059 - Seminary Point, as Bryce mentioned, keeps the community space thriving. It is a block away from Hopewell 00:14:58.059 --> 00:15:06.238 - where 35 affordable units are going in. If we demolish 29 units of affordable housing less than a block 00:15:06.238 --> 00:15:10.878 - away from that, what have we really gained as a community? 00:15:11.938 --> 00:15:21.267 - The hotel should go on the land that is currently a vacant building and a parking lot. It's closer to 00:15:21.267 --> 00:15:30.504 - the convention center and Seminary Point can then continue to be affordable housing, commercial, and 00:15:30.504 --> 00:15:39.742 - community space. I want to take a minute to acknowledge the inspiring history that Wilmington has of 00:15:40.098 --> 00:15:47.777 - saving and preserving spaces. McDowell Gardens' neighborhood was going to be torn down for hospital 00:15:47.777 --> 00:15:55.686 - expansion. The courthouse was going to be demolished until Charlotte Zetlow and other organizers saved 00:15:55.686 --> 00:16:03.596 - it. The Busker Chumley and the John Waldron's Art Center required extensive repairs in order to become 00:16:03.596 --> 00:16:09.662 - the gems they are today. We are honored to be taking up the mantle to preserve 00:16:10.114 --> 00:16:17.561 - this generation's first preservation project, Seminary Point. There is a certain charm that has been 00:16:17.561 --> 00:16:25.304 - eroding in Bloomington. It is especially evident in this area. We have lost the players' pub and rhinos, 00:16:25.304 --> 00:16:32.751 - and although the chocolate mousse is still there, the character of the building has lost some of its 00:16:32.751 --> 00:16:37.470 - charm by being converted into one of these large box buildings. 00:16:39.394 --> 00:16:48.418 - interested in bringing spaces like Rhinos back. We don't want Seminary Point to fall victim to the same 00:16:48.418 --> 00:16:57.096 - outcome as the Players Hub and Rhinos. I want to briefly zoom out and talk about some of the larger 00:16:57.096 --> 00:17:06.814 - trends that are affecting Wilmington. If you have recently tried to find a place to rent or a home to purchase, 00:17:07.522 --> 00:17:16.374 - then you understand and don't need to be lectured that we are in an affordability crisis. The average 00:17:16.374 --> 00:17:25.140 - rent for a one-bedroom in Bloomington is $1,100 a month. That is $400 more a month than what we plan 00:17:25.140 --> 00:17:35.294 - to charge at Seminary Point. In our research, we have found that the most affordable housing is cooperative housing. 00:17:36.770 --> 00:17:45.951 - In red, you see the median rent of a one-bedroom in the United States. And in blue, you see Bloomington 00:17:45.951 --> 00:17:54.867 - Community Living's Middle Earth rent space, or rent price. There has also been a drastic increase in 00:17:54.867 --> 00:18:00.958 - commercial rent. It has especially increased in the last five years. 00:18:01.730 --> 00:18:10.758 - Businesses are leaving and having to close because of these increased costs and poor property management. 00:18:10.758 --> 00:18:19.445 - Beloved spaces like the Trojan horse and orbit room and fat dance and cup and kettle are leaving. And 00:18:19.445 --> 00:18:27.962 - we don't want to add blue tip and friendly beasts and Jeff's warehouse to that list. We are part of 00:18:27.962 --> 00:18:31.454 - future community leaders in Bloomington. 00:18:32.162 --> 00:18:41.188 - Our town's population is decreasing, especially among the 25 to 50 year old range. Our group is predominantly 00:18:41.188 --> 00:18:49.804 - made up of this vanishing demographic that is vital to the cultural and economic success of Bloomington. 00:18:49.804 --> 00:18:58.174 - When people can't afford to live here, they can't afford to work here. And that affects our tax base. 00:19:01.122 --> 00:19:08.960 - This isn't just about housing. It is about economic development and sustainability. For those who read 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:16.646 - the Herald Times, this is the issue that John Fernandez has been writing about. We aren't just young 00:19:16.646 --> 00:19:23.038 - people complaining about the hurdles we see. We are working hard to find solutions. 00:19:24.034 --> 00:19:33.934 - My parents bought a house in Bryant Park neighborhood in the 1990s for $32,000. Does anyone know what 00:19:33.934 --> 00:19:43.834 - $32,000 is equivalent to today? Your threat. Accounting for inflation is $81,000. Does anyone know of 00:19:43.834 --> 00:19:47.134 - a decent house in good condition? 00:19:47.586 --> 00:19:58.175 - That's for sale for $81,000. If you do, please talk to me after the presentation. Last year, a block 00:19:58.175 --> 00:20:08.869 - away from that house, a single lot sold for $105,000. That is a vacant, empty lot without any home on 00:20:08.869 --> 00:20:15.998 - it. Single-family homes are no longer attainable for my generation. 00:20:18.274 --> 00:20:25.919 - I appreciate that for the majority of decision makers, our group is made up of people around the ages 00:20:25.919 --> 00:20:33.489 - of your children. I encourage you, though, to look at us as your former selves. Gary Thompson was in 00:20:33.489 --> 00:20:41.284 - her late 20s when she became CEO of Habitat. Jane St. John was in her 20s when she implemented citywide 00:20:41.284 --> 00:20:45.406 - recycling. John Fernandez became mayor when he was 35. 00:20:46.338 --> 00:20:54.403 - If you have questions about our experience, ask us and help support us. We want to work with you and 00:20:54.403 --> 00:21:02.467 - learn from your experience. So please don't cut us out. Are you willing to collaborate with the next 00:21:02.467 --> 00:21:10.772 - generation of community leaders? Now that we've talked about the inspiring past, I'm gonna hand it over 00:21:10.772 --> 00:21:13.726 - to Matthew to talk about the future. 00:21:22.914 --> 00:21:28.845 - There's real problems that we're talking about. And again, just really appreciate everyone being here 00:21:28.845 --> 00:21:34.719 - for this. So when we think about the future of Seminary Point, we envision a cooperative model being 00:21:34.719 --> 00:21:40.592 - at the base of this. OK, so there's a few key terms here that I want to talk about. The first one is 00:21:40.592 --> 00:21:46.640 - a community land trust. There's two right now in Bloomington. So for example, it's Summit Hill and then 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:52.222 - Avalon Community Land Trust, which is the one that we mentioned. We already have a partnership. 00:21:53.218 --> 00:22:00.470 - So community land trust is an ownership model where the owner of the land is a non-profit trust. So 00:22:00.470 --> 00:22:07.939 - what this looks like is, in the case of what Sarah's family had mentioned, is that if you were to have 00:22:07.939 --> 00:22:15.481 - a house 20 years ago, that would have been considered affordable. And you look at how the value of that 00:22:15.481 --> 00:22:20.702 - property increases, or has increased over the last 20 years, let's say, 00:22:21.378 --> 00:22:28.441 - that same exact house would be unaffordable to the people that bought it in the first place. So something 00:22:28.441 --> 00:22:35.570 - that was affordable, people are now getting priced out because of how market dynamics work and speculation 00:22:35.570 --> 00:22:42.500 - works with increasing of the land value over so much time that people are priced out of the things that 00:22:42.500 --> 00:22:48.830 - were originally affordable. And so community land trusts ensure that the ownership of the land 00:22:48.994 --> 00:22:55.078 - and that the values of it retain affordable over generations to come. So we can't just talk 00:22:55.078 --> 00:23:01.956 - about affordability in terms of today's standards, because speculation will pull us out of that. Models 00:23:01.956 --> 00:23:09.033 - like this keep us keeping affordability for a very long time. For example, there's one in Athens, Georgia, 00:23:09.033 --> 00:23:15.712 - which is an incredibly successful model. One that's just to show you that this is not just happening 00:23:15.712 --> 00:23:18.622 - in beautiful Bloomington. This is happening 00:23:18.722 --> 00:23:25.165 - all across the country, and then we're not also the first ones to do this. Incredibly successful land 00:23:25.165 --> 00:23:31.546 - trust, so much here, and they've been able to not only create new jobs in their community and retain 00:23:31.546 --> 00:23:38.305 - the nature and the preservation of their ecology on this land, but also maintaining the affordable housing 00:23:38.305 --> 00:23:43.422 - on that land that they are creating, like I said, for generations to come. Okay. 00:23:43.842 --> 00:23:50.418 - So the other piece there, so we talked about land trust. That is the owner of the land that, let's say 00:23:50.418 --> 00:23:57.313 - for example, we'll send my point, is on. Now on top of that, we believe that there should be a cooperative. 00:23:57.313 --> 00:24:03.953 - Okay, what's a cooperative? It is an organizational structure that is governed and owned by the members 00:24:03.953 --> 00:24:10.082 - that make it up. Okay, who's heard of a cooperative? Amazing, thank you. Thank you for knowing, 00:24:10.082 --> 00:24:11.934 - this is good, this is great. 00:24:12.482 --> 00:24:18.958 - Not to over explain, but there's three key pieces here. Democratic decision making. Each member has 00:24:18.958 --> 00:24:25.887 - a vote for the housing that they're in. Or whatever the co-op might be, which I'll explain. Also community 00:24:25.887 --> 00:24:32.557 - reinvestment. So the money that is put into it, maybe for rent prices, et cetera, is put back into the 00:24:32.557 --> 00:24:39.292 - non-profit and not necessarily in the hands of typically wealthier investors. So it puts the money into 00:24:39.292 --> 00:24:42.206 - the hands of the community, into the people, 00:24:42.594 --> 00:24:48.837 - that make up that land. And so we're able to prioritize the needs of those people because they're also 00:24:48.837 --> 00:24:55.142 - the ones that are voting for the decisions in the first place. So the decision makers are the ones that 00:24:55.142 --> 00:25:01.324 - are affected by the decisions that they make. And so it creates a beautiful incentive. I'm just gonna 00:25:01.324 --> 00:25:07.992 - skip and go to that really quickly. There's two part incentive to a cooperative, right? To keep it affordable 00:25:07.992 --> 00:25:11.326 - because you yourself are a member of that cooperative. 00:25:12.130 --> 00:25:17.479 - And then the other side, it's to also keep it beautiful and well maintained. Because you live there, 00:25:17.479 --> 00:25:23.092 - you have a commercial business there, and you're an owner of it. You feel like you own the thing. Because 00:25:23.092 --> 00:25:28.441 - decisions are made by the very people affected by those decisions. I'll come back to that slide. I'm 00:25:28.441 --> 00:25:33.790 - just having a good time. And I want to tell if I could, I don't want to take too much time. A lot of 00:25:33.790 --> 00:25:39.774 - y'all know what a co-op group is. Actually, I'll tell this when I get to the VC office. That's a personal story. 00:25:40.034 --> 00:25:50.388 - But, so, oh, we're here. I wish they were coming. Okay, so, Bloomington Cooperative Blooming is the 00:25:50.388 --> 00:26:01.053 - most successful form of super affordable housing in Bloomington. I pay, in Trellis on next year, right 00:26:01.053 --> 00:26:09.854 - across from the community garden, big, beautiful house, I pay $399 a month for rent. 00:26:10.338 --> 00:26:18.670 - Give me that. I didn't do much. One member. One member. Give me only one. OK. So this did not just show 00:26:18.670 --> 00:26:26.682 - up for me in a time that I needed, which right now I'm in grad school for mental health counseling, 00:26:26.682 --> 00:26:34.774 - currently getting paid minimum wage as a therapy intern. So I need this to live and serve the people 00:26:34.774 --> 00:26:39.902 - most vulnerable in Bloomington. But this came at a time for me. 00:26:40.322 --> 00:26:48.146 - When, so about two years ago, I was in a granite apartment. You guys know granite apartment? The apartment 00:26:48.146 --> 00:26:55.823 - complex. Well, you know, they're here. I'm the co-ops people. So I lived in granite. I was paying about, 00:26:55.823 --> 00:27:03.355 - you know, probably $7.50 a month at the time. Not bad, I could do that. And that was right at the time 00:27:03.355 --> 00:27:07.230 - in my life where I was just graduating from college. 00:27:07.714 --> 00:27:14.617 - and I was entering into that abyss time after you leave college and you're trying to find community, 00:27:14.617 --> 00:27:21.656 - and I was also starting a business in Bloomington at the exact same time. I was an entrepreneur at the 00:27:21.656 --> 00:27:28.627 - time. And that is, think about this, okay? So, and when I got my lease for the next year, it was $200 00:27:28.627 --> 00:27:34.846 - more than what I had paid that year. I was priced out of my own apartment that I lived in. 00:27:36.034 --> 00:27:43.038 - And so I looked everywhere else, I couldn't find a place to live. And so for an entire year, I was just 00:27:43.038 --> 00:27:49.841 - bouncing around on three month subleases somewhere under the table. Like literally just to afford to 00:27:49.841 --> 00:27:56.778 - live here. And that was at a time, so this is what I say, is the most unstable time in my entire life. 00:27:56.778 --> 00:28:01.694 - Mentally, emotionally, and to also be thinking about running a business. 00:28:02.050 --> 00:28:08.116 - You know, that's already such an unstable thing as well. To not have the housing is a really important 00:28:08.116 --> 00:28:14.240 - piece. I need that stability. And at the end of that year, I found out about limited cooperative living 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:20.129 - from a good friend of mine. And that was what enabled me to be able to afford to live here, as well 00:28:20.129 --> 00:28:26.431 - as be able to confidently say to you all that limited cooperative living and the cooperative model changed 00:28:26.431 --> 00:28:30.494 - my life in ways I cannot describe. Gave me a community to be around. 00:28:30.626 --> 00:28:38.164 - I don't mean to just say it in tough stories, but my whole family, oh God. My whole family, I went to 00:28:38.164 --> 00:28:45.849 - Kelly, you think I should know how to do this. I went to Kelly, sorry, I went to Kelly. My whole family 00:28:45.849 --> 00:28:53.460 - is from Syria in the Middle East, okay? When I hear stories of my mom living in Beishpat in Syria, she 00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:56.638 - lived in a cooperative living arrangement. 00:29:00.802 --> 00:29:07.722 - And the situation was it was a small little building that her, her aunts, her uncles, her grandparents 00:29:07.722 --> 00:29:14.509 - all lived in this little area. She never felt alone. That year, when I was bouncing around places, I 00:29:14.509 --> 00:29:21.227 - have never felt more alone in my entire life. And so when I found a community where I could wake up 00:29:21.227 --> 00:29:24.990 - and I hear the footsteps of my roommates, I loved that. 00:29:25.218 --> 00:29:31.178 - It's my genes, this is who I am. This is like, you wanna bring more diversity to Bloomington, you gotta 00:29:31.178 --> 00:29:36.967 - make it happen. That's community. This is other countries think about things in this way, especially 00:29:36.967 --> 00:29:42.411 - not in the West. And so this gave me the opportunity to do that. And so I'm gonna stop on BCL, 00:29:42.411 --> 00:29:48.257 - I love them. I mean, decisions made, weekly, et cetera, I feel so a part of this thing. And honestly, 00:29:48.257 --> 00:29:52.670 - the last thing I'll say is I didn't care about politics before I lived here. 00:29:53.058 --> 00:29:58.855 - Because I only could think individualistically. I could only think about making my own life. And the 00:29:58.855 --> 00:30:04.423 - second that somebody asked me, hey, Matthew, walk around the house and find projects to work on. 00:30:04.423 --> 00:30:10.163 - Get outside, dude. I was like, you're asking me to get involved in the land that I live in? With my 00:30:10.163 --> 00:30:15.902 - genes like that? You think that'd be natural? This is creating, this model doesn't just create cool 00:30:15.902 --> 00:30:21.470 - housing and affordable housing. It does that incredibly well. But it also creates collectivists. 00:30:21.666 --> 00:30:28.073 - It creates people who are thinking communally about their world and want to push this forward into the 00:30:28.073 --> 00:30:34.293 - world. No more on that. There's more models, okay? Common Grounds is one, I'll relate that here. So 00:30:34.293 --> 00:30:40.637 - there's a multi-stakeholder cooperative where the commercial businesses, the residential tenants, and 00:30:40.637 --> 00:30:43.934 - community members all as stakeholders in this model. 00:30:44.034 --> 00:30:51.072 - And this is incredible. They built local jobs, they built community spaces, they built commercial businesses 00:30:51.072 --> 00:30:57.853 - and non-profits all in one building. So, the Centerpoint Cooperative, right, all that passion that y'all 00:30:57.853 --> 00:31:04.697 - got, okay, putting into the Centerpoint Co-op. So, we want to model this off of the common grounds model. 00:31:04.697 --> 00:31:11.542 - Multi-stakeholder, because that is already what it is. Okay, we're building cooperative with what already 00:31:11.542 --> 00:31:12.446 - exists on it. 00:31:12.866 --> 00:31:19.024 - So we'll have key stakeholders, the commercial tenants, the residential tenants, and community members. 00:31:19.024 --> 00:31:25.122 - You can imagine similar to the bee foods for the community members, where you can actually get engaged 00:31:25.122 --> 00:31:31.221 - on an ownership level with the people that you're buying from or the people, the cousins that you know 00:31:31.221 --> 00:31:37.438 - that live there, et cetera. And then a board of directors that's elected by the stakeholders themselves. 00:31:38.882 --> 00:31:44.596 - So again, I talked about a lot of this, but it really, to focus here, it ensures the stability of the 00:31:44.596 --> 00:31:50.423 - affordability of the land, right? So that people like me, the business owners, don't have to be worried 00:31:50.423 --> 00:31:56.249 - about what their rent next year is gonna look like. So that the residential tenants don't have to worry 00:31:56.249 --> 00:32:01.460 - about what their rent is gonna look like. So maintaining that stability is a part of it. And 00:32:01.460 --> 00:32:06.782 - then responsibility. Because when you, like I said, when you take ownership, it becomes yours. 00:32:06.882 --> 00:32:13.068 - and you get to envision what the whole thing's gonna look like. I never for a second thought about what 00:32:13.068 --> 00:32:18.480 - Greenwich Apartments is gonna look like in Wilmington. But now, look at me, this is crazy. 00:32:18.480 --> 00:32:24.725 - I get to envision, this is the youth that said what was talking about, I get to envision what this whole 00:32:24.725 --> 00:32:30.792 - city could look like, and in a small way what Seven-Eight Point could look like, because this form of 00:32:30.792 --> 00:32:35.550 - living has encouraged me to think in that way. So, who actually owned the land? 00:32:35.842 --> 00:32:42.397 - Outlaw Community Land Trust, we talked about that. They're already doing this in limited and doing it 00:32:42.397 --> 00:32:49.017 - really well. We want to just continue with that thread. And then Cooler Management Land is a seven-way 00:32:49.017 --> 00:32:55.444 - point cooperative with our confirmed development partner, Nazco Properties, who has been doing this 00:32:55.444 --> 00:33:01.934 - exact same thing across the entire country for the last 40 years, building co-ops in different forms 00:33:01.934 --> 00:33:05.662 - and models of co-ops. And I think with their partnership, 00:33:05.762 --> 00:33:11.734 - we can make this very successful. So our team, we talk about a lot of this, we have construction experience 00:33:11.734 --> 00:33:17.484 - on the team. We have financial business experience on the team. Look at that pro forma. It's good, it's 00:33:17.484 --> 00:33:23.235 - even good. The cooperation team, which has years of co-op experience, and then community outreach team. 00:33:23.235 --> 00:33:28.874 - I mean, in terms of our consultants, we have lenders as consultants. We have people that are actively 00:33:28.874 --> 00:33:34.846 - engaged in the nonprofit space that have had decades of living here and willing to understand the dynamics. 00:33:34.978 --> 00:33:41.390 - of people that have a co-op experience for decades, decades building co-ops that we see in Bloomington, 00:33:41.390 --> 00:33:47.678 - an inspired community engagement like this. And then people have heard about this across the country. 00:33:47.678 --> 00:33:54.152 - We had a person that said, I want to fly out and come see Seminary Point to see what's going on, because 00:33:54.152 --> 00:33:59.947 - we heard about what's happening. And it was like, oh, I'd love to be a consultant. It's like, 00:33:59.947 --> 00:34:03.646 - that's amazing. We have an opportunity to be an inspiration 00:34:05.282 --> 00:34:16.500 - with our consultants. And so I'll pass it back to Sarah. Thank you all. Thank you. All right. So I'm 00:34:16.500 --> 00:34:28.272 - going to talk a little bit more about myself, my favorite topic. So I bring over a decade of construction 00:34:28.272 --> 00:34:34.270 - experience to the Bloomington Seminary Point project. 00:34:34.530 --> 00:34:41.593 - I worked for Habitat for Humanity, and as I mentioned earlier, I'm the Housing Solutions Director. I've 00:34:41.593 --> 00:34:48.587 - been there for four years, three of which I was Construction Site Supervisor. And I actually recognize 00:34:48.587 --> 00:34:55.582 - some of you from Women Plus Build, so thank you all for being here. I also previously worked at Lauren 00:34:55.582 --> 00:35:01.694 - Wood Builders, and while I was there, I worked on the Bloomington Cohousing Neighborhood, 00:35:01.826 --> 00:35:10.238 - and the Hoosier Heights Climbing Gym, along with other projects. I studied construction at Ball State, 00:35:10.238 --> 00:35:18.406 - and so I'm going to talk a little bit more about our construction plan. This is our five-year plan, 00:35:18.406 --> 00:35:27.390 - and in year one, we're going to, it will start with Avalon Community Land Trust taking ownership of the land. 00:35:27.778 --> 00:35:35.658 - Immediate repairs on the exterior will start. We'll be repairing the roof, paving the parking lot, and 00:35:35.658 --> 00:35:43.692 - there will also be the improvements of the residential units, including things like new flooring, paint, 00:35:43.692 --> 00:35:51.954 - and that sort of thing. In year one, we'll also be hiring an architect to make plans for major renovations. 00:35:51.954 --> 00:35:57.310 - And then in year two, we will be applying for grants, securing loans, 00:35:57.410 --> 00:36:05.477 - and hiring local contractors. In year two, we'll also be demolishing 432 South College, which unfortunately 00:36:05.477 --> 00:36:13.020 - is not salvageable. I'll be getting back to that in just a moment though. In year three, we'll start 00:36:13.020 --> 00:36:18.846 - major renovations at 414 South College, which is where my sister's closet is. 00:36:19.170 --> 00:36:28.993 - 422 South College, which is where Jeff's Warehouse and Blue Tip is located, and 222 West Second Street, 00:36:28.993 --> 00:36:38.533 - which is where Friendly Beasts and formerly Artisan Alley was. Those updates will include updates to 00:36:38.533 --> 00:36:46.750 - the electrical, the HVAC, the sewer, and also replacing windows. In year four, we will 00:36:47.106 --> 00:36:56.091 - We'll be finishing all of those major renovations and we'll start a feasibility study for a new housing 00:36:56.091 --> 00:37:05.163 - development at 432 South College. In year five, if deemed feasible, we'll start the construction project 00:37:05.163 --> 00:37:12.766 - at that location. Here's the exact scope and costs of everything that we have going on. 00:37:14.850 --> 00:37:23.207 - We've been talking to Tommy Dees for an estimate for the windows, commercial service for the HVAC, Cassidy 00:37:23.207 --> 00:37:31.331 - Electric for the electrical upgrades, and Kevin Potter who did an assessment in terms of the structural 00:37:31.331 --> 00:37:39.219 - integrity of the buildings. I'm now going to be passing it back to Matthew so that he can talk about 00:37:39.219 --> 00:37:44.062 - how we're going to plan to pay for this $1.6 million project. 00:37:50.530 --> 00:37:57.376 - Okay, so we have our operating budget. By the way, all of this has been reviewed by multiple lenders 00:37:57.376 --> 00:38:04.221 - and I've gotten a lot of incredible feedback throughout the process. So we killed creating this with 00:38:04.221 --> 00:38:11.270 - the same people that we went up on this. So let's talk about our gross income. So we're looking at 422K 00:38:11.270 --> 00:38:17.438 - a year. We include an assumption around vacancy loss. So assuming that some of the tenants 00:38:17.538 --> 00:38:23.690 - Some of the units won't be housed, and some of the commercial might need time, et cetera. So we can 00:38:23.690 --> 00:38:30.088 - bake that into the financials. Our residential price, with all you think, that with all the renovations 00:38:30.088 --> 00:38:36.240 - that are needed, that this would just become a totally unaffordable project, and the exact opposite 00:38:36.240 --> 00:38:42.392 - is true. We're able to keep rent prices at $700 a month, which serves 45% area median income, which 00:38:42.392 --> 00:38:47.006 - is somebody that is making $36,000 a year. This could be a whole new home. 00:38:47.202 --> 00:38:54.019 - for so many individuals in Bloomington that are often unserved. And then at commercial rent prices, 00:38:54.019 --> 00:39:01.245 - we're looking at eight to 10 square foot for each unit of the commercial, which is incredibly competitive 00:39:01.245 --> 00:39:08.130 - as well as the average commercial rent, sorry, square footage is about 16. So we create an incentive 00:39:08.130 --> 00:39:15.151 - for the commercial businesses that are going to be struggling to pay their rent to come find community 00:39:15.151 --> 00:39:16.446 - at Seminole Point. 00:39:17.314 --> 00:39:24.896 - Operating expenses, we've baked in working with property management. We've baked in part-time staff, 00:39:24.896 --> 00:39:32.629 - as well as for future projects that might need a little bit more on the outside of just the renovation 00:39:32.629 --> 00:39:40.286 - plan, having a whole reserve contributed just for that, which is great. And then, which gets us to an 00:39:40.286 --> 00:39:46.142 - income of about $244,000 a year. But when we include the debt service, we sit 00:39:46.754 --> 00:39:53.821 - a debt service coverage ratio of about 1.27. This is just a ratio that explains how well that you can 00:39:53.821 --> 00:40:01.026 - service the debt over an extended period of time. For most affordable housing plans, the financial gets 00:40:01.026 --> 00:40:08.024 - you to a debt service ratio of about 1.1 to 5, 1.2. So even in that, it gives us room and shows that 00:40:08.024 --> 00:40:14.398 - lenders would just love something like this. And so when we look at the use of the sources, 00:40:14.498 --> 00:40:20.545 - When it comes to that renovation plan that we talked about, that's the hard cost of construction. But 00:40:20.545 --> 00:40:26.592 - then we include the soft costs, the contingency, which, hey, second point, yes, there might be things 00:40:26.592 --> 00:40:32.520 - that we crack open that might be more helpful. And so we bake that in. Most projects have about 10% 00:40:32.520 --> 00:40:38.034 - contingency. We included 15% contingency, as well as pre-capital reserves and closing costs, 00:40:38.034 --> 00:40:44.318 - so about 2.1 million. And we balance that with the sources that we're already working with, four approved 00:40:44.450 --> 00:40:51.237 - clear mission-aligned lenders that we are already in conversation with, three of which, and the four 00:40:51.237 --> 00:40:58.226 - we just had asked, three of which have agreed to sign a letter of support to our mission to save Center 00:40:58.226 --> 00:41:05.013 - 8 Point and to build a cooperative. And also has said that they've looked at the financials and they 00:41:05.013 --> 00:41:11.934 - want to continue working with us. And this is before we even have the land. The lenders are interested 00:41:11.934 --> 00:41:13.278 - in seeing the land. 00:41:18.434 --> 00:41:24.743 - So let's make this happen. So how do we do this? So this is even the breakdown. We're opening up the 00:41:24.743 --> 00:41:31.427 - books. This is amazing. CDFIs across the country. And with weighted averages, we see about a 6.6% interest 00:41:31.427 --> 00:41:38.049 - rate and a 21-year maturity, all of which we've gotten confirmed that this is relatively what the numbers 00:41:38.049 --> 00:41:44.296 - would look like. So this isn't speculative, et cetera. This is really talking along with themselves 00:41:44.296 --> 00:41:47.294 - on what it would look like. This is incredible. 00:41:47.394 --> 00:41:54.668 - The one thing that we didn't make in at all, because we want to just convince people that this was absolutely 00:41:54.668 --> 00:42:01.545 - possible. We didn't make in a single dollar of grant or free money into any of this. Which means, okay, 00:42:01.545 --> 00:42:08.421 - that the debt service coverage ratio is just the payoff loans to service the entire project. That would 00:42:08.421 --> 00:42:15.232 - go up even more if we got a fraction of this by grants or by crowdfunding, all of which we're starting 00:42:15.232 --> 00:42:16.158 - to engage in. 00:42:16.386 --> 00:42:25.681 - and look into more and starting conversations with the Community Foundation as well as other city grants 00:42:25.681 --> 00:42:34.621 - and getting inspired by a lot of other crowdfunding campaigns that are around Bloomington and around 00:42:34.621 --> 00:42:43.473 - the country. Bryce, take it away, my friend. Yeah, so just to wrap things up, we'll be ending soon, 00:42:43.473 --> 00:42:45.598 - but the vision for this 00:42:45.762 --> 00:42:51.909 - space that we're talking about. It's not just purely financial. It's not purely about the economic benefits 00:42:51.909 --> 00:42:57.601 - that can come from having this cooperative space and having it known as a non-profit. But it's also 00:42:57.601 --> 00:43:03.691 - about the community that can be created. We envision the space as a micro-neighborhood that has businesses 00:43:03.691 --> 00:43:08.870 - that service the people who live there, that service the communities that are around them, 00:43:08.870 --> 00:43:14.334 - and that is stable, and that is affordable, and that is developed by the people who live there. 00:43:14.658 --> 00:43:22.001 - I mean, there are so many opportunities for what this could be. You could have community programming 00:43:22.001 --> 00:43:29.489 - in the spaces that we use. We could have events like the Block Party over and over and over again. You 00:43:29.489 --> 00:43:37.195 - could have kids playing whatever frisbee in the yard. You could do anything. The sky is really the limit. 00:43:37.195 --> 00:43:40.830 - And it's all managed democratically, and it's all 00:43:41.058 --> 00:43:47.248 - consistently affordable. There's no speculation. There's no profit incentive that's making things wildly 00:43:47.248 --> 00:43:53.320 - unaffordable. This is the vision that we had. Sounds kind of good, doesn't it? This could become a new 00:43:53.320 --> 00:43:59.450 - way of doing co-op as in Bloomington. We talked a little bit about the current existing co-ops. We have 00:43:59.450 --> 00:44:05.758 - BeeFood. We have BCL. But this would sort of combine the two by making this a mixed-use development co-op. 00:44:06.178 --> 00:44:12.080 - Like I said, stable rents, sustainability. We didn't talk a lot about that, but if we want to develop 00:44:12.080 --> 00:44:17.983 - affordable housing, and we want to make it financially and economically and ecologically sustainable, 00:44:17.983 --> 00:44:24.000 - the best way, the most ecologically sustainable thing you can do is use a building that already exists, 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:27.646 - rather than building another one. That's going to be a choice. 00:44:31.618 --> 00:44:38.073 - And so with this plan, we have the ability to preserve this character of Wilmington that we're talking 00:44:38.073 --> 00:44:44.528 - about, and not only just preserve it, enhance it. We're adding it to it. We're adding our generation's 00:44:44.528 --> 00:44:50.795 - stamp on this fine count of ours. And there really aren't many opportunities like that that you get 00:44:50.795 --> 00:44:57.250 - to see. So what's next? What can we do to make this happen? Our proposal, like we said, is for the CIB 00:44:57.250 --> 00:45:00.446 - to submit a request or a response to the RDC's RFP 00:45:00.674 --> 00:45:07.612 - or barring that those two bodies can come to some sort of arrangement that ensures that seminary point 00:45:07.612 --> 00:45:14.280 - persists, that seminary point is preserved, that it's made affordable, that it remains affordable. 00:45:14.280 --> 00:45:21.150 - I mean, this is policy. People make policy, and people can change policy, and people are who make the 00:45:21.150 --> 00:45:27.885 - decisions on this. And so the last thought that we talked about I think is the most viable solution 00:45:27.885 --> 00:45:29.502 - to realize this vision. 00:45:29.954 --> 00:45:35.620 - It's, again, it goes and from that new show, all these different boards, things that we had to learn 00:45:35.620 --> 00:45:41.343 - when we were figuring out how to save 7-8 point. I didn't know what the capital improvement board was 00:45:41.343 --> 00:45:47.177 - before this, and you didn't either, don't lie. I didn't know who was on the RDC. I didn't know how they 00:45:47.177 --> 00:45:52.844 - were appointed. I didn't know how the county handled all this conventions and stuff. Didn't know any 00:45:52.844 --> 00:45:58.398 - of that. But now, I think this is an opportunity for all of us to get involved in shaping the city 00:45:58.498 --> 00:46:05.239 - that we want to see in the future. And so if the RDC and the CID come to an agreement with respect to 00:46:05.239 --> 00:46:11.849 - a land swap, and if that agreement includes spinning off Seminary Point as its own nonprofit, well, 00:46:11.849 --> 00:46:18.458 - then we are in good shape. And then we can start refining these plans that we've made. We can start 00:46:18.458 --> 00:46:25.662 - engaging further with these lenders. We no longer have to caveat that, well, we don't actually own the land. 00:46:25.954 --> 00:46:31.583 - But we can now say that this is ours, and we want to make this thing happen. Can you help us? 00:46:31.583 --> 00:46:37.812 - And so yeah, one of the things that we want to do if we get the land is begin creating this cooperative 00:46:37.812 --> 00:46:43.801 - structure. Begin engaging the community members. Begin trying to get this community buy-in. Because 00:46:43.801 --> 00:46:49.849 - you all just raise your hands that you use and love these businesses. And I think there are probably 00:46:49.849 --> 00:46:55.838 - more people in the city who care about this sort of thing. And so we can get this community buy-in. 00:46:57.026 --> 00:47:04.248 - We can make this happen, folks. Yeah, so we have a few QR codes here that you can use to get involved. 00:47:04.248 --> 00:47:11.821 - One, to sign our letter of support, show that we have the support of the community, donate to our campaign. 00:47:11.821 --> 00:47:19.114 - This will be kind of the first bit of the crowdfunding that we've been talking about. And also, we want 00:47:19.114 --> 00:47:25.214 - feedback on this plan, on our presentation, on how clear we are, because if the public 00:47:25.474 --> 00:47:32.731 - understands it, the public is engaged on this, and on any issue, well then that is the catalyst for 00:47:32.731 --> 00:47:39.988 - very real change in our community. And that's what we want to see. So we're going to open it now to 00:47:39.988 --> 00:47:47.753 - a, oh nice pictures of these, there it is, forgot Jeff again. We're going to open it up for a Q&A session. 00:47:47.753 --> 00:47:54.430 - So we have microphones there and there. You guys can come up and ask questions if you want. 00:47:54.626 --> 00:48:08.052 - We'll be just here to answer anything that you guys have. Thank you so much for coming. I also just 00:48:08.052 --> 00:48:22.016 - want to say thank you to some of the decision makers who are here today. I won't call you out. And also 00:48:22.016 --> 00:48:24.030 - to some of the 00:48:24.322 --> 00:48:33.068 - our commercial occupants and tenants and business owners here. Thank you so much for coming out and 00:48:33.068 --> 00:48:41.814 - being here. Now I know some of you guys have questions. I mean, this is kind of complicated. Surely 00:48:41.814 --> 00:48:50.648 - someone has something to ask. Did we go up to the bottom of the slide? Yes, you can go to the bottom 00:48:50.648 --> 00:48:53.534 - of the slide. Whichever line up. 00:48:54.530 --> 00:49:09.750 - Do any of these existing rental units have accommodations for people with disabilities or an older adult 00:49:09.750 --> 00:49:23.230 - who wants to age in place and just existing on social security and have no steps to get into 00:49:24.962 --> 00:49:35.060 - That is a great question. Unfortunately, the 21 units that are currently viable are all upstairs. I 00:49:35.060 --> 00:49:45.359 - think it is definitely a hope that we have that at the building at 432, where the residential unit is 00:49:45.359 --> 00:49:54.750 - going to be demolished, that when we plan to build back there, that there would be certainly 00:49:55.394 --> 00:50:02.585 - accessible units for that contingent of the population. Because it is definitely an issue in 00:50:02.585 --> 00:50:10.858 - the affordability crisis that if you have a set income because of social security, that $200 rent increase 00:50:10.858 --> 00:50:18.668 - also affects the older population, for sure. Thank you. And also as a follow-up, the people that are 00:50:18.668 --> 00:50:23.230 - living in there now, hopefully they'll be able to continue 00:50:23.426 --> 00:50:30.875 - to live in it after this project is completed, and while they're there, will they have to be moved out 00:50:30.875 --> 00:50:38.396 - while the renovations are being done, and do you have plans for that? That is a great question as well. 00:50:38.396 --> 00:50:45.700 - So the timeline that we are kind of looking at, so there are currently 21 units, and I believe 12 of 00:50:45.700 --> 00:50:47.870 - those are currently occupied. 00:50:48.994 --> 00:50:56.905 - Sorry, there are 29 units of affordable housing. There will be 21 units, and 12 of those are currently 00:50:56.905 --> 00:51:05.277 - occupied. We're not entirely sure what those lease situations are, how many people have taken the extension, 00:51:05.277 --> 00:51:13.111 - but the first priority if Avalon Land Trust gets the property would be to improve the number of units 00:51:13.111 --> 00:51:18.718 - so that whoever wants to stay there, those units are the first ones that 00:51:20.194 --> 00:51:29.470 - that get the deferred maintenance that they are currently experiencing addressed. And so it might involve 00:51:29.470 --> 00:51:38.308 - them moving, but it might be from one unit to another unit on the same property. Thank you. Hello. I 00:51:38.308 --> 00:51:47.934 - had a question about the proportion of commercial spaces to community spaces that y'all might be envisioning. 00:51:48.066 --> 00:51:54.502 - I don't know if it's too early in the process, you know, to be thinking about that, but you had mentioned 00:51:54.502 --> 00:52:00.817 - rhinos at one point as a community org that used to exist here in Bloomington and had a physical space. 00:52:00.817 --> 00:52:07.193 - I know they're currently engaged in a campaign to potentially try to bring that back. Is there a certain 00:52:07.193 --> 00:52:13.629 - percentage of the sort of like what is now commercial space or used to be artisanally that you see being, 00:52:13.629 --> 00:52:17.758 - you know, you could subsidize and make happen as a community space? 00:52:21.538 --> 00:52:31.332 - So it definitely depends on what commercial tenants are there currently that are interested in staying. 00:52:31.332 --> 00:52:39.902 - We want to give those businesses priority, but I know that my sister's closet for example, 00:52:40.034 --> 00:52:47.983 - already has a location elsewhere secured. So that is a space that we would love to see. It also, Rhinos, 00:52:47.983 --> 00:52:56.083 - for those of you who don't know, is a music venue and was a kind of all ages space that was really beloved 00:52:56.083 --> 00:53:03.653 - in the community. And my sister's closet would kind of be an ideal location just because it doesn't 00:53:03.653 --> 00:53:08.574 - have any residential units above it. So it doesn't have the same 00:53:08.770 --> 00:53:15.745 - core grammar concerns or things like that. So it does kind of depend. We're also talking to the former 00:53:15.745 --> 00:53:22.585 - owner of Artisan Alley for the space that used to be Artisan Alley and bringing some space like that 00:53:22.585 --> 00:53:30.238 - back. But it is definitely something that we're open to a lot of kind of different mechanisms. But until we have 00:53:31.426 --> 00:53:37.656 - It's very difficult to get commercial tenants when you don't own the building yet. People don't want 00:53:37.656 --> 00:53:44.379 - to sign contracts, apparently, for space you don't own. Shockingly. But thank you so much for your question. 00:53:44.379 --> 00:53:50.856 - Did that answer your question? I believe so. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else, please? I see you raised 00:53:50.856 --> 00:53:57.579 - your hand. If you want to shout your question, we'll try to repeat it in case people don't hear. Absolutely. 00:53:57.579 --> 00:54:01.342 - So do the current commercial tenants and residential tenants 00:54:01.698 --> 00:54:09.324 - What's your relationship with them? Are they, broadly speaking, on board with this? Where are they in 00:54:09.324 --> 00:54:16.876 - this process? We've been actively engaging the actual tenants. To be honest, a lot of them have been 00:54:16.876 --> 00:54:24.951 - expressing that they want to get more involved, but a lot of their lives do not operate around traditional, 00:54:24.951 --> 00:54:30.334 - like how we see conventional timelines around meeting times, et cetera. 00:54:30.530 --> 00:54:38.661 - They see us as the people that are fighting and advocating for them. I mean, we have a current tenant 00:54:38.661 --> 00:54:46.633 - on our team that will be helping build the cooperative. Want to raise your hand? Yeah, team. I also 00:54:46.633 --> 00:54:54.844 - just want to add that we are in conversation with a lot of the commercial spaces as well. And they are 00:54:54.844 --> 00:54:58.750 - also interested in staying to different degrees. 00:54:58.978 --> 00:55:06.988 - and are definitely encouraged by everything that's currently going on with the CID and RDC. Yeah, and 00:55:06.988 --> 00:55:15.233 - just for a little bit more background on this, when the leases were terminated, when the current tenants 00:55:15.233 --> 00:55:23.243 - were informed that their leases wouldn't be extended, there was some degree of support from different 00:55:23.243 --> 00:55:28.190 - community groups and different county groups to help them find 00:55:28.706 --> 00:55:35.346 - similar housing at a similar cost at a similar location. It did not work. And so some people have found 00:55:35.346 --> 00:55:41.922 - other arrangements. Some people are just staying there until they get fully evicted because they don't 00:55:41.922 --> 00:55:48.498 - want to uproot their lives. And so a number of tenants have expressed to us explicitly that they would 00:55:48.498 --> 00:55:54.882 - love to be part of this new cooperative structure, even if they're not going to be at every meeting 00:55:54.882 --> 00:55:56.606 - or they're not going to be 00:55:56.994 --> 00:56:04.110 - giving presentations on the financial, they're interested in the fact that they can stay in their home 00:56:04.110 --> 00:56:11.158 - and they won't have to be priced out. I mean, that should be enough for anybody, really. Yes, please, 00:56:11.158 --> 00:56:18.620 - please. Yeah, walk up to them. You can line up and form a queue. Just for the QR code that came up earlier, 00:56:18.620 --> 00:56:25.598 - what is this? Is this close enough? What are these first round of donations for? What would they be? 00:56:25.858 --> 00:56:32.148 - So this first round of donations is for things like initially legal support, right? We have a lawyer 00:56:32.148 --> 00:56:38.377 - that we're working with who has been very generous with his time and energies. We'd love to be able 00:56:38.377 --> 00:56:44.605 - to pay him properly. But it's also building whatever expenses that come up in the process. If we do 00:56:44.605 --> 00:56:50.833 - go through with this deal, I mean, there's all sorts of things called closing costs that we'll have 00:56:50.833 --> 00:56:55.006 - to be able to fund. And there's also a thing with lenders in which 00:56:55.202 --> 00:57:02.690 - they would like anyone receiving their loans, any department they have, to have some capital on hand 00:57:02.690 --> 00:57:10.104 - to just ensure that if something happens, the project wouldn't be instantly put out of this lender. 00:57:10.104 --> 00:57:17.889 - And so that's what the funds would initially go to. Thank you. That's a good question. Is this on? Yeah, 00:57:17.889 --> 00:57:21.374 - we're very high up. I just have two questions. 00:57:31.938 --> 00:57:40.086 - The second would be, I think BCL is great, but I didn't think it attracts a specific demographic. And 00:57:40.086 --> 00:57:48.154 - I think this would be, I think we cater to people outside of that demographic with different values. 00:57:48.154 --> 00:57:56.062 - And so, how are you planning on managing that? We can't hear her. Okay, so the first question was, 00:57:56.674 --> 00:58:02.458 - I'm sorry, can you say it? The construction. Yeah, the first question was about managing the construction. 00:58:02.458 --> 00:58:08.188 - This is a big project, and a bunch of volunteers might not be the best people to take that on. But that's 00:58:08.188 --> 00:58:13.648 - why, in this project, we have included not only a property manager, but also a part-time staffer who 00:58:13.648 --> 00:58:19.378 - would be taking on these sorts of things. And being able to have their job is to think about the process, 00:58:19.378 --> 00:58:25.054 - to guide the process, be a point of contact for people if they have concerns, wants, wishes, or desires. 00:58:25.346 --> 00:58:31.711 - And so that's priced in. And even with the part-time manager, this doesn't mean that the volunteers 00:58:31.711 --> 00:58:38.203 - are going to go away. All of that stuff can't be done by volunteers, but the volunteers can certainly 00:58:38.203 --> 00:58:44.759 - help. As to the different demographics and the different kinds of people who go to BCL, you're exactly 00:58:44.759 --> 00:58:51.506 - right. The BCL houses, they're all single room occupancy, shared communal spaces, shared kitchens, shared 00:58:51.506 --> 00:58:55.070 - bathrooms, and things like that. This is not like that. 00:58:55.234 --> 00:59:01.305 - This is, these are one bedroom apartments. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. There aren't, you know, community 00:59:01.305 --> 00:59:06.752 - kitchens or community living rooms or anything like that. And so it would be a lot less of the, 00:59:06.752 --> 00:59:12.482 - you know, communal living and more of just the cooperative ownership structure that allows people to 00:59:12.482 --> 00:59:14.014 - have a say in their lives. 00:59:14.210 --> 00:59:22.298 - Think of it like if you have an apartment right now, your landlord asks you what you bought, and then 00:59:22.298 --> 00:59:30.466 - took that into account. But that's kind of the model that we're using. Does that answer your question? 00:59:30.466 --> 00:59:38.633 - And that is, I think, why we have baited in that the elect, that the stakeholders, like the residents, 00:59:38.633 --> 00:59:41.726 - let's say, will elect representatives. 00:59:41.986 --> 00:59:47.463 - So at the very least they have a vote for that, as well as just like decision making for their whole 00:59:47.463 --> 00:59:53.049 - stakeholder group. But for people, yes, that maybe have multiple jobs and can't go to weekly meetings, 00:59:53.049 --> 00:59:58.527 - et cetera, 100% that's OK. That's why they elect those representatives to be the voice for them. And 00:59:58.527 --> 01:00:04.113 - those stakeholders will have somewhat consistent meetings that they will arrange around the times that 01:00:04.113 --> 01:00:04.926 - are available. 01:00:10.146 --> 01:00:17.734 - I was just curious if there are any family co-ops in Bloomington, and assuming that some of the people 01:00:17.734 --> 01:00:25.470 - want to have families. And then also, is this a structure that you're talking about that can incorporate 01:00:25.470 --> 01:00:32.837 - other locations in the future, or is it just restricted to this location? Thank you so much for the 01:00:32.837 --> 01:00:38.878 - question. Did everyone hear the question? Anyone need it repeated? Wonderful. OK. 01:00:41.282 --> 01:00:49.768 - I would say that this absolutely is, again, since these are all single family or single bedroom units, 01:00:49.768 --> 01:00:58.007 - it does lend itself more to either single people, couples, or early families. I think the beauty of 01:00:58.007 --> 01:00:59.902 - this initially is that 01:01:00.002 --> 01:01:07.295 - Right now, it is incredibly difficult for young couples or single people to start saving for a house 01:01:07.295 --> 01:01:14.659 - or start saving for those larger expenses like a family. And so this is something that would actually 01:01:14.659 --> 01:01:22.024 - allow, for example, if that rent, the graph that I showed, where it's $1,100 a month for rent, if you 01:01:22.024 --> 01:01:27.006 - live here, you can save that $400 and put it towards something else. 01:01:27.426 --> 01:01:34.871 - So I think that this absolutely is something that can be beneficial to eventually families that are 01:01:34.871 --> 01:01:42.613 - just starting out. This also kind of goes back to the question that Jean asked, which is I do hope that 01:01:42.613 --> 01:01:50.058 - eventually there will be a project that happens at 432 South College and that it can be, this model 01:01:50.058 --> 01:01:54.078 - can be expanded there and serve as potentially larger 01:01:54.210 --> 01:02:02.197 - bedroom houses and units so that it can be beneficial for families so families could potentially be 01:02:02.197 --> 01:02:10.344 - there maybe you know it's an area that a daycare could go on the first floor I mean the possibilities 01:02:10.344 --> 01:02:16.894 - are kind of endless here and then your second question in terms of whether or not 01:02:17.058 --> 01:02:25.234 - this could be expanded, it absolutely could. If this is a project that goes through, and honestly, even 01:02:25.234 --> 01:02:33.331 - if it's one that doesn't, this is a model that is viable and worth doing in Bloomington. And no matter 01:02:33.331 --> 01:02:41.507 - what happens, this group isn't going anywhere. So this is absolutely something that we want to continue 01:02:41.507 --> 01:02:45.438 - promoting and doing in Bloomington. So thank you. 01:02:46.402 --> 01:02:53.102 - I'm speaking out of school, but I think part of her question also was, does BCL have units that have 01:02:53.102 --> 01:03:00.000 - families? The answer's yeah. Thank you. Yeah, so in my house alone, there was about three families that 01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:06.965 - have lived there. There are individual suite units that have rooms within the suites. And it was amazing 01:03:06.965 --> 01:03:13.598 - to be able to hang out with little kids and also be a grad student. It was a beautiful arrangement. 01:03:13.826 --> 01:03:20.539 - But there's a lot of projects actually in town right now, a lot of which Avalon Community Land Trust 01:03:20.539 --> 01:03:27.652 - also has a co-op that they have families in. And then Bloomington Cooperative Living has a lot of internal 01:03:27.652 --> 01:03:34.564 - projects that we're working on exactly around addressing the ability to have family-based cooperatives. 01:03:34.564 --> 01:03:41.211 - But not even just like shared living spaces that can be in the model, but like actually like having 01:03:41.211 --> 01:03:42.142 - a little home 01:03:42.466 --> 01:03:50.037 - for the family to exist in, but on a cooperative land. Hi, I don't have a question. I'm Capita Basilia. 01:03:50.037 --> 01:03:57.826 - I'm an assistant professor in geography at IU, and I'm a researcher of housing and evictions and community 01:03:57.826 --> 01:04:05.252 - land trusts. And I really want to commend Homes for All for all the work that you've been doing. It's 01:04:05.252 --> 01:04:08.382 - really been amazing how far you have come. 01:04:13.538 --> 01:04:23.532 - that if these bodies of government want to support deep affordable, permanently affordable housing that 01:04:23.532 --> 01:04:33.141 - is community controlled, this is it. So thank you. Thank you. Just one more question. It seems like 01:04:33.141 --> 01:04:42.270 - there are decision makers who are not fully on board. Who are they? Why are they not on board? 01:04:43.682 --> 01:04:49.381 - Well, so this alludes back to this complicated political situation that I was talking about. 01:04:49.381 --> 01:04:55.815 - On one hand, you have the property owners, the current property owners, the CID, the Capital Improvement 01:04:55.815 --> 01:05:02.065 - Board. And think of them as a machine designed to get the convention center built at all cost and get 01:05:02.065 --> 01:05:08.315 - the other project, the hotel and stuff built at all cost, come what may. And they express their goals 01:05:08.315 --> 01:05:13.278 - very clearly. They need a host hotel. They would prefer the College Square site. 01:05:13.890 --> 01:05:21.664 - But they have seminary point. And they were refused negotiations between them and the RDC to transfer 01:05:21.664 --> 01:05:29.362 - that property. And so they have moved forward with demolition permits, with evictions, and with just 01:05:29.362 --> 01:05:36.984 - general planning, reaching out to see if there are any developers who want to buy that property. So 01:05:36.984 --> 01:05:42.014 - that's their position. But the RDC has an open call for proposals 01:05:42.242 --> 01:05:49.721 - out for College Square. The CIB could, in theory, send a proposal in response to that RFP that includes 01:05:49.721 --> 01:05:56.912 - basically the plan that we're saying. OK, you give us College Square, and then we'll give an Avalon 01:05:56.912 --> 01:06:04.176 - community land trust seminary point to manage. But the current CIB has refused to do so because they 01:06:04.176 --> 01:06:12.158 - believe that the burden is no longer on them to do so because of the previous efforts that have been rejected. 01:06:12.482 --> 01:06:19.942 - That's their position, and I've talked with John Weicker, who's the head of the CIP, and that position 01:06:19.942 --> 01:06:26.678 - hasn't really changed. The other decision maker that would have to agree to this is the RDC, 01:06:26.678 --> 01:06:33.993 - the Redevelopment Commission. They have to agree to any deal that is proposed. So that's one hurdle. 01:06:33.993 --> 01:06:41.598 - And there might be something that they could do to encourage the CIP to submit a proposal, or they could 01:06:41.858 --> 01:06:49.246 - call them up and say, let's figure this out on the side or something. They have statutory requirements. 01:06:49.246 --> 01:06:56.492 - They have statutory restrictions on what they can do. But within those, there might be a way to solve 01:06:56.492 --> 01:07:03.809 - this. And at the top of this, these are all government bodies. And so the RDC is under the Housing and 01:07:03.809 --> 01:07:06.366 - Neighborhood Development Department 01:07:06.754 --> 01:07:13.141 - of Bloomington, and the CIB has members that were appointed by the county, by the city. And so there 01:07:13.141 --> 01:07:19.591 - are decision makers who could find a way to do this. We've outlined one path that they could do that. 01:07:19.591 --> 01:07:26.041 - And I encourage you all to, if you really want to see this happen, call your elected representatives. 01:07:26.041 --> 01:07:32.365 - Leave messages in city hall. Tell them what you think. Tell them what you want to happen. They work 01:07:32.365 --> 01:07:36.286 - for you. So that's what the situation is now. This past week, 01:07:36.674 --> 01:07:44.315 - We've seen movement from the mayor who came out in an interview and said that, yes, we would love to 01:07:44.315 --> 01:07:52.106 - see Seminary Point saved. So that might be open the door to new opportunities, new levers of pressure, 01:07:52.106 --> 01:07:59.747 - but we'll see what happens. I will say she did encourage the CIV to put forth. She did encourage and 01:07:59.747 --> 01:08:05.950 - she explicitly encouraged the CIV to put forth the proposal. Will the CIV listen? 01:08:06.882 --> 01:08:14.305 - We don't know. But we're exploring different ways to use our collective power to put pressure on these 01:08:14.305 --> 01:08:22.017 - groups to get them to do what is necessary to preserve a centenary point and encourage affordable housing. 01:08:22.017 --> 01:08:29.728 - The war doesn't stop with this public forum. The war continues. Is the CIP contact at all on your website? 01:08:29.728 --> 01:08:35.422 - It used to. I can't speak to it right now. But we can definitely put it there. 01:08:35.618 --> 01:08:42.686 - Just look up the Bloomington or the Monroe County Capital Improvement Board. Can you repeat the question? 01:08:42.686 --> 01:08:49.488 - Oh, sorry. The question was whether or not the CIB's contact information was on our Bloomington Homes 01:08:49.488 --> 01:08:56.423 - for All website. It was. We had an Action Network form that sent an email out to them. We might be able 01:08:56.423 --> 01:09:03.358 - to just forward around that right now, just after your question. I have a question. I'll go to the mic. 01:09:03.842 --> 01:09:09.952 - All right, we're budgeting for 15 more minutes. I mean, if you guys have more questions, please. I'll 01:09:09.952 --> 01:09:16.182 - take two minutes. So yesterday, I was having a meeting with some folks that seemed to be informed about 01:09:16.182 --> 01:09:22.112 - these things, which I'm not totally informed about it. But it seemed to be that with this constant 01:09:22.112 --> 01:09:28.282 - construction of hotels, hotels, hotels, that it seems that the hotels are having a problem filling the 01:09:28.282 --> 01:09:33.374 - hotels. And so the idea that there's going to be two more hotels seems to be totally 01:09:34.210 --> 01:09:40.708 - inconsistent with any management of good community, the building of good community. So I just wanted 01:09:40.708 --> 01:09:47.334 - to get your comments on that. Yeah. I don't know the status of the hotel's vacancy, but if what you're 01:09:47.334 --> 01:09:53.768 - saying is true, well, then it makes it all the more urgent for us to ensure that this land is being 01:09:53.768 --> 01:09:58.014 - used for affordable housing instead of hotels that won't be used. 01:10:02.242 --> 01:10:12.249 - I have a question. Is there an explicit deadline for us to get this proposal moving? So, yes. The deadline, 01:10:12.249 --> 01:10:21.514 - in fact, we have a slide that shows some of the critical points on the timeline. Right now, the CIP 01:10:21.514 --> 01:10:28.926 - has a request for proposals out on Seminary Point. Wow, there's so many slides. 01:10:29.762 --> 01:10:37.008 - But the CID has a request for proposals out on Seminary Point. So this has been putting the call out 01:10:37.008 --> 01:10:44.182 - that says, any developers who want to use this land to build something, send us a note. We can make 01:10:44.182 --> 01:10:51.500 - a deal. That period for proposal ends on June the 30th. Now at their last meeting this past week, the 01:10:51.500 --> 01:10:57.598 - CID has said that immediately after that, they're planning to hold a special session 01:10:57.794 --> 01:11:05.474 - in which they will appoint a group of people to review any offers that they might have gotten, and then 01:11:05.474 --> 01:11:13.227 - give a recommendation by their meeting on July 15th. So these are all critical dates that are important. 01:11:13.227 --> 01:11:20.685 - The Redevelopment Commission has a request for proposals out in College Square, and that period ends 01:11:20.685 --> 01:11:23.934 - on July 20th. So there'll be a period where 01:11:24.162 --> 01:11:30.289 - You know, these bodies have the proposals from developers who want to use this. But it's up to them 01:11:30.289 --> 01:11:37.029 - whether or not they want to act on this. So there is no timeline on when they have to act on these proposals. 01:11:37.029 --> 01:11:43.401 - You know, public pressure might change this timeline to some degree. But regardless, the CIB's timeline 01:11:43.401 --> 01:11:49.895 - about evictions is a critical one. August 31 was the date that these leases were extended to. But there's 01:11:49.895 --> 01:11:53.694 - no guarantee that the CIB will extend the leases beyond that. 01:11:53.858 --> 01:12:01.047 - One thing that could get them to extend those leases is if the RDC or the mayor's office or someone 01:12:01.047 --> 01:12:08.308 - got in contact with them and said that a deal for this land swap is on the table, extend the leases, 01:12:08.308 --> 01:12:15.569 - and we can talk about this in the interim. That would be one way to incentivize them to do that. But 01:12:15.569 --> 01:12:22.686 - if people are kicked out of the building and displaced, as long as the building is still standing, 01:12:22.882 --> 01:12:28.664 - There is still an opportunity for a movement on this. There's still an opportunity. Even if all the 01:12:28.664 --> 01:12:34.561 - businesses and all the tenants are kicked out, which is not a scenario that we want, but even if that 01:12:34.561 --> 01:12:40.632 - does happen, there is still an opportunity to save this housing and get new tenants there at these price 01:12:40.632 --> 01:12:46.413 - points. So that's kind of a complicated and difficult answer to this. There's a number of deadlines 01:12:46.413 --> 01:12:52.542 - for a number of different things. But for all the decision makers, we want this done as soon as possible. 01:12:52.738 --> 01:12:59.551 - Right, the longer we delay all this, the more businesses leave, the more tenants leave, and the harder 01:12:59.551 --> 01:13:06.232 - it is to sustain them. Yes. Yeah, so it looks to me that the map actually check out all these plans. 01:13:06.232 --> 01:13:13.112 - So it seems to me that this decision ultimately points out to someone somewhere to make some decisions, 01:13:13.112 --> 01:13:20.190 - right? So can you make a comment on, in terms of DCIB or the RDC thing, are they political appointees that 01:13:20.418 --> 01:13:27.838 - Or are they making these decisions with some other sort of interest in mind? A potential thing, 01:13:27.838 --> 01:13:35.566 - for example, is that if this deal comes out, you guys become a new sort of landlord in Putin. So is 01:13:35.566 --> 01:13:43.527 - there any competitive thing financially, economically, that might interfere with this decision between 01:13:43.527 --> 01:13:45.150 - the CIV and the REC? 01:13:45.442 --> 01:13:51.202 - That's a two-pronged question. I'll handle the second part first. Are there any financial incentives 01:13:51.202 --> 01:13:57.361 - to keep this deal from going forward? There is kind of one on the city's end, right? If we have a nonprofit 01:13:57.361 --> 01:14:03.292 - take control of this land, then that is tax revenue that the city doesn't get. And so if you're looking 01:14:03.292 --> 01:14:09.108 - at numbers, they might be incentivized to maximize the amount of tax revenue they get. Whether or not 01:14:09.108 --> 01:14:14.526 - that's worth displacing people from living there, that's a policy question, a policy decision. 01:14:14.978 --> 01:14:20.404 - But there's also the financial pressure of a developer. Like if there was a developer who says that 01:14:20.404 --> 01:14:25.831 - I watch Seminary Point because I want to do this with it because I know I can make a bunch of money 01:14:25.831 --> 01:14:31.366 - with it, well that would be another form of pressure against this kind of deal. The problem is, there 01:14:31.366 --> 01:14:36.792 - doesn't seem to be any developer. We don't know how many have reached out to the CIB in response to 01:14:36.792 --> 01:14:38.366 - their RP. Goodness gracious. 01:14:38.626 --> 01:14:46.946 - I'm so sorry, but you always do that, right? We don't know how many people have reached out to the Capital 01:14:46.946 --> 01:14:54.799 - Improvement Board in response to their request for proposals for secondary funding. It might be 100, 01:14:54.799 --> 01:15:02.575 - it might be zero, but we'll find out on July 1st, the day after the end of that call. And the other 01:15:02.575 --> 01:15:05.918 - part is the first part of the question is, 01:15:06.626 --> 01:15:13.276 - It's kind of about, can you say that first part again? Yeah, can you clarify the CIB and RDC? Are they 01:15:13.276 --> 01:15:19.862 - making these decisions based on some political or economic or financial agenda? What is their nature? 01:15:19.862 --> 01:15:26.705 - Yeah, so the CIB, like I mentioned, is a machine designed to build a convention center and its associated 01:15:26.705 --> 01:15:33.226 - projects. Build a hotel, build a convention center. Whatever happens, we need to get this done. They 01:15:33.226 --> 01:15:35.486 - are appointed by political bodies. 01:15:35.650 --> 01:15:41.639 - They actually have appointees from the city council, the county council, the county commission, and 01:15:41.639 --> 01:15:47.807 - the mayor's office. But they do operate independently. They have their own meetings. As far as I know, 01:15:47.807 --> 01:15:53.796 - no one has been like, you must do this for this purpose. They have their mandates written down, and 01:15:53.796 --> 01:16:00.024 - they know it. The RDC is a body made up of three people appointed by the mayor and two people appointed 01:16:00.024 --> 01:16:03.198 - by the city council. And their ostensible goal is to 01:16:04.610 --> 01:16:10.853 - Encourage the development of Bloomington for the betterment of Bloomington, which you can interpret 01:16:10.853 --> 01:16:17.283 - that in a lot of different ways. We are encouraging them to interpret that to mean preserve affordable 01:16:17.283 --> 01:16:23.651 - housing at all costs. And when it comes to the incentives, I mean, the baits into our presentation is 01:16:23.651 --> 01:16:30.081 - the fact that the incentive is that the better location for the Convention Center is remarkably clear. 01:16:30.081 --> 01:16:31.454 - And then for the RDC, 01:16:31.650 --> 01:16:39.454 - the incentive is that they're already working on affordable housing projects. And this would be to continue 01:16:39.454 --> 01:16:46.897 - to care about affordable housing, not in the sense of being a landlord, right? We already talked about 01:16:46.897 --> 01:16:54.195 - how our management ownership would work, but just in the sense of maintaining the thing that they're 01:16:54.195 --> 01:16:59.614 - already pursuing in other projects. Yeah. I also, I don't have a question. 01:16:59.906 --> 01:17:08.397 - but my name's Evie Barbu and I'm one of the members of the board at Avalon Community Land Trust, which 01:17:08.397 --> 01:17:17.052 - is the land trust in partnership with the board. And to echo what Patricia said earlier, I've been very, 01:17:17.052 --> 01:17:25.790 - very impressed with this group from the beginning. The thoroughness with which you've done your research, 01:17:26.114 --> 01:17:34.579 - reached out to everyone, like all the stakeholders, done your community feedback, formed relationships 01:17:34.579 --> 01:17:43.373 - with the tenants and the current commercial leases has been really incredible. And this is sort of exactly 01:17:43.373 --> 01:17:51.592 - why ACLT was formed, was to take on these sorts of projects and to be an umbrella organization that 01:17:51.592 --> 01:17:56.030 - can support these community-based, deeply grassroots, 01:17:56.194 --> 01:18:03.395 - projects committed to long-term affordability and shaping Wilmington. So I just want to say we're really 01:18:03.395 --> 01:18:10.322 - proud to be partners with y'all and are committed to follow through not just with the acquisition of 01:18:10.322 --> 01:18:17.455 - the property, but to be ongoing partners in developing a really strong community-based cooperative into 01:18:17.455 --> 01:18:23.902 - the future. So I'm also really happy to see so many people here and so many unfamiliar faces. 01:18:24.066 --> 01:18:33.044 - I encourage y'all to continue to be involved. Reach out to your representatives. They're not scary. 01:18:33.044 --> 01:18:42.292 - They're just people and members of the community. And so, yeah, continue to be involved. And thank you 01:18:42.292 --> 01:18:51.540 - for everything that you're doing. Projects like this do not happen without other organizations to help 01:18:51.540 --> 01:18:53.246 - support it. Sorry. 01:18:53.826 --> 01:19:03.040 - You've repeated the acronym so many times, but it's a little bit offensive to me. So we're waiting on 01:19:03.040 --> 01:19:12.163 - the RDC to put in for the RFP. We're waiting for the CIB to submit, sorry. I'm with you, we're ready 01:19:12.163 --> 01:19:21.376 - to go. The capital and Peru are more than one similar point. We want them to submit a proposal to the 01:19:21.376 --> 01:19:23.454 - RDC to call it square. 01:19:23.650 --> 01:19:29.478 - write that north property that everyone knows better for a conventional center. In exchange, in a sense, 01:19:29.478 --> 01:19:35.140 - for a sender eight point. To come to Avalon Camino Land Trust as a sender eight point cooperative. So 01:19:35.140 --> 01:19:40.968 - they've not done that this round because they've been rejected in the past. I'm assuming that with these 01:19:40.968 --> 01:19:46.575 - rejections, just because of how they took it, they go, that's come with criticism? Yes, so right now 01:19:46.575 --> 01:19:52.958 - the claim is that the appraised values of the two lands are different enough for them to not be an equal exchange. 01:19:53.250 --> 01:20:00.078 - But the thing that we're saying and the thing that city council is saying and the thing that the mayor 01:20:00.078 --> 01:20:07.038 - is saying is that we don't look at it as a subsidy for the convention center. We look at it as a subsidy 01:20:07.038 --> 01:20:13.865 - for affordable housing. Right. And the CIB is one of those boards that have people who've been elected 01:20:13.865 --> 01:20:19.102 - by the mayor, appointed by the mayor, elected by the council. Yes. Yes. Great. 01:20:19.330 --> 01:20:24.720 - Sorry, for a moment I was just kind of coming up with potentially a strange pride thing. So that was 01:20:24.720 --> 01:20:30.111 - becoming really hard for me to wrap my head around. Like, what are we waiting on and why, if we have 01:20:30.111 --> 01:20:35.447 - basically everyone's approval, quote unquote, except the CIVs, what we've been stuck waiting on for 01:20:35.447 --> 01:20:40.838 - them, if it's really just boiling down to well, they've been rejected once they find somebody. Yeah, 01:20:40.838 --> 01:20:45.214 - did you want to? Yeah, I was just going to say, I think it comes down to the fact 01:20:45.314 --> 01:20:51.400 - didn't have that mandate that would have allowed them to move forward with it for a long time. And we've 01:20:51.400 --> 01:20:57.369 - only recently had a lot of action on the city council's part or on the mayor, right? Like, things have 01:20:57.369 --> 01:21:03.397 - changed in just the last month or two that, yeah. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of true, 01:21:03.397 --> 01:21:09.193 - right? Things have changed over the last month. Like, yeah, a few weeks ago, the city council voted 01:21:09.193 --> 01:21:13.598 - 8-0 endorsing this kind of plan. Two days ago, the mayor came out and said, 01:21:13.762 --> 01:21:21.423 - Yes, we want to save Seminary Point. But after both of these things, the CIB has come out and said, 01:21:21.423 --> 01:21:29.391 - well, we're still not going to submit a proposal until the RDC says, no, we're going to talk about this 01:21:29.391 --> 01:21:37.206 - land swap outside of this formal RFP process. They say that they don't want to submit a proposal. You 01:21:37.206 --> 01:21:41.726 - can go and actually read this in John Weikert's own words. 01:21:41.858 --> 01:21:50.002 - He left a comment on the most recent B Square Bolton article about this, you know, he comments there, 01:21:50.002 --> 01:21:58.066 - he reads it. And he said it, he lists the times that he's asked the RDC to swap the land and it goes 01:21:58.066 --> 01:22:06.529 - back to like 2024. And his reasoning for not continuing now is because ostensibly the RFP is still asking 01:22:06.529 --> 01:22:07.806 - for $7 million. 01:22:08.034 --> 01:22:15.213 - But I think the indication from the city council and the indication from the mayor means that if a proposal 01:22:15.213 --> 01:22:21.860 - was submitted that didn't reach that price point, but that still reached this mandate of affordable 01:22:21.860 --> 01:22:28.706 - housing, then it would be fairly considered and evaluated. He doesn't seem to care about it. There are 01:22:28.706 --> 01:22:35.486 - a lot of mechanisms that we can use to push on this. But fundamentally, if these bodies don't come to 01:22:35.486 --> 01:22:37.214 - some sort of arrangement, 01:22:37.410 --> 01:22:43.831 - which they have the ability to do to some degree, even outside of the RFP process. If they don't come 01:22:43.831 --> 01:22:50.126 - to some sort of arrangement, and soon, well then what I said will happen. The tenants will continue 01:22:50.126 --> 01:22:56.421 - to leave, and the property will be demolished. Thank you for this question. It is 1.30. I just want 01:22:56.421 --> 01:23:02.968 - to be respectful of everyone's time. There are so many important questions here, and especially there's 01:23:02.968 --> 01:23:06.430 - a lot of complex political work that needs to be done. 01:23:06.530 --> 01:23:13.889 - Two key things that we can ask you to do is to email John Whitehart and the CIB to submit a proposal 01:23:13.889 --> 01:23:21.322 - to the RDC, which we'll call it Square, and to also, you can look up when the CIB meetings are. We're 01:23:21.322 --> 01:23:28.754 - gonna be there, okay? And the second thing that you can do is email and engage the RDC members to ask 01:23:28.754 --> 01:23:36.478 - them to engage with the CIB, potentially in a non-traditional way, and not to do requests for a proposal, 01:23:36.738 --> 01:23:42.305 - and or to help them accept, if the city does submit a proposal to accept that for the sake of saving 01:23:42.305 --> 01:23:47.817 - affordable housing. Those are two clear bodies that you can take away today to start engaging with, 01:23:47.817 --> 01:23:53.330 - coming to those meetings. You can see the calendars on the city website. We will be there. You will 01:23:53.330 --> 01:23:59.007 - not be alone if you go there, okay? And if you want more of this, please talk to us after. Anyone with 01:23:59.007 --> 01:24:02.590 - a button that says Save Center Point, Bloomington Homes for All, 01:24:02.850 --> 01:24:09.171 - We are representing this project. Let's talk more, guys. We can make this happen as a community. This 01:24:09.171 --> 01:24:15.617 - can be something that we leave as a generational piece of what Bloomington can be. Because I don't like 01:24:15.617 --> 01:24:21.938 - the fact that we call that area Crow Ghetto. That can be something that we make incredibly beautiful. 01:24:21.938 --> 01:24:26.462 - So this is the time. Thank you so much, each of you for your time today.