I'm going to order. Roll call. Mr. Dishman. Here. Mr. Lewis. Is absent. Mr. Brian. Here. Mr. Farmer. Here. Mr. Scari. Here. Mr. Semp. Here. Mr. Semp. Sorry about this. Wackens. Here. Mr. Chairman, you do have a quorum. Thank you. You have the agenda in front of you so any changes anyone has to the agenda. If not, I need a motion to approve. I move a motion to approve the agenda. A second. We have a motion and a second. Mr. Dishman. Aye. Mr. Lewis is absent. Mr. Brian. Ah, Mr. Farmer. Aye. Mr. Ross-Scary. the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the anybody from the public to speak on any matters. There's anybody who wants to speak. Take that as a note. Now we'll move to the action items. First would be approval of the minutes from the September 19th meeting. Anybody have any changes? If not, we'll need a motion to approve. Make a motion. Second. Motion by Mr. Farmer, second by Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Dismann. Aye. Mr. Lewis is absent. Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Farmer. Aye. Mr. Scari. Aye. Mr. Zim. Aye. Mr. Watkins. Aye. Okay. Next, Mr. Frank, if we could start with the first enhancement grant application. Good evening. On September 30th, we received an additional grant for the Route 1 facade enhancement from MW Auto Sales. He had originally applied for a grant and was awarded $10,550 in September for several projects. MW Auto Sales is located at 1-2-2-90 Washington Highway in the town of Ashland. The original grant was awarded at $10,550 and project improvement total for $21,140 and 20 cents. He is having the, for the previous projects where pavement and sidewalk, the new addition of a sign and tree removal and tree trimming. For this month and this agenda, he has submitted several projects for a total of $7,728. The pressure washing of a building or of the building, the front sidewalk and the awning at $1,289.15. The planting of four trees, which includes the labor and materials at $1,329.96. And the installation and I believe it's two new wall packs, which I can, it's on in the staff report provided, for $5,110. Again, in your staff report, you have the estimates, pressure washing. Here's a project description. Soft washing, front sidewalks, removing dust, dirt, mold, pollen. For your review, there are also pictures in your staff report and pictures on the screen in front of you to show the building's disrepair. This is a property that was just recently purchased by Mr. Williams. The property has changed ownership in hands over many years and he is turning this into a retail carlod shop. I think it's important to note just in front of you the pressure washing that will be happening he inherited purchased the building like this. Landscaping so he had originally four trees out front that were pulling up the sidewalk. The EDA last month agreed to remove pay or a partial payment for the removal of those trees and the fixing of the sidewalk. I do want to go back and show you because this right here it's called a Chinese Elm tree is and I asked him specifically about why he chose this tree and he said that the landscaper suggested this one that it will grow and not pull up the sidewalk. These are the current trees that are there so he will be replacing these. This is also per town code that he has to replace trees. Parking lot lighting will the $5,110 will include labor material and equipment repairing two wall packs and installing an additional wall pack and changing out 26 light bulbs. I ask a question. Yes sir. Just go back to before we get too far away from it. The town code requires the removal of the trees or the replacement of the trees. I'm sorry. The town code requires trees to be there, but the trees that are currently there are blocking the building and pulling up the sidewalk, creating a tripping and walking hazard. And the trees are still there? He's had them removed. The EDA helped cover that. Yeah, I just didn't know if it actually has happened at this stage. Oh, yes, sir. Okay. And just some pictures there for you also have those in your staff report to show you Okay. And just some pictures there for you also have those in your staff report to show you that currently there are it is not lit up in the evening his plan is to have this as a retail space which would be open until later hours in the evening and currently that would not be an option because of the lack of lighting. Mr. Abrine? As Kelly said, we met the subcommittee met on October 7th and as you can read that it was much discussion on this request given that it was a second request and also the items that were presented. But after much discussion we would recommend that $3800 grant with the project total of $7728. Any questions about this request? Well, I would move approval that this, we provide $3,800 or, we're out one enhancement grant in accordance with the program guidelines. I'll second that. Thank you. Mr. O'Brien made the motion. Mr. Disman seconded. Roll call is Mr. Disman. Mr. Lewis is absent. Why keep calling him? I do not know. Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Farmer. Mr. Scari. Mr. Zent. Mr. Watkins. Aye. Motion passes. The second application that the EDA received this month was from Zaxby's. Travis Kelly, a franchise owner of over three Zaxby's is looking to acquire the property under a lease agreement at 709 England Street. The purpose of this program, I think it's important to note is that there is very little buildable land left here in Ashland. So strategically the EDA created the restaurant incentive to encourage people to come and build, demo and build in blighted buildings instead of heading several miles up the road to Greenspace. So this is the purpose of this project, and it is an incentive of up to $550,000 over a total of six years to restaurant projects that meet program requirements. This location was the Old Pizza Hut 709 England Street. It has been currently vacant since 2020. The Zaxby's owner Travis Kelly and his partner would come in demo the program or demo the building and build a completely new building in that location. He is expected to begin construction as soon as possible and will be fully, is intense to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of 2025. Total investment by the applicant would be $2.2 million. A personal investment of Mr. Kelly and his partner of $400,000. The rebate would be capped at $550,000 over six years, but which the part of the program requirements is meeting $100,000 in meals tax annually, which equates to 1.8 million in sales. He will also be bringing 30 to 35 new employees with this project. So the committee, we met on this and discussed it. We felt that given the program and the general protections that the town has with that, with if they don't meet the sales that the grace rescinded, gave the town and the EDA ample protection in that as well as they're being a new building demolishing the one that's been vacant for four years having someone come in. We felt was a pretty smart move for the EDA. We all chose to recommend and here I move to approve the I-95 corridor, restaurant and center program application requests, traps, Kelly, unless we have any discussion first. I forgot that. The franchise owner, what other locations do they own, did they say? It was one in the world. It was one in the world. It was one in the world. It was one in the world. It was one in the world. It was one in the world. It was one in the world. It was one in the around the area right here right here where I didn't read one in North Carolina. Yeah, I think you're mid-Lothian and apex. So not the one of mechanics Phil. No or in Clinton. Orange, but Alan interesting. Oh, thank you Love him apex gesture the APEX gesture. Okay. Kelly, he's required to provide us with a commitment letter from the bank, right? Has he done that yet? He has not provided the letter of credit, which is typically required in or not typically, sorry, it is required in the application process, given the current status of trying to acquire credit approval or a letter of credit, apparently it's a good idea to have a taxes would flow to the town, the town would then forward the appropriate the money to the EDA and then we make the reimbursements for in the form of a grant that way. But it would also have to formally be approved by the council if this board were to approve it. That is correct. If this is an approved recommendation then the EDA board makes a recommendation to the town council. Technically it is town's money, town council money, and so they have to absolutely approve this, which is what we did for Duncan. That's the work of that. I'll second unless there's other discussion. No zoning issues, restaurant, restaurant. We've had a site app pre-app meeting. They have provided a rough go of a site plan. We've also met with Hanover County and so far everything looks good. I'm excited. Poor chicken traffic. We have a motion from Mr. Farmer and a second for Mr. Scari. You ready for a roll call vote, Mr. Chairman? Very good. Mr. Dishman. Mr. Lewis? Is absent? You guys won't forget this for a long time. Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Farmer? Aye. Mr. Scari. Aye. Mr. Zimp. Aye. Mr. Scari. Aye. Mr. Zimp. Aye. Ms. Watkins. Aye. Mr. Carries. Thank you, Ms. Rantin. Now we'll have the treasurer's report from Ms. Scari. The end of September we had two items go out 750 for the lawyers and we had a credit for interest of 138547 left us with a balance of 424,706 and 69 cents. We have 163,700 allocated to grants and that leaves us unallocated balance of 261,000, $6.69. an allocated balance of $261,069. Any questions on the Treasurer's report? Thank you. And now economic development update. New business license is it in October of this year. We have Crimson and Clover coming in at 305 England Street. Previous we think in ink building will become a retail thrift furniture store. BGI group ink trading as US cabinet depot is coming in at 12.063 Washington Highway. I found a couple of these news articles, which I can send to you, which it's been highly promoted on woodworking network, and also WTBR News6. So it's a great addition for that space. Ribbon cuttings, recently we had Busy B Play City, another small business owner and who is also an owner of Beam Distributing, over off of Hill Carter Parkway. It is now open for business. I had, have been doing business visits with the new executive director and Tonyo Miller with the DA and just this week we visited the businesses that you can see here. I am planning currently with Hanover County Economic Development Department over there, the manager and Glaube and we would like to do business walks here in Ashland. We're going to visit DowGill Road, the Presidential Business Center, and the Hanover Business Center. If you are interested in joining Ms. Glaube, myself Ms. Garenthur from Virginia Economic Development Partnership, and Mr. Lewis, send me an email. We will be doing the walk on November 14th. Probably take just a couple hours. So let me know if you want to come. And just as we can give you some grant updates, R&DC which we have committed to $67,500. They have submitted the performance agreement that they have made a purchase of $600,000. For the personal property, the performance agreement requirement was over $491,000. So you can see that they've met that requirement. The property build out there at 2.1 and our requirement is over 2.6. Currently they have reported 61 total new hires and in the performance agreement requirement is 90. That expiration date is December 31, 2024. I have a follow-up call with Virginia Economic Development Partnership and R&DC in two weeks, so I should have some more information at that time. The Route 1 Enhancement Grant Stanley construction, that is underway with an expiration of November 1st. The McDonald's Route 1 Enhancement Grant has an expiration date of December 30th. And the revitalization grant with Ash and Olive, I was telling Mr. O'Brien, they invited town staff to a tasting, they are set to open on 1023, not a full menu. It'll be a very soft opening. They are not fully staffed just yet but also they do not have all of the equipment that they need. That grant expiration is 12 2024 which they're not going to have any problem meeting and then when they are open and get their feed under them we'll plan a ribbon cutting. How was the tasting? Deliciousious. Delicious. We made a good investment. Definitely. Just to give you a grant application process update, we had a subcommittee that met on October 14th to discuss staff recommendations in order to streamline the grant process and better allocate funds to local businesses. The committee agreed to a timeline for submissions and a reserved date on the calendar each month for the subcommittee to review applications. My proposal is that they are received the first Thursday of the month for review of the following month. This gives us about a six week window. Applications, if they are due on October 3rd, they will be then included in the November 21st meeting agenda. So that would give us again about a six week window to administratively better be able to handle the grants. In addition by providing that standing date on the calendar, it's just going to run more seamlessly and then we can have a rotating group and there will be less back and forth of from me. I'm not clogging up your inboxes. That will be a date that will be determined. What I'll probably do is send out like a voting. I'll try to get it right this time, but one of the voting things to try to pick a day of the week in a time. So if 8 a.m. works great, let's stick with that on the calendar. The committee at the time requested that they would like some more information and they wanted the following for next steps. They were interested in a three-year revenue projection to determine a grant award budget. Currently, the EDA is not using a budget to award grants. There is also not a cap on grants. So I will be providing more information, but I wanted you to have it as soon as I had it. So the preliminary estimates to the EDA for the following 2025, 2026 and 2027. And this is fiscal year. That is the projection as of could be more could be less. Yeah, we discussed this. It would be my suggestion that we do not provide grants in excess of our revenue for the year. Otherwise, we're like this year, we're twice as much as the 2025 estimated revenue. We could also, you know, on a special exception, do something for some special opportunity for the town, but I would be my opinion that we would cap the total grants at whatever the estimated revenue would be. And we had a history of what the EDA has done over the past few years. And by far this year was a lot more than several years prior. You should have in your, at your desks, there should be a kind of highlighted printout that just gives you fiscal year showing you what's been awarded. It doesn't have cumulative payments but it at least shows you what's been what's been awarded. And it's also been categorized to show you the amounts fiscal year for each grant. This was also one of the requests from the subcommittee. So again, I wanted you to have this. We can talk through it at a later date, and I think that there's still some more data and information gathering that I'm still working on just trying to paint a full picture of what the EDA looks like from three years past, four years past, five years past, and then a projection of three to five years, what it looks like. And again, they also, the subcommittee asked for more information on the strategic plan to support the for prioritizing. And then also, that's the fiscal year 2025 grant tracking that you have. 2026 goes up about 50% over 2025, but then it kind of levels off. Is there something special in 2026 that goes from 58 to 86? I need to look at fiscal 26 because I don't know what you shouldn't have anything. If I, if it says 26, I think I did it wrong. No, the preliminary estimates to eat, yeah, yeah, it goes from 58 to 86 to 18. Oh, all right. For those were estimates from town manager, Mr. Farrah. And that was based on information from Chipotle, five guys, Duncan, and then potentially Zaxby's. I don't think he included Zaxby's in this one, but it was the restaurant incentives that have already been approved. And this also includes the hotel tax. Is the expectation that the subcommittee will present something more formal to the total committee on what you just talked about in terms of what we might want to limit grants to and how we approach it. Yeah, it would be my suggestion also that we prioritize grants based on revenue to the town. Like the route one enhancement, that doesn't produce a lot of revenue for the town. I mean, the restaurants and do, but in some other grants do, but the route one enhancement really does not. Yeah, I think what we discussed generally is that we were going to compare the arts, you know, what we determined on a strategic discussion with, you know, with sort of a line with the grants and then the budget and take those three pieces of information and try to sort of come up or, you know, at least set up a discussion and so far as, you know, what we want to prioritize and how we want to sort of lay things out and plan. The next thing we should discuss at this meeting is whether we want to put a freeze on the grants for the rest of the year given where we are giving you know it's 100 and some thousand and it was 105, honestly the big one from last year versus our estimated revenue of what 60 or so this year so we're substantially over that amount. Would we need to have a working session to kind of discuss this as opposed to this type of meeting session? That's a great question. Let me explore that a little bit more. I think what we can do though is the one proposal that staff was able to make is, and I haven't even put it as in like to a vote or in writing again this is just a recommendation was the six week turnaround time the date so if that is something that is acceptable to the board then I will put that as a staff recommendation and we can change policy on that. Nothing has been changed at this point. I think what would be important is for another subcommittee to get together when all of the information is available. Now that you have the revenue projections and then also once we have some more information with the strategic plan moving forward, then I feel like that that's a better way to then make recommendations to the entire board. So I can check to see if it needs to be a working session that's closed or if it just needs to be recommendations and then open for discussion. The only concern there is what happens if we have a route one enhancement grant coming in tomorrow for 35,000. Well, I think, you know, with this additional information, I mean, I think we can assess it against that. You don't have to approve it. Right. I mean, I think, you know, we have to be responsible to ourselves and so far as understanding where our budget is. And I don't feel we need to be obligated to do anything. We can't afford to do it. Kelly, do we have a lot more grant applications in FY 24 than we did in 23 and 22? Significantly. It should be the flip it over Miss Watkins. Well we didn't have the route one. Correct. And then we didn't have money like we do now either. I mean, and we didn't have an active staff. Right, that's been a lot of different things that happened over the last few years that have allowed us to be able to do this. Yeah, I think both of you and I have been around for a while and just anecdotally, I can tell you that the last nine months has been a lot more active than it was in the previous nine years. And so, but that was, you know, if we think back, that was on purpose. We made that decision. You wanted to, you know, pound or have you go out there and and drum up and you done a great job. After we got the money from the Apple Garden in sale, it was, you know, we were able to do some of this stuff. Right. Now we just sort of, now we just have to figure out how to certify that a little bit. I mean that's, to me that's what it's for to put back in the community. I think it's important to note and I believe that Mr. Zemper and the other EDA subcommittee members made mention of really wanting more information on the strategic plan because they feel like that's going to really help drive and create the parameters that we're looking for. I think it's, I have been through the draft of the strategic plan and according to, it seems like the amount of the feedback that was received was that the the EDA was very interested and hopeful to be able to help the town with those bigger type projects. Yeah, the other thing I mentioned during the subcommittee is, you know, as the member also of the EDA for the Hennarer County, you know, they're very interested in sort of combining forces when opportunities arise for bigger projects. They are quite impressive with what this group did on the Alpegard NN, and frankly, they think we're outside of ahead of them, and so far is tackling these projects. And so they want to try to figure out if they can do more with us, and things that might both benefit the town and the county. And so that's to say that we should think about having to reserve a money to tackle those bigger projects when the time comes. Perhaps. Stay aligned with the county and the town so that we're investing. We'll keep our options open. Options, right? Yeah. Makes sense. One final question for me is we didn't talk about this at all, but I mean, is there any opportunity, any options for any pathways for getting more revenue? I mean, the town awarding getting more revenue? I mean, the town awarding is more revenue? I'm not sure what the options are, I have no clue, but I'm not wondering, is there any pathways there and maybe this is in your experience, you may have seen other EDAs do stuff to earn revenues that I'm not aware of, but I just was wondering if, if we're sort of stuck with this revenue projection or there might be other alternatives. Another typical way that EDAs have a revenue source is through bond programs. You guys have an application for bond financing on your website, do you? So it's not currently on the website. It's not currently on the EDA website and I know that there was some bond work but that has all been completed as of now. It's hard to sort of create that demand. It's sort of my experience, the market sort of dictates whether the projects are there in the community, and then whether the interest rate, reduction going through the EDA will be appealable to the developers in these types of projects. So they sort of come in ad hoc, it's kind of like you stand outside in the rain to the developers in these types of projects. So they sort of come in and add Hock. It's kind of like you stand outside in the rain with a metal object waiting to get hit by lightning. You can't tell when it's going to happen, but at least you have that program and you have the application. That's one way that EDAs have a revenue source. The other is if you have an industrial facility or a physical building that you lease space to, and you guys don't have that. And obviously that's an upfront capital investment that you have to make to make that happen. But I think you guys are on the forefront in terms of what I've seen as far as working with the town to sort of say, hey look, these projects we will help incentivize and then a portion of that incremental revenue that the town gets compared to where we are today that's a result of the new economic development gets as far as I understand from the town gets compared to where we are today, that's a result of the new economic development gets, as far as I understand from the town manager, gets allocated and appropriated to the EDA's budget going forward. So the more deals that you support that have a return on investment to the town, that gives you more money. And that's very forward thinking. Not many people have that as systematically set forth as you guys do that I see. So interesting. I feel like we did a lot of bonds. We used to have a lot of bonds. We had a couple with Randolph-Macon, Goodwill, and my MCA, and they've all that last one payout also they've all paid out So I wonder if we'll Randolph-Macon need it when they build their I don't know exactly bonds kind of confused me because they're building new On a day though are only we has prepared for financing of the bonds. I'll tell you, are generally done through an RFP? Well, the type of bonds that the tax exempt bonds that the EDA would do for a developer would typically be a developer. Right. It would typically be a revenue source. Oh yeah. It was don't really go through an RFP process. You do have cases where another governmental entity like the town or the Calony, but they've got their own EDA. They need to borrow and they do the issuance through the EDA. You typically don't charge fellow governments for a fee, so that's not really a revenue source. But in terms of if the actual, if the EDA were actually issuing debt and trying to borrow from a bank, then yes, we would absolutely go through an RFB process to determine which bank we would award the loan to. Okay. But yeah, when you're doing the tax exempt, I'm not the bond attorney. We have to talk to the bond attorney. I've done tax financing, but yeah. It's been a long time. Well, it sounds like I've got some work to do on my end. So let me do some fact-finding and some research and I'll put something together and send out an update next week with just some more information and next steps. Thank you. Good discussion. For the town of Ashland, the GRTC is to expand the link micro transit, which is very exciting. We have the Ashland zone and starting on October 20th, 2024, the Ashland zone is going to expand south to Virginia Center Commons and what this does is it enables riders to be able to transfer from the link to the route one Chamberlain downtown route. So they are then have access to a bigger location. Strategic plan follow up, the question of the evening. So I would personally like to thank you for your patience. As you know that when I started this position, I've been here for a year and had limited economic development experience. So this is the first economic development strategic plan that I have had the opportunity to work on. I wanna make sure that I get it right, and I wanna make sure that I take the time and give it the attention that it needs to be able to provide you with a product that you're gonna be able to provide you with a product that you're going to be able to take and work from. So I should have something for you next month. Thank you. Do we have anyone from the town council? Chair, I think that is his doctor or girl. I apologize for arriving so late. But only have one update really. And it's a pretty big update. The town council approved the Iron Horse Development Data Center project, which is east of 95. And so that should start sometime end of next year probably breaking around somewhere around then It's likely to be a 10-year project to be fully online and And that's that I'm happy to take questions about it if you're December the county had approved it as well because the county is working on their approval process right now I don't know if it was earlier. I don't know if it was to this week or next week when they meet, but it's the same, it's a similar project. They had already approved the much larger project north of Ashland, but the Iron Horse project is part of that, the East Ashen part of the town. It's sort of the county as well. And I, I got the impression it likely will get approved, but I don't know. You know, we only I wasn't at those meetings, but I think it went through their their planning department. I think they're planning commission meets tonight. That's what I discussed. They're planning commission meets tonight. I knew it was either this week or next week that that was happening. I hope and I'm getting it right. Yeah, and it's similar to what they're asking is similar to what they asked of us. Only the county part of it includes data center and housing, whereas the town part only included the data center. And just to clarify, some people may say, oh, but the council approved commercial there and that's not true. We did keep B2 zoning, but it was proffered out of anything but data center use and the B2 zoning was so that it stayed consistent with our comp plan, which called for B2 zoning there, which would be commercial or the use that they're using is for electricity. Substation. Substation. Yeah. So that means no commercial retail development that would occur or those traffic land? Not in the town of Ashland there'll be no additional commercial east of Ashland other than with the two gas stations that already exist. Yeah, and that's profit in. It would have to come back to council to change and I don't anticipate. Not with all the work that they're going to be doing and the money they're going to be spending. I can't imagine. There's still a residential part of it, isn't it? Not in the town. Not in the town. Not in the town. does still have one M1 zoning spot that could potentially turn into it, but that's not part of this project. And there is about 30 or 40 houses associated with the hand oversight because to meet certain requirements, that's what they had to propose. But yeah, it won't be on the town side. Thank you. You're welcome. I think we're done with our agenda. And unless anyone has anything, I declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you.