The Community and Economic Development Committee met 03/08/2023. Two of the items they took up pertained to the Merge, LLC commercial/residential mixed-use development currently being built at 115 E Washington Street.
- The first item was a request to extend the deadline to complete the building to 11/30/2023 with the option for staff to administratively extend that deadline by another 6 months to 05/31/2024.
- The second request was to approve an agreement between the city and Merge LLC memorializing Merge’s responsibilities pertaining to a grant the project was awarded.
Both of these items were approved unanimously by the committee.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the discussion for your downloading pleasure.
REQUEST TO EXTEND THE PROJECT’S COMPLETION DEADLINE
Economic Development Specialist Matt Rehbein told the committee that the developers were making good progress on the project and were in the process of putting up the top two floors of the building. The original agreement stated they would complete construction by May 31, 2023; unfortunately, they were not moving fast enough to meet that deadline. Additionally, they had run into some supply chain issues with a couple of their other projects. There were some electrical components that they needed which could not be sourced elsewhere.
They expected they would only need an additional 6 months before the project was complete; however, in light of the supply chain issues they were experiencing with other projects, they were asking for a 12 month extension so if something came up they would not need to come back to the city and ask for an additional extension.
The committee members did not have any questions and voted 3-0 to approve the request.
REQUEST TO APPROVE AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY AND MERGE, LLC TO MEMORIALIZE THE RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENT GRANT
Economic Development Specialist Rehbein explained that in October of 2022, staff had been authorized to apply for a Community Development Investment grant. This was a matching grant with funds that passed through the city to the developer. It was incumbent upon the city to make sure the developer complied with the terms of the grant agreement.
The city had been awarded the grant, but had not yet signed. Prior to signing, they needed an agreement with the developer stating that the developer was going to perform the terms of the grant and putting the responsibility of meeting the terms and reporting requirements onto the developer. This was the final step before the city could sign the grant.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the request.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1074133&GUID=EB203097-4348-487D-80B6-75F12BB1F421
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