Here’s we go . . .
NOTE: The meeting got done about 1:14, these are the notes as I got them at the time. I hope I did ok. Please excuse the likely additional/traditional typos. You’ll want to start reading from the bottom to read it chronologically.
NOTE 2: I edited a few sections so it was more clear, more editing to do, if I get to it.
1:13. Clear says that Bruer would have been here but his mother passed away. Mayor wraps up ans says feel free to contact Mayor, Widder or Palm.
1:12 Clear says that they may have a council briefing before the meeting on the 13th. Kerr says that is good, but she says that we should talk to the alder. T Wall proposal is not something Kerr is willing to support. Kerr walking out the door.
1:10 Kerr thanks Widder, pretty dismayed by whole thing, more comfortable now, thought renovation might be good positive, but concerned about how go to where they are. She wants to hear from Verveer before she supports it. Still his district, sorry he’s not here, urge colleagues to consider talking directly with Verveer. She doesn’t know where he is, if this was in your district would want colleagues to touch base with you before coming to conclusions. Kerr is leaving.
1:09 Clear says rebuild was more of a runner up than T Wall proposal. Clear says no one said we need to look at T Wall option.
1:08 Cnare asks why we can’t pick up the runner up. i.e. T Wall. Mayor says uh . . . Widder says all same pitfalls of what we just went through. We could end up in the same place. Mixed use and that always was something that bothered him. But, its more to process, could spend 6 months negotiating. Palm says Wall had a new place to move library at every meeting. Mayor says they want a stand alone library. Capital Neighborhoods didn’t support Wall. Cnare leaves
1:05 Schmidt says that we should do it right and move the library if we need to. Palm says we have done this condo thing before, library board was confident they could do it. Over time, more and more people in city government and Mayor’s office got less comfortable because we were losing more control over design and details. That would have been one of the biggest issues with council, we had little control over exterior. Palm says more options with rebuild. Schmidt says trying to say he’s willing to move library to make it right.
1:03 Schmidt says he asked Kunkler if they could do it. He said the look was pained but he said he could do it. $38.5 was entire project. Schmidt asks when that changed. Mayor says that they just couldn’t move off their number, maybe they were hoping we would cut money from our interior space or increase public fundraising but $10M was tough. Palm says a lot of alders asked and got same response. Clear says it was a pained yes.
1:01 Schmidt asks about the process and RFP. Mayor says that the surplus property process requires people to get option to purchase. Schmidt asks if it is the sale of the site. No one answers. Widder says that buying new land would require RFP. Palm points out a similar situation where they didn’t. Palm says that there are different things that trip the RFP. Mayor says they could work with one developer and sell it to them, but for a site of the prominence and importance, doesn’t see us doing that.
1:00 Clear says that it is as much of a function of space. Palm says yes, if had computer lab could do more. Need more space. That is one of reasons by 104,000 isn’t enough and 126,000 is better.
12:57 Maniaci asks about the cost gap, new materials and technologies, she wants a 21st century library, not happy with state of collection. Widder says top to bottom total rebuild only thing same is structure and location. Widder says goal is that square footage will make more accessible to the public to display primary collection as well as IT for 21st century. Maniaci asks about collection materials. Palm says that is a different issue, should talk to budget staff, operating budget issue. Palm says what we have is not bad, just too small. We don’t have 1980 computer, they are good, great databases, how do we expand the use to meet demands, but the true collection should talk to library staff. Widder says it is operational issue. Widder says spend $1M each year on materials, if they had more they would spend more.
12:55 Maniaci asks will the library move or stay in place?. Widder says designers will have to figure that out. Can be done in phases but will add cost. Looking at taking collection out to another space and cheaper retail downtown. Maniaci says central collection is there and it will impact all branches and advocates taking it to some warehouse space. Widder says they are looking at it.
12:53 Maniaci asks about fundraising, how much will it be and will it be harder if people aren’t excited about a new building. What have you been hearing from donors. Widder says to forget what current building looks like. Says if we take it down to skeleton it will be something none of us can imagine. Says at time they were looking at it they said $5M for rehab, they have retained outside fundraising consultant to figure it out, but design can be exciting and it will determine what they can raise. $5 -7M is the goal. Says one foundation is exciting.
12:51 Cnare asks about all the other grand ideas out there. Mayor talks about DMI discussion, thinks they made a great statement, would like to see it work but if it doesn’t they support moving ahead on current site. DMI statement is reasonable. What Mayor has said is he will talk to anyone, but he doesn’t think going back to square one is a realistic option. Mayor says we’ve been working on it over a decade, money is in the budget, requires additional action by you guys but not a budget amendment. If go back to square one, will have to re-fight this in 2011 budget, won’t know where end up, but can be sure will cost us more.
12:49 Says that supported this last fall, but once phase 2 was pulled off, he thinks they got cold feet, once that was off he endorses what Mayor is doing now. Says that using underutilized capital parking ramp is a big issue for him. At another site parking will be an issue. Doesn’t want a long debate about why it fell apart.
12:47 Maniaci? asks how you came to $5M apart. Mayor explained, I missed it. Clear and Kerr have exchange about the numbers they looked at. Kerr says that the numbers they are talking about is not what was in the budget. Mayor says what made the project sing was the room taxes on the hotel, that was the project they liked. When they pulled off phase two, we retain the asset, but we don’t know what happens and then all the numbers get turned around.
12:43 Kerr says budget was $37, they said $38.x, how did this break down over 4% of the project? This is not atypical. By order of magnitude, this doesn’t make sense. This seems odd. She uses a house example. Mayor says he has walked away from house over 4%. Mayor says hard to go back to council with these number which are greater than consultants said it should cost. $1.3M over is what council voted for, can’t go back and ask for $1M to $1.5M more. Kerr asks about looking at other aspects of the project to get to 4% of the deal, did you look at anything else besides financing. Mayor says no. Widder says that they asked them to go back and look at the project and they couldn’t shave any costs. They said they couldn’t deliver for $23. Mayor says also 15 vote budget item. Kerr says not want to add, wanted to shave costs.
12:42 Maniaci asks why condo was taken off table over $900,000. Mayor says closer to $2M they were going to gurantee the price 23.9 and additional costs of interest and parking and it all added up to $2M. Fiore took it off the table. Says it was Fiore’s idea.
12:41 Clear asks about timing and air rights and entitlements. Mayor says guessing. Widder says that Fiore teams didn’t want to just be a seller of air rights.
12:40 Clear asks why phase 2 came off the table. Mayor says he doesn’t know, it would just be speculation. They had multiple partners. Fiore is land holder and landlord, Ergens is a developer, Epstein Uhen is architect and Findorff was construction. Thinks it was something about their structure, but that is speculation.
12:34 Clear asks how we got here, how did it shift from Fiore to public works? How did that decision get made and when? Mayor says that T Wall was the beginning, T Wall has a project, needed a process. Process started with mixed use condo project like Sequoia, T Wall proposed the same, so that was what was anticipated and why responses came in the way they did. Went through long process and Fiore won. They weren’t comfortable with the public-private partnership, but they did it. What turned them was that they couldn’t get to $37M cuz wanted to build $14M on interior. Fiore couldn’t guarantee less than $23.9 for the shell and they needs $23M, so they started looking at air rights and costs to develop project. Mayor says that costs were cost of doing business but Fiore said you are taking the project we designed, but what are they paying for. Mayor asks for a list, they never did it, gave us one number. They wanted over $1M. Mayor says if go to building on the site, straight public works, like building a fire station. Does that answer your question.
12:33 Palm says he wants to hear what others have to say.
12:32 There was only one copy of the handout for the three reporters, but I think the last two sections capture it all.
12:29 Widder says that if we wait it will cost more and we will get less. Construction costs will go up. Deferred maintenance could cost serious money. Delay means would need to start from scratch (acquire site, pay for structural costs which we already have and parking might be an issue. New Market Tax Credits will be harder to get (less projects and competition now) and there are limits to funding sources (Borrowing can’t go over $17M, private fundraising is a challenge, new market tax credit issues)
12:26 Tripp Widder, Library President, served over 10 years. has a hand out to address why this is the best location for rebuild of the property. It is within 1 block of State St and Cap Square so more foot traffic. Adjacent to Overture and Museums. Allows for stand alone library which is best for identity. Close to existing municipal parking ramp that is underutilized. Serves as neighborhood/branch library to new developments (condos) downtown. Easier to operate and staff. This will have better loading, concern with Fiore was shared loading. Library board on record strongly supporting current location. We own the site. [He also noted Fiore project was selected because preserved existing location.)
12:24 Says point is we can build a great library and not compromise and in some ways better cuz more space and greener. Just as exciting as Firore project.
12:20 He says the advantages of new building are that they will have 1/3 more space, project will be done 12 to 14 months sooner, this will be one of the greenest greenest building, it will take more less private fundraising, and it will be more efficient to run. Says others can talk about it later. Shows other library remodels. Maniaci joins the group, up to 7 alders now.
12:17 Why the quick pivot? Mayor attempts to explain his flip-flop. But really he just explains how long the different scenarios will take. Rebuild is 24 months, New site is 50 months. Bids would go out 15 months later with new project and they would need to recreate process, rewrite RFP, etc. Construction on current site is 12 months, would be 24 months on new site. Would lose advantages of construction bids, people need jobs now, great alternative. Existing library will continue to deteriorate.
12:16 Points out language in budget from Mallards saying its a sample of how they did put negotiations in the budget and the budget isn’t a done deal.
12:14 Mayor shows Fiore info from previous meetings that he says alders saw. The documents shows $35.7 is what consultants said it should cost and $35M for public works project. Mayor points out August 24 email from Fiore that says they will work to get to the number in the Mayor’s budget.
12:09 How’d we get here. Mayor says the budget was 17M in borrowing, Fiore’s last offer was 22.5M. $17M in borrowing for reconstructed library with half and full 3rd floor. Total is $37M in budget, $38.5 was last offer from Fiore, $27M total for half a 3rd floor and $30M for a full third floor. He cautions these are preliminary numbers, he needs to hire folks to get more concrete numbers. In terms of revenue for the project $4M is lost because there will be no sale of the building and New Market Tax Credits drops form $6 to $4.5M or $5M. Fundraising drops from $10M to $5.5M – $8M. But, we will have 126,500 square feet or 139,000 square feet of building instead of 104,000. Cnare now here as well as Kerr, we have 6 alders.
12:07 Mayor starts out with a brief overview. He says there will be pictures of new libraries that are reconstructions. Same presentation he will give later at Library Board. Claussius joins the 3 alders.
12:05 Continuing to admire Larry Palm’s iPad, meeting not started yet.
12:03 So far, Mayor is in the hallway talking to the press. Clear, Palm and Schmidt the only alders here. A handful of staff and reporters. Powerpoint is set up. Will need to get a copy later.
