Last week the Northfield City Council heard a presentation from staff and an attorney re: Piper Jaffray’s request to amend the tax increment financing (TIF) note for the Mendota Homes development called The Crossing. Some Councilors keyed in on the opportunity this might provide for site improvements and others expressed big picture concerns. I understood very little of it all so a conversation here might help. (continued)
May 8 Nfld News: Tidying may come to the Crossing site
May 13 Nfld News editorial: Use that contract to get weeds cleaned up
In last week’s Friday memo,
The Community Development Director is following up with the special legal counsel to the City of Northfield in relation to the request that has been received recently from Piper-Jaffray related to financing for the Crossing Project. The City Council gave specific direction related to completing site improvements, park improvements and site maintenance in relation to the request to change financing on the project.
See the letter from Piper Jaffray (PDF) and see p. 32 of the May 4 Council Packet
Request from Piper-Jaffray to Amend the Tax Increment Financing Note and Development Contract Related to the Crossing of Northfield
SUMMARY:
The City Council has been asked by the finance underwriting firm of Piper-Jaffray to consider amending the tax increment financing note series 2006 for the Crossing project in Northfield. The request for amendment would result in the following changes:
1. No further draws on the tax increment note series 2006 would occur;
2. The Contract for Private Development between the City and Mendota Homes, Inc. would be revised to provide for the issuance of additional tax increment only when conditions stated in the contract were met. Piper-Jaffray would have no obligation to participate in any future financing;
3. The contract would be revised to eliminate the right of the City to terminate the note if real estate taxes have not been paid;
4. The note would be amended to provide for a level debt payment.
Steve Bubul from the firm of Kennedy and Graven, who has been assisting the City as lead counsel on the Crossing project, will be in attendance at the meeting. Should the Council be willing to revise the note and contract, these items will be brought back to a regular meeting of the Council for action later in May.
Here’s the transcript of the live blogging/chat that I did during the meeting with Tracy and a citizen named Christopher:
I think tracy had it right , in your live chat, griff… P/J is asking for some amendments to the PART of the financing that is covered by the city -issued TIF, but P/J is in no way in default ( not their part of the deal ) on doing the ‘improvements’ that the city wants Mendota Homes to complete… so the idea of ‘leverage’ didn’t make sense to me either.
Check out Jane Mc Williams’s council observer report when it goes up on the LWV website; she may go into some detail.
I don’t think the paper got it right in their editorial either, because the editorial seems to imply that P/J was the financer of the entire project, rather than just the notes for the TIF portion.
Kiffi, here’s an excerpt from Jane McWilliams’s LWV blog post on the TIF discussion from her May 4 Council Observer’s report:
Thanks for calling attention to Jane’s observer comments on the LWV website, Griff.