March 11, 2025 — Downtown Management Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:10] We are recording. Welcome to the downtown Management Commission meeting. It is March 11, th 2025, and I will call home Stephanie. Trees just joined us online. Let me get her promoted. So I will now turn the meeting over to Great. So we have the minutes. Would anyone like to make a motion on the minutes. It's like a 1 holly has been tracking our hours. Do you need anything to follow up on that? So this is just a brief update we are going to be. I'll be asking for your volunteer hours ahead of your meetings. We do it differently. So this. This might be a little different coming forward. But, they're trying to get a more accurate number of the volunteer hours that y'all do for the city, and that goes into a report at the end of the year.

[1:23] So yeah, I think you'll see you'll be reaching out just to be so typically what's been done is once a year be like, hey? How many hours do you think you volunteered so at least, taking the lead on trying to check in on a more regular basis, just to be a little bit more accurate, but it is compiled into a citywide document of all the volunteer hours, all the boards and commissions and other folks who volunteer for the city. So just trying to do some better record on that. I do while while I'm speaking. Point of privilege. If you don't mind, Mr. Chair, you might recognize a couple new faces in the room, so I want to make sure that Brian and Melissa have an opportunity to introduce themselves as our newest members of the community vitality team.

[2:08] I'm Melissay. I'm the other agents associate in business services. So I am kind of the support of the team. See? And I'm Brian Holihan. I'm the new District Vitality specialist. I'll be working with Cajun and Euget overseeing things like eco passes being a liaison to small businesses and supporting regions. But it's great to meet you all. There you go. Great welcome. Is there any public people around coming. Let's see, do you have some people online? No one has raised their hand yet. Would anyone like to raise their hand for public participation less than anything great. So moving on to the consent agenda

[3:02] Happy to take a pause and go over anything in here that anyone has any questions on. And, Stephanie, do you just want to say Hi, just so we can make sure we hear you. Hi! Can you hear me? Scratch up good seeing you. Anyone have anything on the consent agenda? Or should we move on to the police date racing through the agenda. Is even available. He will be late, so if you don't mind. they'll see it. Oh, you just just walking in there so perfect. Alright, where do you want me? We have people on the chat

[4:01] sorry we're running like crazy today. yeah. So my name is Steve Redford police chief. I think I've met a lot of you. I think last time I was here I was interim chief, and so very excited. It's about 6 months as not. Interim chief now, and Mike Heath with me here. I know a lot of you guys know Mike Mike oversees all of the teams that work in this area, including our all of our team, but specifically the ball, our cabinet teams, and our hot team. So if I can answer questions a little bit, probably more accurately, if it comes to day to day. Stuff. I didn't send a presentation in ahead of time. I apologize. It's been nuts. Mainly wanted to leave some time for questions, so just hit up a few items. Number one. I appreciate Bettina and Company inviting us to do 3 different sessions with business owners and stakeholders. We've done West Pearl, East Pearl, and then I don't know what we call the Middle Pearl. But

[5:00] I think we hit. I mean, each session had 30 or 40 people in it. there's a lot of issues being discussed mostly via email right now going around a lot of emails with a lot of people on them. And we've just been trying to get in front of as many people as we can to talk about the issues, to talk about things that we're working on solutions and then hearing from people about ideas. And I think a big part of that, and I'm happy to talk about it if needed, is what we actually can do, what we can't do, what's in our purview what what we have to do, and and with other entities, and then kind of talk a little bit about where we have some limitations, and I know that people are frustrated, so happy to go there if needed. I will just say that you know we're hearing concerns loud and clear, and as Mike and I were talking where we were doing everything in our power that we have ability to do to fix some of these issues. And so there's bigger systemic challenges that we that are just, that challenges that are limiting us, not even on a local level as much as on a state level. And so all of that to say specifically with the larger encampment that tends to be just moving slightly around on the creek path.

[6:16] I met with the city manager and city attorney today trying to get a little creative and do some things differently. Without putting our officers in a really bad position. So we are working on it. We're hearing the concerns, and I can only control what I can control on a policing side of things. We do have a criminal justice system that has different stakeholders in it. But we're having a ton of conversations. So if nothing else, the emails going around are sparking a lot of conversation, and we're just trying to take that and move it into action. especially before, although it seems like warmer months right now, as we get into warmer months. yeah. So there's that the one thing I'll share a positive note I didn't bring them. But I looked at statistics yesterday, happy to email them out if needed. We are down double digits on almost every front category so far this year. Which honestly, is a little surprising, because we ended the year 2024 up on some things like assaults, which is concerning

[7:16] but so far not knock on wood year to date. We're down some single digits, but a lot of crime categories, double digits, year to date. So far. So while we absolutely understand what people are seeing and experiencing, we're doing really good on on most crime categories. So I'll take it, and we'll see, you know, warmer weather tends to see an increase on things. I'll just make the ask that I made, and some of you have heard this already. Please continue to share with everyone that you have contact with. We want you to continue to follow us. We want to continue to, not only when something is happening, it helps us track that we were heavy on data. It helps us track stuff helps me justify asking for more officers, which I will also share. We're fully staffed for the 1st time since 2,016, which is a really good thing, because we honestly a lot of what we can do right now is prevention on the front end. We don't have a lot of the back end mechanisms. We've historically had to disrupt bad behavior like taking the jail, for example. So the more officers we have.

[8:16] or we can fill the teams like the ball team is fully staffed, and now they have a dedicated sergeant that they've never had before. This is the 1st time Brian Skable will be the new sergeant. A lot of you met him. He's amazing. We have a lot of prevention that we can do on the on the front end. That will help us, maybe not even have to worry about whether we need to take somebody to jail. We make it very uncomfortable for somebody to commit crime in boulder. So but please keep calling us people we have heard, and there's there are some that are asserting. Well, the reason crime is down is, people are sick of calling, and I don't think that's the case. I really don't. Maybe maybe a little bit. But I don't. I feel like we have a lot of good partnerships and people. you know, understand. If it's a super busy night, and there's an incident that happens. It's not an emergency. We, we may be a little slow to respond, but our our response, time for emergency and progress falls asleep

[9:07] incredibly higher than the national average but just encouraging people to call and continue to let us know if you want us to come out talk to employees about issues that are going on talk to do an assessment on the business, to see what could be potentially hardened up to make it less conducive to crime. So there's a lot of things we can do. I think a lot of folks have our contact info, but happy to share that out as well. But we just need to continue to those to do those to have the partnerships we have in the community. I think that's why we're seeing successes in certain areas. so yeah, staffing things huge. And I will just share this. It's not a secret very soon. I will be asking the city Manager for additional Ft. Officer positions additional to add the rank of lieutenant to our department, which is a needed rank mid management rank below commander between sergeant and so we'll see. I don't anticipate the city manager in this budget environment, saying, Yeah, here you go. Here's all the things you asked for, but I I know she is interested.

[10:09] and I think City Council is also interested in giving us some additional ftes. We had a staffing study that showed we need to be in about 215 officers, 190, and a lot of that is, as you see down here, not necessarily because calls are up. The complexity is up, and it's people with mental illness, drug addiction that may. We may need 4 or 5 officers to deal with now, then, we might have been able to handle one back in the day. So that's kind of some high, level things that are going on. How much time I have or if we have additional questions, Mike, anything you wanna bad about the daily stuff? Just a couple of things to piggyback on what the chief said. one just having that sergeant that's dedicated down here is going to be huge. That's not something we've had in the past the other thing that's great about that. So in the past a lot of you probably know Jeff Kessler, he was a sergeant that was covering the Mall, homeless, outreach, homeless response, like he had a ton of responsibilities so to be able to split that off. And I think both of those sergeants going to have a major impact with everything's going down here. So we've got Sergeant Skable

[11:13] and Sergeant Fitzgerald, who are both assigned to those units. So that's just going to be amazing. One of the things that we did this year is we want to make sure that businesses groups down here had a little bit more of a voice in those selection processes. So I just want to thank Bettina for participating in that. So we ran an interview process for the sergeant's position and for the most recent Mall position, and she assisted to that assisted with those both, and that was great great feedback from her. So really appreciate that. Some of the other things that we're doing. You know, we increase small staffing to 6. We've extended those hours. Sounds like we ought to take a look at maybe some further extended hours. That's something we're talking about. Starting scalable is already looking at all of the downtown events that are happening throughout the year and making sure he has a higher level of awareness. He's working with myself

[12:12] and Justin Greensteen to actually have those events, so that there's more awareness for him and his officers. And so I think that's gonna be huge, and we have some flexibility with our staffing there, too, to where we can say, Can you guys start a little bit later so we can have a little bit more presence in addition to any overtime officers that we have. So I think that'll be huge for us as well. bike units while we don't have a dedicated bike unit right now we have several officers and continue to get bike certified. Think as we get some more staffing numbers, that's something that we can talk about is having a dedicated bike unit. But as probably a lot of you have seen, we've started to purchase e-bikes for those officers which is huge, huge benefit response. Time goes way down. Fatigue for officers goes way down when you're wearing all of this year, even when you're in awesome shape it, it can wear you out when you're going from one place to another. So last year we bought a couple of bikes this year, we're looking at expanding that by 3 to 5, and we'll continue to expand that program and also look at potentially doing something that's more more of like a permanent full time position. But that's as we get some of the staffing and have those discussions.

[13:32] yeah, certain scales also gonna is developing kind of our block liaison block captains for the Mall, which is awesome and is gonna fit right in with the block ambassadors from the city. So that's gonna be great. He is coming off an injury. So he's kind of been playing double duty duty with some psu or internal investigation stuff, and also his role down here. But he just got cleared. So we're going to get him full time. That's something that he'll be instituting here

[14:03] in the next couple of weeks. So you'll have. What's that. Okay, perfect, awesome. So we'll have somebody dedicated so you can go right to that person. And then, like the chief, said, and if I certainly am happy to share my information out to this group as well. You guys get my email. My phone number always got my phone on me. If you're not getting the responses that you need to get from our officers. Certainly respond up the chain command, and we'll make sure we get that address. But, like the chief said, Please please call into dispatch. That's 1 of the biggest things that we continue to see is folks there. We have a lot of good internal conversations and emails. But then those don't necessarily go to our dispatch and directly to our officers, and if they're out there, you know, walking the Mall. They're not gonna necessarily see those right away. So just please continue to push that. What questions do you guys have?

[15:02] I wanted to thank you for those meetings. I went to one of them that it was really helpful. I think anytime you guys get out there and talk. That's very exciting. Conversation. Happy to do any more additional things, feel free to reach out. If you want this way, you can speak when you say things are down. Double digits. Is that percentage wise? Or is that like, okay, percentage wise? And and you know, I will point out that when we're talking, some of especially violent crime it. We are incredibly safe. City when it comes to violence especially, and weapons calls wouldn't work. Some of those are down double digits because we only had 4 last year this time, and this year we've had 2 and so, but even things like car theft, burglary, robbery are all are all down. So it's it's relative. You know. It'd be like Denver saying they're down double digits on on some of those crimes would be a significant of a statement. Probably it's a good problem to have, but it is good percentage wise trying to be attributed to well, some of it is cyclical, even though we did see an uptick around Christmas. Some of it is weather wise, I mean, when it's cold. You don't see as many crimes dependent. Maybe car theft goes up. But honestly, what I want to attribute it to, and I can't. I don't have a scientific proof of this is, our officers have been spending a significant amount of time getting out of their car, walking around

[16:21] making contacts, things like car theft and other things. We've had some pretty pretty significant arrests. Using technology. And and when you when you're able to take certain prolific people off the street, it's going to make an impact. One thing that we started to do differently because assaults way up last year and the majority of the assaults were unhoused. Community members a lot of times assaulting other unhoused community members really really hard to predict. You know, we can predict with technology and knowing where our offenders are, you know, robbery, burglary, car theft. And we make an impact on those. It's very hard to predict where somebody may be in crisis or out of their mind on drugs jumping out of the bushes and assaulting somebody. But we started looking at assaults and taking a deeper dive, because one of the things we've seen is especially in the unhoused community we get there, and somebody's even like stabbed or beat up and like, I don't want to do anything about it, because they're in crisis themselves. And so we're following up on those

[17:15] we're looking at assaults differently to see. Can we follow up with that victim the next day when they're maybe sober and see if we can have some success with that and one of the steps that was interesting. We had several people that had committed 5 or more assaults, and I don't remember the time period. but it was like a 3 months. Yeah, it's pretty significant. If you look at, I would say the majority of us have never committed assault in our entire life, and 5 people, 3 people committed 5 or more in a certain amount of time. Those are. Those are going to help our stats drop And also I don't know. I mean, it's there's a lot of factors, but it's it's not because anything has changed significantly, I think And also I'm hesitant to get too excited just because we just that's a 3 month period, and we'll see. But for now I'll take it.

[18:01] So what the chief is talking about with that is is all within our stratified policing model. I'm sure you guys have heard about and is in the reimagine policing. You know, one of the other things, we had problem areas and downtown area was one of those. And it's it can be small stuff. For example, just talking to some of our Mall officers. We're like, Hey, what are some things that we can do down here to? To improve things and reduce crime. One of them said, well, all those bushes that are by the band shell up at the top of the stands there just really make it a nice, easy place for people to hide, to do drugs, to sell, to do things like that be really awesome if we were able to get that removed. And so it was a quick conversation with folks. Correct. They're like, yeah, absolutely. Let's get those done. And you know, I presented when we present this to the chief. We show pictures. Here's the before and the after, and you see a significant difference. So

[19:00] when we look at this and we're deciding how to allocate our resources. And that helps drive some focus. And with, that's all data driven. So that's why, again, those reports are very important. You know, we can focus on an area. So some of the things we looked at were disturbances, trespassing overdoses, those were like, Hey, here's some things that we can focus on. And we saw tremendous impact on those that's really those little things that the officers are doing when they're given that focus in that direction. So I think that's a big part of it as well. One other question I had was on. You're talking about the sergeant who's dedicated to them all when you say the Mall. Do you mean Cajun? Do you mean the bricks? Do you mean West End to East End? Do you mean the canyon to spruce. So that's that's expanded throughout the years, and it's kind of gone back and forth. I can remember long, long, long time ago, if you were working the Mall. It was boots on the bricks, and that was it, like. we don't want you to to veer away from that. I I just don't think that's a reality.

[20:03] So while I don't give him that direction is in this is your boundary. It's just these are part of the discussion, right? So it's very easy, because they are basically housed out of the atrium building. Now for them to all right, we're gonna start our day at the atrium building. We're gonna do a lap around such a part because everything down here is interrelated right? So it doesn't make sense to say, well, ignore Central Park and just go over to the the bricks because the problems are going to start there. They're gonna make. They're going to make our way over to the Mall. They're going to be over at Rtd. Like, we trust our officers to make decisions on how they control, based on what the project looks like you can think of it more as like downtown. Yeah, that's it. That's the answer I was looking for.

[21:01] That's the other question I have is like, you know, it seems like every time we talk to you or police foundations like that, like great things are happening like, How do you get more credit for it. You know, it's a little bit of a mind share issue. And the reality is like, you know, things like next next door. And you know, it's like so toxic there. So I don't know. Is there more that you can do in terms of getting out of trouble? Pr plan? I appreciate that question, and it's a constant struggle. So I I will say, firstly, none of us got in this profession, for you know the credit. Yeah. And and I think we it's nice when we get credit. It's nice. When you know when that happens, we're really good. And if you follow us on like Facebook or Instagram. Our our public information officer, is incredible about trying to get out the positive stories. You know, you put out a you just save somebody's life story. And then you're gonna have 20 tools. Get on there. And that's that's a technical term. But get on there and talk, you know. Say, it's bad things. So part of it is trying to make sure we're getting the right message to the right audience.

[22:05] I will say that I I feel internally and I'm not taking credit for this by any stretch of the imagination. But I feel like internally, our morale is really really good. Right now. We're all rolling in the same direction for the most part, especially like our leadership team is is solid. everyone's coming to work for the most part is I. I feel like we've come out of that fog of the 2020 Covid murder George Floyd all those things, and and I even hate to say, because it's like I want to jinx it. But I think we feel everything feels really really good, and our cops seem really happy to be coming to work, I will say, and I say this a lot. The biggest thing that sometimes you can do is when you see our cops down here and say, Hey, man. thanks for being here. Appreciate what you do. Let me buy a cup of coffee, and they may say, No, but that is impactful. And you know, even maybe not down here as much. But our average control officer, when you see them out there they may have just come from a horrific call, and just by thanking them that that is an easy way on a 1-on-one level. You can do that. You mentioned the police foundation. That's been an incredible, supportive thing. That is Mike's. Mike's 1 of the pretty much our liaison. With that I've had to step back, but

[23:13] that sends a message to when the police foundation is buying rifle rated armor for all of our cops like that that sends a message. It's a retention thing. It's a recruiting thing. We have very high expectations for officers here in Boulder, and I think that's why we knock on wood. Mostly see, we don't see the issues. You see other places. So on a large scale level, I don't know if there's 1 thing but I think it just in general and and quite frankly. You know I work for the city manager. She works for council. Like Budget wise, and Chris plug your ears. But we did just fine for our budget in 2025. And again, that sends a message. There's no defunding police in fact, there's additional money being put into training. I asked for additional money, for wellness of our staff, and they approved it also. Those things are all

[24:01] by way of not necessarily a very over crazy public thing. If there's there's a lot of long answer. But there's a lot of positive things happening that when you put them all together, I think the majority of, we would hear about it. If not, trust me. The majority of our officers seem to be pretty happy. and we're hiring like we're hiring. We're not just hiring. We're hiring really, really, qualified, really, really good candidates. We have like 9 or 10 of them right now in field training, you'll see. Really? Well, yeah. And I so absolutely that engagement. And that's the 1st thing that popped into my years ago I worked down here. I used to love walking the Mall and talking to folks and just having those conversations. But also, hey, what? What problems? Right talk to about the issues, talk about like they want to engage 100%. So it doesn't always have to be a hey, really appreciate everything like, where are the problems? That's what these guys, we select officers work them all. It's not just a whoever right? Just like we said. That's why we brought my team name.

[25:04] These people want to be engaged. They want to be a part of the solution with you guys. So I have those conversations absolutely. Can I give you one more commercial, too? Sure. You have an excellent newsletter that goes out, and you guys should subscribe to that always full of permanent stuff. But I will say he didn't want to say he is a big reason why all of these things have moved forward like the chief, has been an awesome leader for us, and I'm not just kissing his butt. But I mean because right we should talk about that we should be able to pat each other on the back. And it's it's a made a huge difference for retention, for the reason why people want to come here. And yeah. So he deserves some part. Thanks. Take back all this, hey? I said. I asked, how many times we need you to check in?

[26:13] Alright. Thank you, guys, thanks, guys. So with that, he's eaten up so much of your time again. Oh, go ahead alright Since our last one we've had our with the luncheon since. Yes, thanks very much to all the people who came to our annual super fun, and we were really happy to release our first, st ever annual report to the community. So I hope we're able to get a copy of that. We've been distributing it on social media. And this is just another tool to describe the very complex community of organizations that

[27:02] live under partnership and show our impact and sponsors and community and volunteers, etc. So that was really exciting. If you can go to the next slide. actually go to slides forward. We, unfortunately. But I didn't have the February football report by the time the packet was due, but we have seen that our numbers are down a little bit in 2025 compared to 2024. That's, I think, primarily due to the weather. There's a snowy picture I took on it day that there were not very many people understandably, because it's very cold and snowy. We're hoping, though, that that won't be reflected too poorly in sales tax collection. We won't see those reports for a while. You know, it was. Really, it's actually kind of interesting to follow up with the police report, because, I'll just tell you that my now spending my second winter here this winter feels a lot better.

[28:03] There are 4 encampments on the Mall and around the Mall and our, we actually have experienced some vandalism. The window at the Visitors information Center got broken 3 times last winter, and this time this winter, so far it's 0 times, which is the correct number. So just little things like that. She had 2 pretty prominent robberies that took place last year, and they've had any robberies to be a challenge. But that's never going to go away. So we're we're optimistic that we'll be able to end. q. 1. In a pretty good space. And gosh! The weather of the last week and last weekend has definitely shown that people are out and about doing so. That's great fun. And you can go on to the next slide. This is some of our social media also just saw a slight dip in January. You have the opportunity to read this in your packet and go through the details. But, interestingly, we actually had some pretty significant increases in gift cards. People bought one of $11,000 worth of gift cards.

[29:12] and we don't really know why that is, maybe they forgot to do holiday shopping around the traditional season. We- we had an ad that really resonated. But we love to see that express dollars back directly into the business community, especially during a smallish, a slow time. We are embarking. If you go to the next slide. We're embarking on our comprehensive advertising and marketing plan. So we start planning in January and February, and then really go into full execution in March, and April. So just came from another meeting where we're meeting with explore communications, they run our paid media walked through some recommendations for this year. We're going to continue doing

[30:00] television placements. We're gonna launch into podcast fiber media spots. We're gonna continue the bus backs. So you'll see a new campaign coming out. And we're really focusing a little bit differently this year on the Boulder County market. So the last 4 or 5 years we've really focused on trying to bring the Denver rights to Boulder, and we've heard from many of the businesses in our district that they would like to see more local visitation. So we're really focusing on the Boulder County and commuter cities within that area. If you go to the next slide we have a new campaign that we'll be starting. So last year our campaign was so bolder, which was very cheeky and kind of fun, and we're poking a little bit of fun at the tie. Dye tie to die for playing on words and such, but we know that the the sentiment is a little bit different now. So we are going for a more kind of heart forward message, and we are really going to be talking about. How downtown boulder is just is more than just a place. But it's really the heart of the community.

[31:09] which is a pretty benign message, but it's also, I think, a really important one for this moment that we're in. If you go to the next slide. We have been working very, very closely with the restaurant community, and you'll be hearing me talk more of this during the course of this presentation and future commission meetings. But the restaurant community is really facing some challenges right now. And we published a letter from the restaurant community to the community. And this is just a statement from that which is you're investing in the heart of Boulder, and together you can keep the heartbeat of boulder and be strong. So with that on the next slide. You can see this is going to be our new campaign. Welcome to the heart boulder! And so there are geographic little tags in that little heart. It's like a place

[32:01] and have a heart in the middle, and those are the coordinates for boulder. We need to figure out exactly where that is because I think we need to put like an account of the heart there, or something. But this is just the beginning of this creative, and at our next meeting I'll be sharing some of the the commercial and some of the different creative that we can bring together, and whatnot. And on the next slide. More on the restaurant support, I think, between my staff and visit Boulder and the Chamber. We've probably had 1,100 meetings with the restaurant community over the last 6 weeks. That's a little bit of an exaggeration. But really it's it's been a lot almost every day working with restaurant owners who are concerned about rising minimum wage, about operating costs and about consumers changing habits. So we're trying to do a couple of things. One is from an advocacy perspective. The National Policy Committee and the Board voted to support officially. House Bill 12 0, 8, which is the restaurant bill. This is one of the most controversial bills that has come before the State Legislature. In a while, the hearing last week of the Finance Committee, the vote was delayed.

[33:20] the testimony started at 7, 30 and like till 1 30 in the morning, it's really got people divided. The labor organizers are coming out, and there have been some really unfortunate doxing issues with people getting called out for having testified in support of this bill online and being protested in their restaurants themselves, mostly in Denver. So we've been really watching this carefully, because we think that it represents a reasonable approach to kind of slow the bleeding over the next 3 years as the raise minimum wage goes into effect. As I said, the vote was delayed, so we still don't know when it will be going back to for the Finance Committee. It probably will be Wednesday or Thursday this week.

[34:07] but we continue to support it publicly, and, in fact, Ddp. The Boulder Chamber visit boulder wrote a letter to the editor. We sent it to all the Boulder publications in support of this issue. so I could talk more about that. On a more fun topic we launched. Go out to lunch day, and this is going to be the last Friday every month for the foreseeable future. So we've got this happy little peace loving sandwich. Maybe it's a veggie burger. Maybe it's a a breakfast sandwich. I don't know if you could like companies like get their employees out and stuff. It's the intention is to get anybody. But absolutely the only reason I'm asking is like, you know, we are are, you know, we have 25 employees. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, the days so like Monday and Friday, I mean, and I think most people like when when they have the option variable. They don't tend to come in on Fridays.

[35:08] So just one quick word of caution on that. If- if it is, that's totally hear of you. And also. So part of it is. Oh, maybe you want to have people come in on the last Monday, then they'll go out too much. But I so maybe maybe one Monday we do next together. It just started. So we're in definitely test mode for that, that's see. And on the next slide, another issue that we've been supporting through our policy committee members 6 is the effort to keep Westboro open. There is a valid petition circulating. There's been a group that has set up a ballot, and they need to oppose this issue. That's ongoing the petition as of this morning

[36:17] gathered 667 signatures, and there have been 400 people that signed up on the West World open website since it went live on February 21.st So more to come on that you can go to the website and check out some of those people and sign up to support that link. On our next slide. We are definitely moving into event season. So you'll see, just for world builder arts weekend in collaboration with 2 different public schools, students have a chance to submit art the banners on them all right. Now we'll be giving awards next Tuesday. Great fun there and then. The most adorable festival is coming up on Sunday, April 27.th So we're working hard on that.

[37:05] But before we have the julet prairie novel festival, the next slide we've got taste of pearl and we're so excited to be bringing this event back and expanding it. We have 15 plus retailers, 15 plus restaurants 15 plus beverage providers, we added beer and non alcoholic drinks this year. And it's going to be a rock and good time also parting the Boulder Arts League. So they they are victoriously paid artists to be out on the event, so that we'll have an arts experience in addition to this wonderful evening drinking period afternoon. So that's great fun. Tickets are on sale now, and if you get a Vip ticket you'll get a wine tasting at Costco. So elevated. Ticket price. Example. I think that's almost it. Oh, yes, the operations update. Okay. So next, up

[38:01] you go. Next slide. You may have seen this funky vacuum tool out about. I've christened it Snuffleopagus, and I kind of like the Blue Ambassador here. Cookie Monster is driving the snuffleopagus. But I guess I'm just really into puppets. Anyway, this is a fun tool that we've been using. It's on loan from a sister district that also uses the block by block program in Denver. And it's just another method to try to get trash out of the gutters. So if you see that out about make sure you get to see it in action. It's pretty cool. This is just another example of some of our ambassadors doing a little bit of beautification. They planted little cute hearts for Valentine's day, and stand planters which don't have flowers in February. But we do have a little bit of love. and I can show you on the next slide. Some of our ways that we track our operations. I showed you the last mission meeting we had. I showed you kind of behind the scenes of our smart system where we track all of these things Atlv Block faces. That's not the biggest. I think it's not the biggest

[39:13] pretty good but these are some of the things that that our ambassadors are focused on. And if you go to the next slide, just gonna circle some of these other things. we have litter abatement, which is a little bit different than just getting the trash. And then we have pan and broom block bases. So we've really been working with our ambassadors to make sure that when they go out they have a room and a dustpan, and they're not just wandering around and trying to be helpful, but that they're actually out there. So we're continuing to refine the services. And our new operations. Manager Zach Boyle, has been doing a really good job with the team on the next slide. I was thinking about all these operations things, this with the guys, the team walking around, do they have their phone out there like you stress. And they have to like, are they like with their phone like whooping like what they did like every every time they do it. Or are they like, yeah, I kind of cleaned up? Oh, 20 pieces at the end of the day. So it sort of depends on the person because it is so recording tutor. Some people like to do it at the end of the day, so they might even talk like

[40:16] a notepad that they make a note of, and then some people do do it. But it it sort of depends on the person, and sometimes how comfortable they are with technology. Frankly, a lot of these people got into this work because they would like to be outside and talk to people. That's a good question. And yeah, it's not like a piece of trash has a barcode on it. So that would make it a lot easier. Anyway, this is also just a. These color codes sort of show how the ambassadors are allocating their time and their duties, in which part of the bid, so we truly are touching every single part of the 49 blocks. But this is pretty impressive. How you can see like those yellow ones, are are trash that are picked up. And you can see those numbers inside are

[41:12] quite large. And that's that concludes my report. Any other questions. And you could share about Updates on Sundays. Yes, we have to keep waiting. We thought that it was going to be the end of February, and now we learned that it's probably going to be so. If they tell us at the end of March, then we have to wait until that goal. There are going to be some people who are going to be extremely impatient. But right now we're just kind of in competition. Well, you should tell her how awesome didn't realize that she is the one

[42:08] their formal decision at the luncheon. Yeah, I know you posted it. One of the you had a new award for the ambassador of the year. and his speech was amazing and kudos to him, and I think you could repost that to your social media and do other stuff with it, because that was the best thing to hold. Okay, can't quote it. But he was like moving is so yeah, I did post it on my Instagram, which is older between them. But I agree, small incremental changes adding up to real extraordinary impact

[43:17] or bib starts to where it's actually appreciate it for the interest of that matters for Staff 2121 Broadway, all right. So excited to be able to invite Sam Maddox. Maybe if you can join us over to your plans. Then Sam and I met about a year ago and had a few conversations with him and his team about a idea concept that they have for a parcel that's owned by the central area general Improvement district, over which you all are advisors on decisions we make related to properties owned by Cleveland. and so we are at a point where we wanted to elevate this idea, this concept with you all and get maybe some initial feedback before we start spending some more real staff time on moving into a contract conversation related to the possibility of going into a buy sell agreement. So

[44:21] in our conversations, we've recognized that what this team is thinking for this space really fits with a lot of our economic vitality goals, activations of more spaces in the downtown. We've talked a lot about affordable commercial, also acknowledging that we want to make sure we're maintaining our access and parking obligations in the downtown effectively for all of the benefit of all of the owners. So with that, I know that there's some slides that this team has to share, and they want to do some introductions, but I'm happy to have them dive in. Yeah, absolutely. looks like we've got everything ready to go, Ryan. Can you hear us.

[45:01] Sounds good. Perfect. So 1st of all, everybody. Hello! My name is Sam Maddox, and I am here representing the development team for the opportunity. At 2120, Broadway, firstly, as a boulder resident. I'd like to commend all of you guys for your efforts to reinvigorate downtown, and I'm very excited to be presenting something that can make Boulder a better place to live. Should we receive approval and go through all the processes, our goal is to create a 4 and a half 4 Star Boutique Hotel that not only accommodates guests to our city, but becomes a cornerstone of the community. We imagine taking the existing surface, parking lot and transforming it into a vibrant destination that our city can be proud of. To accomplish this goal we have compiled an impressive development team filled with ties to Bowler. and one of these gentlemen is Ryan Diggins, the owner and founder of the Ramble Hotel in Denver, and Midnight auteur, and I'll pass it off to him.

[46:06] Yeah, thanks, everybody. I agree. Love that welcome to the heart of Boulder campaign. That's super cool to see. So I'm doing the the presentation while being remote in Savannah, Georgia, right now. So I'll see if I can toggle all this in a in a logical format. But as Sam said, Yeah, I'm I'm the founder owner of the Ramble Hotel in Denver. I am Michigan born, but Boulder, Colorado and Naiwok, Colorado, raised spent like 3rd grade and beyond in in the community. Currently, I'm Denver based. I'm a Denver based real estate developer, and today really wanted to talk about one of my favorite projects, which is the Ramble Hotel, is it? I think it represents a really great case study as to how we would approach this Broadway site and for the brief chats, I know we don't have a ton of time. I wanted to focus on what I think are a couple of reasons for our success, and really the the guiding principles for my business. And the 1st is design permanence, second, which we'll hit later, is a real, strong community community anchored component of what we do.

[47:20] So for the design. You know, I I wanted to hit on one key point. We're we're a 50 room Boutique Hotel in the River North Art district of of Rhino, River, North Art district called Rhino, and we don't have any design, standards or design guidelines. So back in 2015, when I was kicking up this idea. I was really come coming from a place of great reflection on the State of Denver architecture at the time. and I felt a real personal and civic duty to create something of permanence and beauty, and and really something that was reflective of the surrounding context. If you guys have been to Denver recently, there's been a mad dash to acquire, develop, and in some cases destroy a lot of the great contextual surroundings. So I looked at this project as a stopgap

[48:14] not driven by architects or guidelines, but just what I felt was right, and you know, showing a couple of pictures here, you know, this is clearly a masonry building. It's a throwback building. We sourced a lot of materials even down to the the old Central Platte Valley. Orange clay really tried to to drill deep into what? What does this this site call for, and really tasked ourselves with with the difficult journey of creating a building like this. I wanted to flag that I found in my experience in development that architects typically try to advance a pretty contemporary narrative. but in our case I had a very specific vision for what this needed to be, and how it was going to be executed. And really the non-negotiable components of this design. And again, I think what we got here is a timeless building that's going to hold up

[49:10] clicking through some interior images as well. I wanted to show the union between exterior and interior, which is a little more rare these days to invest in, both outside and inside. I could bore any of you with a tour anytime you want on some of the details here, but really just clicking through to give some representation of of the space, and I'm trying to again. I'm toggling between 2 slides here, so hopefully we can see what I'm doing. But you know, for me. It really. before you can create a community anchor point, you got to create something the community is proud of. And to me that starts with with the design. Clicking through just some, some details that I think even down to the custom

[50:00] wood door. You know anything you can touch, anything you interact with. I feel strongly that that everything needs a very, very strong design point of view, that that is reflected with the contextual surroundings. Next point is, you know, creating a community anchor point. you know, a a hotel is typically it's it's most properties. Provide lodging accommodations. And fairly mediocre meals. I mean, that's really the the basis for most hotels. In America. And that's just not what what I'm into. We really fancy our go ahead. Oh, you're good! Yeah, okay, my bad, heard someone, someone say something. So we we really, we we focus more on the incredibly dynamic public spaces that just so happen to have rooms above. That's our goal. So I don't really think of this as a hotel. It's public space first, st just so happens to have rooms above. And it's really a Trojan horse for placemaking. It can become a conduit that the community really interacts with in a very unique way. So I wanted to highlight just a few small images here of all of the community programmed events that we put on that really are agnostic of hotel. But I think shows some of the commitment that we have to to programming and placemaking, which is ultimately what you need on

[51:22] on this site. It. It's such a key piece and parcel to the downtown core. It's got to be a place that people people hang at so clicking through just a few here which I think highlight our approach. This is the art. Can we renovated an old shipping container and created gallery space for artists to sell their work. It was free for artists, they kept 100% of the proceeds. My only requirement was that they they worked 3 weekends in the space they could create. But ultimately they had to sell, which I think was an important missing component in rhino at the time we needed a place for

[52:02] people to interact with art and purchase art. This was a great program, this artist Residency program. I think we had over 25 or 30 artists over the years they passed the baton to the next artist. And it's been a really cool thing for the hotel and the neighborhood. This next one film screenings big component of our of our cultural game plan. Here we invested in a really great AV system 4 K projector, great audio host, a ton of film screenings that are typically anchored by some sort of Director Q. And a afterwards you might remember, you know, this guy, Bobby Stuckey. This was for the save the restaurants, documentary that that he was a part of here. Next one will highlight live music because who doesn't love live music? Nothing too key to drive home here. This was a Warner music showcase that they put on in our outdoor garden space. This one here was more recent. This was extra gold. We have them every Friday during the Denver stock show the National Western Stock show to bring more locals in

[53:07] this slide. Quickly going through highlights. Some of the eccentricities that we might pull off as well this one on the left, here, this highlights, a collaboration between us and the Denver center performing arts, and David Byrne of the talking heads. I saw a couple people in the room that might know who the talking heads are. Sam did did not, so he was not impressed by by this. But we created a really cool companion experience to David Burns, immersive theater experience in Denver called theater of the mind. We created this really exotic thing. This cocktail anchored program called the Neurobar Lab, which really accompanied what David Byrne was doing with his show. So you build credibility with these programming things over the years, and then you can start to get some really cool collaborations that you bring to the property this here represents just small business support. This is David Wright of right cream. He was a burgeoning ice cream entrepreneur that was struggling in Covid we created it. Let him use our freezer space, created a walk up window for him, and and really helped launch his business again. A lot of this stuff we just

[54:14] we we give it up to help support the community art art exhibitions will donate our space for gallery space for art launches. I could go on forever. This is my last one, my last slide. This this represents nonprofit outreach and support. We host an International Women's Day dinner. We bring in acclaimed local chefs, sell tickets, really, really fun dynamic evenings that ultimately go to a good cost. So again, none of this stuff is connected with a hotel, it's just a space that we try to program the crap out of and have done some really fun things over the years before I flip it to Jeff Aaroni. I wanted to talk about. You know what? What's next for us? We are. We're in Denver, anchored, but we're growing. We're working on a project in Savannah, Georgia. Right now. It's just a really neat historic preservation project. I could not do more projects if I didn't have a great partner like I'm going to introduce Jeff Ernie with land. Rock capital is a bit of the the juice behind

[55:16] us. Being able to execute some of these projects, his his development, acumen, acumen, and financial resources. Allow us to not only have these cool visions and ideas, but get them across the finish line. So I wanted to tee this up for you, Jeff, to introduce yourself and and round out this this presentation. Alright, thanks, Ryan. Sorry. I was having some computer trouble earlier. So you're getting me from my phone and also sorry for not being there, but similar to Ryan. We're we're moving around frequently and look forward to to coming to town. Spending time with you guys. So thanks, Sam. Thanks, Ryan, and thanks to the the downtown Management Commission for for your time. As Ryan said, we are I'm Jeff Ernie, managing partner with land rock.

[56:02] We are an investment management platform, purely focused in real estate, real estate development, real estate, redevelopment and really builders and communities. We've actively invested here. We're just dropping some pins on a map of some of these are representative of cities we've made investments into, and and those green dots are are representative of particularly hotel investments. We've made a little over 3 billion in in asset value and and just very active. But as as Ryan shared, we're currently developing in Savannah, Georgia, and are excited at the prospect of being a further contributor to to the boulder community. Here, with Sam and with with Ryan. I will share that. We are also active owners today in Boulder and are excited at the prospect of doing more.

[57:03] Thanks, Jeff. Sam, bring us on home here. Land the plane. Yeah, landing plane. So, as you guys can see, I mean, we are very well structured to take this thing down. It's really ready to go from our standpoint. But a major piece of this is collaborating with you guys and understanding what the city wants. I know, you know, as boulder locals. We know firsthand the challenges the restaurants are facing. We know what challenges retailer facing you know our goal is, is. should we receive approval, to reignite the vibrancy that's fading in downtown but to do so in a collaborative effort with the city and its stakeholders. So our goal is to create a project by boulder for Boulder. And this time we'd love to open things up to you guys and have a discussion on on your thoughts. And what matters to you? Location in Denver few times. And yeah.

[58:05] I it'd be tough to cookie cutter that into into, especially under. But where it is small. Is that part? Is it really? That's alarming? But no, I know death info is part of the the hotel down there, and would this provide an opportunity for a boulder based like, not New York ready for yeah, Ryan to. Yeah. Yeah. So those are. Those are my my business partners in Denver. I was I was concerned when we opened, of of bringing the New York bar in, you know. Is this going to be a transplant thing that that maybe locals didn't didn't react to. So we layered in some local components. To Dana Rodriguez, owner of Super, Mega, Bn. And working class. We had some other space that was more locals focused, but it was interesting over the years that I've come to find out is

[59:19] while the owners of Death and Co. Are from New York, and there's a New York location as you could imagine. The entire staff is is from Boulder. The menu is created in boulder, with some help from from corporate. So it's a it becomes a locals thing. Our guests are from River, North Art District, downtown Denver people that come up from Boulder, so I don't. I think over time they lose their you know. Where did this come from? And it becomes a place that the local team claims while having some some great credibility from corporate. But I will say that you know it wouldn't be a we wouldn't wouldn't do a death and Co. In Boulder. I mean, we we're we're we're cocktail. There's always gonna be a cocktail anchored component of of what we do. But we're beverage forward, but also a lot of culinary acumen, too. And then, fill in the holes. If there are any depending on what what the location needs.

[60:16] Oh, that's great! And I another question I had about that shipping container, the hard- hard cam, or that space. I'm trying to place that at the location down there? And do you have plans for something similar? On this footprint? Or would it be in collaboration with another space nearby. Yeah, good good question. So we I developed the shipping container parcel. I don't know how familiar everyone I should probably should have pulled it up on Google maps. But right across from the ramble we developed this shipping container site, which is micro retail and office. We put the container in the parking lot. So what that represents is just. I'm constantly grabbing it. Creative

[61:02] platforms that can be conduits for other people to to thrive and succeed other businesses to succeed. So that's just you know, there was space available, I, you know, dreamt something up and gave it to the community so it wouldn't be necessarily something we'd bring to Boulder, but it worked really well. It's a cool. It's a cool thing for sure. I guess I have one more thing to know, that parking has been thought of in this as well. That's a almost always full parking lot for for our assets? And is the what's kind of the vision there to incorporate that? Or are we losing that? And how would that work in in this vision, I guess. Yeah, I think you know, as somebody that lives here, I can speak for all of us. We're allergic to parking garages. We'll drive around in circles and find the surface spot.

[62:03] So we get how important that is. That's the busiest lot in Boulder generates 250 of revenue for you guys annually certainly recognize that. So we're really willing to work with you guys on a solution. And we're open to having that discussion from our standpoint. We'll be open on whatever's possible, you know. Is it feasible for us to go down 5 stories in a parking garage, you know, but we'll always have that open discussion with you guys as far as what's possible from our end. And what's best for the city. Make that clear. Are you gonna have your own parking? Are you gonna have your desk like your facilities, purely everything else but parking. So right now, we're proposing that any buy, sell, contract includes a requirement for parking management agreement. So those decisions will need to be made before we close on a on a sale

[63:01] through the development process. And so it's a really great question. We have the same questions on the city side, because we do have an obligation to make sure that we're able to provide access for the folks who want to come downtown. The land use does not require them to build any parking, and we're getting rid of parking minimums theoretically here pretty soon at the City Council level, and of course, city Council, acting as the Board of Directors of Cajun, are the ones that are going to make the ultimate decision on whether or not Cajun owns parking underground similar to the Saint Julian project. Or maybe there will be some sort of parking requirement. Similar to the Moxie Hotel. Where that is, that parking is privately owned. so that they at least have some space for their guests. That is, valet open. So that's all. It's also that's some of the work that needs to happen between now and opening day. If we move forward with this. And so it's a really great question. And and I'm glad you're asking it. When would opening day be

[64:05] no pressure? 2027. Yeah, hopefully. if we can move quickly through the city's processes, that'd be great. What? I did hear you saying, Jeff, maybe this is something for you or whoever. But what I hear is a little bit of public private partnership that in that kind of regards where I'm gonna ask question, you're gonna say, Don. I just answered it by saying, we don't know yet, but in a way is it such that they own the whole thing, and we get like 20 years lease back for the parking spots, for who knows? Don, we don't know yet. It's certainly, you know, in the realm of possibility, in this parking management agreement of what the arrangement will be. and because it is still a very important person to explore access because of the stats. We know that that they are the highest utilized parking spaces in the city. So if they're not there anymore, how are we making sure that we're still able to the best solution. We keep the surface locked.

[65:10] and we build a subterranean hotel where we put the people in them. And you know we love diverse kind of competence. Sorry, Stephanie. Go ahead. No worries. Thanks for the presentation. This is a lot more beautiful than a surface lot, and I I personally think and I'm Chris. Curious, if this is possible, that we have not enough demand for the lots, and wondering if there's any arrangement with, like the valet of this hotel to actually buy and use. You know, cage, it owned parking lot spaces so that they're we're get. We get revenue from them. And my philosophy about behavior change, which is why I founded a company around it is you have to like, sometimes take things away to change people's behavior. So I think that taking away. This lot is really the only way that we're going to get people to not only park on surface lots, and they will find somewhere else to park because we have parking. So I'm curious about some creative arrangement to actually

[66:25] help fill unused lot spaces throughout the city that are perhaps Cajun owned. That's beneficial to the city. Oh, curious! If people think about that. Yeah. Yeah, I'll chime in on the on the kind of on the side of Pasco and and Ryan and myself. We, you know, we're here to really, hopefully have that conversation. Ultimately, we recognize that's a a key component in the feasibility of the development and gonna be a key focus of those using it in the city. And we're so we we're really here with a with a goal to get the support to further engage in that conversation, and

[67:12] really as as we've shared a couple of times, you know, kind of work together on what's the right fit for for a project like this, but also meets the the needs and the desires of The constituents of the city. Yeah. So we'll look forward to being able to better answer that that question for you all as we proceed forward in our negotiations. I have a couple of questions for sure. One, can you talk about the probably brutal impact it would have construction wise on, you know. That's a 1 way, and that's 1 of but, like what I would say, most popular ways to get to Pearl Street, and then would it be blocking access to

[68:02] the spruce underground garage which there, that's the only way you can access that. And then I asked what your timeline for construction would be. I'm just trying to figure out as someone who owns a business on the bricks. how this is going, I mean, we already deal with a perceived notion that parking is extremely difficult downtown. And so I guess I I slightly feel like I'm getting different mixed messages, because we're trying really hard to get locals downtown. And this is just the reason that I think locals would be like, that's a hotel for tourists. Right? So I'm I'm just trying to figure out what the impact would be, and how you would be directing traffic, and how I mean, we saw how difficult it was when East Pearl was closed, and it was like you had to go around around. So that's 1 of my concerns. And then I guess I feel like we've also discussed downtown a lot about.

[69:03] It's very hard for restaurants, and it's very hard for retailers, so I feel like I am full disclosure. I was born and raised in this town. I have seen so many projects go through that are like we just want what's upstairs. But to make everyone happy, we're gonna throw in some retail spaces and mixed use. And I'm looking at the moxie. And have I been in the Moxie yet? No, I don't feel like valet parking there's still a lot of vacancies under there. So I guess I'm just slightly concerned that how this competes with restaurants we already have downtown that are already struggling. and and whether or not there would be. You know what the success rate would be of these, you know, and I guess the hotel would own the restaurants. Is that what you're saying? And then maybe there is no retail. But yeah, I think for me, I just need to know. I think it's so hard already to get to the heart of downtown boulder that I'm I'm curious how you what approach you would take for construction. Yeah, I think you know

[70:06] I'll answer the the second part of your question first.st you know the component that is the lobby. And you you can see this if you visit the ramble. That is what drives the the rooms. That that is the heart of the ramble. That's the heart of everything that Ryan does is the concept that is open to the public. I mean you. You go to the ramble, let's say Tuesday, Tuesday night probably 8 30. It's gonna be taxed. That's just how this thing operates. They do an amazing job of create, an environment that people not only will, you know, walk to and do work. But they're happy to go on their 1st dates there. They're happy to meet business associates there. It's a magical thing what Ryan does. So that's that part of it. And then, as far as you know, access to parking. Yeah, I'll take that. I'll take that question so that'll all be managed through the development review process, just like any other project where construction impacts are part of the consideration of of approval. So we'll be again working to answer those questions. And

[71:12] I think the team is probably loving and appreciating the feedback. And that's really what we wanted today. And then it just what this conversation unless everyone's like I love that parking lot. Don't touch my parking lot, you know. Then we we'd have. We'd be in a different space. And that's not the message that I'm hearing right now. What I'm hearing is, there's there are questions we need to have answered but nobody's saying, this is, this sounds like the worst idea ever. And you guys shouldn't be working. I'd say from my perspective, I mean, I've been here since 2,007 from New York. I have tons of clients from, you know, New York, La Chicago. Whatever I could see tremendous value. Something like this, like, you know, I mean we do. We do spend time going, even as you know. We go to you know. Colorado. Go to Saint Julian, you know. Go to the Moxie, you know, or find. Stay there, you know. I guess, a counterpoint to you. I'd say. You know I don't know. I wouldn't brace like someone from the outside, having a bar or restaurant there, I think. Actually, you know, that'd be a good thing. We have.

[72:19] you know, all these things that are disposal here already. So why wouldn't we? You know I don't know. Have something to something new and different. And I think that area, you know, could use something, and not to like make a case for it. But going to that location in Denver. It was this week I learned it was a hotel or motel concept. I've I've been in the lobby over and over again, and it's been. It's just like a hang spot. And I'm excited for an idea like that that doesn't feel like like there's a there's a little bit of a limiting factor to like the Boldorado or the Julian. A lot of people won't go in because it's like, Oh, that's that's for

[73:07] yeah. Yeah. But the rich people, or that's for the rich tourists, or whatever And if it's a similar concept to what they're doing in Denver. It doesn't feel like that at all. It feels like a space that people just walk through, hang out, order a drink. come and go like date nights, things like that. And if it has that same feel that's exciting to me, I'm just more for the programming within it. There are a lot of people in town here that are limited with by the opportunities to branch out and kind of do their own thing or come up with a bar program and things like that. And that's what I'd be interested in being in foreign restaurant industry. And knowing how many people with talent are here and go elsewhere

[74:01] to do things like they're doing down in Denver or New York, or things like that instead of staying here and contributing back to back to the city. Yeah. So I'm I'm excited, maybe you know, just in the as an advisory, you know without having necessarily questions. I do wonder well, how many seats does your theory have divert. You said, how many seats does my theater have? We can get? It depends on how we do it. If we just lay them out without the dining component. I think we've gotten up to 90 seats. But typically we do. And we've we've done hybrids. We've done the 90 pack them in and and have pre-function space before, or we've done these things, too, where it's kind of like a remember the old Boulder dinner theater a bit a bit of that vibe where you you watch something. You eat a little food, have a little drink, and then have some some dynamic Q. And a afterwards, so I'd say between

[75:03] 40 and 90, typically for the screenings. So with the concept of sundance coming, I assume you'd really lean into that. Should sundance be here. Yeah, I think what you know again, like the beverage and culinary branding marketing stuff that that we all bring to these things, we we find we can, we can draw a lot of really cool partners that want to work with us. So yeah, I mean, we're we're obviously, you know, chomping at the bit to see what happens with with sundance. And yeah, this would be, we'd be remiss not to create a a cultural amenity, and what we did in Denver, which was pretty strategic. This is Larimer Street. Here I opted not to put the hotel entrance on Larimer Street, which would maybe be equivalent to Broadway. Not quite because of the the speed of traffic, maybe. But I actually put our event. I branded our event. Space on Larimer Street gave it its own address, gave it its own name, and then put the hotel address on 25th Street. A little more bespoke trying to find the image of it.

[76:12] but you know, give it its own marquee, give it its own name. I would love for people walking up and down Broadway to just think of it as it's a film screening room. It's where we see live music. It's again. I don't. I don't know. There's a hotel here. I just know that it's it's something on Broadway that would be the goal for this site. So then advisory. I guess you know, Parking, he's applaud everything you're talking about, Ryan. It sounds great, you know. Can we build in a portable commercial to it. You know things like this, so that the we've got a bit of a taste in my mouth. After we went through the St. Julian Space at the Syracuse pad, Syracuse pad.

[77:00] And so I'm kind of looking for maybe a stronger partnership. If that kind of stuff happens. Sure. So maybe I'll talk about next step because these guys are wanting to get some certainties on who is doing all the work to actually get through the city process. And so we're working on next steps. Sort of work on this buy cell contract, which will come with an addendum that lists out. We need to figure out all these things and get answers to these types of questions like parking management agreement. What's the affordable commercial component before the the development review process is complete in order for the sale to go through, similar to what we did with the box the other time. So our hope is that by our next meeting we have gone through the negotiations and made sure that in our contract we have that requirement that we're going to be putting in the work to answer all these types of questions.

[78:01] And then get some feedback from you all on whether we've covered all the things that you think we need to cover. And then then that will go to council, presuming you vote that. Yes, we're heading in the right direction, and that goes to city council on consent. As early as possibly June. And then those that gives these guys the green light to start doing all the work on the development process that includes parking management agreement, the affordable commercial covenant, all these things that we're going to be putting into the appreciation. So what I heard is, Stephanie. You know most of us are kind of enthusiastic, Eric. I want to make sure your voice is heard. I don't know I'm just in a weird. I just there's been so much change in this town that it's I just have this fear that I will drive down Broadway and not see them out. And it's like happening more and more and more. So I guess we haven't really talked about how tall it's going to be the in line with all the other buildings. I just. There is something about coming down Broadway, and all of a sudden it's like being in a big city. And there's just this giant shadow, and the sun is gone from the Moxie in the convention center. And I just

[79:19] yeah, I don't know. It's funny when you said you don't love the spruce lot like I don't know. I have really fond memories of the spruce lot across from Gap kids, and maybe I'm just nostalgic. But we have just had so many hotels in the last like 10 years, even just 5 years. But I I mean, if there's a demand, maybe I'm just not as aware of it. I mean, I'm curious. Just even want to hear affordable retail space. I don't really know what that weight means in boulder anymore. And I'm curious. Then also, you know, someone touched on like where the rich people go. And I'm like, I don't know how much our rooms going to be, I mean, I think I just looked it up in your rooms are like 3, 53, 60 a night. So I guess I'm just trying to figure out

[80:11] yeah where it fits in with downtown, because I I agree it would be really pretty, and it would be really nice. I just feel like, I I mean, I just kind of feel like that daily camera building really got me with that whole like we're gonna go an extra story as long as the city officer on the top. And then I just feel like I hear these promises, and then they end up becoming. and everyone just gets used to it. And I I'm just I don't know. It's just a lot for me. I just worry that like, I think what makes folder really unique is that it isn't all built up, and it isn't all big. So I just sometimes worry that we lose sight of Boulder being small, you know, and I don't know. Rhino is a new, that's a new area. It was never the heart of anything. It was like that garbage disposal of everything. And so there's so much opportunity there to be like, look at what we've done. And here I just worry because it's just such a

[81:06] I don't know. but I think that your concerns are exactly why we want to have this open dialogue. I live here. I know how important it is to see the flatirons. Every chance you get beauty of it is that directly across the street on Spruce is a ford, the doghouse parking garage. So we're not taking anybody's views in that space. And of course, you know, there are zoning requirements that have height restrictions. So that's that was one of my questions based on what she said, because there's variances. So what is the flight? Yeah, we. We're not sure exactly how high we're trying to go yet. But the Max is 55. So it depends on how we're programming this. Obviously, it needs to make sense for an investment standpoint. But you know those zoning laws are in place to protect exactly what your concerns are. That's a huge part of it. Yes, we. We really want to have an active rooftop

[82:05] and you see the places like Avantivos and Hall, and they're awesome, right? I mean, there's places where you go when somebody comes to visit you. It's a place where you can actually capitalize on those things. So that's really a huge component of it as well. Yeah. I mean, like, if we just like, I guess last, and my office in your office across me different. That was not a good situation, but like that, you know, there was homeless people, and you know, I mean, I don't know like that's in progress, but cool. Well, thank you for speaking your voice, Eric. I feel like you can. Yeah, thank you. It's gonna be. It's gonna be sorry. I am. I have a quick question. Is the affordable commercial a requirement for this land for like land use, because it seems

[83:04] frankly, unnecessarily like bureaucratic, unless it's already in place, because we have a huge development project in the Saint Julian. That's very focused on that. So I was just curious if that's a requirement, because it doesn't feel like it fits with this model of like a hotel owned restaurant. No, we don't have a city requirement for affordable commercial. It's just something that developers have done. In several projects around the city, knowing that that's an important challenge in our community. And again, since this is a city managed, you know, caged own space. We want to make sure we're we're leveraging the fact that we currently own it to see what can be done to help us with some of our other challenges. Yeah, it just seems like it just seems like a square peg in a round hole for this sort of thing, in my opinion. I mean, if it was like, the parking thing seems very logical like, but that part seems like it doesn't fit

[84:09] easily with a hotel fully owned hotel model. So that's just my skepticism. Exactly. Work. When he brought up, like the ice cream shop that they kind of supported and stuff like that, and the the shipping container. Thingy. it's in there. What. Well, it's in the blood, but to require it legally, in some sort of way that just creates more challenges around filling space. Like I I guess I have skepticism about that. whatever that looks like. If it's like a thematic thing. Yeah. But I guess it just doesn't seem like it fits with the space as much as the St. Julian project, which is like an obvious fit for that sort of thing. So yeah, it's certainly up to this team to determine whether or not the city's put on so many requirements that it's worth that. It's worth.

[85:00] Yeah, makes it not worth the development at some point, potentially. So that's just the question I have. And the project needs to make it through planning board. It needs to make it through Design Review Board. It needs to make it through landmarks board, and then ultimately city council. So it well, so it's in a historic district. So as a property in a historic district, there is another. So there's a lot of conversations they're going to have to have like this over the next 2 years. Too, because this is just the preview. Right? But this is the 1st stop, because it is a Cajun owned parcel and want to make. And so it's an opportunity to debate like this possibility. And if you all were adamantly against it as our advisors, we'd still go to city council as a board of directors, and say, Hey. there's this opportunity, Dmc. Said, no, which that's not what I'm hearing, Dmc. Said. We're interested with this list of things that we're concerned about, and that's what's guided our negotiations.

[86:07] Okay. Yeah, yeah. I was just saying that I I don't think that should be a part of it. That's my opinion. because but I think it should fiscally help cage it like that should make sense for us. That that's my opinion about a requirement. I'd like to reduce requirements because it's already going to be challenging to get anything through all the stages. So the parking, and obviously, like all the land use stuff that's already there around building height. I think it's really important, but I wouldn't add a lot of new things, is my opinion. Let's make sure Ellie is taking notes in here. Stephanie's kind of concerned kind of anti affordable, Justin. I just. I'm not anti affordable. I'm anti affordable for this project. In this case recording. In this case I've well, we have a lot of projects that have a lot of goals, and we don't have to achieve every goal for every project. No, I you know it can.

[87:02] Tennessee sent us on a field trip down to Denver, but it it seems like something that could actively, you know, and spur someone the things we're trying to do in the Cajun district. And if if that same DNA is kind of like that same sphere of what they've presented to us, and what it seems like. down in Denver. It it seems like really interesting opportunity to maybe make some new opportunities for people that want to start a start or promote a business within the fabric of ballroom, which they can't do on a surface level. Parking lot, you know. can't do a lemonade stand on that parking lot. But maybe somebody with a vision of something can partner this hotel who has their own vision so

[88:01] well, I guess maybe, intrigued intrigued, to see what they present. Do you have anything about that affordable aspect? yeah, I'm not sure. The reason I'm intrigued is this, when you were talking about the ice cream shop, and like, I'm not thinking like a huge 5,000 square foot part of the 1st floor or anything like that. But if there's an opportunity for something. I liken it to a permanent food truck area or something like that, just because it is our land, and if we can't put that requirement on other properties downtown, but in this case we could. I'd like to explore. But what you're hearing is, there's a lot of diversity of obtaining so. Cool. And Jeff, Sam, thank you for coming tonight. Really appreciate it. I think we do need to go. Yeah, Ryan, do you hear that? Well, I'll drive the bus. We'll head down.

[89:05] No, seriously as as this progresses. Well, 1st off I'm I'm happy to come along for the ride. See where this goes. you know any any community as beautiful as boulder? Things are going to be harder to do. They're going to take longer. I think that's cool. I think that's part of it. I think it's great. There's gatekeepers for boulder so yeah. Happy to be here in the early phases. And if anyone at any point wants to. I was at the Saint Julian Friday night, and the last few times I've gone. I it is like so loud, and it was so crowded. And there really aren't a lot of spaces downtown where you can like loungey spaces where you don't have to like anyone can go. So I do see a lot of potential for this, of just like a place that you don't have to have a reservation, and you don't have to be sat down, and it's like cause I think people have just sort of really take like are drawn to the part that part of the Saint Julian. So I do see, I'm just curious, like the logistics of it. It's just such a tight area. But yeah, I think it's like, I think, yeah, I think everybody is gonna support it. So

[90:14] good luck. Thank you. Guys, great, thank you guys so much. Appreciate the time. Interesting moving on to the Improvement District analysis. Update with Matt. Thank you. We are joined today by Puma, our consultant team, to present an update on the district analysis work so far. So just to give a bit of a refresh. The District Analysis project is a study of our existing general improvement districts, and recommended actions on how they should evolve in the near term to address some of the challenges that we're seeing today.

[91:00] And since you last saw the puma team when they introduced themselves on screen they've been gathering data on existing conditions, really leveraging past plans and studies and engagements and creating district profiles for each of our districts. To capture the current state of our districts today. And so today, they're going to present some opportunities that that they've identified for caged, which really translate to broad potential scenarios based on the findings that they've gathered so far. And before I pass it over to Amanda. Some key upcoming dates to keep in mind. So we'll be holding a special meeting a joint commission meeting, I believe. April 8, th from 4 to 6 April 8, th in which will present more concrete recommendations after they've had a bit more time to analyze the broader scenarios that they're going to be sharing with us today. And then a couple of weeks after that, April 24th is the City Council study session.

[92:03] So tune in for that one for that as well. Amanda Brad. Thank you, Regan. So I'm gonna share my screen here. Okay, can everyone see that? Okay? Got it. Great so I'll get us started, and then to speak to the opportunities that Regan mentioned that we're starting to to put together. I will hand it off to Brad at that point. so here's our agenda for the update today. I'll just speak to what we did as part of the existing conditions. Analysis that Regan mentioned. Then I'll mention some priorities for Kjid that we have gleaned through conversations with community members, and then also, through previous planning exercises that have been completed for the district. I'll also speak to some challenges that we've identified and flagged for Kj. Both at present and looking to the future, and then, like I mentioned, Brad will talk about some opportunities that will then be formulated into more concrete recommendations as we get into April.

[93:19] So, as part of the existing conditions. Analysis we conducted for each of the 3 districts we're looking at. We dug into the background of of the district. So we looked at history. Your existing governance structure, your assessment methodology, all of that. We looked at some key commercial market indicators which were really interesting. So we looked at your property values going back to 2019 as a baseline before Covid, we looked at some sales tax data. We looked at information on vacancy, and so we'll share some of those key trends with you all when we meet in April. We also looked at the sources and uses of caged funds from 2019 again, as the baseline year before covid, through 2025.

[94:07] And then we know that there have been a lot of plans and studies and and community engagement done in the Kjit area over the last several years. So we took a deep dive into those efforts just to make sure we're not duplicating anything that was already done. And then looking at anticipated projects that have been recommended in previous studies, and we looked at key partnerships for Kjit as well. So some of the key priorities that we've identified. Again, we have had some conversations with key community members. We met with this group. We've also just met with some internal stakeholders at the city, some external stakeholders in the community. Again, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We know there's been a lot of planning done for the Caju district, so we pulled some some priorities from work that has already been done

[95:02] as well. So Pearl Street improvements and activation, particularly in anticipation of the the upcoming 50 year anniversary. We know that's a top priority for the area, the civic area and the East bookend redevelopment is also going to be very impactful on the Caju district. So we flagged that here we heard a lot about safety tonight, particularly earlier on in the evening. So while we know there's a lot of work being done to address that, we did want to just make sure we're capturing it, because it's something we have heard and seen in previous planning efforts. mobility, and connectivity to the hill and other districts. We've heard a lot from stakeholders about how connectivity to the hill is really increasing as a priority, particularly with the opening of the new hotels in that area, and then also, Alpine balsam has been flagged as a key connectivity, opportunity and Boulder Junction as well.

[96:05] We've heard that there are concerns about the future of Downtown's office market coming off of the covid-nineteen pandemic. So we want to make sure we're capturing that here. We know there are some capital improvements that have emerged as priorities, including garage, repair some underlining of power lines and then some off Pearl streetscape improvements as well. And then we've also heard that reimagining maintenance and operations in the district is a priority so based on the analysis we've done to date. We've flagged a couple challenges that we see at present, and then looking to the future. So we know that caged was established initially to deal with parking. That was the primary focus. But we have heard and seen that over the last several years there's been submission creep of Kj beyond parking. So we flagged that as a potential challenge, moving forward.

[97:06] There's a lack of clarity, especially when we were talking with stakeholders about what services are provided by caged versus the downtown bid. So we we want to make sure we're addressing that. And then we also, in conversations with the city, have heard that fund and revenue reporting and administration, and the flow of funds between the general fund and is a potential challenge looking to the future. So now I'll turn it over to Brad to talk about some opportunities. Great thanks, Amanda. So our charge is really to come up with for each of the districts that we're looking at, and just to refresh your memories. We're looking at the hill we're looking at downtown. We're looking at Boulder Junction. all of which have general improvement districts. So our charge is really to look. Are there near term adjustments over the next couple years that we should be thinking about.

[98:07] and to one of Amanda's points there on mission creep. The other thing to keep in mind is this improvement district was formed over 50 years ago, so there is naturally going to be a change in in what the conditions are downtown, and there are going to be pressures on a district such as yours. But one of the things we're trying to really figure out is what's reasonable. What's not so next 2 years? What what should we be looking at? And then longer term? Beyond that. these 1st 2 items are really related to something that is a new dynamic for me. When when we 1st met you, you may recall I go back 25 years with Boulder on a variety of assignments where we've counseled both the hill and downtown. and it's really the 1st time in in my work in Boulder that I'm finding alignment, strong alignment between the hill and downtown around shared purpose.

[99:01] And we heard from constituencies both downtown and on the hill a real desire to make sure the visitor experience from these new hotels close to the hill, that we get that right. and that we make sure when people are experiencing boulder for conferences, or visiting, or whatever the reason is that on the hill the concern is polishing the hill. Experience a sense of getting beyond sort of the one dimension undergraduate experience, if you will, of the hill. And then with downtown we heard a lot about man. We want to make sure these people can find us, that they know that, you know they go down this Broadway corridor. That that downtown is is down there as well. So 2 issues have come up. One is, is the 1st one's probably new and probably coming from us. Boulder has just created a tourism improvement district and the tourism improvement district. It essentially is a charge on room nights, and it's generating revenue will generate revenue to supply funding for visitor information tourism. Your convention visitor bureau is likely the main beneficiary of that.

[100:13] however, because of the concern both on the hill and downtown, we'd like to explore the notion of at least over the in the near term in the short term of a revenue share from that tourism improvement district, from those hotels, from the Moxie and the new hotel that's opening. Perhaps the downtown hotels as well. but a revenue share of from the tourism improvement district to really focus on that visitor experience and that connectivity, that linkage between the hill and downtown. The reason we're suggesting this is some of the other options and ideas are going to take a longer period of time to put together. So we've heard there's urgency that the Moxie's open. The new hotel is going to be opening soon.

[101:00] and with that urgency is there an opportunity for a supplemental revenue source to really, really focus on this visitor experience. So again, we we throw that out there as perhaps a new idea, downtown development authority is something we've heard from both ends of the barbells, if you will. Both the hill and downtown. A potential downtown development authority would be new. It could be overlaid on top of downtown and the hill and the Broadway corridor. And for those of you who we've met to talk about this, it creates a potential new revenue source through something called tax increment financing, and it allows us to capture future increases in property, tax revenue and sales tax revenue and keep those revenues within the districts to invest in improvements. so we can speak more to that in Q&A. But there does seem to be momentum certainly within the districts, and strong interest, I should say, too, among city city staff leadership as well for this Dda concept.

[102:04] The 3rd item we heard is just clarifying the value proposition where the money goes between caged and bid, particularly property tax, because you folks are paying property tax to both entities, and we heard from some stakeholders. They want to make sure that there's no redundancy there. and then also identify revenue options for the number of planned capital improvements. Some of the things Amanda talked about, the updating of Pearl Street, the civic area Bookend project. There's gonna be a substantial amount of capital improvements planned some infrastructure, and there are a variety of financing sources beyond, caged beyond the bid, even beyond the Dda that we'd like to put on the table. So that's near term, and then longer term thinking about downtown specifically, and caged for some of these capital improvements it might be warranted to think of, do they? Do? They end up in a citywide bond issue. Boulder is going to be more aggressive on this in the future, and downtown shouldn't be just taken for granted. And moving forward.

[103:10] Pearl Street Pif. Public improvement fee is what that is. This would be an added penny to your sales tax just for downtown. and it could be used for supplemental programming improvements within the downtown area. So there are some examples. The Flatirons Mall, for example, has a pif. So if you have ever looked at a sales receipt, or if you've ever shopped there in the 1st place. But if you've ever looked at your sales receipt, there's an extra amount tacked onto that that gets reinvested. In that case, in that property special district options for East Bookend. So again, other districts, special improvement district metropolitan districts. There are different financing districts that have not been used aggressively in boulder that could happen there. You do have urban renewal, urban renewal is very site specific. It's really oriented toward sites that are technically blighted.

[104:02] Hard to make that case in many parts of boulder. But it could be used on a site. Specific undertaking. This is something Amanda alluded to, too, is is just clarifying some of the revenue sources among some of your parking facilities within downtown. There's some ambiguity there. Some are owned by the city, and and their revenue goes to the general fund, others are within the purview of Kj. So I think there's an opportunity to clean that up and streamline that. and then the last one we just threw out there. We heard it from some stakeholders. I don't know if this would resonate with anyone frankly, but we did hear it from some Pearl Street businesses. I believe the notion of exploring an open consumption district. and Greeley has done this. Arvada has done this. There's a Colorado statute where you can actually carry a beverage on a dedicated area. So whether you want to do that on Pearl Street or not. We're throwing it out there as sort of a long term idea to explain, to explore.

[105:10] So with that, that's probably a lot of information we're throwing at you at the end of a very long meeting. So we're available for questions. We do encourage you all. We'll be there in person on April 8.th So we're really encouraging in person, because we'll be talking about all the districts we'll be comparing the different districts. I think you'll find it pretty fascinating and interesting. And then, as you've seen tonight, there's there's some shared opportunities among districts such as those ideas that connect the hill and downtown. So, Regan, I I suspect we we pass it back to you to quarterback questions. Thank you both, so can you go back? One slide, please. So I was. On the meeting they had a subcommittee thing where I had to go and didn't have to. I got to go and had a couple of our working session, and it was really interesting. I was really enthused by it, and the whole downtown Development authority is something that was new to me, and

[106:11] I am really excited for you all to learn more about it. It's a really cool thing that could happen for us, and so I can see how some of the things we talked about are on this list. And there's new things since the time that I got to spend with you. So, thanks, it's kind of interesting to see. I got to be part of the sausage making. So I saw how you got to here and that. So I don't know what you guys questions might have. But like a lot of this is like, how do we fund and make our plans and our ideas happen by all these different types of techniques? And they've got a lot. That's what I took away from what you're really trying to do. It's just to help you guys understand. What are they talking about?

[107:03] So that April 8th meeting. I can't make because I already have something for my company. We're doing so. I can't join that one again. I'm sorry, but if Stephanie or someone else could go no harm in having Dnc. There. I think we are looking for quorum as well. So the Official Joint Commission meeting. So it's okay to have one absence. But we want to make sure we have at least 3 commissioners. What time is it. From 4 to 6. I'm going to make it this, because, like I've been the one talking about, let's get us all together and do stuff. And here I'm gonna miss this. You want to eat the sausage 4 to 6 here. I think we're still working that out. We invite you at the Municipal Building. But we'll keep you all updated. Yeah, we'll send you a calendar like details.

[108:01] Did you get the invitation that I sent out? Okay, we do currently have it here at 1,500 per month. Oh, will we still be meeting in May? Yes, yeah. So that that will be a regular meeting, and the one in April is a joint commissions meeting with all of our CD commissions. I could just add on to that, because the reason we need to come together at that moment is in anticipation of the City Council meeting. April 24, th we want to have your opinions asked as a motion included in that information. And so that's how we had to swing that with sequencing. So that's why it's looking at a quorum, and that I'm fully behind. I'm gonna miss it. I'm fully behind what you're talking about.

[109:04] Any other questions. Thank you, Brad and Amanda. Thank you. Sure, thanks. Everyone. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for hanging out with of April 8.th So West Pearl. Then you're Jones. So this is on here, because I think it came up at our joint agenda setting meeting, and there was a question about what's going on. I'd say I would probably just say ditto to what Bettina shared earlier, unless there are any additional questions for staff. When it comes to valid initiatives we largely need to remain agnostic. We can provide facts. To the community when there's a campaign like the the both pearl campaigns. And I have shared a lot of the our data or facts. With folks that are involved in these things. But if there are any questions about where we're at right now.

[110:12] do you have any questions, Stephanie? Later on. Maybe the one thing that I was still questioning, because, like when we had to go. let's see, Erica Andy, you weren't part of the Dmc. When we had to deal with opening Westboro from when it was closed. and at that time I just remember all sorts of things that we were talking about at that time. gas pipelines and bus routes and real things that, like or beyond emotion, that would be like great. We have to re dig up all of this to make those. And so I I just think back to the gas lines is like a big thing of like. It's not that easy and so, the Tina I know you're kind of handling that. And I've talked to you a little bit about that, too. Do you want. Do you have those kinds of facts? Because I haven't seen necessarily

[111:09] when we talk about next door, and all the and the and the petition that is going on for closing it. It's a lot about people have a lot of emotions, and they are beating up a few of the restaurant tours. a lot of options, and people are saying things like Of course they had no sales, that it was covid and stuff like that. And so they're not really comparing apples to apples for like when we had when. Yeah, again, I'm remembering old stats from like after it was open and things were a little better, and people were getting back to life. West Pearl's closed east pearls open. He scrolls. Bozo's sales went up where the one that was closed didn't, and things like that. And so some of those stats I haven't really seen come out yet. And so that's maybe where I

[112:05] pushing for what kind of other information can we put out like lost expires? Speak a little bit to sort of some of the stuff that's been happening behind the scenes. And again, as I said earlier, the keep Westboro open is actually about. So it's featured by Rachel Brent and Peter Waters, and I've been participating in some of those steering committee meetings. There have been a couple of attempts at having a collaborative conversation about maybe meeting some shared desires and goals. So in full disclosure, we actually haven't put a lot of stuff on the website because we've been kind of waiting to see how things would shake out but we've definitely been tracking all of that information and it. We're in sort of a little bit of a waiting period right now, I would say interestingly, though I don't know as much about the gas lines, but I did learn that.

[113:10] I was talking to one of the developers of Pearl West, and they said that during the development of Pearl West they learned that it was a flood plain, and that if they wanted to continue the bricks they couldn't continue the bricks, because it's not a material that would be safe for the. I haven't verified that when in development. But I feel like there's a lot of different geologic layers to the rationale. For why, this isn't the right move, and actually just diagnostic of even taking that position. The the petitioners don't have a very clear plan for what they want, either. It's unclear whether it's oh, we just want to put a Jersey barrier out of restaurants to seat outside and restaurants say, we can't seat inside and outside. Our kitchens are too small, even if there was the demand, it just the math doesn't matter.

[114:03] so I don't know if that answers any of your questions, or just adds more difficult to get contest. We're in 30 day ceasefire right now. There have been moments where that word is in the end of the doubt. Oh, I was talking about your credit. Sorry? Yeah, exactly. So. Yeah, there, there's a lot of information out there. but if they're not able to get the signatures, they need to put this on the valid. They haven't told me 28.th They're not getting the significance that the study would they would need prior to thank you matters from Commissioners priorities. Now, thank you. You did a really nice job of summarizing 83 bullet points down. And does anyone have any? Did you all get a chance to read it? Do any of you have any tweaks to what?

[115:05] That route for number 3 spread awareness of marketing efforts and events that will help bring visitors to downtown. Now, when the puma thing is just talking about how we can Boulder Junction, the hill and everything. That's maybe one thing I didn't see here in this Consolidated version is that connecting our areas? So maybe I would propose putting the words connect. hey, spread awareness. But maybe you talking about what might be a number for him take opportunities to communicate with other boards in line efforts to connect various economic districts. I guess I saw those as 2 different. What I'm connecting with is a number 3 spread awareness and marketing efforts that will bring people downtown.

[116:01] Oh, and it's the bring people downtown part which is at the end which is already there at the very end of that. So I was connecting with the map part of that, bringing visitors downtown, spreading, marketing, awareness and efforts. And so I would just put connect and spread awareness of marketing efforts, or something like that. to make it so that this is about bringing people to the downtown, for I took as more getting like cross collaboration, collaborate and spread before I thought as collaboration 3. I thought about getting people to document, okay? Or for I took my reading of it, was more about elaborate and go ahead. So got it waiting to that on this that will connect visitors to that account is that, or do you want one? Maybe it's

[117:02] We need to connect more of the 1st half of the sentence, because it's really about connecting spread awareness. Marketing efforts in here wrote it. But I, what I wrote was not great, because those who was We put the connect at the second half the sentence, it's not the ring bought. Maybe it's not even the marketing. It's like connecting like physical connecting. Like, yeah, signage. Oh, yeah, okay? And like fixing the arboretum. And you know, Polis just talked about how bj, or the train is. Now, maybe again. So how can we like when I think about that, though. Bj, would then become kind of our new economic center for people who are like coming in from Baltimore and everyone, and they can't easily get to downtown.

[118:12] you know. Vj will start to thrive. And we're gonna have like all these like this connected business. So I was trying to like. Think long term. For how do we connect the hill? Bj. Alpine. a little bit more, which we didn't really talk about? That's good to made that idea at all. But we redo these priorities, or tweak these priorities, and planning for a hypothetical train that was supposed to be here 10 years ago. Well, I guess I'm going more for Moxie, and and I understand it for something like that, for sure. But yeah, what you wrote there only looks great.

[119:08] Great job, Justin, I would say that my only edit is an addition, because we are actually we primarily work on parking, and I don't see parking in here. So I thought we could add, parking an activation of underutilized space parentheses, eg. E. Period, g. Period comma parking lots. That's my one, because we we were just talking about that today. So and we talk about that a lot, thought I would mention it. I can give you an. Our caged owned parking lots. Technically, we care about. So I assume we moved to vote on this. Yes. Do I hear a movement on this?

[120:01] And do we have to do it by individual or one. Sec. Do a second, and then all second. and then everybody puts their hands up. There you go. Okay, great. all right. You'll see that updated in future agendas. And Stephanie, you can get to go to the last business Improvement district meeting. That was the I think the last one was the the luncheon which I was there, wasn't it? That's correct. Yeah, we did not have a meeting in February. Okay. And I will be having a baby in June. Yay, that's not why I'm not here now. It's in tune. but we'll be looking for someone to go instead of me in the summer months at least, probably through September 15.th

[121:07] So that's just a topic, perhaps, for the next meeting or offline Ellie or Chris. Sounds good, and you can add it to the agenda for the future definitely. Okay. Thank you. One last item I've been emailing back and forth with Ellie and the planning people. After our last meeting we had at least I did. I don't know if we all did. I can't remember now some questions around how planning is getting the news out around improving their the improvements they made to the planning process. So things get done in a faster way. So they reported back to us. They'll send us all an email saying, here's what they've been doing. And here's how they communicated, I replied back, saying. there's a lot of information there, but because I'm trying to rent a space I'm here, having firsthand experience where people are not

[122:03] game to make changes because they they haven't experienced the updates and how it's been improved. So I just had some questions around. how can we communicate what planning is doing to get better? So people feel more likely to try to start a business in one of our spaces. So that's just some of the follow ups I've been doing waiting to hear back. But I was thinking like positive case stories of like we've all heard the horror stories. Let's get some good stories out there that we can start to publicize about like it went this. Well, it's different now. Anything else from the Commissioners. Next meeting, and I think we have to move to adjourn. You get to the chair. Gets to join the meeting whenever you feel like that, just I want to again remind you that there is the April 8.th It's agenda, but April 8th will be a special joint commissions meeting, and then, since I can't make it, can everyone else make it? Do you know yet that'd be awesome.

[123:13] Stephanie? Just to confirm, are you gonna be able to chair in lieu of dawn at the April 8th meeting. At this point? Yes. Thank you. If that changes, just let me know. Thank you. I will. But we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.