City Council Meeting Date: June 18, 2019
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
Title
Request for City Participation in FiftyNorth Future Space and Programming Planning Process.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council discusses the FiftyNorth future planning.
Summary Report:
City Administrator Martig has met with Lynne Pederson, FiftyNorth Director as a follow up to the worksession discussion on May 14, 2019. The memo and background materials are attached from that meeting.
At that meeting, representatives of FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee presented information on their exploration to “determine what programs should be offered and what kind of space will be needed for those programs.” The information also explained that the committee will be accomplishing their work in the following four phases:
1. Fact finding;
2. Space design;
3. Capital campaign and partnerships;
4. Construction and reconfiguration.
The first phase is underway with regular meetings (every 2 weeks generally) with intention for the committee to provide a report in September of 2019 to the FiftyNorth board of directors and the City Council related to their first phase.
Based on the discussions with Ms. Pederson and past presentations, City Administrator Martig is suggesting that it would not be a prudent use of resources to assign representatives from the City (staff, council, etc.) to this committee at this time. Staff would be meeting monthly with Ms. Pederson to receive updates and determine if any updates to the City Council would be appropriate before the “fact finding” report is completed.
Staff is suggesting that the City have much more formal involvement during the space design phases. We believe it will be advantageous to have a close relationship on any architectural design work as well as exploring potential changes in uses for existing or other uses in the facility related to the school district tenants and others potentially relocating along with the Greenvale School project. As a reminder, it is planned for Community Education, Early Childhood Services, Adult Basic Education (ABE), and related meeting rooms on the second floor will be vacated with the changes at the Greenvale Elementary Campus. Head start is anticipated to stay at the NCRC facility. Health Community Initiative (HCI) offices are anticipated to potentially move some or all operations to the Greenvale Campus as well.
The City does have a current management contract with the NCRC Corporation (a local non-profit consisting of the Community Action Center of Northfield, Three Rivers Community Action, Inc., Northfield Senior Citizens, Inc. Northfield Public Schools) that expires the end of December 2019. The existing contractual arrangements were discussed with the Council at the March 12, 2019 worksession. However, I will provide a little more background in this memo again as a reminder of these agreements. The services included in the contract includes full management operation services of the building including the following:
- Manage tenant leases (approved by NCRC and City)
- Subcontract with management company (currently Bluewater)
- Marketing for promotions and activities
- Marketing for new tenants if leased space is available.
- Scheduling meetings spaces
- Development of an annual operations plan
- Facility maintenance
- Responsibility for utility bills
- Custodial services, grounds, trash removal, and other general operations services
- Collection of rent
- Responsible for NCRC personnel staffing.
Any improvements, alterations, repairs and capital expenditures are the responsibility of the NCRC Corporation under the current contract. They are responsible for maintaining the building in good operating condition. Expenditures for capital improvements to the building and grounds are suggested to be amortized over the life of the improvement to tenants through rents.
Although the NCRC Corporation assumes full responsibility of these lease changes and building alterations, staff is strongly recommending that with such substantive changes and a contract for management set to expire in December that it will be important to work together to explore these changes and also use this time to revisit related agreements. The NCRC Corporation has been looking to city staff for leadership for the past few years on providing guidance on operations despite the contractual responsibilities that are left almost exclusively with the NCRC Corporation.
Existing tenants at the NCRC have discussed amongst themselves to explore their interest in the space at the NCRC going forward over the summer. During this time, staff would propose that they be discussing a potential process to explore interest of the current tenants and possibly other interested parties. Additionally, we will continue to look at all agreements related to the NCRC building as this would be a good time to consider any amendments.
This item is planned for a discussion only at the City Council meeting. City Administrator Martig will be looking at a follow up discussion with the City Council on these topics in July or August to prepare for next steps related to the NCRC building tenant changes including interests of FiftyNorth.
Alternative Options:
Explore representation with FiftyNorth Futures Committee. If the City Council feels it is important to have participation, staff suggests moving this forward fairly quickly. The Mayor would appoint and Council confirm any appointments if this is of interest to pursue.
Financial Impacts:
N/A
Tentative Timelines:
• July-August date to be determined - City Council - further discussion on process for NCRC exploration of FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee interests and others.
• Current- September FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee - First Phase
• 2019 - FiftyNorth Future Planning Committee - First Phase
• 2019 New Greenvale Park Elementary Breaks Ground
• September 2020 New Greenvale Park Elementary Opens
• Summer-Fall 2020 - Existing Greenvale Park Elementary is Remodeled
• 2021 - School District Relocates Early Childhood Education to Old Greenvale Elementary
• 2021 - Additional Space available in NCRC