Greensboro City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. YES! Weekly will be there to provide live coverage via Twitter.
Among the most interesting and potentially contentious items on the agenda, council will consider a recommendation to name East Market Street Development Corp. as lead agent for redevelopment of Bessemer Shopping Center on Phillips Avenue when it meets tonight at 5:30 p.m. East Market Street Development Corp. developed the Dudley-Lee Center at Murrow Boulevard and East Market Street.
The city also received a proposal from Carr-Powell Properties LLC, along with a joint proposal from HOYAS, or Helping Our Youth Achieve Success, and Sustainable Community Solutions.
Council voted to issue a Request for Proposals last November after a majority decided against directly appointing East Market Street Development Corp. as the lead agent. The motion to deny direct appointment to East Market Street Development Corp. was made by District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny and seconded by District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade.
The decision angered some northeast Greensboro residents who saw it as disrespectful of their right to chart their community’s course. Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro, a politically connected community empowerment organization that has been promoting the redevelopment of the shopping center, was already working with East Market Street Development Corp. and favored it to lead the project.
City employee Sue Schwartz told City Manager Rashad Young in a Jan. 21 memo that each proposal provided “a different but equally effective strategy for completing the redevelopment.” The lead agent’s responsibilities will include “recruiting a development team, working with that team to identify and secure funding sources, marketing the site to prospective tenants, continuing the community engagement process and providing economic and business development.”
Schwartz indicated that an advisory committee under the auspices of Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro composed of residents of the communities surrounding the center was to conduct interviews with the applicants in February and recommend its selection to council for approval. At the conclusion of the process, the northeast residents decided to stick with East Market Street Development Corp.
“Although all the proposals were well thought out, the proposal from EMSDC seemed to most closely match the needs of the project,” reads the attachment for the agenda item. “EMSDC’s previous experience as a lead agent makes them uniquely qualified for the role. Given the high level of interest already expressed by prospective developers and tenants, it is more important that the selected entity have experience in the coordination and oversight of community redevelopment than as a hands-on developer.”
Lease revenue for the shopping center is estimated at $36,000 annually.
Individuals involved with the two other groups that submitted proposals also have significant experience in economic development project. Carr-Powell Properties LLC is George Carr of Beacon Management Corp. and Vernon Powell of Sabre Capital of GSO. Sustainable Community Solutions includes Evon Smith and CC Lamberth, while HOYAS is led by Bishop George Brooks of New Zion Baptist Church, who was reportedly “instrumental in creation of the Welfare Reform Liaison Project, a nonprofit that provides training for economic self-sufficiency.”
Some comparisons and contrasts from a matrix developed by staff to evaluate the three proposals:
East Market Street Development Corp.’s total fee of $108,000 is less than that proposed by the HOYAS-Sustainable Community Solutions partnership. Carr-Powell Properties would charge an unspecified fee as a percentage of development costs. Under the proposal by Carr-Powell Properties, “Fees would be paid out of development budget, which could free up city funds for other uses in the area.”
As to experience, the East Market Street Development Corp. development of the Dudley-Lee Center is compared to Evon Smith’s involved in residential development in Winston-Salem and Carr-Powell Properties’ development experience with commercial, retail, healthcare and housing. East Market Street Development Corp. has utilized federal, state and local funding sources while Carr-Powell Properties has “significant experience with private market financing.”
East Market Street Development Corp. holds a built-in advantage in community engagement: “Directly engaged with this specific community through the Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro since its inception; participated in meetings, vision sessions and focus groups directed towards all aspects of community improvement, including specific to the center.”
Also on tonight's agenda:
Council will also consider a staff recommendation to approve a contract valued at $199,960 to Bouvier Kelly for the "development of marketing, branding and communication products for the city's BetterBuildings program." The program is funded from an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant through the US Department of Energy for energy efficiency improvements to residential and commercial buildings."
An attachment to the item indicates that staff reviewed 18 proposals, but the other applicants are not identified.
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