Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutEDA 2022-08-04 Minutes MINUTES OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS HELD IN THE COUNCIL WORK SESSION ROOM, 4301 CITY POINT DRIVE August 4, 2022 The Economic Development Advisory Committee of the City of North Richland Hills, Texas, met on the 4th of August 2022 at 11:30 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room. Present: Mr. Joshua Fichter Five Star Ford Mr. Jay Garrison JA Garrison &Associates Mr. Jay Redford CBRE Commercial Mr. Mark Wood Howe/Wood & Company Ms. Darlisa Diltz NTEEC Ms. Mindy Monroe Legend Bank Ms. Stephanie Seybert SeyTec Absent: Mr. Mike Vasquez Century 21 Preferred Properties Mr. Mikhail Orlov GRITR Mr. Mark Deno Medical City North Hills Staff Members: Mr. Craig Hulse Economic Development Director Ms. Elizabeth Copeland Economic Development Analyst Ms. Paulette Hartman Deputy City Manager Ms. Pamela Meek Communications Assistant A. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Wood called the meeting to order at 11:39 a.m. B.1 CITIZENS PRESENTATION No citizens presentation. B.2 PUBLIC COMMENTS No citizens present for public comments. C. ACTION ITEMS C.1 APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE MARCH 23, 2022 ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING August 4,2022 Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Page 1 APPROVED A MOTION WAS MADE BY MR. REDFORD, SECONDED BY MS. MONROE TO APPROVE THE MINUTES FROM THE MARCH 23, 2022, MEETING. MOTION TO APPROVE CARRIED 7-0. D. NEW COMMITTEE MEMBER INTRODUCTIONS Mr. Hulse took the time to update the council on the status of former members of the council who are now in transition and invited the new members to introduce themselves. Bob Brown was the former CEO of Smurfit North Richland Hills and was promoted to Smurfit Forney which is a larger facility. Michael Wright of MJ Wright and Associates, an architect who designed many buildings in North Richland Hills retired. Ron Huggins of Huggins Honda sold his dealership and is also retired.And finally, Janice Townsend with Roots Coffeehouse is looking at selling her business to her employees and focusing on possibly having a family. Jay Garrison introduced himself as a Certified Public Accountant who has been practicing for 44 years now. He practices here in North Richland Hills, bought the Federal Savings and Loan Building on Rufe Snow and 820 just down from the NTB Battery store and the new Sweetie Pies back in 2012 and made it his office in 2013. He is here to represent the Tax, Accounting and Public Accounting Industry. Jay Redford introduced himself as a North Richland Hills citizen who has lived here since 2008. His work takes him from Lubbock to Texarkana and north of Waco. His primary focus is self-storage, RV parks and mobile homes. Joshua Fichter introduced himself as the General Manager of Five Star Ford and has been with company for 24 and a half years.What led him to North Richland Hills was Sam's vision for moving the dealership there in 1997 from a very small lot over off Precinct Line. Mindy Monroe introduced herself as the Branch president, Senior Lender, Commercial Lender at Legend Bank. She moved to Northeast Tarrant County 15 years ago and as always viewed North Richand Hills as small town inside of a big town. Mark Wood introduced himself as being in the Commercial Real Estate business with Howe/Wood & Company for 35 years. They do brokerage, buying and selling, as well as some development and some subdevelopment. Darlisa Diltz introduced herself as an ecosystem builder and entrepreneur educator for the North Texas Entrepreneur Training Center. She also owns the Center NTX, which is a flexible workspace. Her industry is business development, entrepreneurship, and sometimes community development. August 4,2022 Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Page 2 Stephanie Siebert introduced herself as the CEO of SeyTec which is located across from the NRH Centre. They work with astronauts and high executives of Lockheed and Boeing and SeyTec is a women-owned small business of 60 employees. Paulette Hartman introduced herself as Deputy City Manager. overseeing all the development services areas, which includes Public Works, Planning and Inspections, Neighborhood Services, which is our Code Compliance, Animal Services and Consumer Health, Communications Department, Parks and Recreation. Elizabeth Copeland introduced herself as the Economic Development Analyst for 6 years. Pamela Meek introduced herself as the Communications Assistant for the City of North Richland Hills who straddles both the Economic Development and the Communications Departments. E. DIRECTOR'S REPORT Mr. Hulse presented a high level of what is going on in the community, specifically from an economic standpoint. Mr. Redford responded that the supply chain problems have caused industrial building demand all over the place and it is magnified here because we are right in the middle of the United States. At this point, Mark Wood asked Mr. Redford if he thought the demand for 500,000 square foot buildings would continue? Mr. Redford responded saying he thought it would probably be due to their efficiency. E.1 Update on Local and Regional Economic Trends From a permitting standpoint, new single family remains strong in North Richland Hills. Mr. Hulse projects 220 to 240 new starts this year. City Point has gone vertical. Commercial permits are up again; however, most are renovations of existing space. Regarding residential, there are currently 15 active subdivisions in town. NRH is 90% built out. Depending on who you talk to, it may be a higher or lower percent, but the development community continues to get creative and look at NRH for opportunities. Mr. Redford mentioned all of this is being tested right now by the rise of interest rates. Multifamily is a similar story. The demand for multifamily across the country is significantly high. The stories are rent increases, but also the value of the newer multifamily projects when they are sold to other real estate investment trusts. The average value of each unit is $241,000 for one and a half bedrooms per unit. Mindy Monroe wanted to comment on housing at this time because she does finance with housing and investor properties, and it has changed a lot over the last couple of years. She August 4,2022 Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Page 3 gave examples of what is happening with her clients. People that are investors that buy rental properties are really doing almost nothing right now, because you cannot rent sufficient to what the investment is. E.2 Development Trends (commercial, resident, multi-family) From a commercial real estate perspective, North Richland Hills is a retail-based community. Vacancy rates are down two- and one-half percent and it is going to continue to go down. Office rents are up and is a strong point for NRH with a 10% vacancy rate. . E.3 New and Upcoming Business Update Staff is excited to share the new business coming to the former Hobby Lobby called Volli Entertainment& Catapult Adventure Park. It is located at 6615 Rufe Snow and Loop 820. It is 62,000 square feet building on six acres in a climate-controlled space. It will have indoor pickle ball, cornhole, golf, other adult games, alongside a restaurant and bar. If you have children, you can drop them off at the Adventure Trampoline Park, which is also inside. This will open in early 2023. Another new business is a property that was originally the Fountain of Life Church, located at 5198 Rufe Snow, next to Winco. It sat vacant for ten years.A 46,000 square foot building, sitting on 4.5 acres will now house three traditional retail businesses. There will be building renovation, facade and an overall improvement to the site. The Tenants that are coming are Ross Dress For Less, Pop Shelf and Five Below. B&B Theaters is going to re occupy the former Alamo Drafthouse on 8358 Davis Boulevard. It is 42,0000 square feet building, that sits on 5.5 acres. They are adding in a Redemption arcade in the former lobby area and rebranding their restaurant. B&B theaters is the 5th largest theater chain in the United States. They are privately owned. They are the only theater chain to grow from the pandemic and they were able to take control of many theaters that closed during the pandemic and grow their base at a much lower base than the previous businesses. They are going to call this location B&B North Richland Hills. Another new business is Warespace located at 7601 Boulevard 26.This was a former Home Depot, a 70, 000 square feet building, purchased by a group out of Maryland, that is going to break the space up into smaller units for entrepreneurs that have a little capital to get a foothold to share certain facilities such as shipping and receiving. They navigated the rezoning process to the city, and we are excited to see them open. F. PROJECT AND PROGRAM UPDATES There is a program out right now put out by the county called the Small Business Recovery Grant. It is for businesses under 50 employees. Grants are based on the number of employees, so they range between $2,500 and $27,000. The city identified roughly 400 August 4,2022 Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Page 4 F.4 Smithfield Mixed Use Development Update The Council approved the sale of 9.5 acres to Presidium group out of Dallas. They are going to be constructing a 4 story, 325-unit multi-family mixed use development. They will also be building 20,000 square feet for commercial use around Back Forty Smoke House along Main Street. 70% of the building must be food service or for entertainment use. The remaining 30% of the building could be non-food service or non-entertainment related. Also,just north of the Smithfield station platform, there is another group looking to construct a 4 story, 214-unit, multi-family, parking Garage, 10, 000 square feet commercial space on the front. This is another exciting project in Smithfield. G. AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS G.1 International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Silver Award for"Annual Development Report" Category G.2 Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC) Economic Excellence Award (12th year in a row) G.3 Northeast Tarrant Chamber of Commerce Member of the Month— Craig Hulse Member of the Month & Momentum Award — Darlisa Diltz G.4 Greater Fort Worth Regional Economic Partnership City of NRH hosting Annual Retreat August 4,2022 Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Page 6 businesses that are eligible and made them aware of this grant in numerous ways. As of August 2, 73 businesses have signed up for the grant so far in North Richland Hills. F.1 Street Bond Project Update An informational flyer was distributed to all the businesses along Bedford Euless Road. Staff met with every single business and property on the project and discussed what the project entails. The North Richland Hills border of Glenview will also be reconstructed. The Iron Horse design is underway and later this year will be going out for bid for the reconstruction of Iron Horse specifically around Prestige Ameritech, the respirator mask company. F.2 Council Request for a Redevelopment Plan for portions of Davis Boulevard and Boulevard 26 Council asked staff to put together a strategic and tactical plan on redevelopment and revitalization plan for Davis Boulevard south of Main Street, inclusive of portions of 26, where they are well traveled and visible. There is tremendous opportunity, but an inordinate amount of functionally obsolete properties that are declining in condition, usefulness and code compliance. Staff is putting together a proposal for council to review in at the next council meeting that will look to revitalize redevelopment and attract new businesses along the corridor. F.3 City Point Development Update This is a six-year project. In year two, the estimated completion is December 2026. Originally, this was an $185 million project plan, there has been a 20% increase in single property values and the project plan is now estimated at $225 million. The horizontal infrastructure is 95% complete. This includes the streets, drainage, sewer, streetlights and franchise utilities. Model and speculative homes are underway and there is a projection of 2,000 additional residents that will live in this area. This is 23% the size of Richland Hills CB Jeni is building townhomes that are two story ranging between 1,500-2,100 square feet. They are three beds,two bath with two car garages and the asking price is around$400,000. Mattamy Homes are three- and four-story patio homes ranging from 2,100 to 2,600 square feet homes with an asking price of over$450,000. Ashton Woods is the third builder in City Point. They are a mix of the two above mentioned Home Designs. They are 1,600 -2,500 square feet and 3-4 bedroom, 2-3 bath, with an asking price of$450,000 and up. They are building now in Urban Trails on Holiday Lane and Mid-Cities, with homes priced over$500,000. August 4,2022 Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Page 5 H. ADJOURNMENT Chaiman Wood adjourned the meeting at 1:02 PM. i1A Mark Woo , Chairman Craig HuIs , retary August 4,2022 Economic Development Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Page 7