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Missoula Redevelopment Agency 140 West Pine Street Missoula MT 59802 [PHONE REDACTED] phone • [PHONE REDACTED] fax www.ci.missoula.mt.us/mra [EMAIL REDACTED] M E M O R A N D U M TO: MRA Board of Directors FROM: Ellen Buchanan, Director DATE: October 17, 2010 SUBJECT: Director's Report Front Street Parking Structure • Requests for Proposals for architectural & engineering services have gone out to the three firms that were chosen via the Request for Qualifications. Responses are due in on October 22. The RFP for construction manager at risk will go out to Quality and Gordon Construction this week. The goal is to bring the selection recommendations to MRA and the Parking Commission on November 4 and for the two boards to make a recommendation to City Council for action on November 15. • Members of the Parking Commission Board have been invited to the MRA Board meeting this month so that they can participate in the discussion about financing the construction of the parking structure and reimbursement to First Interstate Bank for tax increment eligible expenses. • The MRA Board will be asked to hold a joint Parking Commission/MRA Board meeting on November 4 at noon. The purpose will be to review and act on a Development Agreement between First Interstate Bank, the Parking Commission and MRA/City and to consider recommendations for the design team and construction manager at risk for the project. Downtown Master Plan Implementation • The North Higgins project is complete and we had a well attended ribbon cutting and celebration on Friday. • The MDA and BID project to create a comprehensive data base of properties in the study area to use as a business recruitment and retention tool is moving forward. The MDA has received applications from some promising interns from the University. MRA may chose to fund one of those positions since a significant part of the Master Plan study area is in various urban renewal districts. It looks like the cost to MRA would be around $3,000. Old Sawmill District & Surrounding Neighborhood • The City has not heard anything on the TIGER II Grant application yet. Early indications were that decisions about award would be made in September, but ---PAGE BREAK--- we have been told that there were considerably more applications that anticipated. • We had a very promising and productive meeting with Senator Tester last week about the Craig/Wyoming appropriations request. He confirmed our assumption that the bill will not be funded until after the fall elections, but was very optimistic about this project being in the bill that is ultimately funded. • The Brownfields RLF Committee approved a grant to the Silver Foundation of approximately $800,000 for further remediation of the property. These funds will be used primarily of removal of wood waste and bringing in structural fill where the wood is removed. There are large piles of concrete on the site that will be crushed for fill using part of the last $400,000 in RLF loan funds. Kevin expects that to happen within a couple of weeks. Silver Park • Construction of the boat ramp is essentially complete. • We are waiting on approval by the State of the bids so that we can issue a contract for Silver Park Phase 3 - completion of the trail, lighting and landscaping of the trail and parking lot. URD II & III Sidewalk Projects • Easements for Phase 2 of the Brooks Street project are still being finalized. We continue to fill gaps. The installation of street trees and landscaping for both phases will be part of the Phase 2 project next spring. • Phase 2 of the URD III residential project is under construction. Tod will present a modification to the engineering contract for design of Phase 3, with the intention of having that out to bid around the first of the year for spring construction. We will be requesting to have the Streets Department pave the streets that are in bad repair as we did in Phase 1. One change is that we are proposing to pay full cost for paving in URD III and for materials only in subsequent phases in URD II because of the difference in resources in the two districts. • Tod will present a “before and after” power point of the work done in these initial phases at a future Board meeting. We had planned to do that at this meeting, but due to the complex agenda, I have asked him to wait until we have a lighter agenda. If you have any questions or would like more information about these or any other projects prior to your Board meeting, feel free to call me at 552-6156.