12-13-10 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 13, 2010 about 100 from Host and approximately 300 indirect jobs, 200 from Barnes & Thornburg and the balance from the rest of the tenants, so that’s about 1,000 jobs that would be retained as a result of this and would be working in downtown South Bend. There would be construction on a multi-million dollar project in downtown South Bend over a period of three years of about 8.25 million dollars that the construction would go into that st building on the office side and on the hotel side as well as some other properties that 1 Source owns, including the First Bank Building located on West Jefferson Blvd. He stated that is was so eloquently put by individuals that spoke at the committee meeting that the jobs at the hotel provide entry level positions for people who perhaps need some help on their way up the employment scale or because of their education that maybe they only have a high school or GED that they could only do housekeeping jobs or some other jobs that are done at either the Century Center or the Hotel. He stated that he believes this is an important economic project for this community, it’s something that they have worked very hard to make an agreement in place that is fair to all parties, there is a deadline in order to bring this home and asked for the Council’s help to do that before the end of this year. Mayor Luecke stated that there is one final component before the Council tonight and that is to appropriate $137,804 dollars from Fund #677 Hall of Fame Capital to reimburse the National Football Foundation for repairs and maintenance expense agreed to be paid by the city. These are part of a global settlement as the hall is moved from South Bend. Mayor Luecke stated that they have reached an agreement with the NFF for 2011 with an option to extend until 2012. He stated that there is also a component which would require the NFF to cease operations in October 2011 and be fully out of the Hall by December 2011 if by the end of March they are able to identify an appropriate user for the Hall to begin to move in 2012. As part of the global settlement the NFF will be able to retain about 450,000 dollars and dollars that have been turned over to them for operations for the Hall with the interim agreements, however, the other components is that the 1.9 million dollars which they loaned to the City to cover operations earlier on would not be required to be repaid by the City. Mayor Luecke stated that all in all this is a good agreement for the City as they transition the Hall of Fame out of the City of South Bend and again asked for the Council favorable consideration of this bill. This being the time heretofore set for the Public Hearing on the above bills, proponents and opponents were given an opportunity to be heard. The following individuals spoke in favor of this bill. stst Mr. Chris Murphy, Chairman, CEO, 1 Source Corporation and Chairman, CEO, 1 Source Bank, stated that he is here to speak in favor of this bill. Mr. Murphy stated that approximately 35 years ago he came here to complete a dream that his father-in-law had in filling that hole in downtown South Bend. He stated that his father-in-law had hoped that it would be the headquarters for the then known Associates. He stated that as you might recall Associates ended up moving their headquarters which inevitably may have been a factor that killed his father-in-law. It broke his father-in-law’s heart in trying to keep them here. Mr. Murphy stated that he made a commitment and worked very hard st with the Council’s predecessors to work to attract federal monies to create the 1 Source Center and attract a hotel to come here and finally reached an agreement with the Marriot Corporation. He stated that he didn’t think that 30 some years later he would be standing here today talking about the same property. He stated that they had a 30 year lease on that property and after it was completed and this is pre 1976 tax act the building was sold for a lower operating cost. The same happened with the Marriott hotel, they ended up leasing it back from an investment group out of Minneapolis, and have paid approximately 18 million dollars over that period of time. He stated that the lease was coming up and there were several options to renew it, one was a very expensive option and the other was the option to buy it. He stated that they decided to make an offer to buy the building and thought that would be an easy way to settle it and then put money back into the building to restore it. He stated that as they started that process three things happened. First of all the owner’s did not want to sell the building, they believed that the should continue to own it as an investment property, but they would entertain a lease agreement. Then in the middle of all that they got wind that the Marriott may be 13