07/09/07 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 9, 2007 Mr. Hackanen stated that construction will begin this Summer 2007 and completed in the Summer of 2008. Councilmember Pfeifer questioned why the University chose not build a hotel on campus. Mr. Hackanen believes that it was a decision by the Board of Trustees and that there were two central issues. One had to do with land use, there were some at the University that felt that this idea was not an appropriate land use in the particular part of Campus that was proposed. The second was the cost of having to provide infrastructure. Cost of getting utilities and services to the hotel was too high. Councilmember Pfeifer stated that the University is going to be a major tenant in this development. What kinds of services or offices are going to be located in the proposed project? Mr. Hackanen stated that they are not prepared which functions from the University will be going into the office portion of the development. But it fair to say the function that has been definitely identified is an obvious users of the hotel facility and the restaurant facility, they have a lot of out of town visitors and so forth, it makes sense for them to be in that kind environment. The University is considering additional, or at least one additional user, again he cannot identify who it is, but, it would by no means, would it take all of the office space, but they would serve as an anchor tenant which allows Kite as the developer to go ahead a provide an office component which they felt was very important to the project. Councilmember Pfeifer stated that there was going to be a family oriented restaurant not just bars. Are you going to have any bars only? Mr. Compton stated that he believes that is a restriction on the development agreement. No Bars Only. Councilmember Kelly stated that he is curious as to whether Kite has any experience with exactly this kind of development such as mixed use development with new urbanism as its principals? Mr. Compton stated that they are currently involved with two other projects across the country. He stated that he does not have any completed as of to date. That is why they brought in LRK as the architects, out of Memphis, Tennessee; they have the expertise in design new urbanism. The Buckingham Company who is the developer of the apartment homes has also been involved in new urbanism development. They have tried to bring in developers who have the expertise in the process in the three developments across the United States. Councilmember Kelly stated that there were some very attractive photographs presented tonight and it was mentioned that final renderings and drawings have not been done. Councilmember Kelly stated that he is personally uncomfortable with regard to concerns that residents have made with respect to the Scottsdale MalUErskine Plaza area looked on paper and how it turned out. Councilmember Kelly stated that he is relatively in favor of this project, however without having final plans he is somewhat skeptical of the outcome. Councilmember Kelly asked how much of the design is actually completed. He would like to see true renderings as opposed to projections. Mr. Compton stated that they are 50% done on architectural drawings. They have put the pencil to the paper because they have had to work with loading and unloading zones; location of utilities; truck docks; have required them to get to the 50% percent point. Normally you would not design the product until the development is done. Mr. Compton stated that they have provided the St. Joseph County Area Plan Commission with a pattern book that they have to follow. Mr. Compton stated that they will provide the Council with a copy of that pattern book this week. This is a template of what the project 18