Memo - Depot
. 1
. Adn1inistrative Services Department
Office of the City Manager
Memorandum
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Steven C. Mielke, City Manager
Date: August 9,2002
Subject: Depot Coffee House Project Discussion
For the past several years, the City of Hopkins has been one of several partners
participating in the development and financing of the Depot Coffee House project. Over
the years the Depot has been renovated almost exclusively with privately donated
funds, and through the years the operations of the facility have been borne through
concession sales, donated funds, and subsidies from the partners involved in the
project.
. Over the past couple of years the subsidies necessary to operate the facility have been
borne by the City of Hopkins, the Hopkins School District, and the YMCA, with
additional financing coming from the Park Nicollet Foundation. The vast majority of the
funding has come from concession sales and grant revenue.
The economy has shifted and has made it harder for two of our partners, the Hopkins
School District and the YMCA, to continue to assure the City (who acts as the fiscal
agent) that they will be able to assist with this year's expected deficit.
As such, staff wishes to discuss with the Council the status of the Depot, the intricacies
of our partners, including the Hennepin Parks Board, and what staff now views as a
point in time where it is necessary to change the landscape surrounding the Depot.
The model that has been in place for the Depot has changed and is now such that the
City of Hopkins may, in fact, be responsible for the entire deficit. If, in fact, that comes
to be staff needs direction and leeway to minimize the financial impacts on the City, and
at the same time attempt to preserve the good that comes from the Depot teen center.
Attached is a memorandum from Steve Stahmer outlining the financial issues facing the
partnership and what appear to be realities concerning the funding of any deficits. This
information serves as good background for the financial side of the Depot, but staff will
also want to focus with the Council on the city's goals and objectives in maintaining the
facility, but with an understanding as to its limitations.
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