TIF Spending Plan; Elverum
CITY OF HOPKINS
Memorandum
To: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
Mike Mornson, City Manager
From: Kersten Elverum, Director of Planning & Development
Date: September 14, 2021
Subject: TIF Spending Plan
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PURPOSE
The purpose of the City Council discussion on the TIF Spending Plan is to provide
information on this action in advance of a public hearing on September 21, 2021 and
subsequent action.
INFORMATION
The State Legislature amended the TIF law (the “Law”) in 2021 to provide flexibility to
cities to utilize unobligated TIF balances in existing districts to promote construction and
job creation in their communities. Dollars expended under the Law do not count against
the pooling limitations of the districts, which for the City/HRA’s applicable districts, is
25% of the TIF collected over their respective terms.
The law allows HRA’s/EDA’s/cities to provide improvements, loans, interest rate
subsidies, or assistance in any form to private development consisting of the
construction or substantial rehabilitation of buildings and ancillary facilities if it will
create or retain jobs in this state, including construction jobs. In addition, they can
make an equity or similar investment in a corporation, partnership, or limited liability
company determined necessary to make construction of private development happen.
The City’s HRA has until December 31, 2022 to transfer the funds to another
designated City/HRA fund, and the dollars must be expended by December 31, 2025.
Any unused TIF dollars must be returned to the applicable TIF district after this date.
In order to implement this provision of the Law, the City and HRA are required to
develop a Spending Plan (the “Plan”) that identifies the TIF districts that will fund the
projects and describe the projects to be assisted. In addition, the City is required to
hold a public hearing on the Plan and if approved, staff will provide a copy to the Office
of the State Auditor as required by the Law. A public hearing on the Spending Plan is
scheduled for September 21, 2021.
The HRA has dollars available under the Plan for projects in TIF Districts 1-2, 2-9 and
2-11. The City/HRA are currently working with two developers on redevelopment sites
in the City where construction of their projects requires assistance, and they would
Planning & Economic
Development
meet the above referenced timeline for expenditure of the funds. Trilogy’s proposed
three-phase apartment and commercial development located at 1009 Hill Street and
8594 and 8490 Excelsior Boulevard requested assistance for demolition and
environmental remediation. The HRA agreed to provide $685,000 for Phase I (which
will be provided under the Plan) and agreed to review future requests for Phases II and
III.
In addition, Alatus is developing the site at 325 Blake Road and has requested TIF
assistance for public improvements, site preparation, underground parking, affordable
housing and other development costs related to construction of the residential and
commercial uses. Once an actual TIF application is filed with the HRA by Alatus, the
HRA may use dollars under the Plan to reduce the amount of TIF required under the
new TIF District, thus potentially reducing the number of years of the TIF Note(s).
This information and recommendation has been provided by Stacie Kvilvang, Ehler’s,
as our financial advisor.
FUTURE ACTION
This item requires and public hearing, approval of the Spending Plan by the City and
HRA and submission to the Office of the State Auditor.