CC Minutes - 05/09/11 Work Session

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milestones to be negotiated with the school district. The City would be the guarantor for part of the lease payment. He suggested a lease amount of $170,000 escalating at three percent per year. Mr. Zelenka briefly reviewed the changes that would be required to the SCS' response to 4J's Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Civic Stadium property. Mr. Zelenka believed the proposal before the council was realistic and had a good chance of succeeding. He said it would require bold action on the part of the council to move the proposal forward, and recalled past council actions that represented bold steps that enhanced the community. He believed the proposal represented a similar opportunity. He pointed out that once the stadium was gone, it was gone forever. Mr. Brown said the City took bold action in 1938 when it asked citizens to purchase the site for the back taxes owed on it. He recalled that action occurred at a time of high unemployment, but a large majority of voters supported the acquisition nonetheless. He noted that at the same time, the community voted money to acquire 260 acres on Spencer Butte, which served as the foundation for the park that existed today. Mr. Brown said the City Council had a chance to take a similarly bold action today. Mr. Brown believed that Civic Stadium was centrally located and easy to reach, and liked that the repurposing proposal would preserve it as recreation space. He recalled the testimony the council received about the shortage of fields to accommodate field sports and suggested there would be few days of the year when the facility was not in use. Speaking to the source of funding, he suggested the potential that the City could use $100,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. Mr. Brown said the proposal would also facilitate economic development. He cited the experience of Portland, which remodeled Jeld -Wen Field (formerly PGE Park and originally Multnomah Stadium) at the cost of $37 million and subsequently rented it to Peregrine Sports, owner of the Portland Timbers, which paid half the costs of renovation and which would pay the City of Portland $1.4 million in rent and ticket taxes in 2011. That revenue went up about $100,000 annually. He said the proposal was a business deal for the City that was structured to repay the City its investment. Mr. Brown thought the community had lost so much in regard to historic assets that it would be a mistake to develop the site with commercial and residential infill, particularly when it was initially intended for recreation. City Manager Jon Ruiz noted his long -held concern about the potentially open -ended nature of the City's financial commitment to the project. He acknowledged the motion appeared to provide a more finite commitment. Mr. Clark determined from Mr. Zelenka that it was unlikely that Phase 1 would be completed in the first two years of the lease. Mr. Clark expressed concern that the building would continue to deteriorate and the site could become an attractive nuisance. He also asked about the debt service and whether the nonprofit that operated the stadium would pay property taxes on the site. Mr. Zelenka referred Mr. Clark to the financing plan included with the AIS for information about debt service. He did not know about the property taxes. He did not believe leaving the site alone in its current condition was a problem because he assumed it would be in use at the end of two years. He speculated the other two responses to the RFP would also take some time to be implemented. Mr. Brown suggested the possibility that Eugene's professional soccer team could be publicly owned, and cited the experience of Memphis, Tennessee, home of the Redbirds, a Triple A farm club of the Cardinals. The Redbirds were owned by a 501(c)(3) organization. The team gave a great deal back to the MINUTES — Eugene City Council May 9, 2010 Page 2 Work Session