11/03/16 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

UPDATE:Pearson Properties is no longer able to commit to the new business park land use. The highest priority for Pearson Properties is to close a transaction on a substantial portion of their land in the next 12 months. Pearson Properties has a preference to pursue residential land uses on their property, as the market demand for residential is currently stronger than industrial(i.e. business park). Because Pearson Properties no longer supports the proposed zoning change, it would be challenging for the City to implement a business park on their privately owned property(48 acres). The update from Pearson Properties effectively reduces the size of the City's future business park by roughly 50% (from 93 acres to 45).Additionally, this major shift in proposed future land use may warrant discussing the big picture land use plan for this area, and reconsider the location of Ramsey's future business park. It should be noted, the Pearson Properties parcel was particularly attractive from a business park perspective due to its setback from the adjacent BNSF rail(i.e. a substantial portion of that property is sufficiently setback). Pearson Properties has indicated they are okay with someone else purchasing their property for the purpose of implementing the City's vision of a business park, so long as a transaction can close within the next 12 months (by March of 2017). BACKGROUND, RECENT UPDATES As a result of the update provided in step 5 above,the City Council provide staff the following direction on June 14, 2016: (A)Enter into a first-right-of refusal agreement with Pearson Properties. This will buy the City time to make a decision. This was important because Pearson has indicated they want to sell their property as residential, and that they were receiving interest from buyers. UPDATE: a formal purchase agreement(offer)was made on the Pearson Property on October 01, 2016 for a residential development. The City will now need to decide how to act on their "Right-of-First-Refusal" the City has 45 days (November 16) to offer$1 more than the Buyer's offer price of$1,465,500 ($30,000 per acre). The purchase offer comes from Capstone Homes a respected local builder—currently working on the Brookfield development. Capstone would like to develop the Pearson property into a mix of residential offerings. It should be noted, the buyer is not only purchasing the proposed Pearson business park parcels (48 acres), this purchase includes another Person Property (38.9 acres). See reference map for details. Capstone has indicated their offer on the Pearson property assumes the City will be willing to discuss a cost-share on the arterial infrastructure required for their development(remainder of Bunker& Puma). That discussion is expected to come back to the City in coming months. Capstone has received clear feedback from City staff that--if the Pearson Property is not developed as a business park, the City is not committed to any level of cost-share on arterial infrastructure. If Capstone would like to discuss a cost-share on arterial infrastructure,for a residential development, the City will consider that discussion (i.e. request)starting from scratch, and will consider it a new/open negotiation. Capstone has indicated, they are generally interested in working with the City RE the future business park discussion—and would be interested in finding a mutually beneficial solution. It is staff's understanding, Capstone would be willing to allow a small portion of their proposed development, located against the BNSF train tracks, become a business park(south side of Pearson site). Staff is concerned about only gaining a portion of the Pearson property(say 15-25 acres)for the future business park for reasons previously discussion (all business property would be adjacent to rail). The original plan was to pick up nearly 50 acres of the Person property, much of which was to be set-back from rail. (B)Offer up Pearson parcel to private industrial developers,wait and see if we can replace Pearson