The Billings Industrial Revitalization District (BIRD) Board of Directors recommends the City Council approve up to a maximum reimbursement of $86,776 from the EBURD tax increment finance district funds to BIRD Street, LLC (Billings Brownstones) to assist in the demolition, abatement, and other elements for the construction of a 22-unit housing complex at property at 216 - 224 North 18th Street. Actual reimbursement will be based upon 100% of the actual costs incurred for qualified expenses for the improvements made to property subject to the following conditions:

1. The Applicant shall sign a development agreement with the City of Billings and BIRD within 180 days of City Council’s approval.
2. This TIFD reimbursement is the maximum that can be received pending satisfactory submission of all paid invoices showing the completion of expenditures related to this project.
3. If funds are not available, reimbursement can be carried over to the next fiscal year.
 

The Billings Industrial Revitalization District (BIRD) Board of Directors is presenting this recommendation to the City Council for allocating $86,776 in tax increment finance funds (TIF) from the East Billings Urban Renewal District (EBURD) to provide financial assistance to Billings Brownstones (Duane and Tiffany Youngren) for redevelopment of property for housing units at 216-224 North 18th Street. The BIRD Review Committee considered the project at its meeting on October 7 and then again on November 14 and recommended approval of the project to the full BIRD Board. The Bird Board recommended approval of the project to City Council at its November 14 meeting. This TIF application is for the site application (Phase I), and the Youngren's plan to submit a request for TIF funds to assist in the construction of the units (Phase II) early in 2024. Upon completion, the project is to develop 22 new housing units on the site, with this TIF request focused on asbestos abatement and demolition. The Billings Brownstones project is anticipated to seek further urban renewal assistance when it enters its Phase II portion of the project in early 2024 and begins construction on the new housing units. This Phase I request will facilitate removal of unoccupied and dilapidated residential units from the EBURD to make way for new and increased housing density and types with the completion of this project. While these properties have not been major attractive nuisances in the past few years, there have been multiple Code Enforcement cases on all three of the properties (216, 220 and 224 North 18th) in recent years for nuisance weeds and junk vehicles.

The BIRD Board's recommendation of $86,776 toward the improvements results in about a 6:1 ratio of private investment for first portion of the project. Phase I of the project totals $520,554 in project design, site work, and the property acquisition (Land purchase is not included in the reimbursement request).  The BIRD Board noted several reasons for its support of the project:

• With the reuse and redevelopment of this property, this project is in alignment with the EBURD Urban Renewal Plan under its Housing Improvements goal (See page 4-5, item V of the Urban Renewal Plan Attached), and the EBURD Master Plan's implementation Strategy of encouraging diverse housing in the Downtown area (Section 4, Strategy 4.5 Housing, page 4-4). Reuse and improvement of this property in the EBURD for housing aligns well with the urban renewal efforts and housing support goals of the City.

Table 1.

Qualified Improvements	Recommended TIF Reimbursement	City TIF Policy	Urban Renewal Plan	MT Code Annotated
Demolition Asbestos Abatement	$86,776	Section 1(b)	Section 2 (V) Housing Improvements Section 2 (IV) Infrastructure Improvements	7-15-4233 7-15-4288

This process and action of the BIRD is under its authority per the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Billings, Big Sky Economic Development, and the BIRD, Inc. approved by the City Council on May 13, 2019.
 

The City Council is the final authority in disbursing TIF funding. This proposed use of TIF funds conforms to the City's TIF Policy and aligns with the EBURD Urban Renewal Plan and Montana Code for urban renewal projects and programs. The City Council may:

• Approve the recommendation from the BIRD Board for the expenditure of these TIF funds, or;
• Modify and approve the recommendation from the BIRD Board for the expenditure of these TIF funds
• Disapprove of the recommendation from the BIRD Board for the expenditure of these TIF funds.

The request is for a total of up to a maximum of $86,776 to be reimbursed to Billings Brownstones only upon completion of the work and submittal of the invoices for the cost incurred. It is expected that this expenditure will not negatively impact the EBURD budget for FY24 as the project will not seek reimbursement until early FY25. Given this timeline, the budget for EBURD for FY25 may be planned to include this expenditure. The FY24 budget included $643,226 for development projects, which included $352,576 for projects not yet identified. If this project is completed in FY24, there will be sufficient budget available.

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