В Александрии пересмотрели условия соглашения по девелоперскому проекту из-за снижения рыночной оценки

ALEXANDRIA — A housing redevelopment agreement will be amended between the city's Economic Development Authority and the developer, Unique Opportunities, LLC. Back in August of 2024, the Alexandria City Council and EDA approved the creation of a Tax Increment Financing district in partnership with Unique Opportunities. ADVERTISEMENT The redevelopment project is located on about 32 acres off South McKay Avenue. A five-phase development is planned, consisting of eight multifamily residential buildings with a total of 375 housing units. A contract for private redevelopment established a minimum assessed value for each phase of the project. For phase one, the minimum value was set at $13,210,000. The developer has completed phase one as designed, and the assessor has determined its market value to be $10,810,300. Because the redevelopment agreement requires the developer to enter into a minimum assessment agreement based on the actual assessed value, several provisions of the contract must be amended to reflect the lower valuation, according to Nicole Fernholz, director of the Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission . The proposed amendment also adds a new schedule, which must be executed by any lender if the developer chooses to assign future tax increment notes. The schedule acknowledges that payments under the TIF note are dependent upon the assessed value generated by each completed phase of the project and can’t be determined until those phases are constructed and assessed. There is no financial impact with this action. ADVERTISEMENT 4 Holiday stations to sell hemp edibles Four Holiday Stationstores in Alexandria will soon be selling lower potency hemp edibles. The State of Minnesota issued lower potency Hemp Edible Retailer License to Holiday stores at 320 3rd Ave. East, 650 50th Ave. West, 785 North Nokomis NE and 5310 Highway 29 South. At its meeting Thursday night, the Alexandria City Council took the next step in the process – registering the stores. Lower-potency hemp edibles are an ingestible product containing cannabinoids extracted from hemp, with up to 5 milligrams of THC per edible, 10 milligrams of THC per single serve beverage. Lower-potency hemp includes the following product categories: edible products, beverage products, and hemp-derived tinctures.Some products in the marketplace may have hundreds of milligrams of THC in different forms. These products are illegal and should be avoided because if consumed may lead to severe health effects, according to the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management , OCM. ADVERTISEMENT Local governments may not limit the number of local retail registrations issued to lower potency hemp edible businesses in their jurisdiction. This is different from local retail registrations for cannabis retail businesses, which may be limited, according to OCM. Fees for cannabis and lower potency hemp are: Cannabis initial retail registration fee and first renewal fee – $1,500. Cannabis renewal registration fee – $1,000. Lower potency hemp initial retail registration fee and first renewal fee – $250. Lower potency hemp renewal fee – $125. Temporary cannabis event registration fee – $375. ADVERTISEMENT Civil penalty for registration violations – $2,000. Halloween Parade will start on Fourth Ave. To throw or not throw candy at a Halloween Parade. That's what the council debated Thursday night. The council were debating which was the safer option — having the kids run toward the candy throwers or stay back and wait for the parade participants to walk to them. The League of Minnesota Cities recommended having the throwers approach the kids, although there is no state law about it. The council decided to issue a special event permit for the Vikingland Community Support Program’s Halloween Parade on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 1 to 4 p.m. In the mean time, the council said it would look more into the candy options. The parade will begin at 2 p.m. on Fourth Avenue and will end at Ninth Avenue. ADVERTISEMENT New this year: Vikingland will be giving out Halloween costumes for families in need. ‘Feeding of the 5,001’ set for Sept. 13 Bill Jarvi, owner of the Common Ground Coffee House , requested and received a special event permit for the “Feeding of the 5,001,” which will be held on Saturday Sept. 12 from 3 to 7 p.m. Hawthorne Street will be blocked off between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. About 175 participants are expected to participate. Live music will take place. Suicide Awareness Walk planned for Sept. 25 A special event permit was issued to the National Alliance on Mental Health Illness-Alexandria Suicide Awareness Walk. ADVERTISEMENT It will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25. Participants will be walking around Noonan Park. More than 100 participants are expected to be there.