Economic Development Committee Final Minutes 09-13-2022

Economic Development Committee Agenda September 13, 2022 – 4:00pm The Economic Development Committee Meeting was held in person and by video conference on September 13, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. with Mayor Robin R. Christiansen presiding. Committee Members present in person or via video were Councilman Fred Neil, Kim Adams, Clayton E. Hammond II, City Manager Dave Hugg, and City Planner Mary Ellen Gray. Councilman Ralph Taylor and Designee of Downtown Dover Partnership Diane Laird were not present. Guests present were Dr. Stacey Downing with Delaware State University, Tasheema Heyliger, Alankato Cobb, and John Heyliger with City Wide Facility Solutions, Linda Parkowski with Kent Economic Partnership and Horace Williams, III with Parents Day Off. Public present were Bobby Wilson, Ms. Ann and Anthony Floyd. WELCOME Mayor Christiansen stated, the meeting will not be called to order at this time due to lack of quorum. The purpose of the Economic Development Committee is to foster and nurture the business in our city both those that we already have and to bring new jobs and opportunities to our community. There are no action items that require a vote; proceed to presentations. DSU DOWNTOWN CAMPUS PRESENTATION – DR. STACY DOWNING & DR. TERRELL HOLMES Dr. Terrell Holmes representing Delaware State University, the DSU downtown campus. I’m here to talk to you tonight about year two of the Delaware State University downtown campus; some of the things that are happening there and some of the things that we are doing. As you know we acquired the Wesley campus last year, July 2021. Last year we had a soft opening, we housed about 150 students on campus, and we had approximately 70 sections of courses. This year our President tasked us with not only expanding the footprint of Delaware State University but also to move from a soft opening into more of a full capacity opening. Last year a lot of work went into renovations and making sure that the campus was up and available to handle full capacity. Dr. Terrell Holmes reviewed the presentation entitled “DSU DOWNTOWN YEAR TWO” Attachment #1. Mayor Christiansen asked, what the plans are for the old Dover Public Library. Do you have any plans in your master plan for that building to be utilized? Dr. Holmes responded that the DSU master plan is still coming together. So, there have been some ideas thrown around as it relates to

Economic Development Meeting of September 13, 2022 PAGE 2 how we are going to use that space but as of right now there has not been a final determination as to how we are going to use that space. Mayor Christiansen stated that there was a temporary Memorandum of Understanding between the Friends of Old Dover, which is the historical group, and Wesley College prior to their departure in regard to the Carriage House that is at the rear of the Public Library for them to possibly use that as a museum. Do you see that as a possibility for them to take that space? Dr. Holmes responded, speaking for Delaware State University we still intend to honor everything that we obligated ourselves to. So, if that was an agreement than Delaware State University will honor the agreement. Mayor Christiansen state that he appreciates that. Mayor Christiansen stated that he has two other things. Do you have plans or is there a policy in place for the Delaware State University Downtown Campus to interact with the community that are in the vicinity of the college? Dr. Holmes responded that there are plenty of opportunities. We are looking at new ways to connect with the community whether it be giveaways, workforce development opportunities, and all kinds of things that we are looking to do. As you know, we moved our parade to go through downtown Dover and we also have offered community days where we have given away free things. We’ve brought on different community organizations and leaders to be part of that day where we could be kind of a hub for an opportunity of the community to come in and offer; they can be provided some of the services of the many organizations. So we see ourselves kind of a catalyst to connect the community with our partners to make sure that we are serving our surrounding communities. Mayor Christiansen stated, Dr. Holmes you mentioned something early on in the discussions with the acquisitions of the Wesley campus was the opportunity for Delaware State University to develop a workforce development program for the residents of the area and other interested folks. I think you have told us that that is one of the goals that you are looking at. Workforce development and entrepreneurship in the community. Dr. Holmes responded, yes absolutely. How we can revitalize this community and serve the entire community. Councilman Neil congratulated Dr. Holmes for being chosen as #2 (and climbing) in a recent magazine article of the historic black colleges and university. And they didn’t even know about all these plans. You’ll be #1 once they find out. I was so proud to see that and read that because it is definitely a climb, it is definitely a badge to be proud of for all universities and you were #8 there. The only thing I have in the notes that I’ve made based on everything that we had in our packets was, what is happening with our renovation cost? Have they gone sky high like we are seeing when we are dealing with our budget here and allowing for overage? How is that affecting you in all of these renovations that are doing and are you able to hold onto that? Dr. Holmes said, as you can imagine, we’ve been on the campus for over a year and every time it rains, it thunderstorms, or the wind blows hard, we are kind of looking around every corner because we are still learning the lay of the lands. So yes sir, you can imagine it can be pretty expensive but it’s an investment in Delaware State University. We’ve been doing this for over 130 years, and we have an opportunity to expand our footprint. And not only expand it but to help our community at large. It’s an opportunity for us and we see it as an investment to better establish, not only Delaware State but also to establish Dover Delaware and Delaware State as a whole.

Economic Development Meeting of September 13, 2022 PAGE 3 Councilman Neil stated, you indicated that in September in terms of the bookstore, the dining hall is already open and the student game room; is that already on target for an opening in September. Dr. Holmes stated that the game room was delayed a little bit but as of right now again the cafeteria was ahead of schedule. The bookstore we are right on schedule. But the student recreation room is a little delayed but that is expected. We have some folks that are working really hard but as you can imagine in some cases they are being pulled to the main campus and then they are being pulled to the downtown campus. They are splitting crews. Some of the folks managing the construction and renovations, they are having challenges finding crews or folks to do what it is they have to do. So, some of those things have a bearing on your timeline. So as of right now we are on schedule with everything except for the game room, that may be a little delayed. Our students have been gracious, and they have been hanging in there with us and we’ve still got good weather, so they don’t mind hanging outside a little bit longer. But we know that is something we have to push to be aggressive with as the weather begins to change. Councilman Neil asked if they have a regular bus route that goes between the two campuses? Dr. Holmes answered yes, we have a shuttle service that meets the needs of our students that runs about every 15 minutes or so. So that our students as they need to move between campuses which happens in some cases because we have again about 500 students that are staying on campus. They need to move from one campus to the other for things like the bookstore. Or there may be an event on the main campus or an event on the downtown campus that the students need to move back and forth. That is something that begins at about 7am and runs through the evening hours. Councilman Anderson stated that he listened to the questions, and I really don’t have anything else unique to add. Thank you for what you are doing. Great job. We look forward to you being a part of this community downtown and an even greater level than you have been before, and we thank you for the work that you are doing with the Comprehensive Plan being done with Mosaic and the coordination that you have with that as well. There are things that are going to appear with that coordination. Thank you for everything, I’m excited to see what is going to happen next. Mayor stated that he has two questions for Dr. Holmes. The Cannon House, are you going to use that for administrative purposes, or have you determined what you are going to do with that property? Dr. Holmes responded that they have not fully determined that yet. Mayor Christiansen asked if there was anyone in the audience that had any questions. Anthony Floyd, lives at 326 Northdown Drive, Dover DE 19901. Relevant to the downtown center that Delaware State University wants to do. First of all, I want to say publicly that I think it is phenomenal for Delaware State to provide a urban partnership with Dover in the center of the city. That to me, in my view, is beyond phenomenal because I believe that it could have potentially catalyze economic development in the area that needs it the most. My question is in reference to, I understand that Delaware State University was awarded, particularly as it relates to the Cure Initiative, $1 million. Specifically earmarked for the development of the Cure Center for Urban Research and Economic Development. I think this will be a great boom to our city. I heard that will be a building proposed in Loockerman area for the Center of Urban Research.

Economic Development Meeting of September 13, 2022 PAGE 4 And included with that is the $1 million funding that was pushed by Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester to spur economic development in small business incubation leading to catalyzation of small businesses. If you could expand and educate us on the dynamics of the Barrows Building at the corner of Loockerman and State may be the interim headquarters for this initiative. And the possible launch and development of a building and how it will partner in the urban community, especially around that area of where the development is. Dr. Holmes responded that he doesn’t know much about it except for what was in the paper. We have some very smart folks in our College of Business, including Dr. Michael Casson, who know all the details about that. I do know that we are looking at a location downtown to be considered as you just described it, kind of an incubator for that development. He does not know the details about it but again Dr. Michael Casson and some very smart folks in the College of Business are heading up that conversation. Mayor Christiansen stated that Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester did give $1 million. Delaware State University is partnering with NCALL, and they are going to put their workforce development operation in that building that is at the northeast corner of New Street and Division Street. They are also going to take the very successful Launcher Program for small business entrepreneurs that will be located at that particular location. Dr. Casson along with Dr. Allen, that is their dream and that is their baby. The ground was turned on it and we should see a nice 3-story brick building that is going to be an anchor for Workforce Development in the community as well as the Launcher Program for small business entrepreneurs. Councilman Neil commented that Mosaic is without a doubt a leader in what they have done. And what they are doing with the University as part of that with Dr. Casson is to layout everything in area and bring up everything that can be developed. All the nooks and crannies, transportation of how to get in and out. And we haven’t seen that global view yet of what they have brought to the table. The type of housing - low income, middle income, and luxury housing – is part of what we need and I’m sure that we are going to hear more about it from Linda Parkowski about the need for Workforce Development. We have businesses to come here but nobody to work them. All of that is part of Mosaic. And to see that coming together and one bit of that that I keep pushing is the LED lighting smart lighting system is ready to go. That is the area where it is going to get placed and its part of this global view with all the pieces coming together. But we don’t see it quite yet. As we see it coming together, we are going to see something that is massive because they’ve done the job elsewhere. CITY WIDE FACILITY SOLUTIONS PRESENTATION – TASHEEMA HEYLIGER My name is Tasheema Heyliger and I’m with City Wide Facility Solutions Delaware and once again, thank you Mr. Mayor, Councilman and all the committee members and I’m just so excited sitting here in the audience hearing what the committee embodies and nurturing the businesses in the city and the growth that we like to see in terms of workforce and expansion and development with what Delaware State University is doing and what we want to do here in Dover. I like to say that we chose Dover as the city to operate our business. So we provide services through the entire state of delaware and I’ll get into that further into the presentation but I want to start out by saying that we chose Dover as a place to have our office and operate our business. We are excited about the opportunity to build our business here in Dover and being members and

Economic Development Meeting of September 13, 2022 PAGE 5 residents of Kent County. We are really excited about that. I’d like to introduce my self and the other owners, managing partners that are here with me today. Like I said, I’m Tasheema Heyliger, Alankato Cobb, and John Heyliger and together between the three of us, we have over 75 years of experience. We want to make a positive impact in the community that we serve. Tasheema Heyliger reviewed the presentation “City Wide Facility Solutions” Attachment #2. Councilman Neil state that the city has so many problems with landlords; I hope you can get to them to take care of the problems they have so we don’t have to find them. We have a whole bunch out there that just don’t take care of their properties. Councilman Anderson said, welcome to dover and thank you for locating here. Mr. Floyd is impressed that the city is entertaining a company like this and we need this. I’m the former State President of the NAACP here in Delaware and I am so happy that there is a possibility to have a company like this that would be flexible enough to work with small business enterprises and I’m very happy because this could potentially be catalyzed as economic growth for minority business enterprises and our women owned businesses which is greatly needed. Horace Williams represents PDO, asked if you walk into buildings with your new hired staff and show them what to use and what not to use? Are there classes to teach them not to mix chemicals? And what to use on different surfaces such as plastic, glass, wood furniture, etc. Do you train your staff on what to use and when to use it? And are you walking with them at the site for the first time, so they have an understanding of what they are doing? Responding to Mr. Williams, Ms. Heyliger stated that they don’t have staff that actually do the services, we partner with the independent contractors, and they do the work. When the account is acquired, there is a facilities service manager that walks the entire building to ensure that we have captured the scope of work and make sure if matches what the independent contractor can provide. Because of the partnership we have with the network of vendors for our suppliers, we also provide training for the vendors in our office. That will be free of charge to our independent contractors that partner with us or even if they choose not to. Alankato added that they talk with the independent contractors to find out what chemicals they are using. KENT ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP PRESENTATION – LINDA PARKOWSKI I’m Linda Parkowski Executive Director of the Kent Economic Partnership. I’m going to go through the presentation pretty quickly because some of you have seen the presentation before. So today I’m going to focus on Dover and Kent Economics Partnership with Dover. Linda Parkowski reviewed the presentation “Kent Economic Partnership” Attachment #3. Councilman Neil questioned Garrison Oak; the city made an agreement to sell that property. Are we ok with what is happening with that?

Economic Development Meeting of September 13, 2022 PAGE 6 Responding to Councilman Neil, Dave Hugg stated that the sale is in progress. The city has a signed contract for two of the lots with a settlement before the end of the year. We have a signed contract for two other lots which we hope to settle on in the Spring. And we have a letter of interest on a fifth lot from a different buyer who is looking for a decision on it early next year. But interestingly, almost the day that we talked about putting that property up for sale we started to get a lot more inquiries from people who realized that we’ve had it sitting out there but never paid attention. We are moving forward. We tried to sell as one big parcel but because of financing the buyer needed to do it in individual lots so that is where we are. Responding to Councilman Neil, Dave Hugg said, that’s one of the projects that triggered the rail study. Early in our discussions and planning efforts, the property was being discussed as multi use or some kind of zoning that would allow, or land use classification that would allow for other than residential. Unfortunately, at that particular time there was financial interest in acquiring the property for residential purposes and so that is what happened. That’s a problem we run into quite frequently. Ms. Parkowski stated that if we could have it zone industrial, we could probably find a tenant pretty quickly. We have a corporate jet flying in Thursday looking at 20 sites and they need to be on the rail; 25 acres on the rail. We are working on their tour book as we speak. The rail has become extremely important in the industrial sector. Councilman Anderson asked if they need any help getting the joint use agreement moved along? It’s been completed for about three years now. Ms. Parkowski responded that it is in DelDOT’s hands. There’s an indemnification issue right now and they are trying to work it out between the Department of Defense and DelDOT, who owns the property. That’s about all I know. They’ve been working on it. Ms. Parkowski stated that Garrison is going to go pretty quickly. East Dover is pretty much utilized. We don’t have enough industrial space developed yet in this area. People and companies want to be in Dover because of your municipal services. Mr. Floyd state that two and a half years ago, the general assembly ratified the largest workforce development project in the history of Delaware, which is the Port of Wilmington project, $1.6 billion project. What I’m asking is, can our organization since we want to be the logistical hub in central delaware and that the port expansion project will be coming down this way, can we tie the logistical development warehousing particularly refrigerator housing to facilitate the already proposed Port of Wilmington expansion project? Now mind you this was the critical project for our current Governor. They already have in place the global port operator but covid kind of slowed things down. They projected that there were going to bring about 5,000 jobs. I’m happy about this industrial development in Dover and logistical development. Can we tie these developments with what was proposed as the largest workforce development project in the history of Delaware? Can we tie that in? Second of all I have a question in reference to Garrison Energy Center and what it is about and if they are going to tie into the inflation reduction act whereby our President, Congress has already ratified $280 billion towards energy and renewable energy projects. Could you touch upon that? Ms. Parkowski responded that the Port of Wilmington project there’s still a lot of land around the port. There’s available land along the coast around the port. They also have the Edgemoor

Economic Development Meeting of September 13, 2022 PAGE 7 Center that they are going to develop. That needs to be constricted before anything would start traveling south. We do see in the Duck Creek campus in Smyrna. We do see a lot of the logistics coming there. So, the movement is going to move south as 1-95 constricts, less land along South Jersey, Pennsylvania; you’re going to pay a lot more than you are in Delaware. We in central Delaware are well positioned for the logistics. The energy that you talked about, we are seeing it in our county with the number of applications for solar farms and I’ll let Dave talk about the Energy Center. Solar farms are great for energy, but they don’t bring good paying jobs for our citizens and that is why the Kent Economic Partnership has not fully embraced this. There is definitely a need for renewable, but the long lasting good paying jobs is one of our goals. Mr. Hugg added that the Garrison Oak Park has two energy facilities that have been there for well over 10 years. The one is one of the first solar facilities in Central Delaware and was known as the 10 mg Dover Sun Park. Every day it is cranking out energy and we are one of the consumers of that output. There’s also the Calpine generation facility, they are a combine cycle gas/fire modern generating facility generating into the grid. We get some energy from them, and we hold hedges against future energy costs with them because they are right here, and they have been very competitive. We are also a primary outtake customer for the proposed Freeport solar facility down near Harrington that is about a 50mw facility that will be part of our portfolio. And Calpine has expressed an interest in some solar facilities on property next to the city but I’m not sure if that will go forward. Solar projects right now are having a tough time getting through the Federal Energy Commission and the PGM Grid System. So, I’m not sure whether that will happen, but they are two important energy facilities that are part of the city’s electric portfolio. The other piece of good news is that the city got a $5 million grant from the US Congress from Senators Carper and Coons and Representative Rochester a couple years ago for a significant expansion of the electric substation that serves the east side of Dover, specifically Garrison and that is under design and construction right now. PARENTS DAY OFF (PDO) PRESENTATION – HORACE WILLIAMS, III Anywhere we all have one thing in common, none of us in this room can we say we asked to be born. You will never meet anyone that said, I want to be born. When we get together and we meet our spouse we have children who we try to prepare for. You can go out and buy a crib, stroller, get some pampers, have some wipes to have things ready but one thing that we cannot prepare for is mentality. What that child’s mentality is going to be and that is why we at P.D.O. thing that a lot of parents need the day off. Because kids with special needs which they call non communicable diseases, they need extra care. P.D.O. is a therapeutic facility which will have nutritional therapists, physical therapist, aromatherapy, spa therapists which are all the major components of humanistic therapy to make up the therapeutic care that they need. A lot of these kids don’t want to sit down and talk one on one with someone. So, they want to be able to come to a facility, like a resort. They want to come out and have fun, laugh a little bit. It works for them and give parents time to themselves. So, a lot of people you want to know why Mr. and Mrs. Smith aren’t smiling in the neighborhood, it’s because they haven’t had a place like P.D.O. to help them take their kids to. So now when you see Mr. and Mrs. Smith, they may say hello since they were able to take that vacation or just relax knowing that their kids are well taken care of. At P.D.O. the child will come in and be placed with a tag on their clothes. The mother and father will have an app that will be able to find their child immediately.

Economic Development Meeting of September 13, 2022 PAGE 8 Horace Williams, III reviewed the presentation “P.D.O. Parents Day Off” Attachment #4. Councilman Neil asked if it was real or proposed? Cost, who pays? Mr. Williams responded that it is proposed. As far as cost, we are talking about an annual staff salary of $1.5 million that would bring Delaware, particularly Dover, $100,000 a year in tax money. We plan on having over 50 plus, maybe 100 employees so there will be taxable money coming in. To run the facility every year it’s going to cost about $2 million. I’ve already talked to Sysco about food distribution and their prices were phenomenal. Sysco told me $15 a person for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack with drinks for all. Councilman Anderson asked if there was a timeline. Mr. Williams responded that his timeline was yesterday. I’m hoping that I can meet and get with the right people that we can get the correct investment needed. These are children with Downs Syndrome, Russell Silver Syndrome, Asperger’s and a lot of people don’t understand what causes it. If you go with Asperger’s, there is an extra chromosome on number seven of our makeup which causes Asperger’s. There’s an extra chromosome on number thirteen which causes Russel Silver Syndrome. And our twenty first chromosome, there’s an extra one in there which causes Down Syndrome. A lot of people think that it has to do with parents on how they smoke, drink; it does play a factor but it’s not the main cause. The main cause is that not everybody is compatible. You may meet your wife and think that you are compatible with her, but she may not be the one to make that baby. And we are not saying that we don’t want you to make that baby because we are all welcome. But each one of those children need help. And that is what this facility is going to be based on. Helping the children that need. NEXT MEETING DATE October 11, 2022 AT 4:00 PM ADJOURNMANT Mayor Robin R. Christiansen called the meeting adjourned at 5:45PM. Exhibits Exhibit #1 - DSU DOWNTOWN YEAR TWO Exhibit #2 - City Wide Facility Solutions Exhibit #3 - Kent Economic Partnership Exhibit #4 - P.D.O. Parents Day Off