[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Notice is hereby given in accordance with Section 23A, Chapter 39 of the Massachusetts General Laws that a meeting of the Mystic Valley Development Commission will be held remotely on Tuesday, January 10th, 2023 at 11 a.m. On July 16th, Governor Baker signed into law an act extending certain COVID-19 measures adopted during the state of the emergency. The act includes an extension until March 31st, 2023 of the remote meeting provisions of his March 12th, 2020 order. This meeting will be conducted via remote participation. This meeting will not include in-person attendance by members of the public, but all effort will be made to permit public attendance in the manner specified below via remote access by internet and telephone. Public access will also be provided by posting draft minutes and or a transcript recording or record of the meeting of the City of Malden website at citymalden.org as soon as practical after the meeting. You can call in by dialing 1-929 436-2866 and please enter the passcode 490027 when prompted. I will call the roll.
[Unidentified]: Mayor DeMaria?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor Christensen?
[Unidentified]: Here.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Justin?
[Unidentified]: Yes, here.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Present. Colleen? Oh, is also present. Hi, Colleen. Good morning. Ellen? Present. And Governor Haley is not present. So we have five present, two absent. We have approval of the minutes from last meeting. Anybody wants to approve them or table?
[Unidentified]: I'll make a motion to approve those minutes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve by Kevin, seconded by? I'll second. Ellen, all those in favor, I'll call the roll. Mayor Christensen? Yes. Justin?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Colleen? Yes. Ellen? Yes. And myself? Yes. And two absent, five in the affirmative, two absent. Minutes are approved from September 26, 2022. We have number three, new business, a vote to approve commercial street parcel transfer to Malden Redevelopment Authority. I'll turn that over to Evan.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Yeah, I'll take that. Thank you, Mayor. So this is, if you all remember, we've talked about it a couple times. This project we're working on, Malden River Works, which is a redesign of our DPW yard to incorporate a public park along the river, as well as a number of climate resiliency improvements to the site overall. Um, so what we're talking about today is there's actually, and I'm going to share my screen to give a little bit more context.
[Unidentified]: Um, if you give me one moment. This is probably the best way. Okay. Uh, can everyone see that or is that, make it bigger? Okay, so lost it. Yeah. I just go to scroll down maybe I think it's just trying to get every guy.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: So this is the most recent design. This is a 75% design we are going through permitting right now. We have a MEPA certificate, we have our order of conditions from our local conservation commission, and we have applications in for Chapter 91 and Army Corps permits, which are both needed because of the work near and actually in the river here. So what we're talking about today is this. If you can see my cursor on the left-hand side of the screen, This parcel right here is actually owned by the MVDC. It's a leftover parcel from the commercial street restreetening project that was in the mid 2000s. So it's, it's been It's currently it's just kind of a lawn area sits between, you know, this is our DPW on commercial street in the street itself. So our design incorporates use of that parcel. primarily as other additional parking for the site, since we're shifting some things around. And this is also a stormwater retention area that feeds into a larger system throughout the site. So as we're heading into construction, we're set to complete the design, have big ready documents by the end of the year, hopefully starting construction next year. We're looking for construction funding, looking for a lot of grant opportunities, and a lot of them to make that process simpler, we're hoping to just transfer ownership of this parcel from the MVDC to the Malden Redevelopment Authority, which owns the rest of the DPW parcels. to make those processes a lot simpler. Dealing with a single owner instead of multiple owners is much easier when looking into those sources.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: It's all in Malden, correct?
[Unidentified]: That's correct. Yeah, this is all in Malden.
[SPEAKER_07]: May I ask who proposed the idea? Whose proposal was this?
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: The project itself.
[SPEAKER_07]: Just converting this property over into a single owner for streamlining the process?
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Yeah, I mean, it came from us, the city of Malden. You know, but we're in the midst of Applying for grants we actually just received a $1.3 million federal earmark for the project, looking at other federal grants and you know just through those processes. it can be onerous, those grant applications. So kind of consolidating ownership. And we believe ultimately, we would want to consolidate ownership here anyway. But certainly, I think why we're talking about it now is predicated on these grant applications that get very complicated, even without multiple owners.
[SPEAKER_07]: So the goal is to have a single owner to have a single grant application or applicant?
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Yes, single grant applicant. Basically, we can be one applicant, but we would have to get like, you know, approvals. Basically, we would have to go back to the MVDC every time we apply for a grant.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, gotcha. So now this is in preparation for applying for grants then?
[Unidentified]: Exactly. Cool. Thank you.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: And I'll say, you know, we've had this parcel, this leftover parcel, since the road was redone. And, you know, it's such an odd shape, where it's located, it's really, there isn't much else we could do with this. which is why we wanted to incorporate this into this project. Our determination was this is the best, most productive use of this property.
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: The square footage of this parcel isn't used in your pilot payment calculation, I assume, correct?
[Unidentified]: No, it's not. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions?
[Ellen Brideau]: I just, for my own clarification, and again, I understand why you need to do this. So that parking, is that for the new DPW or what's there, or is that parking so people can use the path to get to the river?
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: It's both actually. So we had to remove some parking within the yard to incorporate this path around the perimeter of the property. So we're shifting parking to the front of the property. And there are also spots for the public to be able to use and then walk down to the park.
[Unidentified]: Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. I can show some other pretty pictures of the park if people want to see that as well.
[SPEAKER_07]: Do you need a motion?
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Yeah, we just need a motion to, you know, transfer the ownership of the parcel to the Malden Redevelopment Authority.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'll make that motion to transfer the development to the Redevelopment Authority if I may.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by Kevin, seconded by... Justin. Oh, sorry, sorry, Justin. I'll second it.
[SPEAKER_07]: Just for accuracy.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, no.
[SPEAKER_07]: Sorry. Just tell me, Kevin.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: No, no. There's another committee, Kevin. Sorry. Motion by Justin, seconded by Ellen. OK, roll call. Mayor Christensen? Yes. Justin? Yes. Colleen?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Ellen?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And myself, yes. Five in the affirmative, two absent. Motion passes. We have B-2023 Legal Services next.
[Unidentified]: Debbie, I don't know if you wanted to talk about this a little bit.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Just a brief introduction. So we've been using Foley-HOAG as our attorneys for the last forever, 15 years or so, 20 years. And recently they have, in the last couple weeks, have told us that they are no longer doing municipal work. So this is a very recent development. Debbie, I don't know if you had anything to add to that.
[MCM00001786_SPEAKER_01]: You're okay, madam chair, is it okay just to speak for a minute? Yes, Deb. So the redevelopment authority is project manager for the MVDC. You know, took advantage of some of the contractors that we already had on that were adequately procured under you know mass general laws and every five years, even though you don't have to actually we go out from various professional services contract, including legal services contract and. as the MRA, and we were able to procure Foley Hoagans resubmitted on a consistent basis. And we've had a series of different lawyers assigned to us from that shop over the years. Actually, the relationship with the MRA and Foley Hoag, which used to be called Foley Hoag and Elliott, goes back to the early 70s when the city of Malden was doing all sorts of things prior to my arrival here in the urban renewal arena. And they really were working at discounted rates, doing work in municipalities. So the city most, through my office, most recently went out for an RFP for legal services. The response were due December 12th. And I want to say maybe on December 14th, I got a call from one of the partners there, Doug McGarrow, who's pretty astute, done work for other cities as well, indicating that the shop was transitioning. I don't really know what he meant by this term term but he said that they were transitioning more. Maybe you would know Mayor because you're an attorney but to a ropes and gray model versus the model that they subscribe to, and that they were starting to transition out of municipal work. So of course I know various contracts that they had so I said well, are you doing the same thing to revere because they hold a legal services contract with revere and help guide them through the one wonderland station redevelopment effort, and he said yes, but you know, so their their discounted rate which was still. know fairly hefty rate is no longer going to be available he indicated that we could, if we really get some complex legal matters that they would be opening to negotiating, you know, hourly prices with us but that they were, you know, they were no longer going to be involved in this type of business. So what I have recommended to the city controller we did get one other proposal in some of you on the call may know them as well. I don't know that they compare it just because I have such a great you know relationship with Foley but. is KP Law. And I've used KP Law over time through the MRA, primarily to address personnel matters and some other matters involving maybe delinquent folks that, you know, receive loans from us and, you know, trying to restructure their loan deals in terms of housing rehab and all that. So it's likely we're going to have them under contract and we would be able to, you know, use them as well for MVDC. But I didn't know I wanted Evan to put this on the agenda if you all felt it might be cleaner that the agency issues it's, you know, the MVDC issues its own RFP for services or if not, we can fall to. And one final thing I, I'd say is back in the day when the whole telecom city rivers edge group came together. There was a desire at least with banks that you know the mayors wanted us to use banks that were you know if they all had a. you know, a shop, if you will, or a branch in each of the three cities. So I'm not sure what your feeling is with, you know, lawyers. I know at one point I think Foley, and I might, if I'm misspeaking, just correct me, may have done some work for Everett, but I'm not 100% sure. So, but I just wanted to bring you up to date. This just all occurred December 12th or 13th.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thanks, Deb. I will just want to check with them, maybe the procurement offices in our two cities or all three cities as long as procurement thinks that's fine we can either go with. the quote you got, or we can do a whole procurement process. Because there are multiple firms that do this type of work that, you know, KP, I can vouch for the city of Medford uses KP, but still I want to make sure we're going to not just pick them off the bat that my procurement director says that we can go that go that route versus doing a full RFP.
[MCM00001786_SPEAKER_01]: So Mayor, I could if you so desire, share that RFP with you so that you can procurement, and I'll talk to, with Gary's permission, I'll talk to our folks, you know, this week as well. Perfect.
[SPEAKER_03]: Legal services are exempt from public procurement, which is, is, you know, great. And Everett also uses KP law as outside counsel for various areas of law, including land use and real estate and things like that. So I know that they do have pretty qualified attorneys on that end in their firm.
[MCM00001786_SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, and I agree with you, Colleen, it is exempt. It's just, I don't know why, prior to my landing here, they just as a matter of course, RFP'd for that type.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a great business practice.
[Unidentified]: Right. Thanks.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, yeah, if you could send me that just let me run it by my chief of staff who does a ton of procurement work and. OK, just to get their opinion that if it doesn't need to go to an RFP process, sometimes we in Medford still send things through an RFP process, even if it's exempt, just to try to get the best. Price and and firm, but then this committee can decide.
[Unidentified]: OK.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Does that run us into any timing issues because we meet like bi monthly or even quarterly.
[MCM00001786_SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure what we might have on the horizon in terms of needs for legal services. Evan, do you envision something coming up in the next month or two.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: We haven't really, we actually haven't done much in terms of legal services besides, you know, I think the last thing Foley helped us with was drafting that the vote to transfer that that parcel that we just did. Um, we, so I don't really anticipate anything coming up. And, you know, I think the other thing is that the, we have always kind of worked off of the MRAs, or, well I guess it always has been the MRAs contracts so now that, you know, if we are entering into a contract with KP Law, I don't see why we wouldn't be able to use them as, you know, the project managers, which isn't to say we shouldn't do another procurement process, but I think if there's something in the meantime, we do have, or we would have, you know, access to attorneys if something, you know, was kind of an emergency or we needed addressed right away. That's sort of my, and I'm not a procurement officer, but that's what we've done in the past is always kind of worked off the MRAs contracts.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So we'll just leave that on the table until next meeting and hopefully figure it out by then. And I'm happy to work behind the scenes to try to get some, so we all feel comfortable and can move forward. Next up, we have Rivers Edge updates.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: C. Yeah, John was going to give, I'm going to share my screen. John has some, John, I don't know if you wanted to say something before I share my screen. Sorry.
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Go ahead and share it, and I'll try to compress whatever I was going to say so that people can move on. In general, OK, in general, the past year has not been a great year in the real estate market. I mean, we've had some tenants that may still be paying rent, but are not physically here, or at least are not physically here in the same density that they have been. Ajero has the 400 building. has a lot of remote working and is considering subletting some space at this point. They went through a process of reviewing a possible conversion to life science, had an agreement that hadn't been documented yet with a group. And then when that market sort of became a little overbuilt, the group backed away and they, so they're not proceeding. There have not been a lot of tours for new tenants, although, you know, probably it's very nice. I mean, I don't think we've ever had, maybe in all the years I've been here, maybe we've had one bad tour. That's a different, that's sort of a different story. The sale market, not that we're in that market, but the sale market is less active than it was. Evan, you know that the owners of, or one of the owners of the, 100 building had that building on the market. They had an agreement. That agreement was with a Chicago money manager, and it appears that that's not proceeding. And whether they return to the market, I'm uncertain. Hancock was a major owner, but they sold a participation, which candidly, I didn't realize how large it was to California Regents. I thought it was a 50% participation. It turns out it was a 90% participation. So California Regents really controls what happens to that building. I mean, the rest of the project's fine. Anybody wants to talk about anything else here, I'd be glad to. talk with you offline. What's going on at Rivers Edge probably isn't terribly different from what's going on at the moment. throughout the greater Boston market. OK. So on a more positive note, we've been working with architects and planners on the next, really the next phase of the next buildings. And the building that's shown on your screen is an office lab building that for which we came up with a concept with a Gensler firm probably about a year ago. Some of you have seen it. We've not carried it beyond the preliminary designs. I don't know. We kind of like it, obviously. And oh, let me just interrupt myself by saying we're not looking for any approvals today. We're just updating you. So if you said, I don't like that at all, you can We would think we should try to increase the density. And we think we should try to increase the density also by adding another residential building. Those buildings have done well. It's a great place to live during the height of the pandemic. It was fantastic because there was a park and there were other services, et cetera. Kevin, how about the next?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So, Mr. preaddle that you think the two buildings one would be residential and one would be that commercial building we just saw.
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay.
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. This is anyway these, these. images are from Gensler and as part of a design package. This is the existing, the second existing residential building. And some folks have criticized it as a little monochromatic, but it's a huge, it takes up a lot of space, but it breaks up pretty well from a sort of a vision standpoint. The one thing that's not obvious here, which is probably good, you know, there's 1000 space parking garages hidden within. Okay, let's we can go to the next one. And what we're thinking is the residential building mayor would be a a budding river's edge drive at the northern entry of this property. And there's a rough design there in kind of that tannish color for the view corridors, et cetera. And we're still working on that. There are two issues that have to be addressed there. One, it encroaches on that field to some extent. And we clearly would need approvals for that encroachment and would need to substitute, since that's subject to a conservation restriction, would need to substitute other land at River's Edge for that. And so that and also National Grid has an easement through there and would need to design the garage in a way that that utility could have access to the to their easement and their cabling. There was a directional drilling project done about 15 years ago from the substation on the other side of the river, under the river that comes up here, and it services a lot of Medford. As the National Grid folks have told us, they said, well, likelihood of our needing to get to those cables is low, but if we ever need to get to them, we need to get to them immediately, you know, not in an hour, not in two hours, immediately. So those are some other issues. And then the fourth image is just a preliminary, one of the preliminary designs that that really the Gensler folks have come up with. We've been working with Criterion on this as well. Interestingly enough, I think they do have it financed. They have a German group with which they've done about six projects. And it seems every time they're in this country, they come in and see us and tell us what good partners they are and how excited they are, et cetera. Maybe, I don't know, maybe they do that with a lot of people, but I don't think so. So that's one of the conceptual designs that they've come up with. And there's still work to be done before we present it in a more formal way to you all. But we wanted you to know that we're working on it. And I think we can come up with something that's very good and something that you'll like a lot. If anybody has any questions, And we can answer them now or we can talk offline or whatever you prefer. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. How many stories for the residential?
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Well, that's a good question because the first couple stories are parking. So what do we have here? One, two, three, four, five, about six. The office building was programmed at six. The residential was programmed six or seven. The image that you saw or that we showed you a little bit ago was really four stories. Yes, that center building is really four stories over one level of parking. The Florida, the slab to slab height in the office building is greater than in the residential building. So the concept was to make them somewhat comparable in terms of height. The MVDC zoning limitations are, I guess, 120 feet or 10 stories. And in theory you could, you could do something that was greater. We would need clearly MDC approval for a variance. Our concern was because we had looked at some plans with a taller building and it just didn't feel right in the context of the rest of the site. So we cut it back a bit.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And how much encroachment onto the field wetlands area? How many?
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Well, yeah, there's none on any of the wetlands. The field, I'm sort of eyeballing this. I would say it's probably 15,000 to 18,000 square feet. And so that field, which I mentioned to you at one point and you thought that it doesn't get a lot of use. You thought, well, once the, Once something was built there, it might get a lot more. I think, right, okay. So the concept would be to redesign from a landscape standpoint, what was remaining. There are other open areas that do get a lot of use, the so-called Great Lawn area, which is between, well, you were there, that's the area when you spoke at Senator Lewis's. here and that's the area on which that room look on under which that room looks out. And then between the new office building and the 400 building, there's that's been now this aerial doesn't show but that's been developed into a sort of a very nice open area that is getting a lot of use. So what would have to happen legally and you'd you know, candidly, if you all say, well, we just don't want to do that, then I'd say we won't do it. Okay. What would have to happen legally is some area, whether it's the Great Lawn or this North, what the area we call the Northern Overlook would have to be substituted for that area on which the encroachment occurred. Okay.
[Unidentified]: Any questions? It's the timeline you're thinking of.
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Well, I'm always more optimistic than I should be, but I would hope we could be back to you all with, and, you know, and your folks within a month and say, here's something that we've come up with and we really like, and here's why we hope you like it as well. If, if all that were positive, you know, I would think you might be able to begin construction later this year.
[Unidentified]: And what's your current occupancy at the most recent residential building?
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Interestingly enough, we just got a report and it was at 96%.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor Christensen, any more questions? Sorry. John, how many stories are the other buildings? I'm just in my head thinking, you know, why encroach when maybe you could just adjust the plans. I know, I know you want to fit as many units as you possibly can.
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: I don't know, but we hopefully all agree. I mean, we have worked to make this. Sort of a very good project. You know, sometimes we tell people it's great, but that's probably salesmanship. But I think it's very good. The other buildings that have been built to date are all four stories. Now, it was always planned that the final office, the final commercial building would be taller. And the initial plan shows six stories with a somewhat greater slab to slab height to allow for life science. So yeah, I think we might be able to push it up a little bit. without creating, well, the goal, this is not architectural comment, but we don't want to create something that when someone drives down the road, she or he says, oh my God, How did that happen? Okay. We want it to work in the context of the other buildings, but I think maybe we can do that. So I, I hear you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Well, the other, if the other buildings are four stories, then yeah. I mean, I guess you're already going up pretty high and a little odd. Um, so just reconfiguring it somehow to get it off that field.
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Yep. Okay.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: is just a thought, you know, somehow, some way.
[MCM00001331_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, and well, it's certainly, when we hear the thought and two, it simplifies life for us as well. Because it is part of the, I don't know how many of you remember, there was a, there's a 4.9 acre conservation restriction that we granted really voluntarily, but it doesn't matter because that's what it is now, that the city of Medford used as compensation for some parkland on which it built the new middle schools. Okay. And that's to modify that it can be modified. We've researched it, but it, it, you know, it takes some effort and it takes some involvement from the state. So, and even if you said that's exactly what we want to do, we're the ones, although we would hope we would, if you said that's exactly what we want to do, we'd have your support. We'd have to do it. So the extent we can avoid that, it's easier for us. And interestingly enough, the national grid cabling runs through that field as well. So to the extent we can stay off the field, and I don't know if we can, but the extent we can, that certainly helps with national grid. And you all have dealt more with national grid over the years than I, and sometimes it's a challenging process.
[Unidentified]: OK. Thank you for the update. Okay, thanks.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Any. There's no other questions, can all digest that and over the next month or two. Motion to adjourn by anybody. Justin.
[Unidentified]: I'll make that motion to adjourn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Do I have a second? Colleen? Thank you. Motion in turn by Justin, seconded by Colleen, Mayor Christensen?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor, sorry, Justin?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Colleen? Yes. Ellen? Yes. And myself, yes. Have a wonderful rest of January. Thank you very much. Bye. Bye. Thanks, everyone.
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