HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.20180730Special Meeting Aspen City Council July 30, 2018
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At 6:40 p.m. Mayor Skadron called the special meeting to order with Councilmembers Mullins,
Hauenstein, Frisch and Myrin present.
Mayor Skadron said execution of this contract terminates the original one. We are approving the entry
based on entry of this draft.
Mr. True said an executive session would be appropriate.
Councilman Frisch said this contract will lay out legal terms, incorporate specific things into the contract,
price can be laid out by staff.
Resolution #111 – entry into amended and restated contract.
Councilman Frisch said there are two buckets. Ann and Ward’s first choice is D where the Mayor’s is A.
Some’s second choices may fall in to this. What might be spent now on a path forward to get to A or D,
keeping C open now. Mayor Skadron said that is really a question for us. An option that fails to include
keeping the armory as the historic seat for government is one that I can’t support. Steve Barwick, city
manager, said can we ask you to define that. Councilwoman Mullins said thinking about that and a way
to work with this building for some dedicated community space with a way to keep council chambers and
some office space. I was thinking they would be working mostly on C.
Jack Wheeler, asset, said one of the sticking points for B is what is the real number for the armory and
what is the subsidy going forward. The number in the D plan is a 3 million number but that is just for
maintenance. Councilwoman Mullins said then you should have a number for any space you are
abandoning. Mr. Wheeler replied that is a good example. There is 3 million in the budget for turning the
power house over to public use. We have not done that for Mountain Rescue and the Rio Grand. It is
hard for us to come up with the numbers until we know the use. Councilwoman Mullins said I don’t want
that to skew the numbers. In option C the Rio Grande and ACRA stay in and there are no funds going to
those buildings.
Councilman Myrin said what Ann raised is valid for the ongoing costs. It costs money to keep things
going. That has to be a decision if we turn this over to the community.
Councilman Hauenstein said what I thought I heard Steve say was can we retain part of the armory as
civic offices and retain the other part for the community. Mr. Wheeler said we can but part of what we
are up against is security. Every time we add a secondary use we run into a security issue. It is not a real
efficient way to program these buildings.
Councilman Hauenstein said Bert, are you in the same opinion as Steve that this should be the center of
civic government for Aspen, the armory. Councilman Myrin said I’ll do whatever is needed to get 517
and 204 moved forward. Mayor Skadron asked would you be open to a discussion of affordable housing
on the Galena site. Councilman Myrin said he would be open to anything to get this going.
Councilman Frisch said last time we met we were talking about buying a building and now we are buying
another space and there is a possible deal to have someone remodel this space. I don’t think it has
anything to do with Mark but any developer who would reach out to us. I think we have the legal ability
to not bid it out. One of the things is cost overruns. Usually the client ends up paying. This is especially
true where there are 3 deals going on. We have to make sure when we get into cost overruns how they
are handled and where there is clarity. How are we going to manage quality control. It is different when
we are overseeing a project. Here we are outsourcing that responsibility. What are the guarantees that
any developer will still be around to finish the project. Mark has a lot of balls in the air and his business
model up till now has been high end retail. How do we make sure we don’t get into bait and switches on
LLCs. If something goes wrong, how do we make sure we are protected and the community gets the
project we expect to be built. Financing, on the upside all these options appear to be getting closer but the
price keeps getting higher.
Mr. Wheeler said part of the due diligence over the next 30 days is coming up with the collateral to
address all those things. Generally, we estimate things within 10 %. As we get closer to construction
Special Meeting Aspen City Council July 30, 2018
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documents we can get that way down. Cost overruns are handled the same way. We do not stick it to the
contractor. Security and guarantee are the same on every project. We have never called a bond. What
we do is manage the pay outs. We don’t pay the pay outs that aren’t complete. The guarantee is if we
write the check we have what we pay for and it is already in place or in the warehouse.
Councilman Frisch said all that is great. I’m worried if all of a sudden the contractor doesn’t show up for
work. Mr. Wheeler replied we have had contractors fail. We make sure the funds are there to finish the
project. It does happen. We manage things proactively.
Councilman Hauenstein said when I made my comments about entering into an agreement with the
largest commercial land owner it was not singling out Mark Hunt, it was the same with the art museum.
There is a squirm factor and it has nothing to do with this particular person. Mr. Wheeler said he brings
an economy of scale to the project as well. It is a unique situation.
Councilman Frisch asked is the price set. Is this the max price until you negotiate. Mr. Wheeler said we
are focused on terms. We negotiated down from 25 million to 23 and 100 dollars per sq ft. In the 204
space we negotiated to the 9.5 number and that includes all the finishes. We will be identifying all those
things within the schedule.
Councilman Myrin move to approve Resolution #111, Series of 2018; seconded by Councilwoman
Mullins. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Frisch, yes; Mullins, yes; Myrin, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mayor
Skadron, yes. Motion carried.
At 7:20 p.m. Councilwoman Mullins moved to adjourn; seconded by Councilman Hauenstein. All in
favor, motion carried.
Linda Manning
City Clerk