Jill Schramm/MDN The Renaissance ramp, one of two downtown parking ramps, operates for downtown business people and shoppers.

For all the trials Minot’s downtown parking ramps have caused the city, it’s good to know the project developers still can make the city council and residents laugh.

It happened Monday night when City Manager Tom Barry reported Cypress Development proposed a new financing plan in which the city turns over ownership of the parking ramps to the company so it can use them as collateral to get additional loans. Council members didn’t find the proposal funny but they did find it laughable.

“It’s very, very important that you clarify that the city is not interested in that,” Mayor Chuck Barney told Barry. “I want to make sure that is crystal clear and that the council understands and the community understands that with the track record that we have, that we are not interested in relinquishing any of our assets so that they can get their financing.”

The city issued to Cypress a payment demand for about $3.4 million, including outstanding rent on the parking ramps that was due in October and cost overruns experienced by the city.

“They are in breach of contract,” Barry said. The contract allows a four-month period in which they can come back into compliance.

Barry and other city staff met with Cypress Development representatives various times during the week of May 22.

“We were promised that Steve Larson, essentially the head of Cypress, would be attending these meetings. That was the reason they were pushed off for three months. When it finally came to scheduling, Mr. Larson and his team said they would all be available to meet with us. We showed up to the meeting. Mr. Larson was absent. We did have him on speaker phone for about five to six minutes before he told us he had other, more important business to attend to. So we were not able to continue the conversation with Mr. Larson present, but we continued for another four and a half hours, working through a four-page agenda,” Barry said.

Among topics of conversation was Cypress’ proposal regarding the ramps.

“Cypress representatives have informed us that they cannot build the apartments without the city reconsidering the ownership structure that they have contemplated in the agreement,” Barry said. “So essentially they pitched an idea as follows. They would like for the city to give both parking ramps to Cypress free of charge and allow them to hold those parking ramps as collateral for future financing of the apartments, and they would hold those parking ramps as collateral for the duration of the lease that we have with Cypress, which has 97 years on it, at which point they promise to return the parking ramps to us.

“I said that they may be better suited to come and explain all these details to the city council at a future meeting, and they may get that opportunity. The mayor and I will be meeting with the Cypress leadership, including, hopefully, Mr. Larson, to talk through this concept a little bit more and assess its efficacy.”

When asked what would happen if the city did not respond favorably, Cypress representatives responded they did not know, Barry said. He had suggested Cypress look at online blogs and comments of city council candidates as well as responses and letters to “get a better sense of what the impression of Cypress was inside the city.”

On the positive side, the janitorial improvements at the ramps have occurred.

“We are still monitoring those improvements, and we are looking for long-term, sustained improvement of the maintenance and oversight of the garages. But at this point, there have been some improvements there,” Barry said.

In other business, Barry informed the council that representatives from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development will be in Minot at the end of June for a routine, onsite audit of Community Development Block Grant dollars.

He also stated the city will be monitoring the Earth Recycling cleanup and ensuring any future development there meets zoning standards, including having an enclosure for any recyclable materials. The recycling center will be among topics at a city-county liaison meeting June 19.