Jill Schramm/MDN A site being considered for a downtown gathering place includes structures to be removed as well as existing open area.

The location of a proposed downtown gathering place could hinge on whether the City of Minot can negotiate property acquisitions by the end of August.

The city has been focused on developing an area east of the Parker Center and north of the former YMCA building, which had housed Sure ID. The site located north of First Avenue Southeast and east of First Street Southeast had been selected in a public survey as the top choice from three proposed blocks. However, progress has been slow.

The city first needed to work with the federal Housing and Urban Development on permission to use a portion of the $6 million in resilience money designated for the project on acquisition and demolition. There also was a need for an environmental review. Now the project has moved to the property acquisition stage, and talks with landowners are going slowly in certain instances. This month, the city council set an Aug. 30 deadline for negotiations to resolve or the focus will shift to another site.

The proposed site has six owners who own eight parcels needed for the gathering place. The city owns a parking lot and an alley. Aksal Group, represented by Ryan and Jessica Ackerman, own two parcels on which one building stands. Keith Bloms owns Bloms Locker and Processing Plant, and the Elda Evenson Living Trust has title to an 11-unit apartment complex. RMM Properties, represented by Richard Olson of the Olson & Burns law firm, owns another property. The Virginia Price Trust, Las Vegas, Nevada, owns a small alley, and CP Rail has a small triangular piece of property.

Negotiations with the property owners are in various stages – from ready to sign an agreement to far apart in price.

All the properties are needed or the project cannot proceed at that site because two acres are required in the resilience grant agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Resilience manager John Zakian said it might be possible to proceed if the railroad property was not obtained because that property is insignificant in size and location, but it is necessary to reach agreement on other properties.

The Ackermans, who have come to a price agreement with the city, would like certainty on the project to know whether they should prepare for demolition or proceed with their building development plans.

“I am still optimistic that we can find a solution on this block by working with the property owners that are there. We welcome the conversation with the city,” Jessica Ackerman said. “I think we have been open to that dialogue throughout the process and certainly still see the greater vision for what can happen and what it can do for downtown, and want to be considered a partner along the way in that.”

Ackerman sees opportunity to reconfigure the site design to keep a gathering place in that location if certain properties can’t be acquired. But even if the city ultimately abandons a gathering place at that site, the Ackermans envision a gathering space coming together that incorporates rather than removes existing buildings.

“I have heard so much excitement from other community organizations and partners and private folks who feel that block is a great space to physically develop something that can actually foster more in the community than is currently happening there. So I think there’s a way to still get to a place where we can gather there,” Jessica Ackerman said. “I think there’s something here that can be a real game-changer in our downtown.”

The National Resilience Program gathering space is just one idea for improving downtown, she added.

“That’s why other people are working on their own projects too,” she said. “We are going to need all these pieces to come together to really make the most of downtown. A gathering place is a fantastic tool. It certainly can be a lead project that synergizes the rest of what happens down there. But it’s one piece.”

“I think it’s a great thing if they can get it to work,” Keith Bloms said of the proposed gathering space. He said the city’s first offer was lower than the tax value on his property, so while they remain far apart on price, he is optimistic a purchase agreement can be reached by the August deadline. He said a sale likely would end his business since he is near retirement.

Mitch Evenson, who is negotiating for the Evenson trust, said the gathering place is a good project for promoting downtown.

“I think it needs to be done to inject some money and vitality in the downtown,” he said.

However, he said, the offer from the city last March for the apartment complex on the property was about half the amount agreed to in a private sale in 2018. That sale fell through. His private appraisal recently produced an even higher figure. The city’s latest offer remains less than half his private appraisal, he said.

“So we are not really getting anywhere, in any fashion, close to a reasonable offer,” Evenson said.

Zakian said HUD follows the Uniform Relocation Act, a federal act that specifies how much can be paid for properties using federal money. Under the law, the city can establish a current value by having a property appraised or by using the city’s assessed value. HUD has agreed to allow the city to add up to 15% to assessed valuations for flooded properties because assessments can be a few years old or more by the time the city makes an acquisition offer. In the case of the gathering place acquisitions, the city added 10% to last year’s assessments to better reflect the market. Zakian said the city since adjusted its offers to reflect 2019 assessment values.

“We can only accept ultimately a purchase offer that we can defend as reflecting market value,” he said. Property owners can solicit private appraisals to seek to establish a current value.

“That’s not a guarantee because that appraiser has to meet standards that make us comfortable,” Zakian said. “We need to see the complete appraisal and be comfortable that if HUD were to come in and audit us, we could argue the case that the counter-appraisal is justifiable.”

Meanwhile, the city has to keep its options open on a site for a gathering place, he said.

In some respects, it’s hard to justify the selected site compared to the other two sites, Zakian said. The property is oddly configured, with the railroad running diagonally along the side. Also, the other sites have minimal structures and each has just one owner to be involved in negotiations.

However, the city is moving forward with the top selected site with the hope of an agreement by Aug. 30, Zakian said.

“The deadline that the council set is perfectly appropriate,” he said. “The reality is this is going to be at least one full season, if not more, of construction for this type of project, and we are beginning to run out of time. So if we can’t reach agreement with all the property owners within a reasonable time, then we do have to move to another site.”