Ray Tipton, BMDD Executive Director told the BMDD Board of Directors, “At our last meeting we talked about how our building improvement incentives work and I think we all agree work really, really well. The one gap that we talked about in the last meeting was the building improvement program has to be tied to a specific defense. What we’re getting demand for now is move-in ready properties. So I want to put together some sort of plan where we can incentivize people to buy potential larger properties, but I’m OK with the smaller without a tenant ready to the go, with the intention to make it a retail space, but only in the downtown district. I see this as a limited program because I only see a handful of properties this would work for.”

Tipton continued, “I took our building improvement program requirements as the baseline and then overlaid these new requirements for this new program. So effectively, what I’m recommending is to have a new program for the development of move in ready retail and restaurant space downtown, up to $25,000. The one thing they would be required to do is a have a lease-able retail or restaurant space with a list of minimal list of improvements – finished ceiling, finished floor, lighting, painted walls – where it is move-in ready for any type of business.”

The BMDD board voted unanimously to approve the plan.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting:

• Tipton presented the BMDD annual report
• The BMDD board approved a Municipal Advisory Agreement with Hilltop Securities
• The BMDD board approved a fund up to $25,000 for a parks master plan by Halff Associates