[0:00] You're ready.

[0:17] » All right, let's call the meeting in order. We'll start with the pledge of

[0:21] allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

[0:26] United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation

[0:31] under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[0:35] » Thank you. Theresa, please take the role.

[0:37] » Okay. Mayor Jones >> here.

[0:39] » Here. >> Carlson,

[0:40] » yes. >> Here.

[0:42] » Matson >> here. Jilling

[0:44] » here. And Bowen is absent with notice. >> All right. Do we have a motion to

[0:49] approve the agenda for tonight's meeting?

[0:52] Make a motion to approve the agenda for tonight.

[0:55] » Second. >> Any discussion?

[1:00] » Hearing none. We'll vote. Carlson, >> yes.

[1:02] » Matson, >> yes.

[1:03] » Gil, yes. >> Yes.

[1:05] » Shilling, [snorts] >> yes.

[1:07] » All right. We have one item on the agenda tonight. It's to review, discuss,

[1:12] and approve the real estate transfer between the city of Hartford and Gateway

[1:16] Hartford. Before we start, I have one of our uh one of the members from Gateway

[1:22] Hartford who had asked if he could have a second to introduce himself. So, I

[1:26] would like to ask Keith Matis up to the podium.

[1:33] » Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> You bet. Those that don't know me, I'm

[1:36] Keith Matis. Couple guys see your face, but I should

[1:41] put a name. Anyway, uh I'm the president of GHI.

[1:48] So, and I just kind of wanted to make myself uh [clears throat]

[1:52] introduce myself to everybody so you know who I am, which I do know mostly

[1:58] competitive. But I've been here in town for 30 years and your population's

[2:03] double and then some. I know we got some light industrial buildings in coming.

[2:10] Pretty good looking stuff. Good good direction.

[2:14] So um because of that lagoons get a little small outdated we got to build a

[2:20] new treatment plant which we did with what was that 9.4 million

[2:26] » grant >> grant. Yeah.

[2:28] » Yeah. So thank you guys for that. But here's what it did do. It doubled my

[2:34] utility bill. It was $48

[2:39] times two. It's a little tough at times. Get that

[2:45] off there as soon as you can. [clears throat]

[2:49] » We'd love to do that. >> Anyway, that gets us to this point.

[2:55] There isn't a hard deadline on moving dirt, mitigating the ground, but there

[3:00] is with some grants, federal money. So, including one that has a January 28th

[3:08] deadline. So pushing that side of things.

[3:14] » Thank you. Thank you, Keith. >> Thanks.

[3:18] » All right. The way I'm uh proposing we're going to move this forward, I'm

[3:22] going to give you some background on on this uh

[3:27] [clears throat] transfer of paperwork and the resolution. We'll open it up if

[3:31] anybody has any questions, comments. They'll be more than free to come up and

[3:36] address. the council then will discuss and we'll move forward.

[3:42] So I'll start with this. Uh city's been working on setting up a

[3:47] special project entity which we have done to assist with the lagoon

[3:51] remediation repurposing of this land for future development.

[3:56] This special project entity is known as Gateway Hartford Inc. This entity will

[4:00] be able to apply for grant funding to remediate the lagoons and help the

[4:05] future land transfer as needed. In order to secure grant funding for remediation,

[4:10] the lagoon land will need to be transferred to Gateway Hartford, Inc.

[4:15] Once transferred to Gateway Hartford, Inc., they will work to remediate the

[4:18] lagoons, work on the master plan for the area, develop and market as needed.

[4:24] In order to move forward, this transfer involved two steps.

[4:29] One, the council will need to approve the real estate transfer agreement which

[4:33] lays out the agreement between the city of Hartford and Gateway Hartford, Inc.

[4:37] for the land transfer, remediation, and eventual development.

[4:42] Key items to note in the agreement are GHI has been created, Greater Gateway

[4:49] Hartford has been created as a nonprofit economic development corp to help

[4:54] facilitate the remediation of the lagoons and redevelopment of the

[4:57] property and surrounding area. Gateway Hartford, Inc. is eligible for

[5:03] brownfield grants and for the for this remediation which the city is not

[5:09] eligible for being the contaminant. This grant if awarded will save the

[5:15] taxpayers approximately $2.8 million in funds that would otherwise be at the

[5:21] taxpayers's expense. Resolution 2026-3

[5:27] will transfer the land. All associated cap costs for the trans with the

[5:31] transfer would be paid for by each respective party.

[5:36] Gate Gateway Hartford will be obligated to apply for grants for the lagoon

[5:41] remediation, develop a master plan for the area and move forward with

[5:46] developing including platting, zoning, infrastructure and marketing. If the

[5:51] lagoons cannot be remediated for whatever reason by Gateway Hartford, the

[5:57] land would revert back to the city. The city can also demand reconveyance of the

[6:03] land if greater if Gateway Hartford does not carry out the duties per agreement.

[6:10] Once Greater Gateway Hartford, Inc. has completed its agreed upon task, this

[6:16] entity will dissolve and any net proceeds will revert back to the city.

[6:23] Along with this, the council number two council also needs to approve resolution

[6:28] 2026-3 which will transfer the land to Gateway

[6:32] Hartford. All right, that's what we're going to

[6:38] discuss. Anybody in the crowd want to have anything they'd like to say?

[6:45] » A couple questions. >> Yep. Go ahead. [clears throat] Say who

[6:48] you are so the camera knows. Monarch Anderson.

[6:52] Um, so what does the development look like? I know that we don't have a plan

[6:56] or I'm guessing you don't have an overall plan,

[6:58] » right? >> But when I hear the city or this entity

[7:02] would then develop that area. Would would the intention be to have

[7:07] those like build ready lots or is that get rid of the the ponds, get it, you

[7:14] know, grid it out and then sell to a developer that would then come in and

[7:20] develop. What would the intention be there?

[7:24] That would be the that would be the plan to get the get the lagoons remediated,

[7:31] [clears throat] get them to what do they call that? uh level ready. Is that what

[7:37] they call that? >> Shovel ready.

[7:39] » Shovel ready or whatever they call that? And then begin the process at that point

[7:44] to market it to developers. And if I misspoke Mark and said the city's going

[7:50] to the city won't be developing this. >> Well, that that was my question, I

[7:53] guess. >> Yeah. No, the city's not going to be

[7:55] developing. If I said that, >> I miss Oh, we're once we transfer the

[8:00] land to Gateway Hartford. Yeah. They're going to be in charge of making all this

[8:05] happen. >> But Gateway Hartford, would they develop

[8:07] that then for build ready lots or is that just a mitigate ponds, grade things

[8:12] out >> and get it ready

[8:14] » ready and then a developer would come in, build roads

[8:18] and put infrastructure in. What does that look like?

[8:23] » TBD. There's no plan at the moment,

[8:27] » right, >> to do that. Um, I think the

[8:30] conversation's been had to reach out to developers and work with them to see

[8:37] what they provide for a plan. The only plan the the city and Gateway Arford has

[8:43] to um use as a point of reference at this point is the plan that ISG had put

[8:49] together a couple years ago. [clears throat] So, we'll start there.

[8:53] Um, but as far as if we try to solicit, you know, developers to just purchase

[8:59] the whole 72 acres, that'd be ideal and then it's done.

[9:04] But >> that was my question, I guess, as

[9:08] » somebody that's in that. >> Yep.

[9:10] » You know, the risk >> and all that that goes along with it.

[9:14] The cost, the risk, you know, I was just curious if that's something the city was

[9:18] looking at taking on or if that's something that, you know, the taxpayers

[9:22] would want to avoid. >> Well, that's why this uh first piece of

[9:26] transferring to the nonprofit that can apply for the remediation grant, it's

[9:30] huge. >> Yeah. I mean, if that honestly

[9:33] » there's a lot of value in the land for the city and offset other costs.

[9:38] » If that doesn't happen and the land reverts back to the city and we're back

[9:42] to square one that I mean that changes this whole deal, I will tell you.

[9:47] » No, I I understand that. It's obviously you don't know what

[9:50] » I mean we don't have an extra look like >> Yeah. We don't have an extra 3 million

[9:54] laying around that we're ready to go do that if that happened.

[9:57] » Yep. Atlantic County from here

[10:02] » uh or >> but what I want to say is there's

[10:05] anformational meeting tomorrow night with ISG and developers some of our

[10:10] people will be there with concepts >> what

[10:16] kind of preliminary news too yeah and really to talk about how are we going to

[10:21] go how what do we got to do to get this grant application one you know

[10:25] » yeah that's a big piece of it >> and that's a huge piece of this deal so

[10:29] you're asking asking questions that if we're acting like we're we don't cuz we

[10:33] don't know. I mean, there's things we just don't know.

[10:35] » Yeah. >> I think that's why it's important to

[10:38] have the provisions in the agreement, >> right?

[10:41] » If it if they don't if Gateway Hartford can't secure grants, then we've got a

[10:46] whole other the land needs to come back and we need to re-evaluate.

[10:50] » Sure. Yeah. I mean, our hope is is that we don't get to the point where we can't

[10:57] get it remediated, comes back to the city, we can't find other sources to

[11:02] grant this deal, and the state comes to us and says, "Oh, by the way, what are

[11:07] you guys going to do with this?" >> Yeah. There's Yeah. impacts the value

[11:11] obviously. So, cuz the way it sits right now,

[11:16] I don't know if a if a developer would come in and say, "Oh, yeah. I'll buy

[11:21] this on the betting on the fact that I can get all this done."

[11:25] » Sure. >> You know what I mean?

[11:26] » Yep. >> Okay.

[11:30] » Thank you. >> You bet.

[11:37] » Anybody else? I guess I'll say a few things here. So

[11:44] Eric Bucking here. So your meeting tomorrow night for theformational

[11:48] meeting >> Yep.

[11:50] » is after the land transfer. So that So just like Keith said, everybody's got a

[11:55] lot of questions. You don't know how this is going to go. Correct.

[11:58] But let's just start by transferring the land without questions. And that's those

[12:02] are the right steps. >> You have to transfer the land so that we

[12:06] can apply for the grant by the 28th of January.

[12:09] » And what is that grant? We know how much that grant is.

[12:12] » It's open-ended at this point, isn't it? >> It is. I mean, obviously, it's through

[12:16] the state, but basically the dollar amount will be up to the state. So, it's

[12:20] it's not capped at like 600,000 or 800,000 or whatnot. You could possibly

[12:24] get the full amount. Not saying we will, but

[12:26] » So, we have an engineers estimate that we'll base our grant request on.

[12:29] » Yes, we will request. They [clears throat] will request for the

[12:32] whole thing. So if you let's say you get 800,000 or a million bucks,

[12:37] what will you do with the shortfall or what will you do with that million bucks

[12:41] if you are granted that that doesn't complete that project?

[12:48] » That's a great question. Um come back to the city and ask for the

[12:53] balance to refinish the remediation. The intent of Gateway Hartford is to

[12:58] remediate the property

[13:02] to get it ready so it could be so it's a sellable lot

[13:05] » because you can't just leave it. It's contaminated,

[13:08] » right? >> So 2 million's less than 3 million.

[13:13] So anything we get would be a bonus. I think timing and speed is always the

[13:18] question. >> Yeah. And the number's always been out

[13:20] there. It has it's never been a secret that it's going to cost the the price

[13:25] has increased >> pretty substantially like everything but

[13:28] it it started out at a million to remediate it and then it went to7 and

[13:32] now it's at three. So, is there anything in your guys's bylaws or

[13:38] um articles of corporation that state

[13:44] like let's say you get let's say you get a million you get a million dollar

[13:47] grant. You start with a million dollars worth of dirt. The nonprofit becomes

[13:53] essentially inoperable because there's no funds and there's a million dollar

[13:59] property already. Is there any safeguards in those articles stating

[14:03] that you can't just go and sell that said land

[14:08] to a any developer or any organization for a

[14:13] dollar just to get it out when I need to. Somebody says, "Hey, I want to come

[14:17] in and I'm going to do I'm going to bring project XYZ into this into this

[14:22] land and I'll buy it from you for a buck and do the remainder of the mediation."

[14:27] Well, I think speaking from my experience with federal grants in other

[14:32] settings, if we take money for a purpose and don't complete that purpose,

[14:38] you didn't fulfill the requirements of the grant. So, I don't know if the city

[14:44] get a third of what you need, would you even can you technically start your

[14:47] project? >> I don't think that would be wise.

[14:51] Obviously, it's going to be a board decision, but for me, as I played that

[14:54] out, that Gateway Hartford would have to come to the city and say, "Okay, this is

[14:59] what we got for a grant as the contaminator, the polluter in the

[15:02] property. Let's work to find the other 2 million."

[15:07] » Grants usually come with a specified time frame to

[15:12] complete and you continue to follow up as it's

[15:17] required in the grant. The intent is not for Gateway Artford to

[15:22] one-third it or half weigh it or 3/4 it. It's to completely get it remediated and

[15:27] give it back to the city >> or

[15:31] in other words the city [clears throat] >> if you are granted 3 million essentially

[15:36] you're like hey this project is going to work. We're going to grant it back to

[15:38] the city. It's possible,

[15:42] » but there's also nothing saying that >> once that land gets transferred, there's

[15:48] nothing saying that it can't be sold to another entity as well once it's in that

[15:52] nonprofit, even us as a development foundation. There's nothing saying that

[15:55] we can't sell our land as a nonprofit to any given organization for a dollar.

[16:02] » Um, >> in [clears throat] my reading,

[16:05] » I think this Yeah, go ahead, sir. In my reading, it can be sold for the purposes

[16:10] of economic development, but if they cannot complete the

[16:16] remediation, they can't just they they have to

[16:20] complete the remediation otherwise it comes back to the city, the land,

[16:26] » which is what bullet five says, >> so in your sit in your scenario,

[16:33] if that were to happen, the only way that that could happen would be the

[16:37] agreement of the party purchasing it for a dollar. In your case, there would have

[16:42] to be an agreement in place that they would fully agree

[16:44] » immediately. >> Correct.

[16:50] » Yeah. That in the reconveyance here it says there's an alternate to

[16:54] reconveyance. uh Gateway and the city may agree that

[16:59] Gateway may sell the property to a mutually agreeable third party which

[17:04] will then assume responsibility for remediation of the lagoon site for

[17:08] future re redevelopment. >> So

[17:14] what would the

[17:18] so yeah I mean obviously if you guys are granted the 2.8 billion,

[17:22] 3 million, whatever it is. It's great because now all of a sudden you have an

[17:25] asset that you could essentially possibly market to a developer to um you

[17:31] know it's interstate project should be minimum 30 $40,000 acre land. It should

[17:36] be good asset to the city but um not to the city to gay Hartford with the intent

[17:43] that if there's any money left when it's all said and done comes back to the city

[17:47] at that point. We're not going to get money off the land until everything's

[17:52] said and done and it's all sold. That's the way it's written.

[17:59] I mean, we're not going to be selling every parcel and taking a chunk. This

[18:04] thing has to be finished. They got to sell 71 acres and have it done

[18:08] » and then they're done. >> Then they dissolve. Then the money Well,

[18:11] if there's anything left, then it comes back.

[18:16] That's how we That's how we drew it up. That's why we wanted it wanted it drawn

[18:20] up. So yeah, it says in the event Gateway

[18:25] Hartford or its successor by assignment merger or reorganization is unable to

[18:30] carry out its duties under this agreement

[18:34] or attempts to sell, assign or lease to a private third party developer, city

[18:39] shall have the right but not the obligation to demand gateway reconvey

[18:42] the entire property back to the city. So we either drag it across the finish

[18:48] line or we give it back to the city.

[18:53] » I guess one other concern and it kind of is leading to

[18:58] um what Mark had to say with Mark said

[19:03] obviously I'm on the HABF board. We have a 40 acre development and 140 some acre

[19:09] parcel of land which Travis you and I have had that discussion about that 140

[19:13] acre parcel of land. it's not that desirable piece of land. Um,

[19:19] feel like there needs to be something done with that. But

[19:23] as an outside developer looking into the city of Hartford,

[19:27] knowing that there's 100, we have like 180 acres, 160 to 180

[19:35] acres of land to develop and now all of a sudden there's another nonprofit

[19:40] developing 70 more acres. How does an outside developer looking in

[19:46] see Hartford as a very inviting community as a developer?

[19:51] Our purpose is to remediate the ground whether that at that point we decide to

[19:55] develop it or sell it to a developer said that you either see it through the

[20:00] end or give it back to the city >> but the the board ultimately has

[20:05] ultimate say once it's remediated do we take the next step is there interest in

[20:08] that or do we give it back to the city so that's where way back it's TBD if we

[20:16] go back to Mark's comments >> I mean I guess I'm not a developer so I

[20:20] probably don't view things uh the same way, but this land is going to be ready

[20:24] for development for years. >> Few years, probably be

[20:29] » few years, but I mean >> 27 at their earliest.

[20:32] » Yeah. 27. >> Yeah. And there are adjacent parcel

[20:36] owners interested in collaborating on what the development in that area looks

[20:40] like. Um I think if the assumption is that it will absolutely only be in for

[20:48] sure industrial park I mean I don't know if that's an absolute

[20:52] » right >> or is it some other type of

[20:56] » right whatever it is whatever it is as a nonprofit is I mean even for us as a

[21:01] nonprofit we can we can manipulate the numbers to bring businesses into town

[21:07] way different than a private developer can for

[21:10] » I guess What I was trying to say is >> tough competition for outside

[21:14] development. >> It might not be a

[21:17] um a competitor to the type of development

[21:22] that HADF is currently has. >> I'm not saying I'm saying it's any

[21:28] outside developer potentially. Well, I guess

[21:32] » that was, you know, the city's creating competition for somebody like our group

[21:37] that is developing and has land. >> Well, I don't think a business park is

[21:44] in your development. >> No, this industrial focus then

[21:48] » this isn't industrial focus, >> right?

[21:51] » There's also a master plan >> component that goes with this. We're

[21:55] going to have this thing master planned out which is going to start shortly.

[21:58] » Yep. if we can get through uh the paperwork. And the other thing that

[22:05] Gateway Hartford is bound to is that master plan.

[22:11] We've we've tried to put some guard rails in there so this deal gets to the

[22:15] end in a fashion that benefits the city. We I mean we're looking to create, as we

[22:23] called it, Gateway Hartford. We want to create a nice window into the into the

[22:27] city. It's not an industrial park. It's a uh what's the

[22:32] » track houses? >> What's the place that uh we talk about

[22:36] on >> the Golden Triangle?

[22:37] » Golden Triangle 229 and 229 where they built City Bank and in there those types

[22:43] of that's oh Tom's call in

[22:50] » our mess lake to the party. But I I think you know you mentioned it's right

[22:55] it has that interstate you know visibility. I think there's other types

[22:59] of businesses that aren't that might be more interested in that. Not for

[23:04] convenience because certainly it'd be convenient for indust you know for an

[23:08] industrial park type situation as far as traffic in and out but it's also pretty

[23:13] attractive in terms of other commercial development.

[23:15] » I mean I'm sure it would be attractive to a lot of private developers.

[23:18] » These are really gateway hardford questions. Do you have any questions

[23:21] regarding the transfer of land? >> Well, the trans I mean here and it is a

[23:28] Gateway Hartford question as well, but you're transferring it. You guys both

[23:33] have an interest in Gateway Harford and obviously you have some information

[23:36] about it. >> What is our interest?

[23:38] » Aren't you board members? >> Yeah, but what do you mean by interest?

[23:42] What are you saying? We >> have the interest of the city.

[23:43] » What are you saying beyond that? >> I'm saying you're on the board. So,

[23:47] you've obviously had conversation and And

[23:51] » what are you inferring? >> I'm saying you have information about

[23:56] what you have intentions for this land for.

[23:58] » The only intention we have is to get it transferred, get a master development

[24:02] plan going, get it remediated, get it >> different businesses about, you know,

[24:07] the >> same goes. I mean, honestly, there's

[24:10] ideas there. >> Well, sure there's ideas. I I think if

[24:14] you go back to the point that if you look at the master plan that the city

[24:17] has what is that that's why it's in part of what we put forward to Gateway

[24:23] Hartford is has to comport with what that master plan looks like and that

[24:26] property along the interstate doesn't look like in the master plan an

[24:31] industrial park >> the existing

[24:35] » that's my me >> I I have not talked with Gateway

[24:39] Hartford but when you say it has to comport with the master plan. When I

[24:44] recall looking at the master plan, that's what was along that track.

[24:51] » All right, question. [clears throat]

[24:55] All right. Anybody else?

[25:02] If not,

[25:06] we'll move forward. Any action from the council or discussion that we need to

[25:10] have? And I just see this as step one and then

[25:16] and then moving on and then we'll have to monitor as we go along. Absolutely.

[25:20] But this step one is critical for that uh grant. And then that's why I'll be

[25:24] voting yes for this because uh it's all about that grant. And then after that

[25:30] » then I'll might be switching votes. Yes. No. We'll have to see, you know,

[25:34] » just because I don't know. There's too many unknowns.

[25:36] » Yeah. There's reszoning. There's a lot of steps. I would say my vote is based

[25:42] on um there's a lot of worry about if this isn't a perfect plan, what if we

[25:47] don't get the grant, what what is going to happen if things

[25:52] it's a it's a risk to benefit for me if this can go well. Gateway Harford can

[25:59] get a sizable grant. It doesn't kill the city to take care of this remediation

[26:04] from a financial standpoint. And then at the end of it,

[26:08] if we could sell it outright to a developer that somehow matches the

[26:12] vision uh in the city plan um and we get cash back to pay for we talked last

[26:19] week, we need a new water tower in 5 to 10 years. We want a community event

[26:23] center. We want a swimming pool. We don't have money for that. No one else

[26:26] is going to write us a check to take care of those things. So, this is our

[26:30] opportunity to make our best step forward to get money back out of this

[26:35] property and take care of some of the needs without having more expenses.

[26:40] So, that's why I'm very interested um in this.

[26:45] » All right.

[26:49] Uh according to our attorney, we could go into uh executive for legal counsel

[26:55] if we felt the need. >> I'm I'm about 8 minutes away. I thought

[26:59] the meeting was just seven and I apologize.

[27:02] » Okay. >> I think we'll be done before you get

[27:04] here. [laughter] >> Shut the meter off.

[27:14] Uh is there any questions or concerns with anybody that we would need to

[27:18] discuss further? If not, is there any action from the council?

[27:31] I'll make a motion to approve land transfer to Gateway Hartford, Inc.

[27:37] » Second. >> Any more discussion?

[27:41] » And can we add to authorize Ardan to sign an agreement to that?

[27:46] » Sure. >> And to add that Mayor Ardan Jones can

[27:50] sign the agreement. >> You want to amend your second?

[27:55] Second that amended motion. Okay. >> All right. Any more dis any other

[28:00] discussion

[28:03] » hearing? None. We'll vote. Shilling. >> Yes.

[28:06] » Harach, >> yes.

[28:07] » Peele, >> yes.

[28:08] » Matson, >> yes.

[28:09] » Carlson, >> yes.

[28:12] » All right. Uh, do we have to vote then on resolution 2026-3?

[28:16] » Approved the agreement. So now the resolution was actually transparent.

[28:21] » Yep. This is uh Erin Shidu, the attorney for

[28:25] Julie Hartford. Yes. I have a bad connection. I just wanted to confirm.

[28:29] Was there a second on the motion that was brought?

[28:31] » Yes. >> Okay. Thank you.

[28:34] » Yep. Thank you, Eric. All right. The next up is uh resolution

[28:39] 2026-3,

[28:43] which hold on. Let me get there.

[28:55] was a resolution approving the transfer of the real estate to Gateway Hartford.

[29:01] » Make a motion uh to approve resolution 2026-3, transfer of real estate to

[29:07] Gateway Hartford, Inc. >> Second.

[29:10] » Any more discussion on this one?

[29:15] » Hearing none, we'll vote. Carlson, >> yes. Yes.

[29:18] » Matson. >> Yes.

[29:19] » Kio. >> Yes. Parach.

[29:20] » Yes. >> Shelley.

[29:21] » Yes. >> All right. Anything to go into executive

[29:26] session for

[29:31] hearing? None. Motion to adjurnn. >> Some move.

[29:35] » Second. Somebody. >> I'll second.

[29:39] » All in favor? I thank

1/13/2026 Special City Council Meeting

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