Town Administrator              May 27, 2019

Successful ICSC/RECon. The Erie Team had numerous productive meetings with current and potential retail prospects at the International Conference of Shopping Centers Retail Conference in Las Vegas Sunday thru Wednesday. Ben and Amber did a fantastic job on the Town’s booth and Community Profile. In addition to the online Profile, we had hand out versions with detailed information on the market potential of eight specific sites in Erie.  Several prospects, including retailers large and small, major site developers, and businesses with unique/innovative concepts responded very favorably and we have scheduled follow-up meetings and site visits with them.
 
I-25 URA Update. Today staff will meet with the Weld County Board of County Commissioners in study session to discuss Erie’s proposed I-25 & Erie Parkway Urban Renewal Area (URA). The URA will use tax increment financing (TIF) to help finance the public infrastructure (streets, water, sewer and storm drainage) needed to address blight within the URA. In essence, TIF sets as a base the current level of tax revenue generated within the URA, and then uses the incremental increase in tax revenue above that base level as the revenue stream to pay off bonds used to finance the public infrastructure. Because some of the TIF comes from revenue that would otherwise go to the County, the URA needs the County’s approval (or a mediated decision on terms) to proceed. Erie has finalized URA agreements with 10 other entities that have taxing jurisdiction within the I-25 URA, and we hope to finalize an agreement with Weld County within the next two months.