Travis County Commissioners Court
March 16, 2010,
Item 3
Now, back to item number 3, legal was discussing this with the proposing party and we were trying to decide whether this is a legitimate executive session item, whether it needs to be discussed in full and open court.
>> we've tried to explore all of the options and it's our opinion that you will need to have this discussion in open court.
and if you wish to retire with just the Commissioners and your staff to executive session to discuss it later, you may do that.
but the presentation from d 2000 will need to be in open court.
>> and are the d2000 representatives ready to proceed?
okay.
we thank our attorneys for considering this matter long and hard.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> yes, sir.
the specific item is consider and take appropriate action regarding proposal for downtown office building by d2000, a turnkey development company.
>> judge and Commissioners, thank you for allowing my the time since we'll do it in this open session and having respect for the need of the court and time, I'll be very brief.
in July we met and you gave me an approval and a resolution that I should meet with your representatives, representatives of Travis County, meet with a committee of the Commissioners and talk about this proposal.
the proposal, of course, is for a new building directly across from the courthouse of 200,000 square feet.
it's 130,000 feet of office space and 70,000 feet of parking.
it is -- it meets some of the county's stated goals to have leed silver buildings, a green energy two-star building.
it meets a professed need from the county to have a building that would be create a campus.
this would be of course across the street, so therefore it fits the campus concept.
the building would meet the architectural needs of the county.
it will blend with the county courthouse.
>> your name is still jerry read?
>> my name is still jerry reid.
>> okay.
do I need to swear on something?
>> no, just for the handful of Travis County residents who may not know you yet.
>> okay.
i'm certainly anxious to be well-known in the county, as you can imagine.
the building is maximizing the utilization of that site.
of the available land around the courthouse, this is the single site, vacant piece of land that is actually available for development.
so we would maximize the site within the view corridors of the city of Austin view corridors and the state of Texas view corridors.
the property would be on a insanely long 100 year ground lease with the parent-teachers association, so it's a pta lease.
it's a minimal ground lease, and what we were instructed to do would be to bring all the capability that our company has.
we are the only developer in Austin who has built three downtown office buildings in the last 10 years.
i think we are the team that can do this and save the county money.
we would build it with an open book process where the -- your staff or your representatives is to approve all of the bills and sees what it costs.
we can have it ready in about 30 to 36 months.
and I guess it is a lease-purchase option, so the court has no liability on this building unless we bring it in on the approved budget.
the court has no purchase of it unless we're within that budget.
you can purchase it at any time, and it would be built as a lease, but you could buy it immediately when it's finished.
i guess I'd like to take any questions.
>> questions?
>> tell us a little bit about the square footage we're working with, the parking situation.
>> yes, sir.
it's 130,000 square feet, which is six and a half floors of office.
70,000 feet of parking, that's 120 parking places available to the county.
it's a 20,000-foot floor plate.
the entrance to the parking garage would come in off of san antonio street.
the front of the building would face the courthouse, so the front of the building would be on west 11th street.
it's -- an interesting note.
the negotiated land lease amount is almost exactly what the parking is worth.
if you had 120 parking places and you were renting them in downtown, that rate is generally going between 100 and $150 per parking place.
some places 175.
i know we have a building at the corner of 12th and lavaca, just one block away.
we lease all our park fog $150 a parking place.
if you took the 120 parking places at $125 per parking place, that's $180,000 a year.
that number is almost exactly what the ground lease is.
so with the ground lease comes the parking is what we're really saying, and the building on top of it.
the -- answering that question, let me see what else you might have.
>> so the parking is underneath?
>> some of it is above ground, Commissioner, the top floor, and then it's underground.
the slope of that lot has got 17 feet of slope from the north to the south.
we're going to take advantage of the slope and come in at the lower part and excavate the back part so we're able to use some parking at grade level and still on the west side and the southwest corner, but still have a grade level entrance for the building across from the courthouse.
>> tell us how the lease-purchase option would work.
>> the lease would be for a 30-year lease.
you could buy it in the first year, second year, third year, any time during that 30 years.
if you don't buy it within that 30 years, we will gift the building to the county.
so if it's just a long-term lease, the lease rate is in the -- in the lease.
it's basically a lease designed around the cost of the building, the true cost of the building, with the best financing available, bond rate financing, and a debt coverage ratio on to formulate the rental, the lease.
again, if you want to buy it in the first year, second year, third year, fourth year, fifth year, all those options are available.
don't buy it, keep it for 30 years, or if you wanted to set the financing up on a 20-year, remember, I'm financing it and leasing it.
a 20-year, then I could gift it to the county after 20 years.
we can try and match up the kind of financing that the county has available to it through its bond rate financing.
>> okay.
any other questions?
we expect Commissioner Eckhardt back next week.
let's give you an answer then, okay?
>> that would be great.
>> any of -- anyone has additional questions, they can just contact you directly before then and we'll have also an opportunity to ask additional questions next Tuesday.
>> yes, sir.
if you like and you go back into executive session, I'll wait outside so that you could have any questions answered.
if that would be helpful.
>> in my view we may as well have Commissioner -- have a full complement of court members present when we do that.
let's plan to do it next week.
>> okay, sir.
>> next week, if I have my way, then we'll have executive session last on the agenda rather than first.
so we did miss some items last week that I thought were important for us to take first thing this morning, which we did.
thank you very much.
we appreciate your patience this morning.
is that okay?
we can -- additional discussion if we need to discuss it with staff, we can do that next week also?
in executive session.
and then with a full complement of members come out and take action.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 2:10 PM
