LTC 191-2005 Facade Renovation at Ocean Front Apartments
CITY OF MIAMI BEACH
Office of the City Manager
Letter to Commission No. 191-2005
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From:
Mayor David Dermer and Date: July 22, 2005
Members of the City Commission
Jorge M. Gonzalez J. ' ~.
City Manager I"' 0
FACADE RENO ATION AT OCEAN FRONT APARTMENTS
To:
Subje~t:
This memorandum is in response to your question about the fa<;ade renovation at Ocean
Front Apartments, 7400 Ocean Terrace, and the availability of Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) funds through North Beach Development Corporation (NBDC).
Over several years NBDC has been allocating funds to do fa<;ade renovations in the North
Beach area. The last CDBG allocation was in February 2003. Over time, NBDC has used
small amounts of the allocated funds for projects and not always on a timely basis. While
project funds were not being fully expended, the portion of funds from the fa<;ade
renovation for NBDC administration, were being used.
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) imposes a spending time line for each of our
project allocations. In the case of NBDC, with few committed projects and significant
amounts of unspent funds it was necessary to reprogram funds to other projects that would
use the funds. With the City CDBG allocations shrinking, meeting the HUD spending
timeline has been increasingly difficult.
Each of the reprogramming decisions has been communicated to NBDC in advance and
they have been cautioned to address project commitments.
The first reprogramming of funds occurred this year and $217,862 in NBDC funds were
reprogrammed by the City Commission to address an urgent need in the community health
centers. The $217,862 was comprised of the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2004/05 unspent
allocation for renovation in the amount of $115,000 and previous years unspent and
uncommitted funds in the amount of $102,862 from FY 1999/00, 2000/01 and 2001/02.
In the CDBG award process that is just being completed and will soon be forwarded to the
City Commission for final action, another $100,000 in previous years unspent and
uncommitted funds has been reprogrammed to be made available for other priority
community projects and organizations. Projects such as the Normandy Pool, Little Havana
Day Care and affordable housing were all beneficiaries of the reallocation.
The staff has reviewed with NBDC the total amount of available and uncommitted funds for
fa<;ade renovation. Approximately $38,000 is available in CDBG fa<;ade renovation funds.
The staff has also met with NBDC and the owner of the property at 7400 Ocean Terrace to
discuss the owner's interest in receiving the available fa<;ade renovation funds and his level
of comfort in working within the conditions imposed by federal funding agreements. The
owner was very receptive to the fa<;ade renovation program and the amount of funds that
were available from NBDC. The staff is working together with NBDC and the owner to
provide a one year extension so that the funds may be utilized in a fashion that is
appropriate with the project timing. Given the small amount of the funds available, the one
year extension does not trigger the HUD timeliness spending requirement.
The CDBG staff will work with NBDC and the owner of 7400 Ocean Terrace to process a
fa<;ade application for the remaining NBDC funding. Award of the fa<;ade grant will utilize
all of the available funds and the account can be closed at that point.
JMdam
F:\cmgr\$ALL \BOB\facaderenovltc.doc
c: Mayor and City Commission
Robert C. Middaugh, Assistant City Manager
Vivian Guzman, Director of Neighborhood Services
John Quade, Community Development Specialist
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