The city of Manhattan will be loaning the K-State Foundation $800,000 in economic development funds for a new building being constructed on Kimball Avenue. At Tuesday night’s city commission meeting, commissioners authorized the city to enter into an agreement with the K-State Foundation that would loan the entity money with one recently added stipulation — tenants of the proposed office space must maintain a minimum wage of $16.50 per hour. The loan consists of a $500,000 conventional loan and a $300,000 forgivable loan.
Commissioners heard the first reading of the agreement earlier in the month, and deputy city manager Jason Hilgers used their input from the March 7th meeting to produce the final agreement.
The 60,000-square-foot building is being built to the tune of $16 million. Hilgers said roughly 100 private sector jobs will be housed inside the building which the Foundation plans to lease to various partners. Hilgers said if the Foundation were to not hold its tenants accountable to the wage structure, it would be responsible for paying back the loan in full along with an additional $100,000 penalty. The city would give incentive to the Foundation to ensure its tenants are paying the agreed upon wages by forgiving $60,000 yearly starting in year eight of the twelve year loan period.
In other business, commissioners approved an ordinance to amend the planned unit development for the Stone Creek Business Development in west Manhattan. The commission also approved the first reading of an ordinance which would modify a planned unit development to allow a commercial daycare to move into the building which formerly housed Ramblers Steakhouse.
