Merry New Year! Good evening and welcome to the first Ames City Council meeting of 2012.  As always, Trent Rice is in the chambers.

7:05PM  The top agenda item, and it's being presented right now, is a number of agreements and plans to begin the renovation and expansion of North Grand Mall.  Greg Kveton, with mall owner GK Development, confirms that there is one signed lease in place, with another lease very close to being signed.  He says the second lease will be a so-called "ground lease" which means the retailer will rent the land from GK, but build and own the building on top of the land.  Under the developer's agreement, GK Development has to show signs of signed leases in place by Sept. 1, 2012.  Kveton says he hopes to have leases signed by the end of the month.

7:35PM  Second Ward City Council member Jami Larson is pushing Kveton to move that "signed lease" date earlier than Sept. 1.  He says the citizens of Ames are anxious to see some work on the mall.  Kveton won't back off the date, saying his company wants some leeway in ongoing negotiations with the retailers.  He assures the council it will happen "well before" Sept, 1, and could come as soon as April.

8:10PM  Council approved developers agreement, adaptive re-use plan for North Grand Mall expansion and redevelopment.