The Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency took up a request from the Farmers Market Cooperative to defer 2025 rent for Steamboat Landing until Dec. 1, 2025, and to authorize a letter agreement amending the lease to implement the deferral.

Carl moved the resolution, which the transcript records as: the IURA would “approve the Farmers Market Cooperative's deferral on rent 2025 rent due on Steamboat Landing until 12/01/2025 when all deferred rent will be due and payable” and would authorize the director of community development to implement the resolution through a letter agreement. Donna seconded the motion.

Monica Ross, identified in the meeting as “Monica Ross, president of the Friends of the Farmers' Markets,” addressed the agency about the cooperative’s finances. She said the Friends of the Farmers' Markets managed the subrecipient grant for parking-lot improvements and had been advancing construction bills while waiting on state reimbursement. “We’ve paid all our bills…we've had to get a big loan to pay those bills because the state reimburses it, you know, as we invoice them. So and that's a 6 month delay to get state money,” she told the agency. Monica said the Friends had received the second installment of reimbursement — $560,000 — the day before the meeting, which would enable payment of final construction bills, but that operating expenses for the market are separate from the construction grant and remain a concern.

Meeting audio reflected technical difficulties for remote participants during Monica’s remarks; the transcript shows staff and committee members clarifying that the operating budget for the market is managed separately from the Friends’ construction grant and vendor reimbursements.

At the point the provided transcript ends, discussion was ongoing and no final vote on the rent-deferral resolution appears in the record. The resolution text and the motion were on the record and staff had been authorized in the motion language to implement any approved deferral by letter agreement should the agency vote to approve it.

The agency may take a recorded vote or further action later in the meeting; the transcript supplied here ends before the vote is recorded.