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A dream delayed: Supporters of southwest downtown restoration still waiting for developers to commit, solve troubles so longtime plans can move...
(Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 8--Southwest downtown's redevelopment is back to a familiar place: square one.
Nearly seven years after the Colorado Springs City Council declared the area an urban renewal site, the city has completed America The Beautiful Park -- a recreational jewel that's home to summer concerts and rambunctious children.
But don't look for other significant upgrades in the rest of the light industrial area, which covers about 100 acres southwest of Colorado and Cascade avenues, and a small portion north of Colorado Avenue.
- A convention center to anchor the area's redevelopment? It flopped three years ago.
- A hotel, parking garage, office building and housing? Still on the drawing board.
- An arts district? On hold until developers learn the hotel's fate.
- A move of the U.S. Olympic Committee's headquarters to the area from the central part of town? The USOC rejected southwest downtown in favor of relocating in the heart of downtown.
"Seven years is disappointing," said Beth Kosley, executive director of the Downtown Partnership advocacy group.
The USOC's decision against moving its headquarters to southwest downtown provided some direction on the area's future; now, at least, redevelopment proponents know what won't be a part of the project.
Yet, backers are waiting for other development dominoes to fall. One developer is standing by until another commits; a second developer wants the city to resolve parking, financial and environmental issues; and a third developer and the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority want to know whether city government will help jump-start the project.
"Until they do that," Chuck Miller, an authority consultant who admits southwest downtown is starting over, said of the city, "we have blanks in our spreadsheet and we simply can't make any decisions."
Even as southwest downtown's revival has stumbled, some proponents remain upbeat about redevelopment opportunities centered around amateur sports groups and perhaps youth activities.
In late March, the USOC announced that it will move its 30-year-old Colorado Springs headquarters to downtown's core from the center of town after accepting a $53 million incentives package from the city and a private developer. Part of that deal calls for the remodeling of the former Colorado Springs Utilities' gas-operations building in southwest downtown -- one of two utilities buildings on site -- into a home for Olympic national governing bodies.
That idea had been a part of previous redevelopment scenarios, but the deal between the city, USOC and developers makes it a sure thing. The building's conversion is scheduled to be completed in December.
"Having the gas-operations building being converted to an NGB building, we think, will serve as a catalyst for that area," predicted Mike Anderson, Colorado Springs' assistant city manager.
City officials and downtown boosters hope more amateur sports groups in the Springs and around the nation will consider moving to southwest downtown.
Some local officials and businesspeople have floated the idea of building a youth-sports stadium in downtown, Kosley said.
Additional youth activities -- perhaps the revival of a Springs children's museum or sports fields that would provide venues for regional, state or even Olympic activities -- could bring more people to southwest downtown and spur additional redevelopment, Kosley said. She added that there's been no market research, and the idea of additional youth activities is preliminary.
Southwest downtown, however, has never lacked for ideas. Now, it needs concepts to become redevelopment reality.
Last fall, Springs developer Chuck Murphy and partner Stephen Mullens, a local attorney, outlined a plan to transform 4 acres northwest of Colorado Avenue and Sierra Madre Street into an arts district -- a home for artists, studios, galleries, restaurants and educational facilities, among other features.
Murphy, however, said he and Mullens are waiting to see whether a hotel and parking garage will be built on the south side of Colorado Avenue, which they say would help boost the success of their project.
"Without that garage and the hotel," Murphy said last month, "it probably won't happen."
Missouri hotel developer John Q. Hammons, meanwhile, is waiting for other redevelopment projects before he proceeds with his proposed 220- to 240-room Embassy Suites, said Scott Tarwater, a Hammons vice president.
Hammons remains interested, Tarwater said, but needs to know whether the city will build a 600-car parking garage to serve the hotel and southwest downtown.
Hammons also wants to know the cost of the land where the hotel would be built, Tarwater said. The site was the home of Colorado Springs Utilities' former gas-department administration building; it's owned by the city and, under a previous plan endorsed by City Council, is supposed to be sold to Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority.
Another unanswered question: The gas administration-building site is contaminated with coaltar deposits from a coalgasification plant that operated there decades ago. Undisturbed, the deposits don't pose a problem. The hotel's construction, however, would require the materials' removal.
The preliminary removal cost is $1 million, said Dave Padgett, Springs Utilities' environmental service department manager. A consultant says most of the material could be deposited in a landfill, he added.
The state Department of Public Health and Environment still must approve a cleanup plan, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency probably will want to sign off on the site, Padgett said.
Anderson, the assistant city manager, said he's confident the cleanup and regulatory approvals will happen this year. But the City Council still must decide who will pay to remove the coal tar, as well as who will build the parking garage.
There also are questions about the city's role in helping to develop the former Springs Utilities land.
Springs real estate giants Classic Cos. and Nor'wood Development Group have proposed an office, retail and housing project in southwest downtown known as Palmer Village, and have spent millions buying land in the area for their proposal.
A convention center that would have anchored Palmer Village was shelved after city voters in 2005 approved a ballot measure to restrict the Springs' ability to fund and plan the facility.
Since then, the two companies have said they planned to build a 100,000-square-foot office building and housing in southwest downtown. But that was before the companies' attempt to woo the USOC's headquarters to the area was rejected.
The companies remain interested in southwest downtown, but are frustrated by what Classic Cos. Chairman Jeff Smith calls a lack of urgency on city government's part.
Early this year, Smith said, Classic and Nor'wood were told by Anderson that city government could spur development by selling former Springs Utilities land at a discount to the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority. The authority, in turn, would work with Hammons, Classic and Nor'wood to develop the property.
Hammons is poised to spend $1 million on architectural plans for his hotel as soon as the city commits to providing land and cleaning up the gasadministration-building site, Smith said.
But talks with the city took place months ago, and nothing has happened, he said.
"There is a sense of urgency that needs to be had, and to be quite honest, I don't see it too much," Smith said.
The Urban Renewal Authority's Miller said the agency hopes to get an answer from the city as soon as possible. Development of Hammons' hotel would help generate tax revenues that could be used to help fund a parking garage and make other other public improvements in the area.
"We are waiting for the city to tell us how they can participate in the project," Miller said. "Once we know that, we can put a project together, put a financing plan together and see if it works. That's what we're waiting for."
Anderson said no decisions have been made. But if the Urban Renewal Authority is looking for financial help, he said, the city's purchase and remodeling of the former gas-operations building will save millions of dollars the authority and developers were going to spend on the site under a previous redevelopment plan.
Some businesses in the area are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
A few years ago, Paul Myers, branch manager of Capco Tile & Stone, a wholesale distributor of tile and granite slabs used for countertops, worried that his business would be forced to move as redevelopment heated up.
Denver-based Capco started business 32 years ago at 30 W. Costilla St. in southwest downtown. The company leases the 40,000-square-foot building -- a tile showroom on one side and a warehouse that holds mostly 1,500-pound granite slabs on the other -- from an out-of-town owner.
Myers is curious about southwest downtown's fate, but no longer is overly concerned.
"Until something really happens," Myers said, "what's the point of worrying about it?"
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0228 or rich.laden@gazette.com
To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.gazette.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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