Colorado Springs pulled the goalie on Thursday, bringing a large delegation, including mayor John Suthers and Denver Broncos CEO Joe Ellis, in a last-minute push to lock in $28 million in incentives from the Colorado Economic Development Commission.
The tax-increment financing, already awarded under the Regional Tourism Act, are key to funding a new ice arena on the campus of Colorado College and a soccer stadium for the Colorado Springs Switchbacks.
But plans for those two venues in downtown Colorado Springs came together late in a five-year window that closes in December. Backers pressed hard to show the two venues are viable projects that can bring in the 118,500 net out-of-state visitors promised and that they have achieved “substantial” progress.
“The sports and event center play heavily in our branding as Olympic City USA,” said Suthers, adding that the 23 sports governing bodies and 29 other non-Olympic groups based in the city will have access to the facilities.
In December 2013, the commission approved $120.5 million in Regional Tourism Act incentives over 30 years to Colorado Springs for a group of four tourism projects known as the City for Champions. The signature piece, the U.S. Olympic Museum, is under construction. After some delays, a sports medicine facility and a new visitor’s center at the Air Force Academy are making progress.
But the fourth piece, an indoor and an outdoor sports facility, has had several false starts, and seemed dead. But Colorado College agreed to fund a 3,000-seat arena on campus for its Tigers hockey team, while also making it and other sports facilities available to the City for Champions.
“We have all the cash on hand,” said Jill Tiefenthaler, president of Colorado College, of the $45 million arena. But the college needs the $9.2 million in RTA incentives to pay back bondholders.
The Switchbacks, a soccer team, and Weidner Apartment Homes, are working together to build a new $20 million,10,000-seat stadium near the museum. They plan to use around $18 million in RTA funds to back a $12 million bond offering. Weidner also plans to build housing and retail near the stadium on blighted parcels.
In the rush to get the two deals together, however, backers haven’t fully ironed out infrastructure issues, chief among them parking. Residents of the Old North End Historic District used the meeting to voice their discontent to the commission.
“I don’t have a problem with the project. I have a problem with the parking,” said Mark Huismann, one of several residents concerned that a lack of parking spaces will push cars and traffic onto nearby streets.
Joel Miller, a former city council member and opponent of the project, warned the commission not to keep watering down its requirements, which in the past triggered a state audit. Initially, the state wanted a 1,500-space parking garage, but revised that to “adequate” parking. The value of the two facilities, initially estimated at $92.7 million, is now down to $65 million.
But Dirk Draper, CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber, said the two projects, along with the new museum, have jump-started redevelopment of the city’s downtown district and are critical for serving the sporting groups in the city.
“It is a scaled equivalent of what Coors Field did for downtown Denver,” he said.
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A decision on whether to approve the changes Colorado Springs has requested and to certify it is making substantial progress will be decided within the next two months, said Jeff Kraft, who oversees the RTA program at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Earlier in the meeting, the commission approved job growth incentive tax credits of $13.3 million for five projects that have pledged 862 jobs.
Project Flapjack, the largest in terms of jobs, is looking at Logan County as a possible site for a $500 million cage-free hen facility that would employ 397 people at an average annual wage of $44,956.
California has a ballot initiative this November that would require eggs sold in the state come from uncaged hens by 2022. The company making the request is trying to get ahead of that by building a new facility in either Colorado or Nebraska.
