Downtown Fort Collins focuses on lofty goals

FORT COLLINS – After years of planning, downtown Fort Collins’ skyline is finally reaching toward some lofty heights.

In alphabetical order, new additions to the central business district landscape include the loft projects of Belle Claire, Cherry Street Lofts, Cherry Street Station, Cortina Lofts, Mason Street North, Old Town Lofts, Pine Street Lofts and Urban Living Lofts at Magnolia.

With a touch of luck and lots of hard work, a full-service hotel may soon add to this list.

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The hotel and conference facility project was launched in mid-June when the city, in partnership with the Downtown Development Authority, sent out a formal request for proposals. By the June 30 deadline, five responses had landed on Greg Byrne’s desk.

The community planning and environment services director said, despite the RFP title, the city was seeking a developer’s qualifications, not proposals.

“We’re really looking for a good developer with experience in the hotel field who will work with us so we can develop a relationship,” Byrne said.

DDA Executive Director Chip Steiner would like to see a 100-room facility built on the current parking lot at Remington and Oak streets. But the city and DDA are open to negotiating on location, number of rooms and size of the convention facility.

“The Remington site is just a starting point,” Steiner said. “We’ve talked to some other people who are interested in different sites. The vital component is that it stays in downtown.”

‘Beet Street’

Byrne said the hotel proposal is being driven by the DDA’s Beet Street initiative. The culmination of years of brainstorming, Beet Street would create a Chautauqua-style atmosphere encompassing the entire downtown area.

Within 10 years, Steiner believes Beet Street could include 24 different culturally related programs, attract up to 10,000 visitors a year and collect $36 million in event admission fees. The goal is to see more than $90 million in attendee expenditures.

An oft-mentioned 5,000-seat amphitheater would further extend the downtown footprint. The proposed site, on the Oxbow property adjacent to New Belgium Brewing Co. on Linden Street, would help downtown make the big leap across Jefferson Street.

These projects represent just the latest in a series of projects that have changed the landscape of downtown since Steiner arrived at the DDA in 1982.

Old Town Square Properties President Ed Stoner also dates his involvement in downtown Fort Collins by the decades, counting back to 1978. That’s the year Stoner bought the building that now houses Lucky Joe’s in what is now Old Town Square.

Over the years, Stoner has championed downtown from both the political and property management viewpoints. He’s seen downtown grow from “slightly backwards” to the envy of many cities.

Stoner said he constantly struggles to maintain a proper mix of properties in Old Town. Yet, with every vacancy he receives more inquiries for restaurants than any other venue.

“You have to understand that 60 percent of people come downtown for our restaurants, so we don’t want to discourage that type of entertainment,´ said Stoner. “But we also need to see a good mix of housing, retail, offices and government.”

Main-floor space

One new trend being added to the mix is main-floor office spaces. Stoner believes such offices will become popular because of the additional exposure and convenience they afford businesses.

The city and county government buildings also have placed a strong visual stamp on the landscape, while adding greatly to downtown’s tax revenue.

“We were worried when the county offices were threatening to build south, halfway between Loveland and Fort Collins,´ said Stoner. “Between the two, that’s a couple thousand jobs. That was going to be a big strike against us because we value their financial stimulus.”

Stoner’s priority list for downtown begins with the hotel and convention center and includes several projects already in the works.

An alley renovation program already is under way. Old Town’s Trimble Court is now a welcoming pedestrian walkway, with upgrades to lighting, landscaping and paving. Tenney Court, behind the Clothes Pony and Children’s Mercantile on North College Avenue, is presently undergoing similar upgrades.

Also on Stoner’s list is the DDA’s façade grant program. Still in development, the $500,000 campaign will pay 50 percent of façade renovations, up to $50,000 per building.

He also joins the popular call to have truck traffic redirected from Jefferson Street.

Steiner’s own wish list echoes Stoner’s, with a couple additions.

 He’s concerned about the CBD’s aging infrastructure and is adamant about the need for an amphitheater.

“To make Beet Street work, we need a community gathering place, like a village center,” Steiner said. “It’ll remove us from the economic rat race and give us another economic engine not driven by the standard sales-tax dollar system. It’s like a rotary engine versus a piston engine. It’s a different way to get from Point A to Point B.”