Economy & Economic Development  February 2, 2007

Fairgrounds Park blossoms under new outdoor venue plan

LOVELAND – When the Larimer County Fairgrounds migrated from north of downtown Loveland east to The Ranch in 2003, city staff looked at the vacant 76 acres and began to ask questions.

“When we had the community meetings on what we should do with the property one of the things we found was that there needed to be an outdoor events arena for citywide events or festivals,´ said Gary Havener, director of Loveland Parks & Recreation. After taking all of the comments into consideration, the city has moved into the design development phase.

Design elements in the conceptual master plan include two additional ballfields, winter ice rink, warm-weather spray park, terraced seating and a hardscaped area for a farmers’ market, floral gardens and a skate park with shade structure.

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Janet Meisel-Burns, senior park planner and project manager for the Fairgrounds Park, said that most of the park will be built with the current construction budget of $6.7 million.

“Since we haven’t completed final designs or our final cost estimates we don’t know exactly what will or won’t be included with the first phase until later this spring,” she added.

The funding for the project will come from several sources including park capital expansion fees, park Improvement funds and conservation trust funds.

Design and planning started on the project in June when the city hired BHA Design Inc. from Fort Collins, which has been working as the lead consultant for the project for the last six months.

“We have completed master planning and preliminary designs,” Meisel-Burns said, “and in September we hired Heath Construction (of Fort Collins) as the construction manager and general contractor for the project. They will complete the final cost estimates in late February.”

Construction is slated to begin in June with completion set for some time in 2008, according to Meisel-Burns.

Once the outdoor development is complete, Havener said there’s potential for more. “The obvious subsequent phase would be an indoor meeting facility. Everything we’ve tried to do with the design of the park is with the future in mind and there’s also the possibility of connecting to the downtown. This is just the first part of it.”

LOVELAND – When the Larimer County Fairgrounds migrated from north of downtown Loveland east to The Ranch in 2003, city staff looked at the vacant 76 acres and began to ask questions.

“When we had the community meetings on what we should do with the property one of the things we found was that there needed to be an outdoor events arena for citywide events or festivals,´ said Gary Havener, director of Loveland Parks & Recreation. After taking all of the comments into consideration, the city has moved into the design development phase.

Design elements in the conceptual master plan…

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