Aims Community College campus breaking ground

While growth along Interstate 25 has been booming to the north and south, the intersection at U.S. Highway 56 at Berthoud has been untouched.

But starting as early as next year, earth will be moving at the northeast corner of this intersection as Aims Community College breaks ground on a new campus.

In July, Aims closed on 30 acres at the relatively quiet intersection for about $5.2 million. The land was purchased from a private investment group working through McWhinney, which is developing Wilson Ranch at the same intersection. The college purchased an additional 10 acres in December, according to President Marsi Liddell.

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“Right now, we’re in the best position because we have a blank page,” she said.

Liddell said that a building design and construction timeline has not been established yet. The college wants to survey community needs before even designing the campus. Aims is working with Burns Marketing Communications of Johnstown to develop types of questions to ask the public in focus groups and interviews. Liddell said they will focus on gathering input from individuals in a 25- to 30-mile radius of the site.

Aims has also contracted with an architect to review potential impacts of the campus on the surrounding environment. Once the public input is gathered and environmental impacts considered, Liddell said Aims will move forward with the design. Until then, a timeline is too hard to pin down.

“Once we get the preliminary work done, we might have a better sense (of the project),” she explained. “Our biggest thing is to make sure we’re serving the community needs.”

As a result, the kinds of courses to be offered at the new campus are also still up in the air. Liddell said there will likely be a mix of general and continuing education courses, but that they could also focus on specialty education that will serve the region.

Picking the land was the easier part. Liddell said that the site will give them easy access from I-25 and also reiterate that Aims is a Weld County institution, not just a Greeley institution. When college officials began the land search for a new campus, they were looking at five to six other sites. When they found out the Wilson Ranch area was available, it seemed like a perfect match.

Troy McWhinney, principal of acquisitions for McWhinney, hopes Aims will be a good fit for the development, too.

“Wilson Ranch has really been in the works for about five years,” he said.

McWhinney became interested because it was a nice property on the cusp of a rapidly growth area. Early in the planning process, an educational user was discussed as one of many that could anchor the northeast corner.

“I hope to see some positive spinoff from Aims,” McWhinney said.

McWhinney’s Wilson Ranch development will encompass 1,600 acres on the southeast corner of the I-25/Colo. 56 intersection – across the street from the Aims campus. The property was annexed and zoned by Berthoud in 2006. Plans call for a mostly residential development, with commercial opportunities fronting I-25.

However, the slow residential market has put the brakes on any groundbreaking in the near future. McWhinney said they will wait until the market is ready to absorb the homes.

“Right now, it’s not looking like anytime in the near future,” McWhinney said.