Downtown farmers market on county, DDA wish list

Proposals for redevelopment of the now-vacant Sears-Trostel building, a downtown landmark at Linden and Jefferson streets in Fort Collins, place backers of a farmers market and art center head-to-head with an out-of-town loft-apartment developer.

The man in the middle is Bill Sears, the building’s owner and descendant of Sears-Trostel Lumber and Hardwoods Inc. founders.

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And while Sears would like nothing better than for farmers and artists to set up shop in the rustic old building, he fears the wheels of public finance won’t turn fast enough for that to happen.

“This is a great old building, and that would be a wonderful use for it,” Sears said. “But something has to happen by May, and I’m not sure that’s possible. When you’re dealing with the public’s money, you have to have your ducks lined up.”

Interest in downtown real estate — especially for residential loft projects — is so strong that Sears has a prospect he would not identify lined up to raze the brick-and-timber building. In its place the developer would erect a multi-story loft project with a first floor committed to commercial space.

When the lumber business moved to new quarters on Riverside Avenue in east Fort Collins, the owners agreed to honor their lease on the building through May.

But when the rent checks stop, Sears said he’ll have no choice but to accept one of the offers that other parties, including the loft developer, have tendered.

“I’ve got several that have their checkbooks out, and they’re already in phase No. 1,” he said.

The market proposal suits the Fort Collins Downtown Development Authority’s scheme for a cultural center in the district between Jefferson Street and the Poudre River corridor, said Sears, who also serves as a DDA board member.

While the DDA allocates money to jump-start projects that meet its objectives for downtown development, it can’t provide operating expenses.

“We have seed money for something like this,´ said Chip Steiner, the DDA’s executive director. “I don’t think we have the ability to build it and run it, but we have the resources to get it going. It’s one of the pieces we want for the cultural district, so in that sense, we’ll do what we can to make it happen.”

A key participant in a meeting two weeks ago to discuss the project’s possibilities was Jim Reidhead, director of Larimer County’s Rural Land Use Center, an agency that works with landowners to preserve agricultural character of open lands rather than bend to development pressure.

A downtown market, he said, fulfills part of the center’s mission by providing an outlet for small-farm producers.

“I’m concerned about enhancing the profitability of small farms,” Reidhead said. “The challenge is providing markets. Productivity is not an issue, since we have enormous productive capacity. We have one of the largest organic producers in the country right here in Larimer County, with Grant Family Farm.”

Reidhead and Geniphyr Ponce-Pore, a county planning-staff member, have assembled a virtual library of information on public farmers’ markets in other locations, and how the secrets of those successes could play out in Fort Collins.

Reidhead said rural and urban interests have traditionally worked “hand-in-glove” in Fort Collins, and that he sees promise in a project that meets both the county’s and the DDA’s objectives.

“This is just the beginning of an idea, and it falls in line with what the county has been doing to enhance profitability on farms,” Reidhead said. “We want to preserve agricultural viability, and we can have that effect without the negative concept of stopping growth.”

But timing will tell whether the 34,000-square-foot Sears-Trostel building will be part of the plan.

“It’s a great idea, and its time has come,” Sears said. “But it has to happen sooner than I think it might.”