Developer moves from technology to mixed-use project on same site

GUNBARREL — The iPark project planned for Gunbarrel is no more.

The developer, Michael Tagliola, had hoped to open a 10-acre, $17 million technology park as early as this spring, but the crash in the technology market and recent developments in Gunbarrel have led him down a different path.

While he is still holding onto the iPark concept, the original site will now likely develop as ?Gunbarrel Flats,? an innovative mixed-use project consisting of both residential and industrial components.

?It was a good idea, but I honestly think that this project is better aligned with what Gunbarrel needs,? Tagliola said. ?iPark can be built a lot of places and can be built on much cheaper land than this parcel that is near a walkable downtown.?

With iPark on hold, Tagliola started watching the city of Boulder’s plans and changing his concept of what to do with the four lots known currently as Greens Industrial Park located at the end of Spine Road just off of Lookout Road.

?I just started following what was happening with the city in the Planning Department,? Tagliola said. ?I decided that the best way to handle this land and develop it was to align myself with all of the various interests that are involved.?

A number of influences in a changing Gunbarrel have changed Tagliola’s concept as well. The looming development of the Gunbarrel Town Center, proposed by Terry O’Connor, led Tagliola to thinking about complementary uses in his nearby land. That project has also led Boulder’s Planning Department to begin developing an area plan for Gunbarrel in 2003.

?The development really happens by the city,? Tagliola observed. ?We don’t consider ourselves to have thrown this vision out there for the city to approve. It’s more a matter of the city providing planning direction and a regulatory framework for the city of Gunbarrel. The value of everything ? people’s enjoyment, their personal utility, their residential property ? is going to be increased when there is a coordinated and thoughtful planning direction for Gunbarrel.?

Another factor affecting Gunbarrel Flats has been the city’s developing strategy of integrating residential spaces into many new projects, including traditionally industrial areas. That idea led Tagliola to apply for a land use amendment to the Boulder Valley Comprehensive plan, which comes up for public hearing in front of Boulder’s Planning Board on Jan. 23. The zoning change, which would allow the mixed-use development to proceed, also will need to be cleared by the Boulder city council, the Boulder County commissioners and the Boulder County Planning Board.

Mike Walsh of the Gunbarrel Community Association, which represents a number of neighborhood associations, is supportive of the project.

?That zoning change, if approved — and in my opinion as an individual, it should be approved — will give Mike (Tagliola) the flexibility to design a project that is going to be successful for him as a developer and for the community as an attractive adjunct to the other things along the Lookout Road corridor,? Walsh said. ?It can be a win-win for all parties.?

The mixed-use nature of the project is in line with Boulder’s new development guidelines in the wake of its recent jobs-to-housing survey.

?I think there is a great deal of interest in the city in the idea of introducing residential uses into some of the industrial areas of town and to look at the possibility of converting some of our industrial land to residential uses,? said Peter Pollack, director of Community Planning for the city of Boulder. ?Those are two of the strategies that we’re looking at in the whole jobs-to-housing project. The kinds of concepts that Mike is talking about would be consistent with the strategies that we’ve put out there for discussion.?

The space is currently occupied by Front Range Community College’s Gunbarrel campus. However, their lease is up in less than two years, and it’s too soon to determine whether the college wants to retain that location. The school is considering moving the campus to a proposed 22-acre Longmont campus and is awaiting approval from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.

?Our posture is that their lease is up in less than two years, but we’re not going to orphan them if they need space,? Tagliola said. ?The city of Boulder is going to let us take care of them until they have a safe harbor.?

Assuming that the zoning change is approved, Tagliola’s tentative concept for Gunbarrel Flats is a project consisting of 50 percent residential spaces and 50 percent other spaces such as educational, technical office and low-noise shop space.

On the residential side, Tagliola envisions different spaces than traditional housing projects.

?I think we’re looking at 110,000 square feet of residential, but I don’t know how many units that converts to,? Tagliola said. ?I would like to try to explore opportunities to get people in a place that they own for under $200,000. The only way I can do that is by offering product that is around 800 to 1,000 square feet.? Such smaller studio spaces also would afford the possibility of lowering the cost through less interior work initially.

?We’re thinking of putting money into the exterior and giving people options into how they want to finish their space out. You can do this with smartly designed industrial type buildings. You just can’t do it with a white picket fence type of product. It just doesn’t work,? Tagliola said.

The developers also are considering leveraging some of the technology options that were prevalent in the iPark design into Gunbarrel Flats, including high bandwidth connections and wireless technology. Those items could be attractive to tenants in the 1,000- to 2,000-square-foot offices planned for the industrial and studio spaces.

?I’m targeting people that really are interested, except for one or two larger users, in spaces that are around 1,500 square feet. There is nothing out there for businesspeople that have been in Gunbarrel for 15 or 20 years to purchase and own their own place,? Tagliola said.

While the Gunbarrel Town Center is a larger project with more significant infrastructure, Tagliola believes that Gunbarrel Flats will begin construction sooner. He is already talking to local architects and builders to develop local solutions for the project.

?We don’t know exactly what our quantities are going to be, but the idea is that we are creating spaces that are available, whether it’s for a business, for someone to live in, or for a school that wants to be part of this community,? Tagliola said. ?We’re looking for solutions that allow us to do that.?

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