Downtown Loveland woos projects

LOVELAND – Loveland, that Valentine capital of Colorado, has been wooing change for its downtown and, in the process, come up with some sweetheart options.

“Downtown Loveland is poised for its next great phase because of all of the small miracles that are taking place,´ said City of Loveland Senior Planner Andy Smith. He quickly points to a number of spots on a map and lists a variety of new, renovated, or planned activity.

The changes taking place downtown are helping to invigorate, revitalize and improve the area, according to Troy Peterson, member of the Downtown Loveland Association board of directors.

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“The downtown of any community is its heart and soul,” he said. “If you want to get insight into a community’s ideals, its vision, then you need to go downtown. It’s the largest indicator of its pride, whether it’s a small town in Nebraska or a big city like New York.”

Lincoln Place

Cruising through downtown Loveland, activity is plainly visible. Probably the largest, and most obvious, change is the newly constructed Lincoln Place on Lincoln Avenue (U.S. Highway 287) between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Spanning a full two-acre city block and rising up to four stories, the $25 million mixed-use project will provide 22,000 square feet of retail space, a 9,500-square-foot plaza and breezeway, a multi-level garage with 292 parking places and 200 luxury apartments.

The apartments, from studio size to three-bedroom, range from 700 to 1,600 square feet with the majority at 1,000 square feet. They lease for $1 per square foot, according to Chris Rebich, Executive Vice President of the Boulder-based O’Connor Group, developer of the project. Residents also have access to an on-site pool, courtyard and large TV room.

While the project is not expected to be completed until late March or early April – a delay from the February build-out date announced by O’Connor in November, and a significant delay from the late summer 2006 opening announced at the 2004 groundbreaking – Rebich said the leasing company, California-based Legacy Partners, already has 23 residential pre-leases.

Retail space has also drawn its first tenant: Dazbog Coffee, which signed on in November. In announcing its tenancy, O’Connor also mentioned that four other commercial leases, including a restaurant, were in various stages of negotiation. In the original agreement passed by the Loveland City Council, the parking garage was to be a public facility operated in partnership with the city. But now, after talking to parking professionals and looking at the traffic generated by the new structure, the developer wants to restrict access to Lincoln Place residents and patrons of the retail establishments.

“The vast majority of the parking would have been taken up by our residents and by the people using the retail shops,” Rebich said. “So, we felt that, if this to be a quality structure and to really serve our residents and retailers, we needed to reserve it for them. We also felt the city would find a better use for city funds.”

Loveland city government agreed to waive the city’s 3 percent tax on building materials on the parking structure as well as the commercial portion of the project, worth approximately $60,000.

City Manager Don Williams explained, “We created a URA (urban renewal district) and that allowed them to use tax-increment financing. With what they are proposing now, access to public dollars would go away and they would pay for the cost themselves.”

That proposal goes to city council within the next 30 to 60 days.

Lincoln Hotel

Just down the road, on Lincoln Avenue and Fourth Street, the historic Lincoln Hotel is undergoing renovation, thanks to a $199,000 grant provided by Colorado’s State Historical Fund, Smith said. “That’s for the historic preservation of the building,” he explained. “CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) money has also been granted to the owner, Charlie Salwei, for rehab of the interior.”

The hotel, originally built in 1905, provides both residential and retail space. “Both the retail space and the residential areas are full and they don’t really turn over. One guy has been there 28 years,” Smith said.

Loveland Feed and Grain

Plans to demolish the 115-year-old Feed and Grain building created Novo Restoration, a group of citizens dedicated to saving the structure. In July 2006, Novo received a challenge grant from the State Historical Fund in the amount of $200,000 to acquire the building.

“But it’s a matching grant and they’re now raising money to meet that match,” Smith said.

The demolition has been put on hold and, once the money is raised, the nonprofit organization will purchase the building and then partner with other organizations for rehab. Potential uses include an arts center, a fresh market or community center with some provision for restaurant or specialty retail.

‘Golden Triangle’

As these and other downtown projects begin to stretch Loveland’s image as a sweetheart city, its reach is also being stretched with a new vision for a connector to a renovated Fairgrounds Park (see related story, page 22).

“We have three key assets right here,” DLA’s Peterson said. “We have Loveland’s historic downtown and then, just to the south, we have the Big Thompson River and the Fairgrounds. We have the potential of a ‘Golden Triangle’ that connects the river to the Fairgrounds to the downtown.”

In addition to his duties with DLA, Peterson also sits on the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado’s Loveland Advisory Board, a group interested in developing that connection between the Fairgrounds and downtown.

Community vision

Ray Caraway, president of the foundation, explains the foundation’s role as that of “a neutral convener. We can bring people together to create the vision. The local Advisory Board will provide leadership for the process but the vision has to incorporate a broWith all the commotion in Loveland, another organization has risen to create support for community-wide events and enhancing tourism in the city. Engaging Loveland was formed last June to relieve the DLA from doing double duty as a business development and downtown development organization. (see related story, page 22).

“We have an opportunity to polish this gem and be a very positive compliment to all of the things that are happening out at I-25,” Peterson said. “Everything that has been happening on (U.S.) Highway 34 and I-25 has catapulted Loveland to a very favorable situation. That positive momentum can be funneled to the downtown so that we have two positive financial engines.”