Mall, stadium hit bumps; Woodward cruises

The year 2013 was one of hurry-up and wait for the $313 million Foothills mall redevelopment project, which was awarded a $53 million public financing package by the city of Fort Collins in May. But the expected groundbreaking date for the mall came and went, and the year will end without shovels in the ground at the Foothills site.

Issues relating to Sears, Arc Thrift store and other properties on the site held up the deal, even as city staffers and mall owner Alberta Development Partners worked through financial projections and bonding schedules.

In September, Alberta announced that the project would be delayed indefinitely. In November and December, redevelopment plans made their way through city processes for a second time, passing through planning and zoning. But more delays cropped up. On Dec. 17, the city pushed what was supposed to have been the final approval out again, to the middle of January.

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The project’s opening date, originally set for the holiday season of 2014, has been pushed back by a full year. If all goes as planned, building permits and $71 million in nonrated bonds to help pay for the mall should be issued in the first part of 2014.

CSU stadium

Meanwhile, much of the noise of the potential Colorado State University on-campus stadium quieted in 2013 after the university entered a “silent period” to raise money to meet the goal set forth by CSU president Tony Frank.

Frank said in October 2012 that half of the cost of the stadium would have to be raised in two years for the project to progress. In mid-2013, Frank informed the CSU Board of Governors that the estimated cost of the stadium had been revised down by $20 million – from $246 million to $226.5 million.

Controversy surfaced when it was discovered that the university had included language in a request for proposals requiring contractors to contribute to the project through donations, either cash or in-kind. This raised pay-to-play concerns in the Fort Collins community, and CSU removed the language.

Mortenson Construction of Denver ultimately was selected to be the project’s contractor – if it moves forward. CSU projected that by the end of 2013, it would have raised about one-third of its fundraising goal. The end of 2014 marks the deadline for raising half the cost of the stadium, or about $113 million.

Woodward’s big move

Considered perhaps the biggest economic development win for Fort Collins, the expansion and relocation of the world headquarters of Woodward Inc. began in 2013.

After a months-long search that included potential locations in several states, the brass at Woodward decided in spring 2013 to locate their new headquarters at the intersection of Lemay and Lincoln avenues in Fort Collins, just blocks from Old Town. The city of Fort Collins provided $23.5 million in incentives to sweeten the deal.

Ground broke on the project, which will eventually encompass more than 870,000 square feet, in the fall. Construction on the first phase of the Woodward Technology Center, which will total 355,000 square feet, should be complete in fall 2015.

Multi-family demand

Vacancy rates plummeted and rents skyrocketed in Northern Colorado in 2013, as population in the region continued to increase, led by CSU and University of Northern Colorado students, as well as oil and gas workers in Weld County.

Apartment vacancy rates in Greeley hit an 18-year low of 1.3 percent during the third quarter, according to the Colorado Division of Housing, and average rental rates in Fort Collins shot up to more than $1,200 per month in some parts of the city.

New multi-family products arrived on the market in 2013, alleviating some of the crunch, but most of those units were high-end products, which kept average rents high.

Home sales soar

Even as multi-family vacancy rates remained historically low in Northern Colorado, homes sold at a rate not seen since well before the recession.

From January to October, more than $1.56 billion in single-family homes changed hands, a 26 percent increase from the $1.23 billion sold during the same period in 2012.

Brokers had to deal with multiple-offer situations as more people sought out home buying to take advantage of interest rates that remained around 3 percent for half of the year. The average number of days on market dropped substantially as buyers moved quickly to get into homes.