Giant mixed-use development planned for Louisville’s Phillips 66 land

LOUISVILLE — New life could soon be breathed into the long-dormant Phillips 66 property in Louisville along U.S. Highway 36 near Northwest Parkway.

The roughly 430-acre parcel, formerly home to Storage Technology Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. facilities, could become home to a massive new mixed-use development featuring a corporate headquarters campus, a senior living community, hotels and several million square feet of commercial and office space, according to plans filed in late June with the city of Louisville.

The future of the Phillips 66 property has been shrouded in uncertainty for years.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) bought the land in 2008 for $55.6 million, planning to build a world-class research and training campus focusing on sustainable energy that was expected to create 7,000 jobs. Soon after, Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was spun off into an independent company, which inherited the Louisville project but never moved forward, although the site had been cleared.

In June 2017, Phillips 66 entered into an agreement to “sell land in Louisville to a land development company,” according to documents filed that August with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing stated that Phillips 66 was banking on a price of $50 million and expected to close the sale in the first quarter of 2018. That purchase never occurred.

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Bancroft Capital reportedly had the property under contract in 2018, but the deal fell through, and the property was back on the market later that year.

The Phillips 66 land was one of the sites submitted by Colorado for the Amazon HQ2 project. Amazon eventually chose Virginia as the site of the new headquarters.

Brue Baukol Capital Partners, a Denver-based real estate investment and development firm, submitted documents to Louisville city planners in late June that show new plans for the property, which is expected to be developed over about a dozen years. Those plans identify Phillips 66 as the owner of the property, and Boulder County public records do not indicate that the land has changed hands.

Representatives Brue Baukol Capital Partners could not immediately be reached for comment. A Phillips 66 spokesperson said in an email that the company can provide “no updates at this time” other than saying, “Phillips 66 continues to actively market the Louisville property.”

Conceptual plans call for the development, known as P66, to include a 500,000-square-foot corporate campus.

“A large organization has identified the property as a best-in-class opportunity for new office space development and headquarters,” according to the plans. The campus could be home to approximately 2,500 employees.

P66 plans also feature up to 3.4 million square feet in additional office, retail and hotel spaces.

A 1,500-unit senior living and transition care facility is also contemplated in development plans.

Public improvements and new infrastructure construction are expected to cost more than $156 million. The developer is proposing creation of a new metropolitan district called the P66 Metropolitan District to fund public projects.

The P66 project is tentatively scheduled to be reviewed by the Louisville Planning Commission in September.

Sam Bailey vice president of economic development at the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation said the Phillips 66 site provides “a really wonderful opportunity” for new or existing companies to tap into the combined talent and human resources networks of both Denver and Boulder.

While he couldn’t comment on any specific plans to develop the site, it’s location “makes it highly competitive” for firms in need of space for a corporate headquarters.

This story has been updated to include comments from Phillips 66 and the Metro Denver EDC.

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