Weld District 6 trades 45 acres for 88, at $0

GREELEY — Weld County School District 6 and Banner Health have swapped properties to permit the district to build a new pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school near the Boomerang Golf Course off 71st Avenue in Greeley.

While the property swap was recorded as a zero-dollar transaction in Weld County property records, it appears that District 6 got more acreage and spent less money than Banner, the Phoenix-based health-care system with more than 20 facilities in Northern Colorado.

Reasons for the property swap are not clear. But property records show that District 6 bought about 45 acres of land Dec. 17, 2019, from State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. in the Promontory development for $2.4 million. The property, located just east of the State Farm buildings along Promontory Circle, is not within the school district boundaries, which would have made it difficult to use for a school facility.

SPONSORED CONTENT

People Powered: Preparing Longmont Businesses for Economic Success

Longmont Chamber and FNBO present People Powered on April 24, 2024, aiming to inform business owners about workforce development, housing, and transportation issues.

Banner, which owns several parcels of property in and around Greeley, bought 88 acres on Aug. 25, 2011, from Boomerang Development Co. for $4.5 million. This is the property that it traded to the school district for a transaction recorded at $0 using the legal entities North Colorado Medical Center and BH Greeley LLC

Phil Dague, executive director of facility operations for Banner, confirmed the size of the parcel at Promontory but said he had no information on why the transaction happened the way it did and why Banner appeared to trade more for less.

Theresa Myers, chief of communications for District 6, said the trade may have been attractive to Banner because the Boomerang property that it owned may be difficult to develop because it sits so close to the golf course. “We [District 6] may have to ask to relocate some golf holes to develop the way we want,” she said of the school district’s plans to build an elementary and middle school on that site. 

The Promontory site that Banner now owns was originally purchased by District 6 even though the district knew it couldn’t build a school there. “We were offered that property at a great price, and our broker said it would be a good asset to have and that’s exactly how it worked out,” Myers said.

The school district has begun design work on a school for the Boomerang site and expects to open by fall of 2022. The school will be built using money from a $395 million bond that voters approved in November 2019.

Editor’s note: This report was updated to include comments from District 6 that were not available at publication.

© 2020 BizWest Media LLC