Loveland council to mull 30-year tax-abatement request for water-park complex

LOVELAND  – A proposal for a water-park resort to be built off Byrd Drive in east Loveland will get a close look at the City Council’s regular meeting tonight, as will the developer’s request for some major incentives.

As part of his proposal for the Rocky Mountain Grand Resort and Conference Center, developer Martin Lind, who heads Windsor-based Water Valley Co., will ask the city to help pay for the $244.6 million project by contributing 100% of the sales, property and lodging tax the resort generates in its first 30 years, as well as waiving construction fees and paying for improvements to the roadways that surround the property.

Lind has been in negotiations with the city since March on incentives for the resort, which would be near the planned 3.87-million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center. Lind has said the offsite road improvements Lind wants the city to finance would benefit the Amazon facility as well as the Hines construction, the Axis 25 mixed-use industrial buildings and a proposed expansion of the terminal at Northern Colorado Regional Airport.

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Lind has said Denver-based PCL Construction Inc., which has built projects for Disney, Universal Studios and SeaWorld, will be the project’s general contractor.

Lind had proposed a similar project with state funding as part of a regional tourism project, but that initiative fell through last year.

The latest plan calls for a 69,000-square-foot conference center, a 390-room hotel to be operated by American Resort Management, and a 85,000-square-foot water park with 11 slides as well as cabanas, party rooms, a food court and gift shop. The developer’s plan also includes a 40,000-square-foot outdoor courtyard recreation area with a reflecting pond, a 10,000-square-foot family entertainment center, several restaurants including a rooftop eatery, a sports bar, spa, fitness center and arcade.

The developer estimates the complex would create more than 500 jobs.

Also tonight, the council will review a plan by nonprofit developer Artspace Projects to close a budget gap in the conversion of Loveland’s 102-year-old Feed and Grain building into a mixed-used development centered on the arts. Artspace will request that the council, acting as the city’s Urban Renewal Authority, appropriate $230,000 to keep the project on track.

The renovated building, part of an $11.9 million campus, would provide 5,000 square feet of commercial space and nine affordable-housing units, to go along with the 30 units of live-work space in the Loveland Lofts, which opened in 2015.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in council chambers, 500 E. Third St.

This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2022 BizWest Media LLC.