Space for new Dark Horse, Sprouts included in Williams Village II plans

BOULDER — New homes for the World Famous Dark Horse Bar and Sprouts Market are included in the most-recent set of plans to redevelop a 10-acre parcel adjacent to Williams Village on one of Boulder’s most-traveled corners.

Additionally, a memorandum of understanding between the Tobin family, longtime owners of the nearly 50-year-old Dark Horse, and the Williams family, the property leading the redevelopment effort with its partner Morgan Creek Ventures, would allow the Dark Horse, a beloved watering hole for generations of University of Colorado students and alumni, to extend its lease and remain in place until construction on the site begins, likely several years down the line. 

The Williams Village II project, as the redevelopment of effort on the 2900 block of Baseline Road is known, is expected to include nearly 100,000 square feet of commercial space, of which, about 6,000 would be set aside for the construction of a new Dark Horse, according to a presentation that the developer expects to give before Boulder City Council on Thursday evening. BizWest was provided a copy of the presentation. 

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“It is our sincere hope that we can reach an agreement with Dark Horse and have them as tenants in the new development,” Petur Williams, whose family donated land to the University of Colorado on which the Williams Village dormitories were built, said in a statement emailed to BizWest. “We will do everything we can to model the look and feel of the original.”

That commercial square footage would also include “confirmed new space on-site for Sprouts grocery store,” the developer’s presentation said. 

The Williams family’s plan, according to Boulder planning documents and testimony provided in January to Boulder’s Planning Board, seeks to essentially scrape the site — also home to Cosmos’s Pizza, a liquor store, a bank and several other businesses — to build 726,000 square feet of space in six buildings, four and five stories tall. The proposed development would accommodate:

• 610 residential units, divided between market-rate and student apartments.
• 98,000 square feet of commercial space.
• A 76,000-square-foot hotel.
• Two parking structures and underground space for nearly 800 vehicles.

Since details of the project were reviewed by members of the Planning Board about a month and a half ago, the development team, according to its planned presentation to Boulder City Council, has inked the Dark Horse lease memo with the Tobins, increased the total commercial square footage, reduced building massing to improve sight lines and improved the “quality and quantity” of outdoor community and green spaces.

“We look forward to presenting our refreshed concept plan to City Council tomorrow, especially our vision for a vibrant neighborhood center that can share its resources with CU students and the neighbors around us, and provide new and better commercial space for Sprouts and the Dark Horse, among many other uses,” Williams said. 

The project is likely to face heavy scrutiny from Boulder neighbors and city officials on Thursday night. 

“Save the Dark Horse” became something of a rallying cry during the January Planning Board meeting, as several dozen speakers voiced their displeasure with aspects of the redevelopment plan during a public comment session. A similar scene could play out during the upcoming Boulder City Council meeting. 

Councilman Mark Wallach, in a this week message to the Boulder Council Hotline (a publicly viewable communications platform for city staffers and officials), said he is “not sure that I have ever read a staff memo raising more issues and expressing more concerns about a proposed development than I encountered in … the staff memo for our meeting this week. … To date, this is a project for which there are too many questions, and too few answers.”