Colorado Eagles, hotel/water park could move to Greeley

GREELEY — Developer Martin Lind’s plans for a hotel and water park, as well as a new home for the Colorado Eagles minor-league hockey team, could shift from Loveland to Greeley.

The Greeley City Council has called a special meeting for Tuesday to consider a memorandum of understanding between the city and Lind’s Windsor-based Water Valley Co. to evaluate the feasibility and public benefit of developing land in west Greeley for the hotel, water park and larger arena as part of a mixed-use, transit-oriented entertainment district.

According to the council meeting packet the city posted late Friday, the project would include a new 8,600-seat arena for the Eagles that would also house an ice center with at least three sheets of ice that could be used by the Northern Colorado youth hockey program.

As part of the agreement with the city, Water Valley would “provide the city with information regarding the Colorado Eagles’ financial performance at Blue Arena and projected performance at the new arena as the new ice arena’s anchor tenant.”

The development — with the working title of the “West Side Project” — could also include retailers as well as mixed-income and affordable housing, all served by a transit center and multimodal hub with connections to local, intercity and national bus service.

According to the city document, “the West Side Project is intended to be a catalyst for development on the west side of the city that will provide significant social and economic benefits to the city and its residents, including job creation, public transportation options and increased tax revenue.”

Lind originally wanted to build a four-star hotel and water-park complex near Northern Colorado Regional Airport, but in 2022 offered to build an even larger project if Larimer County would approve including it in its redevelopment plans for the county-owned Ranch events complex. The master plan for The Ranch called for the county-owned Budweiser Events Center — now known as Blue Arena — to be “repurposed” and a new arena to be built that would seat 8,000 people for hockey or 9,000 for concerts, both including suites, and have a youth hockey training center with multiple ice sheets.

Larimer County in February selected Lind’s The Ranch Development Partners as the developer of the new arena and youth-sports training center, but what has happened since then remains unclear, and BizWest has submitted an open-records request to that county to uncover the details.

But meanwhile, Lind’s focus has shifted eastward.

He has been buying parcels of land on the west end of Greeley and now has approximately 800 acres, some of them noncontiguous, either purchased or under contract there.

The proposed site for the complex, according to the MOU, is west of the Promontory mixed-use development along U.S. Highway 34.

In a statement to BizWest late Friday that described his negotiations with the city of Greeley, Lind said that, “in 40 years of development and entitlement business, my company has never been treated with more respect and honest collaboration with mutual intent to bring something magnificent and almost magical to their city.

“We will continue with sincerity to see if something comes to fruition,” Lind said. “We’re beyond impressed with City Manager Raymond Lee’s team, and we’re honored to be at this table right now.”

On Tuesday, the Greeley City Council will consider a resolution authorizing Lee to execute the memorandum of understanding with Water Valley Co. that defines each party’s responsibilities and commitments toward the potential development. The council could either adopt the resolution as presented, approve an amended version, deny it or continue consideration of it to a future date.

The council on Tuesday is to evaluate utility and infrastructure feasibility and costs to serve the new arena, ice center and overall West Side Project, as well as available public financing tools that could be used for the development including tax rebate agreements, tax increment financing, direct contributions, bond issuances, and public improvement fees and

related credits. The creation of quasi-municipal entities, including general improvement districts, metropolitan districts and regional transportation authorities as well as nonprofit corporations that could be used to finance portions of the project may also be considered.

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