Greeley Council approves MOU on arena and hotel

GREELEY — It didn’t take long for the Greeley City Council to give its blessing for city staff to work with Windsor developer Martin Lind to explore the feasibility of building an ice and concert arena in west Greeley.

The group convened in a special nine-minute meeting Tuesday to consider the Memorandum of Understanding that would require both sides to look at the possibilities of a potential public-private partnership to build an arena to house Lind’s minor-league hockey team, the Colorado Eagles, and Northern Colorado Youth Hockey, as well as a water park hotel, a transportation hub, retail and residential. Lind has already purchased or is under contract to purchase about 800 acres to make it happen.

“Both the city and Water Valley have a lot of work left to do, but it shows a solid good-faith effort to continue to vet this project and make sure this is agreeable,” Mayor John Gates said during the meeting. “My enthusiasm for our future is amped up substantially. … In west Greeley we have a blank canvas and we might possibly end up with a beautiful portrait.  … This project is the most exciting thing to come to me in the 15 years I’ve been mayor.”

Greeley’s economic development director John Hall said it could take from eight to 10 weeks to come up with a feasibility study to vet the project.

According to the MOU, the city will evaluate the public benefit of building an 8,600-seat arena and ice center with at least three sheets of ice, parking, public spaces and other amenities, as well as public financing tools for the “West Side Project.”

Ten miles to the east, the Greeley Ice Haus was built in 2005 after Greeley voters approved the city’s Quality of Life Tax in 2002. The Ice Haus cost $7.6 million and is owned and operated by the city of Greeley. It was billed as a catalyst for rehabbing Greeley’s downtown. Now almost 20 years later, Greeley’s downtown is an entirely different beast, complete with several new restaurants, bars and retail shops, as well as vibrant art that adorns downtown buildings with murals and other public art projects.

Council member Deb DeBoutez said she wanted to assure all residents that the east side of Greeley and downtown will not be forgotten. Council member Melissa McDonald echoed that sentiment.

“I want to reiterate that every … development I’ve seen that‘s happening on one side of the city, the other side of the city benefits as well,” McDonald said. “Our downtown is going to thrive, it’s going to be this economic place… (This project) will change the trajectory of Greeley and I’m really excited.”

Gates said in an interview he didn’t believe a new arena would be that much competition for the Greeley’s Ice Haus with all the current activity there, with the Colorado Grit and youth hockey leagues.

Greeley leaders will have to evaluate funding options, which could include a tax, metropolitan districts or tax-increment financing, in which taxes generated by a project can be used to repay debt from that project. 

While Greeley’s west side has steadily been growing with multiple residential projects, including several multi-family buildings from 71st Avenue west on both the business and bypass of U.S. 34, Gates has made no bones about his concerns.

“I’ve been talking for years now about how we fill out our western boundary, and how I didn’t want it to be apartments. I’m excited, but I think it’s important to take it a step at a time, and the council agrees. I don’t think either side wants to rush into anything.”

As it stands now, Greeley has more than 15,000 single-family homes in the queue, Gates said. That will change the entire feel of Greeley as it stretches west past Colorado Highway 257.

Adding a major entertainment arena and entertainment hub would be a nice addition, he said, though traffic impacts would be a likely consequence.

“Even before this came out, I hear people all the time say my seven-minute drive now takes 12 to 14 minutes, and the most negative bi-product of growth is traffic, and this could be growth on steroids.”

Another key part of evaluating the project would be analyzing the city’s water supply and its ability to service the West Side Project at buildout. The city in the last few years purchased its Terry Ranch aquifer filled with 1.2 million acre-feet of water near Carr, Colorado that has been billed as enough water to keep Greeley’s taps flowing for another 50 years. Greeley’s high mountain storage reservoirs also are the envy of Colorado.

Lind and his team, according to the MOU, will provide the financials to the city by revealing financial performance of the Colorado Eagles while at Blue Arena, and develop a concept plan for the project.

“This creates an exclusive negotiation period of a year, it’s non-binding, allows discussion and exploration without binding either party, and a third thing is it really gives us the opportunity to dig deep into analysis and determine what a path forward might look like,” Hall said.