Stephens family breaks ground on Two Rivers Marketplace in west Greeley

GREELEY — Thirty years ago, 200 acres of land in west Greeley helped feed consumers with beef and corn, as the Stephens family diligently tended the land as it had done for decades. 

Now teeming with residents, and thousands more to come, a 29-acre pocket of that land at 83rd Avenue and 10th Street (U.S. 34 Business) will be soon in service of those residents. Banks, coffee shops, restaurants, potentially grocers, entertainment venues and a serene walking and bike path area are expected to fill in this land the Stephens family tended for so long.

The Stephens brothers, John, Tom, and Doug, officially broke ground on the land Thursday, taking shovel to ground on the Two Rivers Marketplace, a project now three years in the making. 

“Our family has been in Greeley over 125 years and we farmed this ground for over 50 years. We’re now excited to see this property benefit the city in a new way through much-needed commercial development,” John Stephens said, addressing attendees at the groundbreaking. His 94-year-old-mother, Sue Stephens, opted to stay out of the hot sun for the ground breaking, but she is very much involved in the project, Stephens said.

For context, Two Rivers Marketplace will be one of three in that general intersection. Boomerang to the east is under construction now with a credit union, a coffee shop and a convenience store lining the southside of 10th Street. Another developer has recently put plans into the city for businesses and retail to line the north side of 10th Street from 77th Avenue to 83rd Avenue as West Greeley Commons. Journey Homes is building residential and commercial directly north of the marketplace and tractors are moving dirt now. Boomerang, Sheep Draw Trails subdivision and multifamily will likely provide the customer base in and around the Two Rivers project.

The vision for the marketplace is to have businesses lining the outward edges, two of which already are under contract, with a 12.5-accre center core that the Stephens family says is ideal for a brew pub and other restaurants with outdoor patios, facing a greenbelt with a walking and bike path.

“When fully completed there will be 19 pad sites, featuring a credit union, a drive through coffee, an auto parts store, and many regional and national retailers and restaurants,” John Stephens said. He added that the central core also would be ideal for a grocer, a boutique hotel, medical or office space. 

Greeley Mayor John Gates welcomed the commercial nature of the development, noting that he has for a while now expressed concerns about the multiple multi-family buildings going up in west Greeley.

“If we don’t diversify our growth somehow and we have nothing but multifamily to the west boundary, we’ll become what we don’t want to be, a bedroom community, and complain about people driving to Windsor and Fort Collins to eat and recreate,” Gates said. “When I heard of its commercial nature, I talked to John (Stephens) a little about his vision and I’m very excited about it. I will look forward to watching it be built. And when it is built, I’ll be one of those folks in the center area shading and enjoying myself out there.”

The site will be accessible with five access points, Stephens said.  “It will be very accessible from multiple directions and hopefully will diffuse some of the traffic we see here today,” he said. 

John Hall, Greeley’s economic development director, added: “As city officials we can develop a lot of plans but we’re not the ones who put in the hard work day-to-day and take the risk. We appreciate you taking the risk on this project and helping us visualize a vision for Greeley as a whole. This is part of filling in some of the gaps in our teeth as we move west, and provide services to our residents … and generate revenue to support city services.”

Project partners include LandOne Engineering, Ethos Land & Water, Coyote Ridge Construction, Russell + Mills Studios, Blue Star Capital Advisors, and local RE/MAX representatives Bill Struble and Bradford Pech.