Lind buys ‘more pieces of the puzzle’ for proposed Greeley project

GREELEY — Windsor developer Martin Lind has acquired approximately 220 more acres of land in west Greeley as he works to assemble properties for his massive proposed new arena, hotel and water-park development.

In what he told BizWest on Friday was “more pieces of the puzzle,” he paid landowner Tom Schmerge of Windsor $3.9 million through his Windsor-based Patriot Energy LLC company to buy the land about a mile north of U.S. Highway 34 and east of Weld County Road 17. That deal, which closed Aug. 1, is contiguous to land purchased by the city of Greeley, Lind said, and could be the site of the proposed development as part of a public-private partnership with the city.

“Our east border is their west border,” Lind said.

The Greeley City Council earlier this month unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with Lind’s Water Valley Co. to develop the mixed-use project that could include a new arena that would serve as a new home for Lind’s Colorado Eagles minor-league hockey team.

The draft memorandum of understanding describes land under consideration as “property to be located on the west side of Greeley — generally west of Promontory with close proximity to Highway 34 and within the previously established and defined growth management area.”

Lind had already purchased parcels totaling 221 acres in the area. His Vima Partners LLC paid $675,000 to Sara M. Kinnison for 75 acres on the west side of Colorado Highway 257 in February, and in May he paid Skyway Properties I LLC $2.5 million for 145 acres. That adjacent property is on the east side of Highway 257.

Lind, one of Northern Colorado’s most prominent developers, has said he is under contract for additional acreage that would take his holdings in west Greeley to about 800 acres.

Lind’s proposal calls for a new arena for the Eagles that would also house at least three sheets of ice that could be used by Northern Colorado Youth Hockey. Lind told BizWest that the proposed new arena would be able to seat 8,500 to 9,000 people for hockey and 10,000 to 12,000 for concerts, up from 5,200 and 6,800 respectively at Blue Arena, the 21-year-old facility at The Ranch Events Complex east of Loveland.

That facility, formerly known as the Budweiser Events Center, has been home since it opened to the Eagles, an American Hockey League franchise affiliated with the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche.

The Greeley 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.