New land buy gives Lind nearly all he needs for arena, hotel project

GREELEY — With the closing last Friday on the purchase of 300 acres of land, developer Martin Lind says he has just about all he needs to build a massive proposed arena, hotel, water park and mixed-use development in west Greeley.

“We have enough now if we need to move the project to make it fit,” Lind told BizWest on Wednesday, “but we have a couple other pieces that would make it better if we can get them.”

The arena would be the new home of Lind’s Colorado Eagles minor-league hockey team and would include three ice sheets for area youth hockey programs.

“This is probably one of the most important pieces,” Lind said about the “Chismar-Lundvall” parcel of farmland he bought at the northeast corner of U.S. Highway 34 and Weld County Road 17 through his Windsor-based Patriot Energy LLC and Vima Partners LLC companies for what he estimated was “around $20,000 an acre.”

BizWest could not confirm the exact sale price because an official in the Weld County Clerk and Recorder’s Office said Wednesday that the transaction had yet to be recorded. However, $20,000 an acre would calculate to about $6 million.

The land, Lind said, is “exactly adjacent” to the 220 acres he bought through Patriot on Aug. 1 from landowner Tom Schmerge for $3.9 million. That parcel, about a mile north of U.S. 34 and east of WCR 17, 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.

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.

The Greeley City Council last summer unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with Lind’s Windsor-based 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.”

Now Lind awaits review and approval by Greeley’s city government of the massive project, but even if it’s rejected, he said he feels his latest land purchase was worth it.

““This is just going to be where Northern Colorado is going to grow someday,” he said. “If Greeley decides it’s a good fit for an arena, hotel and water park, it’s good for us. Nevertheless, it’s a good Northern Colorado property.”

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 master plan for The Ranch called for that 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 then withdrew the selection last spring.

Lind’s focus then shifted eastward, and talks opened with Greeley about the feasibility and public benefit of building the project there.

The Greeley development 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.

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