North Fort Collins: ‘The last growth frontier’

FORT COLLINS — For Ann Hutchison, president and CEO of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, the city’s north side is “the part of town nobody talks about, but I’m excited to talk about it.”

She described some of the ideas for development there as “transformational, with some exciting business opportunities.”

Landon Hoover, CEO of Hartford Homes, which is adding nearly 3,000 housing units to the north side, described the area as “kind of the last growth frontier, and for good reason. There are a lot of structural issues from infrastructure to water policy that have delayed a lot of the development in that area.

“It’s definitely a challenging area to figure out and overcome,” Hoover said, “but it’s our last opportunity to really shape the city.”

Some of that development is likely to get a couple of kickstarts this month. Hutchison said the city has final negotiations planned for the first week of December to purchase the site of a long-shuttered Albertson’s grocery store on North College Avenue from a Denver-based real estate investment trust, while Hoover expects to receive financing from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority to help fund the affordable-housing portion of his massive Bloom development along East Mulberry Street near Interstate 25.

“We definitely believe in that part of the city,” Hoover said. “We see a tremendous opportunity to improve what is the primary gateway to our city. It’s long been in the county and hasn’t represented all that our city has to offer. We have a tremendous opportunity to reinvigorate and catalyze growth there.”

Hoover envisions Hartford’s 226-acre Bloom development as a mixed-use neighborhood with a variety of shops, businesses and different types of homes — about 1,600 of them — with an emphasis on affordability.

“The first filing is completed,” Hoover said. “We have single-family homes, cottage homes and condos all vertical at this point and under construction. We have two multifamily sites, one designated affordable and the other market rate, and both of those are 80% to 95% through the planning process. We should have market-rate apartments next year.”

Hoover said his company is “getting close to what I would say is our main use” for Bloom’s commercial area, which will have frontage on the north side of Mulberry. “We continue to explore a few uses,” he said, adding that the eventual selection “will hopefully generate other commercial uses.”

According to a city website, the plan for Bloom “proposes a town center with a pedestrian-friendly main street, 20 to 30 acres of businesses, parks (including a large central one), and trails connecting the neighborhood and linking to the broader Fort Collins trail system.”

Bloom is “the largest development in the northeast part of the city in the last decade,” Hoover said, adding that he thinks it has “a great opportunity to be the leading catalyst” for growth there.

Other development is headed for northeast Fort Collins as well.

Fort Collins-based HF2M Inc.’s proposed 999-acre Montava project, a “new urbanism” village-style concept, is eyed for a section of rural and agricultural land next to the Anheuser-Busch facility. It would include a variety of housing, amenities and public spaces.with a town center, new neighborhoods, parks, schools, businesses, and transportation connections, and opportunities for urban agriculture. The developer has been battling in court with the owner of an irrigation ditch that runs through the property.

Hutchison said she believes redevelopment of the Albertson’s property on the southeast corner of North College Avenue and Wilcox Lane could be a similar catalyst for the North College corridor. She said she envisions transforming the 4.5-acre site into a “community hub” with housing and new businesses.

Once the city purchases the site, she said, it could issue a request for proposals or sell development rights, so “small and new businesses can make a home there as they grow into being successful.

Also, recreation is fairly limited on the North College corridor, she said, “and if the city can be a part of that, I believe they want to.”

The city also is eyeing a pair of old buildings at 425 and 429 N. College Ave. that had been used for automotive sales and service. The property, which is just west of the Museum of Discovery and includes 300 feet of frontage along busy North College, could be the site of a new municipal building.

When the parcel went up for sale for $1.69 million earlier this year, the city’s Real Estate Services Division thought it was worth a look.

“We actually have no plan and no money, but it’s an interesting property because it’s so close to our downtown municipal campus, and great proximity to the museum there,” said Ginny Sawyer, a project manager in the Fort Collins City Manager’s office who is listed as the project applicant. “So when it came on the market, we were like, ‘Oh, well, this is interesting.’ So the only way to find out what the limitations on the property are, how big of anything could go there, is to take it through conceptual review, so that’s why we’re doing that.”

Sawyer’s application envisions a 30,000-square-foot, two- to three-story building that could house city office and meeting space as well as what she called an “object archive gallery.”

“We talked to the museum folks as well,” Sawyer explained, “and asked, ‘What’s your footprint 50 years out? What do you think you might need?’” She said the museum has a collection of objects such as furniture and other things people have donated to the city. “Right now they’re stored in a trolley barn, and this way the public would have more access to see them.”

Noted Hutchison about the city’s staff, “They see the activity happening up there and know that we need a presence.”

There is a Music City Hot Chicken franchise planned for a site next to a King Soopers grocery store and “lots of food trucks transforming into brick-and-mortar businesses,” Hutchinson said.

“There’s some fun activity up there” on the north side of Fort Collins, she said. “Give it a drive through!”

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