Report: Keeping Weld County justice center downtown will cost millions more

GREELEY — Weld County officials have learned that keeping and growing its operations in downtown Greeley would cost up to $463 million, roughly 35% more than relocating its judicial services to O Street in north Greeley, where other county offices are located.

The county’s consultant presented the estimates to the Board of Weld County Commissioners late Tuesday in a work session, after the board requested that they evaluate the cost of staying downtown. The consultant last fall evaluated the growth needs of the county, but recommended moving to land the county owned on O Street. But that scenario, which would relocate the judicial offices, and move 500 employees out of downtown Greeley, would cost about $300 million. 

Richmark Development came up with a plan to keep the county downtown, which would include the school district and the city in a combined campus. The county consultant estimated a downtown campus would cost the county from $428 million to $463 million, depending on two scenarios.

“This decision is not going to be an easy one,” Commissioner Scott James said in a news release. “There are many factors to consider and many groups to consult before any decision on a location will be made.”

Weld County since last fall has been contemplating its options for growth as it looks toward the future. The county must figure out where to put additional judges that the state is granting due to the growth in caseload in the next three to five years. This year alone, the county expects to add two new judges, but has room for only one in the existing justice center. The study commissioned last fall at first did not contemplate staying downtown, fueling anxiety that downtown could lose the presence of the county’s employee base of 500, plus juror traffic, which help keep downtown restaurants and shops busy on the weekdays. 

On Friday, Greeley mayor John Gates, on behalf of the city, offered $10 million toward the cost of constructing a downtown parking garage to keep the Weld County Courthouse and county offices downtown. That comes in addition to the Downtown Development Authority offering a $1 million contribution to a parking garage.

​​”We feel like the parking garage would be essential to the future of downtown,” Gates said in an interview. “Should the project come to fruition, we committed to contributing $10 million toward a parking garage, but I don’t know what effect that would have on the county’s decision to stay downtown.”

On Tuesday, commissioners heard the third option from its consultant on the potential of staying downtown in a shared campus setting that Richmark Development brought forth, which not only suggested a shared campus, but property and land swaps to make it happen. The report’s findings are a bit ominous, noting several disadvantages of staying downtown while only a few advantages, including civic identity, supporting local business, offering visitor and employee amenities. The noted disadvantages, however, included disrupting business as usual for the next 15 years, loss of community resources, complicated phasing, infrastructure issues, security concerns, lack of expansion opportunities, delays in county projects in the wake of making a downtown campus work, higher costs utilizing multiple buildings, and creating two to three parking structures, according to the report. 

While downtown and city leaders have long sought a downtown garage, the idea has always been considered too expensive. With the city’s $10 million commitment, plus the Downtown Development Authority’s $1 million commitment pledged last week, and another $1 million pledged from an apparent anonymous donor, there is some seed money to make at least one garage happen. 

“If that’s accurate, we’re sitting at $12 million and a step in the right direction,” Gates said. “To anyone not sure we’re committed to downtown, hopefully it shows we are.”

In the letter, Gates wrote: 

“We look forward to collaborating with the County, School District, and Richmark to both address individual facility needs, but also in creating an integrated campus of public and private facilities in downtown Greeley. Just as the county courthouse has served residents for over a century, we are committed to developing and implementing a plan that will continue to meet the community’s needs for the next 100 years.”

The commissioners will review their options in the next few weeks, the press release reported.  

“We invite the public to learn more about this project, to ask questions and to give us input,” Commissioner Lynette Peppler said in the release. “These initial informational sessions will be general, but they will start an important dialogue that we are very interested in having.”

The public meetings will be: 

• Monday, March 10, 6-8 p.m. at the Weld County Administration Building, 1150 O St., Greeley.

• Tuesday, March 18, 6-8 p.m. at the Southwest Service Center, 4209 WCR 24 ½, Longmont.

• Monday, March 24, 6-8 p.m. at the Weld County Administration Building, 1150 O St., Greeley.

Following the initial informational sessions and review of the plan, the board will develop a project timeline to share with the public, the release stated.

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