Greeley holds out hope despite ending Catalyst pact

GREELEY — Some pieces of a proposed entertainment district at a city-owned tract on Greeley’s western edge could still take shape despite voters’ rejection last week of a sales tax to help pay for it, but a private developer would have to make it happen, Mayor Dale Hall said Friday.

“We have the land, and we have the plans,” Hall told BizWest, adding that whether an ice arena, a water park or a hotel would be part of the district dubbed Catalyst would be up to private interests.

One option, Hall said, is that “we could do some sort of an incentive package to have someone come in and do it on a private level.”

Hall and City Manager Brian McBroom agreed that there is no immediate plan for the city to sell the land, however.

“We don’t plan on listing it at this point,” Hall said, ‘but we will potentially go out and seek requests for proposals.”

The mayor said some infrastructure is already in place on the site.

“We’ve got water to the site,” he said. “We don’t have the sewer line set up yet; we’re still working on the final design for that part.”

Greeley voters Nov. 3 soundly rejected Ballot Issue 2F, which would have imposed an 0.6% sales-and-use tax hike for the next 40 years — 60 cents on a $100 non-food purchase — to cover millions in debt service for both the city-owned Catalyst entertainment district and downtown Greeley’s planned civic campus.

The results of that election, with 69% of voters opposed to the tax, were discussed in executive session during last Tuesday’s City Council work session, but Hall and city spokesperson Jacqueline Villegas emphasized Friday afternoon that no decision was made.

“There’s no executive decision on what to do with that project,” Villegas said.

McBroom said a resolution to be introduced at next Tuesday’s regular City Council meeting will call for the termination of the pre-development services agreement with developer Martin Lind’s Water Valley Co., which wanted to develop the Catalyst entertainment district with a luxury hotel, a Mattel-branded water park and an arena for the Colorado Eagles, the minor-league hockey team that Lind owns.

“We’re going with the resolution, but the official resolution isn’t passed until we have it in open meeting,” Hall said, “but it is seeking private investment.

“The resolution will say that the city is no longer pursuing Catalyst as it was originally presented. 

So we are pulling the plug, so to speak, but we are then seeking additional investments through the private market.

“We do have a solutions team that has been starting that concept,” Hall said. “There are people from within the staff, and even some people from other companies, that are looking at helping us with that piece of it.

“A resolution is being prepared for Tuesday night, but that’s as far as it went.”

City staffers were preparing the verbiage of the resolution, and the city attorney’s office was reviewing it Friday, but as of BizWest’s afternoon deadline it had yet to be finalized and added to the packet for next Tuesday’s council meeting.

Even though city leaders and Lind have agreed that a private developer would be unlikely to build the entire project on its own, some elements of it might still be viable.

“Since we do have the plans that we’ve paid for, that would be the potential,” Hall said.

In a Friday afternoon email to BizWest, Villegas wrote that the city’s pre-development services agreement with Water Valley ends on Dec. 31 under the terms of that contract, but “the necessary financing has not come together, so the City is not moving forward with a development agreement. As a result, the Catalyst project as originally envisioned is coming to a close.”

Still, she added, “the City remains committed to responsible growth on Greeley’s west side. We will keep residents informed as next steps are determined.”

Reached Friday, Lind said he was “studying options” and declined further comment.

Lind wanted Catalyst to be the anchor for his Cascadia mixed-use project, a massive master-planned development spanning roughly 800 to 834 acres north of U.S. Highway 34 and east of Weld County Road 17. Cascadia would include more than 11,000 residential units to create a dense live-work-play environment, along with neighborhood shops, dining spaces and business districts.

Lind told BizWest last week that the entertainment district was a key component to the success of Cascadia because “that area needs a widget to entice people to live there and to have an amenity-based lifestyle. That’s what we do. We do amenity-based lifestyle developments where we have golf and lakes and all the stuff” similar to Water Valley’s Raindance and Pelican Lakes developments in Windsor.

Without Catalyst as part of the west Greeley development, he said, “that area doesn’t have an amenity.” For that reason, he said, he wouldn’t be interested in buying the Catalyst land and adding more homes to Cascadia.

More than just Cascadia is at stake for Lind. His Eagles signed a 40-year lease agreement with the City of Greeley to become the anchor tenant of the multi-purpose arena at Catalyst. The lease was to run from August 2028 to July 2068, with per-game rent scaling between $20,000 and $22,000 based on attendance, plus a 10% rent escalation every five years. The city and team would share revenues from suites, ticket fees, ads, sponsorships and concessions, while the city would retain 70% of parking fees.

The plan was for the American Hockey League team to move from Blue Arena, part of The Ranch Events Complex east of Loveland that is owned by Larimer County, to the new 8,600-seat venue in Catalyst in time for the 2028-29 hockey season.

Finding a home for the Eagles was the issue that launched the proposed West Greeley project in the first place.

In early 2024, Larimer County first accepted and then rejected Lind’s plan to build a new, larger arena to house the Eagles at The Ranch. Lind then came up with the $1.1 billion west Greeley plan that summer, and the Greeley City Council in May 2025 approved $115 million worth of certificates of participation with city facilities as collateral to pay for the first phase of the entertainment district.

Greeley voters repealed the planned-unit development zoning for Catalyst and Cascadia on Feb. 24, but a Weld District judge ruled that election unconstitutional. However, last week’s “no” vote on Issue 2F was the final straw.

Could the Eagles opt to stay at Blue Arena?

Reached Friday afternoon, Conor McGrath, managing director for The Ranch, said he has yet to speak to Lind since the election “but I’m sure that time will come.

“The Eagles have been a great partner and great tenant for 23 years,” McGrath said.

The Eagles’ lease at Blue Arena expires at the end of the 2027-28 season but contains an option for a two-year extension, he said, “and they could extend further. They would be very much welcome.

“The vote is so fresh, and I’m sure they have some considerations on their end,” McGrath said, “but I’m sure we’ll have that conversation.”

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