Grand vision of ‘Cascadia’ to unfold for Greeley City Council Tuesday

GREELEY — A first look at Martin Lind’s Cascadia project — a celebration of Greeley’s past, present and future all wrapped in a billion-dollar bow — is unfolding now as city leaders pore through grand plans for a destination center that could catapult the city onto a true metropolitan stage.

City leaders have talked with the prolific Windsor developer about creating a “destination” in west Greeley for more than a year. On the surface, Lind said, Cascadia is a celebration of water — in which Greeley’s history is steeped heavily. He will present the initial plans to the Greeley City Council on Tuesday, in a pitch deck that contemplates a destination center between Weld County Road 17 and 131st Avenue along U.S. Highway 34 with a hockey arena, a hotel and convention center, a 12-slide water park, a plaza for restaurants, retail and community events, more than 6,000 units of housing, and other outdoor recreation from horse trails to kayaking.

“We came up with this plan with the idea to hang onto the fabric of Greeley’s past but celebrate its future with a magnificent cascading celebration of water,” Lind explained in an interview last week. He now has renderings of the project’s components to show off. “This is a true geographical shift in the center of gravity in Northern Colorado,” Lind said. “Greeley will instantly become the tourism hotspot of Northern Colorado.”

The project is being fueled by the imagination and expertise of more than 200 people from bonding agents to architects, under Lind, who has never been accused of being narrow-minded.

At first, Lind’s plan began as one that would bring a $1.2 billion impact to Larimer County, where his Colorado Eagles minor-league hockey team is based. That plan fell through, and Lind turned his attention east to Greeley to city leadership eager to strategically plan their western corridor, rather than settle for growth for the sake of growth. They signed a memorandum of understanding to study the project, which is culminating in Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

City leadership will evaluate the plans to see if they are feasible.

“Along with the economic impact report, etcetera, that will take over the next couple of months to review,” said Rachel Flynn, deputy city manager for Greeley. “As the public sector, we need to protect the public interest. I don’t think we would have gotten this far if we didn’t think there was a path forward. Now it’s in our court to review it. We need to check the numbers ourselves to see if we believe (it). With the infrastructure, transportation, water and sewer, what will that cost us, and what were we going to do anyway? Do we just let growth happen in the west, or do we plan for it?”

The project, if the city council moves forward, could radically and forever transform the city’s landscape, punctuated by multiple water features throughout the 110 acres on which the arena, hotel and plaza would be built, couched within a surrounding 1,000-acre blank canvass of recreational space. Lind also is considering a Par-3 golf course and multiple levels of housing.

“This project is going to slide the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park four miles east,” Lind said. “That’s what a billion-dollar project does. You don’t do it to not change traffic patterns, to not see an economic ecoboom. You wouldn’t do a project like this if you only had 10 acres.”

Lind has quietly been purchasing the acreage he needs for the project, with the final piece under contract now. That final portion, on which much of the Cascadia project would be situated, is 110 acres bordered to the east by 131st Avenue at U.S. 34. He already owns the 295 acre-parcel bordered to the west by Weld County Road 17 and U.S 34. He had initially purchased acreage on both sides of Colorado Highway 257 for the project, but he decided to move the project further west along U.S. 34. 

When Lind in October bought the 295-acre parcel of farmland for $7.1 million through his Windsor-based Patriot Energy LLC and Vima Partners LLC, it brought his total investment in land for the project to approximately $11.175 million.

Together, that site will house all that Lind’s team has created so far. What’s more, is a reimagined transportation corridor from 131st Avenue to Weld County Road 17. First, the plan is to have a north-south overpass connecting the property across U.S. 34, so travelers can access the property without ever having to drive U.S. 34. That part also would also be an intermodal hub that would allow buses to enter the property, pick up and drop off. The plan is to eventually tie Cascadia into a Bus Rapid Transit line to the Greeley-Weld County airport. City leaders call it precursor to rail.

“When you go to the intersection of road 17 and 34, that intersection is failing and broken today,” Lind said. “No matter what, that thing has got to float to the top of, ‘We need to fix this.’ The ultimate configuration is an overpass.”

City leaders have contemplated a continuous-flow intersection, which shifts left-turning lanes to the insides of traffic lanes to allow for easier flows of traffic.

“The model Greeley public works has come up with is a proven model that is much wider, but making left turns way before you get to the intersection,” Lind said. “It’s really proven and safe, that would be the interim intersection, which flows heavy, heavy volumes of traffic safely.”

For Greeley leaders, it is about a strategic vision for the future, with a view toward a statewide, perhaps even national impact.

“The project really addresses a much bigger market than just Greeley,” said John Hall, economic development director for the City of Greeley. “Greeley is an important part, and at a minimum all of Colorado, and we believe it will draw from all over Colorado and potentially nationally.”

Lind, however, remembers the days of Greeley when its tax dollars left town limits to find restaurants and venues that Greeley didn’t have. For years, city leaders lamented that leakage.

“We need to keep our sales tax and dollars spent up here,” Lind said. “The water park itself will be the best in the nation, and will be subordinate to no one. Now, in Northern Colorado, we go to Colorado Springs (to the Great Wolf Lodge) to go to the water park. We want Colorado Springs people to come up here and spend their money with us. We’ll be better, newer and shinier, that’s the intent of this deal, not only to entice the tourist dollar into Greeley and keep our dollars here.”

on Facebook on LinkedIn