Future Legends Park project picks up pace

Article posted by Coliseum, July 16^th, 2020

Image: gallowayus.com

US-based company Galloway is providing full architectural, engineering, landscape design and survey services for Future Legends, a 118-acre sports park complex coming up at Windsor, Colorado in US. Opening in 2021, this development is the first of its kind in the country to provide plush sport complex that boasts a professional sports stadium, almost 20 outdoor sport fields, an indoor multipurpose dome stadium with a bar and lounge area, and combines it with three onsite hotels and over 80,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants.

Galloway is working on the project in collaboration with construction company Hensel Phelps as Colorado’s spiffy sporting destination is all set to get accomplished.

The entire project since its inception in 2017 has almost gone through a roller coaster ride as far as finances are concerned. However, things seem to be back on track for the proposed multisport and retail complex in Windsor after the Town Board unanimously approved new funding sources recently.

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The Future Legends Sports Complex project appeared to be almost in peril when the Weld County Board of Commissioners blindsided Town Board and California developer Jeff Katofsky in April by dissolving its participation in the State-managed C-PACE (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy) funding source. Investors were counting on the money to provide $20 million in private financing.

This sent the town and Katofsky into a tangle and made them scramble for finances to keep the project, which is projected to attract more than 1 million visitors to the town, keep going.

Recently, the Town Board voted 6-0 to give the go-ahead for creation of two metropolitan districts within the site and a business improvement district to help finance the project.

Metropolitan districts are taxing authorities created by developers with consent of local government to sell bonds to finance the project. Repayment of the bonds is tied to future property taxes assessed to, in this case, commercial retail businesses, which will make up the districts.

To create development revenue from businesses within the district, business improvement districts are formed. It is done so by assessing an additional tax or mill levy to pay for the project.

“Weld County eliminating C-PACE was a devastating blow, and we had to really scramble to keep this project going. This would have been bad news anytime, but given where we are at with COVID-19 and the current economy, it couldn’t have hit at a worse time. Despite that, we looked at other options and these two appear to be the best,” Windsor Town Manager Shane Hale commented.

In November, an election to give the go-ahead to the business improvement district will be held. It is expected to pass muster because the only voters will be the investors of the project, whose plans include sports fields, player dormitories, an inflatable dome for indoor sports as well as hotels, restaurants and office space. The project does not have residential development as its scheme of things.

Hale said despite the latest setback, planning and development of the project continues to move forward in full steam.

Former Colorado Rockies (American professional baseball team) outfielder and current Rockies TV broadcaster Ryan Spilborghs, who is one of the project’s investors, told the Town Board that nearly $1 million in sod has been laid for two multipurpose fields, and the master plan has been greenlighted.

Hale said the town will begin using the two fields adjoining the fields at the existing Diamond Valley Sports Complex as soon as the town’s sports programing resumes after being suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The developer will build two more multipurpose fields that are scheduled to be up and running by Fall 2021. Considering the severe setbacks the development has faced, the rest of the timetable to build out the project in phases remains fluid.

“We will not pretend we have had smooth sailing, but getting past this latest hurdle and pulling off the financing shows how determined and committed the town and the project investors are to succeed,” Hale affirmed.

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