{"id":1312292,"date":"2019-07-10T22:04:01","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T04:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/hotels-housing-float-into-confluence-conversation\/"},"modified":"2019-07-11T08:18:02","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T14:18:02","slug":"hotels-housing-float-into-confluence-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/hotels-housing-float-into-confluence-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotels, housing float into confluence conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Heavy equipment works to demolish a concrete foundation that was part of the city’s old wastewater treatment plant, near the confluence of the Roaring Fork and the Colorado rivers Wednesday in Glenwood Springs. The city has narrowed choices for contractors to design the confluence-area redevelopment plan.<\/strong>
Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The 12.2 acres of land located at the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers has attracted local and national developers.<\/p>\n

In February, the city of Glenwood Springs put out a request for qualifications (RFQ) for a confluence master developer that garnered seven responses.<\/p>\n

Additional vetting from the city\u2019s Community Development, Engineering and Parks and Recreation Departments as well as the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) narrowed the search to three prospective teams\u2014 The Confluence Development Group, Development Partners and Trailbreak Partners.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, all three gave presentations to, and were interviewed by Glenwood Springs City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have the opportunity to be involved in a project which will create such a dramatic change to an area occupied by an old wastewater sewer plant site and an old abandoned railroad wye, right at the confluence of our two rivers is the number one reason I chose to serve on council for an additional four years,\u201d Councilman Steve Davis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope every citizen will also take the opportunity to engage in this transformation, which will dramatically impact Glenwood for generations to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Comprised of a partnership between ABA Hospitality out of Snowmass Village and Oak City Development from Raleigh, North Carolina, the Confluence Development Group in its submittal stated that its, \u201crelationship with the Hyatt Corporation has resulted in receiving preliminary interest for the development of a hotel and conference center on the confluence area site.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group has also proposed a performing arts center, senior housing and dedicated restaurant, retail and mixed-use residential space.<\/p>\n

The Confluence Development Group stated that it was \u201cpresently negotiating the purchase\u201d of the Farnum Holt Funeral Home property near the confluence. However, funeral home owner Trey Holt said Wednesday that he was not currently involved in any negotiation with any prospective buyers.<\/p>\n

As developers eye the confluence area, recently elected Councilman Tony Hershey expressed his concerns that the city should focus less on any new development and more on fixing existing infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not addressed the street issue \u2026 it is ridiculous,\u201d Hershey said. \u201cWe do not have the resources or the time to be doing all of these other projects, and frankly I think it is empire building on behalf of the city \u2014 the bigger we are the better \u2014 and I am not doing it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featuring Chaffin Light Management and Independence Ventures, both out of Basalt, as well as Design Workshop from Aspen and Roaring Fork Engineering based in Carbondale, the Development Partners team zeroed in on the development of the Vogelaar Park site located at 915 School St., just above the confluence.<\/p>\n

The city does not yet own what is to become its portion of the Vogelaar Park land. Assistant City Manager Jennifer Ooton said, \u201cThe land swap between the city and the school district is still pending.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago, the city agreed to swap land south of the newly remodeled Glenwood Springs Elementary School for a share of the Vogelaar Park site north of the school.<\/p>\n

In its proposal, Development Partners stated, \u201cWe propose to purchase and develop the Vogelaar property with multi-income and multi-generational residential and, if appropriate, some civic uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Development Partners team proposed a river park connection to Seventh Street businesses, as well as mixed-use areas along Eighth Street near City Hall.<\/p>\n

The preliminary plan also calls for a transit hub by way of a partnership between RFTA and the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might not do anything \u2014 the option might be that we push pause and wait to see where this community is,\u201d Mayor Jonathan Godes said, suggesting any decisions concerning the confluence\u2019s redevelopment were still a ways out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of engaging a master developer is so that they can do these public outreach meetings and they can help us identify where the community is,\u201d Godes said.<\/p>\n

The third team being interviewed \u2014 Trailbreak Partners \u2014 includes the Denver-based firm by the same name, as well as Van Meter Williams Pollack out of Denver and San Francisco, and NV5, which has over 100 offices nationwide and abroad. NV5 was the contract project manager for the Roaring Fork School District\u2019s GSES renovation and addition that was completed in 2017.<\/p>\n

Trailbreak Partners presented two alternative concepts, one of which proposed up to 25,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 25,000 square feet of commercial office space in mixed-use buildings and 410 residential units \u201cin the form of townhome, apartment and condominiums.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concept would also enable a central transit station at Seventh Street and what would become Defiance Avenue west of City Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil sat through five hours of interviews with three separate development teams, and I must say I was very impressed with the respondents,\u201d Councilor Davis said. \u201cThere was immense talent with broad national experience being interviewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite impressive, and there was no clear front runner in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heavy equipment works to demolish a concrete foundation that was part of the city’s old wastewater treatment plant, near the confluence of the Roaring Fork and the Colorado rivers Wednesday in Glenwood Springs. The city has narrowed choices for contractors to design the confluence-area redevelopment plan.Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent The 12.2 acres of land […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 12:36:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1312308,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312292\/revisions\/1312308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}