{"id":2444042,"date":"2019-05-10T12:10:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T18:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=305626"},"modified":"2019-05-10T12:10:24","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T18:10:24","slug":"silverthorne-is-closer-than-ever-to-realizing-its-dreams-of-a-true-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/silverthorne-is-closer-than-ever-to-realizing-its-dreams-of-a-true-downtown\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverthorne is closer than ever to realizing its dreams of a \u2018true downtown\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Old Dillon Inn along Highway 9 on May 9 in Silverthorne.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey\/Summit Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Silverthorne is almost ready to build a downtown.<\/p>\n

Planning the entire block between Third and Fourth streets on Highway 9 for Fourth Street Crossing<\/a> was undoubtedly more fun than anything that happened Wednesday night at Silverthorne Town Council.<\/p>\n

Likening Wednesday\u2019s council votes to finalizing a home loan, town manager Ryan Hyland knew the development agreement and related agenda items \u2014 all approved unanimously \u2014 would come without the eye candy of the project\u2019s previously approved site plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The planning stages are where the concepts, designs, graphic renderings and video flybys came to life. For Fourth Street Crossing, they\u2019ve produced a multipronged project featuring a 25,000-square-foot market hall, residential units, plenty of new retail space, mixed-use units with live-work space, a 115-room hotel, public plaza, transit facility and parking garage.<\/p>\n

Of what\u2019s currently on the block, only The Mint Steakhouse is scheduled to remain once Fourth Street Crossing is complete.<\/p>\n

The Mint along Highway 9 in Silverthorne on May 9.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey\/Summit Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI get that (finalizing the documents) may not be as exciting (as the graphics and video), but they are really important to this process,\u201d Hyland explained. \u201cI think they are the final pieces in the redevelopment story for Fourth Street Crossing.\u201d<\/p>\n

With these pieces in place, the developer said the anticipated summer groundbreaking is within reach.<\/p>\n

A LONG TIME COMING<\/h4>\n

Designs on Silverthorne\u2019s reimagined downtown date back to 2007, when a community survey found one of residents\u2019 most desired additions would be a real, thriving downtown area.<\/p>\n

But dreaming is easier than doing. As Silverthorne Town Council delivered unanimous votes on the development agreement and related agenda items, the fatigue of so many years of work didn\u2019t stop the people closest to the project from enjoying the milestone moment.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they had earned it. While the 2007 survey showed a desire, the effort to remake downtown Silverthorne took another big step the following year, as town leaders revisited the comprehensive plan and began installing new design standards. At the time, the town was regulating the entire highway corridor as one, long continuous commercial zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, if you want a downtown core and your town zoning allows for fast-food, drive-through restaurants and gas stations, that\u2019s really hard to realize that vision,\u201d Hyland said, as he described why Silverthorne had to impose new regulations, zoning and land-use guidelines on the downtown area.<\/p>\n

But all of this happened when the Great Recession was starting to take hold, and the effort to remake the downtown area stalled under the stress of national economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n

As the town rebounded from the recession, Silverthorne came back to the planning process, and a new downtown assessment in 2011 again showed that many locals still wanted a true downtown area.<\/p>\n

As efforts progressed, Silverthorne established its Urban Renewal Authority in 2013, which created the financial tools needed to continue pursuing the project, but that couldn\u2019t happen without first conducting a \u201cblight study.\u201d<\/p>\n

BLIGHT TURNS TO LIGHT<\/h4>\n
1st Inn along Highway 9 in Silverthorne on May 9. (Hugh Carey\/Summit Daily)<\/strong>
FourthStreet-SDN-051019-3-1<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Used as a noun, blight is a plant disease or something that spoils another thing. In the context of a verb, the word means to infect or cause severe damage. The blight study, however, gave Silverthorne the tools it needed to go after a major downtown redevelopment, one that\u2019s unlike anything that\u2019s been done in Summit County before.<\/p>\n

Within the study, a number of specific conditions had to be met to establish the authority. Looking back on the blight study, Hyland recalled the property in question really \u201chit it out of the park,\u201d and that wasn\u2019t a good thing. He added that the blight wasn\u2019t limited to the rundown, dilapidated and vacant buildings on the block either, but went beyond face value with serious issues existing under the surface, like problems with the location of a major sewer line underground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was a property built for an urban renewal project, this was it,\u201d Hyland said.<\/p>\n

After the study, a 2014 comprehensive plan further guided conversations and lead Silverthorne to ask what\u2019s in a downtown. With that, officials start putting a priority on the pedestrian components and look at new regulations designed to make the area feel and look like one that belonged in a buzzing, walkable downtown core.<\/p>\n

DIRECTION GAINS TRACTION<\/h4>\n

With the 2014 comprehensive plan, the town tackled rezoning in earnest by creating a new town core designation in 2016. After all of these foundational efforts were done, the town issued a request for proposals in January 2017 and landed on Milender White, an Arvada-based firm that town leaders felt could best deliver on the vision.<\/p>\n

They entered a predevelopment agreement that year, and soon started going through the site-planning process. Hyland said that was probably the most fun part of the work thus far, as that\u2019s where they dove into potential uses for the property and how it could all come together to create a \u201ccatalyst site.\u201d<\/p>\n

The overarching idea is that the Fourth Street Crossing project could be the biggest kick-starter yet to further redevelopment in the area, especially with the new Silverthorne Performing Arts Center, town pavilion and thriving Silverthorne Town Center directly across the street. But just like securing a home loan, you can\u2019t close on the deal without doing the paperwork.<\/p>\n

WHAT\u2019S THE RISK?<\/h4>\n

One important component of the project is Silverthorne taxpayers won\u2019t provide any funding upfront, and the project will be paid for largely through incremental increases tied to the development of the land.<\/p>\n

Rather, the biggest piece of the town\u2019s responsibilities will be about $15.5 million worth of public improvements, Hyland said, as Silverthorne has committed about half of that amount to pay for the parking garage and transit center while the other half will cover work on public infrastructure like curbs, gutters, sidewalks and on-street parking.<\/p>\n

Because the town\u2019s not committing anything upfront, only incremental increases in things like property sales and lodging taxes, for example, will be used to pay for the project, and all of those have to be generated on-site. Additionally, a new Metro District and Business Improvement District<\/a> that cover the Fourth Street Crossing site includes mechanisms to help the developer finance the project.<\/p>\n

THE NEXT STEPS<\/h4>\n
This rendering shows concepts for Fourth Street Crossing, a massive project covering an entire city block with a new hotel, market hall, parking garage, commercial and housing assets and more in downtown Silverthorne. (Courtesy of Milender White)<\/strong>
FourthStreet-SDN-051019-3-5<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Silverthorne should see construction activity on the site beginning this summer, but it might not be exactly what people expect \u2014 at least not initially.<\/p>\n

Leading the development team, Tim Fredregill, development executive at Milender White, said that construction work will start with a site fence, storm-water management plan and asbestos abatement before any of the demolition begins.<\/p>\n

During Wednesday\u2019s discussions, council couldn\u2019t help but ask him about a potential timeline for a groundbreaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still targeting June,\u201d Fredregill replied. \u201cWe are at the finish line right now, and it\u2019s going to be a crazy month \u2014 but it\u2019s realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old Dillon Inn along Highway 9 on May 9 in Silverthorne.Hugh Carey\/Summit Daily Silverthorne is almost ready to build a downtown. Planning the entire block between Third and Fourth streets on Highway 9 for Fourth Street Crossing was undoubtedly more fun than anything that happened Wednesday night at Silverthorne Town Council. Likening Wednesday\u2019s council votes to finalizing […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2444042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 01:22:24","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}