Speaking of this morning's meeting of the council's Economic Development Committee ...
When he's done talking about sinking $750,000 in city funds into growing small business, Office of Economic Development honcho Karl Zavitkovsky will ask the council for $7.5 million in TIF money for The Collective, a proposed $48.3-million mixed-use development ("320 residential units and 40,000 square feet of retail,
commercial and/or live-work space") on Fort Worth Avenue between Hampton and the site of the Home Depot that used to be the Bronco Bowl. The money would come from the Fort Worth Avenue TIF District -- which was once expected to jump-start Dick Seib's La Reunion Town Center planned for the site where the circa-World War II Colorado Place Apartments stood till their demolition on November 21, 2009. That project never happened; this one, say city officials, will.
As with Sylvan Thirty, which will also receive Fort Worth Ave. TIF money if and when it's up and running, CityDesign Studio got involved with the design of the The Collective. Says the briefing prepped for this morning's meeting, the City Hall-based designers made the developers add more buildings "to improve
pedestrian feel of
private street," reconfigured the parking lot "to create a
plaza feel" and "increased number of
ground-floor doors
that access the
street directly." And, says the briefing, the public money wouldn't be used solely for building buildings:
TIF funding will be used for infrastructure improvement in the right of way, including bike lanes on Fort Worth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard and including an extension of the Coombs Creek Trail. TIF grant funding (to be reimbursed as TIF funds are collected and only after the project is fully completed) will be used to improve the pedestrian experience on the internal streets; to leverage affordable housing; to create community garden, central green space, and a dog park; and to make the project financially viable.
