COLORADO SPRINGS — A plan to bring new life to an old part of Colorado Springs is accelerating.
The portion of North Nevada Avenue between Fillmore Street and Austin Bluffs Parkway, which is considered a blighted area of the city could see billions of dollars of public and private investment in the years ahead.
“A tremendous opportunity. The proximity, the location we're really trying to focus on creating a place, a destination, place,” said Jose Bodipo-Memba with the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
A panel of nine redevelopment experts with the non-profit Urban Land Institute (ULI) were asked to spend a week in Colorado Springs and brain-storm ideas for the rundown stretch of North Nevada Avenue.
They have extensive redevelopment experience in cities across the nation.
They were briefed upon arrival.
They spent a day interviewing a hundred people with knowledge and interest in the North Nevada corridor.
The spent a couple of days touring and doing on the ground learning about the area.
They then generated a series of ideas and suggestions for revitalization.
“We roll our sleeves up and start going to work. We try to bring in best practices from other neighborhoods, build off of the strength of a neighborhood that you're working in, and try to provide a solution to the problem that the community can take and run with once we leave,” said Bodipo-Memba.
There overarching suggestion is for an “innovation neighborhood.”
It would capitalize on the corridor’s close proximity to the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs to partner academia with private business.
“I think they see the potential of the university, its faculty, its staff, its intellectual capital, its resources, to be a catalyst and a partner in this,” said UCCS Strategic Partnerships, Executive Director, Bill Lueck.
Another suggestion expands the city’s Olympic City USA brand and investment in sports performance facilities and research.
The Birdsall Power Plant along Nevada Avenue is scheduled for decommission in years ahead.
The panel has seen other cities turn old power plants into unique buildings for other purposes like housing, offices, and research centers.
They also point out there has to be infrastructure upgrades to meet modern requirements of development.
“We're ready to be part of this vision. And I'm not really surprised about them pointing out that we really need to get those public improvements going so that it can drive that private development and private investment,” said City of Colorado Springs, Public Works Director, Richard Mulledy.
Because voters approved funding like the PPRTA tax the city already has a source of some funding to start.
“Providing those revenues to be able to invest in that backbone infrastructure, because, as we do that, that then allows and promotes the investment of private investment for the redevelopment,” said Mulledy.
The recommendations also come with a reality check.
They are big ideas, and it will take time and patience to make it all happen.
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