City to annex land for AFA Visitors Center (Colorado Springs, Air Force Academy: sales, hotels)

[Vision67]

https://www.csindy.com/TheWire/archi...conomic-impact

"In a series of votes on Feb. 26, Colorado Springs City Council set in motion development in the north end of the city that officials say will bring a total of more than $4 billion in economic impact in the next 25 years.

But in doing so, the Council also assigned at least $40 million tax dollars over those 25 years to help those developments along.

The first is a visitors center at the Air Force Academy that's part of the City for Champions — four venues designed to attract out-of-state visitors and subsidized by the use of state sales tax revenue. (The other venues are a sports medicine center at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, the Olympic Museum under construction downtown, a downtown stadium and a hockey arena at Colorado College. All the venues have been pledged $120.5 million in state sales tax over 30 years.)

Council postponed until March 12 votes on resolutions annexing the roughly 180 acres at the North Gate Boulevard entrance to the Academy to accommodate the development of the visitors center, hotels, office space, restaurants and the like. (Some paperwork wasn't completed to enable a vote on Feb. 26.)

But Council adopted ordinances in favor of the annexation, which paves the way for subsequent votes to make the mega development happen, which city economic development officer Bob Cope says will bring $2.6 billion in economic activity, including 1,700 construction jobs and 1,100 permanent jobs.

The 537,000-square-foot complex known as True North Commons is being developed by Blue & Silver Development Partners, formed in November 2017 by Dan Schnepf, and Schnepf's firm, Matrix Design Group.

While a few citizens expressed concern about the development encroaching on nearby Monument Creek and other environmental issues, Academy officials and others advocated for the development. Developers hope to issue bonds in the second quarter of 2019.

Although not yet approved, the True North Commons project will require an infusion of $23 million over 25 years in public money via tax increment financing (TIF) collected through the urban renewal mechanism. The TIF allows tax revenue created by the development to be pumped into public infrastructure."