1 day Ago By Jocelyn Rowley
A major development project planned for downtown Loveland’s Fourth Street will not be moving forward this year as scheduled.According to Scott Schorling of the city’s Economic Development department, the developers behind the mixed-use Draper project and parking garage have paused their plans for construction, citing rising costs and uncertain financial returns.“Interest rates have gone up significantly since the original negotiation and when the project was put together,” Schorling said.
“And the cost of materials hasn’t recovered to the point where they wanted to continue to move down the road.”Approved by the City Council in 2022, the Draper redevelopment project was proposed by BH Developers in partnership with Tribe Development. The plans called for redeveloping five buildings on the 300 block of East Fourth Street, including the long-vacant Heartland Cafe and the historic Oddfellows Building.
The most recent version envisioned a five-story structure with 96 multifamily units on the upper floors and nearly 15,000 square feet of commercial space at street level.To accommodate the extra cars the development was projected to bring, the plans also called for a 4.5-story parking garage on city-owned land at Fifth Street and Jefferson Avenue, with more than half of the 277 spaces available to the public.
Total costs for the project were estimated at nearly $45 million, including $12 million for the garage, which the city agreed to fund through tax-increment funding and a 2% public improvement fee on purchases made at the site. The city also agreed to share design and improvement costs with the developer, up to $870,000.With the council’s approval in hand, the Draper project was initially scheduled to break ground in September 2023, per the “commence construction” terms of a development agreement.
But the developer asked for and received a six-month extension, according to Schorling. In early 2024, the City Council approved another deadline extension to March 2025, a date that has now passed.But the project isn’t necessarily dead, Schorling said.
“I think that, assuming market conditions can recoup to the point to support the project, all the parties are interested in moving forward together,” he explained.Failing that, the city could potentially pursue the parking garage separately, Schorling continued, as joint owner of the construction documents, including completed engineering and structural drawings and building permits. However, without revenue from tax-sharing or fees, it is not financially feasible for the city to pursue the project alone.
“There’s only so many places in downtown that could support structured parking,” he said. “So that’s why we made sure that, irrespective of the project going forward, the city was going to be an owner of the plans, whether this project is the one that finances it or some other adjacent private property owner wants to step up.”Though there are no concrete plans to move forward with the Draper, Schorling said that city staff will preserve the project’s approvals from the City Council, Planning Commission and building services department until another option emerges.
A representative from Tribe Development did not respond to the Reporter-Herald’s request for comment on the project..
