During the Tuesday morning work session, hosted by the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners on April 6, several proposals were presented to the BOCC, including proposals to add several additional staff positions to the Sheriff’s Office to better facilitate the operations of the newly opened Fred Harman III Detention Center, and to better protect the public and staff at the new County Courthouse, currently under construction adjacent to the detention center. The County does not have these unplanned staff positions in their 2021 budget, but I assume the new positions will nevertheless be added to Sheriff Rich Valdez’ staff, considering that two of the three County Commissioners used to work for Sheriff Valdez, and must feel a certain loyalty to their old boss.
We also learned that the Sheriff has been unable to fill some of the detention center staff positions he already has. It’s hard to find qualified employees in Pagosa Springs in 2021, and even harder to find places for them to live, once you offer them a job.
A separate group appeared at the work session, hoping to get permission to create an archery range on County-owned land. The commissioner sounded supportive of that idea as well.
We also heard about a couple of proposals from developer David Dronet. (The name is pronounced “drone-NAY”.)
Mr. Dronet and his company, Olympus Real Estate Holdings… not to be confused, I suppose, with another company Mr. Dronet is connected to… based in Texas and named ‘Olympus Real Estate Group’… or with a another Texas company named ‘Dronet Development Group LLC’… or with another company called ‘Olympus SRH LLC’…
…At any rate, one of Mr. Dronet’s companies would like to purchase the old County Courthouse, with an apparent intention to demolish it at some point in the not-too-distant future.
You can download the courthouse proposal here.
Mr. Dronet is also proposing, in connection with a company called ‘Olympus SRH LLC’ (or alternately, ‘Olypmus SRH LLC’) to convert an older office building at the east end of Lewis Street into “affordable housing”… and he would like the BOCC to agree to abate or refund his property taxes on that property for the next 15 years.
You can download the affordable housing proposal here.
Before we look more closely at these two proposals from Mr. Dronet… a bit of background… such as can be discovered.
Real estate developer David Dronet appeared on Pagosa’s public scene in early 2019, with another rather ambitious proposal. Presenting himself the new ‘managing principal’ of the Springs Resort, he invited the community to attend a couple of public meetings at the Springs Resort to get a sense of the community’s appetite for a $180 million expansion of the resort, in the form of numerous new commercial and residential buildings spread across 27 acres of rocky, perpetually-vacant land on the west side of Hot Springs Boulevard.
Although past owners of this particular vacant property had presented various and sundry development plans to the Town government since the 1980s, and although the property is rather centrally located near the two most popular hot springs resorts in Pagosa, no one has actually managed to make any development happen there.
Back in October 2019, Daily Post columnist Cynda Green commented on this proposed ‘Springs’ development proposal in her typically feisty manner.
To wit:
Texas developer David Dronet had an article published on the front page of the January 31, 2019 issue of the Pagosa Springs SUN that began like this:
“The Springs Resort ownership is exploring the possibility of expanding the resort and developing a portion of the vacant adjacent land.
“Prior to undertaking any serious planning efforts, the resort ownership will hold an open meeting and invites Pagosa residents to join them and discuss the past, current and future feelings and desires about such a development…”
At the February 7 presentation at the Springs Resort, Dronet introduced himself as “the managing principal for the ownership group here at the Springs”, and shared some interesting ideas about how the vacant property adjacent to the resort might be developed. Those ideas included a large plaza, hotel, restaurants, an office building and residential neighborhoods. And bungalows nestled by the wetlands.
Mr. Dronet never mentioned at that presentation, nor at a subsequent presentation, the necessity for a Town government-created Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) that could funnel up to $79 million in taxes back to the developer over 25 years. Now Mr. Dronet says there will be no development without the $79 million tax subsidy. That’s a bait-and-switch from the first two public presentations.
But it gets even more interesting.
According to the Archuleta County Assessor website, the Springs Resort and Spa is owned by EPR Springs Holdings LLC. EPR Properties is a successful, audited, and established $7 billion publicly traded company.
On June 28, 2018 Presidian Hotels & Resorts announced it had taken over management of the Springs Resort & Spa. Presumably, Mr. Dronet is associated with Presidian – a company that, according to presidian.com, develops and manages over $500 million in real estate projects?
But documents recorded with the County Clerk on December 21, 2018, indicate that it is a different company — Dronet Development Group LLC — that has signed an option to purchase 18 vacant acres owned by Springs Partners LLC (Jack Searle). That parcel is located directly adjacent to the Springs Resort. I have seen no indication that either EPR Properties or Presidian Hotels is involved in the development plans for Searle’s Springs Partners LLC property.
According to another document, the incorporation date for Dronet Development Group LLC is May 20, 2019 – five months after the Memorandum of Agreement and Option between Dronet Development Group LLC and Springs Partners LLC was recorded with the County Clerk.
I thought this information might be useful to the Town Council as they consider creating a URA, just in case they are under the impression that David Dronet represents the owners or managers of the Springs Resort. If Mr. Dronet does indeed represent owners EPR Springs Holdings LLC or management Presidian Hotels, more information verifying that connection will surely be forthcoming.
However, at this point it appears that David Dronet is representing his newly incorporated Dronet Development Group LLC, and that Mr. Dronet is asking for a $79 million tax subsidy for his new corporation.
Pretty gutsy. Where’s the money?
The Pagosa Springs Town Council did, indeed, create the Urban Renewal Authority that Mr. Dronet had been asking for, in November 2019… in spite of the apparent lack of clarity as to who — or what corporation — was actually involved the the proposed Springs expansion project.