Photo: The work table at the May 21 Archuleta Board of County Commissioner’s Work Session. Clockwise around the table from far left, Commissioner Ronnie Maez, new interim County Manager Jack Harper, developer Doug Dragoo, realtor Shelley Low, County Attorney Todd Weaver, Commissioners Warren Brown, Veronica Medina.
Realtor Shelley Low and developer Doug Dragoo settled themselves at the work session table on May 21, across from Archuleta County commissioners Warren Brown, Veronica Median and Ronnie Maez, to discuss a hopeful topic.
The topic: a potential location for a new Archuleta County administration building near the Pagosa Springs Medical Center, as part of an ambitious proposed development along Highway 160.
PAWSD May 23
Ms. Low introduced Mr. Dragoo and then summarized his ambitious development project, with a series of Power Point slides.
“I’m hear to talk to you about an ideal location for the new County building. This first slide shows… that the property runs all along Highway 160, past the Talisman Drive McDonald’s… and all the way to the existing three-way stoplight at Pinon Causeway.”
Here’s the property as mapped by the Archuleta County Assessor. About 100 acres of relatively flat, vacant property, dotted with mature Ponderosa pines.
The Pagosa Springs Medical Center is in the lower left corner. The City Market shopping center is to the left, top, and the Walmart store is at the top right.
Ms. Low:
“We have approximately 42 acres of [potential] commercial, with a proposed access and road structure across from the hospital. And this is where we would like to see the County building, along with our proposed workforce housing.
“The remaining 57 acres, just south of that, is going to be residential, designed for high-end homes, some professional homes, patio homes, and hopefully, some senior living apartments.”
Ms. Low stressed the word, “hopefully”, regarding the “senior living apartments”… although I assume there is a hefty measure of hope attached to every aspect of the project.
I assume that measure of hope, because, just a bit further east on Highway 160, we can drive through the mixed use Aspen Village subdivision — 90 acres of proposed commercial and residential development that is not even half-way built out, 18 years after the streets and infrastructure were installed. If it were not for the Walmart store, Aspen Village would be almost devoid of commercial and residential traffic.
But of course, hope springs eternal.
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners also know a bit about “hope”. The commissioners sold the historical downtown County Courthouse a couple of years ago — the public building that housed the County Assessor, County Clerk, County Treasurer, County Sheriff, County Detention Center, and the Courts — after the Courts and Sheriff abandoned the building, claiming lack of space and poor interior air quality.
The substantial historical building still accommodates the Assessor, Clerk and Treasurer, who are now paying rent to stay in their offices. Ownership of the building has since changed, and a propane delivery company now occupies a portion of the old Sheriff’s offices, which were once the old BOCC offices.
The remaining County officials and their staff are supposedly moving to a new County administration building within the next couple of years, so be built in some as-yet-undefined location, with as-yet-undefined funding. Presumably, the shiny new building will also house the County Commissioners and their staff.
Here’s a sketch of what a new County building might look like.
The County is already deeply in debt from building a new County jail and a new County Courthouse in the Harman Park subdivision, east of the Aspen Village subdivision, so I am assuming (without much evidence other than a gut feeling) that the County cannot afford to build their hoped-for administration building, so they will have to find a developer willing to build the building for them.
Perhaps Mr. Dragoo is just such a developer?
A visionary capable of finally developing 100 vacant acres across the highway from City Market?
In April 2023, the Montrose Press posted a hopeful article about Mr. Dragoo’s development company, Colorado Outdoors LLC.
Since its founding roughly five years ago, Colorado Outdoors has come a long way. That’s in part due to the Montrose Urban Renewal Authority, which through a 25-year Tax Increment Financing option, helped founders David and Doug Dragoo launch outdoor business and residential development in northern Montrose…
I will be talking a bit about “urban renewal” and Tax Increment Financing in this editorial series. But first, we can take an overview of Mr. Dragoo’s tax-subsidized development project in Montrose.
In five short years, Colorado Outdoors’ campus there has grown exponentially.
One of the biggest growth spurts is seen in the new Fairfield by Marriott Hotel located on the north end of campus. In February, Chris Lamont, vice president of Lamont Companies (the developer for the hotel) said the modular construction model used could build the four floors and 90 rooms of the Fairfield in just one week.
The hotel is looking to open this summer, and MURA’s new chair, Montrose City Councilor Barbara Bynum, said it will help the campus, plus Montrose, by paying back into the TIF.
“In terms of bringing in revenue, the hotel and restaurant projects are gonna be the biggest benefit because they will also see sales tax, lodging tax, and restaurant tax,” she said.
It’s a complex tale of taxes and subsidies, to be sure.
The Basecamp Apartments Complex, located on the other end of campus from the hotel, has been completed and now has tenants. The complex will eventually contain 96 apartments across four buildings. Monthly rent for a one bedroom apartment ranges from $1,575 to $1,650 while two bedroom apartments range from $1,975 to $2,050 per month.
The other three buildings are planning to open in July or August.
On the development front, Shelter Distilling and the privately funded Colorado Outdoors Medical Center and both are expected to break ground soon.
Near the distillery is the already finished Mayfly Outdoors manufacturing facility, which manufactures fly fishing equipment. According to Bell, more land near these two businesses has been sold to private developers.
Right in the middle of the campus are plans for a mixed-use development that will have commercial spaces as well as residential.
There are hopes for a small grocery market on the campus.
That’s not all — more growth is anticipated at Colorado Outdoors…