City Council Members in Loveland, Colorado, will vote this month on whether to approve a development plan that would bring a 40,000 square foot Whole Foods Market grocery store to the city. The development would also include 250,000 additional square feet of retail and dining space. Real estate developer McWhinney Real Estate Services CEO Chad McWhinney appeared before Council in February with a team of experts, lawyers and support personnel to lobby for the development and for using public monies to help fund the project.
“There is not major retail development being done in northern Colorado without a significant public private partnership,” McWhinney told council. “Costs are very, very expensive. This is a very capital intensive business and at the end of the day, Loveland has to look at it like a business. If we don’t approve a URA or don’t approve tax-sharing… (new retail development) is not going to come to Loveland, it’s going to go elsewhere,” he said.
The newly proposed South Centerra URA terms will look at lot like a plan originally laid out in 2004, currently set to expire in 2029. One of these terms includes 25 years of deferred property and sales tax revenues. Loveland, along with four other local taxing entities, could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues over the course of the agreement. The vote on whether to approve the URA is slated for March 21st.
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