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October 22, 2009
Union Place welcomed
Project will feature geothermal energy
BY PAT FERRIER
PatFerrier@coloradoan.com
Many of the same players who helped break ground two weeks ago on the North College
Marketplace withstood bitter winds Wednesday to welcome the area's first geothermal mixed -use
project across the street.
Union Place, just west of the Willox Lane and North College Avenue intersection, will feature 80
homes, 40 percent of which will qualify as affordable housing, and 19,000 square feet of commercial
space.
Developed by Donna Merten of Merten Inc., Union Place is the first mixed -use, residential and
commercial development to receive tax increment financing help from the city and the North College
Urban Renewal Authority.
City officials look at North College Marketplace and Union Place as the beginning of a renaissance for
the city's northern gateway, an area many business owners and residents said received little attention
until an Urban Renewal Authority was approved in 2004.
The URA earlier this year approved about $2.2 million in tax increment financing to help Union Place
fund its infrastructure.
Grant Sherwood, a member of the North College Citizen's Advisory Group that recommended the TIF
financing, said he was impressed with the affordable housing and geothermal components of the
project.
'This is a first for Fort Collins relative to it being an innovative use of geothermal," Sherwood said
Wednesday.
Heating and cooling of all residential and commercial buildings will be provided through heat stored in
the Earth.
Geothermal is considered more energy efficient, more sustainable and cost effective
It could also help Habitat for Humanity attract energy grants to assist in building up to eight homes on
the property, said Candace Mayo, executive director of the nonprofit agency.
Mayo said Union Place developer Donna Merten contacted her six months ago about becoming a
partner and help provide low-income housing.
Habitat had originally looked at the 11-acre site but couldn't build on it because it sat in the Dry Creek
Floodplain.
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