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Home My WebLink AboutUNION PLACE - PDP - 15-09 - MEDIA -admmtstration space, a labo- station, a sleep center and a rates in Family Medicine, a local -actice partnership, will occupy a :of the second floor, and the first include retail health services and cc center. 4ene Stout, clinic business service; for for the Women's Clinic, said the 's longtime home has become out- i by its staff and patients. "We're a lit- ag;' Stout said before the move. "We serve our patients as well because ,rowing. We had six MDs, one nurse loner and one or two nurse mid- vhen we started. Now we have 13 cur nurse midwives, two nurse prac- s and two physician assistants." :out said the new building, under con- tion for more than a year, will offer a more room and comfort for its nts and staff. 'he new building has a new feel and a ,avant %nA .oa c.,,,t n. , .. UNION, from 5A ple for the project is to demonstrate sus- tainability. "It's a spotlight for how commu- nities can look with all these sustainable elements," she said. "The goal is to show there are other alternatives to building a standard development and there are many sustainable alternatives available," Brad Duckham, the company's market- ing manager, said the use of geothermal is one big sustainable feature of Union Place. By drilling down to about 300 feet, air nat- urally cooled to between 52 and 55 degrees is delivered to buildings that only have to provide a few more degrees to be comfort- able in the winter. And the geothermal acts as a heat sink in the summer, Duckham noted, making it easier to cool the struc- tures. URA paying off Other green features include the virtual elimination of storm water piping by mak- ing surfaces more permeable and the use of xeriscape plantings. The southeast corner of the development will be turned into a 2.5- acre detention pond and a park -like feature for the area, Merten said. "We'll put a path around it and make it a more aesthetic amenity for the communi- ty," she said. Merten said participating in the city's URA development program, with a portion of the taxes generated by the project applied to infrastructure improvements, helped make it possible. "We wouldn't have been able to accom- plish the project without it," she said. Merten said she's hoping to break ground in late June or early July and get all of the infrastructure improvements com- The Northern Colorado Business Report 123A plete by the end of 2009. Building construc- tion is expected to begin in early 2010, and Merten said she already has 14 lots presold. Dean Hoag, owner of RMB Recycling Center and president of the North College Business Association, said Union Place has strong backing from his group. "It's obvi- ously going to help bring development up here, and the green part is pretty neat," he said. "This project is going to be very unique." Hoag said the city's 2004 URA policy for the North College area, which extends from the Poudre River on the south to the Larimer-Weld Canal on the north, is begin- ning to bear fruit with North College Marketplace and Union Place. "We put the URA in place to give (the area) a boost and I think that's helped these projects get started and come to our area," Hoag said. April 24-May 7, 2009 I www.businessreportdaiiy.com The Northern Colorado Business Report 15A Green development set for north Fort Collins Developer: Union Place will spotlight sustainability efforts Steve Porter sporter@ncbr.com FORT COLLINS — Another big North College Avenue development is about to get under way, this time bringing green -pow- ered residential and commercial growth to an area of Fort Collins targeted for blight reduction and economic stimulation. Union Place, a 10-acre site about a block west of College and south of Willox Lane, will be the second major development in the North College Urban Renewal Area. North College Marketplace, a 20-acre King Soopers-anchored commercial develop- ment near the northeast intersection of College and Willox, is expected to open in t gust 2010. Union Place is expected to break ground this summer and be ready for its first new residents by the end of 2010, according to city URA planner Christina Vincent. Vincent said the mixed -use development will include 75 housing units covering the gamut of single-family residential, condo- miniums, loft apartments above streetside commercial properties and even Habitat for Humanity pads, with 30 percent of the homes set aside as affordable housing units. - There will also be 19,000 square feet of commercial space within the site plan, 1 Courtay Merten Design Studio UNUSUAL DEVELOPMENT — Union Place develop- ment in north Fort Collins promises to be an unusual project, with a variety of residential housing, including lofts, single-family houses, condominiums and even pads for Habitat for Humanity homes, as well as com- mercial structures, all heated and cooled with geot- hermal energy. Vincent said, and every unit within the pro- be heated and cooled with geother- mal energy brought up from 300 feet below the surface. "The entire site will be geothermal, she said. "The need for natural gas will be prac- tically nonexistent." LEED certified Vincent said the project has numerous green elements in addition to- the thermal energy component, including LEED certifi- cation for all of the structures and even a section with houses recycled from another part of Fort Collins and moved into the North College Improvements FORT COLLINS - The city of Fort Collins is about to begin Phase 2 of its North College Improvements Project to make North College Avenue more attrac- tive to development. Phase 2 will include safety improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians, storm water improve- ments and new streetscape designs from Vine Drive on the south to the Hickory -Conifer intersection on the north. Jennifer Petrik, a city transportation planner, said an April 8 open house to discuss the proposed $5.6 million improvements - to be funded by a quar- ter -cent tax passed by city voters in 2005 called Building on Basics - was attended by more than 100 people. "There's a lot of interest in the project from the business association, residents and property own- ers," Petrik said. Phase 1 of the project was completed a few years ago, Petrik said, with about $4 million spent . development. Local developer Mike Jensen plans to relocate 10 homes on the city's south side into the project, Vincent said. "This is just the project we've been wait- ing for in terms of the priorities of the URA;-" she said, noting that Union Place will use renewable resources, provide affordable housing, be a destination work. and living site for the area and add needed infrastruc- ture to a part of the city that's been under- developed for decades while other sections of Fort Collins have been growing rapidly. on street lighting, sidewalks, a detached bike path and roadway reconstruction in a section of North College between Jefferson Street and the Poudre River. Petrick said two more open houses are sched- uled for Phase 2 on May 21 and tentatively for July 8. She said the improvements project is aimed at making the North College corridor a more vibrant northern entry to the city. "I think any improvements in that area will ben-, efit existing business and future development in the area such as Union Place," she said. "The primary goal of the project is increase safety and functional- ity of the infrastructure, but improving the aesthet- ics of the area is also important. As more funding becomes available, more improvements can be affected and the area can become an attractive north gateway to the city:' - Steve Porter �r�ssi�`L The $27 million project will receive about $2.2 million in tax -increment financ- ing to help build infrastructure improve- ments, including a north entrance to Mason Street that will eventually connect with the Mason_ Corridor transit project that now has its northern end at Cherry Street. Union Place is being developed.by Boulder developer Donna Merten, owner of Merten Inc. Merten said the guiding princi- See UNION,'23A