Greeley council approves Civic Campus development-services agreement after debate over incentives

The Greeley City Council voted 5-1 Tuesday to approve a development-services agreement for the downtown Civic Campus project. The resolution authorizes the city manager to execute the agreement with Richmark Vertikal, LLC and allows staff and legal counsel to make non-substantive changes.\n\nThe agreement replaces the pre-development agreement approved last August and moves the project into final design, financing coordination, procurement, construction administration and completion. It covers the city side of the project, including a new city office facility, civic plaza, parking structure and related infrastructure, while also setting terms for private hotel and apartment components tied to the broader downtown redevelopment.\n\nDuring the discussion, City Manager’s Office staffer John Hall said the agreement establishes Richmark Vertikal as development manager with a 5% fee based on hard costs and THRASH Development LLC as general contractor with a 4% fee. Hall also outlined private-development incentives that had been contemplated earlier in the project: $4.7 million in gap funding for a hotel, up to $4 million for apartments, waivers of eligible one-time development fees, and a hotel lodging-tax rebate capped at $1.5 million over 10 years.\n\nHall argued that the fee rebates and lodging-tax incentives are tied to revenue the project itself would generate. "If you didn't have that project, you wouldn't have those fees, you wouldn't have those funds to waive or to rebate," he said. He added that council would still retain authority over any budget increases and future construction contracts. Staff also emphasized in the agenda materials that approving the agreement does not itself issue Certificates of Participation, appropriate project funds, approve final design-build contracts or authorize budget changes.\n\nCouncil Member Craig Huddleston, who pulled Item 14 from the consent agenda, said the roughly $8.7 million in direct incentives was "a tough pill" but said he could support the agreement because those funds had already been contemplated and because he expects the project to spur future downtown development. Huddleston also said he calculated roughly 750 construction jobs per year tied to the work and urged the development team to accelerate the schedule where possible to reduce escalation and other costs.\n\nCouncil Member Johnny Olson cast the lone no vote. Olson said the package amounted to a much larger public commitment once land pricing and other incentives were considered, and argued the city was moving too soon without first resolving other financial pressures, including West Greeley and the Catalyst project. "I think we're in just a drastic budget issue that we gotta solve," Olson said.\n\nThe agenda materials describe the development-services agreement as the principal implementation agreement for the Civic Campus and say it is intended to transition the project from planning and land assembly into construction. The agreement includes budget controls barring the development manager or general contractor from increasing the total budget without prior city consent and, when required, council approval. It also sets a backstop payment to the development manager if Certificates of Participation are not issued by Dec. 31, 2026, or if the city does not appropriate an additional $3 million in gap funding by Sept. 1, 2026.\n\nThe Aug. 4 staff report put the city hall portion of the project at about $83.6 million, including hard construction, soft costs and land acquisition, and estimated the shared parking structure at about $36.8 million to $38.7 million. Staff said major financing decisions and future contracts will still require separate council action.