The Greeley-Evans School District 6 Board of Education has approved a resolution to support the Downtown Civic Campus project, joining Weld County, the city of Greeley and private developers.
The board approved the resolution, which directs staff to finalize all necessary agreements and documents to authorize construction on a new administration building, in a 6-0 motion at Monday’s meeting, the first of the 2025-26 school year.
Built in 1956, the District 6 Administration Building at 1025 9th Ave. in Greeley, no longer serves the needs of employees, students and the community because of its aging infrastructure, district officials said.
The Greeley-Evans School District 6 Administration Building is pictured on Aug. 14, 2024, with sandbags outside the door after summer rains caused flooding issues. (Trevor Reid/Editor)At a May 12 board meeting, the district presented a facility review and evaluation cost comparison for building new versus repairing the current building. The evaluation found that a full replacement of the structure is a more cost-effective approach.
The school district then began to look into new site locations but faced limited options, including one that would pull the administrative services out of a centralized spot.
Officials said the Civic Campus project appeared at the perfect time because two other governing bodies required new buildings and wanted to revitalize the downtown area.
“I think this … is, in my opinion, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stay downtown with the other businesses and the other civic partners,” Assistant Superintendent of Operations Kent Hensen said.
Along with the new administration building, the Civic Campus project, which spans 16 acres of land and 4 1/2 city blocks, plans to expand the Weld County Justice Center and construct a new city hall and offices, a new administration building for the county, a new hotel and retail space.
At Monday’s work session, Assistant City Manager Kelli Johnson said the city has already begun planning for $500 million of infrastructure work, including addressing the downtown flooding systems and aging infrastructure, in addition to constructing new facilities.
In July, the Weld County commissioners unanimously decided to keep the judicial center in downtown Greeley, with plans for expansions due to the county’s population growth and a need for two new judges by 2026. This portion of the project will cost about $490 million, $8 million less than it would have been to relocate the center to O Street, a move under consideration.
Revitalization will also include constructing a four-story shared parking garage with 1,000 stalls, 150 of which will go to District 6, according to Hensen. The school district currently only has about 60 parking spots near its administrative building.
“In the last 10 years, we have become a destination district,” board member Michael Mathews said Monday. “This is a place where people want to work, but it’s also got to be a place where people want to live. This is good not just for District 6, but for Greeley.”
District 6 will benefit by replacing an aging building without having to purchase any real estate. Instead, the district will avoid relocation costs by continuing to house employees in the current space while construction on the new building happens directly across the street on 9th Avenue, Hensen said.
Once construction finishes — estimated for February 2028 — the district will undergo a smooth transition into the new building, which is projected to be about 70,000 square feet.
Hensen also estimates the district’s project costs will total about $50 million for construction, parking garage share and abatement and demolition of the current building. The board’s resolution Monday further allows district officials to move forward with pursuing certificates of participation to fund the construction of a new administration building.
Certificates of participation, a common way for school districts to build facilities without going to voters for a bond issue, are sold like bonds, according to District 6 Superintendent Deirdre Pilch. She said the district will pay back the certificates of participation over 25 years, including interest, budgeting about $3.5 million per year in the annual budget. Payments are tax-exempt, making it more “attractive” to investors who would buy the accrued debt.
In recent years, the district used a certificate of participation to build the District Athletic Complex, Pilch said.
Hensen said District 6 leaders have been meeting three times a week this summer with the project’s four major players — Weld County, the city of Greeley and Richmark Vertikal. The partners continue to discuss land swapping language and sequencing details.
The district, however, is “last to the table” when it comes to approving resolutions to proceed with planning, following in the city and county’s footsteps, Pilch said.
School district officials aim to have a concept plan finalized by December, and construction would start in August 2026.
“The heart of our city and our community really deserves a facelift,” board member Brenda Campos-Spitze said at Monday’s work session.
For more information on the Civic Campus project, the board has recommended that community members view the May 12 work session or Monday’s work session at youtube.com/@greeleyschools.
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