Government officials in Greeley and Weld County are still assessing the fiscal and economic impacts of last week’s voter approval of Ballot Issue 1A, which repealed the city-approved planned-unit development zoning for the proposed Cascadia and Catalyst projects on the city’s western edge.
“Council appreciates everyone who participated in last week’s special election and acknowledges the results as expressed by the voters,” said Mayor Dale Hall during Tuesday night’s Greeley City Council meeting. “Prior to the vote, Cascadia still had processes to complete in order to become a viable project. The outcome of this vote has changed the parameters under which council must operate, and we need to refocus on clarifying what those parameters are and what direction they provide.”
Cascadia, a master-planned residential and commercial community spearheaded by Windsor-based developer Martin Lind’s Windsor-based Water Valley Co., had been planned to surround the city-owned Catalyst entertainment district, which would include a hotel, a Mattel-branded water park and an arena with youth hockey ice sheets that also would be home to the Colorado Eagles, a minor-league hockey team owned by Lind.
The city council had approved last May an ordinance outlining the financing plan for the entertainment district. That plan authorized the use of $115 million worth of certificates of participation to lease several high-profile city facilities as collateral to pay for the plan.
COPs are also being used to finance the Downtown Civic Campus project, which will include city, county and school district offices, as well as police facilities.
Certificates of participation are a financing tool used for new government buildings in Colorado. The idea behind using such financing tools is to find ways to build new community buildings without increasing taxes on residents.
For Catalyst, former mayor John Gates told BizWest, the COPs are one piece of a four-step process in which a nonprofit group would pay off the COPs and issue bonds. The plan was that a general improvement district fee collected from the new development would go to repay debt. The city would make an annual economic development payment — previously reported at $12 million per year — to establish reserves to ensure the debt payment.
The council went into executive session Tuesday night to discuss the financial and legal impacts of the election result, including what effect it might have on plans for the downtown civic campus.
City officials Wednesday were unavailable to comment on that discussion, and Bianca Fisher, director of the Greeley Downtown Development Authority, noted that “city council and staff have a lot to navigate,” but added that the DDA had not taken a position on the issue.
“The reason we didn’t,” she said, is that our members and businesses all have very different views. Some were very excited about the project, and others not so much.
“So until we know if there’s an impact to the civic campus, it feels foolish to speculate,” Fisher said.
In an email to BizWest on Wednesday, Kim Kappel, the city’s public information officer and communications manager, wrote that, “in light of the election results, the City remains committed to providing transparent and timely information to the community as discussions continue. The City recognizes there are a number of questions regarding the next steps for the West Greeley project and the implications of the vote.
“At this time, Council is reviewing the financial considerations and legal obligations associated with several potential pathways related to the project,” Kappel wrote. “This type of evaluation is a standard part of responsible decision-making and ensures that any future actions are fully informed and consistent with the direction provided by voters.
“Council has scheduled additional discussions to better understand the expectations reflected in the election outcome and to consider issues related to timing, transparency, financing, accountability, communication, and the overall status of the project,” Kappel wrote. “We appreciate the community’s participation in the election and engagement in this topic. Updates will continue to be shared as Council works through these discussions.”
However, Lind, in an interview Tuesday on Greeley radio station KFKA-AM 1310, was blunt in assessing the impact.
“Greeley is staring down a $21 million budget deficit right now. Now you add $10 million in COP recovery,” he said. “We were going to pay them off June 6; they were going to get 100% of their money back. They get nothing back now. So they have a $100 million problem in a financial problem. They have a $50 million hole in the ground out there, and there’s a cesspool of litigation that could start.
“They now have a $10 million — out of the general fund — obligation to pay back these COPs without any possible recovery from the project,” Lind told KFKA morning show hosts Tanner Schwindt and Brian Gary. “And who’s going to want to go invest in downtown Greeley now when the city’s broke? There’s $600 million in stormwater projects in downtown Greeley right now. Who’s going to go invest in there is going to rely on the city of Greeley to fix that. If it goes through the water department, guess what? If you’re a water rate payer in Greeley, guess where that chicken’s coming home to lay the eggs, right?”
“What do the lending institutions think of Greeley now versus a week ago,” he told BizWest later in the day. Without having the bonds to pay back the COPs, he said, the city “can’t raise taxes so they’ll have to reappropriate the budget.
“This thing will have ripple effects for Greeley for centuries,” Lind told KFKA. “If Greeley ends up having a nonrecoverable $100 million out there, and they compound that with a $21 million budget deficit anyway, I think Greeley becomes a horrendous credit risk. What’s really sad is that this was intended to fix the budget deficit, and it would have.”
Greeley Demands Better, the citizen group that petitioned Ballot Issue 1A onto the Feb. 24 municipal ballot, called on the city the day after the election “to immediately cease all discretionary spending related to the Cascadia and Catalyst projects. The voters have spoken. Continuing to spend taxpayer dollars on a deal the public has rejected — or allowing the developer to pressure accelerated spending to create ‘facts on the ground’ — would be a direct affront to the democratic process. Every dollar spent now deepens the hole and narrows the city’s options. Stop spending. Start listening.”
And yet, the city still has to pay back the COPs. Winna Ironkwe, the city’s director of communications and engagement, outlined Greeley’s obligation to do that in an email to BizWest last week.
“COP payments will use capitalized interest for the first three payments,” she wrote. “Of the $115 million from the COPs, $8,620,276.65 of that is capitalized interest.”
She explained the payment schedule as follows: The first interest-only payment was $3,295,859.99 due last Sunday. The second interest-only payment is $3,194,650 due on Sept. 1. The third payment could differ, she said.
“If we refinance, the payment would be $2,219,766.66 due on Jan. 1, 2027. If we do not refinance, the third interest-only payment is $3,194,650 due on March 1, 2027, and would be partially funded by capitalized interest.
“All remaining COP payments thereafter become interest and principal payments,” she wrote.
“If we do not refinance, the first interest and principal payment will be $13,384,650 on Sept. 1, 2027. If we refinance, the amount due on Sept. 1, 2027 should be lower than the $13.38 million payment. The actual amount will depend on the outstanding balance of the COPs, when the first payment is due, and if we do any capitalized interest.”
What happens next is up to the city, Lind said.
“We are a hired developer for a project we don’t own,” Lind said of Catalyst, “and 100% of the path forward is in Greeley’s hands. Greeley has worked too hard and invested too much for us not to give them every opportunity to figure this out. But there’s no time to waste.”
Meanwhile, he said, “I need to get some air back in my lungs.”
This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2026 BizWest Media LLC.
Hence then, the article about greeley weighs cascadia options after 1a s passage was published today ( ) and is available on GreeleyTribune ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Greeley weighs Cascadia options after 1A’s passage )
Also on site :
- Sky F1 drops Danica Patrick from 2026 broadcast team
- Can struggling Jos Buttler use IPL experience in T20 World Cup semi-final vs India?
- Report: Cardinals will not tender RB Emari Demercado