The Dillon Urban Renewal Authority voting Feb. 17 to purchase the Pug Ryan’s Brewery building ended the possibility of a development involving the building for which the authority had previously shown support.

In January 2025, the authority’s board directed town staff to work with JGJP Dillon LLC, a development company owned by developer Jake Porritt, to finalize a public-private partnership that would see Porritt redevelop part of the town core from Pug Ryan’s to the Payne Building. Porritt’s proposed project would have replaced those buildings, as well as town-owned land connecting them, with a grocery store, a restaurant, commercial space and a parking garage, which would include public parking.

Caroline Kwak, an attorney for Porritt’s company, said that by putting out a request for redevelopment proposals in 2024 and accepting JGJP’s in 2025, the authority’s board created an agreement between the authority and the company to work toward bringing the project to fruition.

“(The Dillon Urban Renewal Authority) and the town are in breach of its contractual obligations with JGJP by unilaterally ending directives given by this (urban renewal authority) body itself,” Kwak said in a Feb. 17 public comment.

Kwak said the town did not work in good faith to create an option agreement to finalize the project, saying it continued to negotiate with JGJP after starting to have conversations with another entity about pursuing other projects on the same land as JGJP’s proposal.

“It’s not in good faith,” Kwak said. “They’re opening up the town to litigation and the costs that come from that.”

The Urban Renewal Authority voted to purchase the Pug Ryan’s building and another nearby Feb. 17 after the Dillon Town Council, which is composed of the same members as the authority’s board, voted to enter an intergovernmental agreement with Colorado Mountain College earlier that day. 

The agreement calls for the parties to work to develop a new campus, a parking structure, a community meeting space and affordable housing on the Pug Ryan’s property and other nearby parcels of town-owned land. Outside of those specific goals, Mayor Carolyn Skowyra said “the rest of it is all negotiable.”

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“It’s pretty open ended,” Skowyra said about the agreement. “We’re entering into this negotiation with a partner that we think is strong.”

Skowyra said the agreement will put “a recognizable and respectable organization” in the middle of town and create possibilities for education, entertainment, early childhood education, workforce housing and parking. She said she could not envision a better opportunity to develop what she called the most important corner in the town.

Dillon, developer give insight into negotiations, disagreements

Kwak said the town negotiated an option agreement with the company on and off for over a year, pausing negotiations several times for things like bringing on a new town attorney after the previous one resigned. Porritt and Kwak said negotiations continued until the start of February.

At the Feb. 17 Town Council regular meeting, council member Joshua Samuel said the college “first came in front” of the council to discuss the topic four months prior. The council had an executive session during a special meeting Nov. 18, and the session’s stated purpose was to discuss “negotiations related to Colorado Mountain College.” The council did not have another agenda item referencing the college or the town purchasing Pug Ryan’s in a public meeting until Feb. 17.

Skowyra said during the Feb. 17 Dillon Urban Renewal Authority meeting that the board had determined there was “no way forward with a previous developer interested in working with this parcel.”

Town manager Nathan Johnson wrote in an email that representatives from the town and college “have had a small number of informal, high-level conversations about future possibilities” that could benefit students and the community. He did not respond to further questions from Summit Daily News about when the authority made the decision to not move forward with Porritt’s proposed project.

In January, according to Porritt and Kwak, the town presented an option agreement that would have required JGJP to build the proposed parking structure underground and pay market price for any town-owned land it would need to purchase. Porritt said those requirements were inconsistent with the development plan his company presented in January 2025 and had not been part of previous negotiations.

“The stuff that they put in was not only not part of the development plan, which has been reviewed, but also were things that they knew were cost prohibitive and or physical impossibility,” Porritt said.

In a Jan. 15 letter to the town and Urban Renewal Authority, Kwak wrote that above ground parking would cost $35,000-50,000 per stall, depending on construction methods, while underground parking would cost around $60,000 per stall.

Kwak also wrote that JGJP’s project had always been presented as a public-private partnership wherein the town would contribute town-owned land in exchange for the developer delivering public improvements, including an increase in public parking spots as compared to what currently exists in the area. Paying market price for the town-owned land, she wrote, would make the project “financially infeasible.”

Johnson declined to answer questions from Summit Daily News about claims made by Porritt and his representatives about the town not negotiating “in good faith.”

Pug Ryan’s owner gives details on sale

Chris Locke, who purchased Pug Ryan’s in 2022 and this year agreed to sell the building to Dillon, said he would have preferred to sell it to Porritt. Locke said the agreement he had with Porritt, which Porritt said was subject to the option agreement being completed, was for $5.6 million. The Urban Renewal Authority’s contract to purchase the building is for $2.6 million.

Locke said he thought the option agreement was going to go through, but then a local Realtor approached him saying the town might be interested in purchasing Pug Ryan’s. He said he never approached the town about it buying the building.

Town attorney Douglas Stallworthy said at a Feb. 17 Town Council meeting that it was his understanding that Locke approached Colorado Mountain College with interest in selling Pug Ryan’s to someone other than Porritt. Stallworthy said in a later meeting that Locke, through brokers, had approached several other entities “once he had fallen out of contract with another group.”

Locke said he had thought the options agreement between Porritt and the town was going to go through until he “got the contract to sell” from the town.

Town praises agreement with Colorado Mountain College

The intergovernmental agreement between Dillon and Colorado Mountain College calls for the development of a new campus, a parking structure, a community meeting space and affordable housing. Skowyra said the agreement checks “so many boxes” for the town, especially in bringing people into the town.

“Not just people visiting town,” Skowyra said. “They’ll do that too, I’m sure, but people coming to town on a regular basis.”

Samuel expressed a similar sentiment, saying he thinks the “triad” of entertainment, education and recreation are what Dillon needs to “complete” its town core. He said those things will create a strong community in the town core, and this project will attract other businesses and restaurants to the area.

A member of the public asked the council about the economic value of the agreement, pointing out that Colorado Mountain College is a tax-exempt entity. Skowyra said the town sees economic value in attracting people to the town to spend money.

Council member Barbara Richard said the town may lose out on some property tax by having an agreement with the college, but she pointed out that the land in the project area currently owned by the town is not collecting property tax anyway. She said it is important to weigh the public benefit of public parking and affordable housing against the loss of property taxes.

The council voted unanimously to approve the intergovernmental agreement.

“This is the first thing I’ve felt great about in a lot of years sitting in this spot,” Skowyra said. “This feels great, and it hasn’t felt that way in a long time.”