Dillon town leaders have expressed interest in entering a public-private partnership with developer Jake Porritt to construct a mixed-used use building downtown that would include workforce housing, public parking and retail space.

The Dillon Urban Renewal Authority, which is composed of the same members as the Dillon Town Council, discussed the potential public-private partnership at its meeting last Tuesday, May 28.

The mixed-use building at the corner of Lake Dillon Drive and East LaBonte Street, where a shopping center and Pug Ryan’s Brewery are currently located, is one of five structures Porritt has proposed as part of his concept master plan for the redevelopment of the Dillon town center. 

Porritt has proposed the project to include 143 workforce housing units, 445 parking spaces in a multi-level parking structure and over 21,000 square feet of commercial space, the majority of which would be a grocery store.

“It is staff’s feeling that this proposal perhaps ticks a lot of the boxes that people are interested in when we’re talking about town center or core area redevelopment,” Dillon Senior Town Planner Ned West said at the Urban Renewal Authority meeting.

Porritt is interested in entering into a public-private partnership with the town, where the town would essentially be a co-applicant on the planned unit development application for the mixed-use project, West said.

Porritt, speaking virtually during the meeting, said the primary source of funding for the mixed-use project would come from metro districts.

A metropolitan district is a quasi-governmental unit that can be formed under Colorado state law. These districts, which have similarities to school, fire and water districts, allow the developers who establish them to finance the infrastructure necessary to support a project.

The Dillon Town Council approved a service plan last year that allowed metro districts to be established for Porritt’s proposed redevelopment plans. Developers establish metro districts in order to issue tax-exempt bonds, which are paid off over time with revenues generated by metro district property taxes and fees. Metro districts cannot fund private components of a development.

Porritt said the project at the Best Western and Arapahoe Cafe site that the Town Council approved along the lakefront is “the driving force behind this workforce housing,” since that property will generate most of the taxbase for the metro districts. That project would include 200 condos, three restaurants and retail space, where the condos would be “branded residences” that would be owned by individuals who could rent their unit out as a short-term rental.

“We’re in a place now where we feel comfortable that we have the funding vehicles to get through completion,” Porritt said.

Some members of the Dillon Urban Renewal Authority raised concerns about the potential size and scale of the structure proposed in that area. Urban Renewal Authority member John Woods, for example, said “smaller is better for that location.”

But Mayor Carolyn Skowyra said she is excited to see Porritt respond to items like workforce housing and parking that the town has been asking for.

While other members of the Urban Renewal Authority voiced their disagreement, Skowyra said she believes a petition that some Dillon residents have advanced in town helped prompt Porritt to propose the workforce housing and parking concept.

“I encourage us not to shy away from asking for what we want for our town because when you push a little bit like the public did in this case, you get what you want,” Skowyra said. “… This is a ton of housing. This is the Payne Building gone. This is a grocery store in town. It’s everything we ever asked for.”

Urban Renewal Authority members Renee Imamura and Dana Christiansen both took issue with the idea that the petition prompted Porritt to change his plans, instead saying that Porritt had been working all along on the proposal.

Porritt said that the mixed-use development and workforce housing component have been “a work in progress” with town staff for over a year. He said that based on the response from Town Council, there is enough interest in a public-private agreement for the mixed-use structure to move forward.

At this point the project and potential partnership are only conceptual, Porritt noted. While he said the project could still evolve as talks with the town continue, he also noted that proposed building aims to meet the needs of event parking during amphitheater shows.

“The biggest challenge in the footprint is we wanted to get enough surplus parking to really add a service to the existing amphitheater because parking continues to be a stress point,” Porritt said.