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OPINION – “No on Redtail Ridge”
OPINION – “No on Redtail Ridge”
August 2, 2020, by Chris Wheeler
---Chris Wheeler is a Louisville photojournalist and producer of the 9News documentary, “Coronavirus Winter: A Small Town Portrait in Black and White.”
---Chris Wheeler is a Louisville photojournalist and producer of the 9News documentary, “Coronavirus Winter: A Small Town Portrait in Black and White.”
Looking west from the lands of the proposed Redtail Ridge.
The good people of Louisville have a lot on their minds. Since March, we have been held hostage by an unrelenting pandemic. Local businesses, particularly those in our historic downtown, have been devastated and face an uncertain, frightening future. Many in our communities who have lost their jobs now face the reality of unemployment benefits being terminated. Parents are currently faced with the unthinkable dilemma of whether they can safely send their children to school this fall. In our COVID-19 world, the only certainty is uncertainty.
In the midst of this life-altering, history-changing period, the people of Louisville now face a blood pressure-raising decision that could forever change the course of our town. On Tuesday, Louisville City Council will vote to accept or deny a Denver-based developer’s proposal to create almost 6 million square feet development on the old StorageTek property. The developers have dubbed the 389-acre land “Redtail Ridge.” One Boulder County official calls the proposed Redtail Ridge “the largest land use decision Louisville has faced in decades.”
Sunrise over lands of proposed Redtail Ridge.
To truly understand the proposed development of Redtail Ridge, you need to understand its sheer size. How big is 389 acres? For comparison, Davidson Mesa is 246 acres. That means the proposed Redtail Ridge will be 45% bigger than Louisville’s largest open space. A more graphic comparison is to Old Town Louisville. Lisa Ritchie of the City of Louisville says Old Town measures 172 acres. That means you can fit more than TWO Old Towns into Redtail Ridge’s 389-acres. If passed, Redtail Ridge will, in essence, become a small city within our small town.
Thus far, Brue Baukol has shown little interest in reducing the size of Redtail Ridge into something people in Louisville might find more palatable. The developer says it cannot make money on the deal if the square footage is anything less than 5 million square feet. If you believe that, I have some land near a superfund site that I’d like to sell you.
On June 25, the Louisville Planning Commission basically said “absolutely not” to Brue Baukol’s request for Redtail Ridge, then punted the ball to City Council. Tuesday’s Council vote amounts to this: an “all or nothing” gambit by Brue Baukol that in the end, will be a referendum on what kind of city we want Louisville to be. Will we cave to outside forces and become another sprawling, congested Denver suburb? Or, will we fight to retain our small town character?
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One of the many mysteries of the proposed Redtail Ridge saga is the price Brue Baukol will pay landowner Phillips 66. No one outside of the dealmakers knows for sure, but it is rumored to be in the range of $55 million. I doubt Brue Baukol can venmo Phillips 66 that kind of cash. So who does have the deep pockets to purchase 389 acres of prime real estate along the Boulder Turnpike? Michael Eisenstein, a Louisville developer who opposes Redtail Ridge, says the capital likely comes from “institutional money.” He says Brue Baukol is backed by powerful forces whose only interest in Louisville is a maximum return on their investments. “Institutional money includes hedge funds, pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, etc.,” Michael said in an email. “Investment decisions are made by a committee as they review deals across the country. It’s a relatively small group in that arena where volume and rate of return supersede over everything.”
There has to be a tremendous amount of pressure on Brue Baukol to deliver the goods to their investors. “Most likely they (the investors) are making the release of their money contingent on Council passage,” adds Eisenstein. “Such money likes certainty, and in this case it’s the developer’s job to create certainty with the entitlement passage at all costs.” In other words, the developer’s investors get “certainty” at the expense of a great deal of uncertainty for the people of Louisville.
Another mystery in the Redtail Ridge story is the role of Medtronic, the medical device maker who has a large presence in Boulder County. More than 2000 Coloradans are employed by Medtronic. Five hundred of those work at the Louisville office just off Dillon Road. Medtronic, which makes pacemakers, cardiac monitors and other medical devices, is a valued piece of the Louisville economic puzzle.
“With Medtronic, we have an established primary employer who is seeking to grow and expand here,” says Megan Pierce, the City of Louisville’s Director of Economic Vitality. “They have chosen Louisville as the place they would like to expand.”
No one on either side of this debate disputes the value Medtronic brings to Louisville and Boulder County. Nor does anyone dispute the tax benefits the City of Louisville receives. “We want Medtronic to stay and support them as an employer in our community,” Megan says.
In the Redtail Ridge deal, Medrtonic has entered into a marriage of convenience with Brue Baukol. Both entities have much to gain by the proposed development. Brue Baukol gets the “certainty” of having a Fortune 500 company that will serve as an anchor of the massive development. Medtronic likely gets a much better land deal that it could ever negotiate on its own.
88th Street gate of Phillips 66 property.
Adding to the confounding nature of the issue is the inclusion of a third party in the proposed Redtail Ridge deal. Brue Baukol will sell the Medtronic lands not to Medtronic, but to Ryan Companies. They are a commercial real estate firm based in Minneapolis. Ryan Companies will then lease approximately 500,000 square feet to Medtronic. By the way, Medtronic corporate headquarters is also in the Twin Cities.
Dangled out before City Council is the possibility that Medtronic will add 1000 jobs if they are allowed to expand on the Redtail Ridge property. There have been whispers that Medtronic will relocate to another place in Colorado if City Council does not approve Redtail Ridge. The alliance between Medtronic and Brue Baukol gives the developer a trump card in their dealings with the City of Louisville. Without Medtronic, Brue Baukol is nothing more than a paper tiger.
Many in the community support Medtronic expanding its presence in Louisville. But the maddening question many ask is: “Why does keeping Medtronic in Louisville come with the baggage of a 5.8 million square foot development that many feel will cause added air pollution, increase traffic, and negatively impact that small town character so many here treasure? Why such a staggering price???” Again, the answer is Brue Baukol.
The lands of the proposed Redtail Ridge has outstanding views of the Flatirons.
Before jumping to the conclusion that the proposed Redtail Ridge is a private land issue and that we the people of Louisville should back off, you need to know that in this deal Brue Baukol is demanding the City of Louisville change the rules of the game. In order to move forward with their plans for Redtail Ridge, Brue Baukol needs City Council to change the Phillips 66 land designation from “rural” to “suburban.” A suburban designation would enable Brue Baukol to add the coveted residential units that would bring around 3000 people into Redtail Ridge.
The City designated the Phillips 66 land as “rural” in order to protect residents of Louisville from the very kind of development that Brue Baukol is proposing. Brue Baukol would like you to believe that the old StorageTek land is nothing more than an industrial wasteland. If that is the case, why do they insist that losing the residential portion of the proposed development is a deal breaker? The answer is on the land itself. The proposed lands offer outstanding views of the Flatirons along with Longs Peak and the Continental Divide. The 900 residential units and more than 1300 senior housing units will no doubt be marketed to have amazing views of the Rockies.
In the end, you cannot help but keep thinking that Louisville could do so much better than what Brue Baukol is proposing. Is there a compromise out there that enables Medtronic to expand while at the same time preserving the open space of the Phillips 66 land? If the Denver-based developer really cared about our community, they would work with City Council and come up with a plan that does not just benefit Brue Baukol and its faceless investors, but all the citizens of Louisville.
Redtail Ridge is not the right plan for Louisville. While our community is in the throes of a pandemic is NOT the right time to consider it.
City Council (Council@LouisvilleCO.gov ) would do all residents in our community a great service by voting no on Redtail Ridge.
This is the third in a series of stories. Please bookmark this website or contact us for updates.
Sixth in the Series: OPINION – Red Tail Ridge: “The 50 Million Dollar Question”
Fifth in the Series: OPINION – Redtail Ridge: Fragile Fragments by Chris Wheeler
Fourth in the Series: OPINION – Manifest Destiny at Redtail Ridge
Second in the Series: THE PROPOSED REDTAIL RIDGE-– Wisdom from Monarch High
First in the Series: THE PROPOSED REDTAIL RIDGE--Through the Lens of Another Developer
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