LOVELAND — Thompson Valley Emergency Medical Services could be moving out of its 4 ½ -year-old headquarters building in northeast Loveland to make way for the recently announced Brands at the Ranch development.
On the site plan released Tuesday for the $500,000 million project, the spot now occupied by the 14,000-square-foot TVEMS administration building and ambulance station is shown as shops and parking lots.
The 90-acre development just south of The Ranch, if built, would feature shopping, a 12-screen movie theater, 825 apartments, two hotels, an Olympic pool, three ice rinks and two themed restaurant attractions.
Construction could start in early 2017, with a grand opening possible in the fall of 2018, according to developer Martin Lind of Windsor-based Water Valley Land Co.
Randy Lesher, chief of the ambulance service, said he had been aware for about a year of the possibility of a major development in the area formerly known as Eagle Crossing.
“We hadn’t heard anything for a while, so we were under the impression that it wasn’t going anywhere,” he said. “We had no idea it would come out this soon.”
Considering the options
The ambulance service, operated by a tax-supported health services district that covers 450 square miles including Loveland and Berthoud, is governed by a seven-member board. At their monthly meeting Thursday, Lesher talked to board members about the options available to TVEMS.
“What they asked me to do is to come back with any and all options available,” he said.
Those options include staying put and having the development built around the facility, moving to a new location that the developer would provide or selling the building on their own and using the proceeds to pay for a new location.
“It would have to be a cost-free move. They’re not up for paying for this,” Lesher said.
Water Valley’s Lind said his company has prepared several site plans for the development.
“We’re hoping that maybe we can strike an agreement with those guys to possibly relocate them. If that ends up not being feasible, then we have an alternate site plan that includes them and incorporates their facility right in the mall,” he said.
“We feel real good about our relationships with them,” Lind said. “We’re working together for the highest and best use for the whole area.”
About the alternate site plan, Lesher said: “We would like to look at the map of us remaining. We haven’t seen that yet.”
The health district bought 1.7 acres from Lind for $700,000 in 2011 and completed the new building in October 2011. The construction cost about $1.5 million, according to published reports. The district sold $3.5 million in bonds to finance the new headquarters but was able to save on building costs in a depressed economy, Lesher said at the time.
Land swap with Larimer County
Lind’s project also would require a land swap with Larimer County, according to county manager Linda Hoffmann.
She said a nonbinding memorandum of understanding between the county and Lind lays out the direction the two parties are pursuing: a trade of roughly 22 developable acres the county owns in the Brands at the Ranch area south of the Ranch for about 44 acres Lind owns north of The Ranch.
The swap, which would have to be approved by the county commissioners, also would involve a 10-acre detention pond the county owns south of The Ranch. Lind would take ownership of the pond, fill it in and use it in his development, Hoffmann said, in return for agreeing to divert The Ranch’s runoff to a pond on his land east of The Ranch.
The county manager said the proposed two-for-one land exchange would benefit both the developer and the county.
Larimer County owns a strip of land covering about 50 acres north of The Ranch that it would combine with the 44 acres from Lind, Hoffmann said.
“That would give us one big chunk instead of a strip and a remnant,” she said, and giving Lind the 22-acre remnant would make his site to the south more developable.
Hoffmann said the county is undertaking a new master-planning process for the 13-year-old fairgrounds and event center that will involve a citizen panel.
“We think the development potential of one big block will give more options for that master plan,” she said.
No money would change hands if the swap took place, she added.
Craig Young: 970-635-3634, cyoung@reporter-herald.com, www.twitter.com/CraigYoungRH.
