DENVER— The Colorado Creative Industries office, a division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) announced today five new recipients of the Community Revitalization Grant program.
Established by SB21-252, the Colorado Community Revitalization Grant provides gap funding for projects in creative districts, historic districts, main streets or neighborhood commercial centers. These grants support creative projects that combine creative industry workforce housing, commercial spaces, performance space, community gathering spaces, child care centers, and retail partnerships for the purpose of economic recovery and diversification by supporting creative sector entrepreneurs, artisans, and community non-profit organizations.
The five projects are:
East Street School Trinidad, CO - $4 million
The historic East Street School at 224 East Street in Trinidad was built in 1920. With the support of community members, local government and state agencies, and with the vision of Dana Crawford and other creative partners to find beneficial new use for this historic resource, this project will create the East Street School Cultural Center. The Center is a multifaceted project celebrating both the historic and artistic character of Trinidad, while meeting many of the community’s goals and objectives. The purpose of this project is to once again open the doors of this significant historic resource as an educational anchor, focusing on the creative industries community in Trinidad. In so doing, the East Street School Cultural Center promises to enhance both the artistic and historic character of the community.
40 West Arts Drumstick Building Lakewood, CO - $600,000
The renovation of the historic Drumstick building in the 40 West creative arts district will allow affiliated nonprofits serving the Lakewood West Colfax community to achieve a dream of serving a diverse, traditionally underserved community. The building will serve as the creative district hub, providing cultural programming focused on underserved youth and seniors, as well as serving as a community hub to help provide facilities for community-service organizations and local neighborhood associations. Project organizer, Bill Marino expressed, “This project will support more than one hundred artists and creatives who will call this building home. The intention is to make the building a memorable landmark along West Colfax that will add to the community’s art experience.”
Artspace Loveland Feed & Grain Loveland, CO - $5 million
Artspace will redevelop the iconic Feed & Grain into an arts-centric, mixed-use property to complete the Artspace Loveland Arts Campus. Responding to community calls, Artspace acquired the Feed & Grain and a neighboring, vacant lot in 2014. Artspace newly constructed the Loveland Lofts on the lot, providing 30 live/work family units and gallery space; and conducted an initial scope of work to stabilize the old mill. Completion of the iconic, historic Feed & Grain fulfills the original vision of the community, transforming the use of the structure into live/work housing and community space. Called out as a priority project in the Loveland Downtown Development Authority Plan of Development in 2017, redevelopment of the building will bookend substantial improvements that have been made in downtown Loveland in recent years, while creating additional affordability and space for the arts.
Old Firehouse Ridgway, CO - $500,000
Located in Ridgway’s historic business district, the project features new development integrated with the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the iconic "old Ridgway firehouse" stone building as a restaurant-hospitality-culinary arts complex. The vision for the Old Firehouse Project redefines the notion of “mixed-use” with a unique restaurant/hospitality complex featuring open- hearth cooking combined with a vertical “micro-farm” greenhouse for year-round aeroponic growing supporting the restaurant's fresh, organic food supply. The hospitality function will be complemented by office space, event/flex spaces, and a seasonal partially covered, open-air community arts event space. This project includes 4 residential workforce housing units, each with an on-site covered parking space. Workforce Housing is an acute need in the community and an essential project goal.
Rose Mountain Pagosa Springs, CO - $2.4 million
Rose Mountain Is a community-based mixed use development located in the Town Center Commercial District of Pagosa Springs. Rose Mountain is being developed on a 5-acre site owned by Archuleta County and made available on a long-term, low-cost lease. When completed the development will provide 34 workforce housing units, a clubhouse, office, community playground area, a human services building and shared community and arts space. The development was initiated at the beginning of the pandemic and was faced with significant cost increases in materials and labor. Applicant Bill Simpson commented, “Due to the cost increases, many features of the project were planned to be cut, however with the Colorado Community Revitalization Grant, these features can remain in the development.The grant will specifically allow for the completion of the short-term residential space, the community space, the playground, parking, and EV charging stations.” This development is being built in an underserved area of the state and is the first affordable housing development in over fifteen years.
These five projects follow the six announced in October of this year.
"These projects advance the creative industries in partnership with local government, business, and non-profit organizations and play an important role in job creation and community revitalization," stated Margaret Hunt, Director of Colorado Creative Industries in the Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
The Community Revitalization Grant is still open, and shovel-ready, mixed-use projects that advance the creative industries are encouraged to apply.