Inside Arvada

Inside Arvada Urban Renewal with Maureen Phair

• City of Arvada • Season 1 • Episode 24

Share episode

Send us a text

Learn about the work of the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA) with Executive Director, Maureen Phair, focusing on urban revitalization efforts over the last two decades. Hear about AURA's funding structure, relationship to the City, and a variety of projects that showcase a commitment to improving our community and fostering sustainable development. In the episode:

Click into an individual project page to see before / after photos. For example, the Arvada Ridge Marketplace discussed in the episode.

News and events:

Visit us at ArvadaCO.gov/Podcast or email us at podcast@arvada.org.

Katie:

Welcome to Inside Arvada, the City of Arvada's podcast, where we bring you conversations with the people who make Arvada a thriving community. Hear stories about the past, present and future of Arvada through the lens of the city team members who help make it all happen. Explore the complex topics impacting our community, from the roads you drive to the water you drink, the parks where you play to what your neighbors think. Join us as we take you Inside Arvada. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the city's official podcast, inside Arvada. We are really excited for this week's guest.

Katie:

We have Maureen Fair, with the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority, on with us. With the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority, on with us. Mo has been with Aura, the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority, for almost 22 years now, and she started all the way back in 2002. I was just a wee one back then and she started as a project manager and then she moved into becoming the deputy director with Aura and then now serves as the executive director and has been doing that for the last 14 years. Really great to have her on. She just has such a wealth of knowledge that she's going to share with us before she retires here soon, and so, as always, I'm joined today by my co-host, sean hey Sean.

Sean:

Hi, katie, I always love having guests on like Mo, who have been with the city or their organization for as long as she has more than two decades because she's just such a wealth of knowledge, as you mentioned, and it was great to learn about Aura and like all the different projects that they've done and we'll link it in the show notes. But you've got to check out some of these before and after of the projects that they've done to notice the difference that Aura can have around the community. And so with that, we'll turn it over to our interview.

Katie:

Hi Mo, thanks for joining us today. So, to get us started, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do with ORA.

Maureen:

Thanks for having me. It's nice to be here. I am the executive director of the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority. I've been here for almost 22 years. I've been the executive director for 14.

Katie:

Great, great being here. What exactly is Aura?

Maureen:

So Aura is a separate entity from the city. We are not a department of the city and we are structured through the state. There's state statute that really dictates how we work and we have one mission really, and one mission only, and it is to remediate blight. And we remediate blight in very specific designated areas in the town.

Sean:

And so how are those areas of town determined? I mean, is it just like, hey, this area needs some revitalization, let's go do some projects over here? How do you determine?

Maureen:

Kind of in a way.

Maureen:

So there's a variety of ways that an area could be established. First of all, someone has been complaining that this area is run down and needs to be fixed up, and that could come either from the constituents or city council or, you know, even us. And when we decide that you know this area really does need to be fixed up, we have to go through the state statute and find a predominance of blight in the area. We have to do an urban renewal plan which basically says here's the land and here's kind of our plan on how to revitalize it, and it also has very specific boundaries. So we would say, inside, this area is where we're going to work, and so it's very defined. And then we would take that to city council and city council would look at that plan and look at the findings of blight and say, yes, urban renewal, we would like you to go in there and see if you can revitalize it, and we would. Then they would adopt the plan and we would then have 25 years in order to remediate the blight.

Katie:

And you mentioned quickly there that this comes out of kind of a state statute that exists, that can be kind of applied locally anywhere in the state. And city council essentially said some decades ago we want to have an urban renewal district authority. And then you look at a set of criteria that kind of define blight. Is that all right? Exactly yes, yes.

Maureen:

There's 11 categories of blight and we have to find a predominance of four. And urban renewal. Arvada put this on an election back in 1980. And they said city, would you guys like to have an urban renewal authority? And the voters said yes. And so since then we have had six urban renewal districts. The first one started in 1981 and expired 25 years later, in 2005. And since then we have an additional five urban renewal areas.

Katie:

What was that first one?

Maureen:

The first one we named them. The first one was called City Center and most people will be very familiar with this. It is off of I-70 by the Costco. So those were urban renewal projects. We helped develop and bring into town the Costco Sam's Club, home Depot, lowe's that big power sounder down there is because of urban renewal. We were able to then go into Old Town and revitalize Old Town. That's the same urban renewal area. We did the streetscapes on Old Wadsworth and Grandview. We did the what is that? The Old Town Square. We did a few new buildings where Homegrown is and the Smoking Fins.

Maureen:

And also where the Gene Center is kind of county corner from the library. We did a bunch of facade grants which really restored a lot of those old historic buildings back to their grandeur. And we also did the Water Tower Village, which is about 26 acres of multifamily and we restored the water tower. So the water tower was actually a kind of fun project. It used to be kind of a rusted old kind of gray thing with a big chain link fence with barbed wire on top of it, and we restored it. And what was interesting about that is it used to be filled with water. It's no longer active, but when you take the water out it's no longer heavy enough and so it could blow over. So we had to do all kinds of stuff to stabilize it and we painted it and took down that fence and created that beautiful park underneath it and people have actually gotten married under. Oh cool yeah. So that's kind of a fun one.

Sean:

Yeah, now it's like the icon of Arvada.

Maureen:

Yeah, a lot of our materials and marketing and stuff.

Sean:

It's that water tower. I didn't realize that Aura had such an important part in revitalizing it and making it such a unique part of Arvada, and so these districts can be defined as big or small as maybe is needed, right? So it sounds like this Old Town one is like pretty big, but I know you have some that are much smaller.

Maureen:

Yeah, our smallest one is only three acres and that is where the Hilton Garden is. At the time, Arvada was, I think, one of the biggest cities that did not have a hotel and we worked, God, for years and years trying to bring a hotel to Arvada and we would get close and the hotel would go to try and get some bank lending and the banks would be like, well, give us some comps, how are the other hotels doing?

Maureen:

We're like, well, we don't have any other hotels and they're like well, I don't think we want to loan to you. So it was really a challenge to get that first one done, and we always heard that once we got the first one done that the other ones would come. And so you guys know, we just opened up our second one, which is the Marriott Residence Inn, and that developer is doing so well, he's looking for a third. You know hotels like to cluster, so we're looking to see if there's a location to put a third. But and you know hotels like to cluster, so we're looking to see if there's a location to put- a third.

Katie:

But now that we got the first one, the rest will come, yeah, and the location just makes a lot of sense with the G-Line being there now, right, and you can get to downtown really easily. You can do things right here in Old Town and right on 70 even too, like if you're going up to the mountains or something.

Maureen:

And if you talk to the merchants in Old Town, we built a whole bunch of residential in and around the Old Town area. But when you talk to those merchants, what really has made a difference for them is having the hotels there, because the hotels are the ones that come up and eat, drink and shop, and so they are really grateful for those.

Katie:

That makes sense. So you mentioned a little bit about the history of Aura. Starting with a citizen vote, what is kind of Aura's relationship to the city? How does that work today?

Maureen:

Well, we have an intergovernmental agreement with the city. As I said, we are a separate entity. I am not a city employee, I am a contract worker for the ORA board. I have an annual contract. But in our IGA we do have an agreement that we can use certain departments of the city. So we can use HR to do our benefits and our use, payroll and IT, but we're billed for those services and we pay the city on a monthly basis to be allowed to use those, and so we kind of look and act a little bit like a department, but we are quite separate.

Katie:

Yeah, I think that was definitely a misconception I had, because you know it's sort of out of org email and things like that. And so that's an easy misconception. For us that kind of work more closely with you from time to time, at least to recognize that it's completely separately funded and completely separately run. And you mentioned that you all have a board Right.

Maureen:

We have a seven-member board and we always have either the mayor or the city council person on our board, and right now Mayor Simpson is on our board.

Sean:

And you're a small but mighty team. Right there's like only you and one other Yep Right.

Maureen:

Yeah, yeah, and our annual budget this year is $50 million and we can talk a little bit more about how that get get that money.

Katie:

Yeah, that's a good segue. We wanted to ask about the funding structure. It's kind of complicated. We've had a little bit of conversation about it before this and had a hard time fully understanding it, so can you do your best to help explain?

Maureen:

Right. So we get no money from the city, so we are self-funded. No other entity gives us money. So how it works is, let's say, that you're taking an area that needed to be revitalized. So let's take an example of the Super Target. You know where the Super Target is off of Kipling Sure. Target is off of Kipling Sure.

Maureen:

That used to be the Ridge Home Hospital and it was like a mental hospital for children and it had closed 20 years before urban renewal came about. And it sat there for 20 years and it had, I don't know, something like 60 buildings and those buildings had been abandoned and they were literally falling down. They were filled with graffiti, there was a lot of kind of illicit activities going on in there, but the private sector was not interested in going in there and redeveloping that because it was way too complicated for them to go in, because they would have to buy the property, they would have to remediate all the asbestos and all the environmental contamination, they'd have to demo those buildings. There's no infrastructure, they'd have to do everything new and so it was just cost prohibitive for anyone to go in there. So that kind of decaying campus sat there for all those years until Urban Renewal created an Urban Renewal district there, and so that property that I just described was sitting there vacant and it wasn't really producing anything. It wasn't producing any property tax, any sales tax, anything. It was just kind of this derelict property.

Maureen:

So when we go in and create a neurobrutal area, we say, all right, we're going to start this in 2003, which is what we did. So we'll look back and say in 2004 or 2002, sorry, in 2002, what did that area produce as far as property tax and what did it produce as far as sales tax? And that becomes the base. So if you are a taxing entity, you get what you got in that prior year. So then the idea is that urban renewal come in and we'll start working to try and fix that up, and if that area starts producing more property tax than the year before, that incremental increase in property tax comes to urban renewal, we then reinvest that money into that project.

Maureen:

So let's look at the target. So that thing did not produce anything and that original project has the super target. There's all that inline space and then those are the pad sites. Also, in that old hospital was a land to the north. So there's two apartment complexes that were created both north and south of the G line, and there's one has like 300 units, the other one has just under 300.

Maureen:

So all that is new investment in an area that didn't produce anything. So now the property tax is very high and the sales tax is very high because, you know, target does well and all those restaurants and everything. So all that goes above what was generated before. So we're able to take that money and make that developer whole so we are able to pay for the environmental cleanup, the demolition, all the new infrastructure, the streets, everything that happened and the way they did. That is there were bonds that were floated is there were bonds that were floated and our TIF money, that tax increment above the base, went to pay those bonds that paid for all that public improvements. So that's how that project was done. We reimbursed the developer for all those expenses through that bond.

Sean:

Yeah, you should encourage our listeners to go onto Aura's website, because there are some before and after photos.

Maureen:

Yeah, they're pretty incredible.

Sean:

Before photos you can't even recognize that area of town. And now it's obviously flourishing with the Target and the residential and all that. Yeah, it's same with the Old Town residential area, as you see some of those pictures of before the work that was done and it's unrecognizable.

Katie:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's quite, quite impressive to see that and really see that that in the long run, see that economic value of of what's been invested in. Because when you're talking about some of these areas, sometimes I think, change, growth, those, those can be hard to live through and in the at the beginning of a project in particular, it can feel really tough and it can be a hard sell for people, I think. And so to then see the benefit right, the long-term benefit of some of that is really, I think, a valuable way to help explain kind of the short-term pain, long-term gain, I guess, of all of it yeah, so pretty cool.

Sean:

So then, some of this tax increment funding that you get from Target then also helps fund the next project as well too how much the public improvements cost.

Maureen:

In order to get the project done, we'll either give a portion 100% or a portion, or it depends on the project, that the project where the target is. We gave them 60% of the sales and property tax in order to pay those bonds, so that additional 40% came to us, those bonds, so that additional 40% came to us, and we were able to use that 40% to go up into the three shopping centers off of Ralston and Independence. That's where the Kmart, the King Soopers, the Safeway. They're on the north side and then there's stuff on the south side and we were able to go in there and redevelop that area. So that area had 68 acres, three shopping centers, only one housing unit in that entire area and that retail got really tired. Eventually the Safeway went dark and the Kmart went dark and there just wasn't a whole lot going on there and it really was getting run down. And now what we've tried to do is not have it be just one type of use. Where it was all commercial, we went in and are making it more of a mixed use. So there's a lot of apartments and townhomes and parks.

Maureen:

We built the Garrison Garden, paseo, which if you haven't been to it, is absolutely amazing, really proud of that. Also, there wasn't hardly any trees over there. The old way that strip centers did their parking lots is it was just a sea of asphalt. They didn't have the landscape islands, we didn't have the streetscape with the trees lining it. And so we're going back and we're putting in all those trees, the streetscape, the kind of pocket parks and really making it a true mixed-use area, true mixed-use area. And I think one of the crowning jewels of the whole thing that most people are excited about is that we're working with a developer to build a beer garden right at the corner of Garrison and Ralston, and that's going to be a lot of fun. And in front of the beer garden is a large big public plaza that people can use. They don't have to go to the beer garden, they can just go in there and, you know, sit and enjoy it.

Katie:

Yeah, that's. I'm excited for that area. That's really going to activate that space, and just the proximity to Ralston Central Park too, I think, is already a really popular park and so it just adds to that whole, to that whole area, quite a bit.

Maureen:

Right, and there's that creek that runs behind there, ralston Creek, and the old shopping center turned its back to it and the Safeway turned its back to it and it's this beautiful asset. So everything that we're doing over there now is required to face the street. So the townhomes along there need to face the street. We're trying to connect back to the neighborhood to be able to make it easy for the neighborhood to come in to shop, to use the trails, all that, and we actually renamed the area. It never really had a brand, it never had a name. So we're calling it Ralston Creek to really highlight that beautiful asset of the creek. And if you go over there you'll see that there's all the signage and everything speaks to the creek.

Sean:

Yeah, that construction is happening fast. I feel like every time I drive by there it looks like some bunch of progress has been made, and so when is some of the mainly people want to know about the beer garden? I do, yeah.

Maureen:

Okay, the beer garden's got to open up later this spring.

Sean:

Okay.

Maureen:

So let's say May June.

Sean:

Yeah, very cool, because I remember when I first moved to Arvada, you know, I biked into Ralston Central with my son and then from there. If you don't continue on the trail and you try to go into that shopping center, it was like this dilapidated parking lot. And that was only a few years ago, and so to see the transformation that's happening right now is really exciting.

Katie:

Yeah, even like getting from the trail to like Corvus coffee or like any of those little things is like really tricky, and this will make it really smooth and really connect all of those those businesses. So, um, that's exciting. As someone who doesn't live far from there, um, yeah, that's a great area to now I can take my dog to the beer garden, so, um, uh, okay, so we've already really been talking about this, but, um, you've been with Aura 22 years. We've already talked about some of like the big impacts and major projects, but there's also like a lot of you have a lot of like data and things that back up kind of how this has made a difference in our local economy and kind of what the effect for Arvada has been. Can you talk a little bit more about that and any particular kind of projects or things you want to highlight that have had a big influence? Sure, toot your own horn a little bit is what I'm asking.

Maureen:

Okay, well, I did write down some notes so I can speak to these. So in my almost 22 years here, this is what Urban Renewal has accomplished. Renewal has accomplished so we have created 2,765 housing units just in the southeast corner of Arvada alone, and that makes a big difference because we're having an issue with affordable housing. Of that, I think like 120, 125 of those units is affordable, and there's a lot of those that are townhomes as well. But it's important to create a variety of housing types, and Arvada really has a lot of single family homes and we needed to create more of a variety. So we've got apartments, we've got townhomes, and that makes it more accessible for the working people. Also, we have put $23 million into parks and streetscapes. We've created 523,000 square feet of new commercial and all together, what we do is our money really kind of leverages the private sector, and so the private sector, during that 22 years in these specific project areas, has invested just under a billion dollars in the southeast Arvada alone.

Katie:

Wow, and I think it's just really reiterating that these are areas that couldn't have done that work, that nearly billion dollars wouldn't have revitalized. Some of these areas that I would argue are like my favorite places to go Maybe soon will be new favorite places to go, so that's quite an impressive impact, yeah impact.

Sean:

Yeah, one question we always like to ask every guest, as well as kind of as we get toward the end of the interview, is like what folks should know about the work you do, or clearing up some of the misconceptions. So what are some of those things that maybe you get questions a lot about, or you see people or hear people talking about and you're like no, that's not quite right.

Maureen:

This is actually the truth. I need general fund. That's not money that is there. So the money that we use is the money that the developers generate by their development. So If the development didn't happen, that money would not have been generated. So we use their money to pay for the public improvements that are going into their project, but for urban renewal that money would not come. So that is the big misconception. I think that we're using government money to make these developers rich, using government money to make these developers rich.

Maureen:

And developers are business people and they go in and they look at a project and they say I have investors and I need to make a certain return on my investment. If they cannot make that certain return on their investment, they are not going to do the development. So when you're looking at these older parts of town, not going to do the development. So when you're looking at these older parts of town, a lot of times, unless you're like in a really, really popular area where the returns can be really high, like Cherry Creek, if you're somewhere other than Cherry Creek, it doesn't make sense for developers to come in and buy a piece of property that say there's a strip center on it, you've got to buy that property. You've got to buy out the leases from all the tenants that are in there. You have to relocate those tenants.

Maureen:

Then those shopping centers oftentimes have issues. There's dry cleaning contamination, there might be a gas station there, there's asbestos. So just for a developer to get to a developable piece of land costs them millions and millions of dollars, and you have to do your development on top of that. So urban renewal was created to help these areas of our community where the private sector won't go into because it just doesn't make financial sense. So we were created to help bridge that financial gap, to make sure that these areas of our town don't become blighted and we can go ahead and reinvest in them. So I guess the thing that I really want people to know is that we are not using existing funds. We are using developer investment.

Katie:

Yeah, that made me think too, like there's a long-term maybe like quality of life benefit for the general public there too, and then also, after that 25 years, there's a long-term benefit for the portion of that sales tax, property tax, whatever it is that then is reinvested in the city and does go back to the various incremental tax.

Maureen:

That is a great point.

Katie:

Thank you for bringing that up.

Maureen:

Okay, so, like I said, we have 25 years that we work and so we use that incremental tax and we reinvested it into the project and then, at the end of that 25 years, all that tax goes back to the taxing entities.

Maureen:

So all that newfound created tax goes back to the city, it goes to the schools, it goes to the fire district and all that. So I told you we had one urban renewal area that started in 81 and it expired in 06. And so we have all the data and everything for that, and what it shows is that we were able to use that newfound revenue that was generated through our developers and create a lot of sales and property tax, and at the end of that 25 years, those taxing entities saw their revenue increase by 191%. I'm going to say that again. It grew by 191% by us utilizing and reinvesting that money, and that was not done by raising taxes. No taxes were raised. We were just able to utilize that, put it back into the community, and that was what they saw at the end of the 25 years.

Sean:

And so these other development areas are just kind of in various stages of that 25-year sort of plan and maybe one will expire in a few more years. Do we have any ideas yet of, maybe, where the next development area will be for Aura? That?

Maureen:

is great. Now we are going to be starting here later this year about looking for new areas, and we'll be reaching out to the community, to our elected officials, to all of our partners to say are there areas of our community that you see that the private sector is not getting involved in, Are they getting run down? Is there a reason why no one is investing in it? And so we will be looking for a new area. So if anybody has any thoughts or ideas, they can always reach out.

Sean:

Now's the time.

Maureen:

Now's the time.

Katie:

That's great. Should we move on to the lightning round?

Sean:

Let's do it.

Katie:

All right, you want me to take the lead?

Sean:

here, sure, go for it.

Katie:

So quick questions just to help folks get to know you a little bit better. So what is your favorite thing about Arvada?

Maureen:

Oh, it's got to be Old Town. I don't know if there's anybody who spends more money in Old Town. I eat out every day. I do all my shopping here. I am a dedicated Old Town person.

Katie:

Love it. What was your first, last or best concert?

Maureen:

I think that is probably not the best question to ask me, because I'm not a big music person. I am a reader. I, for instance, I read 64 books last year.

Katie:

So first, last or best book, yeah, yeah. That'd be too hard to ask Just too many. What brought you to Arvada?

Maureen:

Well, my first experience of ever coming to Arvada was really the Arvada Center. I had a friend that had some tickets and I went along and loved it and then I got season tickets. First my sister and I came here for years and then she moved out of town and my girlfriends and I came, and for a lot of people I think the Arvada Center is their first introduction. It's an amazing place.

Sean:

Yeah, we had Sarah Kolb, the director of marketing, on as our previous guest. Oh all, right Talking about some of the she's also on the Arts and Culture Commission, so that was kind of where the crossover was.

Katie:

What was?

Maureen:

your first job. I was a dishwasher in an old folks' home.

Katie:

Oh, Pretty exciting stuff for four years.

Sean:

That's a new one. We get a lot of lifeguards and some, you know, restaurant work.

Maureen:

But dishwasher, yeah, dishwasher, I'm telling you a dishwasher. In an old folks home there could be some dicey stuff.

Katie:

I'm sure. Yeah, this might be a hard one, but what has been your favorite project you've done in your with Aura?

Maureen:

Well, you know, I think that the one I'm probably most proud of right now is the Paseo. That is really amazing, but the redevelopment of all those shopping centers over there really is what I was hired to do back in 2003. And to have that area come out of the ground and be as mixed use and diverse as it is is the thing I'm the most proud of.

Katie:

That's great. Well, thank you, Mo. Thanks so much for coming on and talking with us today. Well, thanks for your interest.

Sean:

Yeah, thank you, Mo. I really appreciate it. Appreciate it All. Right, Before we let you go, we'll conclude with our news and events segment and, as a reminder, we'd love to hear from our listeners. You can stay in touch by texting us at the link of each show or you can email us at podcastarvadaorg. We always love hearing feedback about what you enjoy. Perhaps maybe some ideas for future episodes. Again wanted to mention that the Arvada Reservoir is in need of more volunteers for the upcoming 2025 season. Training is in March for the season that runs April through October, so now is the perfect time to join the volunteer ranger program at arvadacogov slash rangers. Speaking of volunteers, the Majestic View Nature Center is hosting a volunteer open house here coming up on Saturday, March 8th, from 11 am to 1 pm. You don't need to sign up. You just need to drop by the Nature Center during those hours and you can learn about the many ways you can get involved over there at the Nature Center.

Katie:

Yeah, and it's also Resource Central is a partner that we have here at the city that we provide discounts on outdoor water saving programs for our City of Arvada water customers to help save money on their water bills and save water. And so really great programs Garden in a Box, lawn Replacement and the Slow the Flow Sprinkler Evaluations are all in a variety of different open areas between joining interest lists or applying for the programs, and so we encourage folks to check those out at resourcecentralorg and sign up for interest lists if you're interested in those programs. And then the city also prints a bi-monthly magazine called the Arvada Report. If you're an Arvada resident you should get one every two months delivered right to your home. And right now there's a survey out asking for some feedback to help make that publication just meet the community needs and what you all are interested in and seeing or might want to see improved in that publication, and so that's a really great asset for the city to share information with our community. So we really encourage you to take that survey that we'll link in the show notes.

Katie:

And last but certainly not least, our neighborhood engagement team helps coordinate a neighborhood walk in some of the warmer months of the year, and so the next neighborhood walk, the first one of the year, is going to be Saturday, march 15th, from 3 to 5 pm and they're going to meet at the Stanley Lake Library Trailhead. And, really cool, this time they're partnering with Majestic View Nature Center on this walk to have a Audubon master birder to help search for some bald eagles out there. So if that sounds interesting, we encourage you to check out the information that we'll link in the show notes. And thank you again so much to today's guest, maureen Fair Really great talking with her about the work that we'll link in the show notes. And thank you again so much to today's guest, maureen Fair Really great talking with her about the work that Aura does.

Katie:

Be sure to listen to our next episode with our Pavement Program Manager, ben Sawaya, and, as always, stay in touch with us. You can visit our website, arvatacogov slash podcast, subscribe to the show, send us an email at podcast at arvataorg. We'd love to answer any questions you might have or hear your ideas for future episodes. Thank you to our listeners. Please promote the show, subscribe, rate and review.

Sean:

And today's podcast was recorded and edited by Arvada Media Services and I'll leave you with the fun fact about the Garrison Garden. Paseo is a project that Mo referenced that Aura has helped partner with the city on and this spring there'll be some demonstration gardens there in partnership with the neighboring Arvada gardeners. So right now it might look a little dead or empty there, but there'll be some demonstration gardens there to check out the Garrison Garden Paseo this spring.

Katie:

Cool.