AURORA — The plan sounded like a win for everyone: turn the former Lowry bombing range into what would essentially be a new town, with up to 13,000 new homes, lots of parks and open space and millions of square feet in retail and office space.
Schools would get more than $300 million in revenue from the new development, which would be self-sustaining and produce hundreds of new jobs.
But water issues forced the developer, Lend Lease Communities, to back out of the project that was to break ground this year.
Now the property goes back in the hands of the Colorado State Land Board, which is in no hurry to put anything there for the foreseeable future.
“When you have a developer of Lend Lease’s caliber, it took a long time to get to that stage,” said Land Board spokesman Pete Webb. “As the global economic picture rights itself, we may yet find another developer that will meet our expectations.”
The Land Board and Lend Lease knew going in that there were issues with the property that would eventually have to be addressed. There was no infrastructure, no roads, and the developer would have to come up with a plan to provide water.
Chris Waggett, president of Lend Lease Communities, said the issue at Lowry was that they could not secure sustainable water.
The company could not reach an agreement with Rangeview Metropolitan District and Pure Cycle Corp., which control water rights on a portion of the Lowry property.
Pure Cycle and Rangeview called for water to be secured through several measures, including drawing groundwater and surface water. That was apparently the deal breaker for Lend Lease, which pulled out of the project last month.
“We said all along that if we couldn’t create sustainable water resources, we wouldn’t do the project,” Waggett said. “We will not use nonrenewable groundwater.”
The State Land Board and Lend Lease announced in 2007 that they had reached a development agreement for the former bombing range in unincorporated Arapahoe County east of E-470.
The $1.5 billion project on just under 4,000 acres of a 26,000-acre parcel would have included 260 acres of commercial development and 705 acres of open space and trails.
In all, some $334 million in revenue from the development would have gone into the state school trust, to support K-12 education.
But that funding isn’t coming now, as the Land Board looks for other options for Lowry.
“It is still a very desirable area,” Webb said. “The Land Board has got to look at what’s the best return of their investment for the taxpayers of Colorado. The Land Board will take a step back and have discussions on where they will go next.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
