COLORADO SPRINGS — Reports last week that a new economic development agreement between Colorado Springs and the U.S. Olympic Committee had been forged were off base.
Instead of being released Monday, which is what Assistant City Manager Mike Anderson said last week would happen, the proposed agreement might not be complete for weeks.
Anderson, who has been directly involved in negotiating a new deal to keep the USOC in the Springs after the original agreement fell apart, told the City Council on Monday that “very good progress” was being made.
But there are “a number of remaining business points that are still open and need to be resolved,” he said.
The city had hoped that those issues, which he didn’t reveal, could have been resolved and that the proposed agreement would have been made public this week, Anderson said.
Hope was the operative word.
“I believe City Council and the public will soon find out in the coming weeks,” Anderson said. “The resolution of this problem is very complex. It’s a very complex problem that obviously requires some complex resolutions as well.”
The nine-person board of directors hasn’t seen the proposed agreement and must sign off on it before it is released, he said. Board members live throughout the country, creating logistical hurdles.
Spokeswoman Lindsay DeWall said the USOC and the city are “working diligently” on a new agreement.
“Any deal of this magnitude will require board approval,” she said. “But we don’t have a board meeting set at this time.”
It is unclear whether LandCo Equity Partners, the local development firm owned by Ray Marshal that was awarded the $53 million city contract to build a downtown headquarters for the USOC and other related projects, will be part of any new agreement.
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