Downtown Castle Rock is one step closer to having a new, mixed-use development with more than 200 apartments after council members voted to move forward in a Sept. 1 meeting.
The View, which is a collaboration among Sunflower Development Group, Treanor HL and First Construction, will be at the corner of Sixth Street and Jerry Street.
The site, which currently holds a storage facility, is more than 2 acres. If completed, the development will have 182,000 rentable square feet with 218 apartment units, 14,500 square feet of office space and 5,000 square feet of retail space, said Banks Floodman with Sunflower Development Group.
The project will allow for 429 new parking spaces, town manager David Corliss said. In exchange for the town waiving $3 million in fees and taxes for the project, developers will provide 100 of those spaces to the town for public use. The downtown development authority fund is expected to repay those fee waivers by 2025, Corliss said.
“In my opinion, this is a good move,” council member George Teal said. “We talk about successful downtowns requiring residents in order to be successful downtowns, the north end of downtown quite frankly struggles … If we want to talk about defending the vibrancy of our downtown, this is a good project.”
In addition to the town’s 4% sales tax, retail in the development will charge a 1% public improvement fee, Corliss said.
Only one resident, who said he lives just outside the town, spoke during the public comment portion. He voiced concerns about the project disturbing the town’s small-town feel and asked the council not to allow the project to move forward
“This is a huge project,” he said. “This is not the Castle Rock that I am fighting for, this is not the Castle Rock that I grew up in. Please defend the character of this town, defend the master plan that you put forward and answer to your residents about how this defends the small town character of Castle Rock.”
Mayor Jason Gray spoke in support of the development. Gray owns Crowfoot Valley Coffee and Crow Bar, which is within walking distance from the project site.
“I need people walking to and from my store,” he said. “Not only myself but everybody downtown, you can ask almost any business owner downtown and they need density.”
Councilmember Jason Bower also said he believes the development will help support local businesses.
“We need boots on the ground — people living in downtown Castle Rock — to support mom and pop businesses,” Bower said. “If the mom and pop businesses go away, residents will be extremely upset.”
Teal made a motion to direct the town’s staff to prepare a redevelopment agreement with Sunflower Development Group for the project. Mayor Gray along with council members Teal, James Townsend, Kevin Bracken and Bower voted in favor while council member Caryn Johnson voted against.
The redevelopment plan will come back to the council for approval at a later meeting.