The Ranch Events Complex $110 million renovation
Larimer County is expanding the fair site and adding an outdoor amphitheater, multi-sport facility, event plaza and an exposition center and hotel.
- Greeley’s $1.1 billion Catalyst project is contingent on a special election vote regarding a zoning change.
- Both it and The Ranch plan for new hotels, expo centers and youth hockey facilities, raising questions about competition.
- The Colorado Eagles hockey team plans to move from The Ranch’s Blue Arena to the new Catalyst arena in 2028.
Northern Colorado is the planned home for two expansive entertainment projects that are historically attached, similar in design and just 4 miles apart.
The two projects, one of which is underway while the other hinges on an upcoming vote, have a common denominator in prominent Northern Colorado developer Martin Lind.
Along with the excitement of some for new and improved venues for concerts, festivals, hockey and other events in a state hot spot for growth comes the question: Is there room for two competing venues so close in proximity?
Larimer County’s The Ranch Events Complex is undergoing a more than $110 million Phase II renovation. The groundbreaking for that project was in October, a month after Greeley broke ground on its $1.1 billion Catalyst entertainment district.
The Ranch project is a go with the county’s dedicated sales and use tax being used to fund the project, which includes a 21-acre Event Lawn to be completed in time to host this year’s Larimer County Fair from July 31 through Aug. 4.
Despite groundbreaking and a sign proclaiming the “Future Home of the Colorado Eagles,” Greeley’s Catalyst and accompanying Cascadia residential-commercial development by Windsor-based Water Valley Company remain unsettled pending a Feb. 24 special election vote by Greeley residents.
In April, the Greeley City Council voted 5-2 in favor of financially supporting Catalyst, with construction of the arena and ice center underway.
But Ballot Issue 1A asks Greeley voters if the council-approved zoning change for the 834-acre Catalyst/Cascadia project north of U.S. Highway 34 and east of Weld County Road 17 to a planned unit development zone should remain in place or be repealed.
The outcome of the hotly debated issue will have major ramifications on the project’s future.
A vote to repeal the zoning would pause the project already set in motion and could threaten it due to committed financing, strict timelines and rising construction costs during the delay.
Lind, CEO of Water Valley Company, tried to work a similar project with Larimer County at The Ranch before that fell through in 2024. That prompted him to buy 834 acres — 734 acres for Cascadia and 100 acres for Catalyst — in west Greeley. The city is considered among the most fertile areas to grow in Northern Colorado because of its adequate water and land.
Despite the uncertainty of the vote, Lind believes the project will end up somewhere in Northern Colorado.
“The mushroom cloud of sales tax that comes out of a project like this will end up in a zip code in Northern Colorado,” Lind told the Coloradoan. “Either you grow or you die. Greeley has the political will to grow.”
The Ranch’s Phase II and Greeley’s proposed Catalyst contain many similarities
Both plans include an event plaza attached to an arena, a hotel and expo/conference center, and three sheets of youth hockey ice.
The Ranch’s plan calls for a 130,000-square-foot event plaza just outside Blue Arena that will include a community stage, play area, vendor space and covered pavilions to host large gatherings.
Construction on the first phase of the event plaza will begin in March and is expected to be completed in time for this year’s Larimer County Fair, according to The Ranch.
The Catalyst plan includes a plaza between the new 8,600-seat arena that will be the home of the Colorado Eagles in 2028 and a hotel, the Rocky Mountain Resort and Spa, according to a website for the project.
The plaza is planned to include coffee shops, bars, restaurants and event space for vendors, a farmers market and other seasonal events.
The Ranch’s plan calls for a public-private partnership for a 225-room hotel and 100,000-plus-square-foot exposition center to be built on the 314-acre site to accommodate growing demands of the complex, according to Conor McGrath, the complex’s managing director.
The county is currently in negotiations to secure a private partner.
Catalyst’s plan calls for the 351-room Rocky Mountain Resort and Spa, which also includes a 100,000-square-foot indoor water park.
The Ranch’s plan looks to scrape the existing Pedersen Toyota Center and rebuild it into a multisport facility that would include three sheets of ice for youth hockey with the ability to cover the ice with flooring to allow for basketball and volleyball events.
Completion of that project has not been finalized.
Catalyst plans to include an ice center with three sheets of ice for youth hockey into the arena to meet the demand for ice, house the Northern Colorado Youth Hockey and Junior Eagles programs, and play host to national hockey tournaments. The arena/ice center, hotel and water park are projected to open in 2028.
The Ranch’s plan also calls for a 6,000-seat (2,000 permanent, 4,000 lawn seating) outdoor amphitheater to be built in 2028.
Lind said the Catalyst project originally included an outdoor amphitheater but “very late we took that out so that we are not competing but complementing each other.”
Is there room for two large event complexes so close together?
McGrath and Lind were two central figures when Lind’s proposal to build a similar project at The Ranch was nixed by the county over differences, including finances, management control and scale of the project.
Despite their past differences, the two agreed there will be competition between the two complexes to attract eventgoers but said the two projects are working to complement more than compete against each other to bring people to Northern Colorado.
“Absolutely there will be some competition,” McGrath told the Coloradoan. “I think there is a big difference between competing and pitting one against the other. But we can have a healthy competition if that project moves forward.”
Lind said one area in particular that he sees the two sites complementing each other is hotel space and hockey.
“Northern Colorado has a 1,000-room hotel shortage right now and so we don’t see that as competition but as a rising tide lifts all boats,” Lind said.
He said youth hockey teams are used to traveling all over the country for tournaments, but at most places that requires additional travel once you get to the tournament because ice rinks and hotels are spread out.
“We will have hotel space and six or seven sheets of ice literally within a 10-mile radius to host those events,” Lind said. “That is unheard of in the hockey tournament industry. And we have other attractions nearby like Estes Park for those families to visit once they get here.”
McGrath and Lind said despite project similarities, size differential in event spaces at the two projects will be a determining factor in what events each will bring to their respective sites.
McGrath said while youth hockey will be a piece of The Ranch’s offerings when Phase II is complete, he believes Phase II will allow the complex to create flexible event space to attract a variety of events.
“We are not putting all of our eggs in a basket with hockey,” McGrath said. “There’s a growing demand and there is a shortage of ice in Northern Colorado, but in 20 years that could change. We have a community aspect we need to fulfill with a variety of interests and that’s how we want future growth to look for the facilities.”
The big question: What happens to Blue Arena when the Colorado Eagles leave?
Blue Arena, previously called Budweiser Events Center, has been the lone home of the Colorado Eagles since the facility opened in 2003.
Lind, who owns the Eagles, signed a 40-year lease in September to move the Eagles from Blue Arena to the planned Catalyst arena for the 2028-29 season. The team is an affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche.
That move blindsided Larimer County commissioners, according to a previous Coloradoan story.
Lind said he was reluctant to move the Eagles given the history but that Blue Arena (with 5,280 seats for hockey compared to 8,600 seats at Catalyst) could not be renovated to accommodate the AHL’s seating capacity. Part of Lind’s project idea for The Ranch was a new hockey arena with more seating and three sheets of ice for youth hockey.
“Because we have spent 20 some years in Loveland, it was very heart- and gut-wrenching to make that move 4 miles to the east,” Lind said. “But we’re in the hockey business and as Wayne Gretzky said, we ‘skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.'”
McGrath said one of the reasons the deal with Lind fell through in Larimer County was the county was uncomfortable with the debt load it would incur to build the estimated $315 million new arena and three sheets of youth ice. McGrath said that was even more of an issue because the county had already committed dedicated sales and use tax funds to planned projects.
“We would have had a shortfall to fund projects the public voted for that were included in those phases of our master plan,” McGrath said. “We wouldn’t have been able to do the event lawn, amphitheater, the plaza.”
McGrath said Blue Arena, which has undergone a $7.5 million interior and exterior makeover in recent years, hosts 189 events a year, including concerts, comedy shows, rodeo, a variety of sporting events and other performances.
The loss of the Eagles includes 36 regular-season home games plus playoffs, slots that McGrath and staff will need to fill.
“We are constantly pursuing other tenants that complement the current Eagles schedule so if the Eagles aren’t here it gives us another opportunity to go after that touring content,” McGrath said. “I would much prefer to have a tenant in the building with a fan base and would love to continue with the Eagles if that was possible. If not, then we will look at other options.”
The Eagles aren’t the first sports team to leave the building. Other teams that have left for various reasons include arena football teams the Colorado Spartans in 2024 and Colorado Ice/Crush in 2017 as well as the Colorado Chill professional women’s basketball team in 2006.
Lind said as disappointing as it is to leave Blue Arena and the fan base it grew over 20-plus years, he believes the strong team brand will continue to draw crowds to its Catalyst arena.
“We really felt there was a greater calling to build this for Northern Colorado and Greeley raised their hand,” Lind said.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.coloradoan.com ’
