Chemical reactions in downtown Colorado Springs
“In 2009, the city told Cottonwood (now known as Cottonwood Center for the Arts) to move to make way for a hotel project. At the time, the clean-up cost for the site was estimated at $1.5 million. In a statement, the city explains: “The upward of $1 million estimate came from a third party who had planned on doing construction on this location, which would have required potentially extensive underground remediation.”
But before it even got underway, the project faded amid the recession. Sitting vacant, the building was then decimated by vandals and by the police SWAT team (“Completely trashed,” News, Nov. 18, 2010), which conducted drills there involving detonations and rammed doors. It had been pretty quiet since.
Last June, an Urban Land Institute Study recommended putting an “Arts and Entertainment Village” in the Urban Renewal Area, along with “a proposed new combination baseball stadium and outdoor performance center, museums, science centers, and the myriad of other visitation uses that the panel feels are possible.” Bach has since formed a Downtown Leadership Group, of which the URA is part, that’s charged with exploring these and other ideas.
The city’s first step to start rehabilitating the site was essentially to remove the building and cap the parking lot. On July 6, 2012, Hudspeth submitted the low bid of $148,852 to raze the buildings and remove the basement to make the site “development ready,” bid documents state.
The company applied for an asbestos abatement application for the site in November from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “That work was completed according to the permit,” state Health Department spokesman Mark Salley says in an e-mail, noting the city’s consultant, Walsh Environmental Scientists and Engineers, oversaw the work.”
Zubeck, Pam. Colorado Independent 24 April 2013.