A Political Setback

On today’s show we are talking about a political setback for one of our projects. If you have been following this show for a while, then you know that we own a large property on the edge of Colorado Springs consisting of 1783 acres. We started developing the master plan for this project a couple of years ago. 

The annexation was approved by city council by a vote of 7-2 in both the first and second reading in front of council at the end of January this year. 

In April a petition was launched by another developer to oppose our project. The requisite number of signatures were collected on the petition and our annexation was put to a special election which closed yesterday on June 17.  The special election resulted in overturning the city council decision to annex the property into the city.  The vote was overwhelmingly against our project with more than 81% voting against. 

The property is currently going back into the county as a result of this vote. There are a number of options for the project at this point.

I can tell you that we have a well developed plan B and plan C. We are not prepared to publicly announce those plans at this moment. We do have strong partners who see the long term vision for this project and they have the financial strength to see it through until the end. The land is owned free and clear with zero debt. So the holding cost for the land is minimal. This brings inherent safety to the project and the project can withstand a further delay as a result of the election. 

The loss of the election is regrettable and disappointing. But it is not a fatal blow to our project, far from it.