A group hoping that voters will repeal the Greeley City Council’s approval of the complex financing plan for a $1.1 billion sports and entertainment project on the city’s western edge has gotten off to a stumbling start.
A news release sent out June 19 by the group launching a campaign called Greeley Deserves Better claimed that it had launched a website, StoptheGreeleyGiveaway.com, but those who went there found nothing — until late last Friday, when the GoDaddy domain was purchased by a team led by Martin Lind, a Windsor-based developer and leading proponent of the Cascadia project.
“We were trying to get on their website to see what their grievance was and who owns it, but it turned out that website was never recorded, so we grabbed it,” Lind told BizWest on Thursday.
The news release said the campaign was being led by Pam Bricker, former executive director of the Greeley Downtown Development Authority and founding member of the Greeley Creative District, and Dan Wheeler, owner of Wheeler Properties Inc., which his family started in 1915. However, Wheeler did not return calls seeking comment, and Bricker told BizWest that although she supported the effort, she was not its leader and would not reveal names of the people behind the drive or how the website snafu happened.
“Right now, they’re just using my name,” Bricker said. “I haven’t done any of that. There are people who are running the show, and I’m just sitting back and waiting for the petitions.
“There are a lot of people helping us,” she said. “You can look on Facebook and see how people are upset and how it affects businesses in downtown Greeley.”
A website called StoptheGreeleyGiveaway.org was launched on Monday, but a spokesperson who declined to be identified said that site was not affiliated with their group. The opponents’ official website, also purchased through Monday, is now greeleydeservesbetter.com, a Squarespace site that includes a link to Bricker’s email address.
The website describes the group’s leaders as “your neighbors, business owners, parents, teachers, farmers, and longtime residents of Greeley who love this community and believe in its future. We came together as a nonpartisan, grassroots coalition because we believe Greeley deserves better than a $1.1 billion financial risk with no guarantee of return.
“At the heart of our campaign is a simple principle: Public Risk. Private Reward. That’s not how Greeley does business.”
The opponents say on their website that “the city’s approval of the Cascadia West development financing plan … puts taxpayers on the hook for billions in long-term obligations, mortgaging nearly every major city building — including City Hall, the police station, and fire facilities — to back a private developer’s entertainment district. The developer assumes no equity risk and is guaranteed millions in profit no matter what.
“We’re not opposed to growth or revitalization,” the group writes on the website. “In fact, we welcome investment that reflects the values of this community and shares the risks and rewards fairly. But this deal doesn’t do that. It was crafted behind closed doors, rushed without voter input, and undermines the city’s credit, priorities, and trust.”
To be developed by Lind’s Water Valley Co., the project currently called “Catalyst” at Weld County Road 17 and U.S. 34 would include the city-owned core entertainment district with a new arena and home for Lind’s Colorado Eagles minor-league hockey team, three sheets of ice for youth hockey programs, a high-end 351-room hotel, a spa and conference center, a 100,000-square-foot 12-slide water park that Lind predicts will attract 350,000 visitors a year, a central plaza as a gathering space designed for community events and socializing, and a “Cascadia Falls” water feature with an adjoining amphitheater.
Through Vima Partners LLC, one of the entities he controls, Lind in late April closed on the $4.956 million purchase of the land on which Catalyst will rise from Kerr-McGee, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY). Vima then sold the parcel to the City of Greeley for the same price, “plus our survey, environment and soft costs, so $5 million” in total, Lind said.
The opponents say they don’t oppose the development but think Lind, not the city and its taxpayers, should pay for it.
The ordinance approved May 6 on a 5-2 vote by the City Council authorized the city to mortgage 46 public buildings — including City Hall, the Police Department, City Center North, the Ice Haus and three fire stations — as collateral for the private development. The plan includes using $115 million worth of “certificates of participation” to lease those city facilities to Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorporation as collateral to pay for the first phase of the core entertainment district dubbed “Catalyst.”
That repayment should take 15 to 25 months, council members were told, at which time the city will issue $641 million in bonds, to be financed through a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with the city having a moral obligation on the reserve fund by maintaining it at $33.2 million on an annual basis. For any year in which the project didn’t generate revenue, the city is obligated to make sure that the reserve fund remains whole.
“The problem is this small City Council group,” Bricker said. “They just went after this project without talking to anybody in the community. Martin Lind is so tied in with this thing, why doesn’t he develop it? He has lots of money. Why are we giving this guy all this money?”
Bricker said the issue should have been decided by Greeley voters, and that’s the aim of her group’s petition drive now.
“When you have just five people that made the decision on City Council, that is ridiculous,” she said. “The public didn’t know anything about it. They weren’t paying attention. This was all done with a very small group.
“If we put it to a vote and voters come out and say this is a great thing, if people decide, ‘Hey we want Cascadia,’ and the numbers are big, then go for it.”
The group’s news release claimed that “87% of likely municipal voters supported repeal” of the council’s decision, and cited “comprehensive and scientific polling” by Washington, D.C.-based Republican pollster Pulse Decision Science. However, BizWest has yet to receive a response to requests for the poll’s sample size or its questions’ wording.
According to the Greeley Municipal Charter, the city clerk has 10 days, presumably meaning by June 29, to prepare and certify a petition form approved for circulation. Then the initiative petition is to be circulated to be signed by registered electors and submitted to the clerk within 60 days after the petition form was approved.
The group will need to get signatures “equal to 10% of the total vote cast in the last general election” to qualify for the Nov. 4 ballot, according to the code. Kim Kappel, the city’s communications manager and public information officer, told BizWest late Thursday that “the petition must be signed by 4,586 valid signatures of registered Greeley voters. These signatures would need to be gathered and returned to the City Clerk 90 days before the election.”
Kappel said the city clerk has until Monday to prepare and certify the petition form for circulation.
Lind told BizWest on Thursday that his own “internal polling” based on “staff calls” — “We didn’t hire a firm,” he said — showed results opposite of those reported by the opposition group.
“We just thought it would be wise to get more information,” Lind said. “Now we’re in a holding pattern waiting to see the petition wording.”
This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2025 BizWest Media LLC.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Cascadia financing foes launch new website after Lind grabs planned domain )
Also on site :
- Iran’s top diplomat says talks with US ‘complicated’ by American strike on nuclear sites
- Businesswoman forced to pay £15,000 to her landlord after misreading the T&C’s
- Arsenal transfer news: Rodrygo message clear as Gunners deal Real Madrid blow