Plans have now been officially submitted to the City of Colorado Springs for the construction of a 27-story apartment tower with around 500 units that has generated great controversy since it was first announced three years ago.
The project belongs to The O’Neill Group, a development company based in Colorado Springs that specializes in both new construction and renovation projects.
The height of the company’s latest project, to go up on a site directly across from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum, has been an endless topic of local concern. The developers in 2021 originally envisioned a 25-story structure with 316 units, but eventually decided a smaller building would not be financially feasible.
Last year, the project was expanded to 36 floors, an idea that sparked the opposition of various groups and residents who argued that a tradition of not building a high-rise in Colorado Springs was an honored one, given that any such structure would obstruct views of the Pikes Peak Mountain.
An online petition opposing the project was eventually signed by nearly 6,600 people.
By June of this year, the project was scaled back to 27 floors, with just over 400 units. To be called One VeLa, the new formulation calls for a combination of studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Also planned: just over 8,300 square feet of retail space, and upwards of 30,000 square feet of amenity space.
The O’Neill Group project, done in conjunction with Vela Development, which has offices in Kansas City, Missouri, is now set to go before the Colorado Springs City Council. That body will then determine whether to designate the site as an urban renewal district, a decision that would make the project eligible for tax incentives.
If the project is eventually approved, it will be the tallest structure built in the city since the 1990 construction of the 16-floor Norwest Bank Tower, which has since become the Wells Fargo Tower.
December 10, 2024
By Garry Boulard
