The future look and use for a nearly 90 year-old 8.8-acre campus in downtown Boulder has beguiled area residents for the last two years.
In late 2015, the City of Boulder purchased for $40 million what is known as the Broadway campus of Boulder Community Health, after the healthcare organization announced plans to move to another location in the city.
Since then, both city officials and area residents have been thinking and talking about how the property, which also includes two smaller lots on adjacent North Street, could be redeveloped.
With at least 2 acres of the campus already set aside for city government offices, the rest of the site may well see the construction of new housing, additional offices, and both retail and community gathering space.
An effort officially known as the Alpine-Balsam Vision Plan, in honor of the two streets, Balsam and Alpine Avenues that border the north and south ends of the campus, is currently exploring all of the ideas for the space.
Increased public input on the future of the campus, which today features 355,000 square feet of existing buildings as well as a four-story garage, is expected to serve as a prelude to a final master plan for the site, perhaps as early as late this year.
City officials have said that once Boulder Community Health has moved out of its last offices on the site in the spring of 2019, construction work on the new vision for the campus could begin in earnest.
by Garry Boulard