City and consultants detail West Greeley entertainment‑district financing: COPs, 501(c)(3) conduit bonds and GID options

City staff and outside advisers on March 25 gave the Greeley City Council a detailed financial briefing on the proposed West Greeley entertainment district, laying out project elements, revised cost estimates, financing alternatives and a timetable for predevelopment and eventual construction.

Why it matters: The proposal would use a mix of public‑sector financing tools and project revenue to build an arena, hotel, indoor water park and related infrastructure. The plan involves significant borrowing and long amortization assumptions that could affect the city’s fiscal metrics and future borrowing costs.

John Hall introduced the project team (Northwell Securities, Butler Snow law firm and others) and summarized the scope and recent work: independent financial modeling, third‑party market studies and ongoing negotiations. Jason Simmons of Northwell and Dalton Kelly of Butler Snow walked council through the project’s core elements: an 8,600‑seat hockey arena, a youth hockey center with three sheets of ice, a roughly 350‑room hotel, a 100,000‑square‑foot indoor water park and supporting utilities, roads and parking.

Costs and phasing: Staff said value engineering and phasing reduced an earlier “preferred” cost for the core buildings from about $670 million to a reduced alternative of roughly $631 million for…