Pueblo West board hears offer for 713 East Spalding, splits over buy-or-build options

PUEBLO WEST, Colo. — The Pueblo West Metropolitan District board opened its Jan. 7 meeting to hours of public comment and director debate over where to house district offices, as a property owner offered the district a purchase price and a donation while some directors pushed to preserve money for an indoor aquatic center.

Mike Spoon, the Spradley family’s real estate agent, and Carol Spradley, who said her family owns the property at 713 East Spalding, asked the board to reopen talks about buying that building. Spoon described 713 East Spalding as roughly 16,700 square feet on about 2.7 acres and said the Spradleys were listing it at $3,500,000. Carol Spradley told the board she and her husband would be “willing to donate $525,000” toward a board project — “either to help build out, or maybe towards the aquatic center, in some form or another,” she said.

The offer prompted residents and some board members to press for a side-by-side cost comparison of three options the district has discussed: renovating 713 East Spalding (the Spradley property), purchasing 63 Spalding and adding a new small structure on the adjacent lot, and building a new administration building from scratch.

Why it matters: The board has identified an indoor aquatic center as a high priority and says the less it spends to house district administration, the more it can allocate toward that pool project. Board members who favor the lower-cost path argued buying 63 Spalding and a nearby lot would preserve capital for recreation; others said the Spradley site’s size and frontage are…