Wheat Ridge council gives consensus to continue land-exchange talks as E5X outlines Lutheran Legacy Campus plan

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — Wheat Ridge city staff and representatives of E5X outlined redevelopment plans for the Lutheran Legacy Campus at a Dec. 15 study session, and the City Council gave consensus to continue negotiating a land-exchange concept that could place the city’s municipal campus on part of the former hospital site.

City staff recapped the project’s history: SCL Health bought roughly 26–27 acres in 2018 and later merged with Intermountain Health; the district’s new hospital opened in August 2024. The city paused an early sale to lead a community-driven master plan adopted in October 2021, then translated that vision into zoning and a roughly 50-page ordinance applied to the site in April 2025. A 2024 charter amendment, informed by the master plan, limits building heights to five stories in the campus center and 2½ stories along the perimeter; the amendment carried with about 67% of voters.

Patrick (city staff) said Intermountain received 10 proposals, narrowed them to three finalists, and E5X was chosen and closed as owner the week before the meeting. The city has authorized several financing tools: a Legacy Metropolitan District service plan approved earlier in 2025 allows up to $110,000,000 in debt and a maximum mill levy of 67 mills, payable only by future property owners inside the district. An urban renewal plan…