The ever-growing city of Greeley, Colorado is welcoming a brand-new entertainment district. While the plans for this district have already been approved, not everyone is for this $1.1 billion build. Many Greeley citizens were protesting and petitioning this summer for the Greeley City Council to stop this development, and after getting over 9,000 signatures, they sent the petition to the council. The council found that over half of the signatures were not registered voters, counting them as invalid. But even with the continuation of the entertainment district, Greeley citizens are not happy.
The Greeley City Council approved the 300-acre Greeley Westside Project, also called the Catalyst project, on April 15, 2025. The entertainment district will be located south of Highway 34 and north of Highway 257 and will feature an 8600-seat arena, a full-service hotel, a water park, and more. The council claims that Colorado residents who live in Northern Colorado (rather than Denver and below) will have a place closer to home to go out and have some fun.
The council claims that the project will bring an enhanced quality of life and serve as an economic growth opportunity, with revenue from the district going toward areas in desperate need of funding. “We hope that this project will help stop the leakage of sales tax dollars out of our community,” said Greeley City Manager Raymond Lee before the vote on April 15. In other words, they hope to stop the leakage of tax dollars by using those tax dollars to build an outrageously expensive hockey rink.
The project includes three new ice sheets for public use and an arena that will become the new home to the Colorado Eagles, the minor league hockey team affiliated with the Avalanches. The team currently plays at the Blue Arena in Loveland, and lots of Coloradans love traveling to see the team play. In an interview with Claire Lavezzorio of Denver 7, Lee claimed the reasoning for this move was to prevent the community from becoming a “bedroom community, [which] from a sales tax perspective, cannot support the type of growth that we are projected to have…as a whole.”
Lee projects that Greeley is expected to become the home of 260,000 people in “the next two to three decades.”. So, by moving the Eagles closer to Greeley, more Greeley citizens can go to professional hockey games, and to the entertainment centers, shopping centers, and restaurants that will be built around it.
According to a survey done by Crowdsignal on behalf of the Greeley Tribune, 78% of Greeley citizens believed the project to be a good investment. Only 17% thought it was too risky.
I believe that this project, as great as it sounds, should’ve been considered differently.
From the Speak Up Greeley Website, the Catalyst project is estimated to be paid off in 2038. That’s right; this $1.1 billion project will not be paid off for 12 years, which means the money that the council says will be used to develop areas in need won’t be put into effect anytime soon. The council could’ve used this money to fund other projects, but they’re sure that the Catalyst project will start the revenue and therefore give them the funds to complete these other projects. As per the name, Catalyst is a kickstart into the redevelopment of Greeley.
But the council had their chance to redevelop the city over 20 years ago, and instead spent their time building the “New Greeley.” The one and only mall that Greeley has continues to deteriorate, and discussions of redeveloping the Greeley mall have been reported on for decades now.
The Greeley mall has long been falling behind, staying alive thanks to the Cinemark and the various small businesses it holds. As Nathan Heffel of KUNC reported when the mall went up for auction in 2012, the council “moved to developing West Greeley when they built Centerplace in 2003 and continue to push Downtown and east Greeley onto the back burner.”
But what would’ve happened if instead of investing over one billion dollars in a brand-new district, the council spent it on helping rebuild areas in desperate need of help? This new entertainment district is set to bring revenue for the city of Greeley, but will the City Council use this money for the good of Greeley, or will they continue to destroy the small-town appeal that’s been decaying by their own hands?