The Colorado Economic Development Commission approved a $1 million loan and a $1 million grant on Monday morning to help the Alterra Mountain Co. relocate its corporate headquarters to Upper Downtown.
The EDC also approved $1.9 million in Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits tied to the creation of 106 additional headquarters jobs for “Project Odysseus,” the codename given to Alterra.
Those jobs are expected to pay an average annual wage of $131,071 a year.
State rules prohibit incentive awards to local companies not actively looking outside of Colorado. Why pay someone who is going to stay anyway?
Project Odysseus told the state it was also looking at relocating to Salt Lake City. The speed at which the assistance packages came together suggests a genuine concern that it might move.
Although Alterra wasn’t named, the $1 million loan with no interest will help fund a $7 million loan from a local agency at 2%.
Those details align with a $7 million loan that the Downtown Denver Development Authority announced on Wednesday it would extend to Alterra.
Alterra applied to the DDDA on July 21 and was approved a day later. Normally, DDDA applicants have to wait months to know the fate of their requests for assistance.
The EDC met on July 16, so if a loan package had been in the works from the DDDA before then, it would have likely landed on the agenda, following the proper order.
In a rare move, the EDC held a 7 a.m. Monday morning meeting, likely reflecting the urgency of the approval, after the DDDA had committed funds.
The DDDA has pledged to repay the loan from the Office of Economic Development and International Trade within five years.
So far, the DDDA has allocated or approved just under $300 million of the $570 million that voters authorized in November 2024.
Alterra is looking to relocate its headquarters from 3501 Wazee St. in the RiNo neighborhood to Upper Downtown, where several large office towers sit more than half empty.
Those vacant towers have been selling for discounts of 90% and more from their pre-pandemic prices.
Besides supporting the growth of Alterra’s own operations, the building is expected to serve as a landing place for other outdoor recreation companies.
The $1 million grant will fund smaller grants of up to $250,000 to recreation companies that co-locate with Alterra. OEDIT must approve those smaller awards.
The $1 million grant would be funded through a one-time allocation from the Governor’s office. The $1 million loan would come out of the state’s Strategic Fund.
“This project would help revitalize a vacant building to create a hub for outdoor businesses in the metro area,” said Sean Gould, deputy director of financial analysis in OEDIT’s Business Funding and Incentives Division.
Alterra is behind the Ikon Pass and owns 19 North American ski resorts, including Steamboat Springs and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado.
It also manages the Winter Park Resort via a 50-year lease with the City and County of Denver.
The loan is conditioned on Alterra taking a long-term office location in Upper Downtown, which stretches between Broadway and Speer Boulevard, and between Colfax Avenue and 20th Street.
The district has the highest concentration of office towers in the entire Mountain West region. Many of those were built during the oil and gas boom of the 1980s and are sitting more than half empty.
“The approval today reflects the DDDA’s commitment to retaining major employers, increasing foot traffic, and filling underutilized office space downtown,” the authority said in a release on its website.
The relocation, however, will represent a blow to Zeppelin Station, where Alterra signed a lease for 40,000 square feet or nearly 40% of the available space in 2018.
Three years remain on that lease, although it increasingly appears likely the company will activate an early termination clause.
At the request of Wells Fargo, the lender, Zeppelin Station was placed into receivership in mid-2024.
That set off a legal battle with developer Zeppelin Development and owner Mickey Zeppelin, which was eventually resolved late last year with Zeppelin regaining control.
In December, BusinessDen reported that Alterra was considering a headquarters move within the RiNo neighborhood to Steel House, a newer office building at 3100 Brighton Blvd.
Alterra is expected to invest $20 million in moving its headquarters and establishing an outdoor recreation hub in Upper Downtown.
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