LovelandPolitics
Loveland's Independent News Source
McWhinney To Address "Failed"
I-25/Highway 34 Interchange
Loveland - June 21, 2015

CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation) is threatening to declare the I-25 / Highway 34
interchange in east Loveland a "failed" intersection if the proposed shopping center McWhinney
hopes to build (
previously centered on Bass Pro Shops) and the 2534 Johnstown Scheer
development, just across the street, are both completed.

CDOT predicts the southbound I-25 traffic exiting onto Highway 34 will back-up beyond the off-ramp
thus causing an immediate traffic safety issue on I-25.  Traffic experts say the vehicles travelling east
on Highway 34 towards Greeley from Loveland are getting bottle necked already at the narrow
overpass complicated by the traffic signal at Highway 34 and Centerra Parkway.

CDOT proposes
"Preferred Alternative #7" which allows eastbound traffic on Highway 34 to
"fly-over" Centerra Parkway thus eliminating the three turn lanes on Highway 34 pushing traffic
onto Centerra Parkway instead of forward on Highway 34 towards Greeley.   McWhinney is
concerned this will have a detrimental impact on the property they control east of I-25 in Loveland
depending on the access from I-25 into Centerra Parkway.  One proposal would force vehicles to
make a u-turn east of Centerra Parkway if they want to access the commercial development by
creating a complete "fly-over" of Centerra parkway by traffic exiting I-25.

Chad McWhinney To Address Traffic Concerns / Initiate Lobby For Public Dollars

Speaking at a forum sponsored by the newly created Northern Colorado Economic Alliance (NCEA),
Chad McWhinney is reportedly going to address CDOT's overall plans for I-25 and the I-25/Highway
34 interchange projected fail specifically.  McWhinney is hoping to pressure Johnstown to contribute
money to the intersection and may try to resurrect the failed regional 1% sales tax for regional
transportation improvements which he invested considerable public funds to create in the past.

According to one regional traffic expert, Chad McWhinney is the single largest contributor to the
area's regional transportation problems.  McWhinney promised Loveland voters in 2004 that if he
could annex property near the I-25/Highway 34 interchange into the city while and diverting 97% of
the property taxes along with 40% of all sales taxes for 25 years into his Centerra Metro Districts that
he could fund the necessary regional transportation improvements the developments would
necessitate.  Those promises were memorialized in the now infamous 2004 Master Financing
Agreement (MFA) between McWhinney and the City of Loveland.

Since 2004, however, McWhinney has successfully chipped away any commitments to fund regional
transportation while still keeping the diverted property and sales taxes to improve properties his
company acquired instead.  (
see 'Council Pulls Last Teeth Out of Tax Agreement 11-2013).  Following
considerable public pressure, Loveland's council didn't allow McWhinney to escape all of the
"interim" improvements but did allow McWhinney to abandon its longer-term commitments for
regional transportation from the original MFA.

According to the 2004 MFA,
"Final I-25 and U.S. Highway 34 Improvements" were to be funded, in
part, from $50 million set-aside in an escrow account by 2024 using tax dollars collected by
Centerra.  Despite raising and spending over $100 million in public debt bonds, McWhinney has zero
dollars set-aside for the final improvements to fund the I-25/US 34 interchange.  To add injury to
insult, the very project CDOT officials fear will be the tipping point for creating the failure is being
funded out of money that Loveland's City Council allowed McWhinney to classify as a "public good"
despite the private ownership of the property being improved.


Why Bass Pro Shops Pulled Out of Centerra

Bass Pro Shops officials were infuriated when they learned their new co-located hotel concept called
Big Cedar Lodges will not be possible at the proposed Centerra location called "Parcel 505."  
McWhinney had already signed an exclusive deal with the Marriott Courtyards chain so was
unwilling to allow Bass Pro to build their own hotel on the property in the future.

This along with a dozen other smaller issues have caused Bass Pro officials to seek alternative
locations along I-25 in Northern Colorado.  According to confidential sources close to the negotiations,
Bass Pro felt McWhinney leveraged their popular chain's name and goodwill to exact favorable
concessions from the City of Loveland for their location onto parcel 505.  The rub has come when
McWhinney refused to pass the benefits of those subsidies (like using public monies to pave the
parking lots) onto Bass Pro directly by still looking to charge standard commercial prices.  
LovelandPolitics has learned the Bass Pro officials expected some more of the benefit to flow to their
store instead of McWhinney's bottom line.

Curiously,
the incentives passed by Loveland's City Council for the purpose of attracting Bass Pro
Shops doesn't mention the retailer by name.  It simply refers to McWhinney owned Parcel 505
allowing McWhinney to still collect all the economic advantages even after Bass Pro pulls out.
From: Mary Atchison <
maryjatchison@gmail.com>
Date: June 9, 2015 at 4:32:36 PM MDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: An NCEA Invitation to a Meeting
Focused on Transportation

We are all aware of the importance of
transportation to our businesses, our
families, and the well-being of our
communities.  With predicted growth over
the next 20 years and no CDOT funding in
sight, it is imperative that business leaders
gather to discuss long term solutions.

This meeting will feature an overview of the
issues we face and a discussion of what
we, in Northern Colorado, can do to effect
change.

Who:   Chad McWhinney, President of
McWhinney and a member of the DIA
Advisory Council, Don Hunt, former
Director of CDOT, and Kathy Gilliland,
CDOT Commissioner.

When: June 22, 4:30 - 6:00pm

Where: Flood and Peterson, 4687 W. 18th
Street, Greeley

Please join NCEA for this important
discussion.

RSVP to: maryjatchison@gmail.com by
June 19