Great News! City Market Civic Center from Pagosa Springs CDC

 

 Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation

 

After many months of planning and meetings with all parties the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation in cooperation with City Market Corporation is pleased to announce that we are in the final stage of negotiations to acquire the old downtown City Market Center.

 The City Market Civic Center will be used but not limited to, providing the community with a state of the art business incubator. Also included in the plan for this building complex is a new home for the Archuleta County Education Center giving them the opportunity to expand their offerings including additional college courses.  The facility will also house a futuristic computer center and provide more space for our beloved Sisson Library.

The first phase of the remodel will include the build out of a cooking school and restaurant that will not only be used to produce top notch chefs but will also showcase this regions unique  foods and flavors.

As the Executive Director for the Pagosa Springs CDC, I would like to first acknowledge the incredible support provided by Mr. Ken Vickerstaff who almost single handedly has made this opportunity for Pagosa Springs possible. With the support of organizations like Region 9, the SDBC, our County and Town governments, the USDA Rural Development organization  and folks like YOU we will be able to demonstrate to other communities throughout Colorado how we are able create meaningful jobs, decrease rampant  unemployment and improve the quality of life for all of our citizens.  While we are pursuing the first $150,000 in grant money  from the Colorado Small Business Development Center the success or failure of this communities “economic engine” project depends entirely on how we as citizens, local businesses and governments work together to embrace this unique challenge. Today, La Plata County our next nearest large county has an unemployment rate of 5.8% while Archuleta County has an embarrassing unemployment rate of 19.97% and there is no plan of record by any entity in this community to develop a reversal plan and start working on this crisis!  Yes, let’s acknowledge we have a crisis that has been ignored for many years and will continue to be ignored given the current state of community thinking !

The collective community support for this once in a lifetime opportunity will have an everlasting impact on Pagosa Springs for years to come. 

 

We, the Pagosa Springs CDC need YOUR help and Thank You for being here and listening to this communities  challenges/opportunities.

Richard Lindblad

Executive Director

 Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation