The deal, at a glance

Colorado Springs city officials, along with a local real estate company and civic groups, have offered the U.S. Olympic Committee $53 million in incentives to keep its headquarters in the city. Key to the package are new downtown offices for the USOC.



• The USOC would move its administrative offices from Boulder Street to the six-story Stratton Pointe office building planned for the northeast corner of Colorado Avenue and Tejon Street downtown.

LandCo Equity Partners, a Springs real estate company, is gutting the inside of an existing two-story building - which formerly housed the Design Center furniture store and Lorig's Western Wear - and will add four stories.

The new building would be completed by July 30, 2009. USOC offices would occupy 90,000 square feet of the 126,000-square foot building. Olympic-themed retail or entertainment space might be developed on the building's ground floor and lower level.

LandCo will finance the building's renovation, said Assistant City Manager Mike Anderson. Later this year, a nonprofit city entity will issue $21 million in certificates of participation - or COPs - and purchase the building's upper five floors. COPs allow the city to borrow money without voter approval and repay the debt over time.

After the COPs are issued, the nonprofit entity would lease the office space to the city, which then would sub-lease it to the USOC for a nominal fee of $1 a year.

By the end of a 25-year agreement with the city, and assuming the USOC hasn't moved out of the city, the USOC would take ownership of the building at no cost.

• LandCo would provide the USOC with 50,000 square feet of free, temporary office space at a building it owns at 19 N. Tejon St. The temporary office would be available for the USOC by Aug. 15. The value of the space is estimated at $700,000.

• A skybridge would span Colorado Avenue and connect the new Stratton Pointe building to a city parking garage across the street, where the city is making 240 spaces available for the USOC. The city would contribute $267,000 toward the skybridge and its Parking Administration fund - a city operation that supports itself with parking fees - would contribute $330,000 toward the skybridge and the city would contribute $267,000.

• The Olympic Training Center in the Springs, currently on the USOC's 34-acre campus at Boulder Street and Union Boulevard, would be undergo a major redevelopment.

Improvements would include demolition of about 100,000 square feet of buildings at the Training Center to make way for 158 athlete housing units and an expanded cafeteria. Seventy of those units would be for married and small-family residents, the rest for single athletes.

Other improvements would include renovation of the visitor's center and an entrance from Union Boulevard. LandCo would provide funding for the $16 million Training Center work, scheduled to be completed by Dec. 15, 2009.

• Several USOC national governing bodies would be in the former Colorado Springs Utilities gas operations building in southwest downtown. The building would be ready for occupancy Dec. 15. The city's nonprofit entity would issue $5.6 million in certificates of participation to purchase and renovate the building; the El Pomar Foundation would provide an additional $1.5 million.

As with the headquarters building, the former gas building would be leased to the USOC at $1 a year and the organization would take title to it in 25 years.

• Between years 15 and 25 of the deal, the USOC would have the option to accelerate its ownership of the new office building and former Springs Utilities gas department building by paying off the outstanding principal and interest owed on the certifications of participation.

• The USOC would risk financial penalties if it were to leave the Springs prematurely.

If the USOC were to move its headquarters out the Springs during the first 15 years of the deal, it would be required to repay the city all of the principal and interest paid on the certificates of participation up to that point. The city would then take title to the building, and could lease or sell it.

If the USOC acquires ownership of the building after year 15, and then leaves town, it would be required to pay a percentage of the remaining principal and interest owed on the COPs. That percentage would start at 50 percent in year 16, and decrease each year until it reached 5 percent in year 25.