Woodland Park begins to shake off economic chill

WOODLAND PARK • Long, cold winters are nothing new to residents of this mountain town. But after years of endless summer for the business community, the recent economic deep-freeze has been hard to take.

Woodland Park hasn’t been immune to the effects of the nationwide recession. Like other cities, it has suffered spikes in foreclosures, unemployment and commercial vacancies. Numerous businesses closed, from gas stations and restaurants to a jewelry store and a tattoo shop. A local bank has found itself struggling.

Today, while neighbors like Colorado Springs are growing optimistic after months of improvement in sales tax receipts, home sales and building permits, local officials are only starting to see inklings of hope: a new microbrewery, a Bible college and a possible residential development.

Community leaders here hope they are seeing the big thaw, but they predict it will take up to three years for the local economy to recover.

Stuck on hold

Construction, always a key economic driver, has gone from boom to bust. Developer and commercial broker Allen Brown points to five vacant parcels on Wal-Mart Supercenter property as an indication of the state of commercial development. The lots were considered prime real estate for corporate development when the big-box retailer opened in August 2007.

“There’s no question we’re in shock,” Brown said. “We were expecting those pad sites to sell quickly. Prices on the land was high, and they’ve reduced it a couple of times. That shows you the big boys need a certain amount of population or traffic, and we just don’t have that.”

Also stalled is Woodland Station, the city’s nearly decade-old plan to revitalize downtown with a major hotel, new restaurants, shops and entertainment venues on 10 acres. Two developers remain committed to the project, said Beth Kosley, Woodland Park’s economic development director and executive director of the Downtown Development Authority.

Home sales remain slow, although the market for lower-priced homes has improved, said Sharon Roshek of Coldwell Banker 1st Choice Realty. A seven-month inventory is reported for houses priced less than $225,000, she said, while a mounting inventory continues to make the mid- and upper-price ranges “a buyer’s market.”

Housing prices won’t improve and new home construction won’t resume until the glut of foreclosed properties is reduced, said Brad Spivey, chief investment officer and vice president of loans for Park State Bank & Trust in Woodland Park.

“Until we see a plateau in foreclosure filings, it’s hard to get confident that the housing problem is starting to be resolved,” Spivey said. “We still have a large supply yet to come, which will keep housing prices constrained.”

Digging out

As an official of a community bank that primarily serves Teller County businesses, Spivey knows what he’s talking about. Park State Bank & Trust has been hit hard by the recession. Last July, it began operating under a consent decree issued by the FDIC and the state banking division, as a result of high loan delinquencies and defaults.

“When the community suffers, we suffer,” Spivey said. “But we raised capital and are working with borrowers to manage the process. We’re still in a survival mode, as a community, and the biggest challenge now is to prevent further deterioration.”

That’s also the city’s goal. One priority is to help the businesses that have survived to stay in business, said City Manager David Buttery.

A revised sign ordinance is “more business-friendly,” he said, giving shops more opportunities to advertise.

A new pedestrian-activated crosswalk is designed to attract foot traffic to stores and make it safer to cross U.S. Highway 24, which bisects the downtown.

Last year’s Mainstreet Makeover — an exterior sprucing of some downtown businesses using state and federal funding — will enter its second phase this summer, with interior energy improvements on eight properties, Kosley said.

And several projects are on the table, Buttery said:

• A Habitat for Humanity house is expected to be under construction soon.

• Construction of several homes in an upscale development, Paradise of Colorado, featuring cobblestone-like streets, large bronze statues of mountain wildlife and a man-made waterfall, is expected to begin this year.

• The Woodland Park Church of the Nazarene is planning to expand its sanctuary.

• Shining Mountain Golf Course, which reopened in May 2007 after foreclosure, is building an events center, which is expected to open this summer.

• Andrew Wommack Ministries, a worldwide evangelistic television and radio ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs, purchased more than 100 acres from Woodland Park-based Sturman Industries last September for $4 million and plans to move its Charis Bible College to the property. The city is working with the ministry to help fulfill its plans to accommodate up to 1,000 students, Buttery said.

• BierWerks, a microbrewery, has cleared licensing hurdles and plans to open in a former tire store around Memorial Day.

Encouraging signs

Strong growth is reported by Pikes Peak Regional Hospital, the county’s full-service, 15-bed hospital, which opened in October 2007.

“We’re very busy and have added new specialists in the adjacent medical office building,” said hospital CEO Dolores Horvath.

The hospital’s net annual revenue has climbed from $12 million in 2008 to $16 million in 2009, Horvath said. Inpatient counts have jumped from an average three a day to seven a day, she said.

Even more encouraging, Spivey said he’s starting to see interest in commercial and residential land purchases for the first time in two years.

“We’ve had an increase in the last 30 to 60 days for loan demand,” Spivey said, “which is a sign that people’s entrepreneurial spirits are starting to recover and that we will have new jobs in the future.”

Spivey said he’s been encouraged by how business owners and government leaders have pulled together, to help the community rise above the situation.

“We were fat, lazy and happy, thinking that what happened in California, Nevada and Florida wouldn’t happen here,” he said. “But it did. And it’s required extraordinary team effort to come up with a local solution to a national problem. We’re on the way to doing that.”

Kosley said a community branding and marketing task force is working on sharpening the image of what the city has to offer and will roll out a marketing plan in May.

And with tourism season just around the corner, which traditionally bodes well for local retailers, optimism is in the air.

“It’s a year of caution — with a glimmer of hope on the horizon,” Buttery said.

IN A DEEP HOLE

Woodland Park and Teller County are suffering. 
Consider:

1 out of 51

The number of households countywide that went into foreclosure in 2009, the third-highest rate in the state and nearly double the statewide average.

71

The number of new filings during the first quarter of 2010 — which matches the number during the first quarter of 2009, says Pam Cronce, county deputy public trustee.

9 percent

The rate of unemployment in Teller County in March, up from 7 percent in October 2009, according to state figures released April 16.

20 percent

Approximate percentage of the town’s commercial buildings that are vacant, according to developer and commercial broker Allen Brown. Commercial lease rates have dropped from about $20 a square foot to about $12 to retain tenants.