🎥 FoCo in 15 Minutes | Walmart Upgrades, Albertsons Revamp, $100M Community Center & ADU Push🏛️ City Council Highlights🎉 Things To Do This Week

Auto-generated from the episode audio — may contain minor errors.

We're live in Fort Collins and we have finally got some moisture in Fort Collins. I mean, it has felt like we've been living in a desert. Well, shocker, we do. We live in a high desert in Fort Collins. But it's just not common, but it is nice to see that rain come through. But the city of Fort Collins is already talking about water restrictions. Parts of Colorado has already seen it. Denver has already done that. We started up our sprinklers a couple weeks ago, just before the freeze. And I will say there were some individuals that were reaching out to me and saying, hey, are you concerned that you started your sprinklers? And generally speaking, we don't start them until Mother's Day because we get a ton of moisture during this April time period and have had tons of moisture between March and February and all that. But because of how dry it's been, we started them up and actually had some fun replacing some sprinkler heads, fixed some brakes, but we did see a little bit of a freeze on our drip lines that I had to repair. But our backflow preventer was solid, no other major breaks. So great to see the moisture in Fort Collins. But this is live in Fort Collins, talking to you guys about things that have happened over the last week, city council review, things to do this week and weekend. And talk to me. Send me a message. How was FOCO MX if you went to it? I'm not a big music guy, which I think is blasphemy living here in Fort Collins.

Having the Bohemian Foundation pour as much money as they do into the music, arts and culture scene in the Fort Collins. But downtown Fort Collins, the Fort Collins music experiment, let me know how it was. Let's see here. Walmart's going to upgrade 18 Colorado stores. Fort Collins, Timnit, Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Castle Rock and more are in there. What they're going to be doing is they're going to be having some new layouts, signage, wider aisles, expanded pickup delivery areas and improved pharmacy and vision centers. They're going to be investing nearly $450 million. I went and got my eyes checked at Costco a couple of weeks ago. Now it did take me about three weeks to get in, but if you're not in a rush, we don't have eye insurance. It cost me about $150. And I think it could have been a hundred dollars, but I asked them to not use the eye drops to dilate, use the machine that they have. And that was a little bit of a premium.

And then I bought two pairs of glasses right there from the same spot, same location. So I'm sure Walmart's seeing that opportunity and it was easy, quick. And I didn't buy anything though. I'm pretty good about if I need something at a store, I go straight there and walk out 95% of the time. But I bet you that 5% that I grabbed the milk because I need milk and then I grabbed something else on the way out. It probably adds up over a lifetime and I'm sure they've got all of those statistics. Fort Collins added, is bringing in the USDA, 500 to 600 jobs, huge. Well, we've got another one, a Danish advanced manufacturing company called MultiCut are opening a new production facility in Loveland at the Forge campus.

And they're going to be bringing over 80 new jobs, well above average wages, focusing on manufacturing, automation and robotics. Super exciting. They're going to be bringing over, they're going to be receiving a million dollars in tax incentives tied to job creations. And I will say the jobs are what is important. If we can have high paying local jobs, I continue to talk to people about how 20% of the working force in Fort Collins is remote workers. But if we can bring in high paying sustainable jobs now and into the future, Fort Collins will continue to be a strong place to live, investment into the area.

I thought it was really interesting that for every job created, that dollar of income goes 1.5 to 2.5 times. So you bring in somebody making $100,000, they're going to be spending or that economic impact is going to be anywhere between $150,000 to $250,000. So bring in the jobs. And that Forge campus is J. Doctor and some investors took this over. I believe it was an HP campus. It won awards in the state of Colorado for economic development. It is super cool to see that campus on the Southwest side of Loveland flourish as much as it's flourishing. Speaking about not flourishing, the Sundance Steakhouse and Saloon has been demolished. And not just that, the old Joann's Fabric has been demolished just south of Drake Avenue on College, as well as the old Spratly Bar. So make way for the old, in come the new. Don't know what's going on at Joann Fabrics. I believe that's going to be a natural grocers. As for Spratly Bar, they've got a quick start or a quick trip convenience store along with other things. But this Sundance Steakhouse and Saloon fully demolished and it's on five acres.

And it's going to be interesting to see what ends up making its way there. So we will see this. And I am excited. Probably one of the most underdeveloped, underutilized areas in Fort Collins is the Northeast and specifically along Mulberry. But I think between Bloom, Sundance that's going on there, the development that's happening on Prospect and I-25, Rudolph Farms, along with Timmouth Middle High School on the east side of I-25, the growth of Timmouth, Mulberry I think will be one of the most exciting redevelopment plays in Fort Collins over the next 20 years. What's going on in the old Albertsons? Well, they're going to be investing $300,000 into what's called tactical urbanism, adding murals, turf seating areas, staging, lighting, space for food trucks, markets, and live events.

And they're planning to get this up and going within the next 60 to 90 days. So for this summer, if you live in North Fort Collins, you are going to have more recreation and activity going on than really you have in a long time, especially at that Albertsons that's been vacant for 10 years. So I'm excited to see what that might look like. It's a really cool temporary use of this space while the Urban Renewal Authority, the URA, figures out just what to do with that building. Well, I just made a video. It's funny how ... Now, I look at the Colorado in a lot. It's a great place for news for local. I look at other places as well, BizWest, North 40 News, Instagram, things that I'm looking for as far as information, Colorado State University. But they put out this article that said, four Colorado cities ranked among the best in the US for retirement. Well, that was in 2025. Fort Collins definitely did not rank 22nd in 2026 based off of what their new estimates are. It's ranked 400th. But I just made a video about how many people we've helped relocate here to Fort Collins in Northern Colorado and how surprisingly many of them are people retired and how many cool things are going on in Fort Collins. Probably the biggest problem that faces people who are retiring, or not retiring, moving to Fort Collins is the cost of housing. But you look at these people that are retiring here and they're the boomers. They're the silver tsunami that's happening.

They've got a shit ton of equity in their homes that they've just sold and are parlaying into Fort Collins. So yeah, it's a $700,000 house or a million dollar house that they're paying with with cash. And actually our property taxes and insurance aren't terrible. So the cost of living for them, if they can basically pay off their house right away, isn't too bad. So Fort Collins, I think, is actually a really great place that people are enjoying retiring to. But no, it definitely didn't rank 22nd. And that article, when I first saw it, I was like, cool, let me go look at it. That's last year's. So definitely had to check that.

As for city council, voting all passed unanimously. Southeast Community Center fully approved. Basically $100 million facility going to be built at the Southeast Community Center. Library, community space, Southeast Fort Collins. I think the projected opening date is 2028. So we are a couple of years from having this 80,000 square foot facility on the Southeast side. Public comment was centered around climate spending, a lot of Colorado State University individuals, as well as surveillance technology, flock cameras, feeling too big brother-ish here in Fort Collins. And I just actually had a meeting with some guys yesterday and they were talking about how it's important to understand what technology you're using on your house, whether it's a nest, a ring, these flock cameras, how maybe big brother's taking some of this information and using it nefariously. And I guess ignorance isn't a great excuse to use, but I'm like, man, frick, I just don't like the idea that the bad outweighs the good. For flock, for example, yes, they are absolutely recording us and they're tracking us.

I just was also talking to that retirement video about safety. And if somebody's vehicle gets stolen, bike gets stolen, if there's a threat individual and there's a camera that's able to ping that individual, that's part of our web of systems between Fort Collins and Windsor and Denver, and we can work together as police departments, I think that's a good thing. I just don't want, yes, the bad individuals and bad play to outweigh the good that it could cause. Again, I'm probably going to get a little grief from that because clearly I think the majority of people don't like it. I just hope for the best and don't like to see the worst, but I understand that does happen. Fully approved, city council is going to move steps forward for a grant program from DOLA to get $156,000, $90,000 of which will go to develop two pre-approved library designs for your ADU and then $60,000 or so will go towards fee relief for people building ADUs. I think this is exciting. Probably my gut says, if you need to build the ADU, build it. If you can wait six to 12 months and you can benefit from having a library of designs as well as some fee relief, go for it.

They've also began talking about water restrictions and they're likely coming soon. I believe they're going to be talking about that this evening at this evening's work session, but plan on water restrictions this year. For me, I'm going to fertilize my lawn. I'm going to let it grow long. I'm going to raise the deck on my mower. Yes, I'm going to mow my lawn this week, but I'm going to raise my deck to as high as it goes and try to keep that grass and trees safe and healthy for as long as I can. Maybe not super green this year, but if I can get it long enough in the meantime before they add in those water restrictions, I might be able to protect it. Things to do this weekend. Billy Currington coming to Blue Arena, May 1st at 7.30 PM. I'm a Billy Currington fan. I don't think I would go to this concert by any means, but I love bringing big, well-known names to Fort Collins and Blue Arena. Speaking of which, Miranda Lambert and I can't think of the other country musician right off the top of my head are coming to Colorado State University for our PBR this year, a professional bull riding circuit. Last year was supposed to be Tim McGraw, but he had a pullout last minute because he was sick, but man, I absolutely love seeing some of these bigger names come to Fort Collins.

The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday. There's those derby parties everywhere, but the Down & Derby put on by the Bank of Colorado, May 2nd, 2 PM to 6 PM at the Greenhouse in Windsor. Comedy, Rondell Sheridan from That's So Raven, May 1st, 7.30 PM, down in downtown Loveland. Art Week in Fort Collins begins May 1st to May 9th. Murals, workspaces, performances, hands-on experience, all downtown Fort Collins. Apparently, it's National Fitness Day, May 2nd, and F45 is partnering with Crispin Green on the southeast side at that technology park, May 2nd, 9.30 to 12 PM. Get a free workout that day with F45. This is live in Fort Collins. Enjoying the rain, enjoying the overcast. We will see you next week.