Campus Q&A: SVC Fox discusses a future Boulder conference center
As the university and the City of Boulder continue to analyze the viability and location of a future Boulder conference center, CU-Boulder Today sat down with Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Kelly Fox to discuss why the university is engaged in this process, what sites are being considered and where the project goes from here.
Why is the university looking at building a conference center?
We have surveyed the campus in the past and we have data from the city that shows that both the university and the community could benefit greatly from having a conference center. For our researchers, it provides space for hosting academic conferences and symposia, which means more of our faculty can participate in these activities at reduced cost. Second, it really makes CU-Boulder an international academic conference destination that puts CU-Boulder’s research prowess squarely in front a global research audience. At the same time, it provides a space right here in the community for local community groups, businesses and non-profits to hold events which are currently being held in places outside of Boulder.
What sites are being considered?
We are evaluating two sites, one at Folsom and Arapahoe where we currently have family/grad student housing that we are looking at redeveloping. The other is on Grandview and Broadway on the Hill. These two potential sites emerged from a review by an Urban Land Institute panel and others who have helped us evaluate various sites.
How has the city been involved?
We have been working closely with the city and jointly hired consultants to evaluate both sites. The cooperation and sharing of mutual interests and goals has been encouraging and very productive.
What were the highlights of that evaluation?
Both sites are viable. There is a lot of infrastructure work that would be needed – streets, sidewalks, utilities – at the Folsom site. This area would also require the university to relocate family/grad student housing. At the Grandview site, the space is more constricted and the parking would need to be largely underground and also constricted. The consultants and members of the city planning staff believe the Grandview/Broadway site would be more attractive to conference planners, but somewhat more expensive.
What are the next steps and your timeline?
The university will engage outside consultants that are expert in the hospitality industry to complete an economic analysis of hotel-conference center. If those results are promising, the university will issue a request for proposals from hotel developers. We hope that could be accomplished within the next several months.