expansive, innovative mixed-use project in colorado in talking stage

Public comment is still being solicited for a project that could see the eventual construction of more than 5,000 energy-efficient homes inside a larger development that would also include a 40-acre working farm and community gardens.

What is being called Montava is the vision of Fort Collins developer Max Ross, who wants to carve out his unusual project on a roughly 900-site that is currently owned by Anheuser-Busch.

The famous brewing company operates one of the largest beer houses of its kind at 2351 Busch Drive, to the direct east of the site Ross hopes to develop.

The land surrounding that facility is regarded by Fort Collins officials as not just the last large pierce of undeveloped property in the city, but also a final frontier of sorts.

Through his Fort Collins-based development company, HF2M, Inc., Ross has proposed the construction of not just a series of multi and single-family homes, but also retail space, parks, and even schools, creating a virtual community.

To be bordered on the north by Richards Lake Road and Mountain Vista Drive on the south, Montava, according to a conceptual review submitted to the city, would be a “true walkable community based on traditional neighborhood forms.”

A total price tag for the project has not yet been announced, although it is thought that it could cost as much as $30 million just to acquire the property in question.

As currently proposed, Montava could take a full two decades to be totally built out, and would go far in absorbing a Fort Collins boom that has seen just under 50,000 people moving into the city in the last decade or so for a total current population of over 164,000.

By Garry Boulard