grand junction moving forward on expansive riverfront project

City and business leaders in Grand Junction have been trying for decades to develop an expansive, but long neglected, near 60-acre site along the banks of the Colorado River.

What is known as the Riverfront at Dos Rios project is designed to take land that was once a landfill and purchased by the city in 1990 and develop it for a variety of purposes, making the site, in the process, more of an integral part of Grand Junction.

At least 15 acres of the site have been set aside for parks and open space, while just over 10 acres are expected to see the construction of mixed development projects.

Another section of the site, at 9.4 acres, has been designated for light industrial or commercial purposes.

In a column appearing earlier this year for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Robin Brown, executive director of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership, said the idea behind the Riverfront at Dos Rios project is the “development of our most attractive asset, the river.”

Parts of the project are already underway: work started earlier this spring on a $120,000 bike park at the site to be called the Dos Rios Bike Playground, a $120,000 effort funded by the private Colorado Health Foundation.

Now the City of Grand Junction has issued a Request for Proposals for concrete and earthwork at the site.

Also included in this aspect of the overall redevelopment project will be the demolition of an existing one-story industrial building located at 211 Hale Avenue.

Additional plans for the site will see 900 lineal feet of bank stabilization along the Colorado River, work that can only begin after September 1 due to restrictions during migratory fish spawning and bird nesting season.
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The RFP has a submission deadline of June 29.

​By Garry Boulard

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