Update: This story was updated on March 6 with information related to an op-ed published by Dave Tobin, Dark Horse owner, and Petur Williams, general partner for the Williams family company that owns the property and Dark Horse building.
The Boulder City Council on Thursday, March 7, will hold a public hearing on a proposed housing development near CU Boulder’s Williams Village. The project has generated heightened attention in recent months because it seeks to demolish the building occupied by the Dark Horse, a bar and grill dating back to the 1970s.
The development, located at 2952 Baseline Road, underscores the complicated trade-offs associated with urban infill projects that often displace businesses to make way for desperately needed housing.
Developers of the project are proposing to build more than 600 housing units, with about a third tailored to students. The plan includes a ground-floor restaurant and retail spaces, and a hotel. Trees, parks, plazas and rooftop decks would be located throughout the development, according to the developer. All six four- and five-story buildings would be fully electric.
The project is in the concept review stage, an early step in the development process where the applicant seeks feedback from residents, boards, commissions and the Boulder City Council. Councilmembers will not be voting on the project yet.
The developers, Coburn Development and Morgan Creek Ventures, both with offices in Boulder, still need site review approval and building permits from the city before proceeding with construction. That process could take a year or more. Only during site review would the council consider a vote on it.
The project site is located between the towering Williams Village undergraduate dorms and US 36. The developers have characterized it as an urban infill project that seeks to bring housing, sidewalks, multi-use paths and green space to what is otherwise a sprawling parking lot and shopping center.
“The site is a parking lot,” Bill Holicky, a principal at Coburn Partners, an architecture and development firm, told the city’s Planning Board at a hearing in January. “It’s a broken part of our urban fabric as a community.”
Before a new neighborhood could be built, however, the proposal involves the demolition of buildings currently occupied by Sprouts Market, the Dark Horse, Cosmos’s Pizza, the Broker Inn and others. The redevelopment does not include the McDonald’s restaurant.
In an unusual political dynamic, much of the pushback to the development has come from residents in Martin Acres, a single-family neighborhood south of the project, and patrons of the Dark Horse. Some opponents have even called for designating the Dark Horse building a landmark, which would force the developers to build around it. For some, the potential loss of the Dark Horse reflects a broader concern about the economic gentrification of Boulder.
“We have to keep Boulder weird. We have to keep it funky. We have to keep with the character. The ‘yuppification’ of Boulder needs to stop,” real estate agent Matthew Jensen, an ambassador with the Boulder Chamber and graduate of Boulder High School, told Planning Board members in January, referring to the pejorative characterization of young urban professionals often blamed for gentrification.
The Dark Horse, owned by David Tobin, rents its building from the property owner, the Williams family. A representative with the development team shared with Boulder Reporting Lab a March 5 memorandum of understanding stating that the Williams family “commits to extending the Dark Horse’s lease in its current space until the redevelopment of the parcel begins.”
The agreement also states that the development team “will work closely with the Dark Horse owner to identify potential relocation areas, including within the current and future redevelopments, and to collaborate on the movement and storage of the current building’s interior and memorabilia.”
Under the agreement, the “Dark Horse owner commits to publicly supporting efforts to dissuade public efforts to landmark or preserve the Dark Horse building, including through published articles and opinion articles.”
Management at the Dark Horse declined to comment on the proposed redevelopment.
But a March 6 op-ed in the Daily Camera, co-authored by Tobin and Petur Williams, general partner for the Williams family company, states that the Dark Horse plans to continue operating for the next “several years.”
“Perhaps most important to this conversation is the commitment to set aside nearly 100,000 square feet of new commercial space for new community-serving retail that can serve as a new home for the Sprouts grocery store, and — we hope — the Dark Horse,” the letter states.
The building occupied by the Dark Horse is over 50 years old and does not meet the city’s current building codes, according to Tobin.
“We’re committed to continuing our decades-long collaboration to save the business — but not the actual building itself,” the op-ed states.
A parking lot = broken? Incredibly arrogant.
“Desperately needed housing” is subjective. Personally, I believe we are full and don’t need to build more housing. Now, I would support utilizing our current vacancies and populating those.
A waste of time; like the gentleman says, this a big, old parking lot. I’m doubtful the “Save the Darkhorse” people actually go there; it’s the idea of hanging on to the past. I certainly used to have great times at the Darkhorse (and the Broker). Now it’s time to let go so more than 600 people can have also have great life by living there.
Buzz Burrell? More like Buzz Kill!
Disagree.
The Dark Horse is a dive bar. Of all the things to get nostalgic about, the Dark Horse is not one of them.
I go to the Dark Horse a few times a year. It is one of the only places in Boulder where a big group can meet and hang out for less than a couple hundred dollars. Whenever I am there it is ALWAYS crowded. Nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake is a waste of time. But the Dark Horse fills a need in this city which is increasingly becoming more and more exclusive and built for those with very high incomes. A variety of businesses makes a city thrive.
Keep Boulder Weird–that is its trademark, and without it, what is Boulder but just another city?
I keep putting the same comment on BRL stories about development — INCLUDE A MAP! Not all of us know exactly where the neighborhood under discussion is located and how it relates to other landmarks nearby. A picture is worth a thousand words — and for a story on development, a map is worth at least a thousand.
Noted! Thanks, Bill. — BRL editors
The Dark Horse is one of the last stand alone bar with true character, and beloved by many. Don’t let this treasure slip away under new development! Some things need to be preserved for those who have enjoyed and will enjoy for many years to come.
No more apartments!! There’s enough traffic in Boulder. How about affordable senior living.
Traffic is a result of poor transportation planning that doesn’t include or allow for significantly useful alternative methods, such as safe bike routes or regularly scheduled buses. Denser housing with access to required amenities eliminates the need for cars.
We don’t need denser housing period.
I believe this Council meeting is being held virtually only.
Keep the dark horse! 🐴 So many great times there. Boulder is losing its personality and spine! First the hill now this. Oh but leave the mickey d’s serving up that grease and salt! I think the council won’t be happy until every square inch is developed in this town! 😩
This area is right as you enter into Boulder, and then take Baseline up to the beautiful and historic Chautauqua Park. I oppose making it look like you are entering the town at the point in Boulder – with large buildings all you can see. We already see too much CU Housing as we approach Boulder on HWY 36 – uggh. And with what is happening to the Millennium Harvest House Hotel and build 303 apartments – then this is too much.
The developer at Millennium also needed permission from the Planning Board to redevelop the site because it wants to build up to 53 feet high — which is above the 35 feet allowed under the city’s zoning rules — and also because it is proposing to build about half the amount of parking spots required under city code.
This means Boulder becomes a student only housing expansion.
What about adding in some Low-income housing for the rest of us….or do the regular residents not want to live by the students and are trying to remove them from the private rentals that are disturbing the beautiful and expensive homes in Uni Hill/Chautauqua area.
What is the real reason behind all this? change the heights and massive Student Housing? Get the students out of my fancy neighborhood?
I would like to see this on the BeHeard city of Boulder web site now – not later, so more citizens can learn about it and comment.
Is there a portal where we can voice our objections as long time residents of Boulder and patrons of the Dark Horse???
Of course the newly rebuilt and utterly unnecessary McDonald’s dark castle of doom (which shut down a whole lane of traffic on Baseline for weeks) will be unaffected by this development… rich people and corporations walk all over us. Will these new apartments be affordable? Or just another overpriced and poorly-made “luxury” money-grab? Who will this long-term construction project affect? Not the Williams family who likely live in a mansion far far away. It’s going to affect lower income families, students and the local homeless population. Who is more important to us, Boulder? Rich people looking to get richer? Or Real people struggling to survive?
Sky, you think people want to be holed up all day in the middle of an apartment building? That alone drives residents to get out. And they use transportation to get away, whether that is wall to wall busses, trains, planes, cars or electric bikes. It still means there are too many people to BE moved about. And the sky’s not the limit. There is no limiter.
The Dark Horse should unquestionably be put up for landmark or historical status, and absolutely qualifies as such. This place is an institution in Boulder, much like the Sink, but with better food. It is one of the largest places for groups to get together for an affordable price in a great historical funky setting, and is part of the fabric of the “old Boulder”, of which there is very little left. The redevelopment of the area could easily incorporate the Dark Horse building (and even celebrate it) all without losing hardly any units, if any at all. Besides, we are talking about adding not just units to Boulder, but UNAFFORDABLE housing units to Boulder, more of which we do not need. Working (real job) locals need to be able to live here, not just the wealthy, and this needs to be made a priority.
Save the Dark Horse, we need to preserve some of the funkiness which put this town on the map, and the reason why so many came here.
Also, to this site, why do you not include the information for the City Council meeting, the way to comment for the development, or the petition for the landmark?
YES SNIDLY!!!!👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻