Nearly eight years ago, the City Council adopted the Experience Downtown Colorado Springs Plan of Development and Master Plan — a blueprint to guide development, establish goals and implement public policy initiatives for the area that civic leaders, elected officials and business people often call the heartbeat of the city.

That plan, downtown advocates say, was supposed to last at least 15 and maybe even 20 years.

But — and since it’s football season — it’s fair to say downtown’s growth has outkicked the master plan’s coverage.

Since 2016, area advocates say $2.5 billion has been invested in downtown, which includes thousands of apartments built, under construction or on the drawing board, along with more than 1,000 new hotel rooms and redevelopment efforts such as the transformation of a more than century-old former trolley car barn on South Tejon Street into a restaurant and entertainment hub.

New downtown amenities, attractions and services over that period include the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, the Weidner Field multiuse stadium, the Ed Robson Arena, the Antlers Dog Park, the PikeRide electric bike sharing program, a free downtown shuttle, increased numbers of murals and public art, dedicated bike lanes and the creation of AdAmAn Alley — the sprucing up of a dank downtown alley into an award-winning public space.

“Strategic planning must be accompanied by strategic doing,” said Susan Edmondson, president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership advocacy group, quoting Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade. “And we’ve been doing a lot of doing lately.”

With so many downtown improvements and changes over the past eight years, and even though there’s still more to accomplish from the 2016 version of the Experience Downtown Colorado Springs Plan of Development and Master Plan, a revised document is now in the works.

On Friday, during the Downtown Partnership’s 27th annual breakfast that celebrates the area’s accomplishments over the last year, Edmondson laid out details of what’s envisioned as a “substantial update” for the Experience Downtown Colorado Springs Plan of Development and Master Plan that’s expected to guide downtown planning efforts for at least 10 years.

The Downtown Development Authority, a quasigovernmental entity that works in conjunction with the Downtown Partnership, is seeking proposals to assemble a consulting team that would conduct the plan update.

That update, which will have numerous opportunities for public input, would be created over the next year and it’s expected to be presented to the City Council for approval in the fourth quarter of 2025. The deadline for consultants seeking to submit proposals for work on the update is 5 p.m. Sept. 30.

Speaking to about 720 people who attended the breakfast, which took place at the Robson Arena on the campus of Colorado College, Edmondson credited many people in the room who launched major residential and commercial projects — including housing, retail, restaurants, entertainment and the like — and helped propel downtown forward, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We accomplished far more in these past eight years than we ever anticipated possible,” Edmondson said. “So we decided it’s time for an update.”

In addition to what’s been accomplished over the last eight years, more downtown improvements already are on the drawing board or about to launch — well before an updated master plan gets underway.

For example, Colorado Springs School District 11 has earmarked $100 million in funds for a renovation of Palmer High School, which sits at Platte and Nevada avenues in the heart of downtown and has been a part of the area for more than a century.

Josh Franklin, a co-owner with his husband, John Wolfe, of Icons, the popular nightclub and gay piano bar that was one of four downtown businesses displaced because of a Dec. 4 fire in their building at 3 E. Bijou St., are targeting a fall re-opening. Instead of leasing space, they’ve purchased a property a block away at 16 E. Kiowa St., Franklin told the crowd at the Downtown Partnership breakfast.

And even as hundreds of apartments have opened downtown over the last eight years, Downtown Partnership officials estimate 2,000 more will open this year and in 2025.

But while the Downtown Partnership breakfast is a celebratory affair, the area, of course, isn’t without problems.

Among citywide concerns that include beefing up public safety, police response times and addressing road needs, Mobolade told the gathering that his administration recognizes the ongoing problems that homelessness presents for downtown businesses and residents.

He told the group that a six-point city homeless response plan, to be released in the fall and that he outlined in August, will focus on areas such as providing funding to support housing solutions in conjunction with non-profit housing providers; enforcement of city laws designed to protect public spaces while connecting the homeless to resources they need; and prioritizing street-outreach efforts for high-need individuals experiencing homelessness.

Mobolade, meanwhile, also lauded downtown’s gains over the years — though his message might have sounded familiar to anyone who attended last year’s Downtown Partnership breakfast.

In some of his remarks, which were almost word-for-word what he told last year’s Downtown Partnership breakfast attendees, Mobolade described downtown as “the beating heart of our city, a place that encapsulates our history, our culture and our aspirations for the future.”

Downtown is “a hub of innovation, creativity, commerce and civic activity,” he added Friday, a statement that also was nearly identical to last year’s comment, when he used the phrase “civic leadership” instead of “civic activity.”

“A healthy and economically prosperous Colorado Springs starts with a thriving city center,” Mobolade said in another identical comment from his speech last year.

City spokeswoman Vanessa Zink said Mobolade has given 256 speeches in the last year, and repeating words and phrases from one speech to another allows him to hammer home points he feels are critical.

“Repeating your main points really provides your audience with information you want them to remember,” Zink said.

Examples cited by The Gazette from Mobolade’s speeches last year and this year to the Downtown Partnership, she added, contain accurate and factual information that the mayor would want people to remember about downtown.

“Repetition is a tool to help people remember key points,” Zink said.

In a broader sense, she added, “in almost every time he speaks, he is repeating the same vision statement for the city because it’s something that he really wants people to remember, about what he’s trying to say and what he’s trying to flag about what’s important for the city of Colorado Springs.”