Developers who proposed the momentous overhaul of Colorado Springs’ historic Union Printers Home cleared a key step toward earning urban renewal designation for the property on Wednesday.

At its regular monthly meeting, the city’s Urban Renewal Authority accepted a conditions study of the roughly 26-acre property, conducted last April, that determined it is blighted.

Wednesday’s board action is one of several requisite steps before local development group UPH Partners — made up of six prominent Colorado Springs business, civic and philanthropic leaders — can secure urban renewal designation for the property.

The designation, they have said, will create a crucial financing tool to help fund what could be a nearly $1 billion project.

UPH Partners has proposed a massive multi-use transformation for the 137-year-old Union Printers Home property located east of downtown, at the southeast corner of Union Boulevard and Pikes Peak Avenue. It has been vacant since 2020.

The redevelopment project, called Printers Hill, is envisioned to include apartments, townhomes, condominiums, open space, retail and office uses, restaurants, plazas and more.

A significant element of the project includes converting the “castle” building on the property, referring to its castle-like appearance, into a boutique hotel with 115 to 200 rooms.

Developers applied for the urban renewal designation nearly a year-and-a-half ago, in October 2024.

The Urban Renewal Authority temporarily held off on reviewing the project further until UPH Partners selected a development partner; the group has since chosen Denver-based Oliver Buchanan Group, the authority’s Executive Director Jariah Walker told the board.

The conditions study conducted last spring found the property met eight of 11 blight factors as defined by Colorado statutes, said Sarah Dunmire, vice president of Oakland, Calif.-based consulting firm Economic & Planning Systems, Inc. The company has a Denver office.

“That’s very substantial,” she said.

Dunmire added that because the property has a single owner, UPH Partners LLC, Colorado statute only requires one blight factor is met.

“We look for as many (blight factors) as possible, and here we found eight,” she said.

The field study area included two parcels totaling roughly 26 acres and existing buildings totaling about 156,400 square feet.

Through data and observation, the study identified deteriorated structures; poor provisions for vehicles; unsafe and unsanitary conditions including evidence of vandalism and vagrants, as well as an inadequate water system; deteriorated fences, walls, parking areas, curbs and lighting; deteriorated pavement and the presence of overhead utilities; and uninhabitable and vacant structures, Dunmire’s presentation showed.

Additionally, there is concern about the environmental contamination of buildings on the site.

In 2021, AEI Consultants conducted an environmental site assessment and found, based on the age of the buildings, asbestos and lead-based paint are likely present.

These factors don’t pose immediate health risks, but the chemicals could be released when demolition begins, Dunmire said. She cautioned developers to take steps to mitigate the contaminants during construction.

Walker said in staff notes included with meeting materials that the timeline for construction, once envisioned to begin this year, is fluid.

Developers propose constructing 945 residential units, the hotel and 1,830 parking spaces in the first phase of construction, meeting materials show.

The Union Printers Home was established in 1889, after the International Typographical Union received 80 acres of land east of Colorado Springs to establish a facility for the care of its aging and infirm members, the UPH Partners website states. The home was dedicated in 1892; it treated or housed around 40,000 people, according to the website.

The printing trade and the union declined over the decades, as did the home. Union Printers Home was sold in 2014 to a private nursing home group and it permanently closed in 2020, the website states.

UPH Partners bought the home in 2021. The group has invested $20 million to purchase and maintain the site, Walker said Wednesday.

If the site earns an urban renewal designation, future property and sales tax revenues generated by Printers Hill development can be used to finance parts of the project. This funding mechanism is called tax increment financing (TIF).

“The project does not perform without that support,” Walker’s staff notes read. “The property has been vacant … and has fallen into a state of disrepair. Financial support is needed for preservation efforts of the castle, basic utility infrastructure upgrades and the formation of new roads within the new community. Without (tax increment financing), any aspect of the development is impossible.”

Under Colorado’s urban renewal law, UPH Partners must also present a land-use plan and financial information about the project, including the types of expenses that would be eligible for funding through tax increment financing.

The Urban Renewal Authority expects to review those documents in late spring or early summer, Walker said.

The City Council must give final approval of the urban renewal designation for the property.