Restoration of Loveland’s historic buildings is challenging, but worth it

PUBLISHED: May 24, 2026 at 7:33 AM MDT by the Loveland Reporter Herald - SEE RH ARTICLE HERE
WRITTEN BY SEAN HAWKINS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

“I’ll never do that again.” This is a comment I’ve heard countless times from property owners, over my 25-year career, who go through the process of renovating an older or historic property. It’s not simply a Loveland challenge; this comment has been said in every city I’ve ever worked in.

As Northern Colorado grows and much of the new development is homogeneous in both look and feel, restoring our oldest buildings and the sense of place they provide in Loveland should be of the highest priority. That’s my opinion, but I think many of you agree with this.

This is why I love working with property owners who have vision. Especially those who can look at an outdated building and see a new life for it.

Earlier this month, our organization, the Loveland Downtown District, hosted a Downtown Past and Present walking tour where we took 100 local citizens on tours of recently completed building restorations as well as a few buildings still in their restoration planning phase.

One of the places we toured was the recently remodeled Loveland Feed and Grain on Third Street which was originally constructed in the late 1800s. I’m still amazed by the vision it took to turn the building’s former grain bins into living units and how creative and energetic it felt to be inside the newly renovated commercial spaces. But oh man, what a challenging endeavor it was for Artspace Projects and their partner Ratio Architects to work creatively and to assemble the different funding sources to complete the $12,000,000 restoration of one of Loveland’s most historic properties.

The challenges are many when it comes to remodeling an older property. One of the first is simple economics. Many older properties sit empty simply because the cost to renovate them vastly exceeds the revenue that the renovated property would receive in the form of rents or sales. And yes, Loveland, like many cities, has property owners who simply refuse to invest in their properties, but that is a story for another day.

While it does take vision to renovate a property, developers also deserve a return on their investment and risk as well. Think about yourself, would you take a huge financial risk and borrow several hundred thousand dollars to only receive a 4% annual return on that investment? Some banks are offering 4% returns on certificates of deposit right now for simply depositing funds — while renovating older buildings can take years to complete. So, in order to renovate an older building, vision must walk hand in hand with a reasonable financial return on the restoration investment as well.

Bankers and investors aren’t ignorant either; they will only issue a construction loan to renovate an older building if they know that the loan can be repaid (with some reasonable cushion for unexpected events that can happen over the years of the loan repayment cycle).

Thankfully in downtown Loveland, we have a powerful tool that assists developers in closing the financial gap between the cost of renovating a property and the need for a developer financial return through the Loveland Downtown Development Authority (DDA). Our DDA uses Tax Increment Financing to help make a project financially feasible through the reimbursement of a portion of the future property or sales tax generated by the project over a period of years.

Typically, the DDA invests no upfront public money into a property and only if a developer creates new taxes do we refund a portion of the new taxes back to the developer to cover the cost of the renovating certain features of the project. The Downtown Development Authority then requires the developer to provide the public a maintenance easement ensuring the exterior of the building is taken care of in exchange for the investment of public funds.

If it’s not the challenges in financing a restoration of an older property, another major challenge developers face is modernizing a property to current codes. In my last column I wrote about the numerous buildings in downtown Loveland that lacked a fire suppression system. The restoration of older buildings may also bring up the need for water line upgrades, electrical upgrades, structural upgrades, environmental remediation, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and more. Addressing these issues can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of a renovation project. We should commend anyone taking the risk to renovate an older property. It’s not easy work.

The Loveland Downtown Development Authority is currently in the process of partnering with the private sector on some complicated building restorations in downtown Loveland. One is the former Loveland Elks Lodge on Fourth Street, which is slated to become a music venue with new retail spaces, a restaurant, practice spaces for musicians and a roof top patio. We’re also working on the remodel of the former Mister Neat’s location on Fourth Street across from the Rialto Theater. The building will become the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant. We’re also partnering on the new expanded home for Sky Bear Brewing next to Desk Chair Workspace on Fourth Street.

All of these buildings are over 100 years old and are challenging projects, but the hard work to restore them is being done out of a true love of Loveland and the opportunity to be a part of downtown’s future. Let’s hope when these projects are completed that everyone involved says “I’ll do that again, it was worth it.”

Sean Hawkins is the executive director of the Loveland Downtown District. The Loveland Downtown District is a partnership of the Loveland Downtown Development Authority and the Historic Loveland Business Improvement District. He has lived in Loveland since August 2018. He can be reached via email at shawkins@lovelandpartnership.org or by text at 970-699-2856.