The city of Steamboat Springs has officially closed on the Campbell property as of April 27 and is currently under contract with the Colorado Department of Transportation to purchase the remaining adjacent parcels, according to City Manager Tom Leeson.

Leeson congratulated both City Council and staff at Tuesday’s council meeting, noting that the process to officially acquire the CDOT-owned property has been a “big effort.” 

In a follow-up interview with the newspaper Thursday, Leeson said the city will look at using the property to expand workforce housing and/or child care services, as well as potentially working with Serving Older Adults in Routt — formerly known as the Routt County Council on Aging — to explore using the property to support services for seniors.

The city will go through a community-informed master planning process, he added, to evaluate all feasible uses. 

The Campbell property is located south of U.S. Highway 40, next to a marshy area and the Steamboat Springs Community Center. 

City Council unanimously approved purchase of the Campbell property parcels for a total of 4 acres in November. 

In February, the city received $1.3 million in congressional funds via a request through U.S. Sens. Bennet and Hickenlooper, which will go toward site work and construction at the properties.

The acquisition, which cost $4.275 million and will be funded through the city’s short-term rental tax revenue, was previously described by Deputy City Manager Kelly Romero-Heaney as a rare opportunity to assemble key parcels and “gain site control from basically Dream Island to Steamboat Rentals.”​