[BikeLongmont] Velodrome meeting

[Craig D. Smith]

Hi Everyone 


 

Went to the Velodrome meeting in Boulder this afternoon.  Didn’t see any
familiar faces, so thought you might like a summary.  Didn’t take many
notes, but hopefully remembered the important stuff.

 

Meeting was held in the Bridge school on the same property as the proposed
Velodrome.  Next to the large Catholic church on S Boulder Road.  About 60
people in attendance.  Had a look at the site before the meeting.  There is
about 12.5 acres under consideration and it is presently an undeveloped
athletic field with a couple of soccer goals, etc.  It is a beautiful site,
with great views of the Flatirons.

 

 

Nice spread with lots of cheeses, crackers, cookies, nuts, beer, wine (with
bicycles on the label), etc.

Andy Hampsten introduced the main speaker who was Allen Lim, one of the
principal investors.  Allen is an exercise physiologist with focus on biking
and is with UC at the “HealthLinks clinic” there.  They apparently do
kinesthetic research, sports medicine, etc.  He has previously worked at the
Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs.  Allen gave a 35 minute talk
with PowerPoint illustrations and then a 15 minute Q&A session.  Other
principal investors are Tom Irvine and Jim Sherman.  Jim Sherman is with the
Bridge school.

 

They have done a fair amount of planning, but it seemed like they didn’t
really want to “go public” for another couple weeks or so.  The meeting
notice for today being in the paper was apparently somewhat of a
misunderstanding between them and the Daily Camera, (wasn’t intended to be a
public meeting), but they decided to go ahead with it after it was
published.

 

The area under discussion is zoned rural residential, with a minimum of 35
acres per house.  The school was granted a special use exemption by the
county commissioners several years ago along with the 12.5 acre parcel under
discussion.  In order for something new to be built on the land, it would
need to be deemed as having “exceptional community benefit”.  The present
commissioners would not do that, but after the first of they year there will
be two new ones (Toor and Pearlman) who will hopefully be more agreeable.
So the intent is to try to get county approval during 2005.     

 

The official name of the project is the Life Performance Center at Boulder.
The center will have several parts:

 

Medical Center – 

Cancer treatment

Exercise in conjunction with Chemo, etc.

Physical Therapy

Rehab research

Relocated HealthLinks Clinic

 

Research Center

       Athletic performance

       Kinesthetics

       Preventative Medicine

       Nutritional research

 

Multi-sport Training Center

 

Nutrition Center

       Partner with natural foods Cos (Dean, Wild Oats, Whole Foods, etc.)

 

Velodrome

 

 

The main legal entity is a for-profit corporation called LPC Corp.  They
will establish one or more non-profit entities to allow for donations and
grants for research and educational programs.  They see their main market
goals as:

Health (preventative and rehab)

Physical Activity (Beginner to World Class athletes)  

Connecting clinical research to an athletic environment

 

Probable revenue streams:

       Medical treatment

       Physical therapy

       Massage

       Sports Camps

       Coaching

       Government and private research grants

       Ticket sales to athletic events

       Food sales

       Merchandise sales

       Books

       On-site advertising

       TV rights

       Private label nutritional products

       

I know, you want to know more about the velodrome.  It will be a
conventional 333 meter wooden oval, completely enclosed, but with good views
of the Flatirons out of the “windows”.  The conceptual drawing looked
something like the big tent-like terminal building at DIA but on a smaller
scale.  There would be a café overlooking the track.  They expect it to
become the “go to site” for world record attempts.  We are high enough to
give a fair amount of drag reduction without loosing major amounts of rider
power as in Mexico City.  The calculations show that it could be the fastest
track in the world.  Expectation is that the track would be used for
multiple purposes – sports camps, site for high school cycling teams to
compete, training for pro cyclists, racing events and public access (for a
fee) time.  

 

The developers seem to be fairly well connected in terms of their
infrastructure.  They have financial consultants, lawyers, architects, etc.
all lined up as well as a high level of investment interest by several
people, companies and venture capital sources.  Total cost will be about
$25M.  The outside investment interest is actually not because of the
Velodrome.  The business case was made with the medical, nutrition and
research services since these are more quantifiable and predictable.  They
were blunt to say that the velodrome is included in order to get more “buy
in” from Boulder County and its residents.  They said that if the project
were being considered for Minneapolis rather than Boulder, there would be a
hockey rink instead of a Velodrome.  By “buy in” they mean about $1M in seed
money and approval for the project by the county commissioners.  They will
be offering seed money shares for $1 each during the next few months with
the hope of raising the $1M.  So if you have extra $$ in 2005 keep them in
mind if this looks appealing to you.

 

Their goals for 2005 are to:

       Get county approval

       Complete the design

       Raise $1M seed money

       Obtain corporate sponsors

       Break ground

 

Overall, I would say the biggest unknown is the reception by the county
commissioners.  There were a couple neighborhood residents at the meeting
who seemed to prefer that it not happen.  Can’t tell for sure, but I had the
feeling that their financing was going fairly well.  They will be pitching
it to the county as a good way to bring people into Boulder to stay in the
local hotels, go to restaurants, etc.

 

The only other experience I’ve had with Velodromes is the one at
Trexlertown, PA where I used to go both to watch races and to ride the
track.  This one seems very different.  The Trexlertown track was owned by
the county and there was no charge to ride during the “open” track times.
This one will probably be much more scheduled and you would pay by the hour
to ride when the track was available.  Still, would be great to have such a
facility available locally.

       

 

 

 

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