Plans for 27-story building move ahead after appeal fails

The new tallest building in Colorado Springs will continue to move ahead after the City Council turned down an appeal to block a proposed 27-story apartment tower. The City Council voted 6-1 during a special hearing Monday afternoon to reject the appeal challenging the mixed-use apartment building being planned for the northeast corner of the intersection of Sahwatch Street and West Costilla Street in downtown Colorado Springs. The proposed OneVela building would be between 295 feet and 312 feet tall depending on what is considered the top point of the building.

Either way, the apartment would stand several stories taller than the 250-foot Wells Fargo Tower, the current tallest building in Colorado Springs. The O’Neil Group, a local private equity group, and VeLa Development Partners, a Kansas City, Mo., high-rise and multifamily developer, have been developing the apartment tower for more than a year.



The design standards and code for the building were unanimously approved by the Downtown Review Board in February. Dave Donelson was the only council member who voted in favor of the appeal. Donelson said he agreed with citizens concerned about the record-breaking height and the limited discussion around setting a firm cap on building heights.

"Look around Kansas City, they need tall buildings. We don’t. We have Pikes Peak, we have a beautiful environment," Donelson said.

A proposed 27-story downtown apartment building will continue to move toward construction after the Colorado Springs City Council voted Monday to deny an appeal that opposed it. Council members Nancy Henjum and Brian Risley were absent from the meeting. The appeal of the Downtown Review Board decision was filed by Dianne Bridges, the chairwoman for the Historic Neighborhoods Partnership, one of several local groups that has opposed the record-breaking building since it was first proposed in 2023.

Bridges said she filed the appeal in her personal capacity. Bridges and her attorney Robert Bruce argued that the Downtown Review Board should not be able to approve such a major change to the city skyline without also going through voters or elected officials like the City Council. Bridges said the timing for the approval was off given that the Downtown Partnership and the city were currently working on updates to the downtown Master Plan.

"I believe it’s premature for you and any other board to allow a tall high rise right now in the downtown area," Bridges said. The form-based code was approved in 2009 to set up specific requirements and allowances for different parts of downtown Colorado Springs. The 0.

4 square-mile section of "central" downtown is the only area of the city that does not set a maximum building height. The other areas of downtown cap building heights at between four stories and 10 stories. The apartment had first been proposed in November 2023 as a massive 36-story building before being changed in June to the current 27-story plan.

O'Neil Group founder Kevin O'Neil told the council the debate about the project over the past year had provided significant public input on the building's height and design, including the height reduction. O'Neil Group leaders said the June the height change was because of "what we believe we can finance," as The Gazette previously reported. Reducing the building from 36 stories changed the construction estimate from $240 million to $202 million.

Architect Frank André from the Hord Coplan Macht firm that designed the proposed high rise compared OneVela's design to similar apartment buildings Vela has opened or begun building in Kansas City and St. Louis. The three examples shown ranged between 25 stories and 29 stories but none were the tallest building in their city, as Donelson pointed out during the meeting.

Bridges also claimed in her appeal the project should have been voted down in December because some technical aspects of the design were still being worked out. Urban planning manager Ryan Tefertiller told the council that about a half-dozen minor points were unaddressed as of Monday, with the biggest outstanding question being a new submission for the stormwater drainage plans expected later in the week. The public comments in favor of the project Monday focused on the economic impacts for downtown.

The Downtown Partnership, Colorado Springs Chamber and Economic Development Corporation and the Pikes Peak Housing Network all had leaders say that dense downtown cores were an attraction for both major companies and young high-paid employees who wanted to live in a city center. Urban Renewal Authority board member Bob Riefstahl lives in the Hillside neighborhood and said he originally opposed the project because of the view question. Riefstahl told the council the impact on his view of Pikes Peak was as significant as an index finger blocking a doorway across the room.

"I appreciate the fact of having urban density like this because of things being within walking distance and having all the amenities of downtown," Riefstahl said. Other citizens who spoke Monday said any change to the Rocky Mountain views was a problem. Many of the residents worried that allowing the project opened the doors for even taller skyscrapers down the road and would limit future chances for them or the City Council to oppose future projects.

"I'm just so tired of hearing that we’re anti-growth, we don’t like change. No. We like the current skyline of the city and we don’t want that to be forever changed," Lisa Bigelow said.

The development plan may be the last time the project needs City Council approval as the developers move to submit construction designs with the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department and begin city permit applications. Developers said the goal was to have the building open in early 2028. A separate aspect of the OneVela project is being challenged in court through a lawsuit filed by Integrity Matters.

The suit filed in January asked the court to overturn the City Council's December vote that approved the urban renewal plan for the development, which unlocked up to $11 million in public tax-increment financing for the project. The lawsuit claimed that the council had improperly ruled that blight existed on the block, which qualified the area for urban renewal, and that campaign contributions by the O'Neil Group may have affected the decision..