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Overview

The Carbondale Community nonprofit Center (CCNC) project is a joint effort between the Town of Carbondale, SCoR and the RFCDC to renovate the old Carbondale Elementary School into a green facility that maintains affordable space for community and regional nonprofit organizations.

The SCoR/CDC team is currently working in pre-development partnership with the Town of Carbondale on the programming, financing, and ownership/management structure for the facility.

Project Overview (PDF)

Upcoming

CES Naming / Branding

Summary Document

Courtesy:

Green Design Charrette
Summary Report

See slideshow

Overview [click for full image]

Development Team

Gavin Brooke
Land & Shelter
963-0201

Jeff Dickinson
Energy & Sustainable Design
963-0114

Colin Laird
Roaring Fork CDC
963-5502

Initial Board of Directors

Stacey Bernot
Town of Carbondale representative
Town Trustee

Richard Fuller - Secretary
President
Alpine Bank, Carbondale

Laura Kirk
SCoR Board Vice-President
DHM Design, Carbondale

Dan Miller - Treasurer
SCoR Board member
Retired attorney, Jones Day

Michael McVoy
 RFCDC Board Member
Manaus Fund Board Member

Craig Rathbun - President
President & CEO
The Fleisher Company, Carbondale

George Stranahan
RFCDC Board Member
Manaus Fund Board Member

Alternates:

Shane Evans
Structural Associates Company

 

August 28, 2008

Nonprofit Center transformation expected to begin soon

Jeremy Heiman
The Valley Journal

Remodeling work to turn the old Carbondale Elementary School at Third Street and Capitol Avenue into an energy-efficient nonprofit center can commence in September, if all goes well.

Colin Laird, director of the Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation, said he expects a land exchange between the Roaring Fork School District and the town of Carbondale will take place in mid-September, putting the building in the hands of the town.

A recent zoning action by the town split the school building and surrounding land off from the larger school campus, so that the land swap could take place.

Now, the nonprofit center project can proceed separately from the school district’s longer-term plans to develop teacher housing on the larger site.

Laird, who is also executive director of Healthy Mountain Communities, said a separate non-profit organization, governed by a board of directors, will hold a lease on the building, which is being called the Carbondale Community nonprofit Center, or C3. Openings on that board are currently being filled. The building will be owned by the Town of Carbondale.

The group working on the nonprofit center has filed an application to the federal government for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, Laird said, and is working out financial details of the project. They already have financing commitments from Alpine Bank, he said.

Laird said 25 to 30 nonprofit groups have expressed interest in relocating to the building and put down a deposit. RFCDC has begun to negotiate lease terms with some, he said. A selection committee will be formed in the fall to determine which groups are the best fit for the nonprofit center, because the number of applicants is expected to be greater than the number of available spaces. Laird said that is job that must be taken seriously.

“We’re not trying to exclude anyone,” he said.

Earlier plans for the building called for a small business incubator. Laird said plans for that feature are not as advanced as other aspects of the project. RFCDC is still in discussion with the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce, though.

“There’s still a placeholder for it,” Laird said. “It could be a component of the  final building.”

When the land swap is complete, the elementary school building will stand on a parcel of approximately 2.7 acres. The building itself measures about 45,000 square feet, and will have about 35,000 square feet of leaseable space, Laird said. The remainder is common areas, including hallways and a community room.

Lots of work ahead
From the time the land swap is completed, Laird said, it may be as much as a year before the building can be opened to prospective tenants. Asbestos remediation, energy efficiency improvements and remodeling all will take time.

“All this is predicated on the swap happening,” Laird said. “This (land swap) is the first big milestone.”

Major structural changes are not planned for the building, Laird said, but some walls may be moved and some ceilings will be raised, partly to help with daylighting. The thermal efficiency of the building’s shell will be improved as well.

Heating and cooling systems will need to be adapted to the building’s new year-round use, Laird said.

The energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements are somewhat
dependent on budget, Laird said. Many of the changes were suggested in a green design charrette, or brainstorming session held in April, involving 40 architects, Laird said.

“We’re going to take the ideas from that and see what we can afford to do,” he said.

The project may cost as much as $4 million, Laird said. But most of the items that will drive up the initial cost will drive down the month-to-month operating costs. A photovoltaic system, energy efficient windows and daylighting features are expensive up front, but reduce the cost of operating a building, he said.

Efficiency possibilities are many
Jeff Dickinson, of Energy & Sustainable Design, Inc., who is heading up the architectural work on the project, said final decisions have not been made on most of the energy-saving features for the building. But the wish list is long.

Some of the more basic things high on the agenda are upgrading the
insulation and replacing as many windows as possible with energy-efficient windows. An analysis of the benefits will determine how many windows are replaced, Dickinson said.

The group is also looking into replacing the existing boilers with more efficient models, and adding solar thermal panels to assist the heating system, Dickinson said.

“We may be looking at heat pumps, too,” he said. These would use ground source heat to assist the heating and cooling systems. During the winter, the system pumps water or coolant into a loop of pipe in the ground and collects heat from the earth and carries it through the system and into the building. During the summer, the system reverses itself to cool the building by pulling heat from the building, pumping it through the system and leaving it in the ground.

Dickinson said a number of alternative heating and cooling systems are under consideration to be used in a demonstration/education function in the building, to illustrate how they work and how well they perform. The designers are considering several different systems, for example, that take advantage of Carbondale’s climate, and especially the greater difference in temperature between night and day.

The light of day
Daylighting features are also being considered, Dickinson said. The architects are considering such improvements as clerestory windows, windows located above eye level for the purpose of allowing more daylight into a room; light tubes or sun pipes, tubes that are often coated with a reflective material on the inside, to bring daylight into a room through a roof; or light monitors, ramp-shaped or wedge- shaped raised areas on a roof, with a window located on the highest side to collect daylight.

The designers are working with Rising Sun Enterprises, Inc., a Basalt lighting consultant that specializes in energy-efficient lighting solutions, and Rising Sun has brought in a daylighting specialist, Dickinson said.

A Living Machine, which is a greenhouse containing plants and
microorganisms that help to treat sewage, is also a possibility for the nonprofit center, Laird said.

One thing that’s definite is the solar electric system that is planned for the building. Dickinson said the design group has already received proposals for installation of a 50-kilowatt photovoltaic system that will be mounted on the building.

There are also plans for the initial 50 kW system to be supplemented by anadditional 100 kW of solar panels to be mounted on and around the building, he said.

Looks aren’t everything
The look of the building will definitely be changing, and not just due to the addition of all the solar panels and daylighting gizmos. Will Young, a Carbondale architect, is working on the exterior, Dickinson said.

“We’re looking at adding a lot of architectural appeal to it,” he said. “We’ll be adding to the ‘wow’ factor.”

All of the energy efficiency and renewable energy features the building is expected to make the nonprofit center cheap to operate, but the architects working on it hope it will also be a showplace for energy efficiency.

“There’s a lot of people excited about the possibilities, Dickinson said.

“Our goal is to have it be a living building,” he continued. That’s a building that actually gives back energy, rather that consuming it, he explained. He said the architects have goals for reusing materials and minimizing the distance from which new materials are shipped, in order to reduce the total transportation energy required to remodel the old school.

The designers hope to receive recognition for the building’s energy efficiency and renewable energy production from the U.S. Green Building Council, which grants LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification to buildings that meet certain standards.

“We’ll definitely be following the LEED criteria for this building,” Dickinson said.

“Taking it beyond LEED is what this is about.”

“This is a complicated project because of all the organizations involved,” Laird said. “There are a million things that could have happened to derail it, and it’s still going to happen.”

He praised the Roaring Fork School District Board and the Carbondale
Trustees for seeing the project through.

“We’re going to turn it into something more than what it once was — an
efficient, sustainable nonprofit center,” he said.

May 15, 2008
 

Groups lining up for nonprofits center space

Jeremy Heiman
The Valley Journal

With efforts to redevelop the former Carbondale Elementary School proceeding briskly, the demand is growing for space in the building once it is converted into a base for nonprofit organizations.

The project, now known as the Carbondale Community Center, or C3, has a list on its website of about 30 groups that have ponied up a $500 deposit in order to be considered as prospective tenants in the building.

The building is in the hands of the town of Carbondale, thanks to a property swap last year with the Roaring Fork School District [note: the land swap actually has not been completed as of this article]. The Carbondale trustees have invited the Sustainability Center of the Rockies to help with the redevelopment and hired SCoR members Jeff Dickinson and Gavin Brooke, both architects, along with the Roaring Fork Community Development Corp. to create a green development plan for CES.

Local nonprofits that have put down a deposit on space in the yet-to-be redeveloped elementary school site have different reasons for moving there, and different levels of urgency in their desire to do so.

Some are attracted to the idea of working close to other nonprofits and sharing ideas, energy and assets. Others, perhaps victims of local real estate prices, are looking for more affordable digs. Others, such as YouthZone, see the center as an opportunity to have a greater presence in Carbondale. Several are considering the move for a combination of reasons.

CCAH can hardly wait

The Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities is one of those groups hoping the refurbished elementary school is ready sooner rather than later. Ro Mead, executive director of CCAH, said the current Main Street headquarters of her organization is rented and the owner has put the building up for sale, so her organization has little security.

“It could be any day,” Mead said. Moreover, the existing gallery space is too small for teaching programs CCAH would like to do and also too small for some exhibits, she added.

“We can’t do any programs without renting space,” she said.

But perhaps most important, Mead said, the organization is looking forward to being in a space where it can grow, and to being neighbors with other nonprofit organizations such as Solar Energy International and radio station KDNK.

“We really want to build an arts center there,” she said. “We’ll be in the heart of it.”

Steve Skinner, station manager at community access radio station KDNK, said the station hasn’t decided for certain whether its future lies at the former elementary school. KDNK now co-owns its building on Second Street with Solar Energy International. So, making the decision to leave will be difficult.

“We’re waiting to find out if it makes financial sense,” Skinner said.

KDNK may need more room

One thing that would draw KDNK to the nonprofits center would be more room to plan for the future. But whether they jump on board or not, Skinner said the staff and board of directors at KDNK are excited about the possibilities presented by the center.

“All of us at KDNK are totally supportive of the project,” he said. They’re open to various levels of participation, including the possibility of just renting additional studio space.

“We’re definitely excited about it,” Skinner said. “We’ll be involved.”

A local organization that’s not quite so excited about the prospect of moving is the New Century Transportation Foundation, created to advance the cause of resource-efficient mobility choices, currently located in the SAW building. Alice Laird, NCTF director, said her organization is only thinking about the CES site as a place for future expansion.

“The SAW building works perfectly great,” Laird said.

Wilderness Workshop is much less equivocal about the idea of moving into the nonprofits center.

“We’re psyched to be part of the vibrancy that it will create, with all those nonprofits there,” said Sloan Shoemaker, Wilderness Workshop’s executive director.

Further, said Shoemaker, the idea of recycling the CES building is exciting, because it’s essentially a brownfields redevelopment project. Brownfields redevelopment is usually defined as a cleanup and redevelopment of an old industrial site, so CES isn’t quite the same, but it’s better in terms of land conservation than the previous location SCoR had chosen for a nonprofits center and business incubator. SCoR had an undeveloped site near CRMS under contract, but backed away from that plan last fall.

“The idea of greening it and making it more sustainable is really very exciting,” Shoemaker said.

Wilderness Workshop looks at long term

Other reasons come to mind as well for Shoemaker. The Wilderness Workshop’s current location, in a modular building on Main Street, may also be redeveloped at some time.

“We’re looking for long-term stability,” he said. “We’re looking to hunker down somewhere.”

Shoemaker also expects that being in close proximity to other nonprofits will increase his organization’s membership because of increased exposure to like-minded individuals.

And he expects the CES location to be relatively inexpensive, in a town that’s been hit by high rent for office space.

“I don’t see us finding a better deal than what we’ll find there,” he said.

Gary Goodson, director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, also sees multiple opportunities at the nonprofit center. One important advantage of being located there is the plans to make the former school building a showplace of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

“CORE sees it as a huge opportunity,” Goodson said. “We want to walk our talk.”

In addition, Goodson said he thinks being in close proximity to other like-minded organizations will foster the growth of ideas.

“We’ll be sharing ideas with each other,” he said. At a distance, he said, it’s difficult to create partnerships. In a shared facility, however, “You can just pop your head in the door and say ‘hello.’’’

There’s a sort of reciprocal relationship, too, between CORE and the developers of the nonprofit center. The nonprofit center is the recipient of a grant from CORE under the Renewable Energy Mitigation Program. REMP grants are funded by assessing monetary penalties against new developments in the Aspen area that use excessive amounts of energy.

Goodson said that grant money will be well spent because the energy efficient improvements to the old school building may continue to save energy for 30 or 40 years.

SEI needs classroom space

Johnny Weiss, co-founder and executive director of Solar Energy International, which provides education on workshops on solar construction and energy efficiency, is also excited about moving to a remodeled green facility.

“I see it as a very positive opportunity,” Weiss said. “We’re excited about being in a real world-class nonprofit facility.”

“I think the synergy with other nonprofits will be very helpful,” he continued. SEI also needs to expand, and the nonprofit center will provide that opportunity.

“We’re looking for a space that’s better suited to meeting our long-term goals,” he said. Those goals include expansion and the need for more classroom space.

Some organizations on the human services side of the spectrum are also interested in the nonprofit center. YouthZone, which provides counseling and programs for adolescents and parents of teens throughout the valley, now has only a temporary presence in Carbondale. The organization has the use of an office for occasional counseling, but has no permanent personnel in town.

“We’re hoping to have a permanent office space there,” said Evan Zislis, upvalley division manager and spokesperson for the group.

“Carbondale has underutilized YouthZone,” he continued. “It’s a way for us to have a greater presence in town.”

April 25, 2008
 

Nonprofits seek to transform C’dale school into
‘living building’

David Frey
Aspen Daily News Correspondent

February 28 - March 06, 2008

CES renovation planning team organizes;
meeting March 6

Valley Journal staff report

The initial members of the newly formed Carbondale Community Center (C3) team — as it is currently being called — met recently to begin overseeing the renovation of the old Carbondale Elementary School (CES) into what is envisioned to be a green, affordable community nonprofit center.

As the center becomes more established, additional board members will be added, including tenant representatives.

“This is a critical piece toward the renovation of the old school,” said Colin Laird, director of the Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation (RFCDC). “We wanted to get some key players who will make this a successful project.”

Laird said that meetings with prospective tenants will hopefully come up with a better name for the nonprofit center. Laird also said that there has been a strong interest among tenants so far in the process. Laird estimates that about 25 to 30 potential tenants have come forward expressing interest in locating in the facility.

“It’s exciting to see how this project has come together,” said C3 board member and town trustee Stacey Bernot. “It’s a project with a lot of moving parts that have yet to be finalized, but we are moving in a great direction.”

The CES renovation is a joint effort between the town of Carbondale, the Sustainability Center of the Rockies (SCoR) and the Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation. SCoR and RFCDC are nonprofit organizations that have teamed up on the project because of their interests in making the new facility green and affordable.

“The current building has parts that are over 40 years old, low ceilings and dark interior spaces,” said SCoR/CDC development team member Jeff Dickinson of Energy and Sustainable Design. “We’ve learned a lot about how to make buildings more efficient and more enjoyable places to work in. Upgrading an old building creates a great model for sustainable design.”

The Carbnondale Elementary School renovation is part of a complicated land swap and development application with the Roaring Fork School District (RFSD). The school district is subdividing the larger school campus property, which is currently home to both the old elementary school and the current middle school, to enable affordable housing, with teachers being given priority.

The non-profits center would be established in the old CES building, and Bridges High School, the Computers for Kids organization, and other school district support services are slated to move into the middle school building once the former Roaring Fork High building on Snowmass Drive is ready for the middle school to make its move.

“Collaborative, public-minded development projects almost always take longer than you expect,” said Gavin Brooke of Land and Shelter and another member of the development team. “What has been so exciting and encouraging is how many partners have already committed to making the project a success.”

In addition to the town, which has supported the initial planning for the project, the Manaus Fund (which focuses on socially entrepreneurial projects) has agreed to finance the pre-development component of the project. And Alpine Bank is working to help finance the construction.

More than 25 organizations, from arts and environmental organizations to senior and recreation programs, have shown interest in the project and committed a $500 deposit.

The exact timeline for renovation and occupancy depends on the timing of subdivision approval and land swap, which is currently in the planning stages after the town approved a zoning plan last fall.

Bridges High School is also temporarily using CES until June. In the meantime, the SCoR/CDC development team is getting the pieces in place to get construction rolling this year.

“We have a lot of contracts to negotiate, architectural drawings to complete, additional funds to raise, and discussions to have with potential tenants over the next four to five months,” said Dickinson. “The exact timeframe is not as clear as we want it to be at this point, but the critical path to complete the project is. The new facility will be another jewel for the Carbondale community.”

With the new board formed, the CES planning will continue with a community meeting and discussion open to the public on March 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Carbondale Community Center (old Carbondale Elementary School). To attend the meeting, RSVP to Andi Korber at 963-0201.

July 12 - July 19, 2007

Nonprofits center plans moving ahead

By Gina Guarascio

Carbondale trustees voted on Tuesday to enter into an agreement with the Sustainability Center of the Rockies and the newly formed Roaring Fork Community Development Corp. to help manage the old Carbondale Elementary School building as a nonprofits center and small business incubator.

The two nonprofits will act on behalf of the town to work through details of what SCoR’s Gavin Brooke calls “an incredible community asset.”

The town authorized $22,500 for SCoR and the CDC to perform pre-development services. Those services include things like creating a rate structure for the tenants of the building, meeting with potential tenants and making a recommendation whether the spaces will be for sale or lease, researching financing and fundraising options as well as an estimate of total costs to bring the building up to code and make desired aesthetic and efficiency improvements.

The town also approved $31,100 for local architect Jeff Dickinson, whose firm Energy and Sustainable Design was chosen to perform architectural services on CES in June.

And up to $10,000 was allocated to enable local consultants Joani Matranga and Bob Schultz to continue the services they have provided for the town until the project can be fully turned over to the SCoR/CDC team.

The money for the services comes from the town’s general fund, where $100,000 was budgeted in 2007 for work at CES.

Meanwhile, the Carbondale Planning and Zoning Commission is reviewing a rezoning request for the entire 14.2-acre school site, which includes the old CES building as well as the land surrounding the former Carbondale Middle School building. The CMS building itself will become home to Bridges High School and other school district programs.

The rezoning and subdivision of the property need to take place before the town can take ownership of the approximately 2.9 acres that includes the old CES building. The town is in the process of trading the Roaring Fork School District for the town-owned land near the new Roaring Fork High School, in exchange for CES, which it plans to turn into the Carbondale Community Nonprofit Center.

P&Z starts the land use process with a public hearing on Thursday, July 12. The proposed rezoning will change the site from School Facilities, Recreation and Open Space, to School, Community Facility, Residential, Recreation and Open Space. The new zoning will create several different zone districts for medium- and possibly high-density housing on the site.

“It’s designed for affordable housing,” said Carbondale Town Manager Tom Baker of the residential component of the site. “The middle school and the playing field will remain open space, there are small parcels created along Sopris Avenue and Third Street. There’s the CES parcel and a parcel to the south as well.”

Baker said there will be seven smaller residential parcels created with medium density near the existing neighborhoods and higher density internal to the site. There will be a total of 11 different parcels on the property, according to the school district’s application.

“It might be going to the trustees at the end of July or early August (for approval),” Baker said. “There could be 50 to 80 affordable units, but it’s really conceptual at this point. We need to make sure the roads and intersections can handle the impacts; that’s going to drive the density.”

The school district will retain ownership of the remaining land and could possibly partner with agencies like the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, the town or the Carbondale and Rural Fire protection District to build employee housing.

Most of the housing would be offered to school staff, as teachers who leave the district often cite the cost of living in the area.

Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation

PO Box 1582, Carbondale, CO 81623 |  970.309.2053

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