Shore Arts Center, Winner of Downtown Excellence Award

Park Under Development

DENVER – March 14, 2018 — Downtown Colorado, Inc. (DCI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing Colorado’s downtown districts, is pleased to announce the 2018 winners of the Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence. This year’s winners will be honored at the 2018 Governor’s Awards Ceremony, on April 13 at the Rembrandt Yard Art Gallery & Event Center during DCI’s 2018 IN THE GAME Vibrant Downtown Event in Boulder.

Since 2003, the Governor’s Awards have recognized outstanding projects and people in Colorado that demonstrate creativity in the face of enormous challenges, unlikely and enduring partnerships, and dedication to community.

The 2018 Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence categories each have a large and small community winner, and the Winners are:

Best Adaptive Reuse or Rehabilitation

• Fort Collins’ Ginger and Baker
• Lamar Shore Arts Center Park

Angie Cue, Lamar Community Development Director, told The Prowers Journal, “John Sutherland, Eric Depperschmidt, Anne-Marie Crampton and I will be attending the DCI conference in April. Lamar Partnership Inc. also applied for and was awarded a Challenge Studio from DCI for community engagement.”

She added, “The Shore Arts Center Park has been a community effort starting with conversations of repurposing an empty dirt lot in the heart of downtown. The lot has been transformed into a public space that can now be usable for relaxation, events and a venue to showcase local artists.  The Park is a new highlight to our downtown and is deserving of the 2018 Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence.”

Here is what the judges had to say about Lamar’s Award:

“Congratulations to Lamar, Colorado for the Lamar Shore Arts Center Park. Since 2008, DCI has worked with Lamar around ideas for downtown revitalization including creating a more walkable and engaging physical environment and considering some management tools to help make that happen, becoming a Colorado Main Street and forming an urban renewal authority. With both of these tools in place, we now celebrate Lamar’s impressive accomplishments with an emerging arts and cultural scene, centering around the Shore Arts Center and City of Lamar. Lamar now has a new downtown hub thanks to this adaptive reuse of a vacant lot, once the site of an old opera house that burned down. The park serves as a public gathering space and home for outdoor music, art and celebration and exemplifies what partners can accomplish together“

Best Event, Festival or Recurring Activity

• Monster Day Greeley
• Brush People’s Market

Best New Addition to Downtown

• Lafayette’s The Collective Community Arts Center
• Winter Park Hideaway Station

Best Use of Public Space

• Town of Parker’s Discovery Park
• Ridgway Streetscape Redevelopment
• Victor Pinnacle Park Plaza

Vicki Mattox Downtowner of the Year for Innovation

• Mayor Mike Hillman, City of Idaho Springs
• Katrina Harms, Town of Nederland
• Mark Zaremba, Louisville Downtown Business Association
• Don Sandoval, Colorado Department of Local Affairs

“We are absolutely thrilled with the quality of projects nominated this year, and offer our congratulations to everyone who submitted projects” said Katherine Correll, Executive Director, Downtown Colorado, Inc. “Colorado communities, large and small, from the Western Slope to the Front Range to the Eastern plains, continue to demonstrate amazing creativity, dedication to the public good and resilience in the face of obstacles.”

Each year the Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence serve as a highlight for DCI’s IN THE GAME Vibrant Downtown Event, an annual conference for downtown champions, resources, and stewards. The Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence celebrate the amazing projects and people that are committed to economic and community revitalization in Colorado. The 2018 IN THE GAME event will be held in Boulder, CO April 10-13, and the Governor’s Awards will be presented on the final day, Friday, April 13, 2018.

Continuing an exciting partnership developed in 2016, this year’s awards will also be held in conjunction with the Colorado Chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU), which will be presenting their bi-annual awards along with DCI’s.

Tickets to the April 13th event are available for $85, and registrations for the entire conference are available at www.downtowncoloradoinc.org. For more information on the Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence visit http://www.downtowncoloradoinc.org/GA2018.