The Grand Junction City Council held a specially scheduled meeting this past Wednesday to discuss the “Authorization of the City Manager to Negotiate an Economic Development Incentive Agreement to Retain and Expand an Existing Business,” the agenda stated.
The council was voting on whether the city could begin the negotiation process with Bonsai Design to bring them to Grand Junction. The 6-1 vote passed, giving the city the go-ahead to begin the negotiations.
Bonsai Design’s statement on their website states, “Our mission is to design and install adventure programs that enhance the lives of all people who participate in our course.”
The company has been around for 15 years and has designed and built more than 65 installations over that time.
The city gave a presentation about why this agreement would be a positive for the city of Grand Junction and what it would bring to the area. The presentation, given by City Manager Greg Caton, began with the words “$30 Million Economic Development Opportunity” on the first slide.
The city detailed their vision of the project and the location of where the adventure program would be located. The park would be 10-15 acres and would be considered city-owned land leased to private business.
The presentation concluded with a slide discussing the economic development incentives, the primary of which became a talking point within the council. With these incentives, the city would be contributing $1 million toward the construction of an approximately $2 million facility. That was where council member Duncan McArthur was concerned.
“I don’t mean to press that I don’t think this is a good idea, I think it is a great idea,” McArthur said. “I just think that my hands are on a $1 million subsidy.”
However, McArthur was the only council member against this proposition, and the only one that voted no for it. Other council members showed their support of this project.
“I have been on the city council for two years,” council member Chris Kennedy said. “This is the second project of this size and scope, at least from my perspective, that basically changes the dynamics of what Grand Junction and the Grand Valley can be. […] I’m really excited about the potential of this. I hope the rest of my peers here on the council are as excited about it as I am and I fully support it.”
“I am going to be voting for this,” Mayor Phyllis Norris said. “This is a vision that we really need. […] I think this is great and I think this is just the next step of seeing something really grow and this could grow fast enough that in a couple of years we could see some real impact here.”
The council will have to later vote on the deal once the council and Bonsai Design finalize it.
