Repurposing land at U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot

The possibilities for the site of the U.S. Army Chemical Depot are endless.

Just ask Michael Clarkson, analyst and project manager for PuebloPlex.

“There’s really a lot of great potential out here. It’s like literally creating another city from scratch,” Clarkson said.

PuebloPlex is the redevelopment authority that is converting about two-thirds of the depot property for public use.

The depot sits on 23,000 acres. Between 2017-2019, Clarkson said about 16,000 acres will be available for redevelopment.

“We’ve had some folks approach us about having a motocross location,” Clarkson said. “We’ve had some folks approach us about utility-scale solar farms out here. Renewable energy.”

PuebloPlex held a community meeting at the Pueblo Convention Center Wednesday night to garner feedback from the community.

Pueblo County resident Butch Batchelder told KRDO NewsChannel 13 he’s interested to see how the land is used and what future jobs it brings into the community.

“We have two colleges — a community college and a four-year university. And we’re turning out a lot of students, but unfortunately I don’t know that we’re keeping a lot in the community because they’re going other places looking for higher-paying jobs.”

Clarkson points out the infrastructure already in place that make it suitable for prospective developers: roads, over 40 miles of railway lines and plenty of 90,000-square-foot warehouses.

Clarkson said the Army is set to leave the depot by 2024. Pueblo County Commissioner Terry Hart said it’s important to make sure any future development brings with it hundreds of high-paying jobs.

“With 1,600-1,700 jobs out there right now, that’s still one of the biggest employers we have and that slightly eclipses what we have at the steel mill,” Hart said.

To learn more about the redevelopment efforts, visit: http://puebloplexredevelopmentplan.com/