City of Craig launches push to redevelop former courthouse site with free land offer

July 10, 2025

Craig Press

Former Moffat County Courthouse

The former Moffat County Courthouse property, now a cleared and development-ready site, is being offered for free to a qualified developer as part of a new initiative by the City of Craig that is aimed at revitalizing downtown.

With support from both city and county leaders, Craig’s Economic Development Office is launching an outreach campaign to recruit experienced developers for a mixed-use project at the 1.83-acre Victory Way site. The initiative includes the release of a press kit, a marketing strategy developed with the firm Marketing Alliance and a detailed package outlining available infrastructure, permitted uses and incentives.

“Our goal is to help identify and attract a qualified developer that has experience with mixed use or downtown redevelopment,” said Shannon Scott, the city’s Economic Development Manager. “We’ve got about 20 to 25 developers that we’ll be reaching out to.”

The strategy includes three adjacent parcels totaling approximately 79,500 square feet — the largest being the 48,000-square-foot footprint of the former courthouse, plus two smaller neighboring lots of 17,000 and 14,500 square feet. The parcels are already zoned as “community commercial,” allowing for a wide range of uses including retail, office space, housing, light industrial, medical and even headquarters facilities.

No rezoning or demolition will be necessary prior to construction taking place.

The site is fully equipped with essential utilities, including 8-inch water and wastewater lines, electrical service from Yampa Valley Electric, natural gas from Atmos Energy and high-speed fiber from Luminate Broadband.

Scott said the city is offering the land, which is valued at roughly $320,000, at no cost to help make the opportunity competitive with similar redevelopment efforts across the region.

“This is not something that’s uncommon in the economic development world,” Scott said. “You have to do it in order to be competitive. Our neighbors are doing it and our regional folks on the Western Slope are doing it.”

The Victory Way site sits in a highly visible downtown location near civic buildings, restaurants and retail establishments. The city hopes that the selected proposal will complement both community needs and long-term economic goals.

“We would look at that as a public-private partnership,” Scott said. “We’d want to look at things that would incorporate shared-use elements, community-facing spaces and maybe workforce housing. We want it to be a collaborative process.”

Craig officials are emphasizing development that supports the city’s goals around tourism-related manufacturing, small-scale housing, agriculture and retail entrepreneurship, all of which are sectors that align with the city’s outdoor culture and efforts to strengthen the downtown’s commercial foundation. 

To attract suitable interest, the city is taking a targeted approach.

“This is a little untraditional in the way that we’re reaching out to these developers,” Scott said. “Usually we’ll send out an RFP or an RFQ, but this is a full-on aggressive strategy with targeted developers.”

Still, some residents may wonder about transparency, accountability and the process behind giving away such a large property, especially considering the land’s valuation. According to Scott, those concerns have been a central talking point in city and county discussions.

“We don’t want somebody to come in and then sit on it for several years,” she said. “We would ensure that there’s a performance agreement in place, which would ensure that deadlines and timelines are met so the lot just doesn’t sit vacant after purchase.”

Though no draft agreement has yet been written, Scott said the city has examples of performance agreements from other projects that can be adapted once a developer comes to the table.

“We need to see exactly what a developer brings to the table and what realistic expectations are for all parties,” she said.

The courthouse was demolished in 2023 following concerns over the cost of repurposing the aging structure. Scott said it was ultimately determined to be more cost-effective to remove the building than to repair it for continued use.

Since then, the land has sat vacant, which is something Scott and others are eager to change.

“It’s been vacant now for about a year and a half, so it’s right in the heart of Craig,” she said. “It’s on one of our main transportation corridors. I don’t think we’re giving away the farm, but I think giving away the land is a reasonable enough incentive for a developer to give us a great proposal which will benefit the community as a whole.”

Ultimately, she also hopes the selected developer will share in the city’s commitment to revitalization and economic resilience.

“I want to see a developer bring us something that fits with what we’re looking for, someone that’s easy to work with, someone just as motivated as we are to see development occur,” she said. “I think it’s time.”