Old car wash in avenue's 3000 block demolished to allow Ent Credit Union project

A backhoe lowers rubble into a dump truck Dec. 5 during the demolition of the old car wash at 3005 W. Colorado Ave. The office building (brown-colored) in the background will also be torn down at some point to make room for Ent Credit Union's future Westside hub banking location.
Westside Pioneer photo

The former car wash at 3005 W. Colorado Ave. is shown as it looked last summer after being shut down and taped off following its purchase by Ent Credit Union.
Westside Pioneer file photo

Old car wash in avenue's 3000 block demolished to allow Ent Credit Union project

Dec. 5, 2018
       The demolition of the old car wash in the 3000 block of West Colorado Avenue dramatizes Ent Credit Union's plan to build a 5,290-square-foot bank there.
       A backhoe that started early in the morning Dec. 5 turned the old wash bays and underlying pavement into rubble, and dump trucks hauled the remnants away.
       The location, at which locals had soaped, rinsed and shined their

A grading plan, part of the Ent Credit Union development submittal to Colorado Springs Planning, shows how the property will be laid out. The 5,290-square-foot bank building will be set back behind a parking lot. The lot will have trees and plants in front, between the two entrances off Colorado Avenue. These are addressed in another drawing, showing the landscaping elements of the development plan. Note the slope to the rear of the property, above Fountain Creek.

Courtesy of Ent Credit Union/Galloway & Company

vehicles for over half a century, had been shut down and taped off since Ent bought the site last summer.
       Still to be torn down - no date yet announced - is the vacant office building just to the west. The 61-year-old banking entity bought that parcel as well in 2018. Together, they total 1.24 acres at what used to be 3005 and 3009 W. Colorado.
       Ent's plans to redevelop the land were submitted to Colorado Springs Planning in October, requesting city approvals for a zone change (part of the land has an inexplicable residential component), a development plan (to show what will be built and where) and a waiver of replat (to legally redefine the two parcels into one).
       Lonna Thelen of City Planning is reviewing the application. In mid-November, she asked Ent's Denver-area planning group, Galloway & Company, to resubmit with “technical modifications.” However, she noted in the same communication to Galloway, that "staff finds

Extracted from the submittal to the city, a drawing with architectural notes shows the main entrance to the future Ent Credit Union in the 3000 block of Colorado Avenue. The canopy on the left side of the building is a cover for drive-through lanes. The facility will be nearly three times the size of the current Ent space in the 3100 block of the avenue.

Courtesy of Ent Credit Union/Galloway & Company (edited for publication)

that the application is largely acceptable.”
       The proposal could go to the City Planning Commission as early as January, Thelen's letter adds. Approval will eventually also be needed from City Council.
       In an August interview, Victoria Selfridge, the Ent vice president of corporate communications, explained that the not-for-profit financial cooperative intends to build a "full service location" on the acreage.
       Information in the submittal show a layout that has two entrances from Colorado Avenue leading into a parking lot in front of a bank building that has drive-through lanes on one side. The more easterly entrance will be lined up with the current stoplight at Colorado Avenue and 30th Street.
       Plans also describe trees and other plantings lining the Colorado Avenue sidewalk between the entrances.
       The back of the development, along Fountain Creek, will be just above the creek's 100-year flood plain, plans show. A water quality detention pond, which allows drainage to be released slowly into the creek, will be built at the property's southwest corner.
       Since 2000, Ent has leased a 1,700-square-foot space in the Red Rock shopping center off Colorado Avenue west of 31st Street, known as its “Westside Service Center.” The new building in the 3000 block will replace that. About three times bigger, it will join the current 7 “hub” sites among Ent's total of 20 service centers city-wide, Selfridge outlined.
       She said Ent's goal is to start construction in 2019.
       Founded in 1957 to serve Ent Air Force Base, the company has expanded its availability over the years to the entire community and now has 300,000 members in eight Colorado counties, according to bank information.

Westside Pioneer article
(Land: Proposals)

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