Trinidad approves remediation for recurring Space to Create construction issues

The City Council has sent Trinidad’s Space to Create project back into repair mode, approving remediation for construction problems that have resurfaced beneath the downtown complex and raised fresh questions about how long the city will keep paying to stabilize one of its signature blocks.

The work matters far beyond a single building. Space to Create occupies the 200 block of West Main Street and was built as Trinidad’s demonstration project for Colorado’s first-in-the-nation effort to create affordable live-work and commercial space for creative-sector workers in rural communities. The project turned three historic storefronts into a mixed-use complex with 41 housing units, about 20,000 square feet of community space, and The Commons at 218 W. Main Street.

The new approval adds to a long record of construction and cost decisions tied to the site. In 2021, City Council approved a $3.1 million bid from H.W. Houston to finish the Commons build-out. The council also approved a $75,475 change order for roof work on the Space to Create buildings, showing that the project has already required repeated fixes before this latest round of remediation.

Trinidad was selected in 2015 as the first Space to Create Colorado community, making it the program’s demonstration site. Colorado Creative Industries says the broader initiative is designed for rural places with populations of 50,000 or fewer, and Trinidad’s project remains one of only two completed Space to Create developments in the state’s portfolio, alongside Ridgway. Together, those two projects provide 71 units of affordable live-work housing.

Local arts backers have long said the project was meant to do more than house artists. CREATE Trinidad said it was heavily involved in planning and envisioning management of the 20,000 square feet of community space at The Commons. State materials also point to the project’s cultural reach, including a life-size knitted and crocheted Goodnight Moon display that introduced more than 700 elementary students to the arts.

For downtown Trinidad, the latest council action is less about a routine repair than about whether a prominent redevelopment project can finally move beyond recurring fixes. The city has treated Space to Create as a core part of Main Street’s future, and this approval is another test of whether that investment can be made durable enough to serve residents, artists, and businesses without the same construction problems returning again.