News

Mortenson Construction will begin construction this week on the new 101-acre Woodward Technology Center campus on the site of the former Link-N-Greens golf course.

The highly prominent site – between Lincoln and Mulberry avenues west of Lemay Avenue - will undergo major transformation for the next two years as Woodward builds its corporate headquarters. Initial construction work this fall will be contained largely to the site’s interior acreage until November or December when the City will begin work on river restoration.

When work begins this week, the public will notice many trees being removed. Most of the trees were established with the original golf course and need to be removed for the new facility. Mortenson will remove many of the landscape, non-native trees during construction.

As many as 470 trees may have to be removed. Trees need to be removed because they are hazardous, in poor condition, invasive species or they are impacted by re-grading of the site. The project design team and the City have worked diligently to reduce the number of trees lost through construction and have planned on preserving 179 existing trees through design and mitigation efforts.

Once the Woodward campus is finished, the site will contain more than 1,000 new trees and the new landscaping will incorporate more native plants and require less water than the former golf course. Additionally, 31 acres of the golf course will be restored to natural area.

Most of the saved trees are likely to be associated with the Poudre River edge, areas near the Coy/Hoffman Barn, and near the northeast corner of the property.

“We hate to lose these trees, but working with Mortenson, we are doing everything we can to preserve as many trees as possible,” said Bruce Hendee, chief sustainability officer for the City. “Mortenson is also working in close collaboration with our City Forestry Department to replant some trees nearby and to share mulch from any trees that are removed with the community.”

Trees that are being removed are mostly too large to transplant, and past attempts to transplant trees on this site have been unsuccessful due to rocky soil conditions.

“The entire project team is committed to only removing the trees that need to be moved and restoring the site in a carefully planned manner,” said Maja Rosenquist, vice president and general manager at Mortenson. “We are working with the City and their experts to ensure these natural resources are reused where possible as we make way for even more trees on this beautiful site.”

Mortenson is pursuing the use of a portable mill to reuse lumber for site redevelopment, small block veneers, sculpture material, wood mulch and other uses.

Updates on the project will be made available at fcgov.com/woodward.