Ayres Planning Experts Win Governor’s Awards

Ayres Planners have been awarded Governor’s Awards for Downtown Excellence by Downtown Colorado, Inc. for projects they provided leadership to which demonstrated dedication to community and creativity in the face of challenges.

Among those honored were Matt Ashby, AICP CUD, an urban planner with Ayres for the Best of Place category for the Windsor Mill in Windsor. Matt is also the executive director for the Windsor Downtown Development Authority (DDA), where he provides contract staffing services to the DDA, which was the lead applicant for the award.

“This project is an example of a community banding together to overcome adversity,” said Matt, who credited the perseverance of the developer, the community, and project partners for seeing the project through after the devastation of the fire and ultimately adding to Windsor’s tax base.

Developer Blue Ocean, the Town of Windsor, and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs were also honored. Matt played a key role in developing the Windsor Mill, which was damaged by a tornado in 2008 and later burned nearly to the ground by an arsonist in 2017. The Windsor Mill owners were able to preserve as much historic character as they could by salvaging bricks for reuse and integrating original beams into the tavern space.

Matt has 19 years of urban planning experience, splitting his time between Ayres’ Front Range offices and providing planning services on projects across the nation. He served for seven years as the City of Cheyenne’s planning director, demonstrating success in leveraging grant funding to build a vision and motivate investment, as seen in the renaissance in downtown Windsor.

Fort Collins-based planning and economic development professional with Ayres Mike Scholl was also honored along with the Loveland Downtown Partnership with an award in Projects with New Building for their work on the Foundry in Loveland. The Foundry has provided a foundation for the revitalization of Loveland’s historic downtown, offering parking, luxury apartments, 14,000 square feet of commercial space, a seven-screen theater, a hotel, and a central plaza utilized for community gatherings.

Mike has a total of 27 years under his belt of planning and economic development experience with consultants, community groups, and most recently as Loveland’s economic development manager. He has also provided strategic planning, downtown redevelopment, comprehensive economic development, brownfield remediation, and grant writing. Mike was a vital part of recruiting a major plastics manufacturer, a high-tech machine manufacturer, and a grocery chain to Loveland, helping facilitate the expansion of Jax Mercantile.

Ayres is made up of a nationwide team of over 300 experts and innovative problem-solvers that work on thousands of projects that aim to strengthen communities and the nation’s infrastructure, economy, and environment each day. Ayres provides services ranging from civil and municipal engineering to architecture, transportation, structural design and inspection, environmental, geospatial, landscape architecture, planning and development, river engineering and water resources, telecommunications, and subsurface utility engineering.

For more information regarding Ayres, visit: www.AyresAssociates.com