Avon approves 50-year land lease for Vail Valley Foundation early childhood education center

The Vail Valley Foundation is eyeing a September 2026 opening for the nonprofit early childhood education facility it is constructing in partnership with the town of Avon.

On Tuesday, April 8, the Avon Town Council approved a 50-year land lease for Eagle River Valley Childcare, the nonprofit organization the Vail Valley Foundation formed to oversee the facility. Eagle River Valley Childcare will pay Avon $1 in cash for the 50-year lease.

The lease, which was the final approval from the town for the facility to start construction, will begin on May 1. The facility is still going through the final stages of the Village (at Avon)’s design review board process, and is expected to break ground in July.

“We’ll be ready to issue a building permit as soon as we’re allowed to through the Village (at Avon) DRB (design review board) approval,” said Avon Town Manager Eric Heil.

What will it look like to run the early childhood education facility?

The 13,600-square-foot facility will serve 165 children ages 5 and under, with infant, toddler, preschool and multipurpose rooms. The facility is slated to be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to the land lease.

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The center will be run by Access Early Education Foundation, founded by Jennifer Knott, an organization focused on providing early childhood education to communities throughout the Western Slope.

“I think it’s a great use of the site, great site layout, and definitely a well-needed facility in the county,” Heil said.

While the primary use of the facility is required to be early childhood education, the space can be used in other ways when school is not in session, including daycare on the weekends, evening meetings and evening adult classes.

The all-electric facility will cost an estimated $13.5 million to build. Mike Imhof, president of the Vail Valley Foundation, said the organization has “high confidence” that it will have raised at least 80% of the total funds by the time construction begins this summer. “It may take us a couple more months to raise the remaining few million,” he said.

What does the land lease include?

This facility is not the first land lease Avon has issued. The Avon Library, located in the heart of town next to the Avon Recreation Center and Harry A. Nottingham Park, was issued a 99-year lease when it was constructed in the 1970s.

When the Village (at Avon) was annexed into Avon in 1998, the town set aside 3.5 acres of land for education. The land lease will cover between 2.5 and 3 acres of the property, with the remaining land set aside with the intention of possibly building community housing.

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When the project was first proposed, it included 48 units of housing above and adjacent to the facility. But cost, safety concerns, timing and the site’s planned unit development designation dictated that the housing be removed from the design. The land retained by Avon may be used to build community housing in the future.

Avon retains certain rights when it leases land it owns to another entity. In this case, the town has the right to help select the facility’s operator, receive priority spots, dictate the primary purpose of the facility (education) and own the facility after the lease expires.

Twenty-four of the 165 spots at the school will be designated for children of town of Avon employees and town officials, as well as for children of Avon residents and owners and employees of businesses located within the town. The children of town employees and officials will receive first priority.

When the lease lapses after 50 years, Avon will own the facility, and the town can decide whether an early childhood education facility remains the best use for the property.

“I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t need this facility to continue after 50 years, but I think that will be for others to decide,” Heil said.

Avon will also contribute $400,000 over at least two years from the Downtown Development Authority funds to support construction costs. But if the Vail Valley Foundation raises all necessary funds, Avon’s contribution will go to the school’s tuition assistance fund, a board-directed qualified endowment structure that will cover 50% or more of tuition costs for 32 spots for families that need it.

“That was one of the early points that Avon council felt was important, that we have some amount of tuition assistance,” Heil said.

In return, Avon will construct a bus stop to serve the educational facility, the Piedmont and other buildings in the area; purchase photovoltaics and battery storage capacity; and waive the use tax, sales tax, real estate transfer tax, plan review and building permit fees, for a total savings of nearly $400,000.

Concern about the facility’s proximity to high-pressure Xcel utility line

Xcel Energy has a high-pressure gas utility line that runs through the 3.5-acre property, though not directly below where the educational facility will be built.

Avon Mayor Tamra Nottingham Underwood raised a question about the safety of building an early childhood education facility so close to Xcel Energy’s high-pressure line.

The Vail Valley Foundation is aware of the utility line and looked into the question of safety concerns, Imhof said, including conversing with Xcel Energy.

“What we’ve learned is that the number one risk comes from a facility that is actually connected to a gas line,” Imhof said. “With our facility being 100% electric, there is no gas connection.”

“The way Xcel answered it is that there is not zero risk, but it’s very low on high-pressure lines. In fact, greater risk usually comes from low-pressure lines, which do not have as much safety infrastructure protocol requirements,” Imhof said. “The high-pressure lines have more guard rails around it. They’ve got to be deeper in where they’re buried.”

There are high-pressure lines that run throughout Eagle County, including through high-density neighborhoods and near other schools and activity centers, Imhof said. “In the end, we don’t believe that there is significant risk to this for those reasons, but it is something that we’ve looked at carefully,” Imhof said.