Working Together - Centerra

Smart growth: Our purpose and promise

At Centerra, our work is community building. And our purpose is regional resilience. Northern Colorado is on a decades-long growth spurt that began years before Centerra was even an idea scribbled on a napkin. The best way to manage this kind of rapid growth is to plan for it. Guide it into a positive mode that allows the community to evolve while retaining its essential culture and character. There’s a term for this approach to community building. It’s called smart growth. And from the beginning, this has been the intention and the inspiration behind Centerra.

Want to support Centerra’s smart growth efforts?

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From small beginnings, a big idea

The McWhinney company began work on Centerra about 30 years ago. The seed was a plot of land that had been in the McWhinney family for generations. And the vision was to create a thriving community that would give Loveland an avenue for smart growth for decades to come. So working alongside the City of Loveland, Larimer County and a long list of partners and stakeholders, McWhinney has taken a solutions-oriented approach and designed Centerra to meet the needs of a growing region, creating a place that people love.

Centerra is designed to …

Give people choices

With a Wide Variety of New Homes And New Ways To Live

Meet the needs of a growing region

Housing, Jobs, Shopping & Dining, Schools

Improve infrastructure

Helping to shorten commutes and minimize traffic issues

Preserve Colorado nature

Lakes, Parks, Trails and Natural Open Space

Support economic vitality

Creating Jobs and Strengthening Loveland’s Tax Base

Partake in Loveland’s love of art and culture

Live Music, Sculpture Gardens, Community Events

Bring it all together

Connected Community, Walkable, Bikeable, Healthy

Centerra Today

3,200+ Homes (12,000 at Buildout)

8,500 Jobs

85 Shops

32 Restaurants

600 Acres of Parks & Nature

UCHealth Medical Center Of the Rockies

4 Hotels

150+ Corporate Offices

10+ Miles of Trails And Growing

4.8 mil Commercial Sq Ft (20 Mil Sq Ft Entitled)

For the love of Loveland

We’ve worked to make sure that Centerra creates a wide range of benefits for the entire Loveland community. Here’s a small sample.

High Plains School

Donated $31.9 million for construction and expansion of High Plains STEAM School

Rialto Theater

McWhinney was a main donor to the “Bridge” expansion in downtown Loveland

Affordable Housing

Donated 4.4 acres (valued at $2.64M) for 84 affordable apartments

Chapungu Sculpture Park

Donated land and $4M in improvements

Environmental Sustainability

Donated 78 lakeside acres, initial funding and $250,000 additional funding for High Plains Environmental Center

Loveland Urban Renewal Authority

$200 million in total public infrastructure improvements to date

$3.7 Million

Net annual tax revenue for the City of Loveland

Mountain View High School

$1 million for expansion of the school and 40 acres donated to the Larimer County School District

Public Cultural Events

Every year, our signature events such as Sounds of Centerra and Wild Wonderful Weekend bring thousands of people together (over 8,000 in 2023!) and bring in donations for community partners like the Thompson Education Foundation and the High Plains Environmental Center.

Looking to the future

For all that Centerra has done, there’s still plenty more we can do. More land for parks, schools, affordable housing and emergency services. More opportunities to create new homes, workplaces, shops and restaurants, which will provide more resources for the City of Loveland and Larimer County. More ways to gather around good food, live music, great art and other cultural experiences. And with some smart, creative, long-term thinking, we can work together to make sure that as Loveland grows, it still remains Loveland.

Bring your vision and your voice

At Centerra, we’re working with some big ideas to help build a more prosperous and resilient Loveland. We invite you to stay updated and help us support the vision. If you’d like us to contact you with the latest developments and with opportunities to show your support, use the form below to let us know how to reach you.

We’re McWhinney …

… the people who envisioned and created Centerra. Early on, we made Centerra our corporate home. Which makes Loveland our hometown. Through this entire time, our mission has been to create places people love. And with our ongoing work in Centerra and with the City of Loveland, we’re bringing all those learnings home.