Forrest City Developers have finally found a solution for the uninhabited prairie in the Eastbridge neighborhood bordering Aurora that was supposed to be a lush greenbelt park in the tradition of Stapleton parks: atom smashing.
And to boot, the project will help fund the long awaited Eastbridge Town Center, as well as help to bring traffic to its merchants.
Stanford University’s Stanford Linear Accelerator, or SLAC, has agreed to jointly develop a second “atom smasher” with CU Denver’s Anschutz medical campus.
“Colorado and California are increasingly developing ties that bind,” says Forrest City President Phil Dargossi. “With CU Boulder entering a Pac 12 conference that includes Cal Berkeley, Stanford and the Southern California schools, Colorado is taking the next step in its economic development. We are proud to be a part of that new tradition here in Stapleton.”
Forrest City is providing a $4 million equity investment in the public-private partnership dubbed the Stapleton Linear Accelerator (SLAC II) that includes Stanford University (a private university) and CU Denver.
“What makes this project uniquely suited to the Eastbridge parcel are it’s dimensions — it’s long and narrow, just like the Linear Accelerator itself,” Dargossi explains.
For residents wondering what an atom smasher is and does, it doesn’t really matter.
“You don’t hear a thing,” exclaims Dargossi. “It’s really quite amazing. The physics and technology residents will be exposed to will be very exciting. This facility will be a real asset to the four DSST campuses in the Stapleton neighborhood as well. Think of the possibilities for field trips and internships. And the jobs, maybe a thousand of em’.”
The project involves digging a 75-foot deep, two-mile long trench, in which the accelerator will be encased in a concrete structure.
“This one’s going to be entirely underground,” a giddy Dargossi explains. “No one will even know it’s there!”
The research and development possibilities are limitless — particle physics, x-ray science, chemistry and energy sciences.
“Wow!” says Dargossi.
“Whoa, wait just a second here,” long time Eastbridge resident Liam Wolf told the Stapletonian when learning of the project that will be a stone’s throw from his doorstep. “We’re talking about splitting atoms; that’s nuclear fusion or fission, one or the other — maybe both! Isn’t that radioactive?”
According to Forrest City, while there is radioactive waste created in the process of splitting atoms, it’s a miniscule amount and regardless of anyone’s concerns over three-eye toads or fish in Westerly Creek (the accelerator’s Western boundary and water intake source), “it’s a sweet deal for us, and Stapleton residents are going to get that beautiful park and town center they thought they had been promised when they first bought — the payments we get from the universities will more than pay for it. It’s a win-win-win all around.”
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