Premier Steakhouse Breaks Ground in Woodland Park

Tava House, includes a taphouse, scheduled to open in 2025

WOODLAND PARK, CO, UNITED STATES, October 29, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Development of the new Tava House steakhouse, taphouse, culinary school and event center, officially began on September 19, 2024 with a groundbreaking ceremony on the 6.63 acre plot called Woodland Station in downtown Woodland Park.

Local Woodland Park resident, Derek Waggoner, the chief executive officer of Tava House Properties, a group of local investors, first presented the $8 million multi-use project in 2019 to the former Woodland Park Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board which then owned the property. The amount is inclusive of all the infrastructure needed - electricity, sewer lines, gas lines for the entire scope of the 'new town plaza’.

In 2022, Waggoner returned to the Woodland Park DDA with a new proposal and ultimately purchased the acreage outright from the Downtown Development Authority for $800,000 cash. In a culmination of four years of perseverance for the investors, a 2023 signing ceremony then signaled the go-ahead for the Tava House project.

During the September groundbreaking ceremony, which included city and county officials, business owners, residents, friends and members of the construction crew, Nicole Waggoner declared that the observers gathered “not just to break ground on this exciting project, but to lay the foundation for a brighter future for the citizens of Woodland Park and Teller County.”

“This project symbolizes our determination to build a facility that showcases the beauty of our mountain community,” Waggoner said. “We believe this innovation will create jobs, boost our economy and foster a sense of community pride. We will remember the values that guide us – community, collaboration and commitment.”

Waggoner’s team of investors includes his wife, Nicole; local residents, Mark and Mary Jean Weaver and Mary and Alan Sekowski; Philip and Deborah Waggoner (Derek’s parents) and Victor and Rhianna Matthews. The culinary school will be led by Victor Matthews, founder of Black Bear Distillery in nearby Green Mountain Falls, Colorado and the Paragon Culinary School in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

For the Tava House, Chef Matthews plans to support Woodland Park students. “My plan is to work with the high school and Merit Academy where there are currently culinary programs,” Matthews said. “My idea is to have a community hub for culinary training for young people as well as full-time students.”

Woodland Park Mayor Kellie Case, also the City’s former finance director, shared that she realized that the groundbreaking was a special time for many of the people in attendance, as well as herself. “I’ve been watching this project in stages of progression for 23 years,” she said. “I was on staff when we created the Woodland Park downtown district; there have been a lot of hopeful projects, and this one is finally taking hold.”

The project is being led by Thomas General Contractors, based in Colorado Springs, and the architect is Echo Architecture and Interiors, also a Colorado Springs company. The new TAVA town plaza is expected to open in Summer, 2025.

Michael Perini
Perini & Associates
+1 7196515943
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