The party started early at Colorado State University-Pueblo on Monday.

About 100 people turned out at 11:30 a.m. to celebrate the official opening of ThunderZone Pizza and Tap House and the completion of major construction on the larger ThunderVillage retail building. In addition to the restaurant, the building includes two other storefronts available for lease.

A privately financed project of the CSU-Pueblo Foundation, the $2.4 million retail building helps fulfill university supporters' goal of enhancing the campus life for student, staff, faculty, sports fans and neighboring residents. It is within walking distance of the campus across the street from the Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl stadium.

"This is exactly what we need for CSU-Pueblo," Pueblo insurance executive Ralph Williams, a member of the foundation board of directors who helped spearhead the project, said as he watched the crowd file into the 5,000-square-foot restaurant.

The sports-themed restaurant offers indoor and outdoor seating for more than 150 people, about 20 big screen televisions, 32 kinds of craft beer and a full food menu. It is operated by a partnership that includes longtime Pueblo restaurant operator Ryan Howard.

"This place is beautiful. I think it's something everyone can be proud of. We worked really hard on it," Howard said.

Ahead of Monday's ribbon-cutting event, the restaurant, as part of its soft opening that began late last week, hosted a student party on Saturday that offered half-price appetizers, prizes and other discounts.

Its first big event comes Thursday night when the CSU-Pueblo football team hosts its season opening game against division rival Colorado School of Mines.

The quality of the building project made an obvious impact on first-year school president Timothy Mottet, who addressed Monday's event that was co-hosted by the Latino and Greater Pueblo chamber of commerces.

Along with the existing academic and extracurricular programs and other amenities at the school, the ThunderVillage is another feature that helps distinguish CSU-Pueblo, he said.

"This is a public university that feels like a private college with a public sticker price," he said.

Mottet praised the vision of his predecessor, Lesley Di Mare, and the foundation.

"I also appreciate the courage it takes to develop a project like this. They took appropriate risk. Anything that is great that we experience, there's a leader behind it. They took a bold risk. And I know this risk will pay for itself," he said.

Longer term, he noted, Pueblo hopes the project helps prime the pump for additional development around the college. More than 600 acres mostly to the east of the stadium area have been set aside by private developers for long-term residential and commercial construction.

He shares in that goal, Mottet said.

"What I would love is for this land ... to be thoughtfully developed so where one day our campus is in the middle of our city and we're not on the periphery," he said. "I see this as a bold beginning and an anchor concept as to what might come in our future."

To help christen the retail center, Mottet said he plans to attend a series of informal happy hours on Friday afternoons at the restaurant and he invites students, staff, faculty and community members to stop by for a visit.

To help finance the project, the foundation used part of the proceeds from the sale several years ago of $8 million in donated land in California and Pennsylvania, said Todd Kelly, president of the foundation. No donor contributions were used on the project, he said.

"Our mission as a foundation is to serve the financial needs of our university and our students. We've heard for so long how a facility like this could help recruit, retain and graduate students.... It also helps us diversify our portfolio" of land investments, he said.

ddarrow@chieftain.com