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COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— November 5-November 18, 2014
Retail
by John Rebchook
Ground recently was broken
on key site in Wheat Ridge
that has long been considered
blighted.
A 27,000-square-foot Sprouts
Farmers Market, the first in the
city, will anchor the site at West
38th Avenue and Kipling Street.
The development by Denver-
based MGV Development also
will include a 64-room senior
assisted-living and memory
care center by Morningstar.
Other retailers at the center
will be Starbucks and likely a
Sonic.
The project represents the
city’s largest redevelopment
effort in nearly three decades.
“I think the redevelopment
of this site is critical in that it
represents the first major rede-
velopment in Wheat Ridge in
quite some time,” said Wheat
Ridge Economic Development
Manager Steve Art.
“The area really needs a gro-
cery store and the senior care
housing facility also is a very
needed service,” he said.
The Sonic, which hasn’t yet
signed a lease, was announced
at the recent groundbreaking
ceremony.
The city and the Wheat Ridge
Urban Renewal Authority have
been looking at the site for
about 3½ years.
“The site was originally site of
a Safeway back in the late ’60s
and early ’70s,” Art said.
He said he thinks it closed in
the late 1970s.
“It has been closed for quite
some time, although I don’t
think you would describe the
area as a food desert,” Art said.
“Gold’s Corner Grocery
is nearby and there is a King
Soopers about a mile away,”
Art said.
The site was considered
blighted because of poor access
and poor drainage, he said.
“It also had a couple of dilapi-
dated buildings on the property
that were torn down,” he said.
In April, the Wheat Ridge
Urban
Renewal
Author-
ity approved a tax-increment
financing agreement with MVG
Development for the redevelop-
ment. This agreement included
a $2.4 million loan obtained
from Colorado State Bank
and Trust that will be repaid
through the incremental prop-
erty and sales taxes generated
by the project.
It also included a $1 million
economic development incen-
tive financed through general
funds.
MVG will invest about $24
million into the development.
“I think this is a very impor-
tant corner,” said Patrick Goff,
Wheat Ridge city manager.
“I think a lot of folks drive
by it and think that is a truly
blighted part of the city,” he
said.
He pointed out that the city
had invested a great deal of
money into Discovery Park
across the street.
“Discovery Park has turned
out to be one of the most suc-
cessful parks in the entire metro
area,” Goff said.
“It really has turned into a
regional park drawing people
from a very wide geographic
area,” he said.
“And just to the north is a
Wheat Ridge Recreational Cen-
ter, which is another crown
jewel,” Goff said.
Landing a Sprouts is a coup,
he said.
“It really shows that Wheat
Ridge can draw the kind of
tenants that other cities want,”
he said.
Only Wadsworth Boulevard
is busier than Kipling Street
in Wheat Ridge and West 38th
Avenue is the busiest east-west
corridor along with West 44th
Avenue.
“The Sprouts will not only
serve people in Wheat Ridge,
but also folks driving home to
Lakewood and Arvada,” he
said.
Sprouts really drove the initial
deal, when MVG began looking
for a site for the grocer about 18
months ago, said Jon Rankin, a
vice president and chief finan-
cial officer with the company.
“One of our development
directors has a relationship
with a real estate manager at
Sprouts,” Rankin said.
Sprouts, he said, has had a
great experience with its flag-
ship store at West 38th Avenue
and Wolff Street in West High-
land in Denver.
“They really wanted another
site on the west side, so we
worked with their retail broker
at SullivanHayes,” he said.
MVG also has a relationship
with Morningstar, which also is
familiar with the area and likes
it, as it has a facility in Apple-
wood in Lakewood.
“This is not your typical deal
where you buy the dirt, build
the grocery anchor and then
you are kind of out of it,” he
said.
“We kind of headed into a
different direction than most
developers could, because of
our relationship with Morning-
star,” he said.
Morningstar will operate the
two-story facility and Morning-
star and MVGwill be part of the
ownership entity.
MVG will own the retail por-
tion, and Sprouts, Starbucks
and the Sonic will be tenants.
“Sonic hasn’t yet signed the
lease, but they were comfort-
able with me naming them at
the groundbreaking,” Rankin
said.
Other News
n
Fraser Holdings LLC,
based in Washington state,
recently paid $5.69 million for
a 13,650-square-foot Walgreens
at 2697 W. Belleview Ave. in
Littleton.
Both the buyer and the seller,
J&S Littleton LLC,
based in Cal-
ifornia, were in 1031 exchanges,
said
Joe Rue,
a CBRE broker
based in Fort Collins. The trans-
action was handled by Rue and
fellow
CBRE
team members
Mike Eyer, Blake Craig, Julius
Tabert
and
Kyle Lundy.
“The seller was doing an
exchange for a brand-new Wal-
greens in Oregon and the other
buyer, the guy who bought
the Littleton store, had just
sold a store in Michigan with a
short-term lease and wanted a
store with a longer lease,” Rue
explained.
Walgreens has more than 15
years remaining on the building
in Littleton.
The store drew seven offers.
“Buyers liked it because it
is a great tenant, with a great
site and a long-term lease,” Rue
said.
Rue has a longtime relation-
ship with the seller.
“The seller has been a client
of mine for several years,” Rue
said. “Our team helped him sell
this and we are helping him
buy his new store.”
n
An unidentified buyer paid
$1.9 million, or $365.81 per sf,
for a retail center occupied by
Subway and Union Wine and
Spirits at 295 S. Union Blvd. in
Lakewood. The center was built
in 1970.
Matt Ritter, Jeff Johnson,
Peter Sengelmann
and
Cody
Stambaugh
of the
Johnson
Ritter Team
at
Pinnacle Real
Estate Advisors LLC
represent-
ed the seller in the transaction.
“After many years of run-
ning both the property and the
liquor store, the seller decided
he wanted out,” Sengelmann
said.
“We were happy to help the
seller sell both the business and
real estate so he can enjoy more
free time,” he said.
n
Tuesday Morning Inc.,
a
home goods closeout retailer,
signed a 10-year lease for 10,138
sf in the Parker Marketplace II
shopping center at 18721-18741
Ponderosa Drive in Parker.
The 31,679-sf shopping center
was built in 1997.
Matt Call
and
Heather Taylor
of
NavPoint Real Estate Group
represented the landlord.
Leg-
end Retail Group
represented
the tenant.
s
A Sprouts is under construction at West 38th Avenue and Kipling Street in Wheat Ridge.
