Colorado Real Estate Journal -
When shopping center owner Jamie Harris received a cold call from Marcus & Millichap broker Chris Wiedenmayer asking if he was interested in buying the Mayfair Center, Harris didn’t hesitate. “Literally, I said, “How soon can you meet me over there?’” said Harris, who recently began a $2.25 million renovation of the center at East 14th Avenue and Krameria Street in the up and-coming neighborhood in Denver. When they met at the center, Harris told Widenmayer on the spot that he wanted it. “I think he was like, ‘Oh, yeah, sure,’” recalled Harris, who purchased the 11,700-square-foot center in October for $1.35 million, 60 percent of what he is putting into the redevelopment. Harris, who purchased it through a single-asset limited liability company, Chair Five (which pays homage to Chair 5 in Vail, as Harris and his family are avid skiers), lives in Lowry, five minutes from the Mayfair Center “We’ve been driving past this property for years,” said Harris, who owns about a dozen retail centers with a total of about 500,000 sf of space and started Western Centers in 1989 with his still-close friend Arnie Meranski, who remains partners with him on a number of his deals. “Whenever we would drive by it, my wife would talk about how she had her first job working there at Baskins-Robbins when she was 15,” Harris said. “What really hits me about this project is this nostalgic look back to the 1960s,” Harris said. “It is kind of a throwback in time when shopping centers were truly neighborhood centers and a lot of people would get there by foot,” he said. Plus, it is an interesting-looking building, with its sweeping roofline he said. “We’re really going to accentuate that look with a light ribbon along the lines of the Ideal Market in Boulder,” Harris said. “When I went to school in Boulder, I really fell in love with the Ideal Market.” “The Ideal Market always seemed to be in the center of that part of the Boulder community and I feel like the Mayfair Center will help bring that kind of vitality to the area in Denver,” he said. Initially, he didn’t think the renovation would cost so much. “I thought it would be pretty cosmetic,” he said. But after speaking with Denver City Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman and neighborhood business groups, such as the Fax Partnership, he realized it demanded and deserved more. “Really, everybody looks at this as a neighborhood retail hub,” he said. “This is a catalyst project for the Mayfair Town Center area,” said Hilarie Portell, executive director of the Fax Partnership “It’s aligned with the community vision, eliminating blight and strengthening connections with surrounding neighborhoods,” Portell said. “We look forward to organizing events there and attracting more new investment.” Improvements will include the installation of a large pedestrian sidewalk with patios that will replace the dated, smaller walkways in front of the shops. Benches and bike racks will be placed to encourage people to leave their cars at home and enjoy the ambiance of the center, even though it has plenty of parking. The new lights on the roofline will be a 2-foot-high design band. All of the individual tenant signage will be on a new sign framework that will provide greater visibility for all of the businesses. The entire parking lot will be replaced and restriped this month. The project will create an estimated 40 jobs upon completion. Harris is funding the improvements internally and received “unbelievably great financing,” from Wells Fargo to purchase it. Many of the current tenants likely will remain, including a liquor store and a 7-Eleven. “Currently, I really only have one vacant space for 1,800 sf,” he said, although that could change over time.
One of the new anchors will be a 2,500-sf Garlic Knot restaurant. “We were approached by Garlic Knot about three months ago,” Harris said. “Frankly, we were not even ready to start leasing the shopping center yet,” he said. “But I had eaten at other Garlic Knot restaurants and knew they were really good and it would be a good fit for this project,” Harris said. Joe Giampietro, the owner of the Garlic Knot, loves its proximity to a King Soopers and a Safeway. “It’s a great location,” Giampietro said. Jeff Germain of the Crosbie Real Estate Group is listing the center. “Jeff is a great guy,” Harris said. “He is not your typical run-and-gun guy. He is thoughtful and really a nice guy who does a great job.” The Mayfair Center is the smallest holding in Harris’ portfolio. Clearly, though, it is not just bricks and mortar to him, but a true labor of love. “I’m spending about half my time on this center,” Harris said. “But I don’t mind. It’s deals like this that truly makes real estate fun.”