Colorado Real Estate Journal -
Dunkin’ Donuts, which this summer announced a major entry and expansion in the Denver area, will open a flagship store that will anchor a new building that recently broke ground in Edgewater. The St. Charles Town Co. is developing the new retail building in its Sloan’s Lakefront Market Center at West 20th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard. The new 5,800-square foot building completes the center, a former dilapidated bowling alley that the St. Charles Town Co. redeveloped in 2007. Dunkin’ Donuts will take 2,336 sf of the building and the rest of the building will be leased to another tenant. That building will include a 500-square-foot rooftop patio with views to the east of Sloan’s Lake, the largest lake in Denver, as well as downtown’s skyline. “We think this will be the first ground-up Dunkin’ Donuts in the Denver area,” as the other ones so far have been in existing buildings, said Charlie Woolley, CEO of St. Charles Town Co. “We are thrilled to have Dunkin’ Donuts as an anchor tenant,” he said. The building is scheduled to open in November. The Dunkin’ Donuts will include a drive-thru area. Ted Schultz, an in-house architect for St. Charles Town Co., designed the exterior of the building while Dunkin’ Donuts is using John Sponseller to design the interior, said Nick Koncilja, chief operating officer of the St. Charles Town Co. Woolley, who has roots in New England, is extremely familiar with Dunkin’ Donuts. “The bottom line is, Dunkin’ Donuts serves very good coffee,” Woolley said. “Yes, they sell doughnuts,” Woolley said. “But really, this is going to be more of a coffeehouse that happens to sell doughnuts, rather than a doughnut shop that has coffee,” he said. Woolley said that Dunkin’ Donuts divided up the Denver area geographically between three franchise owners and gave them an aggressive opening schedule for new shops. “My understanding is that they each have to roll out at least five stores in two years or less, which is a pretty big commitment,” Woolley said. He said the Edgewater site wowed the franchise owner St. Charles Town Co. dealt with. “Visually and aesthetically, this provides the most beautiful view of downtown’s skyline in the metro area,” Woolley said. “With the lake across Sheridan and the views of downtown, it is just a gorgeous site,” he said. “Also, Sheridan has a high traffic count and this is right at the corner of Sheridan and 20th,” he said. “This gives you a rather broad and wide demographic range,” Woolley said. “To the west, you are linked to some of the lower working class areas in Edgewater, Wheat Ridge and Lakewood, while to the north and east you have the whole Sloan’s Lake and West Highland neighborhoods, which couldn’t be hotter.” It also is northwest of the redevelopment of the former St. Anthony Hospital campus, which ultimately will bring hundreds, if not thousands, of new residents to the area. The retail pad that includes Dunkin’ Donuts will be the equivalent of Main and Main for tiny Edgewater. “Even though Edgewater is only a square mile in size, it has a pretty sophisticated city government that really helped us move this project forward,” Koncilja said. “And 20th and Sheridan is really one of the main commercial gateways to Edgewater, with the other one being 26th and Sheridan,” he said. As far as the vacant space in the new building, “We would really like to get another fast-casual food service restaurant that could have something of a regional draw, serving commuters along Sheridan, as well as the trendy neighborhoods in North Denver, like West Highland and Berkeley.” He said the space also would be a good fit for a “dry-goods retailer,” but he admitted that would not have a use for the rooftop patio space that would take advantage of the dramatic views of downtown’s skyline across Sloan’s Lake. “In that respect, we would probably think a restaurant is the best fit because it could take advantage of the rooftop patio,” he said. He agreed with Woolley that the view is spectacular. “It is one of my two favorite views of downtown Denver, with the other being off Speer Boulevard,” he said.