Colorado Real Estate Journal - December 16, 2015
Site work has started for the first phase of a Johnstown retail development to be anchored by one of the largest sporting goods stores in the country. At 250,000 square feet, Scheels’ first Colorado store will be second only to the retailer’s 300,000-sf store in Reno/Sparks, Nevada. It will be part of the first phase of Johnstown Plaza, located at the southeast corner of Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 34. Overland Park, Kansas-based Carson Development Inc. is developing and building Johnstown Plaza, whose 500,000-sf first phase will be delivered in mid-2017. At build-out, the development will comprise 1.1 million on 80 acres of land. “There is a good retail synergy in this area. The traffic count at that intersection is really strong,” said Matt Salamat of Carson Development, which developed a Scheels store in Overland Park and assisted in identifying the Johnstown location. The interchange sees 120,000 cars per day, making it the highest-trafficked intersection in Northern Colorado. The I-25-Highway 34 intersection is surrounded by retail, including the Marketplace at Centerra, the Outlets at Loveland and Promenade Shops at Centerra. Salamat said based on interest in Johnstown Plaza, there continues to be strong demand from retailers wanting to be in the area. “There has been a lot of interest from retailers that don’t have stores yet in the Northern Colorado area, so we’ve had a lot of interest from those retailers as well as a lot of retailers interested in relocating their stores to our center,” said Salamat. The development will include additional anchors as well as smaller retailers. Scheels is expected to draw customers from throughout Colorado, as well as the surrounding region. “It’s really a destination-type retailer. They do sporting goods for pretty much everyone – men, women and children – but they also have a 60-foot Ferris wheel in the store, they have a 16,000-gallon fish aquarium, they have bowling alleys, they have shooting ranges, they have information on wildlife. There’s really quite a bit to draw people in,” said Salamat. According to Scheels’ website, the retailer operates 26 stores in 11 states. Its Reno/Sparks store is the largest all-sports store in the world. Jeff DeGasperi of DeGasperi & Associates Architecture in Overland Park is designing Johnstown Plaza. “I think it will be a great project for the north Colorado area and the whole Denver area, and the surrounding area as well. It will be a nice project,” said Salamat. Other News Bruton Loveland LLC, a Colorado investment group, purchased a 3,740-square-foot building occupied by Wells Fargo for $725,000, or $193.85 per sf, in an off-market transaction. The property is located at 1073 N. Lincoln Ave. in Loveland. “We had just renewed the Wells Fargo lease in that building and sold it to an investor,” said Patrick O’Donnell of Realtec-Loveland. He and Bruce Campbell of Realtec-Loveland handled both sides of the transaction. Morey Plaza LLP was the seller. Poehlmann Construction Inc., a general contractor, leased 2,600 sf of office and storage space at 2600 Canton Court, Suite B, in Fort Collins. Terri Hanna of W.W. Reynolds Real Estate Services represented the landlord.