The Weakest Link

If there's a weak link in the effort to make an urban, walkable neighborhood out of central Lakewood, it's the Belmar Best Buy.

The site violates all sorts of new urbanist principles. Instead of defining the corner of Alameda and Wadsworth, the Best Buy sits back behind a massive parking lot. It presents a blank wall to the tree-lined sidewalk on W. Alaska Dr. The building has no windows. The list goes on.

Continuum allowed it during the darkest days of the recession, presumably under the assumption that bad development was better than no development.

Alas, this is not so, at least not for anyone who wants to see good urban planning in downtown Lakewood. The only bright spot is that there's plenty of talk in the financial world of Best Buy going belly up. Perhaps then this terrible building and its oversized parking lot can be repurposed by a retailer interested in something other than rehashing the greatest hits of 90's strip mall suburbia.

Mini-Construction Boom

Sold!

On a quick walk around the Belmar KB Home site today I counted 16 sold signs. With 60 total units planned, that puts the development at a little over 25% sold after just a few months on the market. Wow!

Belmar Library

Located on the southwest side of the Wadsworth and Alameda intersection that forms the crux of downtown Lakewood, the Belmar library is one of the things that gives the neighborhood a new urbanist vibe.

In addition to books, the Belmar branch of the Jefferson County Public Library has a wide subscription of periodicals and a large children's collection. Spanish language materials are readily available, as Belmar, like the rest of the Denver metro area, is home to a large and diverse community of Spanish speakers. An open computer area in the center of the library providing internet access sees heavy use. Reflecting the larger community, the library offers computer classes for seniors and story time for young children.

Most importantly, at least for the idea of Belmar as a walkable urban neighborhood, Belmar residents can easily walk or bike to their library, although it does require crossing Wadsworth at grade (this is reason #1 why we need a pedestrian bridge).